Official "Discuss the latest page" thread

[Photon440]

I really liked the "journal" sections. it revealed a lot of the characters and their thoughts and feelings in a short space. Love the art throughout the comic. Wonderful stuff David. Please keep it up and thank you.

I concur!!

[SCAScot]

The unreality of jump technology and artificial gravity aside, the rest of the tech in CD is quite believable, having at least an intuitive origin point in current (real-life) technology.

Which brings me to "shield" technology. Unless our understanding of physics has changed radically in the future of CD (and it just may have; see the aforementioned jump tech and artificial gravity), a sci-fi "force field" as seen in Star Trek as a planar (doorway/opening) or spherical (vehicle) barrier is simply not possible. That being said, there are other methods of defense against directed energy weapons, such as prismatic aerosols to disperse photonic (visible or near-visible light laser) weapons, and ablative/reactive armor to defend against things like particle beams. Projectile defense can be as simple as kinetic energy absorption (think Kevlar vest), while missile defense can take the form of chaff, flares or counter-fire (simple steel or depleted-uranium scattershot traveling at an appreciable speed can shred an inbound missile, and directed radiation pulses like x-ray, microwave or EMP can fry a navigation system or proximity-detonation mechanism, not to mention using turreted offensive directed-energy weapons in a defensive mode).

The point is, given the technical problems of development, and the presence of low-tech (simpler is better) solutions, "shields" as we know them in Star Trek/Wars may not have evolved or even been necessary.

My two cents, YMMV.

[skythorn]

bits of the combat and confusion with the universe reminds me a bit of Vattas War by Elisabeth Moon, and a bit like Enders Game (with the limited ship movements by time) as well as a bit like a browser based game I play called 'Space: Glory Through Conquest" only I dont recommend anyone playing that game cos you loose months of your life if you get hooked (circa 2006 anyone - I don't recall much about that year to be honest ... )

[Lokekar Kra]

Now I am disturbed by the above post as I actually know all of what he was referring to. (Vattass War was good, but perhaps a bit quick, Space last I knew [ca. 2003] was a micromanagers game that I somehow managed to quit, but Turians FTW *wink*) One of my bigger grips about shields has been how normally they are single direction blockers. ie can fire out from behind them in most sci-fi, though the afore mentioned Vattass War did not allow that. Perhaps shields were developed in this universe but like in the Dune universe it was found that a certain easily built weapon type would have dire results. We should remember though that they do not use generic ballistics in this universe. At least I remember somewhere reading that slug rounds were band after taking out civilian ships after then end of a war since they do not lose lethality with distance in space, which is another thing in common with Vatta's War, not the banning, but the effect of "danger zones" of debris from the battles.

[connectr]

Thank you for the updates. What kind of cage does Whisper use? Hmmm

[see317]

Thank you for the updates. What kind of cage does Whisper use? Hmmm

Well, seeing as how she's talking to a program, I would imagine an amped up firewall. Although, since nasty little viruses (particularly in sci-fi) have a way of sneaking past them, the best option would be a completely seperate computer with all network capability physically removed.

One hopes that Whisper isn't egotistical enough to store it in her augmentation computers. Because the thing has already subverted the ship systems multiple times. If it had a body, particularly a trusted body...

[Dhraakellian]

Thank you for the updates. What kind of cage does Whisper use? Hmmm

Well, seeing as how she's talking to a program, I would imagine an amped up firewall. Although, since nasty little viruses (particularly in sci-fi) have a way of sneaking past them, the best option would be a completely seperate computer with all network capability physically removed.

I'd think it'd be a sandbox or VM if it's hosted on Niobe's mainframe. However, as you said, separate hardware with no networking (and a hefty firewall on whatever computer/augs are used to connect to or analyze it) would probably make more sense. Can't risk letting those Cylons^W ghost viruses in!

[simon.buchan]

BGII!

That is all.

[Discordia]

A shiny bonus page Captain!

I like it.

[Seawied]

Man, your monitor, keyboard, and speakers are very similar models to mine. What kind of rig do you got running?