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Noaqiyeum we must dissent (it/they) from across the gulf of space (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
Olivetree ETERNAL from The Grave Since: Mar, 2012 Relationship Status: I'd need a PowerPoint presentation
ETERNAL
#227: Apr 5th 2012 at 9:47:32 AM

Personal shields are virtually non-existent in my sci-fi setting I'm worldbuilding at the moment. The only personal shields that do exist come out of a gauntlet and extend to be like a tower shield. However they don't do anything to protect you from lasers. I even considered making personal shields power the laser as they went through, making a shot from a laser pistol say, have the same power as if you were hit by a sniper rifle laser, then I thought "That's far too OP" and kept the shields as having no effect on deflecting lasers.

"You'd never do something as irrational as dying."
JHM Apparition in the Woods from Niemandswasser Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: Hounds of love are hunting
Ralanr I hate my ADD Meds from My deep imagination Since: Mar, 2012
I hate my ADD Meds
#229: Apr 5th 2012 at 3:36:44 PM

[up][up]

than what is the point of those sheilds? just curious

http://ralanr.deviantart.com/ My Deviant art profile, A plea for attention, cause I am bored
Pyroninja42 Forum Villain from the War Room Since: Jan, 2011
Forum Villain
#230: Apr 6th 2012 at 2:08:29 PM

An inexperienced nation, trying to stimulate economic growth, secretly began instituting crony-capitalist policies. Eight budding corporations benefited from this, soon demolishing their competition, and eventually growing to the status of megacorporations over the decades. Eventually, due to their relationship with the government, they became increasingly entrenched into the economy and the Government, so much so that both required on their very existence. As spaceflight really came to fruition, and with FTL drives, these corporations became widely responsible for extrasolar colonization, owning dozens of terraformed or normally habitable planets which they allowed the Government to preside over... Mostly. Regardless, people who moved to these planets are then subjected to a life of corporate serfdom, being forced to work for the world's Patron Corporation and give them a large share of their goods for "efficient distribution". These corporations then, slowly, began to adopt Nepotistic familial lines of succession, and eventually becoming the equivalent of European nobility in the medieval ages, prior to the Early-Modern Era.

"Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person that doesn't get it."
Olivetree ETERNAL from The Grave Since: Mar, 2012 Relationship Status: I'd need a PowerPoint presentation
ETERNAL
#231: Apr 6th 2012 at 3:22:27 PM

[up][up] To stop ballistic weapons of course, as an added bonus to the armour. Besides, on a ship scale, shields do prevent lasers, it's just on human level shields that lasers just ignore them.

Edit: Ballistic weapons are very common in this world I'm building

edited 6th Apr '12 3:23:00 PM by Olivetree

"You'd never do something as irrational as dying."
Blueeyedrat Since: Oct, 2010
#232: Apr 7th 2012 at 11:08:28 PM

In a realm locked in never-ending conflict, technology has begun to stagnate. There is such a needlessly convoluted web of espionage in place that any technological progress a region obtains (weapon-based or otherwise) is immediately picked up on and replicated by every other region, thus (according to those in power) not providing enough advantage to justify the resource cost.

Stormthorn The Wordnomnom Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
The Wordnomnom
#233: Apr 7th 2012 at 11:35:03 PM

Fun Quirk From My World: In some Corp-zones it is, in fact, perfectly legal to have sex on the dance floor.

Less Fun: Since the Chinese government declared the Citizenship Redaction Protocol in 2018 more than 100,000,000 people have been "redacted" by chemical, viral, and standard vectors.

