Kerbae ad Astra Worldbuilding

[superstrijder15]

3 minutes ago, KAL 9000 said:

The Higgs boson gives all massive (particles that have mass) particles their mass (basically). MacGuffinite does describe it! For that matter, so does Unobtainium! But whatever. How about "Neutronium"? Yes, I know it's neutron star material, but bear with me here. Explanation: Sommetimes, when a neutron star collides with another star, Neutronium will be blown off and ejected into space. It's incredibly high density allows it to [TECHNOBABBLE], meaning it's essential for FTL drives.

Though obviously it's really heavy and can a cubic decimeter can already pull dust around it in. Thus it's pretty hard to harvest as you need to take of all cosmic dust which clings to it like iron to a magnet, and not get your station pulled apart in the process. For this you will need expensive [STUFF] which can't be manufactures locally for [REASONS]. Trade is now officially a thing.

Even better: you need to send out expeditions to far of places to find locations where the stuff can be found. Long perilous journey with a small crew, accidents just waiting to happen, sounds like a great place to live. 

Well, actually not, but it's great for authors.

[KSK]

15 hours ago, superstrijder15 said:

@KSK, I love that you liked every post in this topic, but please DO NOT expect me to actually write stuff. I turn out to be horrible at making story arcs, unable to write chronologically, incapable of continuing to write when I can't get feedback and lacking time. Note how items 2 and 3 together make it pretty much impossible to write a longer story if you want to show it to people chronologically.

Wouldn't expect anyone to write anything, although if they do I'm usually happy to read it.  

I just liked the positive, creative vibe from this thread so I thought, what the heck - likes for everyone!

[KAL 9000]

Advanced Tech Tree for FTL drives :

M-Theory: 10,000 Science! Required nodes: General Relativity and Quantum Physics. Unlocks nodes: Exotic Matter Production, Dimensional Theory.

Exotic Matter Theory: 20,000 Science! Required nodes: M-Theory. Unlocks nodes: Frameshift Theory, Wormhole Theory 

Dimensional Theory: 20,000 Science! Required,nodes: M-Theory. Unlocks nodes: Polyspatial Theory, Hyperspatial Theory 

Frameshift Theory: 25,000 Science! Unlocks FTL Type: Frameshift drive.

Wormhole Theory: 25,000 Science! Unlocks FTL Type: Wormhole. 

Polyspatial Theory: 25,000 Science! Unlocks FTL Type: Polyspatial drive. 

Hyperspatial Theory: 25,000 Science! Unlocks FTL Type: Hyperdrive. 

---

Frameshift drive special stuff: No station required at either end. Produces "gamma flash" upon dropping out of FTL. 

Wormhole special stuff: Wormhole Endpoint Space Station on either end to keep wormhole open (if no other FTL is researched, a sublight probe must set up a Wormhole Endpoint Space Station at the target system the first time). No FTL drive required on spacecraft. 

Polyspatial special stuff: Spacecraft is still going at FTL upon drive failure, repairs required to slow it down. 

Hyperspatial special stuff: Spacecraft must follow "hyperlanes", natural gravity-well "paths" in between the stars. Thus, trade routes are a thing.

[KAL 9000]

Currency for the Kerbol Federation: The . For reference, a lollipop costs 1, and a nuclear reactor costs 100,000 (and government permission).

[0111narwhalz]

45 minutes ago, KAL 9000 said:

Currency for the Kerbol Federation: The . For reference, a lollipop costs 1, and a nuclear reactor costs 100,000 (and government permission).

Um. @TotallyNotHuman_, what did we decide with regards to currency?

[TotallyNotHuman]

Oh, sheesh.

We had this huge discussion about alternative economic units of account, because in the Space Age^TM gold is just so darn common. We came up with the boron standard (shortened colloquially as borestan), which is measured by the gram, but decided against scrapping funds altogether (because more canon preserved with so much headcanon is better).

I think we had the borestan-fund exchange rate fixed to 1:5, what with 1 gram of boron being equivalent to $5 at today's prices. Beyond that, however, my memory fails me.

