Post Apf6dadiJ2CBamxxmC by Numabiena@mastodon.au
(DIR) More posts by Numabiena@mastodon.au
(DIR) Post #ApettBa5wQO56XNc2K by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-01-02T03:14:28Z
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I love it when fiction authors include:* maps* organizational charts* profiles of characters with little images* family trees* timelines * diagrams of weapons and ships with all the features labeled I sometimes think there is some notion that such things aren’t “real writing” or even that they are “crutches” But really it’s just enjoyable and makes the world seem more real.
(DIR) Post #Apeu1MvDf1XGasA8qu by bryanredeagle@beige.party
2025-01-02T03:15:58Z
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@futurebird My wife and I question the quality of a fantasy novel if there isn't a map in the cover.
(DIR) Post #Apeu2r9wivyqfBlCa0 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-01-02T03:16:20Z
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… and some stories are confusing and could benefit from some charts and guides!
(DIR) Post #Apeu9so301WjnWrryi by PizzaDemon@mastodon.online
2025-01-02T03:17:26Z
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@futurebird I often feel the need for a map. The other feature I would love is if there is a glossary of universe terms, incorporate rate into the e-reader dictionary somehow. So instead of having to jump back and forth between pages I can longpress the word/phrase.
(DIR) Post #ApeuVDbMsSUKNK6vOS by mcc@mastodon.social
2025-01-02T03:21:09Z
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@futurebird I think one of the best tricks I ever saw a fantasy novel play was I'd been reading all these novels which open with a map of their world, and I pick up this novel and it opens withAn accurate map of Oxford, England in 1836With minor differences
(DIR) Post #ApeuicIINnzuioZvXM by GoblinQuester@dice.camp
2025-01-02T03:23:47Z
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@futurebird I really miss one thing these days when I read, and that is footnotes. I encountered them for the first time as a little whelp when reading Jack Vances Planet of Adventure and he put quirky “facts” at the bottom of the pages here and there. Never seeing that these days …
(DIR) Post #ApeuuSKTG3rrI7F1pg by SailorDisco@mastodon.social
2025-01-02T03:25:57Z
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@futurebird* fictitious footnotes 🥰
(DIR) Post #Apev4mOVVlNCPy3Hyi by edwardchampion@mastodon.social
2025-01-02T03:27:49Z
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@futurebird The family trees taped to my wall right now. Definitely real writing. I'd be lost without this.
(DIR) Post #ApevdTKeNNNHQtn56G by nickdrawthing@dice.camp
2025-01-02T03:34:04Z
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@futurebird I LOVE flipping back to the map or whatever at the beginning of the book to make sure I'm imagining things as the author intended. It feels immersive and engaging and just plain fun!
(DIR) Post #ApexCqOyh8ur4XFHUW by eliterrell@mastodon.social
2025-01-02T03:51:41Z
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@futurebird I like those too. Unfortunately, I read a lot of ebooks that make it difficult to flip back to references the way I used to, and maps next to unusable. I miss that.
(DIR) Post #ApexKvi6qEu9qx38Mq by dan613@ottawa.place
2025-01-02T03:53:08Z
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@futurebird The reference list at the end of The Andromeda Strain scared the heck out of me. A couple of the papers were written by the main character in the story! It was like a twist ending.
(DIR) Post #ApeytgNzuQJmPmmHOC by crypticcelery@chaos.social
2025-01-02T04:10:36Z
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@futurebird I love the maps especially, just going back to them every once in a while (or after finishing the work) to retrace the steps of the story.
(DIR) Post #Apf1Hz58FZjfFzfY4O by gay_ornithischians@sauropods.win
2025-01-02T04:37:26Z
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@futurebird diagrams of the creatures seen from multiple viewsrendered in palaeo deviantart level detail
(DIR) Post #Apf2o3XTJXg2IjmWvY by catsalad@infosec.exchange
2025-01-02T04:54:26Z
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@futurebird I love books that do that! I need my map of Pern and Dragondex (index of terms/people).
(DIR) Post #Apf3EEjeJCmAYUxfjk by foolishowl@social.coop
2025-01-02T04:59:04Z
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@futurebird It's no substitute for good writing, but it can certainly enhance it.I've heard enough from professional writers about their detailed notes about worldbuilding, that I know it's very much part of their process; I enjoy when they share some more of it with us.