While the breath's in his mouth, he must bear without fail, / In the Name of the Empress, the Overland Mail.
feotakahari Fuzzy Orange Doomsayer from Looking out at the city Since: Sep, 2009
Fuzzy Orange Doomsayer
#234: Apr 8th 2012 at 3:38:42 PM

The elf-like Aetheril come from an island called Aether. Humans, on the other hand, come from the continent of Huma.

edited 8th Apr '12 3:45:09 PM by feotakahari

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful
Noaqiyeum we must dissent (it/they) from across the gulf of space (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
we must dissent (it/they)
#235: Apr 8th 2012 at 7:00:21 PM

@ JHM - half the reason I ask is because I've borrowed a bit of inspiration from Mana-Yood-Sushai in worldbuilding too. :P

ERROR: The current state of the world is unacceptable. Save anyway? YES/NO
ZigtarXamos Qualified to Kill Macbeth and the Witch King from Desele's House of Earthly Deligths Since: Feb, 2012 Relationship Status: In Lesbians with you
Qualified to Kill Macbeth and the Witch King
#236: Apr 9th 2012 at 5:01:19 PM

My D&D/fantasy novel setting. World War I era technology in a world where society evolved with both science and magic.

Humans and elves evolved from a common ape-like ancestor with a simian tail. Humans lived in trees during prehistoric ages and kept their tails as a result. Now they can use them like a third arm.

The more rules there are to magic, the more ways the author will inevitably have to break them.
Discar Since: Jun, 2009
#237: Apr 9th 2012 at 5:25:57 PM

I already made a post here for one series, but another one I'm working on right now has nine planets and all their moons squished together in the star's Goldilocks Zone, to the point that adjacent planets share atmosphere at certain parts of the year, and interplanetary travel can be accomplished with something as simple as the Wright Brothers' early designs (though that's difficult, so they use more modern technology).

Writing a post-post apocalypse LitRPG on RR. Also fanfic stuff.
feotakahari Fuzzy Orange Doomsayer from Looking out at the city Since: Sep, 2009
Fuzzy Orange Doomsayer
#238: Apr 10th 2012 at 1:18:46 AM

^^ You actually refer to tailed beings as humans in your story? I'm certain that'll inspire some form of nerd rage, even if I'm not certain what kind of nerd will rage. (Though I suppose you'd probably enjoy it.)

edited 10th Apr '12 1:19:08 AM by feotakahari

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful
Aralyn from Land Downunder Since: May, 2011
#239: Apr 10th 2012 at 1:44:15 AM

-reads through Worldbuilding pages-

Well, dead people are kept in cooling rooms and are cremated and sent into the Afterlife in a nation wide crazy festival.

Also, the equivalent of a horse is a Lopetean (geddit? lope-tee-an, an-tee-lope, hahaha.)

That's about it, really. Everything else is a mixture of Crapsack World and fantasy cliches ^u^

When I walk on the street counting my steps, magic keeps silent and reality stalks me.
JHM Apparition in the Woods from Niemandswasser Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: Hounds of love are hunting
Apparition in the Woods
#240: Apr 10th 2012 at 3:57:50 AM

[up][up] I think that my work's use of "human" outdoes his, but that's an entirely different matter...

@Noaqiyeum: You don't say. Cool!

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.
KillerClowns Since: Jan, 2001
#241: Apr 10th 2012 at 6:02:54 AM

The Alosian moon is a gigantic Precursor superstructure — slightly less mass than our own moon, but quite a bit larger in volume. And it's still semi-active, enough to emanate enough light to bathe every night where it's out in, depending on its "phase", red to red-violet light. Those from Earth find it creepy, enough that "red moon madness" is a known mental disorder many Earthborn first being inducted into the Masquerade suffer at first, with symptoms including depression and insomnia. Alosians first coming to Earth are just as disturbed by the frequently dark nights of Earth, and suffer a similar "dark moon madness" during their first few weeks.

ZigtarXamos Qualified to Kill Macbeth and the Witch King from Desele's House of Earthly Deligths Since: Feb, 2012 Relationship Status: In Lesbians with you
Qualified to Kill Macbeth and the Witch King
#242: Apr 10th 2012 at 11:43:57 AM

They're human in all of their biology except their tails and certain muscles. (Obviously, a tail would be an issue for smooth bipedal movement without certain adjustments.)

The whole point of adding tails to the humans in that world was to make them different from the humans on Earth. It stemmed mainly from my rage at everyone in my D&D group playing humans, regardless of the setting, because they're jacks-of-all-trades. I wanted this world's humans to have more specialized abilities.

