[Shiva-jin Buu]

FreeSpace doesn't focus much on the world around the game, but it does inspire me to think of the details of an interstellar society at war.

For instance, what kinds of things are in a system? There's planets, obviously, both inhabited and uncolonized, or perhaps for mining purposes; and various installations (GTI Arcadia) that form the hub of travel and trade within the system. But a solar system seems awfully large for a few planets and installations. What more could you find in a front-line system, and in backwater systems a-la Dubhe and Alphard?

As a criminal on the run for the local authorities in a system, you could easily hide in the vastness of the solar system itself (the system's boundaries are its gravitational boundaries, as stated in the tech-room). The main activity would be around those planets and installations, but are there any other locations worth checking out in a system?

And, where do the civilians live? On colonized planets in systems away from the front lines? What means of travel would they know? Could they hire a transport to go on a vacation to a nebular view from a certain system?

The reason for this topic is that I would love to get a more detailed view of the world around FreeSpace, for instance on the manner of population in a system, or the local governments, or the civilian travel-routes, and so on. When looking at the whole of the FreeSpace story, how do you see the World of FreeSpace?

[kasperl]

well, i see a very militaristic society, probably somewhat fascist, like Starship Troopers.

also, wasn't there a thread on this somewhere in the depths of the forum?

[Solatar]

Could pirates use regular non-subspace subspace engines to leave a starsystem and hide outside it? Would they need to?

I usually imagine one or possibly two planets as major places. Maybe some anti-orbital cannons on the surface (definantly not for attacking fighters, but probably very powerful turrets designed to bring down destroyers that are launching fighters and transports at the planet's surface). Maybe one installation the is in charge of defense of the planet, and that houses civilians. This station is the police base or something, and the fighter squadrons probably fly (at the time of fs2) Myrmidons or Ulysses. Cruisers and fighters patrol in low orbit around the planet (lower, and medium, probably older Leviathan and Fenris cruisers). Civvy ships exit orbit and must leave the planet's gravitational field before they jump (or at least get where it is weaker). Civvies are free to roam around the system at their own risk, but in most core systems, I think pirate activity would be low.

As for military fleets, station is near enough to the jump into the system that it can protect it, but far enough that something coming through will have a chance at being stopped before it hits HQ. I would imagine they aren't built extremely close to planets, to prevent the GTVA from losing both the station and the planet, but close enough to be able to effectively protect the planet.

EDIT: As for government. Terrans, I see a government very close to US democracy (seeing as the creators of the game were from the US). The Vasudans seem to thrive under an emperor better (Khonsu II helped them out a lot, but he abolished the parliamentary part of PVE) I assume that the emperor has more power than a prime minister or president, but a general assembly or congress has the power to make sure he doesn't become to powerful. I don't think there would be an issue with the next emperor being in the same bloodline, but I have no evidence to support that claim. I think the emperor is probably chosen in a similiar way as the pope. The people (maybe, not sure if the people do it though) choose a few likely candidates and a group of advisors (referring back to the pope, like Cardinals) select the new emperor. Often an emperor's son is chosen as the new emperor, to honor that tradition. The new emperor rules until he dies or resigns.

Just my two cents...

[Drew]

Originally posted by Shiva-jin Buu

And, where do the civilians live? On colonized planets in systems away from the front lines?

asteroids
iv seen some old Pop. Science magazine about what a space station roid might be like

also i can imagin some sort of sem-fascist\republic government for the Terrans and a Vasudan monarchy

[Knight Templar]

Well, I think playing freelancer would be a good way to judge what the FS Universe could be like as a whole.

[Flaser]

Not exactly militaristic IMHO.

More like forced to support a huge military like all the monarchies and old kingdoms before WW1 - actually the GTVA is in a similar situation.

Expansion is their only option, though unlike WW1 parties they aren't forced to do it to someone else's expense.

I think a lot less systems are inhabitated as you see Solatar.
The reason is that terraforming is the most expensive thing in the universe.

The people are more likely to be more space-faring and space-living then to live on planets.

IMHO even Mars back in the Sol system wouldn't be completely terraformed by the time FS2 ends.

