You will notice I'm more active now in blog.gi7b.org
Tuesday, September 3, 2024
Monday, August 19, 2024
Broke my Previous Wordpress Site, New Wordpress Site.
https://blog.gi7b.org/
slowly migrating to this blog. Whats so special about it:
- Now I can put all the pictures relevant to the Product in its page as part of a gallery. Elements I could not put in the Drivethru RPG will be here.
- This is backed up in my SYNOLOGY nas (using the client) so in case this gets attacked and down I can have this up again eventually. As google KILLS business divisions and as I migrate to the FEDIVERSE.
- Will experiment with Gumroad and other ways to sell the products through this set up. Will probably publish 2-PARSECS the book I didn't publish because I had to do all this rework.
- Will link the WIKI here - particularly OPEN SCIFI TRPG as I learn to mange a Wikipedia. as I am learning to manage a Wordpress site.
I used google Takeout to download all my pictures. I don't know how I will map them back into the original posts.
I am working on a Mailcow and Nextcloud set up for the home and family as I move my family from Windows to NextCloud and Mailcow. Everything running on redundant i5 micro desktops worth 120usd and 512GB SSD and 16gb ram. ideally with 3-2-1 backups and with multi domain redundancy.
Saturday, July 27, 2024
Slowly Learning Wordpress to Migrate - Open Source TRPG publisher
I will need to eventually move to Self Hosted Wordpress site our company has a web developer now, entry level. I consider websites low margin - a necessity but it should just have basic customization options.
I got to thinking of some CORE mission vision basics about what game in the brain about - Game in the brain is an OPEN SOURCE TRPG publisher. Trying to make open source as a business work in both my Hobby of TRPGs and my work.
I'm trying to do what the FUTO (the company Louis Rossman is working in now) who started the Source First license - basically its Open Source Free except for Billionaire or Mega Corporations - I agree that Open Source Foundation is keeping it free but not considering allowing contributors to make a living out of this - enabling Corporations to make a TON OF MONEY out of open source and not contributing to it proportionally.
In the Philippines right now I'm negotiating with Frappe and NextCloud - hey your product is free and open source - I want you to make money but we cannot force people to pay you (and because its free we can do this without asking permission ) - we will charge the annual cost that would be more competitive than Google workspace or another ERP - the Open Source partner gets 80% and we get 20% of the service of installing and setting it up.
Example. In the Philippines Erpnext or NextCloud is sold at 10usd/user/month or 120usd per year per user. In a 10 user deployment 1200usd - 80% ( 960usd) goes to the Open Source partner and 20% (240usd) goes to us for setting it up and installing it. I want the partnership written down and official, I can just execute this without their permission since its GPL anyway and nothing is stoping me... BUT I want it formal and an example - so that others may consider it moving forward.
Note that in the Philippines, the final price would be 1200 USD + 12% VAT—our Value Added Tax is not the same as the USA's, which is only applied to anything added. In the Philippines, the VAT is a sales tax. So the 1200 USD will have 144 USD taxes (which we remit to the government every month).
It comes with a 1 year warranty of support (anything wrong with the service of installation). We dont want to do the Software as a Service - we believe we can do it with Support services - as they need it, and Upgrade Services - if they want the additional upgrades and updates within the year is covered by the 1 year warranty and support... but beyond that year the customer can choose to not get any support if they dont need it. We believe only 10-20% of customers will need it... of the 10,000 businesses (2025-2035) we plan to set this all up - we believe only 1,000 SMEs will just get support from us while the 9000 dont need it and are happy with it in the next 3-5 years. They will probably get us to migrate to NEW hardware.
We want to do the same for DEBIAN (helping companies migrate to Debian Linux In light of Crowdstrike fiasco and the End of Windows 10 (costing 61usd, 122 USD, and 244 USD in the succeeding years).
Game in the Brain's Open Source CC-BY-SA SHIPS and materials were supposed to do that, but that needs a lot more stuff—like the FDM 3D printable procedural 3D Character generator and various tools that will allow you to easily create all this material and resell or trade it.
Creating an OPEN SOURCE economy—wresting trillions from corporate greed to regular people who will not HOARD the wealth and create artificial scarcity but circulate it more efficiently. As a world builder, I know my economics, and this is where my economic beliefs, practical skills, and Social responsibility all align—like a Min-maxer: Altruism Optimized.
