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Author Topic: Prosperous Stars - The Wealth of Space  (Read 38250 times)

lawastooshort

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Re: Prosperous Stars - The Wealth of Space
« Reply #195 on: February 24, 2016, 02:42:31 pm »

((I don't know what Sunriders are, I'm afraid. But yes, Space Moby Dick. Kind of my dream rtd inspiration. Sean M did one very briefly but then re-lost interest in GMing, I believe. It was excellent, of course.)
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Tiruin

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Re: Prosperous Stars - The Wealth of Space
« Reply #196 on: February 25, 2016, 12:46:18 am »

Request buying from crew funds: an Advanced Toolkit; Machining Workbench; Portable Plasma Torch w/ 2 Fuel tanks {2400 creds in total}[/b]
Agree to all but the machining workbench -we have one already.
Then use some of those advanced electrical components to build two batteries for the exoskeleton - a main and a spare.
Get Amelia to help, if she so wishes.

Claim the shotgun floating around, since no one else seems to want it.

((I think SC claimed it :P))

Aid this guy and move experience gained into Novice Craftsman, if any!
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SeriousConcentrate

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Re: Prosperous Stars - The Wealth of Space
« Reply #197 on: February 25, 2016, 11:39:59 am »

(No, I took the pistol I found. Shotgun's free for anyone who wants it because I don't want to hog all the loot. :P)
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adwarf

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Prosperous Stars - The Wealth of Space
« Reply #198 on: March 02, 2016, 12:59:04 pm »

Buy 6 clips and the laser sight, attach sight to Striker, do firing range training plan but use only two clips: the one currently in it and the sixth one, leaving the other five for later.
Upon hearing your request Grax quickly starts sorting through some boxes in the bottom of a display before pulling out six loaded magazines, and grabbing one of several laser sights off the top shelf before placing them on the counter.

"Your total is two-hundred and sixty credits, I hope you purchase your firearms and firearm related goods from here next time as well."

With that done you leave the store with Neil still talking over a fairly large purchase to head for the shooting range, and hopefully get in a decent amount of practice for when you actually have to use your newly obtained pistol. You are quickly amazed by the sheer number of firing ranges on a space station, a total of six as far as you've found each of which has specially designated sections for Class I firearms, and Class II firearms with quite a few heavily armed guards strolling around. You chose one of the empty ranges at random and setup in there before pressing the button on the display that says 'Beginner' causing several targets to pop up in the range, and start to slowly move around.

You spend about half an hour there, and expend 23 bullets in total though by the time you leave you feel you've made a fair deal of progress towards becoming quite a bit more accurate with a firearm.

((Well, no ship guns. Shall we get an assault rifle or a machine gun for the crew? And some grenades? And buy whatever you need, techwise!))

"Welcome, Coleman," welcomes Neal, sticking out a hand. "Good to have you on board. I'm Captain Aurelius." He waits for a second for Coleman's military instincts to kick in and for the soldier's body to begin to straighten into a salute... "But we don't particularly take that seriously on this ship. I think the only thing it means is I have to talk to more outsiders than the rest of us. We've just had our first almost practice run and think to be heading out somewhere a little rougher this trip, so it'll be good to have you along."


Buy the laser sight and 2 full clips for my shotgun.

And how about an assault rifle, 10 clips, and 3 of each grenade if no one suggests anything different?


And then I'm ready to go interact with Harold, and then choose our next mission.

You list off a series of Class II weaponry that you'd like to purchase before giving Grax your information which he uses to confirm that your license is currently pending full in-statement which he says will require you to wait until you get the license officially, but until then the goods you purchased are reserved for pickup. With that put in order you hold up your shotgun and ask if he has any shells for sale for it,

"Oh? A Calmar Law Enforcement Issue Regalian, and considering your getup and the fact that you came here to purchase firearms I'm going to take a guess that you are ex-law enforcement since Calmar doesn't allow its law enforcers to purchase from weapons dealers unaffiliated with the ruling family. These shotguns are on the very border of Class I so each shell is going to run you twelve credits, but I have a small stock of that gauge in the warehouse though for in the interest of our continued business I'll cut you a deal on the shells, ten a piece. Feel free to come here for all of your Class II or I needs after today!"

With that last statement Grax tosses a box of shells onto the counter alongside a laser sight which you promptly pay for along with covering the costs of your much more impressive firepower purchases.

