r/scifiwriting

So, I’m sure there are a lot of holes here, but this is what I’ve got so far.

They’re a race of avian aliens. They don’t have wings, however. They actually don’t have many feathers either, except on their arms and a few other places. They’re bipedal, with talon-like hands and feet. On average, they’re about 7-8 feet tall.

Socially, they are a very religious and militant species. They are led by a High Priestess, who is naturally in charge of all religious affairs, but also most others things as well. She is considered to be the voice of the gods, and as such, obeying her is obeying the gods, and defying her is heresy. The leader is always a Priestess, as the females are believed to be more spiritually attuned and aware than the males. Due to this, most positions of religious significance are held by females, while most military roles are held by the males, though it’s not unheard of for males to be priests or females to be warriors.

Males are trained in combat from a young age, usually by their fathers and/or other male members of their family. They are all expected to serve in the military, which they do with enthusiasm. They have a strict code of honor, however it’s not the kind of thing that needlessly restricts them in battle. It’s mainly “victory is honorable, defeat is shameful, and cowardice is inexcusable”. Their military is led primarily by a Warlord, who serves as the Priestess’s right hand. Warlords are chosen by appointing the strongest warrior in the army. Challenges can be and often are issued, which the Warlord must accept with very few exceptions. If the Warlord subdues or kills the challenger, he keeps his position. If the challenger wins, he becomes the new Warlord.

It’s worth noting that females are also trained in combat, though not usually to the degree as the males.

They have a pantheon of gods, which they worship faithfully. Warriors are fueled by religious fervor, while members of the clergy commune with the gods and relay their will to the people.

They are a proud race, and consider themselves superior to all others, due to a combination of believing they are their gods’ chosen people, and being very confident in their physical and martial prowess.

This is what I’ve got so far. I appreciate any critique or feedback.

I’m also aware that critiquing these guys may be a little difficult without wider story context, but I’ll try to explain what I can when necessary.

What are the advantages of Mechs over using other vehicles in science fiction? Is it simply just the ‘rule of cool’ or have writers given in-universe explanations?

since elon musk is dogin data center in space now

how much technology do we need to see space pirate that steal satelite to get their hardware i mean that look like a heist no ?

we just need to have speed ship to do the thieft no ?

Typical set up: earth has rapidly become uninhabitable due to reasons so a team is sent out to establish a colony in a last ditch effort to populate a new planet and save humanity. Time (more or less now. +5-10 years if needed to establish some new technology that will be essential)

Crew is small and supplies they arrive with are limited (this is addressed).

Theoretically, they arrive with all of humanity’s knowledge stored digitally. However they’ll be establishing a very primitive colony while they repopulate.

How do I deal with the fact that the technology housing this digital library on the ship is going to go bad before this colony can reestablish the industrial base needed to build a new computer/server/whatever and pass the knowledge on?

I'm messing around with the idea of a planet that orbits both a star and a black hole that are in a stable orbit around each other. How would this affect conditions on the planet? Would the day/night cycle have strange quirks, or would a small black circle just periodically cross in front of the sun?

Assuming the planet is in a stable orbit in a habitable zone, and ignoring the circumstances that would lead to this configuration (assume all objects were magically placed in an ideal scenario), would there really be any differences on the planet?

Dilithium crystals, kyber crystals, the infinity gems, the art of Moebius, how is this trope so universal?

My working theory is just 60's and 70's Western wave of mysticism and spiritualism (and merchandising said spiritualism) eeped its way through writers seeped in counter-culture. But is there any scientific basis for this idea? Something someone wrote in a magazine maybe?

Furthermore, how do your crystals work? How do they make sense in your world? How do you keep it from being tropey nonsense? Thank you all.

So, ai is advancing exponentially and we are on the brink of recursive self improvement, that will make exponential advancement way more.. exponential..

The problem is that I don't want to ignore that and I want to address it, but I have no idea how to do it without making the whole setting a documentary about the entire observable universe being turned into ai computation machines which I think is what will happen irl.

The secondary problem is that ai will make everything dozens of orders of magnitude more efficient, especially technology used for let's call it "dystopian" purposes which is one, incomprehensible and two, boring and three, just not something I want to write about.