Saturday, July 6, 2024
Hard Scifi Skill and Calculations and Acceptance of what the Future holds
Hard Sci-Fi (HSF) is a hobby that delves into the real science behind science fiction. At its core, HSF emphasizes a solid understanding of fundamental scientific principles. In HSF, we start with the immutable laws of nature, such as gravity and the conservation of matter and energy. From this foundation, we explore elements that are more likely to evolve over time.
This approach allows us to narrow down and predict the trajectory of technological advancements. A key aspect of HSF is studying the history of scientific development and understanding current technological trends. By doing so, we create mental models to simulate and plan various scenarios, assuming the development of specific technologies and their potential consequences.
Today, I did a number of calculations, particularly the Carbon capture capacity of technology.
I learned that
- https://doe.gov.ph/sites/default/files/pdf/electric_power/04_LVM_Grid_Summary_30_apr_2024.pdf the Philippines has 12k MW coal capacity and consumes about 30M tons of coal.
- That if 1 cubic meter of water/salt water can grow algae then 1 square km only converts a measley 10,000 tons of carbon.
- That 20B tons of carbon needs to be captured and preserved out of the 40B tons we produced.
- That earth has only 500M sqkm and to capture 40B of carbon per year you would need 400M sqkm of algae farms (assuming only 1 sqm per 1cubic meter).
Here is my Algae Bio-Reactor proposal for the Plant these are the things keeping me busy from writing more Scifi, but it deals with Scifi.
Acceptance and Trust
I realize that the ability to believe that people will be educated, have compassion, or care about science and key features in society is not feasible. that we are a society with roles, and we have to trust people who have our best interests in mind. The future is not a WELL-INFORMED PUBLIC - no - the future is TRUST and a society built on transparency and honesty. The future is people being largely ignorant in matters of Politics, State, Science, Technology, Compassion, and environment - TRUSTING honest and accountable people to help us make decisions and suffering the consequences when these people fail us.What happens when you realize the future is built on Trust - I stopped getting angry and frustrated in ignorance, misinformation, malice - and exploitation as much. I understand I have to trust someone to watch my back about some matters, as people trust me to watch their back on other matters. That I have to be accountable and transparent even more. And the people who trust me should come and check on me - and I should come and check on the people I have trusted on matter I cannot hope to comprehend or track.
All this science and technology and calculation - requires a society that has a strong trust. Trust that kids can walk by themselves in the streets of japan and someone will be there to prevent their harm, that people will be fed, sheltered and cared for, and that people will have a voice. It requires a fundamental building block of trust - and then higher and higher levels of complexity can be achieved and this complexity will leverage greater and greater feats of technology.
That in SCIFI there will be communities with very high Trust - and vigilance and pro-activeness against people who seek to destroy this trust so they can exploit a population and its resources.
I get to sound crazy in my blog - how game theory, games, scifi writing, and calculations are processed and knowing - I'm crazy to think this and alone and probably thousands have though these thoughts and have long odds of success. I'm not smart enough to be smart in everything, Be the red genie (Aladdin and the Magic Lamp 1982) the shitty option most people are stuck with. People want the HYPE and the illusion when a perfectly good person is available for them to trust. They want to listen to the deciever instead of someone who can really help them.
Friday, July 5, 2024
Getting back to Work. Progress Update
Of course we will have the 200DT Merchant Trader of CE Free (pay-what-you-want) Power Point file of each room and element being a PNG file that will allow you to edit and re-order the ship.
MNEME of Cepheus Engine will make EDITABLE maps so that you can tweak your deck plans without Photoshop. Of course the RAM required for such feats is quite a lot, but I think everyone is at 8GB these days.
I'm pessimistic especially how bleak the news is.
As for my other open source projects, I just wish it becomes a viable way to make a living coming from the industry I come from.
Saturday, June 22, 2024
Isekai Done - Check that from my bucket List.
Closing this Chapter of my life - Tried to make a Short Audio Book. It took about 700php to play with Eleven Labs to convert my Short story. Something I could produce in my free time without much thought - just to prove I can generate the words, know how to structure, and get into detailed visualization. I used the 22 USD plan (it was on sale for 11usd) - this Tutorial was how to use Projects Mode - I walked in it may cost an additional 11 USD to learn to use this.
