- Location
- Australia
At a certain Quest-mechanical level this is all just too much of a headache tho.
To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest)
- Thread starter OneirosTheWriter
- Start date
- Sci-Fi
-
- Tags
- star trek exploration fully automated luxury gay space communism top level canon (canon) #hashtagcontent all-encompassing space amoeba cardassian boy bands cardassian magical girls darkest bureaucracy debate makes the qm cackle like palpatine hoh is an empire quest it has to be foreign infiltrators more ships ship happens singers delenda est starfleet this is not an empire quest ur waifu is collective?
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Oneiros, it's okay, none of this even needs to impact quest mechanics since we are literally just arguing about omake portrayals.
You can relax.
@Crazy Tom... what Iron Wolf said. Also...
It's not as bad as a neutron pulse for creating radioactive debris, but it's still bad.
Again, the point is that the situation is BAD ENOUGH to justify the plot we're seeing. It is pointless and unnecessary to try and make people back up and change the plots of good stories they've already written. The facts justify the plot, the plot is good and does not have any significant plot holes. Good enough for me, and I hope it's good enough for you.
You can relax.
@Crazy Tom... what Iron Wolf said. Also...
The electrons knocked loose by the ionization are going at relativistic speeds, because they absorb the energy of the gamma rays themselves. Those electrons are, in other words, beta radiation- which can go on to activate other materials.
It's not as bad as a neutron pulse for creating radioactive debris, but it's still bad.
Again, the point is that the situation is BAD ENOUGH to justify the plot we're seeing. It is pointless and unnecessary to try and make people back up and change the plots of good stories they've already written. The facts justify the plot, the plot is good and does not have any significant plot holes. Good enough for me, and I hope it's good enough for you.
"Honey I'm getting a PH.D in high energy physics"
"WHAT?!"
"I need to get ahead of my questers."
- Location
- Central Standard Time
Okay, quick note.
The warhead caused fallout, if not directly, then indirectly. It was detonated next to a shielded courthouse.
Shield generators have all sorts of exotic materials.
The warhead caused fallout, if not directly, then indirectly. It was detonated next to a shielded courthouse.
Shield generators have all sorts of exotic materials.
- Location
- Australia
Oh you laugh, but I have spent easily as much time watching and reading primers on relevant science topics as I have boning up on Memory Alpha since starting this quest!
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Derek58
Rocket Punch is Best Punch
- Location
- Getter Valhalla
Well there's your problem. You're learning actual science, when what you really need to do is learn how to technobabble better!
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Well there's your problem. You're learning actual science, when what you really need to do is learn how to technobabble better!
Indeed. Be careful Oneiros, trying to make scientific sense of Star Trek is a path that leads to you curled up and sobbing fully clothed in your shower.
I had a similar experience with Stargate in high-school.
#NeverAgain
To give you an idea of just how much gamma radiation is released in a M/AM reaction he is a quote from a post of my from way back when:
...and before anyone asks yes that typo is really obvious now but I'm not editing it for historical accuracy!
For comparison here is what Atomic Rockets has to say about the breakdown of a nuclear explosion:
So it's basically:Conventional Weapons - Nukes in Space - Warhead said:
- 80% absorbed into the atmosphere
- 10% gamma radiation
- 10% neutron radiation
- 30% absorbed into the atmosphere
- 25% lost as neutrinos
- 45% gamma radiation
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AKuz
Been Better
- Location
- A Rising Tide of Horrors
- Pronouns
- She/Her
LOL.
It's funny because I cut a descriptor of things as "Radiologically clean" but with a lot of exotic effects from breached containment fields and now unshielded emitters around the city. You can see the remnant of what was around that statement if you squint hard enough. But I was starting to reach "AS YOU KNOW" levels of exposition that was just silly for the situation.
"Bomb goes off. Dangerous leversion of bad stuff in the air and the aether" is really all that we need to know without complicating things. Writing is as much in what you leave out as what you add. Otherwise you turn into David Weber's later novels.
The main worry was in inhailing all the random shit in the air. I actually went back and added NBC suits to the masks because "wait lol, there are all kinds of other effects"
Modern suits would absolutely have protected them, but then a lot of people would have bleed out or died from the exotic effects before help arrived.
Edit: that and I wasn't 100% on the science so better to stay silent etc etc
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- Location
- madison
Another thing to keep in mind, I don't think breathing rock and metal vapor is very good for you. Materials that are normally safe likely become toxic when turned into hot gas.