(DIR) Post #Apf3RNBSD0gKWSEN5U by TyrionTargaryen@social.vivaldi.net
2025-01-02T05:01:32Z
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@futurebird I need the story to hook me in before I can care about any of that stuff, otherwise it comes off as a video of AI-made lore I watched recently.
(DIR) Post #Apf4YvXWyKSL3bit9c by skatercat@mastodon.au
2025-01-02T05:14:02Z
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@futurebird Same, I love maps especially. Feels like a bonus song (remember those?).
(DIR) Post #Apf6dadiJ2CBamxxmC by Numabiena@mastodon.au
2025-01-02T05:37:20Z
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@futurebird ESSENTIAL! Magic maps ...
(DIR) Post #Apf70MgiLNa6yzEIUK by cerement@social.targaryen.house
2025-01-02T05:41:27Z
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@futurebird plenty of theories that Lord of the Rings only exists because Tolkien needed something to hang all his conlangs off of
(DIR) Post #ApfAcN2BnulYvK5Y6C by jaykass@mastodon.online
2025-01-02T06:21:56Z
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@futurebird I always enjoy looking at the maps in Brian Jaques' Redwall series.
(DIR) Post #ApfBE9QyokAhkPhPtI by c0mpl3x@infosec.exchange
2025-01-02T06:28:47Z
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@futurebird Having grown up reading mainly fantasy novels and role playing games I could not agree more. Always love when there is a sketch of a ship, some family tree or a picture of the sword that killed the dragon (and said dragon ofc). Makes my inner nerd squeak with joy.
(DIR) Post #ApfBJk2AATVAhvkzsu by troquaut@rivals.space
2025-01-02T06:29:45Z
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@futurebird to hell with seriousness, those are super fun !besides it's pretty funny to see a huge family tree at the start of a book and realize it's going to be a hard time keeping track of the plot...
(DIR) Post #ApfBiRgVWkT12PPKpE by rjohnsonmn@mastodon.social
2025-01-02T06:34:15Z
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@futurebird One Hundred Years of Solitude absolutely needed to include a family tree! I flipped back to that multiple times and could actually understand the relationships between people 🌳
(DIR) Post #ApfGg8qN6cZpnNk5Fg by spiegelmama@infosec.exchange
2025-01-02T07:29:51Z
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@futurebird That stuff also helps the author to keep things consistent. I would love to have had a map of Olympus while writing my (unpublished) book.
(DIR) Post #ApfHWmGPmvE7741SMa by overholt@glammr.us
2025-01-02T07:39:21Z
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@futurebird A colleague of mine at the library did an exhibition of maps included in or inspired by novels a few years ago and it was lots of fun.
(DIR) Post #ApfICGscrW1rwNgI0O by XauriEL@mastodon.nz
2025-01-02T07:46:48Z
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@futurebird One of my goals as a writer is to someday publish a story worthy of having a map in the front. And I'm working on one right now!
(DIR) Post #ApfK6zF7D3CZhSoAsq by FiveEyeTea@infosec.exchange
2025-01-02T08:08:20Z
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@futurebird Agreed entirely. I'm working on a massive series of fiction books and stories and part of that is creating an equally massive personal wiki full of lore facts that may or may not even make it into the novels. I intend to release that extra world building in formats like the Star Wars "visual dictionary" books you used to be able to get, because I absolutely love when authors have deep, immersive world building!
(DIR) Post #ApfKPz6fwKOimPv4HA by llewelly@sauropods.win
2025-01-02T08:11:47Z
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@futurebird I guess it depends on whether you want to help the reader understand the world you've worked so hard on, or you'd rather make them bang through a kubrick wall to understand it.
(DIR) Post #ApfTDyaCxah1Gh58VM by mina@berlin.social
2025-01-02T09:50:26Z
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@futurebird Yes Ma'am! I absolutely love such additional info.