What I would write about if I had the time and bandwidth would be a 1860 Philippine Altered History - an epic of a vengeful Aristocrat began conquering towns - and creating his own Petty Empire - only to fail - but his war in 1860 altered the martial traditions of the country and the power dynamics of the Towns with Manila. Guerrilla warfare doctrine was developed - and the wealth he accumulated before the fall of his petty empire created a military-industrial base that made it that Spain and America didn't fight untrained peasants against their veterans and Artillery in 1890s but guerrilla fighters who had 30 years of traditions and identity.
Hacienderos did not lead the revolution but Warlords - a less western Philippines that has more in common with Malaysia and Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand - despite being mostly christian. America would have still won, as they needed the Sugar and the Spanish plantations to boost their economy - but not in a position of overwhelming power.
A novel of 19C warfare with the Philippines lost in time. Admittedly a power fantasy - If the Philippines got "Isekaied" to Redo the past and not get fucking screwed all the time.
Of course given all my Gaming and Writing aspirations - my gamer mind is best employed in hopefully making my country easier to live in - making Open source businesses work in the Philippines and displacing MS and Google options for software. Accepting I will not have the time or the opportunity to make a name in TRPGs.
One of the things I would want to do is Convert Noli Me Tangere or "The social Cancer" something easier to listen to and then use Elven labs to convert it into an Audio Book.
Saturday, June 15, 2024
Delays and more delays - responsibilities gets in the way.
So, we've been busy. Nicco had a medical emergency, and I had some important projects that are robbing me of my free time to work on this.
It's really a niche project, and as I handle students and work with schools, the love for sci-fi and combining it with TRPGs is much rarer and probably will end with my generation. I'm on the edge of Generation X, with friends 5 and 10 years older than me.
Although my sci-fi studies and aspirations are finding their way into my work as we become partners with Netgate (pfSense), Nextcloud, and Frappe, and the family business is slowly transitioning to me. The project that is closest to what I believe is sci-fi is creating a VPN with Wireguard to give people who buy our Nextcloud appliances a tunnel for their home or SME Nextcloud. It's supposed to be an open-source, free tunnel system with Wireguard under a non-profit, but of course, we have to build the technology up first then - as advised by IT friends - split it into an LLC and ensure the technology is distributed to prevent easy traceability.
We are building micro-datacenters (data cabinets with UPS, AC, all built-in, as older buildings cannot take the weight of a full data center, and a data center requires intensive planning and preparation) and plug-and-play Fediverse servers to create a "NEW" open internet that will be able to fight back against mass surveillance and mass misinformation systems. We plan to use H2Ogpt, the new GPUs and NPUs, cheaper distributed Fediverse, wikis, and augmented support.
I'm going to lose my evenings as I prepare for my pfSense certifications, which I have to achieve in the next six months, and planning for a Service Management System (ISO 20,000-1). I'm targeting creating my ANKI deck by July 15, and then, with our network support team, all the hands-on exercises. I plan to make sure all the ECEs and IT interns with us will finally have hardware hands-on experience, and my team will create ANKI-like testing to prepare them with hands-on practical exams. We hope to train 30 people who would easily pass the pfSense certification every year and provide SMEs and people with affordable services to secure their home and their self-hosted tech.
One of the results of the ARM transition from x86 is the wattage cost of on-premise hosting will only cost $2/month for a 10-watt device (scale up). Having 5-10 such devices or the equivalent wattage of devices running would be just as cheap.
So, in a hard sci-fi TRPG, particularly in the genre of punk, casting off shackles (like mass surveillance, corporate monopolies, and information manipulation) – a free internet and market is one of the key fights. It's not so black and white, as "criminals," "terrorists," and "enemies of the state" will use the same technology as human rights groups to protect their privacy. For me, creating open-source technology that allows developing worlds like the Philippines to have an internet without ads and mass surveillance and manipulation is worth my free time. It both serves my game inspiration and my work.
