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Possibly, but...
...
Attention, emergency news!
Attention, emergency news!
Godzilla is going toward the Ginza area!
Immediately escape, catch up, find shelter please!
Immediately escape, catch up, find shelter please!
Nice riposte, Mr. Smith. 
Hehe...so with three of us, is that excuse enough to talk about doing a "Giant Monster Bash-Up Game" ?
Do you remember the ARES/Pokemon thing I had you working on a while back?
We'd need someone who could do the artwork -- not that I don't think you could do it, Dugan, but for something like this I think more traditional art would be better than CGI.
You guys need to get out a little more.
Or is it that you need to stay in a little more?
While you're clearing up the multiplier for range 21, what is it for range 60?
RANGE 60 = ORAT x 1000000
Yes. I admit it.
I didn't want to point it at you so you wouldn't become embarassed and now I am myself covered in shame for not having done it.
Umm... I'm afraid I don't follow you.
Why was range 21 left out from the Expanded Ranges option? Was it on purpose or just an oversight?
Neither. It was not an oversight, nor did I deliberately skip range 21 (or 27, for that matter).
It just seemed that at such long ranges, there was less of a need for fine granulation... but if you absolutely MUST have range 21 weapons, I suggest the following:
RANGE 21 = ORAT x 1.13
RANGE 24 = ORAT x 1.25
RANGE 27 = ORAT x 1.38
RANGE 30 = ORAT x 1.50
I'm also desapointed and not as much convinced as our Admiral.
Cavorite would be expensive, but you wouldn't need very much of it in order to lift a battleship, would you?
I don't think the question is one of cost, but of control. Even if you only cover parts of a ship's hull with Cavorite to offset enough gravity to provide lift, you'll have massive amounts of atmospheric turbulence everywhere you go.
And don't forget the beauty of a ethership floating over the landscape of Io or Venus.
I think Zeppelins can be quite beautiful. Heck, give Admiral Dugan a chance...
22 Godzilla films total...and I've seen 'em all.
There have been 29, actually.
But Dan...crankin out trivia like that makes me seem like a mere dabbler instead of a rabid Godzila-phile as I is.
I LIKE Godzilla.
A lot.
Heh, I can see why - Deepending on your point of view, it's along the lines of 'Star Blazers meets Justice League meets Godzilla on steroids"...
My wife and I were this >< close to getting tickets to Tokyo to watch the opening of "Final Wars" a few years back... but finally decided against it. (Not that the wife likes the movies or anything -- she was just thrilled at the idea of seeing Japan.)
I stopped really following them when I was what - 11? I can remember seeing only one with Aliens - it was the one that had the guys with the thin black eyeglasses and single antenna - somehow they had gained control of Ghidirah, and called him 'Monster Zero". That they made OTHER movies in that vein totally escaped the young proto-geek I was then.
Yeah, they pretty much went off the deep end right around Monster Zero. There are only so many ways you can tell the "giant monster attacks Tokyo" story, so I don't blame them for trying different things.
Those horrid "Gargantua' things? Bleeah...
The "Men in Black" were too easy to defeat, I think. A more shapely 'Bad Girl' wouldn't have hurt either.... 8)
Not a Nick Adams fan, but to each his own...
I'm not really a fan of him, either, but there's something about him in the Japanese films that I like.
I really don't mind the 'Protector' meme so much, I think it's in line with the original concept of Godzilla punishing man for his destructive proclivities...
Actually, I agree -- but when Godzilla fights other monsters, it's more believable if he does it because (a) he's defending his turf or (b) he's just plain mad. One of the things I like about Godzilla: Final Wars is that, while Godzilla saves humanity, he does it accidentally -- he's actually trying to destroy the Gotengo, and the other monsters are just getting in his way.
I really don't like it when Godzilla fights monsters specifically to defend the Earth -- that's Mothra's gig, and brings him too close to Gamera, "friend of all children".
I was covered in shame with your astronomical knowledge and so I pretended to ignore it so I wouldn't become embarassed.
Your shame has been noted and logged.
Now, more to the point...
Does anyone see any glaring errors in my analysis? (i.e. that the Martian Invasion happened in the summer of 1901, and not 1899.)
So we have a alternate reality where science turned a bit to other path. Instead of internal combustion engines being the core of our way of life, this universe leans into a more electro-magnetic machinery way of thinking.
Indeed.
Also, the ether, "au contraire" to the ideas of 19th century doesn't affect solid matter, isn't in a fashion breathable and it's very cold. So if we would have space roaming creatures, these creatures would have to have strong electric properties.
