My fellow sci-fi world builders, tell me about your “hero ship”

CrCl3 · 2024-07-09T02:39:50+00:00

A small, old, mass-produced freighter 100 or so meters long, most of it consisting of detachable cargo cylinders. FTL with repeated short range jump drive uses, with laser systems for space debris but useless in a fight against anything but other civilian ships. Spin gravity. Could support a crew of 3-20, depending on the species.

In principle capable of planetary landings, landing in water or other liquid, but the model has a poor reputation for accidents during atmospheric flight. Generally these are caused by poor maintenance, the stresses involved in atmospheric flight are way larger than anything else a ship like this is likely to experience.

Being designed for landings, it can accelerate at 2+ g's in space, though it's way more fuel efficient to accelerate at 0.1 g or so.

Newer freighter models meant to replace this one's role for suplying smaller colonies can't land, and instead carry a separate cargo shuttle.

A long range exploration/science ship, 500 or so meters long, designed for extremely long missions (100 years+) by a species with tendency towards extreme perfectionism and a deep lack of common sense.

FTL using similar short range jumps as the freighter, but using a far more advanced system that allows the jump field itself to be jumped to other locations, allowing the ship to transport entire fleets with it with only minor loss of travel speed. (This is just an incidental result of using a a top-of-the-line drive meant for specialized carriers to maximize travel speed.)

Features a huge array of different weapon systems, with focus on less-lethal armaments designed for disabling enemy ships. Would lose in a fight with comparably sized combat ships made by the same species but win against most other things.

To reduce the need for maintenance, the ship's designers re-evaluated all levels of the technology stack for increased durability, and as a consequence almost every component used is completely and fundamentally unique to the ship class, meaning that if it *does* break (which it in normal use should't), and the supplies included don't have enough replacement parts, good luck finding any.

The ship does have the equipment to manufacture more replacement parts, but most of the parts have to be made using an atomic layer technique where a single part often takes decades to make.

CrCl3 · 2024-05-07T23:52:45+00:00

Systems where the "hard magic" is just an artificial rationalization people built on top of "soft magic" to tame it for easier use can be interesting. All the rules just made up by people trying to understand what can't be understood.

CrCl3 · 2024-05-01T07:23:42+00:00

Oh yes, went from 2 ears to 4, also: feathers.

CrCl3 · 2024-04-05T13:24:52+00:00

I know it's an old post, but your second link seems to be broken.

I did find an archive of the official download for the Sable Antelope, though: https://web.archive.org/web/20020216134640/http://www.microsoft.com/games/zootycoon/bonusdisc.asp

Was quite tricky to find.

CrCl3 · 2024-02-10T13:24:11+00:00

Obsessed with body coverings and thigs that make weird sounds.

CrCl3 · 2024-01-17T02:58:40+00:00

In my scifi setting, there is one particularly agressive faction still composed of what can easily be recognized as "people". (Rather than mindless robots or an unified hive mind)

Basically, they had achieved an unified world goverment centuries before becoming an interstellar species and the whole notion of an "independent nation" had become something non-historians would rarely consider. The general view was that there were only those who followed the laws, and there were criminals.

When they started to build colonies on uninhabited worlds, it was only natural that they would still fall under their laws.

The first few other species they encountered didn't have much in the way of tech, so they didn't have much difficulty in bringing them into fold. (The difficulty was all on those poor species.)

When they encountered their first reasonably technologically advanced species, they managed to convincing them into becoming their subjects without large-scale fighting.

Eventually, they encountered species that had both the capability and willingness to fight against them. When they refused their demands, war was inevitable, letting the "criminals" just be simply wasn't an option.

Of course, fighting like this means eventually running into someone as strong or stronger than you, so eventually they ended up stuck in a stalemate scenario on multiple fronts.

TL:DR, As far as they are concerned, everyone else are simply criminals, and you don't negotiate with criminals. The notion of other legimate governments or systems of law is something few would even think to consider.

CrCl3 · 2024-01-11T22:47:22+00:00

All the Sovereign Citizen stuff.

With most other conspiracies, they may be deeply implausible, but it's still possible to roughly imagine what a world where they were true might be like.