It's just sad to think that this animal, the sci-fi TRPG gamer, is going to be extinct, but then I realize that every archetype of a different era was made irrelevant and extinct. I really want to be a game writer and designer, but it looks like administration, project management, and system design is where I can do the most good while daydreaming that I could write and make some TRPG tools so I would be able to run games in the future.
I really want to run more games and hopefully help teach a new generation to get into TRPGs and learn all the writing, planning, research, and problem-solving skills from TRPGs that helped me become the person I am at work. In games, I get to experiment and have my ideas tried. TRPGs – a fun and highly immersive version of case studies – allow us to make mistakes and enjoy the difficulty of trying again and again.
I'll probably have one or two frustrating nights where I will just do the math of low orbits (based on atmospheric density and gravity), but they are becoming rarer.
I see interest in my work declining when we don't post and don't produce - it pains me to lose what we've worked hard to gain. Anyway, Nicco will still be producing the ships and the editable ship maps - note that he is taking care of his sister and dad and might get busy giving out the next map and product - note that I've financially committed to having all the CE ships converted to our Creative Commons blender ship designs - even if very few are interested in designs they wont get in trouble for.
Mneme Space Combat is my worse performing product (if you measure its Cost to make vs Income it generates) despite how ambitious it is - interestingly, students who are looking for Internships from my alma mater get to have Toy making experience as they design the FDM prints of the ships (we are working on geometry nodes) and get to use our 2 reality Ender 3 3D printers (when they don't have their own) through the project. In a way it makes the dreams of others come true.
CE was around for a long time before I got around to really appreciating it - now it is its own thing, separated from Traveller (probably eating up traveler sales).
Wednesday, June 5, 2024
Escape Velocity and Orbital Limit
Escape Velocity the relative speed you need to have to escape earths gravity field.
Orbital Limit is an arbitrary point here in Mneme World Generator that means - the distance the escape velocity to leave the gravity well of a planet is only 1m/s. Meaning if I throw a ball at more than 1m/s while I am in this distance relative to earth or a planet that ball will not go back down and will escape the gravity well that will cause it to orbit the planet.
Low Orbit is based on atmospheric drag - which is why its so hard to calculate - but I have the components little by little being set up. Basically low orbit can be as low as the highest Peak on the surface. Basically if you take the median radius of the Moon and take its highest peak - like the Mons Huygens at 5.3km - since there is no atmosphere you can set an object to ORBIT the moon as high as 6km from its surface.
Low Orbit will be where a lot of defense and surface monitoring satellites will be positions. Satelites meant to relay information and tends to be here. This tends to be controlled as much of ships and satellites can be weapons of mass destruction and its too difficult to shoot it down and prevent it from causing devastation at the Low Orbit position.
High Orbit is going to be based on earth's high orbit - which I will measure in Escape Velocity, Gravity, and relative to Orbital limit. High orbit is where a lot of space stations and traffic will happen. Star or High ports will be in High Orbits - especially when ships use dangerous and powerful propulsion. In a densely populated world like earth and with precious ecologies - High orbit is the limit for potential weapons of mass destruction. Ships capable of carrying and using weapons of mass destruction exceeding High Orbit can be constituted as a hostile act.
Sunday, May 26, 2024
Distraction: reviewing De Agricultura for a Kids Fantasy TRPG
I maintain a copy of De Agricultura for sharing. I've updated it and used Askyourpdf to help me review it since I've forgotten everything I learned about it. The only thing I remember is that it's better than Harn Manor, and it probably was the basis of Harn Manor and proof that Taylorism existed much earlier, that Medes and City-states of Mesopotamia in 3000 BCE had already developed these metrics much earlier.
The starting place for the TRPG is a manor in a frontier territory. Very typical fantasy but with some twists - as a kids TRPG, there are some PG elements like an order of secular social workers that administer these lands - professional bureaucrats who typically offer their competence in return for honoring their social work. Their social work is primarily charity and helping people get back on their feet. Imagine Mohists, Franciscans, and Buddhists (as a Philosophy and secular - allowing people to have relations and national loyalties). The people who adhere to the Philosophy and identify with it call themselves Anastasian - the order is called Phoenix Dawn (I know its a common order name). Luminaries are the administrators and they maintain many Estates for various Nobles - even competing or nobles. They tend to stay out of politics - unlike the church which requires faith and blind obedience. So the order tries not to be political, and is imperfect (corruption and manipulation exists, as well as abuse of power). Of course - any charitable organization will have their True Believers and their internal Inquisitors (called Auditors).
