The Hard Sci-fi thread

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

I loved Babylon5, despite it's flaws - i thought it was a very well told SF story with some great aliens (Vorlons, Shadows), characters and a mostly great story arc with good payoffs. I am admitedlly not too familiar with his more recent work though - but this could be potentially the best thing since quantum sliced bread.

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

Arthur C Clarke's Childhood's end has been turned into a mini-series now :
[url]http://www.syfy.com/childhoodsend[/url]

not seen it yet but hopefully it is good...

[CoffeeGrunt]

It's SyFy, so...maybe?

On the note of general hard sci-fi, it seems like the toughest genre to write. I mean, you can research a tonne and try and work stuff out like say, Andy Weir did for The Martian, and then another expert will wander along and go, "well yeah, you could reduce Hydrazine into hydrogen and nitrogen in that way, that works, and it would burn to make water, that's fine, but you miscalculated the heat generated in the deliberately-insulated Hab, so Watney would've steadily cooked himself alive."

Don't get me wrong, the more a sci-fi setting makes things work in a somewhat believable manner, the better IMO. I just pity the ones who try their best to make it so, it's a tough task.

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

Maybe is right, i really liekd The Expanse minus the sound in space gaffs as iv always wanted to see something set in the Kuiper belt, and they did a good job on it.

I think it's only difficult if you aren't a physicist or scientist or some kind with the knowledge. You know, like me.

[CoffeeGrunt]

I've been slowly concepting a sci-fi setting. Fairly standard, but I want to try and make it believable, with as few concessions as possible. (For example, there are hyperspace FTL drives, but I'm going to set down the rules before I use it, so it doesn't just become a convenient plot device.) I've spent a lot of time looking into ideas on how space combat could work, how the logistics would operate, the technical and tactical edges that a species could exploit, etc, as well as divergent design philosophies.

Different species styles is another one I'm interested in. How they evolved, how that evolution influences their society, their cultural flaws. Rather than just, "the warrior race," I wanted to have the species react in a conceivable-yet-alien way.

I tell ya, building a world is tough. Building a galaxy is damn-hard, haha. :P

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

just make the aliens look alien and I won't have to kill you Legs and arms only make sense if the planet is like earth and even then it's unlikely really. Personally I'd avoid deep space combat as it really doesn't make any sense. Space combat is only really feasable if it is fighting over an objective like a space station, planet ect, best to avoid "mono worlds" (eg the desert world, the ice world), aliens based on earth animals (fish alien humanoids, reptile men, bird people ect - best left in fantasy imo) - also alien civilizations should have efffort made to make them as diverse as any human culture. Really f**ks me off when they only seem to have one singular culture all the time.

[CoffeeGrunt]

I'll try my best. :P

The spatial warfare would be concentrated around planetary bodies, though I liked the idea of the speed of light being an important factor. For example, a planet has a fleet in defensive position around it. A ship slips into the system a couple of light-hours away, and using high-power imaging equipment, scans and catalogues the positions and capabilities of each ship. The ship that slips in would have two hours before the image of its entry even reached the defense fleet, but the defense fleet that has been waiting in orbit for say, a few days would be visible up to a few light-days away, though the closer you get, the more up-to-date the image is. So the stealth ship could slip in, catalogue everything, slip out and transmit the information to a fleet that jumps in to attack the most vulnerable areas before the image of the stealth ship ever reaches them. (Humanity makes extensive use of quantum entangled communication to make this possible. Instantaneous communication allows them to exploit relativity in a way most other species haven't thought of or cultivated yet.)

I also have a few ideas for species, but nothing full yet. For example, one species would carry their young and give live birth. Uniquely, the mother has a neural connection to her child, as well as the usual connections in such a species. This is advantageous in that a child is born with a subconscious understanding of things beyond the womb, meaning they can adapt to life quicker, as well as gaining subconscious knowledge of threats, safe food and shelter, etc.

However, it also means that the society evolves along a very dynastic route, and families are even more prone to tradition. Females are valued because the more experience they have, the more they can impart to their young to continue the line, whereas the males are less so. The cultural would reinforce the biological, with a sense of the family and bloodline almost overtaking the sense of self.

It's an interesting structure that offers divergent subcultures, (IMO.) There may be a subset that tries to blend dynasties to gain more rounded children, whereas others are strictly purist. Some may have males as mostly worthless in societies, whereas others have the father take care and raise the child beyond the womb, to blend the experiences of the two for the overall benefit of the child.

There would be some children that simply didn't 'take' to the bond. Perhaps they just didn't make the necessary bond, perhaps their sense of self is stronger than the sense of dynasty. Remember, the mother would have vague memories drawn from her mother, and the line could continue through the ages, with scattered, sparse memories from long ago. Spiritually, it would be considered a method of immortality, much more so than humans revere bloodlines and ancestry. A child that interrupts this continuity would be a tragedy, the bloodline severed. It would create an interesting character to utilise, (I think.)

Tbh, most of what I've written is just concepts for things I think might be interesting. Weaving it all into a coherent narrative would be the tough part.

[Psychosplodge]

I'll try my best. :P

The spatial warfare would be concentrated around planetary bodies, though I liked the idea of the speed of light being an important factor. For example, a planet has a fleet in defensive position around it. A ship slips into the system a couple of light-hours away, and using high-power imaging equipment, scans and catalogues the positions and capabilities of each ship. The ship that slips in would have two hours before the image of its entry even reached the defense fleet, but the defense fleet that has been waiting in orbit for say, a few days would be visible up to a few light-days away, though the closer you get, the more up-to-date the image is. So the stealth ship could slip in, catalogue everything, slip out and transmit the information to a fleet that jumps in to attack the most vulnerable areas before the image of the stealth ship ever reaches them. (Humanity makes extensive use of quantum entangled communication to make this possible. Instantaneous communication allows them to exploit relativity in a way most other species haven't thought of or cultivated yet.).

Start [URL="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Lost-Fleet-Dauntless-Book/dp/0857681303"]here[/URL]

[Morgrim]

I've been slowly concepting a sci-fi setting. Fairly standard, but I want to try and make it believable, with as few concessions as possible. (For example, there are hyperspace FTL drives, but I'm going to set down the rules before I use it, so it doesn't just become a convenient plot device.) I've spent a lot of time looking into ideas on how space combat could work, how the logistics would operate, the technical and tactical edges that a species could exploit, etc, as well as divergent design philosophies.

Different species styles is another one I'm interested in. How they evolved, how that evolution influences their society, their cultural flaws. Rather than just, "the warrior race," I wanted to have the species react in a conceivable-yet-alien way.

I tell ya, building a world is tough. Building a galaxy is damn-hard, haha. :P

If you're not already familiar with it, take a browse through [url=http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/]the Atomic Rockets[/url] website. It started as a few notes put up by someone in the industry that wanted more hard scifi novels, and it's become a one stop reference site for almost anything one needs to create hard scifi works. Want to know how big a planet needs to be to retain certain gases in its atmosphere? It has that. Need any rocketry equation? There, with automatic calculators for the major ones. Want tips on writing alien trade languages? Got it.

I LOVE this site, it's brilliant.

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

Damn, that site is AWESOME morgrim, have bookmarked it for myself. Excellent stuff!!