Mongoose 2300AD Progress Report
- Thread starter Colin
- Start date
zero said:
zero said:
From memory:
Beanstalk: Space elevator as you surmised. Rare & very expensive (only two in all of human space in the original setting), but greatly cut costs on travel to & from orbit.
Catapult: Accelerates payloads to escape-velocity by magnetic acceleration. Great for durable cargo or raw materials. Not usable for passengers or delicate cargo. Think of it as a giant gauss gun.
Spaceplane: Like it sounds, a high-tech shuttle plane.
Roton: A sort of "rocket helicopter." Slower but cheaper than a standard rocket in atmosphere. The blades can be used to "soft-land" the vehicle on descent. One was actually tested about a decade ago: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_Rocket#Roton_C-9_specifications
That's the fun part of the setting. While travel between the stars & planets is relatively cheap in terms of operating costs, travel to & from the planet's surface is not.
Colin said:
It's not feasable unless you want to drastically alter the setting. Using more recent data at the very least eliminates the French Arm, and if you extend the FTL limit beyond 7.7 light-years you still have problems that it can change the shape of the arms of explored space. Also there's one or two canon star systems with colonies on them (Beowulf & Daikoku IIRC) that would have to be re-located since more recent research indicates they are much farther away.
My preference would be to keep the canon systems the way they are unless you want to make a ton more work.
For fun, I did an AstroSynthesis file a year or two ago where I kept the canon star locations, removed the fictional stars from the Kafer sphere, and added stars from more recent astronomical data (from the near star files on the NBOS site). Among other things there were a couple of short-cuts, the most significant being the bridge to Kafer space from the Australian sub-arm.
Colin
Mongoose
Unless I can come up with a quick and easy way to integrate new data, I am going to have to go with the original star map. Not my first choice, but reconciling the background with a new star map would take too long, time that is better spent on other aspects of the game.
However, if someone has a quick fix for the map issue, let me know and we'll see what we can do.
IN the meantime, here's a teaser
Pentapod Shiva:
In the course of their early interactions with humanity, the Pentapods became very aware of the human propensity for violence. While Pentapods can be violent, such behaviour is considered an aberration, and the individuals responsible are typically restrained or destroyed.
While Pentapods do not fully grasp violence, they do understand self-preservation. The Shiva is a Pentapod construct designed for violence. It has no free will, simply acting according to the instructions of the being it is chemically coded to. Without the direct chemical link, it will not follow orders, and instead keep doing the last thing it was told to.
The Shiva is a 10-limbed nightmare, at first glance appearing to be two Pentapods grafted together. It is as tall as human, with all soft parts protected by a chitonous carapace that is largely proof against small arms. 3-7 of the limbs are used for locomotion, while the others are used to hold weapons or make physical attacks. Every limb is tipped with a centipede-like pincer, which is capable of injecting a potent neurotoxin, in addition to being able to shear through sheet metal. A second set of manipulators can be moved into position to replace the pincers, and many shivas have implanted weapons in place of the manipulators. Organic lasers, "tooth guns", web and toxin sprayers, and even human weapons can be integrated into a shiva's structure.
Shivas have been encountered under human control, often as bodyguards or even assassins. However, they are limited by the requirement to be within chemical detection range of their primary. They are not mindless, but rather actually quite clever. They lack free will, and cannot be dissuaded from any task save by their primary.
However, if someone has a quick fix for the map issue, let me know and we'll see what we can do.
IN the meantime, here's a teaser
Pentapod Shiva:
In the course of their early interactions with humanity, the Pentapods became very aware of the human propensity for violence. While Pentapods can be violent, such behaviour is considered an aberration, and the individuals responsible are typically restrained or destroyed.
While Pentapods do not fully grasp violence, they do understand self-preservation. The Shiva is a Pentapod construct designed for violence. It has no free will, simply acting according to the instructions of the being it is chemically coded to. Without the direct chemical link, it will not follow orders, and instead keep doing the last thing it was told to.
The Shiva is a 10-limbed nightmare, at first glance appearing to be two Pentapods grafted together. It is as tall as human, with all soft parts protected by a chitonous carapace that is largely proof against small arms. 3-7 of the limbs are used for locomotion, while the others are used to hold weapons or make physical attacks. Every limb is tipped with a centipede-like pincer, which is capable of injecting a potent neurotoxin, in addition to being able to shear through sheet metal. A second set of manipulators can be moved into position to replace the pincers, and many shivas have implanted weapons in place of the manipulators. Organic lasers, "tooth guns", web and toxin sprayers, and even human weapons can be integrated into a shiva's structure.
Shivas have been encountered under human control, often as bodyguards or even assassins. However, they are limited by the requirement to be within chemical detection range of their primary. They are not mindless, but rather actually quite clever. They lack free will, and cannot be dissuaded from any task save by their primary.
Colin
Mongoose
rust said:
There is currently a ship that supports water-based rocket launches. A roton can land on a very small patch, and can take-off with the rotors before it engages the full rocket, so it is a possibility as well.
Legacy of Heorot posited nucler-powered spaceplanes that landed on water, and Pournelle's Falkenbeg's Legion also had water-landing spaceplanes.
I think you would have to retro-engineer the entire astrography and muchColin said:
of the recent history of the setting to combine it with the current astrono-
mical data. It would be a truckload of work, and with a considerable risk
to overlook some detail and introduce additional contradictions or other
problems into the material. If you feel an urgent and irresistible need to
do it, you should probably do it, but otherwise ...
Colin said:
This is a great re-interpretation of Traveller UWP for 2300AD, well done. If this is any indication I think I will love this. I was fearing something like what was done with Hammer's Slammers - Traveller with a different setting "skin" only. This gives me hopes it will be a nice melding of the rules while keeping a true 2300 AD setting.
Colin
Mongoose
Ah. Here we go. They are called "Sea Launch"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Launch
http://www.sea-launch.com/
I have written permission from the holders of the ROTON patents to use the term and descriptions of the technology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Launch
http://www.sea-launch.com/
I have written permission from the holders of the ROTON patents to use the term and descriptions of the technology.
gloomhound
Mongoose
I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to this book.
Colin
Mongoose
carandol said:Colin said:
Shouldn't they be paying you for product placement?
Hmm, this could be a whole new money-spinner for cash-strapped RPG companies.
Except that the Rotary Rocket corporation no longer exists. They were basically a machine that turned money into vapour, and a couple of prototypes. The collapse of Iridium, and the market for micro-satellites, spelled the end of investment for them.
zero said:^ Still, its pretty awesome
I always thought it was pretty daft idea, personally. I'm not sure it would catch on. As the articles state, the ship was unstable, required constant thrust input to stop the body from contra-rotating and the payload for the heavy lift version meant that it had to be substantially beefed up.
I've always lamented the death of the Delta Clipper: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Clipper and X33: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-33 but have big hopes for Skylon - which seems to be generating some interest again, the ESA recently provided funding for a proof of concept of the air breating engines and their super-secret rapid cooling system: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylon
(yes, lazy wiki links, I know... starting point blah blah blah)
merkkari-masa
Mongoose
Colin said:
No Kafers?