So I'm avoiding the huge difference in Social Status for Starting characters - as well as the complexities of such dynamics. all the starting characters are Wards of the order, or one of the many migrating families that have moved to the Manor to help transform the fields, and a bit of background fluff - like those who identify as Anastasians have a duty to expand frontiers - giving to their eldest children enough resources to cultivate a new land - which the order will double and provide servants. Of course its imperfect - some people chose to leave being Anastasians in order to keep their kids from leaving .
Sunday, May 19, 2024
Back to Basics - BroCode and GPT4o
What's hard about learning is the time to practice and use it and to use it regularly. My regular job doesn't let me remember my other skills - I'm a former artist, and life and work don't let me practice. The BroCode is one of the best tutorials - straight to the point and very fast. combined with AI its possible to learn this quickly... but still not enough with the free time I have during the week.
One of the design decisions is that all the rolls will be visible, so it's easy to follow the book and easy to troubleshoot if outcomes are not correctly produced.
Another design decision is using a static web app is that it will run on your phone, tablet, and desktop. The problem is storage - it cannot store the worlds you produced since browsers can only hold things temporarily. It's possible to export it as a CSV but not import that CSV - I'm still researching a workaround - where it can probably export the HTML. What's important is that world builders can copy and paste the tables easily into their documents or wiki.
Saturday, May 18, 2024
Learning to do HTML and CSS with GPT4o
So, I'm slowly learning to build a static website. This way it can run on the desktop, phone, tablet, etc...
I am using GPT4o, which is the best, and I tried Gemini Pro, and it kinda sucks... and never can I verify they actually process 1M tokens or all these Multi-Modal claims. Note that GPT4 is 20usd/mo while Gemini is 35usd/mo and I could already use GPT4o - I tried the desktop app but I cant get it to work they only released it in Mac...
I got it this far. I just learning HTML and CSS first. The JS comes later as I have to create checks like -
Must be Inhabited?
allow for Habitats or World focus? Note that Habitats are the default way star systems can be colonized with high populations - Habitable worlds (requiring less Habitat Infrastructure) are just the bonus.
I learned how tables are made... and more about CSS.
There are "Dials" in the Star generation where the user may want a particular star.
Then there are the ultra-rare displaced Worlds.
Friday, May 17, 2024
Thank you April and May 2024 Sales!
Thankyou for those who bought - a rare event despite the active campaigning and advertising!
Added Radius -
Worlds now have a RADIUS. in an ideal scenario we can give examples (using Vlookup) as to how does it compare to the radius of planets in our solar system and those exoplanets discovered - that will require a lot of manpower - when I get an assistant (WIGAA)
Gas Giants have Radius. |
This reminds me of playing Star Control II late at night, exploring and losing ships only to reload from save.
I'll try to continuously improve it - as my real-life work improves, I can have some income to help with additional writing and research. Your contribution all help - it allows me to hire to make a more powerful tool. When I hire - I have to pay both for the work output and the time for the training and ability to follow the science of the staff. Its so funny when - someone like me is giving a lecture of Planetary physics and Ship engineering.
At the rate of the Advances of AI - I was just trying to get Darling to work to run Chatgpt4o App on Debian - the ability to have an AI work with you side by side as I share a screen will really not just accelerate the Web Apps - but I'm more ambitious about making GODOT apps for the game.
1) A ship generator with my CC-BY-SA blender assets
2) A 3D Space Combat MAP tool - a Tool that segments space - so that GMs can run 3D turn based space combat.
3) A 3D Space Travel Map Tool - it will do all the calculations and accommodate all the orbital speeds. This way logistics puzzles can be easier to present to players.
Progress Report - Mneme Rockets - barometric pressure formula
I learned that the barometric pressure formula is what is used to determine at what height is a target atmosphere - in the case of Earth's Satelite Atmosphere its 3.4E-16 atm (or 16 zeroes after the decimal place before 34). As you can see - Strangely Mars's atmosphere is more stable over a height according to the spreadsheet - which I tried to verify step by step.
