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Author Topic: Einsteinian Roulette (Original Thread: Rules, Armory, Misson archive 1-11)  (Read 3972728 times)

Zako

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Re: Einsteinian Roulette: Missions 9: Anyone got some bolts?
« Reply #13020 on: March 19, 2013, 06:09:58 pm »

"Good thinking, bringing along something like that spray paint. I'll see about designing some kind of dust gun or something to help detect stuff like this when we're done mapping and have returned back to base, but having the rocks as well would be good since they are easier to see and have more mass than dust does. It should help with exploration hopefully if we all agree to the design of it and the resources it requires to make it.

We can also design some kind of marker system to use where we can place them on the ground to mark out borders of strange stuff like this, like poles with coloured markings that are shoved into the ground or something."
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piecewise

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Re: Einsteinian Roulette: Missions 9: Anyone got some bolts?
« Reply #13021 on: March 19, 2013, 07:03:51 pm »

Team Blue:


"Huh. Never seen something like that before... I think we should see how far up it goes and how far across it goes as well. Maybe we can go around it or fly over it, and if we can't, then we can just send a drone in and leave for a new zone. The drone may take awhile but hopefully it could map out the whole thing given enough time. In the meantime, we should just map out the edges of this distortion so we don't accidentally walk into it in the future."

Bishop keys his radio to reply to Simus.

"This is Blue leader, we've hit a snag. We've just come across a place where everything in motion seems to slow down a lot, like a rock hanging in midair sort of slow. We're currently checking to see if we can go around it, since I don't think anyone wants to volunteer to walk in and see if their mind slows down just as much as their body would. Some advice would be handy right about now."

Check the map for our position and mark down the start of the zone. Then take a walk with the others to map out the edge of the distortion.
Flint Westwood - Blue squad - Zone 3

"Hmmm... That's interesting."

Science time! Throw some more rocks and try to determine where this slow-mo area begins (how high, how wide, does it move, etc). Mark the boundary with spraypaint. Fire a short laser burst at the ground inside the slow-mo zone and at a hovering stone and observe the results (does light travel at the speed of light, does it diffract, does it move strangely, do the pieces of ground boiled by the laser move slowly, etc). If my previous observations show it is safe, try to put one half of an open sample container in the slow-mo zone and scrape a ground sample, while I'm holding the other half safely outside the zone.

EDIT: Distribute spraycans to the rest of the team so that they can use them to mark the edge of the slow-mo zone.


@Simus: "Anybody has any good ideas on how to test if this thing slows down time or is just viscous? Simus, you're the science officer, what do you say?"

@Bishop: "Should we try to destroy it or just bypass it? Should we send a drone? Blue leader?"
Vich: Team Blue

"Thank you. But I'd still prefer to have sticks with caution tape too. Easier to see."

Apply spraypaint on the area around the anomaly to mark it's boundaries.

((You didn't actually give that much of your backtory yet. We haven't even got to your birth yet, for Steve's sake. (unless I missed something). I will do it a lot more once we get to it. Right now, there is theoretically a lot of stuff to critisize, but practically, not so much. One, it's not that interesting to me, since I want to critisize your, not your planet's backstory. Two, you could just say "I wasnt very good in my history classes," something I am not very keen to hear. Three, while there is a lot of stuff to critisize, most of it has to do with complex sociological patterns and human behaviors. It would take a page just to phrase my complaints, and a book to explain and argue them. And then people would just tell me that they don't trust me because I wouldn't cite any sources confirming my position. I'm not ready for that kind of commitment yet. :-[

And I think you have some misconceptions about my upkoming nitpicking. One, I am not going to pick on your writing. Probably. Only on your plotholes. Two, all, or almost all my nitpicking will be done In Character. So if Vich doesn't feel well, or is distracted, I'm out of luck.))

((To Below: ...um ...Nope?))

Flint's experimentation reveals several things:
First, that lasers do indeed seem to be slowed by the area. The beam itself is still invisible, obviously, but it's effects are not as instant as one would expect. Indeed it takes almost a full second from firing to hitting the ground.

Second that, that the beam does not seem to refract or otherwise scatter. It and all other light passing through it seems to pass through without being distorted. 

The third realization is a group effort resulting from attempts to map the edge of the effected area. Using stones and spraypaint they begin marking the area, quickly coming to the realization that it's much larger then they thought. After about a half mile of walking along one edge, something changes. One of the rocks thrown enters the area and hits the ground abnormally fast, but not abnormally hard. It appears as though there might be more then one type of distortion in the area.




Team Green


Brother Lars:  Green Team Lead, Zone 6

Lars stopped as the radiation level started getting through the suit.  "Gentlemen, we are reaching a point of personal danger.  I do not believe we are adequately equipped to fully explore this on our own.  We shall deploy a mapping drone, once I get confirmation that it will be unaffected by this radiation."

