Intro, Rules, Questions, and General Discussion

[FichtenFoo]

Welcome to Group Build 3! After all the speculation, I'm a little nervous about posting this up, but I also think it's funny how some of you hit the nail on the head theorizing about things before I even posted them up.

Read through the Minimal G website linked below to get an idea for the world dynamics. Then begin submitting ideas based on the criteria in the world.

http://www.fichtenfoo.com/minimalg

Be certain to read through the policies page and contributions page regarding submission guidelines. While anyone can contribute to the group build, only designs and ideas approved by the "continuity panel" will make it to the actual website which will be the "official" world resource.

Read through the "world" sections to get a better grasp on designing for the world. Planetology has a lot of info on the aspects of Trocken, our imaginary planet. Mechanics has a sort-of list of do's and don'ts for this build. (no AG or big rocket designs for example) Groups will give you an idea on the nations and suchs.

There is also a Timeline under "Story" which gives a history of the world and will give you a feel for why the world is in the low-tech era and such.

Please post any discussion and questions about the Minimal G project in general here. Other stickied threads will be made for mechanical, group and life discussions.

Enjoy! I hope you guys like it!

EDIT: Submissions can be in the form of models, illustrations, cg art, written works, manga/comics, etc... I recommend posting preliminary ideas first before going too far into the process, getting feedback/suggestions, then going on and completing your works.
Model builds for this group-build can be in any scale. 1/6, 1/20, 1/35, 1/72, 1/3000, whatever.

[FichtenFoo]

I added a usergroup for this group build. Check the usergroups link at the top of the forum and sign up if interested. No "badge" this time as it was a pain for the last 2 GBs. I'll make a small one for sigs later.

[FichtenFoo]

I had a thought today... I'm wondering if we should do Minimal G in stages... what I mean is as an on-going story focused on different things. Maybe this year we focus on a time of peace, but on the brink of a global conflict. Lots of civie stuff and a pre-war build-up of arms. Then next year we start on the next phase which is when the war would start. Escalation of conflict would make necessary new weapon designs, then follow that with something else added, etc...

Thoughts?

[Paradogmatic]

:) yeah .. I was sort of thinking the same thing when you brought up the point of the Ra Guild not being all that well armed. Its true -- the design I came up with is a bit more of a height of war thing and not something they'd have out of the gates right from the get go.

Perhaps defining a starting point for now -- there's a vague one with the build up to agression between the North and South but it seems like aside from perhaps some central skirmishes and a rise in Junker piracy not too much has happened yet?

[Artic Fox]

WIll religion be a big factor?

[Juliano]

I'm wondering if we should do Minimal G in stages

Funny thing I was thinking of something quite similar,but my suggestion would be devide it in Mecha stage,Biology/ecology stage and so on but I believe FF idea may work even better

later,
J.

[FichtenFoo]

Cool... lets do "Phase 1: AD 3047" then for now. This will be pre-Vorglen conflict. Peaceful, but on the brink so there's an arms race so to speak. Maybe a few minor skirmishes as the Vorglens test things out, posture aggressively and the like. With this we'll see lightly-armed and/or civilian-type craft and prototype weapon systems.

I think the only group that's not going to advance much will be the junkers except when they manage to scavange the leftovers. As for the junkers, they're not all pirates and mercs... some are just peaceful nomads and farmer... their place outside of society as a whole has garnered them that title.

Juliano: I think if we seperated the stages into a seperate mecha and bio stage, nothing would come of bio.  

Artic Fox: Not sure... I would imagine there would be organized religion, especially in The KoH for some reason. Not sure what that would be... 1000 years from now and after the discovery of other inhabited worlds (without intelligent life) there might be some new religions.

[maxwinamp]

Separating the GB to different stages and era will provide a better flow of things.

Count me in on the GB:Phase 1: AD 3047    

[FichtenFoo]

I added the Phase 1 info to the website to make it official.

max: welcome aboard!

[tetsujin]

Boats would not be more buoyant in lower gravity.  Buoyancy is a function of weight relative to the weight of an equal volume of water.  (Boats float because the amount of water they displace weighs the same as the boat itself - if they sank lower, they would displace more water than their weight, and the water would push the boat back up to its buoyant water-line.)  The weight-density of the craft is less in lesser gravity, but the weight-density of the water is decreased by the same factor.  Same problem applies to balloons, airships, etc: although the craft is lighter for the same amount of mass, and therefore easier to lift, the effectiveness of lighter-than-air buoyancy to provide lift decreases accordingly.  Moreso if you figure that a planet with less gravity would also probably have a less-dense atmosphere (though if the atmosphere is less dense then that also decreases the amount of helium or whatever that needs to go into a blimp or whatever to make it hold its shape... so I'm not really sure what the overall effect of a less-dense atmosphere is.)

