Hard Light Productions Forums
Hosted Projects - FS2 Required => Blue Planet => Topic started by: Infamus on September 07, 2010, 02:43:06 pm
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It needs some work maybe, :warp: but it's uber for something that came out of my ass.
:pimp: :D
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It's garbage.
lrn2science.
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Oh come on, at least give the man some constructive criticism!
I don't think the notion of genetically engineering everybody to 'hear' electromagnetic radiation in space is a great one on its own, but if you were to write your own SF setting, you might well postulate genetic engineering to produce synesthesia useful in space travellers.
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I don't know, sure beam weapons and subspace drives are pseudoscience but this is pushing pseudoscience too far. They're really gameplay mechanics best ignored. For example, why does my ship decelerate when I stop using my afterburner? I don't have any air resistance.. and shouldn't we all glide, unless we have steering trusters? My constructive criticism, leave videogame physics alone once you get to the 'perception in space' topics. It's a nice a try and I understand this may sound frustrating, but I want to be honest here with you.
edit: Had to giggle a bit, a scientology banner pops up everytime I try to reply to this thread, that's rather wacky pseudoscience too. *snicker*
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Okay.
When we first when out into space, we knew it would be perilous for one good reason, it is impossible for sound to travel in a vacuum. Sometime in the late 21st century a sensor array was developed in combination with an audio translator that could pick up energies from space and make them into sound that can be played through an entire ship so people could know what was going on in the vast emptiness of space.
Garbage, since a) Lack of sound in space was NEVER perceived as an issue in this universe, b) that technique developed in the late 21st century is called "Radio" and is A LOT older than that.
Now, lack of auditory feedback and auditory warnings is something that can be an issue in space combat, HOWEVER: the tech to do this is very old. Has been utilized in submarines, and certain space combat simulation programs for decades.
However the system could not detect everything and could be hacked quite easily, producing devastating results. Soon the device was banned and for the next 50 years, space, was once again, silent.
Makes no sense at all, without some elaboration. Also, just because something is susceptible to hacking does not mean it's use will be banned, see also: PCs.
However, in the mid 22nd century a unnamed electrophysics while working with arc-plasma based speakers figured because sound occurs when a wave of fluid sub-atomic particles transfer the kinetic energies we know as sound, why can't we just 'hear' the energies themselves?
Sound is a travelling wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations.
"fluid sub-atomic particles"? This ain't Star Trek, boyo. you can't just string together things and expect them to make sense.
Geneticists all over where working on telepathy and pysconics and saw this as an opportunity. This massive species-wide joint effort to make energy 'hearable' lasted about 65 years with tons of controversy, but this wave ended quickly after everyone figured out what it was for.
Makes no sense, from either a pseudoscience or grammatical standpoint. (Hint: What "wave" are you talking about?)
Finally the genes were developed, but at first people were nervous about the actual effects of it and thought that they might hear things that they shouldn't. The first test subjects of the complete version did not hear anything abnormal and it actually improved their natural hearing quality and frequency range.
Normal hearing acuity != this strange "energy hearing" you want to do.
Also, genetic engineering on such a large scale?
When testing finally when into space, the results were more than expected. Not only could someone hear a sound through energy and not through matter heard it more clearly without the atmospheric distortions, plus the sound of roaring engines replaced the wind and sea, making it easy to cope with being in the vastness of space.
So, instead of generating sounds as needed via Computer and simply filling the ship with air so you can hear the engine vibrations, you're postulating some elaborate genetic engineering/pseudoscience bull****?
When the Shivans appeared, those who engaged them thought they heard them, how they knew it was them was probably due to the Shivans' predatorily and merciless killing methods and just assumed as anxiety. When we figured out that Shivans communicated with quantum pulses, we knew why the pilots who engaged these monsters, why we could 'feel' them.
Aken Bosch used this information and made a device that could produce these pulses with a scrounged up alphabet using intercepted Shivan communications. Subspace energies are quite similar to Shivan communication, and our species' dependency on subspace for long range travel must have altered the 'Energy Ear' gene set to be more attune to such energies, as it was designed this way.
I like standard canon, without your additions, more.
The legendary Leaders of the 53 Hammerheads during the Great War and the SOC Blue Lions during the Second Incursion, both reported having dreams in which some female had told them stories about ‘the Ancients.’ This was seen at first as symptom of paranoia, but after the discovery of the relics in Altair, all data concerning this was until recently was classified at the highest level. Both of these people had a mutated 'Energy Ear' gene set.
Somehow these genes were mutated to a point in which they can fully translate quantum pulses.
The UEF has done extensive research on his matter and found that it the same gene can also teach the brain how to emit the same pulses, like learning a language, but because we have no normal organ designed to emit quantum energies, it is quite inefficient.
They call it the Nagarki Process.
This is more in line with BP canon, however, BP canon does not need all this "energy ear" crap in order to work, which in terms of believability is much better.