Also, I didn't really want to just add some arbitrary or "magic" rule that will somehow be less capable.

I've occasionally seen "speciesist", but I think it sounds pretty goofy. There's of course "bigot", but having options is nice when writing dialogue or doing narration.

I'm writing one of those far-future settings where humans casually mingle with all sorts of weird species, and I'm wondering how to refer to the bigots and their outlook.

I've always really liked Ursula K Le Guin's idea of FTL travel: that actual FTL travel is currently and will always be impossible, and that a trip from one star to the next will take decades (even going a significant fraction of lightspeed), but that the transmission of information instantly over that distance could hypothetically be possible.

In this case, how could a government project power? Government only has power currently because its subjects believe that it has power and that its laws are significant, and this belief fundamentally comes from a monopoly on violence (being by far the biggest and most powerful organization in a given area, by sheer violent force). But over such a great distance, how could a government project that violent power? Certainly ships can't fly quickly, so say a colony on a different planet declares its independence, how could that be realistically prevented by a government by using instant communication alone?

How could this be done by an authoritarian, or even totalitarian government? By intentionally building computer systems which can only effectively be operated via data connection to the central home system?

TLDR: Given the idea that instant information communication between planets could be not only possible, but relatively costless, but actual transportation of matter/energy would take decades and be mostly impractical, how could a centralized interstellar government continue to project control/authority?

The question is pretty simple:

So basically, you have this dropship, right? and there's a big door for transport to enter, which way do you prefer your plane to have between dropping the bridge in front of you or behind you?

Note: if someone else already ask this kind of question, I'll take the link

not that I don't think that the fact that FTL is impossible is a completely valid and scientific viewpoint. by point is even if ftl is impossible in real life you can still:

- tie it into real mathematical theories

- involve speculative physic theories that although unproven and likely false can add legitimacy into your concept

- explain how it works and is interwind within our current understanding of science

- try and minimise the number of physics breaks within your system to only a few

I also think If you have been including real scientific concepts and ideas outside of the ftl system it would be more immersion breaking to suddenly stop including them more than an ftl system would

another reason I dislike the advice is that it assumes or sci fi readers have an understanding of relativity and causality. and know that their properties make functional ftl very unlikely. the average reader isn't going to read about a sci fi story using wormholes for travel using speculative physics to explain how it works (even if the nitty gritty details don't make sense) and another where the character travel with a magic flute that opens magical doorways and think "well since ftl breaks causality those are equally impossible"

despite this though I do agree strongly with the advice that the rules of how the ftl system works in universe "how fast it is, what resources it requires what it can and can't do etc are far more important than trying to make it feel scientificality plausible.

Currently I've got a Microwave gun, but as someone pointed out shooting radiation at a ship isn't exactly non lethal, so outside of ignoring that fact I was wondering if anyone else thought of something I hadn't.

As the Capitalization would imply Id like it to be Energy based and need it to disable electronic systems, preferably without major risk to the enemy crew.

Thanks in advance to anyone who reads this.

I’m planning to use them for a hard sci-fi story I’m writing (and the worldbuilding that comes with it), I’ve read the wikipedia article countless times but my pea brain can barely comprehend anything, if anyone could explain the different types and how they work in simple terms I’d be grateful :3

I had this idea for a gun that shoots metal projectiles that, upon hitting a target, start drilling. And upon reaching flesh it starts a suction that pumps blood out the back of the projectile at a very fast rate. I admit I had this idea purely because I wanted to leave a vampire character (it's a science fantasy setting) very hungry after a fight, with attempts at explanations coming later.

I'm thinking maybe the drilling is meant to get it through heavy armor. Or since the gun is being used by a lowlife underworld hitman, maybe it's just a repurposed tool, or something cobbled together in the absence of proper, military-grade weapons.

Any thoughts?

A bimodal globular cluster; Pop II stars, enough metallicity to support two-plus generations of colonies moving out from the first worlds settled, but marked with a Pleiades-like asterism of hot blue stars.

And that's where it stops being normal. Among those young stars is an exotic star, possibly a quark star (that Astronomy 101 class I took was long ago) that is doing peculiar things. I like the H.G. Wells of breaking one big thing then trying to play it straight after, and this is a big one.