Also, sorry to nitpick, but this error tends to grate:
"its" is a posessive pronoun.
"it's" is a contraction of "it is".

[Artic Fox]

I was wondeirng if you might allow me to create a religion, or religions.

[FichtenFoo]

You nitpick? Never!!! I know what they're for, but am sure I've missused them here and there. Spellchecks in DW don't pink up that sort of thing.

I'm sure I got some things wrong regarding effects of low G on boats. I just made that part up without much research and to support more visually interesting things. ;-) The atmosphere part I'm aware of and wrote in the planetology section that the atmospheric pressure is just slightly thicker than that of earth. That way humans could survive without their eyes popping out ala Total Recall and things would float better with gasses. That's something I learned from Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars (3 books on the colonization/terraformation of Mars using plausible technology in the next 300 years) and several Nat Geo references. I do recall in Blue Mars that there were large floating cities in the new martian seas. Waves lapped higher and sank more slowly in the 1/3 G.

Something BK and I discussed in the effect on Humans in a lower G. At first they'd be almost super-human in strength, but after a few generations and years of the lower G, that would fade and children would grow taller and muscularly weaker than one born on Earth. That is based on Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars where matrian-born would grow to around 7-8 feet and have larger chest cavities due to the thinner air. Since the air is thick, the chest thing is unnecessary and since the G is more than mars the growth/strength would be more, but not 7-8 feet.

Artic Fox: Submit some ideas in groups when you've got them.

[Lingwendil]

So, would the low G thing mean that limbs and extremities on humans would be more streched in proportion compared to normal humans? Like, instead of having people that are 7-8 heads tall, they'd be more like 9-10? Or am I thinking too much into things, and they'd probably just be rather skinny?

[FichtenFoo]

They'd probably just grown a little taller than the average human. Muscle-wise I'm not sure if they'd be skinnier or just be weaker. Anyone wanna research the effects of prolonged low/no G on the human body?

[mathis478]

From what I've heard prolonged low-G habitation only weakens bones and causes mucles atrophy. Maybe the citizens of Trocken hav to take daily supplements to keep their bodies healthy....

[Artic Fox]

based on shuttle launches, the humany body tends to grow an inch or two due to less pressure on the spine, so the body tends to stretch

[fredpekker]

Not sure if this is where I should put this, but here goes. I was wondering what you used to create the globe on the website. I was also wondering if there was any kind of cartography done yet.

I am new to this board, although I've been lurking for a while, but this was big enough to make me register and get some creative juices flowing.

[FichtenFoo]

Thanks. I made the globe in Photoshop and at the moment it's just that hemisphere image. Later I'll make a full interactive map in flash so that it can be rolled over and color coded.

[GrinchWSLG]

You know, after going through your descriptions of this world on the website, I was struck with a reminder of some concept art I have in a book. Its a collection of the Ralph McQuarrie concept art from the original Star Wars. In it is a section of concept art from Alderaan. I think he potrays them as a light and airy planet, much like what I think you're going for in the northern hemispere of Trocken. Alas I don't have this particular book with me at school, and I wasn't able to find the specific images that came to mind online. But if anyone has the book Illustrated Star Wars Universe, I think thats where these images are from.

[fredpekker]

What kind of architecture would we see on Trocken?  These are my thoughts. I'd love to hear yours.

I see Junkers living in tents. Maybe some small adobe villages. Maybe small villages in caves or starship wreckage.

Vorglen would almost have to be brick to give that industrial look. Buildings, I would think, would be aesthetically(?)  similar. I don't see an industrial nation of colonists worrying about what their house looks like compared to their neighbor's.

I see KoH having similar materials to the Vorglen, but they use them differently. A Vorglen house would be square where a KoH house would be round. I see then having more organic shapes. Arches, columns, and domes would be common among KoH buildings. I see lots of towers in the KoH skyline.

I think the Ra Guild would look similar to KoH, but smaller in scale. Where towers would be common in KoH, I think the Ra Guild may only have couple that are used for lighthouses. Domes, arches, and columns would be common here. I would suggest pyramids and such, beings that they are the "Ra" Guild but I just don't think it would fit. When  I say smaller scale I mean that KoH might have something on the order of skyscrapers with 40 ft columns in front of it, but i don't see that happening on an island.

Anyway, those are just my ideas. Maybe I'm way off base, but maybe I'm not. I really would like to hear anyone else's thoughts on Trocken architecture.