(DIR) Post #ApfVOW1DhZNNlsrz84 by chris_evelyn@troet.cafe
2025-01-02T10:14:44Z
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@futurebird I liked the Perry Rhodan stories (a German SciFi series, going on since the 1960s!), but I *really loved* the technical drawings they published. Stuff like this drawing of an Ultra-Battleship could keep me fascinated for hours: http://www.rz-journal.de/Downl/0421.html
(DIR) Post #ApfbilKD6PUUl9n2YK by calmeilles@mstdn.social
2025-01-02T11:25:37Z
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@futurebird I could do without the little images (they never satisfy) but very much yes for all the rest.
(DIR) Post #ApffkgCrVHTFHSWSqO by aehdeschaine@zirk.us
2025-01-02T05:28:13Z
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@bri_seven @futurebird I like this response, because one of my very favorite books is Ursula K. Le Guin's Always Coming Home. A fictional novel's story weaves through it (especially in the expanded Library of America edition), but it primarily consists of descriptions of Kesh culture (foods, maps, dances, rituals, poems, clothing, writing, plays, professions) and little vignettes of the researcher exploring that culture. It is NOT a straightforward narrative, but it DEFINITELY tells a story.
(DIR) Post #ApffkhG5ale8Xl2YVs by aehdeschaine@zirk.us
2025-01-02T05:30:45Z
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@futurebird Otherwise, one of the most startling examples of appendices I've ever seen is in a young adult trilogy called (not a joke) Monster Blood Tattoo. I was almost totally put off by the name, but wow, am I glad I persisted. It's a little more melancholy and horror-adjacent than I normally like, but the worldbuilding is DENSE. Gives a very Tolkien-/Martin-esque sense that the author came up with a world, THEN a story to tell about it.@bri_seven
(DIR) Post #ApffkiTb422sJwMrCq by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-01-02T11:58:33Z
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@aehdeschaine @bri_seven That is a god awful name. I will take note te that it’s misleading. I sometimes think authors really harm themselves with the titles they choose. “consider phlebas” by Ian M. Banks comes to mind. If you don’t know or like T.S. Elliot it sounds stodgy and Biblical in the worst way— and even if you do like Elliot it conveys next to nothing about the story. A bland title like “Identity” would have been better and that’s not even a good title either.
(DIR) Post #ApffkjIzyvA6tMPuKG by Seanochicago@mastodon.sdf.org
2025-01-02T12:10:40Z
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@futurebird @aehdeschaine @bri_seven Related: I did a checklist of Shakespeare plays to see how many I saw. (Not a lot, mostly because I haven’t really got into the Henriad.)When I got to the comedies I had to look up synopses because I couldn’t remember the plays by title. As you like it? All well that ends well? I had no idea, AND I WAS IN ONE OF THOSE PLAYS!!I think a generic title is worse than a bad one. That, and I might be getting memory problems.
(DIR) Post #Apffur7hlnH62BxkuW by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-01-02T12:02:20Z
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@diedofheartbreak Yes, I can see how it could be taken too far. I just wish more of the authors I enjoy would feel free to tell the story in more varied ways.
(DIR) Post #Apfh910ttXYsiV5zsm by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-01-02T12:26:24Z
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@aehdeschaine @bri_seven "Monster Blood Tattoo" Sounds like a rejected name for a particularly ugly and grating shade of "Manic Panic" hair color from the 90s.
(DIR) Post #ApfhSnTfvl2wWlzHwe by Remittancegirl@mstdn.social
2025-01-02T12:29:57Z
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@futurebird If someone would reissue every Dostoevsky novel with this, I'd be so happy.
(DIR) Post #ApfiZNTh5xWds8hLIe by RachamimOnWheels@wandering.shop
2025-01-02T12:42:15Z
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@futurebird I love a good "Dramatis Personae" at the start of a novel
(DIR) Post #ApfjKW2p3vpI3FbejI by RachamimOnWheels@wandering.shop
2025-01-02T12:50:15Z
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@GoblinQuester @futurebird a number of books I read in my teens also used the "any similarities to persons living or dead" statement and other parts of the isbn page like warnings, acknowledgements, disclaimers and even statements about the printing and paperstock to make fun meta-fictional asides
(DIR) Post #ApfjMfjzyyOChfpVzc by glowl@chaos.social
2025-01-02T12:49:03Z
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@aehdeschaine @futurebird @bri_seven i think authors sometimes do not have that much influence on the title. heard they are often influenced by editors/publishers to change to something more dramatic even so its less fitting. bit i guess they definitely have a veto in that.
