Dude, don't you know the G'rool have sensors that can comb through cubic megaparsecs of space and return information faster than the speed of light? That would be a suicide mission.
But... if your sensors show you where the G'rool are, won't their sensors show them where you are? And can't they fly just as fast as you can? Or am I missing something?
Clearly our ships are equiped with patented HandWave(tm) cloaking deevices that stop the gr'ool from detecting us... except when we try to fly through the space where the Gr'ool are because..um... reasons
... that the captain actually waves a hand to activate of course, like that Logan's Run technology where all the equipment is just clear plastic forms and you wave your hands in front of it.
Needlessly fancy looking technology, for otherwise mundane things. A computer server doesn't need to be a giant X for no reason. It can be a different shape, just please make it a shape you'd expect a computer server to be? Also I'd prefer certain things the way Star Wars handles it. Not like the aesthetic in particular but I mean like. A coffee machine still *looks* like it's a coffee machine, just the fluid that comes out is another color than usual. (Like Blue Milk for some reason? ) Minor thing: I haven't actually 'looked' for steampunk stuff, but the fact that I have to 'look' for it at all is a crime. Especially in regards to anime. Another minor thing: Most futuristic environments/ alien worlds feel 'empty' I think. And I think a huge part of that is a lack of wildlife. You can still manage that isolation effect while having a spooky lookin kitty cat scamper past in a blink and miss it event.
This covers fantasy as well as sci-fi, but it bugs me when It's clear they told the concept designers to really go wild and try to make up some crazy stuff, and then that defines the whole look of the movie. Especially when the concept designers have strange quirks that you recognize from one movie to the next. It's like "Oh no, they got That Guy again!!! The one who's obsessed with grinning skull-heads and long skinny fingers with the wrists wrapped in bandages." Riddick would be an example.
I remember looking into this for some project a while ago, and being surprised at how much extra gravity we can take. 2 g is barely noticeable, IIRC, except maybe over the long-term. 3 g feels like wearing a heavy backpack, and the physiological effects (blood pressure problems, for instance) pile up more quickly. And I hope you don't take a nasty fall while weighing 3x as much... A lot of it would depend on what kind of shape one is in, and how long one is exposed to it.
Also, and this would only apply to launch scenarios, not a permanent environment, but the orientation of the body to the G forces can help to withstand higher G forces for brief periods. I have a story where a ship does have artificial gravity (which is at least given a cursory discussion!) but it can't be activated until the spacecraft is beyond low orbit so during launch the travelers (pioneers) have to sit with the 'back to the ground orientation' to reduce complications during lift off.
That might happen in a board game or a role playing game but tell me specifically when it has happened in a science fiction story.
I agree. And on that note (and not sure how relevant this is to novels) when the two ships or fleets approach each other and are both orientated the same way.
As a non-scientist and non-firearms person, I can be quite gullible when the 'wrong thing' happens on screen. Somebody appears with a firearm and folks die ...I'm not going to quibble about whether that firearm is realistic, etc. And if the story is obviously 'future fantasy' I can accept things like the Star Wars fighter pilots being able to travel long distances, etc. I mean, it's space FANTASY. Like Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars stories, where the air is breathable there. However, if the story is supposed to be scientifically plausible, and it turns out it's not ...I will certainly feel a bit let down when I find out. BUT, let a supposedly 1870s cowboy appear on screen wearing a shirt that buttons all the way down, rather than being a pullover style, and I'll immediately start grumping. I KNOW that's not correct, and it bothers me. It makes me question the plausibility of the storytelling. Maybe the scientists or ballistics experts in the audience won't realise that detail is not correct, but I do. I guess it all boils down to your particular area of expertise, as to what bothers you and what doesn't. However, I do feel it's important for writers and filmmakers to get their details right, just so they don't lose part of their audience when it discovers how wrong some details are. Yeah, you'll fool some people, some of the time, but don't assume that's okay to do. I maintain I never KNOWINGLY make a research error. If I find an error, I change it. These changes have given me some bad moments, but ultimately I think my story works better when the details are correct. Same with films. The days of filmmaking yore, when a Viking can get away with saying "Yonda stands da castle of my fadda," are long past. Because research is relatively easy to do, we expect it to be done.
Steam punk. What's with all the exposed gears? Don't they know it's a hazard for loose hair and clothing? Where's OSHA?
If you look at the era it's based on, you're looking at the inkwell of the blood that the safety regulations were written in.
I'm sure there's plenty of Steam Punk books if I look for them on the internet. I found out about a series called Immortal Engines that is supposedly good? I heard the name from a Minecraft youtuber, yup...minecraft, you get some interesting topics when listening to hermitcraft. I'm more talking like, book stores, tv series especially anime (in my memory the only steam punk anime I know of is the Steam Boy film) and film. I'd love to see some games have a steam punk aesthetic, but there's very rare examples of it. Only one I know of is a game on the 3DS I don't recall the name of. I know Steam Punk is kind of a fad that came n went, and I'm kind of sad that it came and went so quickly. While we're on the topic of steam punk, can anyone explain all the brass pipes? I know it's based on the industrial era, but like, surely steel and iron would be more stable no? Maybe it's a thing they did to add color to the scene?
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville is excellent. He's not for everyone, but if you like his jam you will REALLY like his jam.
How about nebulae and asteroid fields that are impossibly dense? You wouldn't even see a nebula if you were in the middle of it. And you know the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter? You'd struggle to see another asteroid if you were on one.
And many nebulae are lightyears wide, though the parts that radiate in visible light are comparatively "narrow." ETA: to be fair, an asteroid collison would result in a debris field that would be relatively dense in a fairly localized area, but I hear you on that one too