Anyway, impact to user:
1) At what height is "Low Orbit" - based on the lowest point a Satelite can Orbit without experiencing atmospheric drag. Getting to this point is where there is no "Delta-V" penalty because fo atmosphere.
2) From low Orbit, we get High Orbit. And Orbit are the many interesting places of a world. Jupiters Orbits - because of how massive has hundreds of moons. It can hold thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of MegaTon Habitats.
So now you know Orbits of World - not only does the Players have to Travel around the worlds they visit but the Orbits of these worlds. This is where their ship will be getting a lot of use. Jupiter and Saturn as an example could have - between them millions of places to visit - with populations of small countries - and Confederations and Federations as big as our Countries.
Delays because of some family emergencies. Congrats to my brother Joben for the birth of his baby girl.
Sunday, May 12, 2024
Radius, Escape Velocity, and Basic Orbital Mechanics
Because I had the foresight to make Mneme World Generator FIRST, it was much easier to create the basic material for R-Drives.
Those who bought Mneme World Generator will be able to access this sheet and the "Upgrades," where it will now produce the detailed Mass, Density, and Radius. There are many different ways to get the other values.
I have only scant feedback for World Generator. Feel free to comment on how I can improve and detail it. When I get a writing assistant, I can detail it even more—not just a communications student—I might just get an Engineering student since they will be able to follow a lot of the concepts here.
Anyway, Gas Worlds (gas Giants) follow the Density averages (they overlap with other types, a Type I and a Type II can have equal or Type I can have a higher density - its just works with a higher average the higher the Type) of the different types of Gas Worlds. So from density, we get Radius, and from the Radius, we can now get Gravity.
We will cover some VERY BASIC orbital mechanics - and the referees will be able to do the math in their heads - as you can see - you will have the Low and High Orbit of every gravity well. Its just Burn to decelerate or accelerate, then burn to get back to our target orbit. Nicco will make art to make it easier to follow.
I have to cover this first - I will also make it people have a spreadsheet that can encode the details and all these details will be filled up - even if you don't have Mneme World Generator but want to do models of the kinds of trips you would take.
I discovered NASA has a 3d model of every Exo-planet in https://science.nasa.gov/exoplanet-catalog/
https://science.nasa.gov/exoplanet-catalog/corot-20-b/ is the DENSEST found Gas world - which is puts it denser than earth at 14 tons/m^3. Earth is 5 tons/M^3 as the densest objects in Sol and Jupiter is just 1.3 tons/m^3. its about 10x denser than Jupiter makes it particularly amazing.
Some exo planets don't have Mass - so my sample data is not as good as it can be.
Other than my open-source advocacy work, I am making hard-sci-fi more accessible so that some gamers can run scenarios like their favorite hard-sci-fi with some concessions. If people have to stop you from going over technical details and you have to be mindful of that, then you will probably appreciate the product and the ability to customize it.
Been doing this since 2021... I guess a significant gain would be by 2031. Especially when I can afford writing assistants to help and when I can hire someone who can make static websites for World Generator and Ship Designer (will use Mneme).
Mongoose Traveller requests - I have to give away any MGT2e conversions because of the licensing in MGT2e. remember its not Open Gaming License - if anything will be made it will be through Mongoose Publishing (who do a great job BTW, I just want something different and that's a niche that will not affect them).
Those new to Mneme World Generator
it tries its best to be true to the science and core concepts. It begins with the Star Generation, and the star determines how much mass is orbiting it. Of course there is an upper limit as a more massive star will eat up all the objects around it and only disks will surround it. But from the mass - the odds of dwarf worlds, terrestrial worlds (like Earth, Venus, mercury, and Mars), and Gas and Ice Giants. Now, Gas giants are particular - as on rare occasions, protuberances of passing galaxies can destabilize their orbit that will, resulting in it sliding towards the inner system - and consuming the other planets - hence the much rarer types like III, IV, and V gas worlds.
Tuesday, May 7, 2024
Sunday, May 5, 2024
A radical change, but its familiar depending on our perspective.
While I'm making rules that give CE Rockets and comparable theoretical performance - which limits the delta-V budget to around cap at around 7-10kms, barely enough to escape earth orbit by itself - without the help of Boosters, Sky hooks, and catching a ride on Deep Space Ships that tender.
