Random Questions Thread

Private messaging can work, as can the use of existing OTC threads about the topic if they exist.

(Also, repeating my own question)

is there an alternative way to do dual dialouge? (especially if the words being said at the same time is different)

I don't know what method you're using, so I don't know what would qualify as "an alternative."

That said, the standard way to do Dual Dialogue is two separate blocks of text, side-by-side. This should solve the second part of your question. Here's one article of many on the subject.

Septimus: I ran the floor area through my calculator and 200k square meters would be somewhere around 447x447 meters per side, which should be 1,676x1,676 feet, and those would equate to three VERY LARGE city blocks of 550x550ft each.

edited 25th Apr '17 4:06:57 PM by Sharysa

They are only residential, though. I have not been able to find much information on how much space the non-residential areas would need for such a population, hence my question.

Depends on what you mean by "need". People can survive with 0% non-residential area, if their food and supplies are delivered by truck (this is basically a refugee camp). However, that brings up an important caveat. There are fundemental economic processes that have to be set somewhere, but whether and what type could or should be placed within walking or driving distance of residential areas will depend on the state and cost of transportation. The cheaper bulk transportation is, the larger "pure" residential areas can get.

"Need" here means shopping, schools, gyms and all building based non-residential spaces. Recreation and housing specifically excluded. The desert archipelago has some crops and fisheries but not enough to feed itself (and the fisheries aren't land use).

Well, as I say, there is no fixed space ratio. It depends on what you consider the shopping needs of a population to be, and how expensive bulk shipping is.

I am unable to find any research on the ideal ratio of commercial to industrial to residential property in terms of the needs of the local population, although there is some with respect to the fiscal impact of each type of property on the local economy.

Was thinking more of surface area per capita; also the extremely high density of the housing means that travel distances for shops, schools and the like are always fairly short.

On my story Protectors I have a question. The main villainous force is a Nebulous Evil Organization called Mist. They can rival the Protectors in terms of sheer technology, but I was kind of wondering if I should create more members?

Anyone who has followed the thread I made for it knows that the Protectors are a huge organization of superheroes. However, Mist comes off to me as smaller in size. Right now, I only have six prominent field agents: Frostbite, B. Hood, Tripwire, Stone, Riot, and Ghost Walker. There's another prominent Mist character, the Mad Scientist Dr. Wilson, but he is strictly a non-combatant. They have allied associates with other organizations, but I was wondering if anyone thought it was odd that there are only six "elite" combatants in the core besides the Faceless Mooks.

What are your thoughts on this? Should there be more prominent members of the terrorist organization, or is this good enough?

You could always say that there are more elite combatants, but only ever show or flesh out the six of them, since that seems like a fair number of characters to flesh out already, doesn't it?

I have a question myself: What exactly can being subjected to intense levels of pain throughout the majority of ones life until adolescence do to a person?

Emotional pain or physical?

Or is it a mix of both?

Maybe, but the story has Loads And Loads Of Characters and I'm not sure if six is enough.

If you want loads of characters on every side and six doesn't sound like loads to you, then there you have your answer. Personally I'd say it's plenty.

Both, though perhaps leaning more towards physical.

What's a brief (no more than a sentence or two) description that I could give of someone's laptop to indicate that they know their stuff in regards to computers?

This character is an expert at digging up information on people and things, which in the modern day I'd guess requires a fair amount of internet work and such. She's not a particularly skilled hacker, but she does know a few things, enough to get around a badly set-up security system or the like (and yes, I am aware that real-life computer hacking doesn't work the way it does in the movies). It's not particularly relevant now, but I don't want everyone to lose all suspension of disbelief later when it does get brought up ("No one who knew what she claims to know/does what she claims to do would use one of those!")

That's a really hard thing to do, given the constraints. Any hacker worth their salt can realistically work using any laptop from the past 10 (sometimes 20) years. Just a matter of having the right operating system (the hackers I know choose some form of Linux) and the computer hardware to do what needs to be done — y'know, USB ports, wifi, ethernet... Standard stuff found on laptops.

There's really not much that can be shown except "Hey! They're not using Windows or macOS!" and, in some cases, "Hey! They've got a terminal shell open!" (but keep in mind that even an intermediate computer-idiot like myself can do basic stuff on the command line).

