OT - favorite science fiction-another touchy feelie
 

Sorry I did not respond to the latest Posts sooner. I was off the computer due to family problems. My uncle Mack on my father's side died, and I had to attend the funeral in Louisiana. To make up for connection withdrawal symptoms I have been reading the latest science fiction book by David Weber and John Ringo - "March To The Sea". It is the sequel to "March Upcountry", so unless you read that one too you would lose a lot of the references to previous background data. Another book I would like to read again is "The Number Of The Beast" by Heinlein. No telling what that old geezer could have done if he had been a software developer rather than a fiction writer. I suppose that writing software was too structured an activity for his appetite. Too bad he died Last decade, he probably could have contributed even more ideas that would have made games like SE IV even more interesting.

Now that we have a MUCH bigger house we will be able to buy bookshelves and unpack my 60 U-HAUL cartons of science fiction. I have over 4000 titles and 1000 months of pulps, mostly Astounding/Analog and F&SF. I collected them and read about half between 1979 and 1989. Then I got an out of town job and they went into storage for 12 years. It cost me about $20,000 for them, so by now they are worth over $100,000. Anybody interested ? Lots of them are first edition or in really good shape bought new or both.

After I apologized I spent a lot of time reading various things posted by the forum members. I am just beginning to appreciate the abilities of those who are deeply involved with the game, particularly the modders and game site owners. I never visited the forum until the day I posted my first article about research strategy and my first hack at map creation. Compare map3 to map10a and ROFLMO if you like - I did.

As I mentioned in the OT .... business thread, I have written over 5000 pages of software. But my Last job in 90 got me FIRED for "excessive absenteeism". It was a really big company with clout in the computer industry, so since nobody was even willing to INTERVIEW let alone HIRE me after that, I have to presume I was BLACKLISTED. I have been toying with the notion of going back to work now that computers have become really powerful. One of my greatest frustrations early on was that 64k address space, then with overlays the few megabytes of hard memory available. Virtual memory was just becoming practical with higher disk transfer rates when I quit writing software in 93. With the latest drives and 32+ bit address spaces there is room enough now for 3d and virtual reality applications even on a modest home pc. Once I do what I can to help Aaron with his execution time problem and maybe even his engine AI, I will be looking for a JOB instead of just PLAYING games. If nothing comes through, I will just start reading my old Favorites and some of the better titles by new authors. There is a lot to wade through because back in 86 I made a list of my 300 Favorites and another list of over 1700 good ones worth reading over again at least once. I published those lists on disks for Amiga Users as Freedom Computing Publications Hotdisk #1 and #2. There never was a 3 because I ran out of money. Anybody ever seen those lists? You needed the Scribble! utility to read them, a fatal error on my part. I sent out 300 of #1 but only a dozen of number #2 due to lack of feedback....

If Schrapnel can tolerate it, it would be interesting to see what other people think is the best science fiction book ever written, and give their generation as well as when they started reading sf ?
Edit : Typos

[This message has been edited by LCC (edited 10 August 2001).]

Re: OT - favorite science fiction-another touchy feelie
 

sorry about youre uncle but on to the topic my favorite book would definitly be any f the Oddysey series and as far as tv the japanease anime Gundam WIng,Star tRek the next generation and well thats it bye bye

------------------
Some rule some serve
some declare wars some
fight them
i declare wars i rule
you serve you fight
wars.....
we are not the same.....
never forget that..

Re: OT - favorite science fiction-another touchy feelie
 

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick is my all time favorite. Also a big fan of Zelazny and Bradbury. I guess I started really reading sci-fi around age 13 (I'm 23 now). Kind of graduated to sci-fi from pulp fantasy (not that there's anything particularly wrong with fantasy, pulp or otherwise).

Oh, and while we're on the subject of sci-fi writing, I think I'll add a gratuitous plug for one of my favorite sci-fi publications, On-Spec,
a Canadian-based speculative short story and poetry magazine. The story quality is high, the voice tends to be uniquely Canadian (although On-Spec is not a Canadian-only publication; submissions are accepted from anyone who wants to send one in) and there is plenty of content for the money (four issues a year, each running 100 pages plus). Anyway, I just thought I'd put the word out there, especially to fellow Canuks who might be interested. I'd recommend the mag to anyone though, especially to you Americans with that kick-*** exchange rate! http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif Anyway, great thread LCC, it will be interesting to see what some of the other SIEV players out there are reading.