[KAL 9000]

23 hours ago, 0111narwhalz said:

Um. @TotallyNotHuman_, what did we decide with regards to currency?

Didn't know, thought we needed one. Should I delete it?

[0111narwhalz]

1 hour ago, KAL 9000 said:

Didn't know, thought we needed one. Should I delete it?

Nah, leave it for posterity. I need to add some to the WB notes, and this will serve as a..."motivator."

[KAL 9000]

1 hour ago, 0111narwhalz said:

Nah, leave it for posterity. I need to add some to the WB notes, and this will serve as a..."motivator."

You know, in a post-scarcity society, physical money is useless. They should be using Bitcoins, or something similar.

Edited January 26, 2017 by KAL 9000

[0111narwhalz]

47 minutes ago, KAL 9000 said:

You know, in a post-scarcity society, physical money is useless. They should be using Bitcoins, or something similar.

Nobody's carrying kT of boron around. Roots are symbolic.

Besides, no matter how good your fusion reactors are and how far food prices fall, construction of a starship is still an investment.

[KAL 9000]

22 hours ago, 0111narwhalz said:

Nobody's carrying kT of boron around. Roots are symbolic.

Besides, no matter how good your fusion reactors are and how far food prices fall, construction of a starship is still an investment.

Ah.

[0111narwhalz]

Two things have happened:

First: The universe in which Kerbal Future takes place has a name: Kerbae ad Astra.

Second: We've started a wiki for Kerbae ad Astra. You can find all the information that was once here and more there, in a much more useful format.

One thing has not happened: The publishing of a new chapter of Kerbal Future. Terribly sorry about that. I'm working on Warped Stars at the moment (set to release soon), and YAMR is next on the queue (set to release Soon®). But fear not! I have much to do yet in Future, and I intend to do it!

[superstrijder15]

The wiki link leads to a page not found instead of a wiki, is it the wrong link? In barely related news, I found out that although I'm awful at making nice to read stories, I seem to do okay when worldbuilding. If you guys want to I could write a bit about a location or ship or something, would there be someone interested?

[0111narwhalz]

1 hour ago, superstrijder15 said:

The wiki link leads to a page not found instead of a wiki, is it the wrong link?

Ah, yes. We just migrated. I've updated the link.

1 hour ago, superstrijder15 said:

If you guys want to I could write a bit about a location or ship or something, would there be someone interested?

Absolutely! Do you already have one in mind?

[superstrijder15]

44 minutes ago, 0111narwhalz said:

Ah, yes. We just migrated. I've updated the link.

Aah, nice. *starts reading*

At Subluminal drives:Orion Drive, there seems to be a reference to a black hole reactor, but that isn't a listed drive, what is it?

Quote

Inherent offense-defense capabilities

*chuckles*

Is there a page on spatiofibrin and it's production/mining?

44 minutes ago, 0111narwhalz said:

Absolutely! Do you already have one in mind?

One place I thought up: Once a boomtown, located at the very edge of the galaxy. Now only a fueling station for ships which want to go to a satelite galaxy by long-range polyspatial or stutterwarp. Old stations and facilities in disuse and disrepair, a small and desperate coast guard complement financed only by the small surplus the local planets get from selling fuel and the stuff they can steal from the smugglers and pirates.

Sadly, it seems the speeds of FTL are too slow for this: At 360c, a ship can cross 1 LY a day, 4 to get to Alpha Centauri. The very max seems to be 'many hundreds' to 'a thousand', meaning about 1 day for travelling between 2 stars. However, between galaxies you would probably need to cross some 25KLY minimum, or 25K/3 days for a transit. That's a bit much.

Edit: Not that it can't be done, but the scale needs to be changed. Instead of being between galaxies, it could be between 2 stellar cluster, or 2 arms of the milky way.

Edited September 22, 2017 by superstrijder15

[0111narwhalz]

38 minutes ago, superstrijder15 said:

At Subluminal drives:Orion Drive, there seems to be a reference to a black hole reactor, but that isn't a listed drive, what is it?

The black hole reactor is on the Technology page, under Generators (non-nuclear).