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- Pronouns
- She/Her
pheonix89
Wants to be Seven Of Nine
- Location
- North American Plaguelands
- Pronouns
- She/Her
That too. There's going to be radioactive heavy metal and other chemical poisoning as well.
M/AM groundbursts are cleaner than pure fusion groundbursts which are cleaner than thermonuclear groundbursts, but they're NOT clean.
Anyway, two people went out there and knowingly decided to trade in their lives for a bunch of others. That's the highest form of heroism - to knowingly sacrifice for others. They knew that if they went out there they'd die horribly. They knew that if they didn't, many more other people would die horribly. They went out there. They saved hundreds of lives. They died horribly.
And they probably saved a few thousand more indirectly, because the PR/propaganda angle of a Orion and Amarki going to their doom to save as many victims as they could in the immediate aftermath is going to do a lot to keep "Fuck the Syndicate" from turning into "Fuck the Orions", and that's very important to winning this.
Thebigpieman
I've got this, I think.
- Location
- United States
We should never go full Weber, as much as I love the guy's stuff.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
I offer my services as a science consultant if they could be of any help to you.
[Takes up lotus position]Oh doubtlessly. I just enjoy arguing THE SCIENCE!
Truly, oh crazy one:
The apprentice SCIENCE!-eer tries to convince the author to change their story to fit their knowledge of the science.
The master SCIENCE!-eer seeks to show the author a way to write the story they desire, using their knowledge of the science.
Thus does the master use their powers for order, while the apprentice uses their powers for chaos.
In that case, where does the gamma radiation go? Does it all just get radiated into space? In that case, a groundburst like this would create more 'boom' than one detonated in a flat spot in the open desert, because the structure of the surrounding buildings will block out much of the sky and those buildings will absorb gamma rays that would otherwise be radiated into space.
You did great. [Puts on old lab coat, gives seal of approval]
- Location
- Patriarchova
This is what I was referring to when I said "particulate matter."
KnightDisciple
Love God. Do Right. Fear No Man.
- Location
- Midwest, USA
To be a Trek GM is to juggle three tensions: what's in the canon, what's scientific, and enough made up stuff to preserve your sanity. On some level Trek is science fiction, enough so that you want to try to use real world scientific concepts when possible. On another altogether it is 300 years into the future, and using made-up materials helps show that things aren't just the simple titanium and polymers of the 21st century while also letting you fudge things so you don't actually have to get a degree in theoretical physics and engineering. Then of course there's making sure the stuff you make up doesn't contradict the canon [too badly].
On top of that in a quest like this you have to create content that appeals to TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY and ENT fans, and those works (TNG/TOS and DS9 in particular) have some wildly different tones and ideas.
- Location
- Patriarchova
There's dozens of them! DOZENS!
Slightly related: one of my favorite things about occasionally browsing r/startrek is seeing people start watching one series or another - blind - and then discovering some of the more infamous episodes. For example, every few months someone finishes Enterprise and is like "[Spoilers] Just finished enterprise -- what the hell was that last episode????"
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
I suspect there's a lot of people who like parts of Enterprise without liking the series overall.
- Location
- Patriarchova
Enterprise had some great episodes and concepts, especially in the final season. Just, not nearly enough for me to be able to say I'm fond of the show as a whole. I suspect most Trekkies are more or less on the same page with me.
Unrelated: eagle envy.
Unrelated: eagle envy.
A lot of the gamma radiation is absorbed into the atmosphere. It's just that unlike the soft X-rays which are absorbed almost instantly gamma radiation requires 150m for each halving.
A 10MT blast releases 41,840TJ of energy. With 45% being released as gamma radiation that means we're talking 18,828TJ of radiation. A guaranteed lethal dose of gamma radiation IIRC is around 2,250J for a 75kg human. So you would need at least 33 halving to drop below the 100% lethal threshold which puts the distance at just shy of 5km.
So the radiation would basically all still be absorbed into the atmosphere but it's over such a massively larger area that I'm not entirely sure the effect would be noticeable compared to the massive boom going on at the center.
- Location
- Infraspace
Thought I'd share some progress on the model. Have another album!
By the way, I cleaned up my imgur account a bit, removing most of the out-of date images. I've gone back and removed broken links, but if anyone would like any old images, drop me a message.
By the way, I cleaned up my imgur account a bit, removing most of the out-of date images. I've gone back and removed broken links, but if anyone would like any old images, drop me a message.