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."![]()
Ah, Mana-Yood-Sushai. My favourite creator deity.
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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 boredAn 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."![]()
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."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.
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.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@ 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/NOMy 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.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.^^ 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-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.![]()
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.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.
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.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@ 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@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.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.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
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.@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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Inspired by The Gods Of Pegana?
ERROR: The current state of the world is unacceptable. Save anyway? YES/NO