---

Finally done with the shopping for the day you realize its about time for the meeting with Harold, and quickly head for the entertainment deck to meet up with him and his work buddies at that bar Crimson Comet. Not exactly an impressive name, but the place itself is interesting enough as you arrive outside to find a neon sign hanging over its door of an old school surface to orbit rocket with the bar's name in green letters on the side of the rocket. You can hear chatter from inside along with some soothing jazz tunes, but as you open the door a bell clatters against it causing the room to go silent as over a dozen patrons inside turn their eyes towards you while their hands go to the firearms at their sides. The atmosphere is tense until Harold breaks the silence,

"Hey, Neil over here!"

The previously nervous patrons quickly turned to smiles as they realized someone knew who you were, and you hastily make your way back to a booth occupied by Harold, a stick thin tan fellow with spiral blue tattoos covering his arms, and a white haired lady who seems to refuse to take off her body armor even when she's sitting in a bar full of armed cops. The chatter starts to pick back up as you sit down, and Harold introduces you to the other two,

"The lady in the armor is Chief Overseer of the Lower Docks for the station, Paula Carol though we all call her White, and this other fine fellow is the Lower Docks Head of Security Mitchell Burnstein. Sorry about the tense atmosphere Neil, but Customs hasn't been relaxed ever since those new pirates started acting out in the system ..."

Harold sighs as he sits down and starts to drink a beer in front of him before signaling for a waiter to bring another round.

Look up youtube videos of ship launches. Surely there's some way to guess the length of the exhaust plume based on easily-researched data...

You spend your time using videos to try and determine the effective range that your ship's exhaust could be use as a weapon, and after a few hours of videos and articles you've come to the conclusion that the other ship will have to be fairly darn close, will need to sit still long enough for your engines to fully kick in, and then stay within the burn distance for a period before it'll cause any reasonable damage. Then again the exact effects allude you as you can't really learn literal rocket science and metallurgy so quickly.

Get 3x boxes of those Advanced Electrical Components from personal funds. We'll find a use for it later. [143-120=29]

Amelia also transfers all information she received from checking the Goods to the rest of the crew.

Request buying from crew funds: an Advanced Toolkit; Machining Workbench; Portable Plasma Torch w/ 2 Fuel tanks {2400 creds in total}


With the exoskeleton project coming along well you decide to pick up a handful of extra tools, and parts to aid in the furthering of a truly vital creation. You purchase a toolkit, the portable plasma torch with two fuel tanks, and three small portions of some advanced electronic parts before informing the others of the prices you'd found. Shortly after Trent sends you a message asking you to pick up twenty more portions of the electronics for another project.

Request buying from crew funds: an Advanced Toolkit; Machining Workbench; Portable Plasma Torch w/ 2 Fuel tanks {2400 creds in total}[/b]
Agree to all but the machining workbench -we have one already.
Then use some of those advanced electrical components to build two batteries for the exoskeleton - a main and a spare.
Get Amelia to help, if she so wishes.

Claim the shotgun floating around, since no one else seems to want it.


After sending Amelia a message to pick up quite a few more advanced electrical components, and then grabbing the shotgun that has been lying around you set to work on designing a battery addition for the exoskeleton. Your new project is fairly easy to implement as you work up a design for a homemade battery, and make the appropriate adjustments for installing it into the suit's preexisting electrical system.

Spoiler: Crew Account (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Dio Costanzo (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Amelia Terinn (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Neil Aurelius (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Tobias Kavanagh (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Tobias Trent (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Rocco Coleman (click to show/hide)



Spoiler: Potential Projects (click to show/hide)



The following are the jobs you know of, aside from that feel free to try and find your own work since there are a lot of opportunities in this system. Ore hauling, salvage work, mercenary work, item transport, people transporting, etc.

Macnameer Freighter Reclamation
Payment: 10,000 Credits + Salvage not listed as Reclamation Objective
Reclamation Objective: Marathon CSF Generator VII, Flight Black Box, and Remaining Cargo.
Priority: Low, job must be completed within two months time.

Settler Pirate Incident Reclamation
Payment: 40,000 Credits minimum
Reclamation Objective: All wrecked vessel power generators and flight black boxes
Priority: Medium, must be completed within a month.
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Parsely

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Re: Prosperous Stars - The Wealth of Space
« Reply #199 on: March 02, 2016, 03:36:33 pm »

PTW
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_DivideByZero_

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Re: Prosperous Stars - The Wealth of Space
« Reply #200 on: March 02, 2016, 03:57:19 pm »

Excellent...