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Infamus, to add, there's nothing wrong with your imagination, but the topic is a boundry best not crossed. :) How about writing some more fitting pseudoscience on other topics not yet approached for others to read? If anything to not be discouraged. A first attempt is not a bad attempt, the topic just is one best left alone.
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i'm confused. :confused:
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hm, too bad your theory (probably) isn't there in total anymore, I like reading pseudoscience, even if it doesn't make too much or no sense at all :D
Well... After I read the thread title, I couldn't stop myself from thinking... What do we know about Freespace? There is subspace as the ultimate pseudoscience plot device. There is no mission in which the player didn't travel through subspace not too long before the mission - even if we start from a hangar, those destroyers and frigates jump through subspace all the time as well.
So, let's work with that. If we have subspace confirmed and consider it indeed as some sort of shadow or additional 4D-Spacetime sort of "underneath" normal space, then let's just add another mesh between them, which in itself does not have any euclidian geometrical properties, but is more like a network of uncountable but finite quantum particles - compareable with the spin network proposed in loop quantum gravity at least concerning it's consistency.
Because this "plane" - let's call it interspace because that sounds cool - is between space and subspace, it reacts to anything that bends spacetime, so any mass or energy leaves an imprint in it. Anything that moves creates waves like you would expect in a medium like this. Any mass or energy that vibrates, creates a resonation in interspace, mirroring the vibration of the object in "normal" space - just out of phase.
Now, any object that passes into or out of subspace travels through the interspace mesh, and undergoes a process somewhat compareable to ionization. After it returns to subspace or space, it is still entangled in remnants of the interspace mesh, much like someone who walked through a spiderweb. Objects entangled in interspace remnants "recover" after several days. Until then, the vibrations of interspace are again projected onto the objects itself. This means the ship, air and ear of the pilots get to hear stuff - IN SPAAAACE!
Movements of planets of course cause ripples and waves in interspace as well, but their frequency is so gigantic, that it is impossible to even reliably detect them.
Also, because the actual sounds and the interspace waves are out of phase, there is no feedback in your ship for the sounds you make yourself - you actually hear the mechanics of your own ship a lot qieter than they really are - and even your monstrous afterburner and futuristic superweapons don't rupture your eardrums, because the interspace "sound" cancels the actual sound to a certain degree.
Another important fact is, that the interspace "sound" travels faster-than-light. That explains why any two sounds can be heard instantly, even if there are several kilometres between the sources. While traveling through interspace, the "sound" also loses intensity exponentially, much like electromagnetic waves.
Of course there are still several problems with this. If an object moves relative to what? Space? You can't move relative to just "space", that's basically why relativity kicked the aether-theories out of the window. But hey, it's pseudoscience, so now we have some sort of ether again. Suck on that Einstein! :p
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The simpler explanation, that all sounds you hear (except for the ones generated by your ship) are generated by your onboard computer for your convenience, is easier, more plausible, more elegant and just plain better for not involving Treknobabble.
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The simpler explanation, that all sounds you hear (except for the ones generated by your ship) are generated by your onboard computer for your convenience, is easier, more plausible, more elegant and just plain better for not involving Treknobabble.
That may very well be, but I looooove Technobabble :D
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Yes, but in terms of background writing, the trick is to choose your battles carefully. Being very close to reality in most areas allows you to go reallsy wild in others, as the necessary suspension of disbelief is much reduced.
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Nagarki Process.
You... took Nagari and put a k in it?
And... sorry but your explanation itself makes no sense at all.
However, in the mid 22nd century a unnamed electrophysics while working with arc-plasma based speakers figured because sound occurs when a wave of fluid sub-atomic particles transfer the kinetic energies we know as sound, why can't we just 'hear' the energies themselves?
Let me rephrase that for you.
I slept through all my Physics classes.
I can respond to the rest of your "hypothesis", such as it is, with simply "wat".
Or maybe
(http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/7067/wtfyj.png)
[I made that last summer and only now have a chance to use it. Lol]
Also, I generally accept The_E's suggestion with a bit of "gameplay uber alles" on top. Sound in space is an accepted break from reality in most sci fi.
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I think the 'k' was a typo. on the keyboard, k is right underneath i
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In both the tbm and the thread title?
Yeah, I guess it's possible.
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Sound in space is inexplicable. The best way is to just assume it somehow propagates through the ether - subspace.
It's either that or every starship in the universe has a personal set of speakers which render certain forms of electromagnetic radiation as sound, thus making a particularly bright flashlight the ultimate weapon.
Identical explanation for non-Newtonian physics, though it would mean that every single planet in existance had its own drive systems.
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Sound in space is inexplicable. The best way is to just assume it somehow propagates through the ether - subspace.
It's either that or every starship in the universe has a personal set of speakers which render certain forms of electromagnetic radiation as sound, thus making a particularly bright flashlight the ultimate weapon.
Wing Commander called about this about two decades ago and said it's your ship providing audio cues to improve situational awareness.
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Sound in space is inexplicable. The best way is to just assume it somehow propagates through the ether - subspace.
