Chain letter age

[Metabasalt1]

First of all...congratulations on a great job to all the writers of Rell-too. Not only is the science fascinating, but you are really pushing the envelope when it comes to the tech (journey books, GUI, really cool elevator, and the glass in the chem lab).

Some of the Advanced Placement Chemistry and Biology teachers at my school have expressed an interest in using this age in class. Is that ok with the writers?

About the science, I really like the giant star at the center of the solar system of Relltoo. Some of you have already discussed that the centrifugal forces on the towers would be very high and what would keep them standing? I also wonder about the cloud bridge. Is it supposed to be made of ice? If so, why would it not melt under the temperature of the giant sun?

I really like the rock eaters that were in an early version of Relltoo, and I understand many of them were eaten by the flying predators. But there are so few left, would not the flying predators die off? Could we add the rock eaters back, and there should be lots of them to support the predators?

I know this is a fantasy age, but it would be interesting to explore some of the science questions that this age raises.
Metabasalt

[Jojon]

I can not speak for everybody, but as far as I am concerned, if you can use the environment to get kids thinking; go for it. I can imagine that our Hollywood-y pseudo-science could be used as charicatures of real concepts. :7

In addition to the speculation that centripetal force keeps those delicate towers upright, one might ponder what structures might look like farther from the equator, where the force is not only weaker, but also at a different vector, relative to the planet's gravity. Then there is the whole thing with tides... :7
Earth does have an ever so slight elliptical cross-section, due to its spin - how might this be in Rell-Too?
Unfortunately, we can, as far as I know, not change 'g', to make the avatar be affected by different gravitational pulls - we're stuck with 9.87. :7

On geology, I'm thinking that rock is possibly not the crumbly sandstone it looks like, but something tough and active, a kind of clay with a rather high water content, that contrary to sandstone sticks together really really well, like some really tough types of floor tiles - at least unless you dry it out, which seems unlikely, given the amount of fog in the warm atmosphere. How warm, by the way? The red giant looks quite close, comparing with the way we are used to see our own sun, but it's likely much larger than old Sol and reds are not as hot as shorter wavelength stars.


On the surface, there doesn't seem to be enough rockeaters to support the population of the rather large and calorie-expending flying predators (or does those peanut-shaped bodies hide some sort of flotation bags?). Ametist may be the only one, at the moment, with any ideas on how the local ecosystem works - perhaps the predators go into long periods of hibernation, during which the rockeaters can thrive? If nothing else, she has expressed an intention to add some vegetation next time - mostly lichen/moss and grass, if I recall correctly - maybe growing in caches of dirt/salts, wherever wind may have deposited it .
I'm sure Ametist would love to hear any ideas your students might have on the local life-cycles and what would constitute a sustainable eco-balance. :)

I have yet to come up with any explanations for the amazing, seemingy free-floating paths - theories are welcome. :)


Pneumatic elevators/subways exists for real - one might make a discussion point out of that, thinking on how and why those work, whereas the one in the age wouldn't (although it's not really a pneumatic seal, but more like a sail in chimney draught, which leaves it too heavy instead).


Good luck! :)

[J'Kla]

This age embodies a synthetic (man made world) for all we know the sandstone there could be a resin with an embedded sand surface. In reality it has a structure is made from an engineered three dimensional space made from discrete two dimensional views built from points of light. It is our own suspension of disbelief that allows it's very existence.

As a thought exercise it's fantastic.

Remember there's a moon of Jupiter (Europa) out there that appears to be a crust of ice over liquid water at a distance from the sun where no liquid water should exist. Science repeatedly reveals things beyond our imagination so letting our imagination build a world beyond our understanding of the universe does not make that world impossible. It just makes it an exercise in thought.

Just because our world is the way it is does not require any other world to be the same. We cannot be sure that gravity is a constant throughout our own universe. For all we know gravity may change state beyond the event horizon of a black hole. Or even beyond the orbit of Neptune and may explain the strange orbit of Pluto.

[Jojon]

Indeed, those towers are modelled from a roughly elliptical top view cross-section, spun around a straight axis. :7

[ametist]

On the surface, there doesn't seem to be enough rockeaters to support the population of the rather large and calorie-expending flying predators (or does those peanut-shaped bodies hide some sort of flotation bags?). Ametist may be the only one, at the moment, with any ideas on how the local ecosystem works - perhaps the predators go into long periods of hibernation, during which the rockeaters can thrive? If nothing else, she has expressed an intention to add some vegetation next time - mostly lichen/moss and grass, if I recall correctly - maybe growing in caches of dirt/salts, wherever wind may have deposited it .
I'm sure Ametist would love to hear any ideas your students might have on the local life-cycles and what would constitute a sustainable eco-balance.