Ultimately, I think you'll just need to take more than a line or two to really establish that they know their stuff.

PS: As much as I don't like recommending it^note I've got beef with their cinematographer for completely throwing the rules of composition out the window. Mr. Robot will end up being your bible in regards to portraying hackers.

edited 30th Apr '17 8:40:01 PM by AwSamWeston

Following up my question chain: If there some minimum surface area a high-rise building needs to have for its stability? Assume that we are dealing with super-critical buildings (i.e a lot of people will die in a collapse) in a moderately earthquake-endangered area.

It's less about minimum surface area of a building and more about what you put in it - google "earthquake-proofing" or "earthquake-proof buildings".

Well, no, earthquakes are not the only concern in high-rise stability. Static stability is also an issue.

@ashfire: There's a big difference between what a person needs to know about computers to hack and what they need to know in order to winkle out information about people. You don't have to be able to break into databases for the latter; you just have to understand what kind of footprints people leave without thinking about them and know how to find those footprints. So the big skill is Google-fu, not coding.

The biggest thing I can think of that would be noticeable on the computer itself is that they'd probably have a lot of different search engines shortcutted, because some work better at certain things than others.

For instance, Google is great for a broad search as long as you don't let it track you. If you do that, it starts skewing its results to what it thinks you want based on previous searches instead of only what you asked this time. On the other hand, Duck Duck Go doesn't tailor its results like that, but it also doesn't allow the kind of fine search that the commands in a Google Advanced Search does so you'd get a lot of false hits because all the words you searched for are there, but not the specific phrase. They'll most likely have a "search within this page" add-on, as well.

Lots of documents — or rather, lots of folders of documents and pictures. Screencaps, too — once you've found the information, you need to get it all in one place where you can look at it and see how it fits together.

edited 1st May '17 1:35:07 PM by Madrugada

In a superhero setting, how do normal people feel about not being able to be superheroes in a world full of people with amazing abilities and technology?

I want to imagine how people feel about being a complete Muggle in a world like this. Some manage to be superheroes anyways despite having no powers, but obviously that's a small number compared to the world at large. I'm guessing there would be those who admire, those who fear, and those who would have envy over not being able to be heroes themselves. What do you guys think?

Well yes, there will be the whole damn gamut of reactions. And the big trend is pretty much unpredictable so you can set it to whatever you want in according with the general tone of your work. Also it can vary wildly by nation or any other stratification of the normals.

Oh and it will also be influenced by how you set the overall trend of the behaviour of the heroes.

edited 1st May '17 11:28:29 PM by Adannor

It could be close to how we see celebrities/extremely wealthy people in our world (after all, money, power and fame are some kind of superpower). A lot of people would look up to them with awe (going to fandboyism to actual worship), and then there would be those who mistrust them or are actively campaigning against them. As Adannor said, which mindset is prevalent depends on your setting and the superheroes' behaviour and origins - for instance, if superpowers are genetic there may be people who are trying to marry superheroes in order to ensure superpowers for their children, while others may consider them a different species that should not be mingled with (and then there are the standard X-Men reactions...).

edited 3rd May '17 7:43:52 AM by C105

What would it take to have a human being / human-sized creature be able to shoot streams of water from its mouth with enough force to act as a water jet cutter capable of slicing wood, flesh and steel with ease akin to a hot knife cutting through butter?

edited 3rd May '17 4:32:23 PM by MarqFJA

Not a direct answer to your question; I think Adannor and C105's thoughts are the same as mine would be. But, in a world of superheroes, I think super/para/metahumans would be forbidden from competing with Muggles, be it in the Olympics, e-sports championships, etc. Similar to how Dash's parents didn't want to let him become an athlete, except enforced legally. If superpowers are genetic, okay, maybe it's debatable if that would be legally enforced. However, I think some championships wouldn't allow super-competitors because everyone knows Usain Bolt would lose against the Flash already. Alright, maybe you can get some views from that the first time, but it'd get boring quickly because there's no challenge or risk in it. I reason it just like we have the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

On the other hand, I think companies would - usually - be crazy about hiring superpowered individuals. Well, if they have the money to.