Elite roleplay: Q&A and OOC
25 Sep 2020, 11:19am
Realistically, I don't think people leaving a planet like that, (if humans did acclimatise to live there) would do well at all in space. They would have to stay in a pressure suit or spend plenty of time in decompression or compression chambers to function within Earth Normal stations at the very least.
Rather than try and write about that with all the details I'd have to remember, I say to myself SPACE SCIENCE fixed it! It leaves me free to write with a more familiar and loose set of rules.
25 Sep 2020, 11:31am
25 Sep 2020, 11:54am
There's a reason why the ISS uses a normal atmosphere instead of a pure atmosphere, same goes for most of the Russian systems as far as I know.
25 Sep 2020, 12:24pm
Rebecca HailI think a atmosphere out of oxygen would pose too much of a security risk in a continually inhabited space station. It reacts with everything and every little incident with sparks flying would have the potential to be a catastrophe, which wouldn't be that uncommon in a highly electrified environment.
There's a reason why the ISS uses a normal atmosphere instead of a pure atmosphere, same goes for most of the Russian systems as far as I know.
I think that with a lower pressure, the density of oxygen wouldn't be higher, thus not increasing the fire hazard. I do think that this (might) only be the case for the actual dock portion of the station however, because it's a huge volume where most of it is completely useless to a human. Filling that up with a lot of extra gas makes it harder for the slot forcefield to keep it inside, and would make a potential failure worse as more gas rush out to compensate for the pressure difference.
25 Sep 2020, 12:52pm
25 Sep 2020, 1:30pm
25 Sep 2020, 1:50pm
SakashiroSo there's no artificial gravity (except centrifugal forces) in ED because science. But there are force fields that gas molecules cannot pass through while ships can. What's the science behind those?
Forcefields which stop gas already exists. They're called plasma windows.
A gas molecule have very low inertia and as such can't get through. The limitation for the plasma window to contain gas molecules would be the pressure and temperature of the gas. A solid object with have more inertia than a gas molecule, and as such could pass through. It might disrupt the plasma window, I wouldn't know about that. To my knowledge plasma windows aren't typically used in to pass objects through so don't know the exact effect. Given the size of the mail slot, there might be several or a continuous plasma window for this very reason.
You hould probably question the ship shields which somehow stop laser and objects but not normal visual light and your own projectiles instead. That's more like "lol science?".
25 Sep 2020, 1:53pm
I looked into atmospheric pressure differences too deeply and gladly ran back to:- because FUTURE SPACE SCIENCE fixed it.
25 Sep 2020, 2:28pm
Some things are interesting talking about to figure out, such as how the FSD works or how a shield might work. That's also where I think "future science" applies.
There are however some things where I think you should consider it. Those are when you do something which we already have, or in essence have, technology of already, or know the effect of already. Things like vacuum (you can't breathe!) and zero-gee (how do you get around!) are two examples.
You probably shouldn't gloss over being in a vacuum or being in a zero-gee environment, because it's takes a reader away from the immersion. If I wrote a story about walking around on a core asteroid while having a cup of tea, I should rightfully be questioned about it. When it comes to very intricate things (how does your jetpack really work) or how you avoid getting cancer from gamma-ray exposure, we can probably ignore it. It doesn't add much to the plot, and none really knows either.
Explaining complicated things, or things that none really knows, and which also doesn't add to the plot, I don't think add anything to the experience. A brief simple explanation would usually do:
"Ender walked around the asteroid latched to the wire he had attached prior, partly pulling, partly walking from the tension provided by the line pulling him towards the asteroid. When he found the fissure, he let the wire pull him down, sitting down on the edge and took a sip from the built in liquid container of the suit. Nothing quite like a warm tea before some hard work"
How is the wire attached? How is it stopped from slipping away from the asteroid? How is sufficient tension kept so it provide pressure to walk? How is the tea heated? These are all legitimate questions that an engineer designing this should ask, but as a reader, it probably wouldn't add much knowing.