The ether itself isn't all that cold -- but space (where it's easiest to create the fields that can interact with the ether) is VERY cold.
I have a book from 1909 called "The Ether of Space" by Sir Oliver Lodge. I'll have to read it again, but I'm pretty sure that the science of the time didn't consider ether to interact with matter (it was, after all, postulated as the medium through which light and electricity propagated) nor was it considered breathable...
As for the Spacial expeditions, what I meant was that I like the late 19th century and early 20th century expeditons to the ends of our world, mixed a bit with the description, not necessarily with the horror imput, of "The Mountains of Madness", by Lovcraft, or the films in earlies 20's where the explorers would find the forgotten cities of long lost civilizations in the middle of the Himalayas.
Ah, then yes, I am with you on that one. The other planets (and the farthest reaches of Earth) are certainly ripe for 1920's style pulp fiction adventures.
For the record, I'm leaning towards Zeppelin-type craft over air-ships in the vein of Aeronef.
Not so much, I suspect. Remember, Cavor was dense enough to have created such a large piece to START with. I have serious misgivings about his ability to think ahead. He wrecked his shed by creating an artifical tornado - but I suspect we'd have no reason to worry about Anarchists using cavorite to strip our atmosphere away.
Perhaps, perhaps not. But I don't want to rely on a mere "the narrator was mistaken" excuse -- since the integrity of the narrators of Wells' books is the basis for our whole universe.
It would be an interesting use of cavorite to form disruptive 'air walls' as defense against aircraft, though...
Yup.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-point_energy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casimir_effect
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22zero%20point%20energy%22%20%22Casimir%20Effect%22
That's what the torus's and balls on the ships are, gigantic Casimir Electrical Collectors - there are NO steam plants in an Aethernaught, where would the air to burn coal come from? You could burn coal in an Aeronought, though.
As I said, I'll leave the technobabble to the engineers.
The 'props' are actually moving version of the sails. The props and sails are layered ceramics (or some other non-conductive material that can take a little heat), inlaid with coils that produce the energies that interect with the aether. Props act like actual props, instead of interacting with water, they interact with aether. The sails act as both rudders at high speed, and as propulsion at low speeds. Sails can "row" the ship through space. In fact the Chinese don't even use props, but instead rely on the undulations of their sails for propulsion.
I never really thought of the sails as "propulsion", but I'm not opposed to it on principle.
No digital stuff until the 21st century, and I don't think we're going to get there in anyone's lifetime at this rate...
Indeed.
Robots? Golems? I can't think that far ahead, yet...I'd say no Golems, as they're magical. Iron Stars is more "Industrial Fantasy", less "Steampunk".....More "World War One", less "Victorian England"....more "Fu Manchu" less "Sherlock Holmes"...
Mostly consistent with my thoughts. Although golems themselves are magical, they clearly are the forerunners of robots -- and I do see a place for robots in Iron Stars (eventually).
And, in reviewing the source material, I realize that Cavorite could be a very dangerous thing...
"It was not an explosion. It's perfectly simple. Only, as I say, I'm apt to overlook these little things. Its that zuzzoo business on a larger scale. Inadvertently I made this substance of mine, this Cavorite, in a thin, wide sheet...."
He paused. "You are quite clear that the stuff is opaque to gravitation, that it cuts off things from gravitating towards each other?"
"Yes," said I. "Yes."
"Well, so soon as it reached a temperature of 60 degrees Fahrenheit, and the process of its manufacture was complete, the air above it, the portions of roof and ceiling and floor above it ceased to have weight. I suppose you know--everybody knows nowadays--that, as a usual thing, the air _has_ weight, that it presses on everything at the surface of the earth, presses in all directions, with a pressure of fourteen and a half pounds to the square inch?"
"I know that," said I. "Go on."
"I know that too," he remarked. "Only this shows you how useless knowledge is unless you apply it. You see, over our Cavorite this ceased to be the case, the air there ceased to exert any pressure, and the air round it and not over the Cavorite was exerting a pressure of fourteen pounds and a half to the square in upon this suddenly weightless air. Ah! you begin to see! The air all about the Cavorite crushed in upon the air above it with irresistible force. The air above the Cavorite was forced upward violently, the air that rushed in to replace it immediately lost weight, ceased to exert any pressure, followed suit, blew the ceiling through and the roof off....
"You perceive," he said, "it formed a sort of atmospheric fountain, a kind of chimney in the atmosphere. And if the Cavorite itself hadn't been loose and so got sucked up the chimney, does it occur to you what would have happened?"