Operations have to be overhauled... but that's not a bad thing. I wrote for GURPS, I write procedures as the Management Representative for our ISO, and I implement IT systems - getting many processes to work together and finding out where they run into problems is my whole thing. I am an example of how a System Designer can find work loving the arcane art of Game Systems and Worldbuilding.
The image of a deep space ship (DSS),with ion thrusters producing 10s of N of thrust per metric ton. Moving megaton ships (our largest container vessels are half a megaton) - decelerating and accelerating for days. Like the ship that rescued The Martian.
Orbiters are your 100-400DT ships the PCs use Sky hooks, Multi-Stage Boosters, and Inertia banks to slow down to re-enter and launch. Note that a space shuttle orbiter is a 30DT ship. The PC's ships is 10x bigger than the space shuttle. Of course, they are using Air-breathing boosters that switch into Rockets - and a Skyhook swoops in and picks them up to bring them to Low Orbit - where they begin using their fuel.
The fundamental changes - that orbiters can only use batteries - fuel cells they have fuel occupying 40-60% of their mass is their fuel. They may not have JUMP capabilities, at least up to the TL9. They have to rely on deep spaceships.
DDS is needed to travel in interplanetary space with Ion Drives. The high stakes rolls of being able to catch the DSS with the least amount of fuel energy, and damage. The Rolls of Re-entry, where you can damage your ship and complications as you re-enter the atmosphere, plus the logistics planning to acquire boosters or launch vehicle services and sky hook costs
Only DSS have the fission (and in military and larger ships, fusion power plants). These have 100+ MW power plants to help charge the orbiters and fire their ion thrusters. These have huge accelerator coils and huge planes of Radiation. PCs have to plan which Star system they are going to —it's just the same—it's just that they are jumping with other ships.
Worlds are a blend of solar punk and cyberpunk - conflicting world views and the middle way. Millions of habitats orbiting gas giants, and the largest Habitat - giving security and citizenship. Giant spinning space elevators plunging to extract and forge materials.
The time scale is just the jarring thing. Months disappearing - pretty much the experience of most of those of us 40s and up - months passing us by with tons of obligations. Our Pathfinder game is on hiatus because of our GM's family obligations for months- it doesn't bother us because we have so much to do. That's pretty jarring with Anagathics, hibernating sleep, and alternating crew. PCs wake up to a change of status quo -- how different is it from traveling to different countries? The only "home" is the ship and the crew for decades.
For when I teach students operating costs - and what are the risks of the requirement of each item. It pretty much gives the PCs the options of what costs they prioritize - and determines what problems they are planning to entertain. Example: If they choose to avoid paying taxes - they believe the benefit outweighs the risks dealing with the government - if they plan to keep salaries low, avoid maintenance, de-prioritize security etc... My experience as someone whose family biz deals with a lot of Gov't projects - and the kind of personalities that conspire to pass the cost to the next sucker (the reason behind my strong Open source and Transparency focused business, why people get CC-BY-SA when they buy our products).
Saturday, May 4, 2024
A quick backstory and outline
Rockets and Non-Gravitic Rules Outline
Why
Relativistic Bombardment.
Planetary Perturbation
Impact:
Extended Travel time.
Examples
Adjustments:
Not enough Fuel. Not enough fuel to escape an earth like gravity.
Specialized Crafts
Launch Vehicles
Two-Stage-To-Orbit (TSTO)
Single-Stage-Orbit
Orbiters
Skyhooks and Interia Banks. based on the Boeing Hypersonic Airplane Space Tether Orbital Launch System mechanics.
Space Elevators.
Jovian forges or Titan Hammers.
Challenges converting another SFTRPG’s mechanics into Rockets.
Mechanics
Saturn-V baseline.
Why Saturn-V as compared to the space shuttle.
Compared to the Falcon-Heavy, Space Shuttle Launcher, Soyuz Rocket
what is significance?
TL 6 / MNTL 7 mechanics.
Quick R-Drives for Cepheus Engine and SFTRPGs.