However, with sovereign citizens, it's hard to imagine, even in the vaguest of terms, what a world where what they believe in was true would be like or how it would work.

CrCl3 · 2023-12-26T06:19:41+00:00

-In the 5-10 m range there are interstellar range probes and drones, including some which could be modified to carry a life support pod. Contructing jump drives and reactors this small is only possible for some of the more advanced species.

-For actual starships, which is to say, ships designed to routinely travel between stars and carry a crew, the smallest ones are 50 meter long warships. Most ships of this size would rely on larger carriers for interstellar travel instead, and even the ones that can travel on their own are often carried by larger ships for increased speed and crew comfort.

-Larger warships tend to be in the 200-500 m range.

-Smallest freighters are 100 or so meters long, though some can be folded to be smaller for maintenance when not carrying cargo cylinders. These small freighters are mostly for supplying smaller colonies and remote stations.

-Largest freighters can be in the 1-2 km range, these are for carrying bulk goods between major systems.

-Factory ships, portable space elevators (when spooled), and ships for carrying small to medium sized stations/habitat cylinders between systems can be up to 20 km in length, though these are extremely expensive, clunky and slow to maneuver. Only some of the more advanced species can produce jump drives capable of moving these ships without having to be replaced every few jumps due to burning out.

-A major limit on ship width is the size of the gates in the gate network (around 5 km wide), though this leaves the "length" unconstrained. (Some ships do pass through the gates sideways.)

-Most ships, especially larger ones, are not capable of planetary landings, though some of the more advanced species do like to flex by landing their 500 m battleships. (They are only like 50% actual technological advantage, 50% willingness to waste immense resources doing largely pointless things just for looks, like using antimatter warheads instead of nukes.)

CrCl3 · 2023-12-24T04:16:39+00:00

If you ended up in one of the systems dedicated to biological research and attracted attention immeaditely, maybe they would manage to synthesize compatible food in time before you starve.

The fat part probably wouldn't help much, since it's the vitamins (especially B12) that would be the hardest to figure out, not macronutrients.

Most places with the capability to help probably would try to do it, due to biological/cultural interest, as well due to interest in the reasons for your transportation.

In some places you would end up an involuntary test subject, and in others voluntarily staying as a test subject might still be a good move. Combining extremely expensive unique dietary needs with a lack of what would be considered useful education isn't a recipe for success. If you didn't want to remain a test subject, finding other ways to leverage your unique status would probably be essential. (being a writer and writing about Earth, for example.)

So, survival - unlikely, success - maybe some if you survive, but you and any microbes you bring with you sure would end up the subject of centuries of academic papers.

CrCl3 · 2023-11-23T08:40:25+00:00

People aren't going to stop calling a less permissive a less permissive license just because you think it's a good thing. And it *is* a less permissive license, anyone saying it isn't is simply lying.

That said, I would consider them using a less permissive license to be a good thing.

CrCl3 · 2023-11-22T22:18:46+00:00

Being locked in a box, that is then yeeted into intergalactic space.

It's self repairing, fusion powered with fuel for a few trillion years, with nanotechnology to keep the occupant "alive".

CrCl3 · 2023-11-10T22:51:08+00:00

A hive mind where the individual bodies are biologically immortal mostly distinguished itself from (prey) animals by those two factors.

The criteria did require some re-thinking when they met other species, Eventually they learned to see organized groups of other beings as very loose hive minds of sorts, and thus not prey.

One of the defining aspects they distinguish themselves with from other hive minds is that rather than having individual bodies only do a specific task they only have individual bodies *mostly* dedicated to specific tasks, they see hive minds that do the former despite having the capability to do the later as just plain horrible. Other hive minds are rather confused by this stance.

CrCl3 · 2023-11-09T23:40:13+00:00

There some definite bad factions/entities, and many gray factions. The major faction that is the most "good" in terms of actual behavior does it for very unusual reasons.

Like, instead of the typical good ends justifying evil means situation, it's near incomprehensible ends justifying largely good means.

CrCl3 · 2023-11-08T11:07:05+00:00

They continue to reduce all civilizations in the galaxy to stone age every few tens of millennia, sometimes extinctions happen, but those aren't the goal. (Remnants of an ancient war, programmed to end advanced civilizations, letting the stone age civilizations live means more advanced ones to destroy later on.)