I thought. "I suppose," I said, "the air would be rushing up and up over that infernal piece of stuff now."
"Precisely," he said. "A huge fountain--"
"Spouting into space! Good heavens! Why, it would have squirted all the atmosphere of the earth away! It would have robbed the world of air! It would have been the death of all mankind! That little lump of stuff!"
"Not exactly into space," said Cavor, "but as bad--practically. It would have whipped the air off the world as one peels a banana, and flung it thousands of miles. It would have dropped back again, of course--but on an asphyxiated world! From our point of view very little better than if it never came back!"
So, one of two things must happen:
1) We'll need to figure out why Cavor was wrong, and one misused piece of Cavorite wouldn't vacate the entire atmosphere, or
2) We'll have to figure out when the anarchists plan to use such a device, and how they will be stopped. 
So, what is the official Iron Stars timeline?
The first Martian cinder fell in a Surrey field during the spring of 1901.
This is the starting point of the martian invasion that ended some weeks after that.
But the war of the worlds doesn't end here, at least the Iron Stars war. I would like you to put the month and the year of each scenario. It is nice for us fluff addicted.
Actually, the scenarios in The Merchant War and Southern Front are all Matt Curtis. I'll have to defer to him for that information.
(And I'm a bit annoyed -- no one's impressed that I was able to whip out the dates of the relevant Mars/Venus oppositions?)
The files appear to be gone ?
I didn't do anything as administrator...
At least, I don't THINK I did... :?:
a) Technology advancement will be steam oriented? None of the cold (and very nice to starmada) digital stuff. No atomic technology. No computers. No robots. Just steam golems and stuff with coal smell?
Yes, please?
I hadn't really considered this, but I want to stress that Iron Stars is not intended as "Steam Punk", per se.
It's the Real World<TM> with the addition of sci-fi elements. So far, the only "canon" additions are the Martians (per "War of the Worlds") and Cavorite and the Selenites (per "The First Men in the Moon"). I'm not saying there WON'T be computers, nor am I saying there WILL be. Just that I don't want this to become just another run-of-the-mill steampunk setting.
Considering the source material, tho, I see no reason why atomics wouldn't eventually make an appearance. After all, Wells' writings did inspire at least some of the science behind nuclear chain reactions...
b) Spacial expeditions will be 19th century-early 20th century orientated?
I'm not quite sure what you're asking here... Inasmuch as the timeline itself is in the early part of the 20th century, the focus will be on that. But again, I've taken pains to make it clear this is not a "Victorian" setting -- Victoria died before our timeline diverged from reality, after all.
c) Tech will have an high point and will remain there, so that the story of earth will be more slow?
I don't know.
d) What are exactly the properties of all the machinery that moves the aetherships? So that we will kno where we stand.
I will leave it to the engineers to come up with the suitable technobabble, but there are some basic principles that informed Dugan's ship designs:
1) The ether exists, but does not affect solid matter. It can only affect (and be affected by) electro-magnetic fields. Thus, the "sails" and "propellers" on etherships must be energized to work. They are used to push and direct the ship through the ether -- but they also produce a "drag", which is why ships don't continue at the same velocity indefinitely. (See? There is logic behind the momentum rules. )
2) Cavorite exists, but is useless for maneuvering. In fact, it doesn't even move an object into orbit. The source material makes it clear that Cavor's sphere doesn't move upwards on its own -- it is "sucked" upwards when the atmosphere above it is suddenly rendered weightless, and air rushes in beneath it. Once an object gets out of the atmosphere, all Cavorite can do is cancel the gravitational effects of the Earth and Moon. Thus, the function of Cavorite is to get etherships into orbit in the first place -- after that, it has no real use.
e) When will mj12games release another book for this universe? Soon?
We all thank your excellency in advance and are now sitted around a camp fire (the lead minis 4 foot away) waiting for your reply.
I will say "soon".
I watched the 'first generation' of Godzilla movies as a kid, and wasn't even aware of the 2nd or third generation stuff out there until a few months ago. I spent some time a few weeks ago downloading those via Emule (uses the Kazaa network), and have several burned to DVD. Haven't had time to watch them all, except for the orginal (1954 - Gojira, in the original Japanese with english subtitles) and Godzilla: Final Wars.
I would rank "Final Wars" just behind the original. I LOVE that movie.
They've apparently gone all 'Alien' on me. I don't dissapprove of the change, it just has a different feel than the original few movies. I was a HUGE monster movie fan when I was a kid.
