How do you do that, Dragonlord?

capnq · #1 August 19th, 2001, 03:18 PM

quote:
So, let's get some more variety out there! (Speaking of which, how about some more atmospheres, like nitrogen, sulfur dioxide, chlorine, or radon?)

The atmosphere types are hardcoded, so you'll have to wait for a patch or SE V.

quote:
That part about trading colonization tech raises some questions: How do you get humans to trade that, as it immediately produces competition in colonizing the same planet types? I would think twice to trade this tech, unless the other player is at the other end of the galaxy.

"Sphere of influence" agreements help with that, if you can easily agree on where the border should be.

I tend to pick planet and atmosphere just to roleplay the race rather than for strategic advantage. My solo game Tiktsin are intelligent plants evolved from a lichen; they were Icy/CO2 long before I read that it was the least common combo in the game. My Rrurrr are Rock/Oxy because I originally created them to be the native race of a human-colonizable world in my theoretical GURPS Space tabletop RPG campaign. The Mi-Go are Icy/Methane because they're traditionally from Pluto in the Lovecraft Mythos.

------------------
Cap'n Q

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

Shoujo · #2 August 20th, 2001, 12:59 AM

Beautiful but deadly... I like that BeeDee. Unfortunately I'll let you take a shot at being bloodthirsty. In my very first PBW game I picked Berserkers (for the combat advantage till I learned it was bugged) and tried to RP, but that fell apart after the first few turns. I found myself actually liking my neighbors, so I couldn't declare war on them *sigh*

I got myself thinking, would it be possible for winged creatures to fly in a no-atmosphere planet...? I might have to revise that description...

BeeDee10 · #3 August 20th, 2001, 02:53 AM

Winged creatures, no. Wings need some sort of medium (gas or liquid) to push against. However, you could equip your species with biological "rockets" instead. For a RL example, look up Bombadier beetles; they use glands in their abdomen to produce two chemicals which, when mixed together, react violently and bLast a jet of boiling-hot acid and steam at whatever's annoying them. Your insectoids could use rocket assists for jumping and changing course in mid-leap, which is as close as you can get to "flying" in a vaccum.

Note that this kind of thing would be biologically "expensive," and so probably couldn't be done for long continuous stretches of time. They'd be rocket-powered grasshoppers rather than eagles.

Shoujo · #4 August 20th, 2001, 06:27 AM

Ugh... I think I'll make em live underground like ants rather than be grasshoppers with rockets...

capnq · #5 August 20th, 2001, 09:23 AM

quote:
would it be possible for winged creatures to fly in a no-atmosphere planet...?

H.P. Lovecraft's Mi-Go could fly better in interplanetary vacuum than in a thick atmosphere like Earth's. Maybe the wings are used as miniature solar sails? (Of course, conventional physics doesn't apply to Mi-Go anyway; they can't be photographed with normal film, for example.)

------------------
Cap'n Q

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

Shoujo · #6 August 21st, 2001, 01:03 AM

Doh I just thought of an easy solution...I could simply make my race live on a planet with an atmosphere for once. Won't have to worry about twisting the laws of physics or making em grasshopper with rockets this way

LazarusLong42 · #7 August 21st, 2001, 04:16 PM

quote:
Originally posted by BeeDee10:
Hrmph. I chose rock/none and advanced storage for very good roleplaying reasons; my race were a race of self-replicating industrial robots that had originally created to do space exploration and development for an organic species. I was rock/none+adv. storage _before_ it was cool!

I think that ultimately the best atmosphere/planet type to choose for your race is "the one that nobody else is using in that particular game." Good luck guessing.

BD: Read James Hogan much? <EG>

LL