...most excellent...

Dio was, at this point, rather mentally exhausted as he thought to himself.
"At this point I have managed to figure out that there must be some sort of limiting system on the engines... some sort of grand secret... I mean... if we can remove it from ours, then... ugh, I need a drink."

As he stumbles over to the bar, he keeps repeating to himself an old adage he found on the internet archives the machine lords kept aboard his former vessel.
Any interesting space drive is a weapon of mass destruction...

Spoiler: Calcs (click to show/hide)

((Note, I'm not complaining with the above calcs and saying that we should be able to use our drive as a weapon. I'm just saying that's how it would be in a 'realistic' setting. And Dio thinks it's a realistic setting.
Plus there's room for some actual plot device that keeps the drives from being WMD's.))
« Last Edit: March 02, 2016, 05:13:51 pm by _DivideByZero_ »
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GiglameshDespair

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Re: Prosperous Stars - The Wealth of Space
« Reply #201 on: March 02, 2016, 04:35:48 pm »

Excellent...

...most excellent...

Dio was, at this point, rather mentally exhausted as he thought to himself.
"At this point I have managed to figure out that there must be some sort of limiting system on the engines... some sort of grand secret... I mean... if we can remove it from ours, then... ugh, I need a drink."

As he stumbles over to the bar, he keeps repeating to himself an old adage he found on the internet archives the machine lords kept aboard his former vessel.
Any interesting space drive is a weapon of mass destruction...

Spoiler: Calcs (click to show/hide)

((Note, I'm not complaining with the above calcs and saying that we should be able to use our drive as a weapon. I'm just saying that's how it would be in a 'realistic' setting. And Dio thinks it's a realistic setting.
Plus there's room for some actual plot device that keeps the drives from being WMD's.))

Dude, get the hint - the drives aren't usable as weapons.
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adwarf

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Re: Prosperous Stars - The Wealth of Space
« Reply #202 on: March 02, 2016, 04:43:04 pm »

For anyone who is actually a rocket scientist, this number is absurdly high.
I believe that is the key point of both your worries, and your calculations. I am not a rocket scientist, and I will readily say that I do not have the level of mental capabilities that would allow me to ever become one. I'm going to school for Computer Science not a high level degree like physicist or something, and my knowledge in the various fields of science is on par with pretty much every other American, maybe very slightly more at most so while I try to make the setting/game lean towards realistic I haven't really bothered trying to make sure it lies within the realms of full realism. I will go ahead and state that while this universe works similar to ours its not entirely the same, there is no faster than light travel in this setting as the primary method of long distance travel (AKA entire systems or even galaxies) is to use a structure that allows you to go into a parallel dimension where space is literally compressed.

Drives aren't WMDs in this setting, or at least not the average ship drive. Sure if you get one of the largest ships in the setting to point its exhaust at a planet then yeah it'll cook the planet, but aside from that its typically not going to cause mass planetary extinction. However, I am amused by the level of detail you went into for the effect of the exhaust :v
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_DivideByZero_

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Re: Prosperous Stars - The Wealth of Space
« Reply #203 on: March 02, 2016, 05:39:08 pm »

Quote
Dude, get the hint - the drives aren't usable as weapons.

((Dude, that's exactly what I said in the fine print. Nobody forces you to read textwalls.

@adwarf: I've done those calculations many times over before for my own settings ;). Anyway, Gilgamesh didn't seem to get the message. Those calcs are pretty much what Dio would have done, which is why I went through the trouble of verifying that torchdrives aren't WMD's in this setting as they would be in a pseudorealistic setting. But Dio should at least know the basic equations considering there is a whole website dedicated to teaching this stuff to aspiring hard sci-fi authors. (this was directed at the "you can't really learn literal rocket science and metallurgy so quickly" quote)

It doesn't have to be a realistic setting, so duh. But real science is not opposed to storytelling. In fact, if The Martian is any indication, good science makes for unexpected plot opportunities. If adwarf wants to he can add whatever macguffinite he wants to deal with the ridiculous energy yields those engines imply.

The main problem I have with (what I assume to be) Gilgamesh's preferred approach of "GM says so, reality be damned" is that it's impossible to predict what would happen in a setting where everything is held together by GM fiat. So drives aren't WMD's, fine. That's a fair assumption to make of a lot of settings. But there has to be something that keeps them from being WMD's if you can zip around between planets in days. If it turns out that it's just because the GM says so, and not because of some in-universe explanation, then why not have magic in space as well? Because that's basically what it is.

