The Factory Floor - 2017-01-25 (page 1 of 2)

« first day (861 days earlier) ← previous day next day → last day (2646 days later) »

Worldbuilding Meta

12:19 AM

0

Q: Why was my question closed as primarily opinion-based?

I asked this question: If a new nation on an artificial island was founded, what kinds of names might it be given? It has been closed as primarily opinion-based. I don't understand why it was closed. I think it might have been closed because it looks like I'm asking for a list of names. But I ex...

discussion specific-question closed-questions opinion-based

3 hours later…

Worldbuilding Meta

3:39 AM

1

Q: Please raise the threshold for the "too many answers" flag

The Community♦ user raises some automatic moderator-attention flags, which are usually helpful. One of the flags is the TooManyAnswers flag, which is raised when a question gets more than 10 answers either (a) at all or (b) recently (within the last 7 days). The problem is that on Worldbuilding...

feature-request flagging

4:09 AM

@WorldbuildingMeta Interesting question, though.

Journeyman Geek

Heh, that's a problem the older sites rarely face.

But worldbuilding is odd. There's many cases with no one right answer.

or more precisely, many answers correct enough.

While it's not the name of the island, my island had local high schoolers participate in a contest as part of choosing the official word for local inhabitants regardless of indigeneity.

This was back in the 50s, around the time the US government was also doing things like letting us elect our own governor.

Journeyman Geek

What isn't?

erf. I am missing context

I mean, the name of my island was determined through the usually mess of condescending colonisers and language mishaps, but the name of the people who live here was chosen more deliberately, like the question's talking about.

Journeyman Geek

4:55 AM

OH

I was looking at the wrong meta question

5:24 AM

...We've also got a location name that's a naughty pun at the expense of the coloniser.

4 hours later…

9:51 AM

Hello from the other side

2 hours later…

12:01 PM

Knowledge and Text Production in an Age of Print: China, 900-1400 (freely downloadable PDF book)

12:45 PM

Hello :/

1:13 PM

hi :\

Journeyman Geek

Hi ;)

TURN ZAT FROWN, UPSIDE DOWN!

(; ¡uʍop ǝpᴉsdn uʍoɹɟ ʇɐɥʇ uɹn┴

3

1:41 PM

WHAT DID YOU DO?!

Journeyman Geek

2:15 PM

@dot_Sp0T he seems to have turned my smily face sideways

The whole chat in anarchy

Everything burning

People roaming the streets

Journeyman Geek

So, sunday morning?

Madness

Despair

@JourneymanGeek I would like to attend a mass at your place if everything is on fire every sunday morning

Journeyman Geek

who said anything about mass?

2:34 PM

everything has mass

hey all

so I got a new emoji font for my linux machine, and now the blue diamonds are red

It actually looks incredibly wrong

What diamonds?!

Moderator diamonds

normally they're blue, but this font has them as red

they're also super big

My font seems to make them gray(?) and they're only showed on the profile, aren't they?

Journeyman Geek

0_0

2:44 PM

@dot_Sp0T No, they appear where ever the mod's name does

@JourneymanGeek -_o

Well Journeyman has only a first name for me

@dot_Sp0T window width truncates names

My window is full width

1280?

2:46 PM

2736px wide; if that's not enough I sure don't know anymore

oh, huh

Also any page that cannot be fully rendered in 800x600 is a piece of dung

Journeyman Geek

any monitor that only renders 800x600 is an eidritch horror

I mean, for dog's sake. AT LEAST 1024x768

800x600 should still be enough for any website to display content

Everything else is just nice bonus

Honestly if you need a higher res you're doing it wrong

There's a difference between res and screen width

Oh the weather outside is weather

2:59 PM

So I have to figure out a magic system for one of my races in this world I'm making

I kinda want to make it a more traditional one (like with spells or rune), but I can't decide where the power comes from

I don't want it to be supernatural

Any thoughts?

@DonyorM The best magic system in my opinion is the one from the Eragon books.

I can lend my brains if you describe the magic system some more

@James totally agree. That was amazing

but I kinda don't want to steal it outright

what did eragon do again?

You used the energy in your own body to perform magic

3:01 PM

use too much. you die

@dot_Sp0T I don't have much right now

@DonyorM any spell?

anything you can say

(in an ancient language)

@DonyorM don't most magic systems do that? E.g. what Raymond Feist used in his books?

