[AtomicClucker]

Or why I want space fighters and awesome space mechas!

For once, I got free time to burn (and evilly plan) towards Freespace and building a small commercial web-based venture.

So, rather than be a wank, watch me pitifully justify space fighters, mechas, and why many Hard Sci-Fi nuts are idiots (myself included).

So some quick IRL mess:

Long story short, I tried to run a game/universe project that featured Magical Girls riding on jets - stupid story short I ran it into the ground and pissed people in my team off who then stole the idea and ran with it. The result is several years of flawed ideas wasted and a bitter lesson about rules, limits and passion. So, this will be my new brainchild and going back to my roots as a sci-fi fan.

So on to the actual "stuff"

Creating a universe where giant mechas, space fighters, and good old fashioned dog fights exist.

As much as I love hard Sci-Fi and it's science goodness, a lot of self-proclaimed aficionados exist solely to denounce Space Fighters and Mechas on scientific grounds (or as I put it, the here and now crowd) and while they have completely sane reasons and rationales to do it, lack imagination and are often revealed to be hacks who cling to "realism" because they don't understand that good fiction needs good drama. Henceforth with giant robots and flying space cans exist. Let's face it, reading about drones, nuclear missiles, and long wait times is just plain boring. Some authors can pull it off, but many fans fail to understand that a general audience doesn't care **** about scientific accuracy when it comes to booms and explosions.

And despite my own reservations about the validity of "fighters" in space, many of the reasons for and against them are really matters of opinion - not just cold, hard science.

So away from the little rant? Why space fighters and robotic mechas?

Let's face it drama and rule of cool.

That issue aside,  how to justify their existence.

My first stabs: Rule of Cool, Mass, and Power Projection/Realities of Economy.

Rule of Cool: Let's just face it, giant robots and fancy space fighters are just awesome and garner more attention than a rockets with turrets.
Mass: Often flouted reasons against space fighters is Delta-V, horizons, g-forces, etc. But hey, smaller mass equals quicker reaction times.
Power Projection/Realities of Economy: Despite all the reasons against smaller craft, a smaller craft is more often cheaper (despite arguments of economy against it) and less a loss than a bigger ship, plus, it depends on the setting and role. Smaller ships can cover power projection and numbers than a single larger tub. I don't hesitate to re-label space fighters as gunships, because in most situations, more than 1 set of eyeballs is a good thing.

Other reasons? This is also my way of flipping the bird to hard-core super-realistic sci-fi nuts after reading countless threads of "scientific accuracy" vs awesome. Awesome, drama, and attention beats our blatant scientific head-banging. The best fiction are settings and ideas that not only respect the science of their established settings, but also "show" rather than tell it.

[Colonol Dekker]

Space lesbians are bonus.

[AtomicClucker]

Space lesbians are bonus.

Indeed.

And Zero-G boobies

[AtomicClucker]

So I spent a few days looking and researching the physics, designs, and requirements of small manned craft. Including the reasons for and against.

To sum up my research - the best approach to a manned craft is like a Babylon 5 Star Fury, but the more planet tied a fighter is, then it will look more like an airplane assuming it needs to enter the atmosphere.
For a giant flying mecha, even with hand-waviums applied at full speed, a humanoid form, while not the best, can substitute its limbs and other forces in place of RCS thrusters, thus reducing their numbers. Further supports my notion that Gundam was born of real physics whether fanboys admit it or not.

Drones are far superior to flesh and blood in a cockpit, they can tolerate more stress and hard-G's then meat popsicles. However, there's one big problem with drones - welcome large distances of SPAAAAACE! Yes, drones can and will be effected by lag over great distances and not to mention electronic warfare and potential hacking and or other forms of electronic infiltration. Drones however doesn't eliminate the need for a human presence, and neither does fully automating them solves problems as well - instead you've just multiplied them by adding a new layer of drama and ethical concerns.

But for a small side tangent? Unmarked robotic drones start an interstellar war because no knows who built it? Now that's drama!

But for the sake of ethics,  doesn't seem like a good idea to eliminate the human component - because not only do drones have their own set of problems, but automation does bring ethical concerns and problems to the table much like the modern use of drones and controversy it has spurred. Who's to blame? Who pulled the trigger? Did it glitch?

Humans are prone to the same problems, but a fully robotic drone? It creates another level of complexity XD

[AtomicClucker]

Minor Update!



Currently laid out some factions, ideas and such, next thing is to start the laborious process of designing awesome mecha. All factions will possess various forms of mecha as "close in" combatants, while fighters are actually glorious missile extension tubs on sortie rates XD. And to be honest, space fighters are more accurately like a space lancer at the end of the day XD.

