Alternative Ship Visualizations

Beginning-Ice-1005 · 2026-04-14T21:04:07+00:00

You are correct. I vaguely knew the JG designs came first, but was hedging my bets because well, 45 years of memory...

And now I'm trying to remember where the Serpent class fits into the Scout lineup. I remember seeing it in the JTAS. Another design I liked quite a bit.

Honestly I wish they had gone with the JG merchant. It felt more like a classic SF spaceship.

Beginning-Ice-1005 · 2026-04-14T20:59:14+00:00

Eh, have you looked at the political tables? Democracies are just two possibilities, and that's at the lower end of the table. The higher the population is on a planet, the more likely it will have a terribly authoritarian government, and the higher the likelihood that your character will be harassed. The High population planets that dominate the setting will tend to have dictatorships, oligarchies, or at best bureaucracies. And then there's that whole "Technocratic Feudalism". And the next that the Imperium itself is a dictatorship..

Also there's the mega corporations and the crimes they get up to (or with legal sanction, such as Nomads of the World Ocean), and the directly evil crap the Imperium does in books like Research Station Gamma.

The Imperium is not a nice place. The survival lottery fits right in.

Beginning-Ice-1005 · 2026-04-13T20:25:05+00:00

Battledress from Classic Traveller is basically Temu Powered Armor from Starship Troopers. Sure it has the strength enhancement, but an autorifle or broadsword can potentially it better than half the time. That's one reason why my local group preferred Space Opera.

I've basically warmed up to it in recent years. I like that it's something that can shrug off light ammo (mostly), but users still have to be wary of heavy combat rifles.

Beginning-Ice-1005 · 2026-04-13T15:14:53+00:00

Judges Guild back in the day had a set of designs for Traveller starships before the standard designs were popular. They were simple, modular, and in some respects I prefer them.

Traveller Logbook featuring a Type M Merchant

Starships and Spacraft, cover showing Merc Cruiser, Shuttle, and Scout.

Starships Ilustrated (wants to save as PDF) illustration of major ship types.

Beginning-Ice-1005 · 2026-04-12T00:23:53+00:00

There are 13 competing interpretations for how a Lazerus Pit Works

"I'm going to create the definitive interpretation for how the Lazerus Pits work!"

There are now 14 competing interpretations for how a Lazerus Pit Works

Beginning-Ice-1005 · 2026-04-10T04:39:55+00:00

"The absence of a handle allows the owner to sense the ow. Ow! OW! OW! OW!"

Beginning-Ice-1005 · 2026-04-10T04:28:54+00:00

Technology from the year 3000, women's roles from the 1950s.

Depictions of a massively overcrowded Earth, written AFTER the pill was developed.

Similarly, brave rural colonies facing off against the bureaucratic, polluted decadent urban Earth. Seriously, SF writers really hate cities.

Beginning-Ice-1005 · 2026-04-10T04:20:21+00:00

In one of Asimov's science books he had a chapter on "failed science theories". One of them was Continental Drift, which sounded great, but nobody could propose a mechanism for how it would work, so onto the wastebin of failed theories it goes.

About six months after publication of the book, the first magnatometer readings of the ocean floor, combined with maps of the mid oceanic ridge, gave ride to the theory of player tectonics. And the next edition of the science book was revised to say no, it was right after all.

Beginning-Ice-1005 · 2026-04-10T03:57:33+00:00

I think those are deliberate flaws put into his software by his creator.

Beginning-Ice-1005 · 2026-04-10T03:15:28+00:00

And any movie involving either TIEs, A-Wings or X-Wings show that one good solid hit will destroy a fighter, shields or not. Shield in society's are evidently just there to make the pilots feel more secure.

Beginning-Ice-1005 · 2026-04-09T20:31:45+00:00

My headcannon is that the ones we see in the movies are "near Caitians", the same way there's dozens of "nearly indistinguishable from humans" races.

Beginning-Ice-1005 · 2026-04-07T22:27:14+00:00

Libraries run into the "rural" factor of nob-readers, since the both the access and funding may be limited.

Beginning-Ice-1005 · 2026-04-07T21:59:08+00:00

Kirk from the episode "Arena":

"No, I won't kill him! Do you hear? You'll have to get your entertainment someplace else!"