There's a special language that is bound to magic

3:02 PM

@DonyorM definitely should have a look at feist in that case

Journeyman Geek

@dot_Sp0T rivers of london does that too

Overuse of magic basically causes your brain to turn to mush

It's hard magic, you use the exact amount of energy for the spell

Christopher Pauloini stole the system from somewhere else

I don't remember where

The way he presented it was exceptional though.

@James I still don't like how overpowered it became

So you have an innate power and when you cast magic you draw from that power

3:04 PM

It was kinda OP

with more complicated magic you can draw from other sources

but it's an equivalent exchange

@DaaaahWhoosh ...well he did basically have to fight a god at the end

did I get that right?

@dot_Sp0T yep

I think Kingkiller Chronicles does a good job with sympathy magic

3:05 PM

Sounds like every magic system that ever has existed?

@DaaaahWhoosh that's Rothfuss right?

@dot_Sp0T that sounds right. I was thinking Sanderson before, but he did Mistborn, right?

yep

@DaaaahWhoosh yep

Google says Rothfuss

:)

The magic system in Mistborn also uses a power exchange, although the energy is not in your body, but is stored in metals

same difference though

there's a fix amount and you exchange it for actions

3:06 PM

have you read the whole series?

That answers a bit simplistic :)

@DonyorM Mistborn?

yeah

@DonyorM the best answers are the most simple

@DonyorM I think I have, yeah

fair enough. It's sorta a spirtual source too

if yall are gonna talk spoilers, ping me when you're done

3:07 PM

3 Books in the old age; and another 3 in the steam age

@DaaaahWhoosh I'll stop here

@DaaaahWhoosh give me a spoiler treshhold and I will keep them out

The newer books were surprisingly good

I loved Wax's character

@DonyorM they were indeed

Sequel series tend to flop, but those didn't

3:08 PM

The first book was great, the second and third got progressively worse - the Wayne/Wax books are all quite amazing

I really like Wayne

Does the world you are designing for have deities?

@James yes, well one. Just God. The supreme one

How boring

I don't really want power to come directly from him

Idea for a magic system with deities:
Make the power-source for a spell the deity that allows you to cast the spell; the more spells of that deity are casted, the more power the deity loses; deities gain power when people pray to them, the power gained is proportional to the amount of time people spend praying instead of doing other things

3:09 PM

:) It's a minority

So not an active dnd style deity then...

No

Kinda why I'm struggling

I set out five different systems, so I kinda started running out of ideas for the fifth one

ooh, imagine a magic system where you consume the souls of your ancestors for power

that sounds incredibly creepy, high price too

and lots of evil magicians

yeah, basically your family doesn't want you to learn magic, and you can never have kids

3:11 PM

So your standards for power sources are: Bodily energy, surrounding life energy, deities, an artifact, the ether (like the weave in dnd) or just don't bother explaining it.

@DaaaahWhoosh Sounds very chinese :D I like it

@DaaaahWhoosh ...talk about a good reason to be nice to your children.

I might have to use bodily energy, though I kinda already did that

maybe I can just make them counterparts

oh I forgot one option.

Localized geographic

So you've got 4 well-defined systems and need a fifth?

3:12 PM

@dot_Sp0T more or less

so basically something about a certain location...maybe some crystals or something makes magic possible.

@James basically chakra on a planetary scale?

@DonyorM care to give quick overviews of the 4 defined ones?

@dot_Sp0T I wouldn't have put it that way but yes

@dot_Sp0T elementals, shapeshifters, DNA mixers (can create new species), tinkerers (can create mechanical powers)

elementals use bodily mass transformed into energy to fuel their power

Has anyone watched the new Voltron series on Netflix?

3:14 PM

I could have the fifth system be a counterpart to theml

@James actually no; what you described in the post right before mine is more of a power in other things system where the things are only found at certain places;; the chakra would be more like a magnetic field that is not based on certain things/resources

@James I have not

@DonyorM so you need a power-source OR some cool magic thing to complement? ^^

@DonyorM Its good. Like legit funny.

@dot_Sp0T basically. I'm flexible

3:16 PM

You got nothing that specifically manipulated the surroundings; how about Elemental-Benders?