The more rules there are to magic, the more ways the author will inevitably have to break them.
feotakahari Fuzzy Orange Doomsayer from Looking out at the city Since: Sep, 2009
Fuzzy Orange Doomsayer
#243: Apr 10th 2012 at 6:26:17 PM

While it's not a mark against you in any way to do so, I'd like to note that since nonhumans can be anything we want them to be, humans can be most things in relationship to them. (I'm fond of the formulation that humans are the best scientists. Others include, but are not limited to, "Humans don't tire out as quickly", "Humans have a stronger will to live," and "Humans are the least predictable.")

edited 10th Apr '12 6:26:48 PM by feotakahari

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful
Noaqiyeum we must dissent (it/they) from across the gulf of space (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
we must dissent (it/they)
#244: Apr 10th 2012 at 8:29:58 PM

@ Killer Clowns - If the moon is luminescent, how does it have phases? :/

@ Zigtar - In the same line of thought as feo's comment, you may be interested in consulting Humans Are Indexed for ideas of other things to use and/or avert. :D

@ feo - It's funny you should mention some of those. :P I've been ending up with something similar from the opposite direction (i.e. first we're going to treat elves and dwarves as 'races' in the ethnological sense, then we're going to get annoyed that those archetypes are the only two variations on the theme that anyone comes up with). And indeed, Earth-normal humans are better scientists (and teachers) than most of the other prominent versions. Contrariwise, one of the most accurate things that can be said about all versions of humans in general is their ability to think 'crazy that works is not crazy'.

ERROR: The current state of the world is unacceptable. Save anyway? YES/NO
gbrngfol my planet is here from roughly that way Since: Mar, 2012
my planet is here
#245: Apr 10th 2012 at 10:51:12 PM

@Zigtar Xamos I think you'll be very happy with my ad&d based game. Humans are NP Cs and their meat is a drug to most creatures. This works since demon meat is very bitter and the plantlife tastes even worse. (imagine eating brussel sprouts and cabbage all your lfe and suddenly being served ice-cream.) The alternative is dragon meat but since they are 10,000 meters tall and live in clans they are not usualy hunted.

I think there's no point in signatures.
JHM Apparition in the Woods from Niemandswasser Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: Hounds of love are hunting
Apparition in the Woods
#246: Apr 10th 2012 at 11:00:10 PM

In explanation of my previous statement—and in justification of Zig's choice, as well as for the sake of truly epic trolling—I would like to note that "human" comes from the Latin word for "person" rather than what it specifically implies today. Hence, any fantasy world that has a sapient race using a Latin analogue in some scholarly capacity is likely to call themselves "humans."

No-one said they had to be primates.

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.
KillerClowns Since: Jan, 2001
#247: Apr 11th 2012 at 4:29:57 AM

@Noaqiyeum: Not in the traditional sense, but a lunar calender of sorts can be formed because the hue and intensity of luminescence shifts over time, in a regular, cyclical pattern.

edited 11th Apr '12 4:30:06 AM by KillerClowns

Noaqiyeum we must dissent (it/they) from across the gulf of space (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
we must dissent (it/they)
#248: Apr 11th 2012 at 9:22:40 AM

Ah, makes sense! (Glad that's something you accounted for and not just a worldbuilding flaw. :P )

@ JHM - Ultimately, everyone's name for the culture or people they come from derives from a translation of 'us'. :P

ERROR: The current state of the world is unacceptable. Save anyway? YES/NO
JHM Apparition in the Woods from Niemandswasser Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: Hounds of love are hunting
Apparition in the Woods
#249: Apr 11th 2012 at 6:31:10 PM

[up] Exactly my logic. The reverse also applies: "Welsh" and "Walloon" *

are both derived from a Germanic root word meaning "foreigner."

edited 11th Apr '12 6:31:26 PM by JHM

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.
Demetrios Lucky Seven from Des Plaines, Illinois (unfortunately) Since: Oct, 2009 Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
Lucky Seven
#250: Apr 13th 2012 at 12:26:14 PM

@Mr.Cales I also had a story idea of where the Sun and Moon are gods. :)

edited 13th Apr '12 12:26:39 PM by Demetrios

Come on! Let's bless them all until we get fershnickered!

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