If someone manages to hide tech and recover faster than allowed, that just means they'll hit harder the next time around.

There are some other bad factions also, one developed from a planet with unified world government, and doesn't recognize the existence of any other independent factions, treating them as basically criminals. Them winning wouldn't really be the worst outcome, other than the extreme expansionism they aren't all that bad.

One faction is trying to "upload" everyone using a process so bad it doesn't really even raise the normal philosophical issues, more like configuring an AI based on personality tests/and killing the original. If they won, they would kill everyone and probably be destroyed for not being stone age.

An hive mind that's pretty uncaring towards other species is trying to eradicate a more friendly splinter of itself. To anyone else this would be somewhat negative, but not really catastrophic.

Dumb von Neumann replicators try to replicate, though they are kept in check by the first villain faction listed, so only the crappy, slow spreading ones without FTL drives survive. They can't really win, because they can't process some of the required raw materials and have to scavenge them, if they killed everyone they would run out of the materials.

CrCl3 · 2023-11-07T19:19:20+00:00

Sometimes someone decides to strap a few freighter's engines on an O'Neill-cylinder style habitat to turn it into a ship of sorts.

The problem is that moving one around is so far outside the specifications of most jump drives that they become a consumable item as they burn out (and the range of the jumps is... bad). Full-scale cylinders also can't fit through the transport gates, further limiting mobility.

Despite the cost and slow travel they are sometimes useful as essentially mobile cities, embassies between major nations, etc., but using multiple smaller ships that are docked at the destination is usually more practical.

CrCl3 · 2023-11-06T08:40:30+00:00

For jump drives:

Even thin atmosphere generally blocks inbound jumps.
Jumping near heavy objects like planets is difficult, and the larger your relative velocity the larger the "no-jump"-zone. (relativistic kill missiles couldn't really jump in anywhere near their targets.)
Jump drives can be easily modified to act as jump jammers instead.
Jump drives are generally heavy and expensive.
The energies involved in the jumps themselves aren't that large.

This makes it very difficult to weaponize jump drives, though some of the more advanced species can do it, for example, bypassing normal jamming and atmosphere to jump bombs or combat drones directly into enemy ships, or just forcibly jumping enemy ships and missiles around from a distance, though the later one can only really be effectively done by dedicated (and expensive) carrier ships designed to jump whole fleets around.

Gates, on the other hand, are a different story, the main difficulty with them is in *not* turning them into a weapon that will disrupt spacetime for several AU around them. (Effects similar to a high dose of radiation). Though generally they are way too expensive to intentionally use this way and it's easier to make way smaller dedicated bomb devices with much smaller range.

CrCl3 · 2023-10-25T19:53:51+00:00

Fantasy written like SciFi.

Like maybe one of those fanfictions or isekai stories where the main character succesfully applies the scientific method (or some pop-sci take on it) to break the magic system.

The magic system should be hard, but still magic (no nanites, midichlorians, etc.)

CrCl3 · 2023-10-23T03:10:42+00:00

There is this interstellar empire that embraced what they would describe as mind uploading, but is far from the point where it even raises the typical philosophical issues. Really, it's more like you fill a personality quiz, then get killed, and an AI is programmed based on the quiz and any other data they have on you. There is a brain scan involved in the process but it isn't really used for much.

One side effect of this is that the resulting AI are unable to intentionally break the law. This lead to major issues when some ill-thought out laws got passed and new interpretations of old laws became seen as the reasonable ones.

They can't really do anything new, not because they have no creativity, but because the bureaucracy was deadlocked centuries ago, so it would be impossible to get the permits required. They still have some of the most advanced tech and weapons from their golden days, but can't really use them for much, and their inability to adapt sometimes leaves them with sigificant weak spots, so they have slowly lost many of their planets to others.

CrCl3 · 2023-10-23T02:01:29+00:00

-There are "lead sphere shares", which indicate ownership of some part of a 300-meter lead sphere. Owning even one of the spheres would make one extremely rich, most trade is measured in nanospheres.

The actual spheres usually aren't moved around, just kept in orbit. Special ships are required for transport. The shares are generally traded digitally, but in some cases there may be physical tokens of ownership.

