The Factory Floor

Hm....I just read some interesting lore about the Battletech universe. Apparently, Islam was one of the last religions to spread into space, and is the least commonly met religion in the Inner Sphere (not counting Earth and the Sol System, and any worlds close to Earth). The books gave some good reasons for this: one if a planet is tidal locked or has a weird rotation or even messes up compasses, it makes it difficult for a Muslim to know which way is Mecca so they can pray.

Another reason is since Muslims make a pilgrimage to Mecca at certain times of the year as dictated by their faith, they might not be able to make the trip especially if there is a war going on that cuts off travel to Earth.

That makes sense right? Well for the Battletech universe right?

Hello! I am wondering if anyone can give me any book reccomandations? I am looking for fantasy or sci fi. Here on worldbuilding I see soo many cool settings and setups, but I never have the luck to come across them in anything I read. I just read Isaac Asimov's "Caves of Steel"; while idea for the setting was cool, the setting did not play a large part in the story. Some really cool ideas I have seen on here: a ring world 25 times as large as the earth, water worlds, etc

Also a time travel story would be really cool if anyone can recommend one

3:08 AM

Well, @Ovi there's a good alternate universe book series that might be good for you: Destroyermen. It's about a group of American sailors who are crewing a battleship and are transported to an alternate Earth having been chased through a mysterious portal by a sadistic and deranged Imperial Japanese captain. There, the Americans find themselves in the middle of a war between an evil empire of cannibalistic reptiles (who are winning) and nomadic lemur refugees (who are losing).

@SCPilot Thanks! I will take a look

You're welcome!

The author did his homework on how ships worked back then during WWII and studied naval engineering a great deal in order to make sure he got everything right.

3:21 AM

@SCPilot That makes it even more interesting!

Indeed!

Worldbuilding Meta

5:21 AM

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Q: Why is this on hold?

I do not feel that my thread was put on hold in good faith. This is the thread. This is my question: "What goods, available to Group B, could create a trade relationship that is existential to the survival, or industrialization of Group A?" This is, word-for-word, an example, taken from the th...

discussion

JBH

5:53 AM

@Dubukay I've been gone for a while. Sorry this took so long. It's not plagarism if it's properly quoted and cited. Plagarism bad. Citation good. In fact, we encourage citation over simply retelling the facts in your own words. Often, the cited source is more authoritative than the respondant.

2:15 PM

naming things is so hard

Hosch250

Did you ever get the Birds Aren't Real lined up?

Also, not sure why, but somehow people figured out my email and location and seem to think I want to hook up with prostitutes and buy viagra...

I'm trying to decide what to hope for. They get fatal STDs, they get busted for sex trafficing, or what.

@Ovi So the obvious one is the book Ringworld by Larry Niven, and then if you like that you can go on to his other Known Space stories, specifically the Fleet of Worlds books, which technically take place before Ringworld, about a race that has taken 5 planets, put them in orbit around each other, and then boosted them up to a decent fraction of light speed.

Another possible is Neptunes Brood which involves high intrigue in a post singularity, post human society, set mostly on a water world...

There is the Long Earth series by Terry Pratchett, about stepping across millions of alternate earths.

Slightly less "other worldly", Fragment by Warren Fahy is a thriller/horror in the vein of "The Lost World" (Doyle), with a bit of "Jurassic Park" thrown in, about an undiscovered island that has been cut off from the rest of the world, and the monsters that live on it.

2:39 PM

The Smoke Ring, also by Niven, about a gas ring of air around a neutron star filled with floating trees that people live on.

2:51 PM

@AndyD273 Thank you very much, I will look at those!

@Ovi "Fantastical setting" is kind of a hard one to do recommendations off of. Story elements is much easier :)

@AndyD273 Ah okay :). In that case, have you read the kingkiller chronicles? I enjoyed it very much and I am also looking for books similar to it

@Ovi Which aspect of those books did you like the most?

for unique magic system, there are a couple Brandon Sanderson books that are good; Elantris (rune/shape magic), The Rithmatist (chalk magic), Warbreaker (color magic)...

@AndyD273 Honestly what I liked the most was that the author explained the magic and the world clearly, and it became integral to the story (as opposed to "Caves of Steel", in which the setting and how the world worked didn't really matter). I also liked how it was very mysterious and intruiguing, and there was always a sense of danger.

@AndyD273 Thanks, I have to go to class now (already late lol) but will check back later

Q: When do you fire a moderator?

K, I'll see if I can think up some more along those lines. Sanderson is the easy one when it comes to magic systems

Worldbuilding Meta

3:09 PM

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Not to be too blame-y, but I haven't seen JD around in some time. According to the page of record, he has made one action on this site in the last six months. Can we fire a moderator? When is it appropriate to do so? Should we?

discussion

3:35 PM

@AndyD273 wassup?

For the feel/setting, I think I'd go with the Eddie LaCrosse series, which doesn't really have much magic, and it is not a major part of the world, but it does have a bit of the feel of King Killer... It's pretty close to a Noir detective/sword and sorcery thing.

@dot_Sp0T Not much. You?

@AndyD273 trying to write a novel but getting hung up on little details that interest me too much :)

How are you folks getting around with the SGR?

I was hoping to be able to exchange thoughts on the writing.stack chat, but that seems to be utterly dead

3:51 PM

@dot_Sp0T Can just make a note of the little details in such a way that you can easily get back to them later. Or maybe start with an outline, then do the major events, and eventually get to the fun details...

@AndyD273 nah, I wanna solve them now. that is the issue

^^

Bellerophon

4:10 PM

@dot_Sp0T What's the SGR?

Hosch250

4:53 PM

Story Go Round.

Nobody's posted in 11 days.

I'm lost ATM.

5:50 PM

:/

@Hosch250 Ok, I'm going in

Hosch250

@AndyD273 You sound like we just drew straws for beaches on D-Day.

I probably would have said something else else if it was the beaches on D-Day... might have gotten flaged

6:29 PM

nobody can flag it, if nobody sees it ;)

7:26 PM

@Green Yo

8:47 PM

@James Yo.

@James My brain is full of a lot of stuff recently so I don't have anything beyond my comments on your draft.

@Green I hate it when that happens.

9:04 PM

@James And it's not even nice things! It's politics and bull****.

@Green Brain dump. Whiskey helps.

9:25 PM

@James Feedback provided in Hangouts.

9:42 PM

@James Well, I do have a bottle of Jameson at home.

9:57 PM

@Green Gracias. I asked a follow up question. If you had to pick five words to describe her what would they be?

@Green I am not a fan of Jameson but it does the trick.

Plus I firmly believe in the medicinal qualities of whiskey.

@James Young. Good-with-animals (that's one word), lonely, victim-mentality (things happen to her), physically agile.

...I should have known better than to ask you a question about my unstated intent.

@James Well, if you wanted honest answers to your implicit questions, you've come to the right place :)!

@Green Yeah you do that...its still weird.

10:15 PM

@James You're welcome.

What did you intend to ask but didn't quite put into words?

@Green Oh nothing its just your list pretty much covers my intent for her at this point...so either A) I am really good at getting that across in writing or B) you figured it out cause you get into my head like the borg.

I am guessing its B.

@James B. Definitely B.

lol, just chuckled at my desk

One thing though. You're much better at crafting characters than I am. Getting to know other people is something I don't consider myself to be skilled at.

That character in the last man on earth is only detailed because I know myself fairly well.

I have lots of practice at being myself...for better or worse.

@Green True of us all.