Re: OT - favorite science fiction-another touchy feelie
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Mad_Lear:
Anyway, great thread LCC, it will be interesting to see what some of the other SIEV players out there are reading.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I go off for a shower and supper. When I get back there are already two replies and a compliment! Okay, more of the same! I would like to keep this thread clean, no flames like I was guilty of in other threads. So unless you have something good to say about an author or title do not say it. Start another thread if you like - such as "what authors do you hate ?"

Some other top ten authors/titles in no particular order
"Citizen of the Galaxy" Robert A. Heinlein
"The Probability Broach" and others in series L. Neil Smith
"The Revolution From Rosinante" and others in series Alexei Gilliand
"When Harlie Was One" David Gerrold
"A Fire Upon the Deep" Vernor Vinge
"The Stainless Steel Rat" and others in series Harry Harrison
Well, the list could go on and on. If people are really interested I could locate my old book catalog or the list I published before and just give one book for each author up to 1986. I never updated it for later books, because I did not think that anybody was interested.


[This message has been edited by LCC (edited 10 August 2001).]

Re: OT - favorite science fiction-another touchy feelie
 

Definitely Fire Upon the Deep.

Also Startide Rising, the Honor Harringtons series, A Mote in Gods Eye, and plenty I can't think of right now http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Phoenix-D

Re: OT - favorite science fiction-another touchy feelie
 

Hmm... That mention of Fire Upon the Deep makes me think, wouldn't it be neat to be able to implement Vingean "Zones" in an SEIV map? For those that haven't read the book, in that universe there is some kind of field emanating from the galactic core that affects what kinds of technology can operate. The closer to the core you are, the less stuff works; when you get close enough ordinary living brains stop working and people die. Faster-than-light travel is only possible in the outer half of the galaxy.

I can think of a couple of ways this kind of thing could be implemented in SEIV already. Systems can have built-in shield inhibiting effects and combat sensor interferance, so you could set up a map where the systems at one end have high shield inhibition and high combat sensor interferance and the systems at the other end don't, with a smooth gradient between the zones or a sharp border depending on the designer's preference.

This sounds kind of neat. Ships designed to take advantage of conditions on one side of the map would be at a severe disadvantage on the other side, and ships designed to work well under both conditions wouldn't do so well against specialized ships on their home turf. Heh. I'm going to go look through the abilities.txt file to see if there are other system-wide capabilities I can employ. Maybe I'll finally set up my own PBW game if this works well. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: OT - favorite science fiction-another touchy feelie
 

For slowing ships down- perhaps the "random movement" ability?

You couldn't do the Zone storms, nor the effects on the Transence and higher levels of the beyond on how tech actually works, but..perhaps the maintance decrease ability? Can you apply that to a system? So as you get deeper, that ability starts to get weaker, making your ships more expensive.

Using combat sensor abilities would probably be a bad idea. It would affect all ships evenly, so the low tech ships would be at a disdvantage no matter where they were.

Phoenix-D

Re: OT - favorite science fiction-another touchy feelie
 

I found my index, but many books I do not recall well, even the ones I marked as really good. Here are the a-b authors. I am going to stick to one book per author, which is a hard choice for authors like Poul Anderson.....

Douglas Adams - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Robert Adams - Castaways In Time
Terry Adams - Sentience
Brian Aldiss - Starship
Roger McBride Allen - Rogue Powers
Chester Anderson - Ten Years To Doomsday
Poul Anderson - Fire Time
Piers Anthony - Prostho Plus
Christopher Anvil - Pandora's Planet
Isaac Asimov - The End of Eternity
Robert Asprin - Thieve's World
Bill Baldwin - The Helmsman
Brian Ball - Planet Probability
Balmer & Wylie - When Worlds Collide
Pierre Barbet - Baphomet's Meteor
Neal Barrett Jr. - The Karma Corps
T.J. Bass - The Godwhale
Barrington Bayley - The Zen Gun
Greg Bear - Eon
Gregory Benford - Timescape
Stephen Berry - The Biofab War
Alfred Bester - The Stars My Destination
Lloyd Biggle Jr. - The Light That Never Was
David Bischoff - Day of the Dragonstar
James Blish - Cities In Flight
J.F. Bone - Confederation Matador
Ben Bova - Millenium
John Boyd - The Last Starship From Earth
Leigh Brackett - The Long Tomorrow
Ray Bradbury - Dandelion Wine
Marion Zimmer Bradley - Seven From the Stars
Reginald Bretnor - Gilpin's Space
David Brin - The Practice Effect
Fedrick Brown - Martians Go Home
John Brunner - The Crucible of Time
Algis Budrys - The Falling Torch
Lois McMaster Bujold - The Warrior's Apprentice
Kenneth Bulmer - On the Symb-Socket Circuit
William R. Burkett Jr. - Sleeping Planet
Edgar Rice Burroughs - A Princess of Mars
F.M. Busby - All These Earths
Edward Byers - The Long Forgetting
I cut a lot of authors and of course nothing here is later than 89 when my books got packed....

