Hard Light Productions Forums

Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Kamikaze on April 07, 2002, 01:13:39 am

Title: Plausible? Bah it'd be fun! (relating to literature)
Post by: Kamikaze on April 07, 2002, 01:13:39 am
I love books. I bet you do too, in fact I'm sure you guys do from the discussion I've seen here.
So I have some projects that I'd like to make for the community - or they can serve as ideas for the community.

Numero Uno: The Culture Mod - I love this series and I know we have some fans here :D So I was thinking of a Culture mod (which would be intensely fun, Poke it With A Stick :D) where the player could be an SC operative in a series of SOC-style missions. It'd  be difficult to do (because of those insanely big General Construction Vehicles) and I don't know what the player would pilot. But it'll sort itself out :nod:

Number Two: A mod of Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn Series. We have pictures of the ships and locations so it should be relatively easy. (compared to the above) But what would be fun are the insanely fast drones and the ships which go really fast. This one could be really cool.

So what do you think, I'm sure these have been discussed but this is my take on them. :)


BTW: If you think you'd want to work on these give me a note; if I seriously think I have enough help and enough time/sanity...
Title: Plausible? Bah it'd be fun! (relating to literature)
Post by: Shrike on April 07, 2002, 01:26:56 am
Are we going to hack FS and set it so each kilometer actually represents a light year?  That'll make things slightly more accurate, speed and weapon rangewise..... :drevil:

As for the Night's Dawn series, the ships are so boring!  They're spheres.  Blah. :p  Although combat wasps are fun.  :D
Title: Plausible? Bah it'd be fun! (relating to literature)
Post by: Kamikaze on April 07, 2002, 01:32:06 am
Quote
Originally posted by Shrike
Are we going to hack FS and set it so each kilometer actually represents a light year?  That'll make things slightly more accurate, speed and weapon rangewise..... :drevil:

As for the Night's Dawn series, the ships are so boring!  They're spheres.  Blah. :p  Although combat wasps are fun.  :D


But it's fun having sphere zip by at 100 gees :D (I think the anti-matter ship went that fast at max velocity?)
Title: Re: Plausible? Bah it'd be fun! (relating to literature)
Post by: Setekh on April 07, 2002, 01:32:53 am
Quote
Originally posted by Kamikaze
Numero Uno: The Culture Mod - I love this series and I know we have some fans here :D So I was thinking of a Culture mod (which would be intensely fun, Poke it With A Stick :D) where the player could be an SOC operative in a series of shady missions. It'd  be difficult to do (because of those insanely big General Construction Vehicles) and I don't know what the player would pilot. But it'll sort itself out :nod:


Do you mean Special Circumstances? Mmmm, there are some really good names in there, like You May Not Be The Coolest Guy Here, I Said, I've Got A Big Stick[/size], and Experiencing A Significant Gravitas Shortfall... hmmm, we may have a case here. :D
Title: Plausible? Bah it'd be fun! (relating to literature)
Post by: Kamikaze on April 07, 2002, 01:46:54 am
I Blame it On the Parents, Full Refund, Shoot Them Later :D

A nice site is: http://www.znark.com/books/culture/shipnames.html - it has culture ship names :D
Title: Plausible? Bah it'd be fun! (relating to literature)
Post by: mikhael on April 07, 2002, 02:41:31 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Shrike
As for the Night's Dawn series, the ships are so boring!  They're spheres.  Blah. :p  Although combat wasps are fun.  :D


Adamist Starships are. Voidhawks, blackhawks and hellhawks, naturally, are not. Josh Calvert's ship is not a sphere, nor are any of the alien ships mentioned to be.

Since almost none of the Night's Dawn ships are fighter sized, EXCEPT the combat wasps, we'd probably be better off not using Freespace for it.
Title: Plausible? Bah it'd be fun! (relating to literature)
Post by: Razor on April 07, 2002, 03:59:56 pm
THE BOOK!!?? :eek:

NO, NO!! The horror!!!

I hate books!! :mad2:
Title: Plausible? Bah it'd be fun! (relating to literature)
Post by: Zeronet on April 07, 2002, 04:21:23 pm
Quote
Originally posted by mikhael


Adamist Starships are. Voidhawks, blackhawks and hellhawks, naturally, are not. Josh Calvert's ship is not a sphere, nor are any of the alien ships mentioned to be.

Since almost none of the Night's Dawn ships are fighter sized, EXCEPT the combat wasps, we'd probably be better off not using Freespace for it.


Yeah, but the models wouldnt have to be high poly, that or using IWAR2, which has those cool features(opening and closing stuff etc).
Title: Plausible? Bah it'd be fun! (relating to literature)
Post by: Shrike on April 07, 2002, 05:10:37 pm
Quote
Originally posted by mikhael
Adamist Starships are. Voidhawks, blackhawks and hellhawks, naturally, are not. Josh Calvert's ship is not a sphere, nor are any of the alien ships mentioned to be.
You sure?  I'm pretty sure they describe the Lady Mac as being a sphere, like all Adamist ZTT ships.
Title: Plausible? Bah it'd be fun! (relating to literature)
Post by: mikhael on April 07, 2002, 05:48:56 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Shrike
You sure?  I'm pretty sure they describe the Lady Mac as being a sphere, like all Adamist ZTT ships.


I could swear that I remember a mention of a waist to the ship, but I could be wrong. I do distinctly recall mention of external antimatter engines. Pylons were also mentioned I think. I've only read the series once, so my memory might be more than a touch fuzzy. Even so, I'll take pilotting a Voidhawk against great spherical capships and cylindrical (or wierd, in the case of Tranquility) habitats.

