Colonization in Traveller

[F33D]

That suggests parallel evolution to an extreme

No. It suggests that form follows functional requirements. Example: if you want to create lift, the design HAS to conform to aeronautics principles. THEREFORE, you are confined to certain FORMS. THUS, wings on creatures that come from similar worlds WILL be similar.

 

[Reynard]

"Similar worlds", as in all Earth-like worlds? How about worlds featuring different gravities or air densities? I would think wings would be but one choice.

 

[dragoner]

SolSec corresponds to the NKVD and later the KGB, which of course the UN has no equivalent to.

:mrgreen:

 

[F33D]

"Similar worlds", as in all Earth-like worlds?

I'll quote what I wrote. "if you have an "Earth like" world. You will probably end up with life that gets structured accordingly..."

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

I like how F33D cherry picks his quotes.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

Who said they don't, but there always is a minority that disagrees with the majority, a Jump Drive gives them a choice not to be assimilated by the majority. Terra isn't far from the edge of charted space. Just look at the map, and how else would a pocket empire be established called the Old Earth Union? I would say the founders of the Old Earth Union were following an agenda, they had a reason for establishing that pocket empire.

The Old Earth Union was formed during The Long Night. In the OTU that is...
http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Old_Earth_Union

What you want to put in in your ATU, sure, um...what?

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

One thing I notice about science fiction stories especially visual one as in movies and tv is the biology of alien worlds. Yes, we understand the cost of special effects yet what we experience in them colors our interpretations. How many out there believe most alien worlds are covered in redwood pine and deciduous forests or grasslands? Some very alien planets are dry, craggy places of weeds and emaciated bushes. I'll give Avatar a thumbs up attempt for a glow in the dark rainforest.

Traveller often, and we're all to blame too, has planets teeming with familiar life mostly plants. At least the game gave us the life form generation system for the more threatening encounters. A large number of worlds are still very terran friendly considering how nearly every world with shirt sleeve environments look like there was a lot of transplantation from Earth.

Makes me wonder if Grandfather and his kids had an obsession with terran lifeforms to seed many other worlds almost anticipation of humanity. Another theory is mankind makes it a life's goal to bring home with them when they find a new world. Maybe the simplest terraforming is the plant and animal ecology with a very liberal dose of Weird Science to make the balance always work, no invasive species issues.

Using the Base Characteristics fro Tools; Biomass and biodiversity and such can be a game changer when building clean worlds from scratch and adding the an actual alien environment. Imagine a world inhospitable to farming because the life there makes the soil incompatible or outright deadly for plants and animals humans can use. This also means production of foods very compatible but also not what we're used to by sight or taste. The instance of life could also make a world too valuable for research to allow colonization exploitation. Remember that Pandora would be an excellent example of a Garden World that was given a typical Imperium treatment.

With the Fermi Paradox, it is easy to imagine that life on Earth might be the most advanced life in the Galaxy, the other native life forms being mostly the single-celled primitive variety. When humans colonize the stars, they bring Earth life with them, they have to because Earth life is the only life they can eat, the other kind is too alien to digest, also many native life forms require atmospheres that are incompatible with human respiration. So in the far future, when 11,000 star systems have been colonized, one of the first steps towards colonization for many planets has been to terraform the planet.

The other possibility is we are living in a computer simulation of the galaxy. The parts of the galaxy we only need to simulate in much detail are those parts where humans live, the other parts are just rock and empty space. There are about 100 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. To simulate that Galaxy, all we mostly have to worry about is simulating 100 billion Earth like planets or mainworlds, since it is a simulation made by humans, we include on those planets things that are compatible with human life and if we have intelligent aliens, we make those aliens such that they breath the same air that we do, eat the same food, life in the same temperature range, and be similarly scaled to humans. Naturally the laws of physics in the simulation are tailored to allow the invention of the Jump Drive. We may be living in such an artificial universe right now, there are certain hints that some kind of warp drive might be possible after all, maybe that was designed into the simulation we are living in, along with the reactionless thruster that is also being developed by NASA. Is what NASA is exploring actually the real universe, or is this all a simulation? Why are we not bothered by other extraterrestrial civilizations before we are ready to deal with them? In a realistic universe, that might happen all the time, we would be colonized and exploited by extraterrestrial civilizations and life forms that are millions of years more advanced than we are, yet that doesn't appear to be happening to our Earth. Maybe some extraterrestrials went and did this for us, as a sort of "nature preserve" for humans. Perhaps they wanted to study how we would behave in isolation as opposed to being members of the cosmic community as all the "real humans", not us, actually are! Now that is an interesting science fiction premise don't you think?