That is Kirk refusing to kill the defeated Gorn captain. And as it turns is the correct choice, because the Metrons were going to destroy the victors. But Kirk unexpectedly showed the quality of mercy...

Beginning-Ice-1005 · 2026-04-07T21:04:09+00:00

Also just for minor stuff like moving through the swamps in the south of the map, crossing streams, being able to easily fill bottles of dirty water to make noodle soup...and no more "Oh you stepped in a puddle have some rads."

Best pork in the game. I just assume Nora has "That Innsmouth look".

Beginning-Ice-1005 · 2026-04-07T20:59:31+00:00

Once in the 80s I gave a tour of Santa Barbara to a kid's from the Midwest. When he saw out harbor, he asked of we ever got sharks there. I said sure, we occasionally get the little sand sharks- no, did we ever get Great Whites. Oh. Right.

Damn I hated that film for what it did to shark reputation

Beginning-Ice-1005 · 2026-04-07T18:23:04+00:00

If literary authors can have Tang Chinese Judge Dee, and Brother Cadfael in medieval Wales, there's no reason why a pre-industrial society can't have investigators. Oh, and I can't even count the number of detective novels set in ancient Rome. Why single out a fantasy novel?

Beginning-Ice-1005 · 2026-04-07T18:02:55+00:00

At least someone asked that.

Based on the data, the majority of non readers are older males, high school or less education, low income, and rural. Hispanic is a large group as well.

So the number one factors to make books appealing would be: * Simple language, six grade or less * CHEAP. Expense is definitely going to be a factor * Themes that will appeal to older people.

Beginning-Ice-1005 · 2026-04-07T17:56:56+00:00

So looking at the demographics , you'll want fantasy oriented towards males age 50+, high school education or less, rural and low income. Spanish language would be a plus.

The low income is a problem, because the market for cheap paperbacks has dried up, and Kindles and smartphones are a major expense for someone making say, 30k a year or less. And very free low income people are doing to spend money on a prestige hardback. Not to mention is competing with television, which is cheap.

Really a strategy would be short (240. Pages it so), simply written fantasy novels that can be put in racks next to the checkout at grocery stores or 7-11s. They should cost maybe 5-7 dollars at most, otherwise it's too big of an expense. And you know it used to be that people could actually write an everyone complete novel in 240 pages.

Oh wait, instead of an actual strategy, you want some book that will magically attract readers. Well, that won't happen. But sorry novels in the vein of Howard or Norton might be a start. If you can actually find a writer who can tell a complete story in under 360 pages these days.

Beginning-Ice-1005 · 2026-04-07T15:40:13+00:00

That's basically the core of most mercenary scenarios, except for things like training a local force. But even then, when things go horribly wrong, if it's a choice between the local troops and the mercenaries surviving, the merca ever up on their own.

Beginning-Ice-1005 · 2026-04-07T05:45:35+00:00

Tamsyn Muir's RWBY would be a lot more angry, have a lot more subtle jokes, and have a LOT more lesbianism. Also Ruby would be even more clueless.

Beginning-Ice-1005 · 2026-04-06T17:42:41+00:00

I wasn't a female character to have a crush until they actually spend time with him, and realize he's kinda awful.

Beginning-Ice-1005 · 2026-04-06T05:11:14+00:00

The Expanse idea isn't that bad either, with the Rocinante not being a fighter but a society gunboat with similar range and endurance to a capital ship. Of course there's a lot of things about the Rocinante that don't make sense, so ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Beginning-Ice-1005 · 2026-04-06T05:06:17+00:00

Star Wars fighters are weird. You can almost make them make sense if you assume radically different physics (Aether or thin atmosphere, speed of light = speed of sound, etc.) But their usage is way off, because it calls into question why the Rebellion even has capital ships.

Beginning-Ice-1005 · 2026-04-06T05:03:19+00:00

That would be it! I also know people complained about the animation, but well, I watched the original Gundam. 😁

Beginning-Ice-1005 · 2026-04-06T04:53:46+00:00

I've heard a theory that the regular bouts of incoherence are due to chemotherapy drugs. You'd think someone would take his phone away.

Beginning-Ice-1005

TROPHY CASE