Forging Ahead (GURPS Interstellar Wars/Celestial Forge)

[Ultim@tePower]

For some reason I imagine people coming across her work and having a bunch of Eureka! Moments. Leading to the entire tech tree being rapidly uncovered due to how similar it was to their existing tech.

Click to shrink...

To be fair Dr Saunders is a genius like he's the best in hyperspace physics and the only one that can come close is McAndrews who wrote the foundation for the jump drive in the first place, it's not that hard to see him standing on Novak's work to find a new breakthrough it's how science works and besides it still took him a month

Been reading Interstellar Wars again and it mentions plagues that occurred right after the 3rd Interstellar War:Have the Terrans already dealt with this? Because maybe Sophie could help develop advanced medicines or ideas regarding disease treatment or other things as well.

Click to shrink...

She could but why would she? It's already being handled by conventional medics and even if she did and magically make Terran diseases disappear, the Vilani will still find an excuse to start the 4th interstellar war, remember the Vilani governor is an anti-Terran she's going to start a war on way or another

 

[Arimai]

Been reading Interstellar Wars again and it mentions plagues that occurred right after the 3rd Interstellar War:Have the Terrans already dealt with this? Because maybe Sophie could help develop advanced medicines or ideas regarding disease treatment or other things as well.

Click to shrink...

No. It's currently being handled by Confed Bureau of Health.

 

[Blade4]

Been reading Interstellar Wars again and it mentions plagues that occurred right after the 3rd Interstellar War:Have the Terrans already dealt with this? Because maybe Sophie could help develop advanced medicines or ideas regarding disease treatment or other things as well.

Click to shrink...

Thing is she is a physics genius. She suddenly branches out as a medical genius making cures and treatments that will cause her issues. The government is already watching her as a anomaly. She starts pulling polyglot answers for everything they need out of her hat that will make people nervous why and how.

 

[Faralis]

Thing is she is a physics genius. She suddenly branches out as a medical genius making cures and treatments that will cause her issues. The government is already watching her as a anomaly. She starts pulling polyglot answers for everything they need out of her hat that will make people nervous why and how.

Click to shrink...

That said, they know she studied advanced biotech in the uni, so it wouldn't be completely out of the field ...

 

[Blade4]

That said, they know she studied advanced biotech in the uni, so it wouldn't be completely out of the field ...

Click to shrink...

Physics is far safer for her right now. If they knew what she could do and did she would be in a birdcage or a bullet in the head. That's not joking or exaggerating. Sometimes the only safe thing is to terminate a threat.

 

[wellis]

You know, what if Sophie invents nuclear dampers here at least 2 tech levels or so before they appear in Traveller canon? Some breakthrough on physics on her end or someone builds off of it or something

 

[Blade4]

You know, what if Sophie invents nuclear dampers here at least 2 tech levels or so before they appear in Traveller canon? Some breakthrough on physics on her end or someone builds off of it or something

Click to shrink...

Perhaps but she has no reason to go for that or know about it and the Confed does not have the tech to properly use or maintain it. At best she puts together a blackbox device thats way to big that she has to hand make and can only be properly used by her.

 

[Arimai]

Physics is far safer for her right now. If they knew what she could do and did she would be in a birdcage or a bullet in the head. That's not joking or exaggerating. Sometimes the only safe thing is to terminate a threat.

Click to shrink...

The Forge rewrote reality to ensure witnesses to her somehow amassing 7 doctorates from high school to now and continues to do so. It won't be a problem, but it is a waste of her time at the moment

 

[Taliesin]

The Forge rewrote reality to ensure witnesses to her somehow amassing 7 doctorates from high school to now and continues to do so. It won't be a problem, but it is a waste of her time at the moment

Click to shrink...

This really drives home that the ultimate technology is whatever is driving the Forge itself. It breaks causality, and that's the kind of technology that makes you indistinguishable not just from magic, but from a god.

If I could add something to my wishlist for the fic, it would be an interesting explanation of where the Forge comes from and why it exists.

 

[Slayer 10321]

This really drives home that the ultimate technology is whatever is driving the Forge itself. It breaks causality, and that's the kind of technology that makes you indistinguishable not just from magic, but from a god.

If I could add something to my wishlist for the fic, it would be an interesting explanation of where the Forge comes from and why it exists.

Click to shrink...

Cliff's previous CF fic had the Celestial Forge being the Cosmic Forge from the RIFT's setting and although we didn't get an origin story for the Cosmic Forge, we had the origin story for how and why the MC gained access to said Forge.

 

[cliffc999]

In 'Light of the Forge', I'd written that one into the plot from the beginning. In this story, I had nothing particular in mind for why the Celestial Forge is, it just is.

 

[Dextority]

Yeah, when people add in explanations for the Celestial Forge or similar things that make sense in-universe, it kind of takes up too much air. I'd much prefer it's just the work of a random omnipotent wizard then some greater thing.

 

[Jordisk]

She didn't do that intentionally though. She explicitly stated she didn't realize the math could be used to leapfrog the Jump-3 development and was surprised by it.

Click to shrink...

She said she was surprised that they found the leapfrog, not that she didn't know it existed. The Jump-3 drive uses the exact same math, if to a lesser degree, that her hypothetical Jump-9 drive does.

I didn't even know that edition of Traveller existed, but I doubt I'll be paying much attention to it.

Click to shrink...

As per wiki.travellerrpg.com, it is TL17 for Hop-1, the same as Jump-8. Basically, instead of going Jump-8/Jump-9/Jump-10, they went Jump-8/Jump-9/Hop-1. Hop-1 is Jump-10, Hop-2 is Jump-20, and so on. They actually went even higher. Hop-10 is Skip-1, Skip-10 is Leap-1, Leap-10 is Bound-1, Bound-10 is Vault-1. Beyond Vault, they just went with Sixdrive, Sevendrive, and so on, as in "sixth order jump drive". Each higher-order drive also has a landing scatter equal to the lower drive; a Hop drive can land you anywhere within Jump-1 of your destination, a Skip drive can land you within Hop-1 of your destination, and so on.

Another limitation is that Order of Magnitude thing also applies to the safe distance from a gravity well. Jump Drives have to be 100 times the diameter of the planet? Hop Drives have to be 1000D away. Skip Drives have to 10kD. Thus the idea of not just a "lowport" and a "highport", aka a groundside shuttle port and an orbital starport, but also a "farport" for Hop Drives to connect to. Or, you know, using a secondary Jump drive to get closer after jumping with your Hop Drive.

Ugh, minor continuity note - StarLeaper Two was a ship name already in-use in the setting (it was the first exploration vessel to reach Peraspera, as it happens). So I need to go back and name the damned thing something else.

Click to shrink...

Starbounder, because it is the next order of Starleaper?