It's either that or every starship in the universe has a personal set of speakers which render certain forms of electromagnetic radiation as sound, thus making a particularly bright flashlight the ultimate weapon.
Wing Commander called about this about two decades ago and said it's your ship providing audio cues to improve situational awareness.
Yeah, the problem is that you could get a much more informative set of cues than badass high-fidelity explosion effects.
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Yeah, the problem is that you could get a much more informative set of cues than badass high-fidelity explosion effects.
That's not FS2's fault. :P
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The GTVA's sound engineers think that 'splosions sound cooler. :p
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Sigh, I just thought it might be cool to explain how the Nagari Process and explain it, rather than leaving a huge as plot hole.
How about I leave it at this:
"Some time ago before genetic modification was completely illegalized, one final breakthrough was made. A gene which alters the brain so it can 'hear' energy, to make space travel far safer, in-case the sound-simulation computers might fail. Unfortunately, modifications were illegalized before it could come out of experimental stages, and thus it was never enhanced and produced very little success in the first place. However, in a hail-Mary Run, the men responsible released a retro-virus containing it, it was contained quite easily, and the people infected never noticed anything different, so it was forgotten.
This has thought to be where the Nagari Process originated, from a mutated strain; this was possibly done on purpose by the Shivans, or it could be completely separate.
The only truly noticeable sound is when inside of a corridor. Pilots can hear the harmonic hums more clearly than the computer can produce them."
That last sentence can be explained by our views though Alpha 1 from both games.
Short, sweet, what I should have made instead of all that ****ing crap.
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The Nagari process is not a plot hole. It is quasi-mystic technobabble, maybe, but not a plot hole. A plot hole is when the story contradicts itself, not when something is left unexplained/up to the player's imagination.
Explaining something like the Nagari process, is, quite frankly, not a good idea from a writing standpoint. You risk alienating a lot of players (particularly those that actually know whatever branch of science you attempt to use to justify it), and explaining it causes it to lose the air of mystery that makes it interesting.
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They've got Herra, The_E, and Battuta on staff. I highly doubt they'll get any of the possible science-y stuff more wrong than it has to be to fit with FS and BP established canon.
Just wait for the rest of BP, and all will be explained.
It's all good, man. :pimp:
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So ... is the Nagari Process phlebotinum? :nervous:
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More like handwaving. And it is sort of explained in credits.tbl anyway.
Ont thing it's definitely not is a plot hole.
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They've got Herra, The_E, and Battuta on staff. I highly doubt they'll get any of the possible science-y stuff more wrong than it has to be to fit with FS and BP established canon.
Just wait for the rest of BP, and all will be explained.
It's all good, man. :pimp:
I have great faith in the writers of BP as well. My criticism was more directed at Infamus.
My point is that if you are going to try to explain stuff like that, you had better know what you're talking about. If you do know, and can explain it believably, then awesome. That makes for excellent SF when it's done right.
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It can (and will) be explained within the tolerances of plausibility used in FreeSpace. There is also a 'real world' explanation that works even better and is compatible with modern physics, but which has chilling implications that I don't think we want to introduce to BP.
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It can (and will) be explained within the tolerances of plausibility used in FreeSpace. There is also a 'real world' explanation that works even better and is compatible with modern physics, but which has chilling implications that I don't think we want to introduce to BP.
But we love chilling implications!
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It can (and will) be explained within the tolerances of plausibility used in FreeSpace. There is also a 'real world' explanation that works even better and is compatible with modern physics, but which has chilling implications that I don't think we want to introduce to BP.
:eek: Do tell!
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It can (and will) be explained within the tolerances of plausibility used in FreeSpace. There is also a 'real world' explanation that works even better and is compatible with modern physics, but which has chilling implications that I don't think we want to introduce to BP.
:eek: Do tell!
It would sort of get into the greater BP mythology currently hidden in our reference bible. :nervous:
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Oh, I guess I saw "real world" and somehow got the impression it wasn't BP-related.
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Oh, I guess I saw "real world" and somehow got the impression it wasn't BP-related.
It is BP-related. It's a real-world based explanation for something in BP, though.
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The Nagari process is not a plot hole. It is quasi-mystic technobabble, maybe, but not a plot hole. A plot hole is when the story contradicts itself, not when something is left unexplained/up to the player's imagination.
Explaining something like the Nagari process, is, quite frankly, not a good idea from a writing standpoint. You risk alienating a lot of players (particularly those that actually know whatever branch of science you attempt to use to justify it), and explaining it causes it to lose the air of mystery that makes it interesting.
Yeah, I see your point, and thank you for not being so cruel like some others here and providing actual, constructive criticism.
I just like explaining things, and for the longest time I never really made them public, I subconsciously thought that this was that "time to shine" but it was a completely SNAFU thought.
hey, how about we move this to the Fan Spec thread for good measure? It's dang well the same topic.
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Don't worry, been there. Just keep at it and you'll be like Battuta some day.