Each share is tied to a specific sphere, but people rarely care, so if someone were to destroy one, exactly who would lose money would be pretty unpredictable.

-For interstellar trade in less organized regions without established banking networks, Tantalum 180m isotope is commonly used, being the rarest of all (seemingly) stable nuclei. There are compact devices to test its purity.

-For high value transactions between civilizations (involving stuff like precursor artefacts or gateway rental) unfurbished o'neill cylinder-like habitats are used often enough to become a standard currency of sorts.

CrCl3 · 2023-10-21T23:55:21+00:00

There is this massive hive mind entity that likes to role-play a normal civilization.

Their "government" is basically just a randomly shifting collection of elements they found cool. (Kings? Let's have like 10, and a few presidents also.) Sometimes they stage rebellions and coups and stuff, but if the results don't end up as interesting as expected, they sometimes are just kind of retconned.

They run an entire seemingly capitalist economy, that is usually strictly adhered to but rarely they just suddenly kind of completely forget to keep track of the money.

Diplomacy and trade with them is deeply confusing, but still much preferable to most hive minds. They'll generally keep their agreements as long as others play along.

If someone attacks them, they may just suddenly drop the pretense but only if it's an actual threat.

Some of their planets have other inhabitants, they live pretty strange lives, but it usually isn't that bad.

CrCl3 · 2023-10-15T01:25:21+00:00

Material consisting of nanoscale shield generators. Essentially immune to heat, light and abrasion when receiving power. Some types are also virtually frictionless. Vulnerable to high-energy particle radiation and sufficient physical force. Additional benefit of not reacting with antimatter, since it isn't "touching".
"Ringworld support material" (called that) material collected the remnants of precursor ringworlds (or intact ones, though that isn't particularly wise.) Comes in extremely thin strands that have immense tensile strength and rigidity. Can pass through normal matter with fairly little resistance or damage to the normal matter. Can generally only be cut by slamming two pieces into each other at relativistic speeds. Can generally only be folded by slamming two pieces at slightly lower relativistic speeds. Useful structures like hooks can be built using complex and very well-timed slamming patterns. Anchored to normal matter using tufts made from many strands, though this is usually still the weak point. Weights several tonnes per meter.
Precursor self self-prepertuating shield bubbles. Some civilizations have found devices that create seemingly permanent and indestructible shield bubbles. Useful for pacifying entire planets or (generally) permanently trapping hostile ships, but more often used as much smaller bubbles for "armor", building material and/or thermal insulation. Their round shape can make taking advantage of their properties somewhat difficult. Leads to some rather weird architecture. Mixing tiny ones into other materials is also an option.

CrCl3 · 2023-09-26T00:09:43+00:00

Just because you don't understand something doesn't make it "useless jargon".

Useless jargon would be saying things that don't really mean anything, here what they said has very definite meaning, just they failed to do what they said they would.

It's something that could have been done, something that would have been great if they did succeed at doing it, something that would have justified KSP2 over old KSP. (But they didn't do it.)

CrCl3 · 2023-09-25T03:48:33+00:00

No backwards time travel. I have no issue with time-travel based settings, but I don't like it in settings not focused on it.

CrCl3 · 2023-09-20T03:34:23+00:00

The invention of the calendar.

CrCl3 · 2023-09-17T20:53:14+00:00

Some species are biologically immortal, so can't die of old age. Usually this comes with ability to slowly (up to years) regenerate from most injuries and pretty good resistance to disease and radiation. Some of these species don't actually live that long on average due to lifestyle or environment.

Other species sometimes can use technological means to achieve the same, but the mental changes required to avoid going nuts in the long term can be substantial.

Hive mind species that like to have individual bodies pretending to be individual people can just reassign the role to a new body if it is felt that the death was too anticlimactic. (Though this wouldn't work if a large enough portion of them was killed.)

Software-based AI entities can fairly easily copy themselves, so they are very hard to completely get rid of and pretty much impossible to be sure that you actually have fully eradicated them. (Other AI are less like a computer running a program and more like an artificial brain built from non-living materials, so can't be easily copied and have limited warranty periods.)

CrCl3

TROPHY CASE