(DIR) Post #Apfkaj7mIbytCoDaAC by M_Gatta@ecoevo.social
2025-01-02T13:04:44Z
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@GoblinQuester @futurebird A somewhat recent great example of footnotes in action was Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrel by Susanna Clarke
(DIR) Post #ApflT3B5xNqD2Pfmvg by nyrath@spacey.space
2025-01-02T13:14:49Z
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@futurebird
(DIR) Post #Apflnr9FsUrfoGjX9s by DrHyde@fosstodon.org
2025-01-02T13:18:38Z
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@futurebird I want to read some nautical fiction which doesn’t just show me what the main brace is but also explains what splicing it athwart the poop means and why you would want to do that.
(DIR) Post #Apfmz5eQOhNzveEX3I by TerryBTwo@ohai.social
2025-01-02T13:31:51Z
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@futurebird Also useful for those us with lousy memory for names/place names/etc.
(DIR) Post #ApfvaU7bB8L0AeDmnA by WhiteCatTamer@mastodon.online
2025-01-02T15:08:15Z
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@futurebird GLOSSARIESSo that you can actually have normal bi/multilingual discussions.
(DIR) Post #ApfwEXZ5nMgYQxBIsC by WhiteCatTamer@mastodon.online
2025-01-02T15:15:30Z
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@futurebird Also: did you ever get these books and just pore over them because if yes then yay nostalgia and if no then you would love them: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/The_Essential_Guide_to_Vehicles_and_Vessels
(DIR) Post #Apg5ak9MaHdDQKoCZc by Sharksonaplane@mastodon.sandwich.net
2025-01-02T17:00:21Z
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@futurebird You might enjoy "Taiwan Travelogue"! It's a fictional travelogue written as though it's been through a couple editions/translations (eg, the foreword is fictional), and has actually been translated into English. The "author" character is a Japanese writer who goes to Taiwan in the late 30s (with all the historical context that implies) and there are maps and diagrams and many footnotes, both from the real author masquerading as a translator, and from the translator-into-English.
(DIR) Post #ApgAz5K41403oIEweu by mauvedeity@mastodon.social
2025-01-02T18:00:45Z
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@futurebird @aehdeschaine @bri_seven oh yeah, good point. I never got the reference.
(DIR) Post #ApgJR8Nh2NUF2Op7hI by aehdeschaine@zirk.us
2025-01-02T19:35:27Z
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@futurebird Right?! They also rebranded the design with each new release, so the first cover was somewhat cheap-looking, too. I'm still astounded that I even picked it up. But now all three (with different designs on each) are on my home shelf!
(DIR) Post #ApgJWYJO3VgguLOQdM by aehdeschaine@zirk.us
2025-01-02T19:36:27Z
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@futurebird I never even knew what the reference was! Just the "phle" used to sound enough like phlegm that I kept Banks off my list for way too long. A shame, in hindsight.
(DIR) Post #ApgKvQSUUTEjkH4kaW by Lazarou@mastodon.social
2025-01-02T19:52:07Z
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@futurebird I just enjoy Worldbuilding for the hell of it, barely has any story come of my Universe but it is a vast and documented place. I know there are others like me. #Worldbuilding #Astrosynthesis
(DIR) Post #ApgLHnbJ83Q7tGrsOW by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-01-02T19:56:14Z
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@aehdeschaine Cover art and titles shouldn't matter too much... but they can matter. I read this one last of all... mostly because the title just made me go "????" it didn't connect to anything. "Space Story" would have gotten me to it sooner.
(DIR) Post #ApgLgmvOmMsd29BIGW by toni@zug.network
2025-01-02T20:00:41Z
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@futurebird I have an “Atlas of the Discworld” and I’ve only read around five Discworld novels. Fictional maps and world building are so fun, I can often enjoy them separate from the actual stories.In my university rooms, I always had a bunch of maps from video games etc. Now I’ve decided to embrace that side of me again and have a map of the Inner Sphere from BattleTech on my living room wall. I’m just sad that the 3025 and 3052 versions are on opposite sides of the poster, so I can’t have both.