He then set his radio to call back to base.  "Sister Simus, or anyone else knowledgeable, this is Brother Lars.  We have encountered a zone of steadily increasing radiation.  Are the mapping drones capable of surviving a strong radiation field?"


"Looks like the ground is charged, and the atmos is xenon. The blue glow may be ionization? I dunno. Feels creepy though."

Continue scanning, follow Lars. Unless he walks into an anomaly. Then stay put.
Jack Hansan- Green Team- Zone 6

"What is causing this?"

Stay with team and warn them of anything major.
Auron kell- green team - Zone 6

im afraid i did not bring anything to innoculate us against radiation poisoning, perhaps we should continue to our next sector and return here after insulating a drone against radioactive interferance?

activate bathelmet, try to see if there are any light bending objects in "visual" range.
Follow lars again.


The team halts while their suits are still giving them almost complete protection and Lars converses with home base while the rest of the team waits. They see no signs of light bending or other distortions beyond what they've experienced already. Lars' radio call is choppy and static ladden, but still works, at least for now.




Team Red


Throw some rocks around, including above me. If nothing strange happens to them, fly a few meters into the air and look around with the various vision modes. Then zoom in on the lights/structures in the distance.

You throw some stones onto the flat surface. They hit the ground and skid off as though on ice. You fly up a few meters and look around with the different vision modes. The only thing that is odd is the thermal one; The planet is cold to begin with, somewhere between 20 and 15 K, but the area in front of you is so near Absolute zero that your suit's sensor's aren't precise enough to measure it and are just reading 0k.  The lights are hard to see from here, but look like hazy chains of light, more distinct then an aurora, but still not entirely solid. Hm. The structures are hard to see as well, but they appear to be crystalline in nature.

Lukas gazes at the smooth floor and then at the distant lights. "Should we proceed, boss? I have a bad feeling about this, but I am really curious about those lights."
((Hmm))
See what its approxiamte density / resilience is by shooting 1 second worth of laser into it at different angles in short bursts. Dont chop anyones legs or arms or anything's off.
You fire at the smooth ground. It glows slightly with heat but doesn't show signs of damage. Must be very heat conductive.



Team Base:

Team Base, Anton Chernozorov, Mechanic/Detective:

Anton wakes up after a short nap, and sees the fleshtech guy - Mesk, he recalled - watching the monitors. Quietly, so as not to attract undue attention, Anton moves to a terminal further across the room and opens up some of the previous team's feeds.

Open several feeds from other previous team members, and rewind the leader's footage on the pad back to the point where his feed cut out at the beginning of an argument. Try to find the same moment on other feeds, and see if the dialogue can be heard in full.

It seems the other teammembers weren't in the habit of keeping their suit cameras on nearly as much as the leader's, or if they are on they're not in a helpful position. The best you get is a walkby of the conversation in which you hear about "Next time the difference between the zones might not be survivable".

All teams, this is the Nest, status report and map updates, if you please.

Integrate map updates into the master map and redistribute the updated map to the teams.

((I'm assuming that radio is team-specific unless coming from base or otherwise noted.))

We're gonna have to find a way to handle this since colors are limited. I'm thinking using a rather messy but effective system of labeling subhexes with numbers and then having a key on the bottom of the map. Since there isn't room on the map to add text to each little hex.

Parisbre56

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Re: Einsteinian Roulette: Missions 9: Anyone got some bolts?
« Reply #13022 on: March 19, 2013, 07:24:16 pm »

Flint Westwood - Blue Squad - Sector 3

We're gonna have to find a way to handle this since colors are limited. I'm thinking using a rather messy but effective system of labeling subhexes with numbers and then having a key on the bottom of the map. Since there isn't room on the map to add text to each little hex.
((Fine by me.))

@Simus:"Uhh, Canary Nest this is Blue Peafowl. Are you seeing this? Any idea how this could be happening? I'm no scientist, but I thought gravity and time were connected. Any suggestions for experimentation? The Wastes of Time is sounding like a perfect name for this place right now..." ((And, light changing speed should at least get refracted a bit, shouldn't it?))

@Bishop:"So, what do you say blue leader? Send in a drone?"

Unless Bishop protests, send a mapping drone to map the sector. Then continue marking the time distortion (with a different color depending on the effect if possible) and scraping ground samples (not too many, don't want to be carrying lots of useless dirt containers). If Bishop orders me something else, do that instead.

EDIT: Idea! Try to find the border between the fast and slow zones. Is it something gradual or a straight line? If it's gradual, could someone pass through that area? If I find the border, mark that area differently.

