Seems pretty active to me, what with the awesome work I see going on here. But then again, I'm not close to catching up on the amount of material posted here (I once tried to. I think I get to like page 15 of WIPs). Still, I regret taking a nap today, instead of sketching, but oh well. I suppose I'll have plenty of time to come up with stuff anyways.
Once people like Madkoifish start to leave, THEN that is the time to start panicking!
MadKoiFish is remarkably good, but he has left before. If I remember right, it was because some Star Trek fanboys got way, way too fanboyish.
There used to be a lot more going on around here. It was interesting. More characters. More egos. More input from the Mods (partly because of the egos). There was more of a community.
I think TV-wise, Science Fiction is more vital than it has ever been, it's just mostly behind pay walls. SyFy (dumb name) actually has some good SF shows, mini-series and movies.
Unfortunately, most of the theater movies are still less than great, or even good, and a lot of the books I've read lately - well I haven't finished them.
I think "big" sci-fi, giant spaceships, alien creatures, big wars... has been on the decline. I blame costs, first and foremost. HD means you gotta do more work for a more discerning audience, and the standard is now GOT which is out of reach for a lot of series studios. Plus now that we have Star Trek AND Star Wars back on the big screen, that sort of corners the market. It's less likely for the "next" Star Wars or Star Trek to have a space when we have another Star Wars or Star Trek perpetually on the horizon.
I think our imagination, and our hope, has also taken a hit. I dig The Expanse and I love me some Dark Matter (my love for Five and Android knows no bounds), but those are bleak shows. And there's no aliens, no new worlds, no new things to discover. The more we've explored our own universe in reality, the more contracted our SF universes seem to be.
On top of that, the future is scary now. We used to wonder what marvels the computer age could bring us, now we know: cyberterrorism, loss of privacy, wars waged in cyberspace, sexting, blackmail, ransomware, drone strikes, a lock and key on all your entertainment, planned obsolescence... and for every big step forward we take, we take a monumental one back. The future brings progress and reactionary regression in equal measure. Is it any wonder we're cautious about taking that next step, about anticipating what will happen when we do? Why go forward when we can stay right here, connected to the fantasies of the past... even if they don't fit quite right now.
The big SF is the easy stuff - ships and explosions. Like superheroes and explosions, or action heros and explosions, monsters and explosions, or car chases and explosions. So that's what they've been doing - minus as much depth as they can manage to remove.
Because of that, there has never been a really good SF movie. I mean a really good, Casablanca level SF movie. They're always "good for what it is."
The future's always been scary, and the world has always been about to end. That's nothing new.
Tag: 0000 022137-001044
Type: fast courier
Status: active, on standby
Location: Cinco Solitario courier base
(Orion 001.11-30178.21)
Culture: Fourth Stage Ioka
Est. Age 160,000 years
Size: 675 m
Nickname: Ombrageaient
The name started out with 'umbrella' or 'brolly' or something like that, then went through Thesaurus.com and Google translate a few times and ended up at 'Ombrageaient'.
I've used the drive idea at least once before. link
Sorry I'm late to the conversation, but part of the problems are out of this country's control. But other parts (such as planned obsolescence) can be prevented, but then, that is what happens when you don't have any serious political conversations going on, when they are avoided by the people who are supposed to represent us. Corporations do whatever gets them the most profit, and the little guy gets stepped up.
There are multiple issues concerning issues like this that will need to be addressed, or things will continue to get worse. There is climate change, pollution, the fact that we aren't a democracy, but an oligarchy, and said oligarchs probably want us to accept the idea that our future is bleak, so they can focus on what really matters with minimal resistance from us: the bottom line.
I also think that if we survive to get out there, we will find that many of the conspiracy theories of aliens and UFOs had a basis in fact. That is assuming greedy politicians and their even dumber supporters don't end up dooming all of us but probably the wealthy elite and their chosen few.
This will all happen by the end of this century, which will either be exciting or Hell.