25 Sep 2020, 2:57pm
The reason I originally asked the question was to set an "E:D Lore vs Plausibility" factor in the course of mapping out potential storylines in my mind for my RP character Synthya, in an effort to avoid getting the E:D Lore-Meisters' panties in a twist. :D
Keeping in mind that she was born on a generational ship rich with scientists & engineers, her & the rest of the former inhabitants' ancestors were genetically altered early on shortly after the beginning of their journey in order to enhance their ability to survive on a wider variety of alien worlds, not knowing exactly (or at least, with nearly the certainty as in the current E:D timeline) what they (or their descendants) might be encountering, since her ship launched sometime ~1000 years ago in the E:D timeline.
For instance, things like "space blindness" gave me a convenient & plausible explanation as to just why Synthya wears glasses (aside from the fact that I do in RL) & due to that pesky plausibility-thing of mine, I searched for an explanation.
Sadly, my imagination is far more energetic than my body or available time allows, & despite several requests & expressions of interest in seeing how Synthya's story unfolds & where it's going, those have been my current limitations & frustrations.
To those who might remain impatiently waiting, I offer my sincere apologies, but rest assured, I have lots of possibilities 'in the pipe'. I can't & don't expect others to join any RP, at least until my current limitations have been resolved. I'm working on her story continuation as best I'm able.
Last edit: 25 Sep 2020, 3:16pm
25 Sep 2020, 4:26pm
An example for this would be in fantasy settings when there's magic, -how- this magic work is not always explained. This is fine for an observer, but if you're writing a story about a wizard, you might have to try and figure out something which seem plausible yourself to add depth and immersion to certain situations. If you're interested in this specific subject, I recommend "The Death Gate Cycle" which describes very well how the magic works, and is a good source of inspiration for other settings where it's not described.
To return to ED, there are a great deal of things, both in the past and present everyday life which is not described at all, or in detail which isn't sufficient for a good story. In those times, you have to apply common sense. What sounds reasonable? This can be things like behaviour and life on a space station, but also what technology is around. For both of these, I would either assume similar to what we have now "but better" or things which fit with other observed in-universe technology. For example, at the moment there's very limited knowledge about actual handheld weapons used. With Odyssey more will be revealed, but at the moment, based on our present, some lore and examples in game, and ship weapons, the weapons we might see have some reasonable in-universe guessing that people would readily accept
25 Sep 2020, 4:28pm
A C EnderYou hould probably question the ship shields which somehow stop laser and objects but not normal visual light and your own projectiles instead. That's more like "lol science?".
Good point!
Also, scooping fuel without melting... watching a star through your cockpit window without burning your retinae... being able to see the star in front of you AND distant stars at the same time... speed limits in space... FTL travel without relativistic effects... "Let's store all our ship's heat in this tiny projectile and eject it!"... venting heat or reparing shields by firing laser beams... the list goes on...
25 Sep 2020, 11:23pm
A C EnderI think generally; if there's lore, use lore. However, even when there's lore, it's often not detailed enough.
For example, at the moment there's very limited knowledge about actual handheld weapons used. With Odyssey more will be revealed, but at the moment, based on our present, some lore and examples in game, and ship weapons, the weapons we might see have some reasonable in-universe guessing that people would readily accept
Funny you should mention that. I currently have a design on paper for a sort of "wireless Taser", based on twin UV lasers in parallel & involving sending a high voltage down the ionized paths, confined by the annular magnetic field effect, which connect upon striking the target. It'd be non-lethal unless the voltage was sufficiently high... but for a hand-held weapon, the current power supplies, even involving sufficient capacitors, just aren't compact enough. That, & it would only work in an atmosphere... the advantage being, no blowing holes with projectiles through bulkheads & causing a breach to vacuum.
26 Sep 2020, 6:17am
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Denial_System
I believe at this point, something like that would have developed into a handheld device. I also believe it could be modulated to reach the pain threshold quicker and then power output reduced to allow application longer before causing damage (or aborted before damage is caused).
27 Sep 2020, 2:09pm
The fact that these Wings are a Rare good and not something everyone has access too could also suggest Earth standard gravity is more common than we think on board a station. (Although clearly not an outpost)
I wonder if Magnetic boots have more than one setting? Like super strong for Leg day but also a tip toe setting for when you get up in the middle of the night and want to sneak out without waking someone?