Chemical Rockets (TL 6)
Reusable Rockets (TL 6.5)
Turbo-Rockets (TL 7)
Nuclear Thermal Rockets (TL7)
Fusion Thermal Rockets (TL 8)
Nuclear Pulse Engines (AKA ORION ENGINES) (TL 8)
Mneme Jump Drives.
Basic Operating Procedures
Accelerating
Occupational Safety and Health Basics.
Operations
Acceleration
FreeFall
Magnetic Boots
Handholds and Lanyards
0G Accommodations and Extended 0G
MNEME SHIP DESIGN
Included is the early draft of the Mneme Ship Design Rules -
A spreadsheet: with All the Ships in CE made in MNEME Ship design rules. All the ships in Mneme Space Combat are to have rocket stats. The ability to build ships quickly.
JPG of the default deck plans - keeping the PPT editable Deck plans stay in Mneme Space combat.
Future Books and Products:
Habitats—Nicco and I will create the 3D tools, Editable PPT deck plans, and Spreadsheets that will make building really big habitats (Kilo DT to Mega DT scale; plus the "economic rating" so they don't exist in a vacuum) fast and modular. Someone can use it to build detailed Spin Gravity habitats of publish their own Habitat - all the tools to do all the math and calculation and Images (3D) and editable PPT files - so they can sell their own CE products in DTRPG (our products are CC-BY-SA)
An Add on to Mneme Space Combat - will add the rockets book and spreadsheet as free part of Mneme Space Combat and Encounter Generator.
s.
Thursday, May 2, 2024
IFS function Review - Building the MGT2E ship generator.
Milestone - I've been working on an MGT2E, on and off for so long. Good thing there is AI to talk to and ask questions to. It wouldn't have been feasible to squeeze it into my schedule and all my responsibilities without an AI to help me think about the formulas and what I had to do. Also it helped me learn a lot of things - making me time to build this.
Not only do I have to get the logic correct,
I have to leave a trail for me because I will have a project that will make more forget everything.
I don't need to explain to someone the limits of the AI, and how its supposed to be used.
This was my previous techniqueAlso Learning to use VSCODE came in handy as VBASIC is typically used to help formulate a Function
I will make a MUCH better space and space station generator and referees can easily share and produce new ships that is more likely to have correct math and details!!!
Since I don't have the manpower/hours for it, I wont put ALL of the MGT2E rules. Just enough for TL9.
Wednesday, May 1, 2024
UPDATE: ROCKETS and NON-GRAVITICS
The temporary title of the books is rockets and non-gravitics.
As the title suggests, it's about rocket engines and their impact on your Traveller and Cepheus Engine game. The effort I allocate to convince anyone to migrate to Non-Gravitics (and increase the audience of the book) is going to like 5% 95% is making Non-Gravitics easy.
Like Mneme World Generator, I will make tools - spreadsheets and, if I get a student interested in the project given my budget, a static web page that uses Javascript (that generates a CSV of the ship stats that allows uploading and downloading that will serve as its persistent memory).
So, I'm busy making a Mongoose Traveller 2E Ship Generator spreadsheet. If you bought Mneme Space Combat - you will notice CE SHIP Creation spreadsheet is acting as my "LIVE" lab where I'm making the MGT2E ship builder tools. This means the buyers of Mneme Space Combat will have access to it and the MGT2E ship builder (which uses a Google appscript).
I will convert all the Ships in MGT2E into TL9 using the spreadsheet; the ships will have: Non-Gravitic Hulls, R-Drives, Heat shielding (if they are meant to Airbrake), and Delta-V Calculations.
My differentiation - I talk to science and make sure people can follow by testing and simplifying what can be simplified. Pretty much my experience as someone who teaches students and makes tutorials online.
Its a holiday right now in the Philippines, LABOR DAY. Got Cloudflared to work - so that people who set up their ERP only need to spend 10usd/year so that its accessible in a public IP address. After exercise and my obligations - I get to do more work: Mneme Projects.
HEAT shielding is just too expensive at 100,000cr per DTON. probably 1000Cr per DTON would be more reasonable.
A TL8 non-gravitic Far Trader needs 20M of heat shielding at 100,000Cr per DT.
This is from the perspective of using the Apolo budget and converting it to 2020 USD and assuming inflation will make 1,000usd = 1 Cr.
Saturn V is about a 600DT Launch Vehicle.