Related note to the thread: wait, is this a sleeper ship, or does she have FTL capabilities? Seems rather fragile and primitive to me.
When I was a kid, it used to be "I hope I live to see that." Now, all too often it's "I'm so glad I won't live to see that." That's pretty sad.
Referring back to movies: Arrival is actually a good science fiction movie. I saw it over the weekend.
JES: The ship is moderately advanced. Oh, say a 3.5 out of 10 - with 1 being basic FTL. The small umbrella generates the drive field, and the larger one shapes/deflects/focuses the field to move the ship. It's a fast courier ship. Not much more than a drive, a few cargo modules and a habitat.
Added some windows, a "interface" module between the drive and cargo modules, a couple of shuttles/life rafts... and the perspective is starting to get a little weird.
You know, there are paid professionals, whose designs look like they all came stamped out of the same starship mill, and then there is all of this, this abundance of uniqueness.
OK I love this model. Wonderful design, nice texture, good render. It looks intricate without being over greebled. Also it could be a human designed vessel or an alien one. Believable either way. I was wondering what the drive would look like in operation. Does it work as a STL and FTL drive? Low level spatial distortion propels the ship in normal space, higher level creates a "warp drive"?
You ought to be doing this professionally, your designs are so original.
You know, there are paid professionals, whose designs look like they all came stamped out of the same starship mill, and then there is all of this, this abundance of uniqueness.
Indeed, you can lock down who did a design sometimes just by looking at the flow and certain elements. Yet, all of rojren's designs are different. Are some similar? Sure. But, each is unique in its own way and many follow completely different design styles than others. That's one reason I've been following this thread so long. You never know what he's going to design next.
Thanks, guys. I really appreciate the comments. I'm glad my stuff is thought of as original.
The drive... I'm kinda back-and-forth on that. It's a sublight/translight drive. The small umbrella is the emitter, and the large umbrella is the containment/focus field generator (A.). Does the 'reaction' get used as thrust (B.) or does the does the whole set of fields fold back on itself (C. *) for both sublight/translight propulsion? Anyway, I figured the look would be a sort of hazy purplish/gold that you can see better out of the corner of your eye, than head-on, that gives you a headache when you look at it for very long. An angry soap bubble.
I use AutoCAD, Judge Death. AutoCAD has some impressive built-in tools for rendering, but I'll be damned if I can find tutorials that actually tell how to get the results shown in the examples. I end up using the basic 'visual styles' settings and then use Paint Shop Pro to adjust the image a little.
* There's a pun there, somewhere. Not a good one, but a pun.
OK if you'd like a drive idea that setup of your looks like it could be a "bubble drive" rig. It might create a bubble of outward curved space that was the opposite of gravity in that it bulged outward instead of curving inward. An object near it would essentially move along the curvature of space away from the center in the exact opposite of gravity. (Call it "levity" if you must.)
It would be sublight only but can accelerate at any number of G's and has a neat side effect. If the field extends beyond the ship it could serge to push dust, gas and other particles out of the ship's path. The segmented things could be related to steering.
It's very seldom that I get too in depth about the tech behind the ships. I mostly go for a shape I haven't seen before (or at least too often before) and then add bolognium (or as I call it "quantum snot").
Next:
Tag: 0000 081537-002200
Type: city ship
Status: abandoned
Location: interstellar space, 27 ly from Alpha Magnanamous
(Orion 001.40-21178.09)
Culture: Soe
Est. Age 18 million years
Size: 19.78 km
Nickname: Vimana
Posts
Once people like Madkoifish start to leave, THEN that is the time to start panicking!
There used to be a lot more going on around here. It was interesting. More characters. More egos. More input from the Mods (partly because of the egos). There was more of a community.
I will now continue with "The Onion Belt" story.
I don't pop into the thread often enough, but I know it's always going to be good. I think we are all so terribly busy.
Unfortunately, most of the theater movies are still less than great, or even good, and a lot of the books I've read lately - well I haven't finished them.
