Recent content by MonsterX

Inertia doesn't make dogfights unrealistic. It just changes the techniques and makes them look pretty crazy and wild to our eyes. Some episodes of Battle Star Galactica give this vibe, though they weren't very consistent about it. The Expanse episode where the Rocinante attacks the space...

Changes the travel time too. Alot. Interplanetary travel becomes impossible with m drives. Even travel to 100d starts to take a long time.

Vector systems are simplifications of orbital mechanics, but when you have a ship that can thrust at 1G or more for weeks at a time, the detail you lose is a rounding error. Vector movement is about as close as you need to be to simulate the tactical options available to Traveller spacecraft...

You have a better thesaurus than I it seems.

The idea of "rank" for Drifter seems a bit flawed. Here's a rank structure idea, though I'm not sure of the order: Bum, Tramp, Vagabond, Transient, Vagrant, Hobo. Once you reach Hobo, you are basically flag-rank among the drifters.

I think tip-top-secret bases in interstellar space would probably anyways have at least low power thrusters to move themselves around a bit, and use signal buoys to bring in friendly ships - it complicates finding them a lot. Already a hard job, made virtually impossible.

It's a thing that pops up in the DNR campaign, so you can infer the existence of interstellar civilizations by noticing clusters of jump activity. It seems to have since gotten into more general use, but this seems to me to be a bad idea. There are very many implications which could (would)...

Well, you better go work for NASA then, because obviously they aren't doing it right. You go tell them how it's done.

Obviously, we can't survey the whole solar system in infrared in 30 minutes.. Space agencies are spending zillions on infrared space telescopes and scientists are fighting to get time on them. They would be relieved to know that they can survey the entire solar system in just 30 minutes...

When it doesn't matter, I happily ignore this issue. When it does, I role a dice for each planet, 1 is in the 0-60 degree arch from an arbitrary "North" on the ecliptic. 2 is 61-120, 3 121-180 etc. This puts in them in a kind-of-about location in their orbits. If the players want to go from...

She is respectful towards those she disagrees with in the video in question. The Homo Longi study is an important paper for good reason and she recognizes that. She thinks they are *probably* wrong on part of the case they make, and gives her reasons which are good reasons: that the research...

It doesn't make it post-scarcity necessarily, but it could depending on whether you assume 1) this can be done without labour, in processing or obtaining the materials 2) that the materials are easily and cheaply available in every star system 3) the processed output is equally palatable...

to understand this, you need to look to economic historians and the division of labour. Our present technology would not be possible without a large population, and an extremely high level of specialization. Socio-economic change has accelerated. It has been accelerating since the discovery...

I don't believe that homo erectus was engaging in genetic engineering. When archeologists call them "advanced tool users" I don't think this is what they meant. And there are easier ways to get across the ocean than by (riding?) goats. Or were you writing on your phone? Damn that autocorrect...

Not everyone knows to go on Google Scholar, so my response was also genuine.