However you can have a couple of planets that are actually inhabitated, but their general fauna and flora would hugely differ from Earth.
Moreover most would have funny atmospheres and only a couple of systems would have breathable atmosphere. So i say the Terrans have around a dozen planets that are completly inhabitable, but they inhibit about a 3 times as many system, half of which are habitated.

So you'd have 40-60% of humanity permanently living in space (we extrapolated things like that in the U*** too).

I think huge space colonies would be that rare too, more like relics from the early space age.

People would live in small compact stations, but most would live on Moons and modestly toxic light gravity planets.

I doubt that any FS craft could ever handle a landing on a planet.

I think that there is an entire serie of haulers and lifters devoted exclusily to orbital insertion.

Space lift are probably also in use.

Big planets are also less likely to be populated for the reason that it's difficult to mine them, then transport the resources into space.

[Bobboau]

gtva needs to spend every last credit it can posably aford on military construction research and development,
why, becase there is a force of nature trying to wipe them out

[Liberator]

USA type republic is likely the type of Government for the Terran portion of the GTVA as ours is the one the works the best.  Let's save the political comments for another time shall we?

The Vasudans are a benevolent dictatorial republic, with the power devolving from the emperor to the senate.  The emperor has control but can be overidden by the senate.

As far as cargo hauling, none of the freighters seen in the game(s) can possibly enter the atmosphere of any planet to any great depth unless they have Anti-Gravity.  So cargo to and from the surface is likely going to be handled by medium scale space planes of some sort.  Probably C-5 Galaxy sized or a little larger.  

I've always been dubious about the whole concept of a space elevator.  There are tremendous amounts of heat, static electricity, not to mention shearing forces like we've never seen.  The shaft of a space elevator would most likely need to several thousand kilometers in diameter to withstand the forces generated by being hundreds of miles tall.  It's simply impractical.

I would imagine any large asteroid grouping would have some sort of settlement in it.  There would be stations in orbit of the gas giants to service the cloudscoops that gather the He3 or deuterium or what ever is used to power fusion drives.  to put it bluntly any place that could generate of reasonable profit from production be it mining or manufacturing(all types) would be inhabited.

[Flaser]

That's as far from the truth as you could get.

Read some recent scientifically strong hard sci-fi (like Kim Stanley Robinson't Red Mars), the new fullerens can make such carbon structures that would be more than capable of handling the strain.

You construct the cable in a geo-stationary position and lay it along the equator. You use a badass big asteroid made of carbon and metals, so you don't need to transport the materials.
Nuclear reactors provide the enormous energy neeeded to create the diamond helix that will be the cable's backbone.

Beside before you comment on how heavy  or stainy it would be do some calcualtions please.

The forces are not that much. Actually it's only going to be the middle of the cable that will experience some stress.

If created properly the cable should actually hover over the ground, because the force of the top part should counterweight its lower part.

[Liberator]

Still doesn't do anything to abate the temps from atmospheric passage.  Even though the atmosphere is moving along with the structure, it's still moving thousands of miles per hour faster than the atmosphere at altitude.  That translates to thousands of degrees.  If it is technically possible, a way would have to be designed to transfer the heat out into space or you haven't seen global warming yet.

[Flaser]

It's a geostationary thing.

In other words from someone's point of view on the ground - it completly stands still!

So all the tension and temperature it has to take care of is the same as something just floating in the same elevation would have to do.

Actually every part of the lift has a different velocity.

It's circular motion for heaven's sake. You have an omega that's angular velocity - it's the same as Earth' angular velocity.

In order to get the apropiate speed for a part of the cable, you have to multiply that omega by the distance from the center of Earth.

You could actually model the whole stucture with a single mass in orbit - it would be in orbit, and it wouldn't be the the Earth's pull at the socket that would keep it in check.

But it's mass is not in a single point and other factors have to be taken into account too, but roughtly you could get the apropiate distance and speed of the cable if it were a single point of mass.

-Actually it's not that easy because gravity increses with the square of the distance as you get closer, so you'd need to take that into account.-

[Drew]

technically you could make a geostationary space tower out of bubblegum...
cept its base would cover half of the earth