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TGW-1184

Chapter: Walker's War
Characters: capt flink, Flame, iris, julie, starlight, Taritha
Location: Iris office, park
└ Tags: digging deeper, trade up - Mine!

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Discussion (41) ¬

  1. Sam
    December 6, 2023, 20:17 | # | Reply

    Berry cookies for dessert? Okay, I’ll share.

    • Scarsdale
      December 7, 2023, 02:10 | # | Reply

      (Opening a can of blueberry pie filling…) My doctor is going to kill me…
      πŸ˜‰
      Wifey had a need for blueberry cinnamon rolls, I’ve never tried that before,
      Wish me luck… and low blood sugar… πŸ˜›

  2. Scarsdale
    December 6, 2023, 21:53 | # | Reply

    Heh, I would of used 20lbs of symtec with neon pink chalk dust,
    but plywood works…

    Ah sneaky, PC. but that does gives you a reason to bring in Bill’s
    super hauler, and maybe spring-board the way for DEEP exploration
    of the surrounding areas around the known systems. I have to agree
    with Flame, Elk are the same way, I talked to a guy that was raising
    Elk for butchering and the only reason he started it was he got
    lucky and bought up 100 acres of a de-funked wildlife preserve
    about 20 miles east of here. I don’t know why the federal gov gave
    up on that land, but this guy said the 10 acres he started with was
    seriously stressing out his herd. I can believe it, even cows, if there’s
    more than one bull they can get pretty cruel to each other, even
    killing the calves! It get WAY worse during breeding season…

    • Bill Mullins
      December 7, 2023, 08:51 | # | Reply

      That’s what I’ve building it for. I do wish PC’d shared the whole “nurseries,
      schools and other facilities” part better. The crew cab is only 90ft in diameter
      and 150ft long. But The load bearing spine is 1,100ft long and able
      to be pressurized so there is some extra space outside the crew cab.
      I really did hit a major snag on the crew cab. It was potentially a killer.
      When I cut windows in the side (and I mean literally “cut” using a tool called
      the “topology knife”. it cuts polys) the surface normals went wonky and part
      of the (ostensibly) rounded shape suddenly went flat AND the next poly
      down developed a visible CREASE! I tried everything I knew and a couple
      I made up on the spot! No go! A couple of the things I tried produced some
      REALLY WEIRD results! After 2 days of pulling my hair out I finally was
      able to cut windows without producing any unpleasant results. Otherwise the only
      windows in the thing would have the bridge windows in the very front. That would
      not have been optimum. I have a one more flavor of cargo pod to build. PC wants
      a passenger module in the same form factor as the other bulk cargo pods. Think
      super cheap passenger service. The freighter charges a fixed rate per mass so an
      enterprising Cat got the idea to hang a pax pod on a bulk freighter. The trip
      would take longer than a dedicated passenger liner but the fare could be cheaper
      – with accommodations more like steerage back in the age of steam. Self-contained
      pod, minimal service crew, minimal amenities, it could work.

      • JasonAW3
        December 7, 2023, 11:31 | # | Reply

        Bill, if I could make a suggestion?
        You might want to consider both pax pods used as the schools
        and escape pods. I imagine that the ship also have some excursion
        Pods, to act as both cargo handling and repair/maintenance vehicles.
        In an emergency, the school pods and escape pods could be ejected,
        And the EPods could be used as maneuvering systems for those
        inhabited pods. While this would cut into the available cargo haulage,
        it would keep the main structure clear for primary habitation and work.

        Just a thought…

        • Bill Mullins
          December 8, 2023, 07:07 | # | Reply

          There is only one type of “passenger pod”. The part I was
          having trouble with was the crew cab on the ship itself. A
          pax pod is just a specialized cargo pod, i.e. a hexagonal
          shaped box 32ft (9m) from flat side to flat side 150ft (50m)
          in length. All its sides and ends are flat. The crew cab is
          a cylinder with hemispherical ends 90ft (30m) in diameter
          and 150ft long. It is rounded. Therein lies the rub. Computers
          do not do curves. When a 3D modeling program does a
          curve it actually makes segmented straight lines and plays
          a trick with how the simulated light reacts to the surface. The
          modelling program I’m using can produce a sphere or
          cylinder with at most 24 longwise divisions. That’s fine
          for relatively small shapes but less so for larger. Perhaps
          one of the other modelling programs out there would do
          better (it would for sure let me rig for posing) but I would
          have to essentially learn it from scratch requiring weeks
          of work watching tutorials to achieve minimum facility
          with the software. Quite frankly I’m not willing to devote
          the man-weeks of time needed. I can make things in
          the software I am using that are usable. I have no desire
          to sell my models so what I can do must suffice.