 

[simonh]

Form follows function will get you a long way towards alien planets covered in pine trees, but not all the way. We have plenty of examples on Earth to go by.

Bear with me below. there is not strict, commonly accepted definition of 'tree' and I'm not a botanist.

Actual common trees only evolved once, and diverged into deciduous and coniferous varieties. However there are a number of other tree-shaped plants that have evolved separately, diverging from extremely early plant ancestors and then evolving into the 'tree' ecological niche. These include palm trees, tree ferns, bananas and bamboos also resemble trees in some ways and evolved to deal with similar constraints.

What this means is that yes it's likely on earth-like planets that tall, wide-stemmed plant like organisms with broad branches and sun-catching leaf or frond-like features will exist, but whether they look more like deciduous trees, conifers, palms, fern trees or bamboo or none of the above in particular is an open question. It's certainly not a given that they will be particularly likely to look like Douglas Firs.

The same goes for flying creatures. On earth the most common large flying animals are birds, but we also have plenty of bats and insects. In fact there have been times in the past when insects several feet across have been reasonably common, due to changes in the density of the atmosphere.

I don't take any of this as a strike against SF film and TV show makers. It's nice when a film like Avatar gets made, where the director gets the budget and has the talent to develop something distinctive and surprising, but then Avatar was specifically about the ecology. For shows and films where the focus of the plot is on other issues, I'm quite happy to give them a pass on their FX in this regard.

Simon Hibbs

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Minor correction to Simonh's post above. The large flying insects came about mostly due to changes in the oxygen levels of the atmosphere, more than the density of the atmosphere. More oxygen means more energy which means you can spend more energy to fly so bigger things can fly.

The atmospheric density DID change, but often the oxygen partial pressure seems to correlate with larger creatures (both on land and in the air).

 

[F33D]

What this means is that yes it's likely on earth-like planets that tall, wide-stemmed plant like organisms with broad branches and sun-catching leaf or frond-like features will exist, but whether they look more like deciduous trees, conifers, palms, fern trees or bamboo or none of the above in particular is an open question. It's certainly not a given that they will be particularly likely to look like Douglas Firs.

Yes, this is exactly what I'm talking about as far as "form". NOT that you'll end up with Douglas firs.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

What this means is that yes it's likely on earth-like planets that tall, wide-stemmed plant like organisms with broad branches and sun-catching leaf or frond-like features will exist, but whether they look more like deciduous trees, conifers, palms, fern trees or bamboo or none of the above in particular is an open question. It's certainly not a given that they will be particularly likely to look like Douglas Firs.

Yes, this is exactly what I'm talking about as far as "form". NOT that you'll end up with Douglas firs.

Depends on whether the life on each planet evolved seperately in isolation or was carried their in spaceships. Evolution on Earth was the result of a lot of random events coming out in a particular way. We don't know how common advanced multicellular life is. It might be that life has some difficulty getting to that stage even if it has billions of years or random mutation, in that case some intelligent life visits each planet and alters each to adapt it to life forms brought from Earth, that way you don't have to worry about how that douglas fir got on that planet, especially if people have been traveling through space for countless millenia.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

What this means is that yes it's likely on earth-like planets that tall, wide-stemmed plant like organisms with broad branches and sun-catching leaf or frond-like features will exist, but whether they look more like deciduous trees, conifers, palms, fern trees or bamboo or none of the above in particular is an open question. It's certainly not a given that they will be particularly likely to look like Douglas Firs.

Yes, this is exactly what I'm talking about as far as "form". NOT that you'll end up with Douglas firs.

Depends on whether the life on each planet evolved seperately in isolation or was carried their in spaceships. Evolution on Earth was the result of a lot of random events coming out in a particular way. We don't know how common advanced multicellular life is. It might be that life has some difficulty getting to that stage even if it has billions of years or random mutation, in that case some intelligent life visits each planet and alters each to adapt it to life forms brought from Earth, that way you don't have to worry about how that douglas fir got on that planet, especially if people have been traveling through space for countless millenia.

 

[F33D]

What this means is that yes it's likely on earth-like planets that tall, wide-stemmed plant like organisms with broad branches and sun-catching leaf or frond-like features will exist, but whether they look more like deciduous trees, conifers, palms, fern trees or bamboo or none of the above in particular is an open question. It's certainly not a given that they will be particularly likely to look like Douglas Firs.