((Also, this zone would be incredibly useful for computers. I'll crunch the numbers tomorrow and see just how much faster/slower time passes in those zones. You think I could build a supercomputer like that by using a gravity auto manipulator?))
« Last Edit: March 19, 2013, 08:10:51 pm by Parisbre56 »
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GreatWyrmGold

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Re: Einsteinian Roulette: Missions 9: Anyone got some bolts?
« Reply #13023 on: March 19, 2013, 07:51:07 pm »

Would making a bigger map help with the mapping issues? Or perhaps separate bigger maps for each bighex?
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Thearpox

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Re: Einsteinian Roulette: Missions 9: Anyone got some bolts?
« Reply #13024 on: March 19, 2013, 08:57:20 pm »

((Any reason you quoted only one of my posts? Can't say it had anything important, but still. And Piecewise, another question. When I post an action and you don't process it, as with the tablet*, should I assume it done or what?
* - I posted an action two turns ago to link the suit feeds of everyone on my team to my tablet.))

Vich: Team Blue

"Poles showed into the ground? That is exactly what I meant by saying caution tape with sticks. So... I'm still totally taking credit for this.(lighthearted tone) Command, I'm sorry, I didn't hear your answer."

"Yup, marking differently sounds good. And not only for the border. A different can, and with a symbol before the paint, perhaps? And you know what would really piss me off? If tomorrow this anomaly occupied some entirely different place after all the work we've done."

Still figure out the amount by which the objects are slowed in the slow zone. I can even do it by looking at which rocks that we have walked past have fallen. Mark the area around the fast zone differently then around the slow zone, by Flint (hopefully) giving me a can of different color, and by drawing non-phallic symbols before the line at moderate intervals. (Standing orders as we continue exploring the anomaly.)

If nothing happens with the drone, volunteer to be the one to enter the fast zone first. Don't actually enter it if Bishop does not approve it.

(Will update this to be more specific if it's approved.)[/s]
« Last Edit: March 19, 2013, 09:56:41 pm by Thearpox »
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PyroDesu

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Re: Einsteinian Roulette: Missions 9: Anyone got some bolts?
« Reply #13025 on: March 19, 2013, 09:41:03 pm »

Team Blue, do not enter either anomalous zone. Going into this one you've just found would be like trying to exit the other one. At the best, you'd be stuck. At the worst, you might end up tearing yourself apart. Keep trying to route around, remember, this is a sweep to determine location only, not to experiment.

Team Green, your radio has very heavy interference. The decision is up to your team leader, but I recommend that you exit the radiation warning boundary and try to route around the zone.

Team Red, status update. I can see you've found something, but details as far as you can give them would be appreciated.
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Re: Einsteinian Roulette: Missions 9: Anyone got some bolts?
« Reply #13026 on: March 19, 2013, 09:46:47 pm »

Lars nodded as he heard the reply.  "Brothers, we have been given orders to route around this hazard.  We will explore it more fully at a later date.  Let us walk around it to determine its boundaries.  Mark it any way you can."


Start walking counterclockwise around the area, keeping to the border where radiation is just starting to get through the suits.  Mark the ground in any way possible- line in the sand, rearranged rocks, marking them, whatever possible.
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Thearpox

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Re: Einsteinian Roulette: Missions 9: Anyone got some bolts?
« Reply #13027 on: March 19, 2013, 09:56:17 pm »

"Understood"
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Zako

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Re: Einsteinian Roulette: Missions 9: Anyone got some bolts?
« Reply #13028 on: March 19, 2013, 10:16:10 pm »

"So time is acting up without gravity giving a shit, whats new? I had to fight against a sentient and highly infectious SOUNDWAVE, so you have to kinda expect weird stuff, especially in places like this."

Bishop shrugs and looks and the way they came.

"I have to agree with not walking in this thing. It might be safer than the slow zone, but you could basically age years in seconds for all we know. Send a drone in if you can think of a way to have it avoid the slow zone, but otherwise, mark the boundry of the change and keep mapping the edge. If we find a way around on this end, we'll head back this way and map out the other side too if we have time."

Mark down the change and position of the boundry on my map and keep mapping and marking the edge with the others. Take a guess on how far and long we've been out here.
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PyroDesu

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Re: Einsteinian Roulette: Missions 9: Anyone got some bolts?
« Reply #13029 on: March 19, 2013, 10:25:24 pm »

No, Bishop, it would not be safer than the slow zone - to it, we're in the slow zone, if you were to poke your finger in there, it'd start acting faster than the rest of you, or be constrained by the rest of you. Both would be bad for your finger. Same thing would happen in reverse with the slow zone, a finger in there would react slower than the rest of you or constrain the rest of you. At least with the slow zone, one could cut off a trapped digit to free themselves, cleanly. In a fast zone, it might tear itself off.
« Last Edit: March 19, 2013, 10:29:17 pm by PyroDesu »
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Pyro is probably some experimental government R&D AI.