@dot_Sp0T I see what you are saying

@James I'm imagining magical cities becoming centers of civilization. People from all over would go there for unique magically-crafted items. You could export the dirt, and it would have magical properties that would wear off slowly

@dot_Sp0T He already has elementals listed out

^

@DaaaahWhoosh That's a cool idea

3:17 PM

@James he's got elementals that use their own bodily energy; my idea would be another class that can only manipulate a certain element but neither generate nor eradicate it

@DaaaahWhoosh that would be pretty cool. I could make them more powerful to compensate for the geographic limit

@dot_Sp0T Uhh, that was a quick explanation. They can only affect one element

@DonyorM too quick then^^

sorry :(

oh, I should say "short story" so when I have time to write one I can search for this idea

Nice

I will now say short story every 10 minutes to clog your search :p

Journeyman Geek

3:20 PM

evil

@DonyorM aha, but the search can be user-based! I'm always one step ahead!

Come on man, now I have to hack your account ;)

Journeyman Geek

Just bribe a mod to randomly edit things.

That works

So @DonyorM having quickly analyzed your string of powers and further explanations you currently have:
- A class of magic(-users) that can manipulate certain elements
- A class that can create mechanical things(?)
- A class that can splice DNA of other things
- A class that can 'splice' their own DNA

3:22 PM

@dot_Sp0T Good enough. The shapeshifters have a single animal form they can change into. The mechanical stuff is relevant because it's a medieval world elsewhere

You could combine the location thing with a nature thing.

The location thing could work well actually

That puts the DNA Splicer and Mechanical mage on two sides of the same coin; the shapeshifter would be related to the splicer; the elementalist would be outside of the system, no relations

So basically think of a world tree like with the night elves in warcraft or something

@James or like in the Artemis Fowl books

3:24 PM

The location thing would work as counterpart to the Elemental

@DaaaahWhoosh Haven't read those

you plant an acorn from an old tree, bam, you get magic for a few years

@dot_Sp0T that would work well

@DonyorM so your mechanical mages, do they have powers to magically make mechanics? Like Clankers in that webcomic I forgot the name?

So it's basically something everyone could do, but they have a certain affinity/knack for it

@dot_Sp0T they're based on Clankers from the Levithan, so no. They only have the ability to understand mechanics beyond what anyone else has the ability to

In Levithan they had SW style walkers and stuff, so they're more knowledgeable than modern times

3:25 PM

@DonyorM so they can do mechanics that are not possible with our understanding o physics?

@dot_Sp0T Technically, no, but I'm willing to handwave a little

So the reason I brought up Voltron! The stopped off on a planet that was overrun by the bad guys who had enslaved the locals...you know, normal day. The locals could manipulate tech with their minds/hands basically taking raw materials and BAM. You have tech.

@DonyorM Sorry if I am picking too many holes; what I meant is: Only because there is no infrastructure or widely spread knowledge, there is nothing preventing a DaVinci or similar to create electricity without magic

Add something "we don't understand" They don't have electricty either

@dot_Sp0T No you're good

Still working through some of these details

I'll be publishing a series of (very) short stories exploring this world on the blog

so feel free to check those out

@dot_Sp0T The world is young, I'm thinking of having them discover electricity during the story. But they won't have the innate understanding of it like they do mechanics

So you might want to move that to an innate understanding of mechanics or something, like a super-autist, that can zone out to create almost magical contraptions

3:28 PM

@dot_Sp0T I believe that's what I got, I may be misunderstanding something

I have got so much rep on Skeptics by asking about Trump's twitter's background pic

it's kinda ridicoulus

Btw I meant the webcomic: Girl Genius

I'll have to look it up

what's it about?

They've got these Sparks (or what they call it) that can create fantastical contraptions without necessarily understanding a thing (although they mostly understand what they build)

It's about the picture found on the TvTropes site for Cool Airship :D

I still think your system is unbalanced; but then again I only recently started to appreciate assymetry

Also: Anyone got recommendations for a browser that can handle fast creation and removal of Tabs as well as restoring tabs recently closed? Everytime I do that in MS-Edge it slows down..

Firefox seems to work

try adding the tab tree plugin

it's amazing

@dot_Sp0T What do you believe is unbalanced? The mechanics being too strong?

