Well of Souls Forums

...look at woman, foreigner or poor people and said: "Neither human or intelligent." Come on, that isn't even true for gentlemen of the 1520s. Well, except for upper-class English, who seemingly hate the poor. Once again, not taking into account psychology. Yes, a 19th century gentleman would categ...

Firstly, I don't imply, I'm explicit. European and american moral standards are the highest ideal, preferably pre-20s european and american moral standards. Oooooh, I really shouldn't say anything, but I'll say this: while you are MOSTLY correct (and by mostly I mean that higher moral standards ten...

I think there's a limited amount of "fine manipulation" you can do with the body of a trunk or tentacle. If you need fine manipulation on two objects at once, as is the case with much tool use (such as knapping flint), I think it would be significant handicap to skill if you have to wrap one of the...

You must have liked "Footfall" by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. :ugeek: I...kinda liked it when I was young, but it was pretty ponderous reading. As I got older I liked it less and less. The subplots about cheating hearts and loose pants made me cringe many a times, as well as the somewhat self-...

DAMMIT!!! I miss three days on the forum, and this conversation happens without me! To add some late opinions to the evolutionary quagmire: on needs to remember that while we think the mammals at the time of the dinosaurs were placental (evolving during the Cretaceous), we don't actually have any pr...

Best utility human ships would have is: 1) Point defence, owing to their large number of laser weapon mounts. You can use a heavy laser to shoot down a missile just as easily as a light laser. Must make sure you can keep up, however, with whatever it is you be defending. So, restricted to battlestat...

Heh, I'm gonna do an inelegant sidestep of the main question (the usability of Dyson swarms is about as far from us as the Three Gorges Dam is from Homo Erectus) an focus on two tidbits: We don't all have household atomic reactors or flying cars today, not because they're not technically feasible, b...

The only examples of cybernetic augmentation that exist are individuals with psionic amplifiers. There are only a few examples of this, found on Mezan as part of what seems to have been a group that all died together, seemingly of exposure. It was the discovery of this group, along with the remains...

Question, Arioch: were there any fossils/skeletal remains found from the time of the Fall? If there are, how different were those Loroi compared to todays' ? Were they augmented in any way?

I was thinking the latter, based on Arioch once saying that Terran vessels' acceleration was more limited by their compensators than by fusion drives. Implying that if they had better compensators, they could build faster vessels without developing better engine technology. Incorrect: This question...

One thing we aren't sure of yet is what the two side have built up since the last major offensive. The War Cruiser seems to be one of the Loroi's newest cruiser types, and its seems to be half the firepower of the battlecruisers and more than the heavy cruisers. Their Wave Loom forces seem to have ...

Well, the Loroi didn't disclose their vessel's name either... Given the size of the Loroi Navy (estimated at 2-3 thousand), I'd say there should be several hundred destroyer-sized ships out there. I'd make more sense I think for them to identify using some kind of hull number, rather the the ship n...

Well, I wanted to write this next part before answering some of those points, since they're kinda linked. Essentially, Andrews is using the term colonial instead of terran on purpose. It's his very first transmission, he doesn't want to give ANYTHING away for free. In his mind, information is power,...

Part VIII "Attention, unknown installation. This is the Loroi Union vessel ED-295, assigned to strike group 83. We are being chased by an enemy ship, and have suffered damage. Any assistance would be beneficial. Please advise." The message rung out loud and clear from the speakers. The soft humm of...

Honestly, I think your 85 percent efficiency is grossly optimistic. In such "directed energy" charges, the narrower the cone, the less the efficiency. SDI studies (for weapons that is) ranged from 5% to 10%. You are also underestimating the fact that part of the energy would be used to shove, rather...

The Terran Mjolnir is powered by a capacitor that is charged by the ship's fusion engines. Explosively pumped weapons are destroyed as they fire, so they're not very useful as starship weapons. I suppose it's theoretically possible to build a firing chamber that can withstand the thermonuclear blas...

'shamelessly inserts himself into conversation' To MBehave: Here are some useful links for nuclear driven directed energy weapons: http://toughsf.blogspot.com/2017/05/nuclear-efp-and-heat.html http://toughsf.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-nuclear-spear-casaba-howitzer.html Essentially, one can classify su...

It's hard to know what may or may not have happened behind closed doors, but live Historians have only been seen publicly at a few events at which they were required to attend in person (as a condition of the alliance). During these events, the live Historians kept to themselves and only interacted...

Part VII "We MUST confront them, captain. How long are we to suffer this injustice? How long are we to run with the stench of their breaths breathing down our necks?" "They haven't loosened their gunboats yet, Swiftalon" , replied Razorleaf. "They seem to be trying more to intimidate us, than to att...

The Pipolsid evolved to be able to fabricate sophisticated structures from chemical compounds secreted by their own bodies, which were necessary to protect their fragile bodies from predators. Wait...are the Pipolsid shelled, and use natural adhesives to form protective layers? Or are they slimy li...