      • Scarsdale
        December 7, 2023, 11:33 | # | Reply

        Sounds like a serious program glitch, I know using Tinker CAD
        is enough to make me want rip hair out as well, It wants to
        use 1 mm polys and I want to work with 0.1 mm or less. There’s
        so many CAD progs out there but none are “turn-key” usable.
        Fusion 360 is the closest to that and you still have to memorize
        dozens of key cmds and menu options to get the effect you want.

        • Bill Mullins
          December 8, 2023, 07:21 | # | Reply

          DAZ 3D has a free 3D modeler out there called “Hexagon”
          that will do anything you want. Plus there are tutorials
          available but the learning curve is ungodly steep! Also
          the turorials go so quick I find myself missing things
          and needing to rewind to get it. I also have to pause the
          lesson to actually do whatever is being taught. The net
          result is a hellova lot of work just to develop a minimal
          proficiency. Sorry. I’m old and acquiring new skills is a
          real hassle. Years ago I acquired a decent facility in
          Anim8or (the FREE program I use) so now it is easier
          to recover rusty skills than it is to develop new. It is
          purely for my own enjoyment and pushing myself to
          do new things is fun. Developing a facility in some-
          thing like Hexagon would just be work. Sorry, not
          interested!

  3. Scarsdale
    December 6, 2023, 21:59 | # | Reply

    Bill, your ship would be ideal for the Hornies, plus it’s so long,
    by time the aft of the ship cleared the WH, the crew would
    have recovered from jump-lag (at merchant speed).

    • Petercat
      December 7, 2023, 01:01 | # | Reply

      That’s the freighter that Flame’s talking about. It’s way too large for them.

      • Scarsdale
        December 7, 2023, 01:45 | # | Reply

        I was torn between the 5 Empire ship offer or the new super freighter,
        both would of fit the situation, but the super ship does make more sense.
        I wasn’t sure if they were like the Elk or Gazelle they look like, so I was
        guessing, which is why I didn’t spout off HEH.

    • Bill Mullins
      December 7, 2023, 09:03 | # | Reply

      I already have plans for smaller fast freighters for
      cargo valuable enough to go fast and/or for smaller
      operators. I envision a class of freighter that can haul
      2 single rings (12 total) of pods in the 400ft length
      range. I also see freighters with large cargo holds to
      haul lots not economical to fill a whole cargo pod. I’m
      even thinking about bulk liquid or pressurized gas
      carriers. Think a million gallons of covfefe concentrate.
      That is totally in the idea stage at this time. I haven’t
      even broached it to PC yet.

      • JasonAW3
        December 7, 2023, 11:38 | # | Reply

        Essentially, a grain hauler would be a liquid hauler.
        Sort of based on the grain and coal cars from railroads.
        On loading would be pumped hoses, while off loading
        would be by either, spin dumping through funnel openings,
        Or a graviry tube, using their gravity drive tech.
        (Kinda like a vacuum cleaner. *Although why anyone
        would need to clean the vacuum, is beyond me*…)

        • Scarsdale
          December 7, 2023, 17:20 | # | Reply

          You’d be surprised on how much fine dust is created by grain,
          all the grain elevator fires are because of that dust, plus it’s as
          flammable as gasoline! We tried to fight one once, it was awful…
          luckily another station that had the right equipment came in and
          took over, mine didn’t have a boom truck.

          • JasonAW3
            December 8, 2023, 01:10 | # | Reply

            In this case, store the grain in a pure Nitrogen atmosphere.
            If grain dust has no oxygen, it can’t go boom!

            • Scarsdale
              December 8, 2023, 07:57 | # | Reply

              Not possible in RL, but I’d say do-able in cannon here!
              Most elevators have halon suppression systems now,
              but there’s a limit to how long they last. They put out
              the fire, but do nothing for the heat. so once the halon
              runs out, FOOSH! Got any marshmallows?

              I had to stand by and watch a silo melt! It was like a
              time-lapse of a candle burning. Stone/concrete ones
              just collapse…

              • JasonAW3
                December 8, 2023, 20:00 | # | Reply

                In space, you could lower the pressure with the grain,
                Whose spacing is smaller than the grain size, lowering
                the oxygen, (and flushing out a lot of the dust as well)
                and allowing the grain to be repressurized in a high
                nitrogen atmosphere, both minimizing the chance of
                fire, as well as preventing spoilage, and, likely, fungal
                and bacterial infection.

