Official "Discuss the latest page" thread

[Dhraakellian]

I think one of the things I liked best about Battlestar Galactica is the same reason I liked FireFly and CD--it may be sci-fi, but it's realistic. I can believe the designs and the technology as something in the near future and possible...not like the hoverboards in Back to the Future 2.

The tech level is very believable. And if we end up surpassing some of it, 700 years is probably far enough into the future to claim a short dark age or technological decline at some point.

I won't say that all the designs are the most easily plausible (Froggy's "toroidal death zone" comment regarding engine placement comes to mind), But even with that, the models are well done, and the story and other shinies definitely make up for the slight implausibility.

(and one can also posit that there are thrusters and some sort of mass-reducing element to the stabilizers that compensates for the imbalance (cf. ST:DS9 s01e01 where maneuvering thrusters were be used for rapid propulsion with the help of a subspace field that reduced the station's effective mass). Hey, I didn't say that it totally destroyed plausibility, just that it made plausibility a wee bit harder.)

On a separate topic, David, thanks for the fillers. Quick and easy stuff like this seems a good balance between taking the needed time for other things and keeping people interested. (Note that I have no idea how much time it takes to dredge up the old stuff and annotate it, but I'm guessing that it's far, far less than an actual story page.)

[altasilvapuer]

I'm actually rather surprised to not see comments on the filler, like we normally do. Busy month, I guess?

I love some of the early ship designs that keep popping up in these screens. I recognize one of the freighters that appears to have transitioned mostly intact, too. Is the big orange squishy thing attached to the one ship an alien creature of some sort, or is that just a very different style of hull design?

-asp

[\m/_ (>_<) _\m/]

Re: The New page


How long id CD going to be? Do you have any plans to incorperate that "Sydney to the Caves of Mars" story in to it?

It sounds like it would be a neat idea!

[altasilvapuer]

You know, that "Sydney to the Caves of Mars" story, as \m/_(>_<)_\m/ put it (maybe we should just call you face-man, or somesuch? ), would make a good subject for another banner in the Prospero's 'lobby', when you return to the story, if we see any others. Or even better, you could have a little interlude of some kind down the road where we get to see it as if it's a movie/play/etc that the characters are watching. Could be quite cool.

-asp

[Lokekar Kra]

Busy month combined with nothing to speculate on for me.
It does show very nicely how CD has evolved and what talent the author really has.

[see317]

You know, that "Sydney to the Caves of Mars" story, as \m/_(>_<)_\m/ put it (maybe we should just call you face-man, or somesuch? ), would make a good subject for another banner in the Prospero's 'lobby', when you return to the story, if we see any others. Or even better, you could have a little interlude of some kind down the road where we get to see it as if it's a movie/play/etc that the characters are watching. Could be quite cool.

-asp

I read the name as "F***in' Metal!".

Also @ David, if you still have a draft of your novel laying around (which, judging by your e-pack rat tendencies that you've displayed, you do) could you post some excerpts? Even if they where just on the board that'd be cool. It's fun to read works in progress. Or at least it is for me, but then I have it on good authority that I'm not exactly normal.

[Lokekar Kra]

Now those could be another great graphic novel!

My brother is liking Warhammer, helped him kick the WoW habit. I took over a painting business and I can very much relate to having very little breathing time left during the week!

On the whole the page and comments made me laugh, so I like the hiatus filler for the hiatus filler! :)

[otakuryoga]

aww ---- you cant just say you got into warhammer online w/o some details....what class you liking?

me..i have a black orc a squigger and an engineer

[Lokekar Kra]

I like maps! Makes me think of MOO and MOO2. *whistles as he heads off to dust off the old CDs and conquer the galaxy again!*

[sherinik]

Stuff like this map reminds me of the incredible amount of background that has to go BEFORE the story even starts. Even if you're dealing with only one culture or even only one family, there are always subgroups and competing tensions that need history and background and detail. Then you go to the other extreme - interstellar conflicts! Hundreds of worlds, with geographic differences that give rise to cultural and even evolutionary differences and that's only a start. Sure, you can cheat to some extent and use templates or even wholesale plagiarism, but then one of your characters needs a reason to do something that doesn't quite fit the template you're using, so you have to embellish, and then carry that through consistently, and then another character has to react, which changes something else...anyone who writes scifi or fantasy has it even worse because they have to invent whole cloth of anomolous geography. technical systems, social systems and try to work out how that would evolve into an economic and political system...aaaahhh! It's doing my head in even thinking about it.

Whenever I read something new that's well fleshed out with this sort of detail, I spend days thinking about it, how it all comes together - or doesn't. I have to admit I find the Serenity/Firefly juxtaposition of high tech and poverty level rural tech more believable than others where everyone benefits from a high tech lifestyle, even the plebs.

Keep up with the background detail snippets, David!