(DIR) Post #ApilUdy7EqGQuEF2bQ by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-01-03T23:59:18Z
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@su_liam @nyrath @Lazarou I'm enjoying this tangent fwiw
(DIR) Post #ApizXbvkfgECoORdzs by nyrath@spacey.space
2025-01-04T02:14:18Z
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@su_liam @mmby @Lazarou @futurebird Once I tried to make a map of Niven & Pournelle's The Mote in God's Eye universe. The lore said that stars tended to have jump links to other stars with similar masses. I wrote a Python script to ingest a subset of the Hipparchos star catalog and output a node graph in gml format. I then displayed it in yEd.1/http://www.yworks.com/products/yed#yed-support-resources
(DIR) Post #ApizXjdxzgksjYBYO0 by nyrath@spacey.space
2025-01-04T02:16:28Z
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@su_liam @mmby @Lazarou @futurebird Predictably the map was very boring. Basically a long line of stars sorted by Stellar mass.2/end
(DIR) Post #Apj1v52cntKvfMyjZo by frenshape@beige.party
2025-01-04T03:03:20Z
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@futurebird i especially like it when they include a detailed theory of operation and repair manual for the main drive of the spaceship.Just enough details to build a working replica and get off this rock
(DIR) Post #ApjAT3GYi48BdiCp84 by Lazarou@mastodon.social
2025-01-03T17:48:58Z
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@su_liam @nyrath @futurebird one little tweak evolves into needing to rewrite the Universe, again!
(DIR) Post #ApjAT4UQA0oVQzhPNI by nyrath@spacey.space
2025-01-03T19:03:02Z
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@Lazarou @su_liam @futurebird That's why you write software to calculate the network, because the the blasted set of colonized star systems *will* change. Better to have the software recalculate, instead of increasing the wear and tear on your patience, your nerves, and your hairline.
(DIR) Post #ApjAT5dJuPWgyss1su by maxthefox@spacey.space
2025-01-04T02:34:17Z
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@nyrath @Lazarou @su_liam @futurebird My one issue with the sphere or Voronoi model of space empires is: expansion wouldn't be uniform in every direction if they beeline towards likely habitable worlds, and wars and treaties will further change borders from their "ideal" shape. I am working on translating this map to 3D but this is basically how the borders in my worldbuild look like. Messy.
(DIR) Post #ApjAT6l9ilO8TTXnjk by maxthefox@spacey.space
2025-01-04T02:35:11Z
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@nyrath @Lazarou @su_liam @futurebird I cannot represent individual stars here because I calculated the amount of stars the map would need to have and it's 113 thousand. No thanks.
(DIR) Post #ApjAT7d2UQURAakpiy by Lazarou@mastodon.social
2025-01-04T02:39:51Z
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@maxthefox @nyrath @su_liam @futurebird "My God, It's Full Of Stars!" I don't think many people understand just how many stars there are out there, even in our little bubble of the galaxy. It's humbling....and also exciting!
(DIR) Post #ApjAT8vVfErJCAP69Y by nyrath@spacey.space
2025-01-04T02:57:57Z
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@Lazarou @maxthefox @su_liam @futurebird The last estimate I saw was galactic Stellar density was on the order of 4.0×10^-3 s/ly^3(0.004 stars per cubic light-year) which means our galaxy has a kajillion stars in it...
(DIR) Post #ApjAlU2vsdNjuRca4u by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-01-04T04:42:29Z
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@nyrath @Lazarou @maxthefox @su_liam And one can get lost in a bit of forest on Earth, because there are too many trees. And the people looking for, just can't possibly check every single tree. It's also a little chilling to realize that even if we had the means to go from one star to the next just looking closely at all of them in a particular region would be much more time consuming.
(DIR) Post #ApjFuXdkO5M1QrynFg by maxthefox@spacey.space
2025-01-04T05:37:41Z
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@nyrath @Lazarou @su_liam @futurebird Yes, that is the figure I used alongside the volume of a 23x170x170 light year ellipsoid.The reason why my FTL type works only in that region is a scientific mystery in-universe but everyone just accepts it at this point. Out-of-universe I have it as a way to box the civilizations in to force bloc politics to exist.It *sounds* restrictive but it isn't. 113k stars and a planned 50 or more alien civilizations. Still unimaginably vast.