  4. Scarsdale
    December 7, 2023, 02:06 | # | Reply

    To be honest? I think the hornies are most like Gazelles, the long thin
    horns, the flighty nature, and the need to roam great distances. They
    are nomadic in nature, covering many miles in search of food and
    keeping ahead of predators. Elk do roam, but since they are woodland
    types, the need to search for food isn’t so great.

  5. Chryzopraz
    December 7, 2023, 03:55 | # | Reply

    I don’t get it. Why make a generational ship if travel takes months at most?
    All the added cost and risk doesn’t make sense.

    • Bill Mullins
      December 7, 2023, 09:11 | # | Reply

      Think “crew = a single family or clan”. Instead of just being
      hired spacers (like on the Canterbury on “The Expanse” the
      crews of these ships would be a single family or clan. The
      ship would be their only home. If a corporation wanted a
      bulk freighter for a conventional crew the shipyard would be
      happy to build one with a more conventionally sized crew
      cab.

    • Scarsdale
      December 7, 2023, 11:18 | # | Reply

      The hornies are just as dependent on their familys/clans
      as the cats are about their clans, or the P’tera are about
      their mates. Weeks or months are bad enough, the super-ship
      is able to trade for years! Never needing to go to a dock to
      have the chance for shore-leave, swapping out modules
      would only take a few hours to a day tops where a conventional
      freighter would take days. These ships can move freight that
      an entire fleet of ships could not.
      A typical ship is like a convenience store while a super-ship is
      a mall! 4 to 6 super freighters could handle ALL the shipping
      in the entire known universe. Normal freighters could then be
      disaster relief or panic shipping. Or converted to freighter escorts.

      • Bill Mullins
        December 7, 2023, 11:35 | # | Reply

        Actually, not so much. The freighters I am building are more
        like modern container ships. They’re big but a true spacefaring
        civilization would need thousands of those things. The small
        freighters would be analogous to old style tramp steamers.
        Even supertanker ships number in the thousands. The raw
        tonnage of goods a typical city goes through these days is
        positively staggering. And my freighters aren’t all that large.
        They’re just the largest that can be guaranteed to fit through
        the smallest know wormhole junction. A thousand of my ships
        would not handle the extended Empire’s ultimate traffic for a
        week and even with WHJs providing FTL transit between systems
        transit from the WHJ to the inner system takes days or more.
        WHJs are not located close to each other so travel can take a
        while. For time frames think about travel during the age of sail.
        When the Pilgrims came to North America (BTW there was a
        Bill Mullins on that ship) crossing the Atlantic took 6 weeks!
        Figure comparable transit times until/unless a better FTL
        technology allows transit directly from one inner system to
        another.

        • Sam
          December 7, 2023, 18:20 | # | Reply

          Yo! Dude!! My ancestor knew your ancestor! Way cool!!

          Okay, that’s the end of my doper spiel.

          I can trace back to Francis Cooke through three slightly
          different paths on my paternal grandfather’s side. Allegedly, my
          paternal grandmother’s side goes back that far as well, but
          I haven’t seen that one yet.

          • rob stanley
            December 7, 2023, 19:33 | # | Reply

            had the family name on the first ship. but.. they all died.
            the actual ancestors came over on the second set of ships,.
            and they took over the first brothers land an holdings..

            • Bill Mullins
              December 8, 2023, 07:28 | # | Reply

              I never said I was KIN to that “Bill Mullins” (William
              Mullins, actually) just that there was one. The name
              came over in the early 18th century. My line is from
              Picket county, Tennessee. Granddad and his brothers
              moved to Texas 100 years ago.

      • JasonAW3
        December 7, 2023, 11:47 | # | Reply

        I imagine refueling could be as simple as swapping empty fuel tanks
        for full ones. (Yeah, I know gravity drive ships need no fuel, but fine
        maneuvers might need thrusters,and, it the grav drive is knocked out,
        it would probably be a good idea to have a back up.
        Of course, you could also swap out rampage for water, air mix, solid/
        liquid waste containers, etc.
        Having some pods with raw materials for 3d printing of clothes and
        equipment would also be a good idea.

        • Scarsdale
          December 7, 2023, 17:01 | # | Reply

          A modular tank system would speed up the refuel/resupply process
          greatly, with the grav drives you could use ion thrusters for
          maneuvering and a set of fusion drives for backup, low powered
          to get things moving while calling for help. A ship that massive,
          even battleship level drives would be hard pressed to move it. A
          tow vehicle would be needed to get it moving at any real speed.
          Inertia is an evil man/woman…

          I’ve toyed with a type of chain-mail cloth that can be printed, it’s
          pretty warm too. I’m sure there’s more practical ways, but my
          level of printers is crappy, need to spend at least $1000 to hope
          to try other ways of printing it. A new type of that chain-mail
          cloth made by NASA that doesn’t pull hair out of your arm/chest
          like most do, but it’s very expensive to get the print files for it.
          If you could print that stuff at 1/10 of the normal size, it would
          look and feel just like woven cloth!

