ailelie (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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build_a_world2010-10-20 09:45 am
ailelie) wrote in build_a_world2010-10-20 09:45 am
Talk & WiP Post
Late post this week as I've been trying to figure out the best way to handle projects completed prior to the month's end.
Here are the options:
1) Post it here as a WiP. This is probably the best course of action. It allows you to get some feedback and gives space if you decide to make some last minute changes.
2) Post it on your blog for now. At the end of the month, share it here.
3) Keep it to yourself until the month's end.
Anyway, I hope the last week and a half have been going well for you. What have some been some of your most difficult struggles? And does anyone have any tips on fitting world-building into a tight schedule?
Rules
1. Be considerate and polite.
2. For now, any topic is acceptable. That said, this is a world-building community.
3. I (or any mod, once we have more than one) may ask participants in a particularly interesting conversation to create a write-up for wider community enjoyment. Participants may say no.
4. Trolling and ad hom attacks will lead to the thread being frozen and a warning. Three warnings and you will be banned.
5. The first comment of any thread should have a clear topic identifying the subject.
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This is my secondary challenge response to building a world for "Faeryland" which is a setting I seem to have ended up creating for some of the stuff I write in Primeval fandom.
I have a half-done map to go with it, but I'm still working on that. It's fairly straightforward since the set up means I can throw out all the normal rules of geography, so I'm really just enjoying playing about drawing maps.
More serious stuff in my next comment!
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I've used StarGen to create two solar systems, one of which contains an easily habitable planet:
70 Ophiuchi A and 70 Ophiuchi B. I'm currently making notes to try to work out what the various stats about these planets might mean in story telling terms. These are the notes I've made for planets 2 - 7 in Ophiuchi B. I'd welcome input on whether I'm focusing on the right stats when determining storytelling ramifications, or if I'm getting anything wrong. 99% of my understanding of all this is coming from Wikipedia.
Planet 2
This is encouragingly described as Low-G, Cold, Icy, Arid, Cloudless, Boiling ocean, Unbreathably thin atomosphere, 1-Face. Not a good place to live.
It is 0.5 AU from Ophiuchi B. That's an approximately 2 week journey if I'm assuming travel speeds of roughly 1AU per month.
It is tidally locked which means one of its sides is continually facing the sun. So it has a dark side and a light side with, possibily, rather different communities on either side.
Gravity is 0.43 earth gees. Which means you can jump roughly twice as high as you can on Earth and walking will be distinctly bouncy, but not as bouncy as on the moon.
Surface temperature varies from very cold (-246.8C) to 27.8C (presumably on the light side) which is tolerable.
A year takes 155 Earth days which is one local day. The axial tilt is only 12 degrees (so not much in the way of seasons).
Planet 3
Planet 3 is very similar to Planet 2. It's oceans, don't boil, but only, really because it's colder than Planet 2. The boiling point of water on Planet 2 is 6.1 degrees C, on Planet 3 it's 11.5 but Planet 3's maximum temperature is only -9.6 C.
In terms of rough travel times and gravity then, again, planet 3 is much like planet 2. It's year is 246 Earth days. The axial tilt is 20 degrees, so it's much more seasonal although, given how cold it always is, I'm not sure that makes much practical difference.
Planet 4
It would take nearly a month to get to this ice planet from the sun. It's atmosphere is, in fact breathable, but it is cold. It's maximum day time temperatus is -115 degress C. So we're talking heated habitat domes. Gravity is pretty similar to earth. The axial tilt is 23 degrees, so it's a bit more seasonal than earth, but not a lot. It's days are only 17ish hours long, which would probably be a strain and I need to look up any research on how the human body adapts to different day-length cycles. The year is 323 Earth days.
Planet 5
This is very similar to planet 4, gravity's a bit lower, axial tilt is even more Earth-like. It's even colder! The days are about the same length as for planet 4, but the year is considerably longer.
Planet 6
Unlike planet's 4 and 5, planet 6 doesn't have a breathable atmosphere. I'm not sure how much difference this makes since all three planets are so cold that you wouldn't be spending much time outside. But it may be that sophisticated polymers can be invoked at some level to allow people to move around on the other two while breathing aparatus would be needed for 6. Pretty low gravity (0.39 gs - about double the gravity on the moon). The day length is 24.62 hours, which is very closes to earth, although the year is double the Earths. Axial tilt is 27 degrees so more seasonal variation than on Earth.
Planet 7
Planet 7 is a "Gas Dwarf" which means it has a surface composed of liquid versions of elements that are gases on Earth. It's incredibly cold but that probably doesn't preclude the existence of floating cities of some kind, not to mention moons or rings! Although their properties would be a whole other ball game to work out.
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But I hadn't realised before this that I'm going to have to put serious thought into, for instance, what time and dating system people use, because of the planetary variations in day and year length. I'm also going to need to work out how to treat travel times, since they are going to vary depending on where the planet's orbits are in relation to each other. I'm wondering if there is a good spreadsheet or simulator somewhere I could [s]steal[/s] adapt.
Map, done in Pencil
That is one of the main playgrounds of the novel series I am working on.
Sketch of the Pit
http://bethany-lauren.dreamwidth.org/323060.html
Marelindon Castle map
http://bethany-lauren.dreamwidth.org/323084.html