I've drawn out a crude relationship model for the powers described (including the place of power thing) and the issue I have is that:
- Tinkering and Splicing are somewhat related in that they both allow the user to draw on knowledge and abilities beyond them to manipulate the respective subject with ease and create new things from existing things, I understood that they do not have any metaphysical powers to do that, but require tools (although they can build them from simpler materials, again with childlike ease)

So you've got Tinkering & Splicing which are somewhat the two sides of a coin; There's Elementalism that's completely unrelated to these things (and is basically it's own system (e.g. like the chinese system of elements used in the Avatar sereies)); There's shape-shifting that allows to do cool things with yourself; and there's the local magic

3:42 PM

not to interrupt, but imagine what it'd be like to be a cop in one of those 'places of power'

@DaaaahWhoosh lol, that would kinda stink

Maybe I am just having a weird feeling about these things being unconnected - I mean, I do that quite often^^

Though not everyone would have places of power abilities. Just one "guild"

I really like Sanderson's and Feist's magic for that reason; everything is connected

@dot_Sp0T I think I won't draw too many parallels. It will be mostly five seperate systems

Mechanics and splicers will have a rivalry probably though, we'll

see

3:44 PM

Okay, so I'm just being me :D

There are five different races, with each system having two "primary races" so that will provide some connection for all of them together

again, Kingkiller Chronicles has many separate types of magic. It has sympathy, it has alchemy, it has sygaldry, it has naming

Also I really enjoyed taking your ideas apart, I hope I wasn't obnoxious

@dot_Sp0T That's cool talking is great

no you weren't it really helped

@DaaaahWhoosh naming reminds me of a short story/book I read once about golems and their names allowing them to do things

3:46 PM

Wish my library had Kingkiller chronicles. I really want to read it

But I'm too cheap to buy it :)

@DonyorM Inter library loan?

@DonyorM if you find a DRM free ebook I would chip in

@AndyD273 I'm actually overseas, so I need the digital version, which is more limited

Î hope that is legal where you people are

@DonyorM where are you ?

Ah

3:47 PM

I'm in Kyrgyzstan, but I'm a U.S. citizen

Oh poor you

I'm heading back on Friday, so my library might have a physical copy. I'll have to check

I think they have the first book digitally, but I don't like reading just part of a series

I only have the audio version myself

Also I do not remember when I managed reading a book from a library, they always feel dirty to me

I read a bunch of Animorphs books from the library once. It bothered me how many were missing

3:52 PM

I never heard of these books before playing To The Moon

@DaaaahWhoosh I only ever start series after I've checked if I can finish them

@DonyorM in that case, hold off on Kingkiller. The third book's not out yet

@DaaaahWhoosh ahhh, that would explain why my library doesn't have it. I might still start it, if they have the other two

I don't trust them to get the third if the only have the first :)

4:05 PM

Anyone ever read Anders?

Nope never have

German Author Wolfgang Hohlbein, great fantasy; Our school library ever only had the fourth book, which left me with the need to read 3 more books for some 9 years

4:18 PM

I hate it when they have some book in the middle of the series

it makes no sense

now that I think about it, I don't think I ever actually read the first Animorphs book

I just feel like I have because they rehashed the plot of it so much in later books

I don't know what I was thinking back then

We've all made questionable reading choices in our youths... It's mostly because people who write books for kids generally don't put much effort into it because kids are too young to know better.

I hope none of you have ever had to read a series of books where the earth has a huge gearwheel along the equator

It's got cool airships and everything

But way too vivid descriptions of intercourse to garner the classification of a youth novel

I still have nightmares

4:35 PM

I may have read something like that, though I don't remember intercourse.

There was some kind of ring or something, and people were base jumping off of it

ah, I remember the first time I read a book with sex in it. it was a book about people trying to bring Hitler back from the dead

in hindsight, I have no idea how I was allowed to read it

or even why we owned the book in the first place

It annoys me how many books are about that kinda stuff

It's not what I want to read

First one I remember was a james clavell book. Shogun or King Rat or something. It was not a kids book, but I had a 12th grade reading level at 12yo and kept getting books from the adults section at the library.

I read more and more youth novels nowadays, mostly because they tend to use simpler subjects and words. So I don't have to think

4:56 PM

@dot_Sp0T I really liked Brandon Sandersons Reckoners series. It was YA, but didn't feel dumbed down to me. Have you seen Scott Sigler's Generations series? He put it up as an audio podcast.

I like his other books more, but only his Galactic football books are YA.

Actually, for Scott Sigler YA, I'd just like to change my recommendation to the Galactic Football League series. It's really good.

and the audio version is read the by the author, which I like.

and it's been podcast for free

I really like Sanderson, or at least I loved mistbron

5:18 PM

@DonyorM but you can't deny that the second and third books were mostly turd. Right?