          • JasonAW3
            December 8, 2023, 01:14 | # | Reply

            The nice thing about that fine chain mail is that, in theory, you
            could print it with no seams, unlike regular cloths…

            • Scarsdale
              December 8, 2023, 08:19 | # | Reply

              Ender has the CR-30, it’s a conveyor belt print bed,
              so it can print long pieces, but is still limited to 220mm
              (8.4 inches) wide strips. Most FMD printer designers
              are still tinkering with the idea, Ender’s CR-30’s are
              crappy, unreliable printers than need constant
              monitoring… There are those DIY people out there
              that have built their own super-sized printers, the largest
              one that’s factory made is a meter cubed, If you can
              afford the $12,000 price tag!

            • Scarsdale
              December 8, 2023, 08:36 | # | Reply

              There is a filament out there called TPU, it’s almost rubber-like,
              and you can stitch together the pieces together without having
              seams with the NASA style, the links have loose loops you can
              link together with a piece of filament threaded through the links
              that’s invisible. A quick dab with a soldering gun attaches the ends.

  6. President Elect Toxic Deplorable Racist SAH Neanderthal B Woodman Domestic Violent Extremist SuperStraight
    December 7, 2023, 10:06 | # | Reply

    It seems that Julie has an agenda.
    Waiting for her back story, and the continuing
    story of Jonathon and the school system.
    It seems that the two may be intertwined.
    (is she the daughter of one of the bankrupted
    school board members?)

    • Scarsdale
      December 7, 2023, 10:53 | # | Reply

      It could be she’s a self-styled investigator, maybe a future Janice
      replacement? Or just a busy-body that can’t leave well enough
      alone…

    • Bill Mullins
      December 7, 2023, 11:37 | # | Reply

      Patience, guys. As always the Cat sayeth nothing. We
      just have to let him unfold the story at his own pace.
      (Not that I like it or have to.)

      • Jochi
        December 7, 2023, 11:59 | # | Reply

        Yeah, agreed, but speculating does no harm
        and has sparked ideas for PC in the past.

      • Scarsdale
        December 7, 2023, 17:04 | # | Reply

        That’s true, I try not to surmise his plot lines too much,
        I don’t think she’s a “newsy” type, more like hero
        worship, which can be both bad and good.

    • JasonAW3
      December 7, 2023, 11:50 | # | Reply

      It could be; She’s simply curious about him and wants to understand
      his motivations. Admiration of his actions could also be a strong
      motivator for her wanting to understand him.

      • Scarsdale
        December 7, 2023, 17:07 | # | Reply

        True, as long as she doesn’t obsess too much about him,
        the short time I worked as a roadie gave me a dislike for
        fan-girls…

    • Curtis
      December 7, 2023, 16:18 | # | Reply

      Ah yes! one of the problems with episodic stories;
      you have to come back later to find out more.
      Also, why some of the great literary works were
      first published as stories in periodicals. πŸ™‚

      • Scarsdale
        December 8, 2023, 08:26 | # | Reply

        The never-ending cliff-hangers, both the bane and loved
        way of keeping you on the edge of your seat! I think the
        2 best ones is when Riker (TNG) ordered to fire on the Borg
        ship, and when Archer came out of the Bridge turbolift to
        a devastated Earth…

        • JasonAW3
          December 11, 2023, 09:16 | # | Reply

          In my head canon, Archer looked around and thought; “It must be Monday…”

  7. notStanley
    December 7, 2023, 15:58 | # | Reply

    >crewed by entire families and clans

    Another example could be the Crimson Tear from Of Dog, Volpir,
    and Man by u/KamchatkasRevenge

    https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/q1yr4w/out_of_cruel_space_side_story_of_dog_volpir_and/

    >A much larger ship pops up on screen. It’s not the ugliest vessel in the
    world, one of the >smaller classes of mass conveyor, a kind intentionally
    designed to be incredibly versatile >and modular while still having a
    fully enclosed hull.

    As for our mission. we’ll be making long deep space journeys to a variety
    of colony worlds, >predominantly supporting the various worlds of the
    Undaunted with cloning services, but also >accommodating various forms
    of trade and commerce, and supporting some classified operations.
    >…>We’ll have weapons ranging from naval grade lasers to steel knives

    Apologies to any upset by enthusiastic cross posts, but Out Of Cruel
    Space and DVM are a couple of my favorite stories :}

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