(DIR) Post #ApjFyLduw1iXNjsGHY by maxthefox@spacey.space
2025-01-04T05:38:54Z
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@nyrath @Lazarou @su_liam @futurebird A lot of sci-fi throws around things like "the whole galaxy" without understanding how stupendously huge a galaxy actually is. Or even any notable section of it.The Oval would be less than a pixel on a map of the Milky Way.
(DIR) Post #ApkhGbokQcKsgCpdvk by 60sRefugee@spacey.space
2025-01-04T20:07:19Z
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@nyrath @Lazarou @maxthefox @su_liam @futurebird And space is so vast and so empty that the idea of a starship just happening to "run across" something (unless they have ftl sensors with deca-parsec range) is more ludicrous than randomly finding a message in a bottle in the Pacific.
(DIR) Post #Apl9eJMNVC8r6KeWrg by maxthefox@spacey.space
2025-01-04T07:18:31Z
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@su_liam @futurebird @nyrath @Lazarou There's a reason I don't do things like make planet maps... I'd get bogged down very fast lol
(DIR) Post #Apl9eKIA2MMXzXgfvk by nyrath@spacey.space
2025-01-04T07:58:12Z
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@maxthefox @su_liam @futurebird @Lazarou Agreed. If I made planetary maps for my star maps I'd make them procedurally, so I could crank out millions of them.
(DIR) Post #Apl9eLBohQskm9j7gG by michael_w_busch@mastodon.online
2025-01-04T22:28:06Z
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@nyrath @maxthefox @su_liam @futurebird @Lazarou I have experimented with a few procedural planetary map generators. I have yet to find one that respects plate tectonics.
(DIR) Post #Apl9eM7FFuoreGazC4 by swope@mstdn.plus
2025-01-05T03:35:29Z
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@michael_w_buschPretty limited sample so far, but it looks like a minority of planets have plate tectonics.@nyrath @maxthefox @su_liam @futurebird @Lazarou
(DIR) Post #Apl9eN6vYa9wjZSFKy by maxthefox@spacey.space
2025-01-05T03:36:22Z
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@swope @michael_w_busch @nyrath @su_liam @futurebird @Lazarou But probably a majority of the *interesting* planets that would be good settler spots do.
(DIR) Post #Apl9eO208NoTaa9pIW by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-01-05T03:39:06Z
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@maxthefox @swope @michael_w_busch @nyrath @su_liam @Lazarou This is true, but I still find it kind of gross. Like the planet is still soft and gooey like a brownie that hasn't cooled and it keeps scabbing over and bubbling and ... growing things. But that's what we like I guess. Just like my cat Pica loves anything suspicious looking and stinky she finds on the roof garden.
(DIR) Post #AplAJX3HV5b3RHNMxc by swope@mstdn.plus
2025-01-05T03:46:49Z
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@futurebird @maxthefoxProcedural generation has always been underwhelming to me at making interesting things. I forgot who called it a thousand bowls of oatmeal, but that resonates with me.I want to have low-fidelity physics modeling on one end, and a sketch of the desired setting on the other, and have the procedure "grow" them to each other. @michael_w_busch @nyrath @su_liam @Lazarou
(DIR) Post #AplAM4WS1rDTpDENiy by Lazarou@mastodon.social
2025-01-05T03:47:17Z
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@futurebird @maxthefox @swope @michael_w_busch @nyrath @su_liam just freaks me out how much of this planet is molten and what a thin veneer what we think of as 'ground' is. But it's what makes this planet so good for multicellular life and the weird, self aware direction it took here. Look at poor Mars, not so lucky....
(DIR) Post #AplAPwkarn8IsZh45Y by maxthefox@spacey.space
2025-01-05T03:48:00Z
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@futurebird @swope @michael_w_busch @nyrath @su_liam @Lazarou Life exists when there is an energy gradient; this is both the reason decaying organic matter is a hotbed for lifeforms and why planets that are still soft and gooey are more likely to support life.