Unholy_Pariah

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Re: Einsteinian Roulette: Missions 9: Anyone got some bolts?
« Reply #13030 on: March 19, 2013, 10:32:50 pm »

head counter-clockwise around the edge of the radioactive anomaly dragging my pole along the ground to mark the boundary.
Keep the top end raised in front of me just incase there are any gravimetric anomalies in my path.
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Clearly running multiple missions at the same time is a terrible idea.  The epic battle to see which team can cock it up worse has escalated again.

And Larry kinda gets blueballed in all this; just left with a raging bone spear and no where to put it.

Thearpox

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Re: Einsteinian Roulette: Missions 9: Anyone got some bolts?
« Reply #13031 on: March 19, 2013, 10:42:50 pm »

"It's not whether it's fast or slow, it's how much the difference is. With the slow zone, the rock literally stuck in midair. With the fast zone, it increased it's speed noticeably but it didn't go into any sort of bullet-time. (as far as I can understand PW.) So it's safer simply because the change in times is a lot smaller than it would be otherwise. So I don't think a brief exposure would do any damage, and we would definitely not tear ourselves apart, but I respect both when you say it's not an experimental expedition, and your orders."

Also, this:
Quote from: Thearpox
Command, do we have any caution tape and sticks or the like at the base? Or chalk for that matter? I think we should begin marking these anomalities on the ground as well as on the map starting from out second hike. Or maybe we should head back right now to get the necessary materials."



((I love how we have actual people on the ground, a team leader, and a command who are all players with the same amount of knowledge as to what's happening. And we still give commands to each other, and ask each other for advice. Can any other forum (or table for that matter) games boast of this level of realism/roleplaying?))
« Last Edit: March 19, 2013, 10:57:58 pm by Thearpox »
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Not online every Friday evening till Saturday night. If I am listed as online, I am still not online, as my computer has an annoying habit of waking up to the tiniest distraction and then going off to sleep again.


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PyroDesu

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Re: Einsteinian Roulette: Missions 9: Anyone got some bolts?
« Reply #13032 on: March 19, 2013, 11:20:48 pm »

Vich, any kind of bullet-time effect would be from the perspective of the rock, not the observer. And a normal person likely wouldn't tear themselves apart in either field, but if you happen to have cybernetic replacements, an exoskeleton, et cetera, it is a distinct possibility. Unaugmented, you're still stuck. Besides, Bishop did have a point when he said that accelerated time would have bad effects on anything that went in, especially organics. Unless you like massive tumors spreading across you quite rapidly from your cells dividing much, much faster than normal.

And as far as I'm aware, we don't have any real marker poles. Perhaps the landline equipment, but there are probably much better uses for that.
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Pyro is probably some experimental government R&D AI.

Thearpox

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Re: Einsteinian Roulette: Missions 9: Anyone got some bolts?
« Reply #13033 on: March 19, 2013, 11:51:40 pm »

"Assuming our cells divide every 15 minutes, which they do in some bacteria, but they don't in humans, and assuming that it normally takes 5 seconds for a rock before it hits the ground, the difference between one and the other is 180 times. I may not be a specialist in throwing rocks, but if we assume that the speed of the rocks we threw is around 90 km/h, then that rock would need to be going 16,000 km/h, around 4.5 km/s for our a bacteria cells to divide once for every 5 seconds exposure. Divide that by by 12, and you've still got more than a third of a km/s for it to divide once every minute.

To put it into a human language, for the bacteria cells to divide once every minute, that rock would have been going close to the speed of a bullet. I don't think it was going nearly that fast, more like a hundred times slower, in fact, if not more. But even then we wouldn't be in any danger of a tumor, because our cells divide much slower. I could do the math for it ripping apart our bodies, but I'd need a little time with my wristpad for that, and more precise figures. There's only so much I can do in my head.

Whoever launching the drone, can you put it's clock against ours? I'm thinking that's actually a pretty simple way to determine the time difference."


Edit (totally forgot): "Think you can double-check the absence of poles? We could have easily missed them while mapping out the base."
« Last Edit: March 20, 2013, 12:21:57 am by Thearpox »
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Why are 100% of my posts in ER? I already have another account. Created this one specifically for playing.

Not online every Friday evening till Saturday night. If I am listed as online, I am still not online, as my computer has an annoying habit of waking up to the tiniest distraction and then going off to sleep again.


List of links to charts and graphs here. Work in progress. Check it out?

Remalle

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Re: Einsteinian Roulette: Missions 9: Anyone got some bolts?
« Reply #13034 on: March 20, 2013, 12:01:38 am »

Try to determine whether the previous team already explored any of the areas the current team is.
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