[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: (TFT) Space travel
- To: tft@brainiac.com
- Subject: Re: (TFT) Space travel
- From: Margaret Tapley <barnswallow@sbcglobal.net>
- Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2011 09:55:53 -0600
- Dkim-signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=sbcglobal.net; s=s1024; t=1322668555; bh=66V9w7I4CJh5FZ+fFX2pcDSX8Ol2HlBS0ZBjMhTili4=; h=X-Yahoo-Newman-Property:X-YMail-OSG:X-Yahoo-SMTP:Received:Message-Id:From:To:In-Reply-To:Content-Type:Content-Transfer-Encoding:Mime-Version:Subject:Date:References:X-Mailer; b=Tp3UtIMJCwN72iyCB/x+dfj/fGJIM5IPatOLxqQGYPdiD6iQoNpJVtbh4vHKWnduxC3SfscUCbiafCsBmsHkj+OJpTh767iAHDR0vpFJOlz9zJcYPvLsJgSst8TNejQ4y65CPUrtrtwhoke3eV2jBeVedmNRIOGN2g99ZmJ/zvk=
- Domainkey-signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=s1024; d=sbcglobal.net; h=DKIM-Signature:X-Yahoo-Newman-Property:X-YMail-OSG:X-Yahoo-SMTP:Received:Message-Id:From:To:In-Reply-To:Content-Type:Content-Transfer-Encoding:Mime-Version:Subject:Date:References:X-Mailer; b=tWZg7MMVqWL+m/EMe1HUQgGcuWCiU2Fnkq/TAcOqEfAZhwcto/3ejxxkJrbcmGm9pxzd8XOTUxkBL3ByXYm7Mev6hWO9h1ZfVFlJX8a91hgAItNnlV53Nnqp/W3jAqNIMbox/Y74qtkjQE3UzsjA10xTzXA+TyJQGrEn0MStLEo= ;
- In-reply-to: <p06240816cafaf4b2daad@[129.162.151.118]>
- References: <201111141541.pAEFfTXk006654@zappa.brainiac.com> <p06240816cafaf4b2daad@[129.162.151.118]>
- Reply-to: tft@brainiac.com
- Sender: tft-admin@brainiac.com
On Nov 29, 2011, at 2:52 PM, Mark Tapley wrote:
At 10:41 -0500 11/14/11, JAy wrote:
Okay...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15698439
Is this FOR REAL?!?
I mean... I MEAN... WTF?!?
Really?
Is it just me or do Mars missions have a HUGE rate of failure?
They sort of do, don't they? Not sure that's statistically
significant, but it does seem noticeable.
Sure makes great conspiracy-theory fuel.
My thoughts on space travel, as it relates to games, are this:
For in-system travel (i.e. space bus to Mars) and space dogfighting,
you don't need a technology level that much greater than the one we
have today - give it fifty or a hundred more years and we'll be there,
assuming we don't get too distracted by whatever happens on Earth
during that time. Heck, ion engines have been used already (although
they're pretty underpowered so far - no TIE fighters yet...). And I'm
betting ships would actually slow down from cruising speed for combat,
to reduce the accuracy issues associated with traveling at several
kilometers a second relative to your target.
But interstellar travel, unless you have some way of going at the
speed of light or faster, isn't really feasible for games, since it
would take tens or hundreds of years, depending on how close to
lightspeed you got, to get to the next star over.
Science fiction usually handles this by giving ships a device that
allows them to somehow bend space to make the actual distance traveled
shorter (warp drive), or pop into an alternate dimension (hyperspace),
where again, distances are shorter, or just teleport to wherever
they're going. The problems presented by three- (four?) dimensional,
relativistic space as you approach the speed of light mean that the
"alternate-dimension" idea is, from a gamer's perspective, probably
the best way to deal with it.
Basically: "screw realism, we have plot!" Unless you're a realism
junkie, in which case go talk to the people at CERN.
Dang... I meant that to be short...
- Meg
=====
Post to the entire list by writing to tft@brainiac.com.
Unsubscribe by mailing to majordomo@brainiac.com with the message body
"unsubscribe tft"