(DIR) Post #AplB3nw33pWL7f3bVI by pbinkley@code4lib.social
2025-01-05T03:55:11Z
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@futurebird @maxthefox @swope @michael_w_busch @nyrath @su_liam @Lazarou well you've completely spoiled continental drift for me
(DIR) Post #AplBANyzwwJ4exZikK by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-01-05T03:56:22Z
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@pbinkley sorry... but I just keep thinking about a moldy orange...
(DIR) Post #AplBiSksiFWRJ4DmbI by jstevenyork@mastodon.social
2025-01-05T04:02:31Z
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@futurebird I'm still quite proud of the work I did for the 90s Sierra PC game, "Outpost 2." In addition to an 80k word fiction ebook on the CD, I wrote things like unit descriptions as narratively as I could, introducing characters and even mini-stories that supported both the book and the game. I STILL get the occasional fan letter on this game, 27 years after the fact. Anything CAN be "real writing," if you have the will (and a platform that's willing to support it).
(DIR) Post #AplEa1VGRzNwKeaGBs by sullybiker@fedi.thespinning.top
2025-01-05T04:34:44.294120Z
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@jstevenyork @futurebird This sounds wonderful. I remember back in 1986 reading the Novella that came with 'Elite'. Later on, there was something similar in Starglider 2, in 1988. It's much more than a bit of paper with the game; it really builds the world and fires it up in the player's imagination. Beyond the visual austerity (in Elite's case) it helps the feeling there's an entire world. Great for a kid growing up, and even a grown up kid...
(DIR) Post #AplGTWcwXB9Ak5Cl4S by mina@berlin.social
2025-01-05T04:55:51Z
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@futurebird What I find most incredible: All this heat trapped below the crusty surface of our little planet still stems from the time when it formed and most of it will be still there, when our Sun will make its final blast and burn it away.@maxthefox @swope @michael_w_busch @nyrath @su_liam @Lazarou
(DIR) Post #AplNT0VmdcfWoiYXEe by swope@mstdn.plus
2025-01-05T05:01:34Z
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@minaiirc, a good bit of Earth's internal heat is due to radioactive decay of uranium and other elements, in addition to the primordial heat.It's pretty mind bending to me!@futurebird @maxthefox @michael_w_busch @nyrath @su_liam @Lazarou
(DIR) Post #AplNT1ntpkkopC2W6y by michael_w_busch@mastodon.online
2025-01-05T05:31:50Z
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@swope @mina @futurebird @maxthefox @nyrath @su_liam @Lazarou Earth's internal heat budget is currently roughly evenly split between radioactive decay and primordial heat from accretion.
(DIR) Post #AplOiL5KWrc6vE3cDQ by TerryHancock@realsocial.life
2025-01-05T06:28:10Z
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@futurebird I love these so much.Some of my favorites:"Lord of the Rings" (ofc) - maps & appendices"Dragon's Egg" - maps /diagrams"Flight of the Dragonfly".- maps/diagrams"The Ringworld Engineers" - traverse map"Chanur's Venture" - projected star map of "Compact Space" and jump corridorsThen there's "Venus Prime" where I haven't actually read the books, but the CAD illustrated appendices are beautiful.If I ever do publish a novel, it's going to have this!
(DIR) Post #Apm1nwyoxae86ygAwS by jstevenyork@mastodon.social
2025-01-05T09:31:54Z
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@sullybiker @futurebird In the case of Outpost 2, it was a city-builder/real time strategy hybrid. It had maps, units, structures, but no people! I came in late and pointed this out, and it was my task to fill in what was happening inside all those structures and vehicles. I even got to script the cut scenes. It was a challenging schedule, but a lot of fun, and I learned (the hard way) I could plot on the fly. My writing skills definitely leveled up on this project.
(DIR) Post #ApmN6uD5a40o3oEV72 by maysonic@twit.social
2025-01-05T17:44:53Z
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@futurebird Just reading “City of Last Cances” by Adrian Tchaikovsky which has a great map, lists of factions of the City and the Occupation, and Dramatis Personae, all quite useful.
(DIR) Post #ApmZUMHCazh5DW6eYq by Enema_Cowboy@dotnet.social
2025-01-05T20:03:36Z
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@futurebirdThose suggestions would have made the Bible a much easier read. @mmiasma