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  #1  
Old August 9th, 2001, 05:53 AM

Phoenix-D Phoenix-D is offline
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Default 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

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Old August 9th, 2001, 06:35 AM

BeeDee10 BeeDee10 is offline
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Default 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.
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Old August 9th, 2001, 07:08 AM

Phoenix-D Phoenix-D is offline
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Default 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.

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Old August 9th, 2001, 08:11 AM

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Default 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....

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Old August 9th, 2001, 08:25 AM

BeeDee10 BeeDee10 is offline
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Default Re: OT - favorite science fiction-another touchy feelie

quote:
Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
For slowing ships down- perhaps the "random movement" ability?


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

quote:
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.


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.

quote:
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.


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. 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?
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Old August 9th, 2001, 11:32 AM

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Default 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
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  #7  
Old August 9th, 2001, 02:38 PM

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Default Re: OT - favorite science fiction-another touchy feelie

Here are the e-g authors.
G.C. Edmondson - The Man Who Corrupted Earth
George Effinger - What Entropy Means To Me
Gordon Eklund - All Times Possible
Suzette Hayden Elgin - everything
Phillip Jose Farmer - Time's Last Gift
Mick Farren - Protectorate
Howard Fast - A Touch of Infinity
Jonathan Fast - Mortal Gods
John Faucette - Who Claims This Galaxy
Arnold Federbush - The Man Who Lived In Inner Space
Cynthia Felice - Godsfire
Kenneth Flint - Champions of the Sidhe
D.C. Fontana - The Questor Tapes
William Forstchen - Into the Sea of Stars
Robert Forward - Dragon's Egg
Alan Dean Foster - The Man Who Used The Universe
M.A. Foster - The Gameplayers of Zan
Gardner Fox - The Hunter Out Of Time
Leo Frankowski - all of them
Egon Freidell - The Return of the Time Machine
Gregory Frost - Tain
Esther Friesner - Mustapha and His Wise Dog
Daniel Galouye - Lords of the Psychon
Raymond Gallun - The Planet Strappers
Dav Garnett - The Starseekers
Randall Garrett - Too Many Magicians
Richard Garvin - The Fortec Conspiracy
Jean Gawron - Algorithm
David Gerrold - everything
Mark Geston - Lords of the Starship
Alexis Gilliland - eveything
John Glasby - Project Jove
Donald Glut - Spawn
Tom Godwin - Beyond Another Sun
Stephen Goldin - The Eternity Brigade
Rex Gordon - First Through Time
Stuart Gordon - Fire In The Abyss
Phyllis Gotlieb - A Judgement of Dragons
Ron Goulart - A Talent For The Invisible
Robert Graham - War of Nerves
Charles Grant - Legion
Richard Grant - Saraband of Lost Time
Geary Gravel - The Pathfinders
Joseph Green - Conscience Interplanetary
Roland Green - Peace Company
Sharon Green - To Battle the Gods
Irving Greenfield - The Stars Will Judge
William Greenleaf - Time Jumper
Russell Griffin - The Time Servers
David Grinnell - Across Time
James Gunn - Breaking Point
Lindsay Gutteridge - Cold War In A Country Garden
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