Umm... the Godzilla movies have ALWAYS had aliens crawling all over them: of the 15 Showa-era films, seven involve aliens (8 if you include the "undersea aliens" from Godzilla vs. Megalon).
While the Showa series has a certain nostalgic appeal for me, I have to admit that some of them are perhaps among the worst movies ever made (Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster, anyone? How about Godzilla vs. Megalon?). The newer series are better, but some of them toe the line of "good enough that they aren't entertaining as BAD movies anymore".
My top 5 Godzilla movies:
1) Godzilla (1954): not the one with Raymond Burr, tho; go for the original Japanese version (Gojira). Still freaks me out on some levels, and the "man vs. science vs. giant monster" plot is among the best in Japanese sci-fi.
2) Godzilla: Final Wars (2006): Some think there is too much screen time for the humans, and too little for each of Godzilla's opponents, but I think it's perfect. Lots of monsters, a rather odd backstory that is consistent with Godzilla's history (geeks like me can find a reference around every corner), and an awesome techno soundtrack.
3) Godzilla vs. Monster Zero (1965): Not a great film -- the aliens (who are clearly the basis for the antagonists of Final Wars) are quite silly, and the method for defeating them even sillier. But it's entertaining nonetheless; and the production design is a prime example of what Quentin Tarantino once said about Ishiro Honda movies: nothing looks real, but everything looks like it belongs. And I've got a soft spot for Nick Adams in Japanese films... see also "Frankenstein Conquers the World".
4) The Return of Godzilla (1984): The G-man comes back from a nine-year hiatus with a vengeance. A nice return to the "Godzilla as force of nature" approach, and the absence of another monster for him to fight is a good thing. When the Godzilla movies have gone wrong, IMHO, is when they went too far into the "Godzilla as protector" meme.
5) Destroy All Monsters (1968): Arguably providing some of the plot inspiration for Final Wars, this movie is possibly King Ghidorah's shining moment. He knocks off no less than ten kaiju in turn before they band together to defeat him.
My thought:
"Point Defense" (or whatever) weapon mod.
1.) Ignores the to-hit penalty for shooting at fighters.
2.) Fires, and has its fire effects resolved, after all fighters have moved, but before any fighter may fire.
3.) May only engage fighters. Cannot be used against ships.#3 'pays for' #1 and #2. Multiplier is up to Dan, but to me it looks like a wash (x1). He will probably think it ought to be much, much higher.
1) Already covered by the "anti-fighter" trait.
2) I can see a weapon that fires in the fighter phase -- but it cannot wait until all fighters have moved and then attack before the fighters do. That would take away the move-then-shoot action of fighters.
3) You'd think that figher-only (or ship-only) weapons should be cheap -- but you'd be wrong. Consider: one ship with 10 all-purpose weapons and another with 10 ship-only and 10 fighter-only weapons. If you assume the fighter-only/ship-only traits should have a x0.5 multiplier, then both ships should be equal. But they are clearly not. The first has 10 weapons to bring against opposing ships; so does the second. The first has 10 weapons to bring against opposing fighters; so does the second. But the first must make some choices from turn to turn; the second does not.
For the bomber/interceptor fighter traits, I set a x0.7 multiplier -- and even that might be too low.
Seen it, downloaded it, drooled over some of the minis.
But I haven't played it yet.
So I guess until that is fixed I am stuck in limbo wondering if orders have been sent or if they are still just sitting in the todo box.
Well, and here I thought I was doing a Good Thing by allowing people to order from the web site without having to create yet another login...
All orders prior to the new web site have been fulfilled -- please email me if you need further updates.
Is there a need to change the divisor? The rules do not state that the allocation of screens have to change from turn to turn therefore the only choices made are that the ship uses screens and how many.
The choice not to re allocate the available screens is the same for everyone using them.
Assuming that everyone is using static screens, the divisor is irrelevant.
But if some are using static screens, others "normal" screens, and others regular shielding, then the divisor matters a great deal. While you don't HAVE to change the shield distribution from turn to turn, the fact is that you CAN. With the static screens, this option is gone, and so there should be some discount.
The construction rules have a divisor of 4 in the screen calculation, would uping that to 5 to cover the loss of flexibility make sense? Or some fraction 4.5, 4.75 etc?
I would say a divisor of 5 is a good place to start. However, this is one of those things I'd really like some playtest data on before making a strong commitment.
I have decided to go ahead and leave the Yahoo! group up for archival purposes. However, I will not be actively maintaining or monitoring the group.
mj12games.com/forum → Posts by mj12games
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