Oh yes, ideas are welcome! Jojon are close, my thinking around the life-cycle of RockEaters and Hunters are like that - the population of RockEaters grow, the sound from eating Rockeaters (or 'talking' or walking) awakes the Hunters eggs which then hatch. When foodresources vanish = when they've eaten all visible RockEaters, they lay their eggs into cavities in the 'rock', preferably on top of high rocks. They can feel the thickness of the rock with their beak (or maybe with the very sensible 'foot?) and can hack out a hole to put the eggs through. When the eggs hatch into Hunters they can burst the thin rock layer above and around them with a collective force. The RockEaters on the other hand, also go into egglaying state when the experience high level of of predators hunting them.
Now that we have access to this age, I've been thinking of asking the scientist to keep the eggsacks and their 'guard' in the lab for protection, and for us to be able to watch their 'birth'. But that's a very heavy act of interference, so I'm not sure...
On the other hand we might then be able to watch the Hunters lay eggs in some cavity somewhere
These animals must have have a common ancestor, they have eyes on stalks and a similar 'foot'. So examining them in the lab would be a good thing, I know the scientist there already have one of the Rockeaters dissected but no result as of yet. Now to catch, or find a dead one, Hunter!

[Jojon]

Mercyful to all the poor souls with a Relto-book deficiency, that we have tricked into ambling aimlessly around Rell-Too, Rize has placed a Nexus linking book next to the link-in spot. Jolly good show!

He has also set the stage for anone who feels like doing some diamagnetic experiments...

Thank you for your fine additions, Rize!


Next up is Justintime9, then Core43, followed by ArdentRed, after whom Junee gets to wrap up the second turn.

(I will fire off some PMs to Core and Ardent, unsure as to whether they still roam these lands. :7)


As usual I am to lazy to include the download links with this announcement and will instead refer to the first post in this thread; it has them. :)

[Justintime9]

I'm alive! got the PM. There's a couple of ideas I think I'll try (and perhaps after seeing Rize's additions there may be more.)

[Jojon]

Goodie!

*cackles and rubs hands together like a matinee villain*

[Justintime9]

Hmm, I tried exporting it today, and it keeps complaining about sound blocks. There's a bunch of references to sounds from URU (KVeerMusic etc.) in the blendfile (I don't know what they're used for), but I can't re-locate them by changing the file path because they've apparently been renamed from their actual filename in URU (either that or I don't have the files). In any case, without the files, or correct filenames, I won't be able to export... and that could be a problem.

[Jojon]

Hmm, I tried exporting it today, and it keeps complaining about sound blocks. There's a bunch of references to sounds from URU (KVeerMusic etc.) in the blendfile (I don't know what they're used for), but I can't re-locate them by changing the file path because they've apparently been renamed from their actual filename in URU (either that or I don't have the files). In any case, without the files, or correct filenames, I won't be able to export... and that could be a problem.

Huh??? *goes to look*

You're right. Where on Earth did they come from and why did exporting work for me? The age certainly doesn't use that music (as far as I can tell, anyway). :7


Before I address Justin's problem: everybody; you no longer need use Blender sound blocks and you'll need no "*.wav" copies of your sounds, because the latest stable release of pyprp (1.6) can extract the header info it needs directly from the ogg files in your Uru installation. All you need to do, is to point Blender's "Sound" search path (found in the preferences section) to the "sfx" directory in your Uru installation and make sure your ogg samples are in it. Please do not use any sound blocks, because not only do we no longer need them, but they can be really tricky to get rid of. :7

http://www.guildofwriters.com/wiki/Installing_PyPRP


Now, Justin: First of all, check that you've really got pyprp 1.6 or later. I suspect you do, already, but ask anyway, since the export worked for me, but not for you.

Then check Blender's search path for sounds. It should point to the "sfx" directory in your Uru installation.

Third, if the above didn't work; go to the Scene->Sound block buttons panel. There, select each "Blender sound block", in turn and delete any file path that pops up in the "Sample" field.

If you haven't converted the MOUL ages, I'm guessing you don't have the music under that name (still used in the tree bit, but no doubt called something else), which shouldn't matter, to my mind, since we're not using it anyway, but what do I know... If things comes to worst; try make a copy of any ogg and rename it to the requested name, just so that you can get that export going and test your additions.


There is, by the way, no need for anybody to include an export of the age with the project, when turning in their contributions, because I test and export the age, before announcing a new release, anyway.


In other news, Core43 has confirmed that he's alive and kicking, so he's prepared to have a go at Rell-Too, after Justin is done. :)