Actual "dogfights" it seems will be waged between mecha, gunships, and small capships more that fighter jamborees. So I can actually see some Blue Planet crossed with I-War2 to simply reference combat.

[Luis Dias]

Good looking map!

[AtomicClucker]

So a month since my last post:

I watched and read a few things to start allowing me to start thinking giant robotic exoskeletons IN SPACE!

Gundam - Universal Century metaseries and Gundam Unicorn
Robotech/Macross - I watched different parts of the series including Macross7, yep the infamous one.
Heinlein - Starship Troopers (Book, the terrible but hilarious inversion of said book turned film, animated series)
Exo-Squad - One of the few superlative series of western animation that reaches the likes of military sci-fi and Gundam
Muv-Luv - Giant robots and squishy humans with artillery vs insane aliens.

Role Playing Games - Jovian Chronicles - Gundam with Newton and awesome rule sets applied. This series is a suprisingly "hard" take on giant flying robots, and is surprisingly well adapted. It sounds not just wholey plausible, but makes both mechanical and economically sane reasons for it. And it plays well after observing a group session and crit failing into oblivion myself
Games - Mechwarrior, quite a few gundam games, and then some more.

So the result is that with giant ass kicking robots IN SPACE! I was forced to concede, less robot, more giant exoskeleton Starship troopers of doom IN SPACE!

So my final reasons why I suddenly loved giant exoskeletons? Answer is simply Newton's Third Law of Motion: When one body exerts a force on a second body, the second body simultaneously exerts a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction on the first body.

To even further push the "obession" I got a few Gundam and Macross model kits and studied how the limbs work. Mechanical complexity mixed with simplicity of human movement. Then I applied these mechanical notes to my own designs and now can actually start pushing forward with a good idea of how a giant mechanical humanoid machine can walk, move, and operate. My only regret is that the current designs still lean a bit too much on Gundam (will admit I am a RGM-79/RGM-89 Jegan fan). But given time and factional development, the designs will begin to mature into identifiable concepts.

So the meat and potatoes: yep, giant humanoid robots:

[Wobble73]

Minor Update!



Currently laid out some factions, ideas and such, next thing is to start the laborious process of designing awesome mecha. All factions will possess various forms of mecha as "close in" combatants, while fighters are actually glorious missile extension tubs on sortie rates XD. And to be honest, space fighters are more accurately like a space lancer at the end of the day XD.

Actual "dogfights" it seems will be waged between mecha, gunships, and small capships more that fighter jamborees. So I can actually see some Blue Planet crossed with I-War2 to simply reference combat.

I like but......reminds me of Lord of the Rings maps a little, good guys to the west and bad guys to the east??

[AtomicClucker]

True it needs some more flavor and clarifications XD

USC = Think of the GTVA/Blue Planet spin, good guys when you think about it, but still pull some crazy **** to maintain order and control of their respective populations. The USC is the successor of a problem riddled Federation/Militarist "Bushido" Empire, so while it tries to espouse a democratic framework, the military (heavily factional itself) is often forced to play an often over-reaching hand to deal with civilian issues.

Star-Imperium = Described as a "unhinged democracy" controlled by an oligarchical Council of Elders and run by a federalized monarchy. The organs of government somehow function while respective planetary governments routinely shoot themselves in the foot through diplomatic failures, happy trigger fingers, and occasional clashes with human prospectors over trivial things. Despite being insular, the exuberance of planetary governments gets the whole Star-Imperium into hot water. The Imperium is supposedly a "third party" but is strongly suspected as a cause of powder kegs sector wide.

Junkers (Rebs) = A loosely organized alliance of rebel factions that focuses on destabilizing the USC and fellow rebel/terrorist movements, it survives by raiding these competitors so it can fight to live another day. Essentially a privateer organization at heart the Junkers are considered either local folk heroes or thieves for stealing equipment and ships. Unlike the Neo Algon factions, the Junkers are fighting for a true democratic independence, but hosts a considerable anarchist/leftist sentiment.

Nea-Algon = a large group of independence minded rebels focusing on colonial independence, but fall into a fascist/right-wing mentality. Unlike the Junkers, the Nea-Algon factions possess a high degree of technical prowess that often puts them on par or occasional superior to the USC. The Junkers consider the Nea-Algon their mortal foes, and often works with the USC against Nea-Algon factions.

Story Wise, the "PoV" faction is the Imperium,