2 hours ago, superstrijder15 said:

Not that it can't be done, but the scale needs to be changed.

Yes, KaA is single-galaxy in scope. Depending on your era, it could be rather a bit smaller.

[superstrijder15]

6 hours ago, 0111narwhalz said:

The black hole reactor is on the Technology page, under Generators (non-nuclear).

That one is somehow blocked by my internet filter 

[superstrijder15]

Here is a more worked out bit of fluff:

MAPC

A shorthand for Miscellaneous Armed Patrol Craft. This is an umbrella term for the small patrol craft used to patrol the vast reaches of space on the outer edges of the Kerbol Federation where the government is weak and the pirates are strong. These craft are the arm of law, usually bound to a star system or a small organisation of systems within the federation. As systems need to pay for the craft themselves and systems far out tend to be poor, these ships aren’t of a single class, and barely ever purpose-built for the task.

The ships are instead all kinds of craft. Some known origins for these craft: pirate vessels taken by the space cops, shuttles with a gun stuck on, freighters or liners repurposed for law enforcement, racers which got weapons built-in and more. Their weapon systems less diverse, mainly due to the cost of most weapon systems. Large ships tend to be armed as a laserstar, small ones got spinal railguns or a few PDC guns. Due to the amount of MAPC armed with short range PDC systems, the acronym is sometimes jokingly translated as ‘Marauders and Police Cuddle’.

As patrol vessels with weapons of limited range, a lot of these vessels carry oversized FTL drives, no matter what type is used, allowing easier tactical FTL maneuvers into short range and then out of the enemy range before the enemy can retaliate.

In event of war or interstellar emergency, all MAPC can be commandeered by the Vacuum Navy, usually to be used as escorts or supply raiders.

Edited September 26, 2017 by superstrijder15

[0111narwhalz]

I like it, except for the references to "jumps." The Kerbol Federation doesn't possess spacefolder technology, but only polyspatial. Polyspatial is largely continuous, except for the translation events at each end. Check the superluminal propulsion page for more details.

Drop by the IRC channel* pretty much anytime it's daylight in the US; we'll get you up to speed. Just give us a wave (o/).

*Network: freenode.net; channel: #kerbaeadastra

Edited September 26, 2017 by 0111narwhalz
Linkus

[superstrijder15]

8 minutes ago, 0111narwhalz said:

I like it, except for the references to "jumps." The Kerbol Federation doesn't possess spacefolder technology, but only polyspatial. Polyspatial is largely continuous, except for the translation events at each end. Check the superluminal propulsion page for more details.

Drop by the IRC channel* pretty much anytime it's daylight in the US; we'll get you up to speed. Just give us a wave (o/).

*Network: freenode.net; channel: #kerbaeadastra

I knew about that, but I guess I'm to used to the 'normal' sci-fi terms. I've changed it to maneuver, which is probably a more accurate description. I will see if I can join you in a few hours.

[0111narwhalz]

On 9/26/2017 at 12:22 AM, superstrijder15 said:

I will see if I can join you in a few hours.

Two things:

1) Perhaps I was a bit too generous when I said "anytime it's daylight in the US." Try a couple hours later.
2) That wave is really important. Otherwise we aren't notified.

[superstrijder15]

7 hours ago, 0111narwhalz said:

Two things:

1) Perhaps I was a bit too generous when I said "anytime it's daylight in the US." Try a couple hours later.
2) That wave is really important. Otherwise we aren't notified.

I'll try it at like 6pm for me. What do you mean with the wave?

 

[0111narwhalz]

5 hours ago, superstrijder15 said:

What do you mean with the wave?

Input the characters "o/". This trips a filter and sends a notification to anyone who might be online.

[superstrijder15]

1 hour ago, 0111narwhalz said:

Input the characters "o/". This trips a filter and sends a notification to anyone who might be online.

Ok, I'm here now. Let's see if anyone reacts...

[0111narwhalz]

Like the story itself, I've done a bunch of rewriting. I'm now publishing worldbuilding articles elsewhere, starting with the one for FTL. It even has a couple of little animations to get the point across. Check it out!