Of course, the series isn't terribly well suited for a space combat sim anyway, given its adherence to something approaching real world physics. Does anyone really want to swallow in, drop combat wasps and wait to see what happens?

I'm thinking anything resembling really interesting science fiction (as opposed to science fantasy, like Star Wars and its ilk) is going to make for fairly boring space simming. Even I-War falls into the science fantasy category.
Title: Plausible? Bah it'd be fun! (relating to literature)
Post by: Zeronet on April 07, 2002, 05:51:41 pm
It would be better suited to IWAR, but they do have masers and in IWAR, you could pilot the combat wasps, not realistic but fun.
Title: Plausible? Bah it'd be fun! (relating to literature)
Post by: Shrike on April 07, 2002, 05:52:35 pm
I'd rather have an X-Ray laser.  :D
Title: Plausible? Bah it'd be fun! (relating to literature)
Post by: Stryke 9 on April 07, 2002, 05:55:45 pm
Forget that. How 'bout a MOD of the Polesotechnic League ships? Merchant vessels capable of singlehandedly waging small wars and comm anis of greasy fat men shouting at you in poor English?;)
Title: Plausible? Bah it'd be fun! (relating to literature)
Post by: Shrike on April 07, 2002, 05:58:05 pm
Ohhh...... old school.  I haven't read one of those books in a while.
Title: Plausible? Bah it'd be fun! (relating to literature)
Post by: Stryke 9 on April 07, 2002, 05:59:43 pm
Old school- only way to go.


Any real SF made in the past, say, 5 years, unquestionably sucks. Gibson pretty much was the last really decent SF writer ever
Title: Plausible? Bah it'd be fun! (relating to literature)
Post by: Shrike on April 07, 2002, 06:01:28 pm
Hmm, what have I read recently.

Night's Dawn.... that's within the last 5 years.  It was good.  Other than that, I haven't actually read that many recent sci-fi books.
Title: Plausible? Bah it'd be fun! (relating to literature)
Post by: mikhael on April 07, 2002, 06:02:03 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Zeronet
It would be better suited to IWAR, but they do have masers and in IWAR, you could pilot the combat wasps, not realistic but fun.


Wasps don't exactly manuever much. they accellerate toward a target and drop submunitions designed to wipe out all opposing combat wasps. Any wasps that make it past the initial confrontation get close to the main target and deliver yet more submunitions and, possibly, antimatter charges and the like.

They're really just slightly smart missiles with built in weapon systems.
Title: Plausible? Bah it'd be fun! (relating to literature)
Post by: Kamikaze on April 07, 2002, 07:15:19 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Shrike
You sure?  I'm pretty sure they describe the Lady Mac as being a sphere, like all Adamist ZTT ships.


Shrike is right - It even says on the official Peter Hamilton site...

BTW: the Lady Mac is a sphere with all kinds of obtrustions and such as are most Adamist ZTT - so they're not entirely round...
Title: Plausible? Bah it'd be fun! (relating to literature)
Post by: Shrike on April 07, 2002, 07:19:17 pm
Yeah, little bumps and stuff, but when they prep for a ZTT jump, all those things retract..... so they don't get torn off by the wormhole.
Title: Plausible? Bah it'd be fun! (relating to literature)
Post by: Zeronet on April 07, 2002, 07:24:35 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Shrike
Yeah, little bumps and stuff, but when they prep for a ZTT jump, all those things retract..... so they don't get torn off by the wormhole.


That could be modded in IWAR2(the retracting part). Adamists rule btw, cant stand Edenists.
Title: Plausible? Bah it'd be fun! (relating to literature)
Post by: CP5670 on April 07, 2002, 08:57:21 pm
Quote
I'd rather have an X-Ray laser.  :D


The HL-7s in FS2 are supposed to fall into that category. ;)
Title: Plausible? Bah it'd be fun! (relating to literature)
Post by: Zeronet on April 07, 2002, 08:59:14 pm
Bah Masers rule. A simple fact.
Title: Plausible? Bah it'd be fun! (relating to literature)
Post by: Kamikaze on April 07, 2002, 10:41:14 pm
You know you like Xasers better - they sound so much cooler :p
Title: Plausible? Bah it'd be fun! (relating to literature)
Post by: CP5670 on April 07, 2002, 11:10:01 pm
How about gamma-wavelength lasers? :D
Title: Plausible? Bah it'd be fun! (relating to literature)
Post by: Shrike on April 08, 2002, 12:07:28 am
Quote
Originally posted by Zeronet
Bah Masers rule. A simple fact.
But even visible light lasers are superior, by virtue of higher energy photons.
Title: Plausible? Bah it'd be fun! (relating to literature)
Post by: Styxx on April 08, 2002, 09:13:06 am
Bah, a Foundation (Traders era) Mod for I-War2 would rule, and would be quite possible. Putting the Culture into a game wouldn't be, though.
Title: Plausible? Bah it'd be fun! (relating to literature)
Post by: Setekh on April 09, 2002, 04:14:48 am
Quote
Originally posted by Stryke 9
Forget that. How 'bout a MOD of the Polesotechnic League ships?


The what League ships?
Title: Plausible? Bah it'd be fun! (relating to literature)
Post by: Styxx on April 09, 2002, 08:17:29 am
Quote
Originally posted by Setekh
The what League ships?


I second that.