I think our imagination, and our hope, has also taken a hit. I dig The Expanse and I love me some Dark Matter (my love for Five and Android knows no bounds), but those are bleak shows. And there's no aliens, no new worlds, no new things to discover. The more we've explored our own universe in reality, the more contracted our SF universes seem to be.
On top of that, the future is scary now. We used to wonder what marvels the computer age could bring us, now we know: cyberterrorism, loss of privacy, wars waged in cyberspace, sexting, blackmail, ransomware, drone strikes, a lock and key on all your entertainment, planned obsolescence... and for every big step forward we take, we take a monumental one back. The future brings progress and reactionary regression in equal measure. Is it any wonder we're cautious about taking that next step, about anticipating what will happen when we do? Why go forward when we can stay right here, connected to the fantasies of the past... even if they don't fit quite right now.
Because of that, there has never been a really good SF movie. I mean a really good, Casablanca level SF movie. They're always "good for what it is."
The future's always been scary, and the world has always been about to end. That's nothing new.
Type: fast courier
Status: active, on standby
Location: Cinco Solitario courier base
(Orion 001.11-30178.21)
Culture: Fourth Stage Ioka
Est. Age 160,000 years
Size: 675 m
Nickname: Ombrageaient
Started on the drive.
I've used the drive idea at least once before. link
There are multiple issues concerning issues like this that will need to be addressed, or things will continue to get worse. There is climate change, pollution, the fact that we aren't a democracy, but an oligarchy, and said oligarchs probably want us to accept the idea that our future is bleak, so they can focus on what really matters with minimal resistance from us: the bottom line.
I also think that if we survive to get out there, we will find that many of the conspiracy theories of aliens and UFOs had a basis in fact. That is assuming greedy politicians and their even dumber supporters don't end up dooming all of us but probably the wealthy elite and their chosen few.
This will all happen by the end of this century, which will either be exciting or Hell.
Related note to the thread: wait, is this a sleeper ship, or does she have FTL capabilities? Seems rather fragile and primitive to me.
Referring back to movies: Arrival is actually a good science fiction movie. I saw it over the weekend.
JES: The ship is moderately advanced. Oh, say a 3.5 out of 10 - with 1 being basic FTL. The small umbrella generates the drive field, and the larger one shapes/deflects/focuses the field to move the ship. It's a fast courier ship. Not much more than a drive, a few cargo modules and a habitat.
You ought to be doing this professionally, your designs are so original.
BTW what was this made in?
Indeed, you can lock down who did a design sometimes just by looking at the flow and certain elements. Yet, all of rojren's designs are different. Are some similar? Sure. But, each is unique in its own way and many follow completely different design styles than others. That's one reason I've been following this thread so long. You never know what he's going to design next.
The drive... I'm kinda back-and-forth on that. It's a sublight/translight drive. The small umbrella is the emitter, and the large umbrella is the containment/focus field generator (A.). Does the 'reaction' get used as thrust (B.) or does the does the whole set of fields fold back on itself (C. *) for both sublight/translight propulsion? Anyway, I figured the look would be a sort of hazy purplish/gold that you can see better out of the corner of your eye, than head-on, that gives you a headache when you look at it for very long. An angry soap bubble.
I use AutoCAD, Judge Death. AutoCAD has some impressive built-in tools for rendering, but I'll be damned if I can find tutorials that actually tell how to get the results shown in the examples. I end up using the basic 'visual styles' settings and then use Paint Shop Pro to adjust the image a little.
* There's a pun there, somewhere. Not a good one, but a pun.
It would be sublight only but can accelerate at any number of G's and has a neat side effect. If the field extends beyond the ship it could serge to push dust, gas and other particles out of the ship's path. The segmented things could be related to steering.
Next:
Tag: 0000 081537-002200
Type: city ship
Status: abandoned
Location: interstellar space, 27 ly from Alpha Magnanamous
(Orion 001.40-21178.09)
Culture: Soe
Est. Age 18 million years
Size: 19.78 km
Nickname: Vimana