Yes, this is exactly what I'm talking about as far as "form". NOT that you'll end up with Douglas firs.

Depends on whether the life on each planet evolved seperately in isolation or was carried their in spaceships. Evolution on Earth was the result of a lot of random events coming out in a particular way. We don't know how common advanced multicellular life is. It might be that life has some difficulty getting to that stage even if it has billions of years or random mutation,

Not relevant to what I'm talking about. The assumption is that it DID occur.

 

[Reynard]

*Whew!* Finished creating an integrated flowchart for al world generation data from the Core Book and the Scouts expansion plus the Base Characteristics up to Habitibility, the non-2300AD dependent stuff in Tools.

I have two mains from the center of Fulani with 30 and 11 worlds respectively, good for the primary race and a rival. Now I have to sit and fill it all in and create the overall picture which will determine the timeline of the initial exploration, the secondary survey of priority worlds and the path of future colonies. Should be fun.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

*Whew!* Finished creating an integrated flowchart for al world generation data from the Core Book and the Scouts expansion plus the Base Characteristics up to Habitibility, the non-2300AD dependent stuff in Tools.

I have two mains from the center of Fulani with 30 and 11 worlds respectively, good for the primary race and a rival. Now I have to sit and fill it all in and create the overall picture which will determine the timeline of the initial exploration, the secondary survey of priority worlds and the path of future colonies. Should be fun.

Sounds cool!

 

[Reynard]

Had a few hours to kill during car repairs to work on the numbers. Using my Fulani sector example, the main world is in a 30 system main. There are 10 worlds in a 2 parsec sphere which is good for the pre-jump assessment phase. They know all systems nearby have these huge gas planets that need researching since there's no such thing in their system. They also generally know there are other worlds but not much more making the choice for first jump random and trailing is chosen. Their mission is enter the system above the ecliptic and near the ort limit then assess what belts and planets exist and if any show special promise for exploitation and colonization including evidence of life.

Thought the ship has the capacity to make three J1s, it's protocol now is return after each system survey to debrief the crew, assess their health and the condition of the ship plus hand over all information gathered. This information will keep the sciences and planners busy as to what come next such as vessels for long term world study. The explorer will be surveying the four locals at one parsec away before it is recalled for maintenance and detailed examination. This could be after close to half a year after initial launch. As much as many want to dash out to more systems, everything will take time possibly close to a year depending what the initial evidence reveals.

From the data I generated, they know this much:
System 1519 X78A000-0 8877A66 Habitable orbit
System 1617 XA7A000-0 BCCC0D3 Habitable orbit
System 1619 X462000-0 7A88654 Inner orbit
System 1718 X262000-0 7656819 Habitable orbit

The second set of numbers is Base characteristic from Tools for Frontier Living. These seven number work with Traveller world generation. If you want to get more detailed in colony building, definitely try 2300AD. For a quick summary of those numbers:
First number = Biomass, how much life there is. 10^number millions of tons worldwide. Earth is 8.
Second = Biodiversity, how varied is life approximately the number times a million. Earth is 8.
Third = Biocomplexity, from single celled to hive life forms. Earth again 7-8.
Fourth = Biosphere, the overall comparison number of a world's life.
Fifth = Compatibility, to carbon/oxygen life. Lower number is less compatible.
Six = Natural resources = economic potential. Higher is better.
Seven = Habitability, how well humans can tolerate conditions

With these numbers you can judge a planet's suitability for colonization and compare other worlds for priority. I established the mainworld (1618) is a lost human settlement on a world similar to Earth.

With the data from these systems they make initial assessments. Specialized surveyors add great detail but after up to a year of work.
While a water world, 1519 has decent resources and life but needs modest conditions to live there. Could be a possible aquacultural source.
1617 is disturbing from the orbital macro-survey. The world is almost a lifeform itself down to the interconnection with most life forms. Add to this is the very alien structure down to the molecular level. Too bad as the resource potential is astounding. (Think Avatar's Pandora)
1619 has less attractiveness in terms of compatibility than 1519 so would receive less priority in the beginning.
1718 is never going to be a mining colony but shows great potential as a tourist world.

Depending on the homeworld resources, the planners now determine what's important and most needed for a first colony effort. In the mean time, the explorer begins phase two with systems 2 parsecs away. Surveys will take longer having to take twice as long for jumps. As we see. it could be a long time before ever laying the first keel of a colony freighter/passenger ship, a predecessor to subsidized merchants.