No point in calling it science fiction if science is not allowed, end of story.))

On a related note, do we have a general idea on how FTL works? Or is FTL travel basically "plot destination, hit button?"
« Last Edit: March 02, 2016, 06:15:14 pm by _DivideByZero_ »
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adwarf

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Re: Prosperous Stars - The Wealth of Space
« Reply #204 on: March 02, 2016, 07:58:34 pm »

Quote
Dude, get the hint - the drives aren't usable as weapons.

((Dude, that's exactly what I said in the fine print. Nobody forces you to read textwalls.

@adwarf: I've done those calculations many times over before for my own settings ;). Anyway, Gilgamesh didn't seem to get the message. Those calcs are pretty much what Dio would have done, which is why I went through the trouble of verifying that torchdrives aren't WMD's in this setting as they would be in a pseudorealistic setting. But Dio should at least know the basic equations considering there is a whole website dedicated to teaching this stuff to aspiring hard sci-fi authors. (this was directed at the "you can't really learn literal rocket science and metallurgy so quickly" quote)

It doesn't have to be a realistic setting, so duh. But real science is not opposed to storytelling. In fact, if The Martian is any indication, good science makes for unexpected plot opportunities. If adwarf wants to he can add whatever macguffinite he wants to deal with the ridiculous energy yields those engines imply.

The main problem I have with (what I assume to be) Gilgamesh's preferred approach of "GM says so, reality be damned" is that it's impossible to predict what would happen in a setting where everything is held together by GM fiat. So drives aren't WMD's, fine. That's a fair assumption to make of a lot of settings. But there has to be something that keeps them from being WMD's if you can zip around between planets in days. If it turns out that it's just because the GM says so, and not because of some in-universe explanation, then why not have magic in space as well? Because that's basically what it is.

No point in calling it science fiction if science is not allowed, end of story.))
The engines don't work as WMDs for several reasons, they and the generator have an extremely efficient heat management system, and there are quite a few safeguards in place protecting against converting them into a form that could be used as a WMD.

Also as I stated there is no FTL, long distance travel (Solar system to solar system and such) is handled through ship's interfacing with a structure that sends them into a parallel dimension where space is compressed as in a short distance there is many times farther in the other dimension. Aside from that there are also drives meant to allow short jumps through that dimension without having to interface with a Gate.
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SeriousConcentrate

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Re: Prosperous Stars - The Wealth of Space
« Reply #205 on: March 02, 2016, 08:17:06 pm »

TK interrupts the hard science debate by returning to the ship and placing a vote for the Pirate Reclamation job unless someone more socially inclined finds a better job soon.
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AzyWng

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Re: Prosperous Stars - The Wealth of Space
« Reply #206 on: March 02, 2016, 09:36:59 pm »

"Oh, so it's that time already? Well, may as well reclaim the pirate salvage.

Vote for the Pirate Reclamation job, but prepare to change my vote if new jobs turn up.
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_DivideByZero_

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Re: Prosperous Stars - The Wealth of Space
« Reply #207 on: March 02, 2016, 10:00:18 pm »

"Aye, but do we get to keep loot?"

Same as AzyWng.
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lawastooshort

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Re: Prosperous Stars - The Wealth of Space
« Reply #208 on: March 03, 2016, 08:19:36 am »

Neil offers a firm handshake and then sits down.

”Delighted to meet you… Miss? Ms Carol. You too sir, Mitchell. Hmm. I’ve a crew looking for work at the moment… well, kind of already doing some work, but you know, we’re flexible… Tell me about these pirates?

If there’s anything particular you think a small crew might be able to handle that could help out, we’re flying one quick job and then might be able to make ourselves available.”


Engage in intelligence-gathering conversation with the three, and if it doesn’t lead to an offer of immediate/urgent work, join the consensus vote of the pirate reclamation job and head back to the ship so we can leave on the mission.
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GiglameshDespair

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Re: Prosperous Stars - The Wealth of Space
« Reply #209 on: March 03, 2016, 11:27:47 am »

"Amelia. Get to the cargo bay. I want your assistance, your help for this..."

Make two exoskeleton batteries. Use Amelia's assistance and the advanced toolkit, etc, to make it a simple a job as possible.
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