Re: OT - favorite science fiction-another touchy feelie
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
For slowing ships down- perhaps the "random movement" ability?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'm not sure how that one works. Would it affect bases and satellites? If so, that would make for a rather interesting system but I don't think it fits the Zones very well http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>perhaps the maintance decrease ability? Can you apply that to a system? So as you get deeper, that ability starts to get weaker, making your ships more expensive.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I believe it would work as a system ability, since the Crystalline Restructuring Facility reduces maintenance system-wide already. But I think that would give an unfair advantage to races originating in the Beyond (that's the name for the high-tech area, for those that aren't familiar with AFUtD) because they could build up a larger fleet to send into the Slow Zone (that's the low-tech area) than the Slow Zone people could build to send into the Beyond.

I guess I could remove the unfairness by having all races start in the Slow Zone. Then I could use every trick in the book to make the Slow Zone into the armpit of the quadrant, with combat penalties and resource penalties and research penalties. Everyone will race to colonize the Beyond and all the big wars will be fought up there, just like in the book. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Using combat sensor abilities would probably be a bad idea. It would affect all ships evenly, so the low tech ships would be at a disdvantage no matter where they were.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

No, a low-tech ship that left the Slow Zone would regain normal combat sensor abilities as it entered the Beyond systems that didn't have the combat sensor penalty. By giving all ships in the slow zone a to-hit penalty, people in the Slow Zone would favour using missiles, fighters, larger ship hulls, shorter-range direct fire weapons (to reduce range accuracy penalties), and maybe torpedoes. The Beyonders who come charging in with their high-tech shielded WMG cruisers would be at a disadvantage against native Slow-Zone ships loaded with missiles and piles of armor.

Or so I would imagine, anyway. I need to test this out some. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif My main goal is to make certain types of ships and technology preferable in one half of the quadrant while a different type of technology is preferable in the other half. I don't want to just use shield dampening for this, either, since then organic races would kick Slow-Zoner butt.
Has anyone ever tried giving a system level five sensor ability to eliminate cloaking devices?

Re: OT - favorite science fiction-another touchy feelie
 

Here are the c-d authors.
Grant Callin - Saturn Alia
John W. Campbell - The Ultimate Weapon
Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game
Jayce Carr - Leviathon's Deep
Terry Carr - Fellowship of the Stars
Lin Carter - Time War
Jeffrey Carver - The Infinity Link
Jack Chalker - Twilight At The Well Of Souls
A. Bertram Chandler - Star Loot
C.J. Cherryh - Hunter of Worlds, Serpent's Reach, Book of Morgaine,Cuckoo's Egg, heck ALL of them except the short stories
John Christopher - Tripods trilogy
Arthur C. Clark - Rendevous With Rama
Jo Clayton - Drinker of Souls
Hal Clement - Through the Eye of a Needle
William Cochrane - Class Six Climb
Allan Cole & Chris Bunch - Sten series
Michael Coney - The Jaws That Bite, The Claws That Catch
Gerard Conway - Mindship
Glen Cook - The Black Company
Paul Cook - Halo
Edmund Cooper - A Far Sunset
Lee Correy - A Matter of Metalaw
Juanita Coulson - The Singing Stones
Robert Coulson - Gates of the Universe
Richard Cowper - Time Out of Mind
Joan Cox - Star Web
Ray Cummings - The Exile of Time
Damiel Da Cruz - The Ayes of Texas
Brian Daley - Jinx On a Terran Inheritance
John Dalmas - The Reality Matrix
Arsen Darnay - The Splendid Freedom
Avram Davidson - Clash of Star Kings
L. Sprague DeCamp - Lest Darkness Fall
Michael DeLarrabeiti - The Borribles
Lester DelRay - Police Your Planet
Ansen Dibell - Pursuit of the Screamer
Phillip Dick - Galactic Pot-Healer
Gordon Dickson - all of them
David Drake - all of them