This thing, Oberon, is causing clumping of dark matter (which it shouldn't ever do, at least from what little physics I know). What in-story are called solitons are forming, mutter mutter Robert Penrose, Twistor theory, which rip space. (And either hauling in interstellar gases and keeping the cluster from aging normally, or maybe fresh hydrogen is magically popping in around this stellar... thing.)

And let's pass over the mechanisms but basically mini transient wormholes are forming (when enough solitons clump in the same spot), making most of the impossible things of a space opera setting possible. Panspermia, and let's please ignore the math on that and just accept enough spores get through the holes from one supportive biome to another that you can have the forests of British Columbia on hundreds of planets. And they clump along a dendritic network spreading from the original hole, making space lanes you can FTL down if you have whatever combination of huge amounts of electrical power and a little bit of expensive exotic matter in your engine room.

So that's the ridiculously Earth-like planets, and the handy FTL which also passes down plot-convenient highways with equally convenient choke-points.

And, thematically, it means potentially dangerous things are happening to space time, coming out of this eldritch dark star thing. Plus a nice group of stars in the night sky everyone can look at and name the setting after.

I ain't writing hard SF. Modern space opera, Hornblower-esque with an early career (merchant) navy officer doing their thing out on the frontier, mining towns and pirates and all. But my protagonist is Engineer track, with "power gang" experience ship-board, and a dangerous talent of weaponizing the physics of the setting, so I do have to nail some of it down... at least well enough to set up the inevitable explosions.

It needs to be able to house 1 million or more people, make its own food/water, make its own power, make its own medications, etc

thanks!

First a Link to my previous post before the Updates. https://www.reddit.com/r/scifiwriting/comments/1vcx02t/wanted_some_thoughts_on_the_battleships_of_my/

Battleship(named for solar systems)
length 1776ft, Beam(width) 294ft, 42 decks.
Armor
Shields: 100 Megatons.
Hull Armor: 10 Megatons
Weapons 
Forward Facing Microwave Cannon(1)(200 crew)Designed to fry ships systems once the shields are knocked out.
Main Turret Battery(5 guns per turret)(4 per ship)(133 crew per turret,532 total crew) 50 Megatons
Secondary Turrets(3 guns per turret)(4 per ship)(80 crew per Turret,320 total crew) 30 Megatons
Torpedo launchers(40 per side)(3 crew each, 480 crew total) 1 Megaton per Torpedo
Point Defense Pulse Laser(400)(1 crew each),
200 engineers.
20ft/s² acceleration(EM Drive) & 300 light years an hour(Hyperspace, specifically radiation zone or the Zone).
2,132 crew plus 200 marines.

Ships are powered by Mini Stars, they literally receive them from one of the production facilities, put them in a chamber and acquire 100% of the power outputted by said Mini Star. Battleships use 4 Mini Stars. Each mini star is 10 feet in diameter.

I replaced the Forward Facing Ion Cannon with a Microwave Cannon because since the SSU has mostly been doing anti piracy operations for the past thousand years, a weapon designed for disabling ships just makes sense.

I made the Main Battery Ion cannons and made the Anti Torpedo defenses Lasers.

I decided to Use an EM drive for propulsion because it requires zero propellant, just electricity.

Also decided to use Hyperspace as my FTL, just tunnel into a universe of pure radiation.

It took five real life years for me to allow shuttles to exist, and I refuse to allow any form of fighter craft, this is Big ship V Big ship combat.

At the starting point of my story Battleships are mostly unused, just places for Admirals to sit in and fleets to center around, then a peer to slightly stronger force invades the galaxy and there's need for big ship combat.

Logistics isn't really an Issue, when your slowest military ship can cross the Galaxy in less than a week, and you hold the entire Galaxy, well just stopping for a routine resupply when your 2 months of supplies is down to 1 month is enough.

Also theirs no place to put it so the SSU uses Quantum Entanglement and a switchboard design to allow every ship to communicate with the Military High Command, who can then connect them to any station or other ship.

Also SSU stands for Solar Systems Union, it's the main government.

