Originally posted by Ace:
...and I highly doubt "galactic nodes" exist.
Why not? If you can connect the vast distances between stars with subspace nodes, then why not the even vaster distances between galaxies (with nodes created by even more gravity like galactic black holes)? Besides, having galactic nodes gives a nice ending to my campaign, and it could mean that Shivans occupy most of the universe rather than most of our galaxy (oops, I've said too much).
Originally posted by Su-tehp:
If FS2.9 takes place only 6 years after FS2, then the absolute maximum the radioactivity could travel is 6 light-years. Considering the distances between stars, the radioactivity wouldn't be able to affect any other GTVA planets.
I've thought about that before, and it would be nice to make a nodemap using stars in their actual positions relative to each other, that way you could see how far Capella is in light years from its nearest node-neighbor and its nearest physical neighbor.
As the radiation (which would also consist of gamma rays and x-rays so some would travel at light speed) expands, I can imagine that the GTVA could also evacuate people from systems closer to Capella to systems farther from it (like isn't Deneb very far away).
Originally posted by Su-tehp:
Change in node geometry as a result of the nova? Where in the name of God's infinite Universe did THAT come from? That was NEVER in any official FS canon!
Again, why not? One, it allows us to think up of more reasons why the Shivans would want to destroy Capella (
example). Two, if gravity and subspace nodes are related, then
something has to happen when one star's gravity suddenly changes dramatically. I'm trying to think of how to describe this, so I'll pull in more text from before:
Originally posted by Su-tehp:
And like any bubble in boiling liquid, the vast majority of these (micro)nodes pop/destabilize in only a few nanoseconds, while only a small handful (AKA "stable/regular" jump nodes) stabilize for centuries or millenia (as per the "Subspace" entry in the FS2 Technical database).
Yes, think about Jupiter. Most could formations come and go, but the Great Red Spot has remained for centuries. It's all in the interactions of the clouds, winds, gases, heat, everything.
So, for all the stellular nodes in a galaxy, it's the same. Stable nodes form and stay stable, but if you throw a big disruption into the mix (a supernova/suddenly-changing-mass-of-a-star), it's going to affect the rest of the "node soup". Just like when Shoemaker-Levy crashed into Jupiter it changed and created new cloud patterns (think some nodes changing), but the Great Red Spot still remained (think other (stronger) nodes staying the same).
That's why I support the changing nodemap theory.
Also (while I'm keeping all my thoughts to one post
)...
Originally posted by Su-tehp:
I guess we can just say the GTVA's economy crashed when Capella was destroyed.
Yeah, I'm sure there would definately be some economic distress... but I wouldn't liken it to the WTC disaster. I'd think of it more like a World War. Lots of times, new discoveries are made out of necessity, like during a large war (think how WWII developed nuclear weapons). I'd think that Capella would be similar. Sure, you initially have to economic distress of jobs and resources being lost, millions of people having to find new homes and means of survival, etc.
But I think (at least in my wish-full thinking and for my campaign), that with this sudden influx of refugees, some new discoveries would be made because of the necessity of having to find ways of supporting all those refugees. Like in Frederik Pohl's "Mining The Oort", they're terraforming Mars so they can farm it to create more food for the growing population. But then that endeavor is going to be cut short because someone developed a way of growing plants inside of greenhouse-space-stations. I don't know what the GTVA's state of technology is in FS2 in regards to farming, but I can imagine that if they didn't have techniques like space-bound greenhouses, after Capella they might have the need to develop them.
So, after an initial economic downturn, new discoveries could come about which could then give the GTVA an economic boom.
Joe.
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