[CP5670]

Some proof here...

doesn't say anything about focused photon beams...

[Thorn]

It says energy based..
That could mean anything, it gives ion cannons and energy cannons as examples

[KillMeNow]

energy weapons would be anything that uses energy not of the kinetic kind so yesh focuses photon beams (which are lasers) and a photon is in layman terms a energy particle - so ion beams well ions would do tiny damage since the ions do have  small mass argh anyway the snawers would be to use a railgun or just drive into it

[KillMeNow]

have you read all teh culture novels

i have read consider phelbas (argh spelling)
excession
state of the art
and started look to indward but i heard that its only distantly related to the culture

[mikhael]

HA! Fools! After the Xeelee are done mucking about with their own evolutionary history to ensure their ability to escape the heat death of the universe, the Photino birds will simply wipe out all baryonic matter, including Shivans, the Galactic Empire, all the sentient races in Homeworld, etc.

I mean, if we're going to compare science fiction threats, it doesn't get much better than races of beings who consider stars nice places to hang out and think nothing of hurling neutron stars as the way we might toss an asteroid, or construct javelins of cosmic string more than a thousand lightyears long.

Thank you Stephen Baxter.

[KillMeNow]

dont make bring up the Q

[Thorn]

hahaha..
*snaps fingers*
Oh, whoops, you no longer exist!

[Mr. Vega]

We have got to have a battle in FS between FS and the GE to see just how much stronger the GTVA is. I mean really, judging from ship size (ISDs are 1600m, an Orion is 2100m), it would take about 10 helios to blow an ISD, even when you overrate the shields, as opposed to the 50+ proton torps it would take.

Deathstars on the other hand, would be a problem. Solution: sabotage! (put a Mbomb next to the reactor).

FS fighters can take way more damage than they should be able to.

HW: HCs are Juggernault-sized, and I can't help but notice that scouts are cruiser-sized when compared to the Mothership (it's 25k, it think.)

[Shrike]

Originally posted by KillMeNow
have you read all teh culture novels

i have read consider phelbas (argh spelling)
excession
state of the art
and started look to indward but i heard that its only distantly related to the culture

Yes, I've read them all.  And CP is very related to the Culture..... it mostly happens on an O.  

And the Culture versus the Photino Birds would be interesting, to say the least.........  The Xeelee have a massive empire, but in one on one, are the Culture's *****es - going by what I've seen so far. (Vaccum Diagrams - the other two Xeeleeverse books I've read were Flux and Raft (?) which had little to do with the Xeelee)

[mikhael]

Originally posted by Shrike
Yes, I've read them all.  And CP is very related to the Culture..... it mostly happens on an O.  

And the Culture versus the Photino Birds would be interesting, to say the least.........  The Xeelee have a massive empire, but in one on one, are the Culture's *****es - going by what I've seen so far. (Vaccum Diagrams - the other two Xeeleeverse books I've read were Flux and Raft (?) which had little to do with the Xeelee)

Ring is the last Xeelee novel, chronologicly. The list, as of its writing is:
"The Sun Person"
"The Logic Pool"
Timelike Infinity
"Cilia of Gold"
"Lieserl"
"Chiron"
"The Xeelee Flower"
"More Than Time or Distance"
"Blue Shift"
""The Quagma Datum"
"Planck Zero"
"Vacuum Diagrams"
"The Godel Sunflowers"
"The Tyranny of HEaven"
"Hero"
Flux
Raft
Ring
(quoted titles are short stories, bolded are novels)
Raft takes place in an alternate hi-gravity universe, and is referenced in one chapter of Ring. Flux describes the neutron star colonization experiment mentioned in Ring a few chapters later.

I don't know how Joe Xeelee stacks up against an average guy from the Culture, but I do know I wouldn't bet against the Xeelee. Remember, they built a navel for the universe. They gave up on matter as a building material and started pulling spacetime and higher, rolled-up dimensions about themselves to build fighter craft. They're kind of buff.

Now, I've heard about the Culture books. Can you tell me more about them, because I've never even seen one.

Flux
The Timeships
Raft

[KillMeNow]

i got the impression from consider phelbas that the culture knew how to accend (abit like teh  guys who protect  the planets of the dead)  and leave  there bodies behind but most choose not too

[Setekh]

Ohhh boy, it's too late for me... talking about these super-fantastic races which remind me of technomages requires thinking. Sorry.

[Shrike]

Originally posted by mikhael
Now, I've heard about the Culture books. Can you tell me more about them, because I've never even seen one.

You want the long or the short?

The reason I'm saying the Culture could kick the Xeelee's ass, given equal resources, is evident in Excession.

An 11 microsecond starship battle, with several casualties (ie, shps destroyed), spread over 50 ly of hyperspace.

The Culture uses such fun toys as CAMs (collapsed antimatter), nanoholes, effectors and the ever-popular GRIDFIRE!



Joe Q. Culture Average has nothing to do with fighting..... that's for the machines, cause they do it so much better.

[KillMeNow]

yup in the culture all us humans have to worry about is enjoying ourselves - and al sort of amuzing and amazing things are capable with just afew thoughts hehhehehe =)

the culture rules - just curious but with regard to teh accending to a higher exsistance was it only the humans that could do it or could machine intelligences do it too and if they did would us humans then be as smart as the machines?

[KillMeNow]

oh and i just figured out what you ment by Cp being related to the culture yeah i know that it was -  it was the new book "Look to Windward" i wasn't sure how related it was to the culture i only jsut started it

[Shrike]

Originally posted by KillMeNow
the culture rules - just curious but with regard to teh accending to a higher exsistance was it only the humans that could do it or could machine intelligences do it too and if they did would us humans then be as smart as the machines?

You mean Subliming?  Anyone can do it, but there's very little info on it.

[KillMeNow]

i feel inspired to read consider phlebas again:nod:

[mikhael]

Originally posted by Shrike
You want the long or the short?

The reason I'm saying the Culture could kick the Xeelee's ass, given equal resources, is evident in Excession.

An 11 microsecond starship battle, with several casualties (ie, shps destroyed), spread over 50 ly of hyperspace.

The Culture uses such fun toys as CAMs (collapsed antimatter), nanoholes, effectors and the ever-popular GRIDFIRE!



Joe Q. Culture Average has nothing to do with fighting..... that's for the machines, cause they do it so much better.

Out of curiosity, did the Culture ever travel through time or create their own universes? And really, how much of a battle can you have when one side just pulls the universe out from between themselves and the other side? Remember what the Xeelee darkships are 'made' out of.

Also, what's 'gridfire'?  And who is this all by. I might need to read this stuff.

[KillMeNow]

Iain M Banks wrote them and they do travel ourside the universe i believe beena  while since i read it but there method for traveling faster than light is to drop in and out of the universe grid fire is accessing the grid they use for faster than light travel or something adn its like  tearing space space to rip up anything thats in its path

[Shrike]

Well, considering that Culture ships routinely blast targets in real space from hyperspace (or vice-versa) I think they could handle Xeelee ships.  Plus they have Lineguns if all else fails, which are gravity guns like Starbreakers.

Gridfire is the 'energy of the end of the universe'.  Basically, think of opening a hole allowing the (effectively infinite) energy between universes (the Energy Grid) to spray out into real space.  Kind of like using a firehose on a sandcastle, assuming that the firehose is actually a gridfire incursion and the sandcastle is a target, like say....... a planet.

And they're by Ian M. Banks.  If you're in NA, they might be hard to find.  But I recommend them, they're cool books.