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Wake me at Kua...

Posted: Mon 29 Aug 2016, 06:23
by Greg H
Just a brief setting question. What are the stasis beds like? There's been plenty of interpretations to suspended animation but it typically breaks down into...

A) Something you step into with little or no fuss, maybe space pajamas or something like that but it's really no different than taking a nap somewhere cozy.

B) More time consuming, messy, potentially disturbing. Liquid-gel stuff, little or no clothing, surrounded by tubes and other devices you ...probably don't want to know about.

I ask as either could be useful in setting up the story, though option "B" tends to lend itself more to survival/fear scenarios.

Also, can you acquire extra stasis beds for transport of passengers, prisoners, that thing they dug out from the ice (but hey, it's dead anyway right?).

Re: Wake me at Kua...

Posted: Mon 29 Aug 2016, 09:40
by Krönikören
Judging from what I've read I'd say more like option B. It's mentioned in the book that you are basically frozen down. No indications of liquid or gel though.. :)

Re: Wake me at Kua...

Posted: Mon 29 Aug 2016, 10:22
by baylox
Also, can you acquire extra stasis beds for transport of passengers, prisoners,  that thing they dug out from the ice (but hey, it's dead anyway right?).
Statis beds are modules just like passenger compartments, so you can add extra when creating your ship (but one such module for a Class 3 ship has 16 stasis beds).
And as Krönikören wrote, the Swedish text describes the beds as "allowing cryotic sleep" which certainly sounds like they're freeze boxes. :)

Re: Wake me at Kua...

Posted: Mon 29 Aug 2016, 13:48
by Vainamoinen
We can instafreeze people today already. We just don't know how to reverse that without instadeath. :P

I'm not yet sure how technology in general is treated in Coriolis. We discussed some preferences in the Cybernetics thread already, I think, and I personally like the idea of a high-efficiency, extremely robust, ornamental, time honored low-tech approach. As really new technological advancements may be limited to the very rich and very secretive, and as Portal war technology may even have gotten lost, a technological marvel such as cryogenic technology may be something that stays useful in its most basic form for decades and much more – like a plasma gun that's been handed down from generation to generation, with each owner embellishing the item a little more.

Hence, I think of Coriolis technology much like 80s sci-fi movie technology. Rather big and clunky, rather basic and rather ugly, but it gets the job done. :D

Re: Wake me at Kua...

Posted: Mon 29 Aug 2016, 14:52
by baylox
Hence, I think of Coriolis technology much like 80s sci-fi movie technology. Rather big and clunky, rather basic and rather ugly, but it gets the job done. :D
There's something to this. I've gotten the impression that technology regressed when the Horizons were cut off from each other, but has since also developed in new ways. For example, computers aren't programmed, but instructed - they are basically AIs. My take is that it is rather advanced, but without a "high-tech look".

Re: Wake me at Kua...

Posted: Mon 29 Aug 2016, 18:48
by Greg H
So sounds like the tubes from "Pandorum"... sounds good to me.
Hence, I think of Coriolis technology much like 80s sci-fi movie technology. Rather big and clunky, rather basic and rather ugly, but it gets the job done. :D
There's something to this. I've gotten the impression that technology regressed when the Horizons were cut off from each other, but has since also developed in new ways. For example, computers aren't programmed, but instructed - they are basically AIs. My take is that it is rather advanced, but without a "high-tech look".
I'm on (or approaching) the same wavelength, but definitely with the embellishments that come from an artistic culture... Less "Revelation Space" more "House of Suns" (or Jodorowsky's Dune as referenced in another thread). I want to know what I can do with the tech but feel no compelling need to know the full specifics so much as appreciate it as a valuable set piece. Kind of like spacecraft propulsion to use a similar theme. Not going to question the physics, fuel, nothing... It's gonna look like a brazen glittering engine that takes the ship to fantastic places.

Re: Wake me at Kua...

Posted: Mon 29 Aug 2016, 19:37
by Umberto Octo
So sounds like the tubes from "Pandorum"... sounds good to me.
I'm in this camp of thinking, as well.
Much rather have the body-invasive sleep chambers of Pandorum than the let's-just-not-worry-about-medical-science-at-all sleep chambers of Dark Matter.

Re: Wake me at Kua...

Posted: Tue 30 Aug 2016, 12:04
by Vainamoinen
I'm on (or approaching) the same wavelength, but definitely with the embellishments that come from an artistic culture...
Yes, definitely.

Some late 19th/early 20th century engraved firearms could serve as inspiration for one's own designs. But as we don't have a proper fan art thread yet, I doubt that a whole lot of Coriolis backers would dive into that task. :P

Also, mixing up the materials could be considered. Our technology mostly relies on metal and plastics, but traditionally minded spacefaring folks may have found e.g. leather and wood with near-fantastic properties on their travels, and may find DIY additions and repairs to be a necessity.  :idea:

Re: Wake me at Kua...

Posted: Tue 30 Aug 2016, 15:45
by Umberto Octo
Also, mixing up the materials could be considered. Our technology mostly relies on metal and plastics, but traditionally minded spacefaring folks may have found e.g. leather and wood with near-fantastic properties on their travels, and may find DIY additions and repairs to be a necessity.  :idea:
Nanocarbons are already on this horizon which could (but because corporation capitalism is what is is, probably won't) make most metal alloys and all plastics obsolete. Given the technology of jumpgates and gravity plates, leather and wood (especially those with fantastic properties) seems to be more the realm of exotic material to display as status symbol rather than standard craftsman material.

But I like the idea of some materials being simple and cheaply produced (e.g. carbon polymers) while others would be extremely limited resources (e.g. exotic rainforest wood of Kua; the fine red glass of Dabaran).

Re: Wake me at Kua...

Posted: Tue 30 Aug 2016, 17:52
by Vainamoinen
Nanocarbons are already on this horizon which could (but because corporation capitalism is what is is, probably won't) make most metal alloys and all plastics obsolete. Given the technology of jumpgates and gravity plates, leather and wood (especially those with fantastic properties) seems to be more the realm of exotic material to display as status symbol rather than standard craftsman material.
In a world in which machines are usually built serially, by machines – i.e. our world – these materials would surely be exotic.

However, in a galaxy in which the engineer still is a craftsman first and foremost, and technological marvels often unique items, things may look a good bit different!  ;)

Basically, the more exotic the materials, the more embroidered the item and the more expensive it is, the better/more advanced it will be. :P