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Furry Chat => Rants and Advice => Topic started by: ZombiezuRFER on January 25, 2011, 07:42:24 PM

Title: No SCIENCE in Science fiction >:(
Post by: ZombiezuRFER on January 25, 2011, 07:42:24 PM
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Serious face up thar ^

Honestly, so many Sci-fi games I have seen...  What happened to the science part?  Technobabble abounds, but they usually use terms I am familiar with, such as plasma, LASER, warp, anti-matter, electron, and many other such terms.  These things are insanely annoying!!!!!!  Spare me your technobabble if you want something to just exist, say it exists and you're ok! You can make it off scot-free by not saying a thing about the science behind it! But when you do, you show how stupid and lazy you truly were.  At least do a smidgeon of research!  Even science "nerds" such as me can be cool and play your game, or for that matter, watch your show (Directed at Star Trek) or read your book (at trek again!)  You want to be taken serious?  Act like it.  You do a tiny bit of research like read a DISCOVER or national geographic mag at the very least, and we will take it better.   A big offender whose gameplay is good, albeit unrealistic, is Galaxy On Fire 1 and 2. (iphone game)  For instance, the description of the fluxed matter shield, which I am writing from the game, reads:
"Anti-matter shields have been under development for some time, but have only recently become commercially available due to a major breakthrough in stabilization technology."
I will not finish the descrip so as to avoid (potential) copyright problems.
First off, fluxed matter is utter crap, fluxes are completely different and your can't flux matter, anti-matter does not equal "fluxed" matter, and a breakthrough in stabilization tech?  Have these people honestly become interstellar empires in this game without magnets?  Anti matter is not good shielding whatsoever.  Anti-matter, when it collides with matter, does not destroy each other, but it does create a huge explosion blowing the matter bits away from each other.  Further more, how could you see out of an anti matter shield?  your anti matter shield has to be thick enough to stop a laser, but at that point, you're not going to see out of it.
Lasers are not effective weapons for destroying spacecraft.  Your lasers will destroy them, eventually, but they are best for manufacturing, or cutting things accurately.  Lasers do not just shoot out slowly either.  Lasers, however, are fairly good drills and anti infantry weapons, as can bee seen in PEPs of today and the Rad-Quintil of the Ragnaroks of a scifi quadrilogy I'm writing.  PEPs are pulsed energy projectiles, or pulse lasers.  Quick laser bursts.  They can be used to stun people, or kill them by flicking a switch.  The Rad-Quintil quickly launches tiny explosive rockets with laser drills on the front, to deliver the explosives.  A rad-quintil rocket is about 7 inches long with an atmosphere powered generator. (propeller that spins and makes electricity for laser)  Also, a laser most likely won't be visible except at the firing site, and possibly the site being destroyed, or else its an extremely inefficient laser.
Plasma is not a good weapon, it like shooting steam that can pass through some types of matter due to its lack of electrons which changes its magnetism.  Moar later.
Title: Re: No SCIENCE in Science fiction >:(
Post by: Ares the Ram on January 25, 2011, 07:46:29 PM
What Im guessing theyre doing is just saying things that sound sciencey so the people who dont know much science thinks that its plausable or something
Title: Re: No SCIENCE in Science fiction >:(
Post by: ZombiezuRFER on January 25, 2011, 09:15:34 PM
Exactly! But the thing is, that the "few" people who know what these concepts are, are being screwed by the company! Is it so hard to say "Here's a hyperdrive, you push this button and you can travel to another star system." instead of "Here's a hyperdrive, which uses einsteinium-bosmate condensate to power the Plasma fusion drives that activate the flux capacitor to take you to other star systems."  It is honestly the worst thing about science fiction, when they throw such crap at you and expect you to eat it.
Title: Re: No SCIENCE in Science fiction >:(
Post by: WingedZephyr on January 25, 2011, 09:31:24 PM
Please do not double post rants.

Your previous post about this will be removed.
Title: Re: No SCIENCE in Science fiction >:(
Post by: ZombiezuRFER on January 25, 2011, 09:35:23 PM
Thanks Zephyr.  Anyways, back to the topic.
Title: Re: No SCIENCE in Science fiction >:(
Post by: armagre on January 26, 2011, 12:15:02 AM
well you have to imagine that scifi is a broad group of people and the biggest part of the scifi family is the idiots that only like shiny unrealistic guns and aliens and do not appreciate the actual scifi part of anything.
Thats how i see things, and with this the people who cater to these people are making money and making the actual scifi people sad...

but i feel that this is just a fad, people will want real scifi stuff back *wishes*
Title: Re: No SCIENCE in Science fiction >:(
Post by: Kyriin on January 26, 2011, 02:31:46 AM
Exactly! But the thing is, that the "few" people who know what these concepts are, are being screwed by the company!

There are more people who don't know all the sciencish stuff, so they're targetting an audience of people who don't know much about it. If you're feeding information to people who don't get you at all, it's a waste of information.
Though I do agree with you in a way, as they could put information in there but make it so the audience learns from it. Which would also stop people learning the bogus stuff and getting it all wrong.
Title: Re: No SCIENCE in Science fiction >:(
Post by: ZombiezuRFER on January 26, 2011, 03:22:25 PM
and if its perfectly impossible or utterly outlandish, don't provide an explanation!  If you want fantastic elements, its not science, its magic.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
"Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced."
"Any technology, no matter how primitive, is magic to those who don't understand it."
(quote from FreeFall, a webcomic.)
Just leave your machines to run on magicinium instead of providing explanations that are going to make the audience dumber than before!