The first one was definitely the best. I still liked the other two, though the whole preservation/ruin thing got weird

Vin's dealings with Strafe were fun in Well of Ascension

The stuff that made the first book great was getting sparse in the later ones. I'm glad he managed to realize that and get it going in the Wax/Wayne series

I liked learning more about how the magic system worked, and the whole Kandra culture thing

5:35 PM

I'm looking forward to more waynewax

I am too. We got one more book

though they're getting a little weird too

I have to say, it would stink to be Harmony

/sez

6:24 PM

So I was reading this:

The Seven Basic Plots

The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories is a 2004 book by Christopher Booker, a Jungian-influenced analysis of stories and their psychological meaning. Booker worked on the book for 34 years. == Summary == === The meta-plot === The meta-plot begins with the anticipation stage, in which the hero is called to the adventure to come, This is followed by a dream stage, in which the adventure begins, the hero has some success, and has an illusion of invincibility. However, this is then followed by a frustration stage, in which the hero has his first confrontation with the enemy, and the illusion of...

and under each type they have examples listed...

For The Quest they have Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle listed.

bahahahaha

Well it's certainly a classic quest

I completely agree

And they meet all kind of fancy character on their way

NPH!

I WANTED TO POST A VIDEO

6:28 PM

and a cheetah if I recall

@dot_Sp0T DO IT!

hmm, I wonder where those 'a bunch of people are in a place and they all die slowly' stories would fit among these seven categories

@Mołot Just FYI: Mods are notified via an autoflags when there are more than 20 comments posted within three days, so we'll generally clean up a comment thread if that happens.

@HDE226868 Hola hat man

@James Hey hey hey

I've been involved in the Literature beta the last week, so I've been less active here.

Fortunately, Worldbuilding hasn't exploded too much in that time.

Well I hope you are happy

6:42 PM

@HDE226868 oh, that's started? How's it going?

@DaaaahWhoosh Fast. There's been a heck of a lot of activity, on main and on meta. I think things are going well. I don't see any big problems right now, although that could change.

I've learned that Poe (probably) did not plagiarize to write The Raven, that Captain Hastings was likely strongly based on Dr. Watson, and that the song lyric debate is not one I would have liked to jump into.

Oh, and Sherlock Holmes was likely not gay.

The most upvoted question is currently "Did Arthur Conan Doyle code Holmes and Watson as a gay couple?"

BUT WHAT ABOUT MY FANFICTION?!

"we don't give a wet slap"

...about your fanfiction

Actually, fanfiction is on-topic.

so, is the site basically SFF but limited to books instead of scifi and fantasy?

actually, I guess there's some interpretation going on, but a lot of it seems plot-related

6:52 PM

Welllllllll . . . kind of. What defines "literature" is currently under contention. Songs and poems are literature, as may be operas (not word yet on plays). Recommendations - which killed the first Literature site - are off-topic.

I think a lot of people want a lot more literary analysis than what we started with.

I think analysis is what I'd go there for. Like, I get that Stack Exchange isn't for answering homework questions, but it kind of works well for homework questions

@HDE226868 The only explosion lately has been in VTC flags...

its been nuts

It's good nuts

Have you looked at the questions lately? Less and less about actual worlds and more about single small situation management....

@dot_Sp0T That's ok though. You have to build the planet sure, but you also have to build locales on, in and above said planet.

@James Oh my.

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE

6:58 PM

In the case of WB.SE the definition of world = setting

@HDE226868 Nothing really, I've been pretty lazy lately.

:D

@dot_Sp0T I need to ask a good worldbuilding-process question.

@HDE226868 do it

@James I meant "You" as a site, i.e. closing a lot of questions.

@HDE226868 there are too many

we must cleanse ourselves

oh...yeah, we have done that alot

but honestly people are VTC'ing a lot of perfectly acceptable (though not always well written) questions.

« first day (861 days earlier) ← previous day next day → last day (2646 days later) »

Transcript for

Jan '1725

The Factory Floor

Main chat room for worldbuilding.stackexchange.com

bad-puns balloon-whales bewildered-gods glarnak reasoned-discussion

join this room
about this room

00:00

06:00

12:00

18:00

all times are UTC

site design / logo © 2024 Stack Exchange Inc; legal

mobile