I will not use Metric, and I will continue to use Megatons, I'm measuring destructive output so my readers will actually understand.

Any questions?

I’ve already started writing it and thinking about the future of the story, but I wanted to share the premise and hear your opinions on how much potential you think the idea has.
The premise would be something like this:
A man who desires immortality, eternal youth, and a brain with virtually unlimited capacity, sometime between the 16th and 19th centuries, eventually achieves all of it.
He then lives through the entire progression of human civilization: technological advancement, the space age, the eventual collapse of civilization, the destruction of planets, and eventually the end of the universe itself.
When the universe ends, it eventually resets, but he somehow remains. He drifts through the new universe until he eventually reaches another planet in an extremely early, almost primordial era. Over the course of several millennia, he uses everything stored in his memory to recreate human technological advancements entirely by himself, eventually reaching the space age and developing interstellar travel.
He then returns to the Earth that has been recreated, which at this point is somewhere between the Precambrian and Cambrian periods.
That would basically be the premise and the epilogue of the story.
Is this interesting? Is it original? My idea is to explore how this character experiences and navigates his immortal life, and I already have quite a lot planned for how the story would progress from that point.
I also want the character to make mistakes and cause butterfly effects on a global scale simply because of his existence, but I don’t want it to be the typical depressing portrayal of an immortal character who desperately wants to die.

How is this for a sci fi setup.

Was thinking it could run into a massive interspatial epic like GOT in space. Not sure if it's been done even.

London, 2030. The city runs on cheap alcohol, cheaper cigarettes, and the quiet desperation of a population squeezed by inflation and unemployment. Global mineral shortages have gutted tech manufacturing and killed the electric car industry, leaving Britain grey and idle. Then, against all odds, a peace deal settles the Belarusian border, and Steve Links, a British Special Forces intelligence officer, finds his post gone unnervingly quiet.

The calm isn't coincidence. It's clearing the runway.

Governments unveil a fix for the energy crisis: instant travel gateways, sold to the public as cheap, green transit. What no one knows is that the technology was gifted by an advanced race who call themselves humanity's ancestors. They aren't truly alien. Long ago they fled Earth ahead of a mass extinction, and millennia of survival on hostile worlds reshaped them into something barely recognisable, strong once, but now frail and dying, desperate for the gold and platinum needed to keep their colonies alive. They didn't build the gateways to move people. They built them to harvest them.

Step through, and your body doesn't travel. It's cloned. The original is shipped to off world mining asteroids, prized for muscle that builds fast and wounds that heal faster. A biological copy is sent home in your place, wearing your face, living your life, for a while.

Steve feels the cost personally. Commuting through an old underground station to his post, he and his wife Jess are told at a fertility clinic that his sperm count has dropped to zero, just two years after they had their first child. He's not alone. Across the globe, millions of prime age adults who've used the portals are falling ill with a strange, non contagious sickness. It isn't a virus. It's their duplicates breaking down, cell by cell.

Steve's colleague Arri never gets sick, and he starts to suspect why. A lifelong medical condition seems to make him unreadable to the gateway scanners, meaning he has never actually been duplicated at all. Digging through fringe forums to understand what he's found, he stumbles into a hidden network already listening back: a third human lineage, another group who escaped Earth generations before an earlier extinction, evolved beyond recognition, and gone into hiding after the miners nearly wiped them out.

They bring resurrection science, android engineering, and starships. What they want in return is simple: human numbers and human strength, fused with their technology, to build an army capable of winning back what's been stolen, before there's no one left to save.

I'm working on my first novel and I keep bumping my head against this. So many times I think of another exciting plot point or conceit, I realize that a similar thing happened or was true in the Remembrence of Earth's Past trilogy. I know SOME of it must be in my subconcious from reading and enjoying that series so much, but some of it is also just what I would have been interested in writing had I never read that series. Of course I know that "good artists borrow, great artists steal", but I really want to distance myself from overt similarities. Unfortunately, what I really want to write just...is similar in many ways. Anyone else have similar experiences (not neccesarily related to three body) when writing? Moments of "dammit that's too similar to so and so novel but it still feels like my idea, and what I want to write"?