Etherian biological construction

[Sabaron]

Just a few questions... I recall that the Etherians are gas giant dwelling, and grow their ships and structures. This brings up a few issues:

1. Why do they need minerals? Or at the very least, as many as the other races that build things out of metal. One wouldn't think a bio-ship would take the same quantities of metal as a metal ship.

2. How do their weapons work? e.g. how do you grow a laser gun?

[TheMaestro]

They might fire like...bio-energy weapons? Not sure --

[RolandtheMad]

I asked the same kind of questions. Looks like they sacrificed cool Scifi stuff for gameplay and ease of coding.

Can`t really blame them though. If you thought about it every race should probably have it's own tech tree, infrastructure, ships, and everything. What do Silicoids need biological technology for? What do Hive mind Klackon need sociological technology for?

[Crostoneman]

Just because they grow their own ships doesn't mean that they won't try to harvest minerals in the gas clouds of their planets and apply them to current technology. Since they are an intelligence, they can build structures that can create weapons for their ships and such.

[RolandtheMad]

I don`t think so. I just find it all highly implausible beyond suspension of belief really. Mine minerals from clouds? Minerals are solids! Lol! ..and to build building even.. out of what? ..and tools?

Forget it. No arguement. Better to just play the game, don`t think about it too much, and don`t ruin it for yourself.

[kalbear]

Actually, that was one of the bigger reasons that we wanted to explore past the asteroid belt - because gas giants have effectively an atmosphere full of volatiles and carbon in easy-to-reach form. Basically, it's got anything that bonds easily with carbon in a gaseous state.

That's pretty good news when you want to do mining for things like, say, oil for plastic or polymer purposes.

Also, last I checked you couldn't make fission bombs from corn. Heck, forestry is much closer to mining than farming in terms of the skills and equipment required.

[rhofman]

Roland, real world example of mining gas. We here in BC have large reserves of Natural Gas. Other power sources that could be extracted in gas form could be methane based (think cow farts).

Gas giants have multiple layers in their atmospheres. One way to think of it is that the gas bags live in the atmosphere with component X. Components A, B and C are in the denser lower atmosphere and component Z in the thinner upper atmosphere.

For fun think back to Empire Strikes Back, cloud city of Bespin survived by mining gases.

[Crostoneman]

Originally posted by RolandtheMad
I don`t think so. I just find it all highly implausible beyond suspension of belief really. Mine minerals from clouds? Minerals are solids! Lol! ..and to build building even.. out of what? ..and tools?

Forget it. No arguement. Better to just play the game, don`t think about it too much, and don`t ruin it for yourself.

Well, think about this unless you're stoned, drunk, near full capacity or such, our bodies are not purely carbon. We require several minerals for various functions of our bodies. Calcium for example is required for our bodies to create bones to keep our bodies in the way they are. Even though Etherian may function the same way, if they can figure out how to grow ships of Behemoth sizes, they can try fugure out to create metal supplies for various tech.

By the way, how do you know if there is no minerals in a gas planet cloud? Have you ever check it out or looked deeper in the more dense areas near the center?

[RolandtheMad]

This is all nice in theory and all but you`re all forgeting the most important, basic things. How are they going to get the carbon to do the bonding with? How are they going to make use of natural gasses? How are they going to mine the extremely high gravity core?

As far as I know there is no way to use fire on a gas planet, what oxygen is there to burn, and if you did how would you keep from igniting the rest of the planet? It isn`t like burning wood where the oxygen and burning material are in one specific place. The gasses are everywhere! How are they going to get to the industrial capacity to do all this stuff? There is no easily reachable *solid metals* so there is no tool making. How would they even concieve of using these things?

It takes very specific conditions for technological development, even more so along the lines that we humans have. It is all based in tool making and fire, and even that isn`t enough. Some species can make use of tools but have still never come out of primitive living.

Think of this, why don`t squid build factories, why don`t apes? Why don`t they mine? Why don`t they make use of natural gasses? It is beyond them. You have to start at the very beginning. You don`t jump to high gravity mining and high level chemistry on day one. First you must be able to *concieve* these things. Then you must be able to make tools, then you must be able to make fire to forge better tools, then you must have a thousand other things in contigence to lead to human-like development..

No, I`m not drunk or stoned thank you, Crostoneman. I`m just being realistic. It is entirely impossible to develop human-like infrastructure in a what could not be a more alien environment - a gas world.. and this is why I orignally said that for a more believable game every race should have it's own tech tree, infrastructure, etc. It isn`t plausible of course. Where is the argument?

[Yolky]

You seem to forget that since they GROW thier ships, that when the ships grow they eat the minerals and break the minerals down into nutrients that they use to make the outer shells for the ships and weapons or what not.

Maybe the ships would be like the Silicys, use the minerals as food.

Theres a thought, and also the Etherians go down to the surface to mine the minerals and not in the clouds if your imagination will not allow that.

Just like humans don't live deep in the ground but go down there and mine minerals, why wouldn't the Etherians do the same also? Why would they be stuck in the clouds?

Davor

[rhofman]

Roland, you don't have to think of it as human-like development. Human-like development would not occur in a gas giant environment. (almost anything with a skeletal structure would be crushed)

At the beginning of the game they are supposed to be at a stage more advanced than we are now. It doesn't really matter HOW they got there just that they did.

They also have the advantage of being engineered. That would eliminate the need to have primative beginnings. They were dropped in the gas giants and, over time, adapted to the environment.

[RolandtheMad]

Crostoneman: We have found a witch, may we burn her?

Fans: [Burn the witch, etc...]

rhofman: How do you know she is a witch?

Crostoneman: She looks like one!

Fans: [General shouts of approval]

Rolandthemad: I'm not a witch, I'm not a witch!

rhofman: But you are dressed as one.

Rolandthemad: THEY dressed me up like this...

Fans: [general cries of denial]

Rolandthemad: ...and this isn't my nose, it's a false one! [rhofman removes nose]

rhofman: (after a few seconds' pause) Well?

Crostoneman: Well we did do the nose.

rhofman: The nose?

Crostoneman: And the hat...

Yolky: But she's a witch!

Fans: Yeah! Can we burn her? [More shouting for a few moments]

rhofman: Did you dress her up like this?

Crostoneman: NO!

Yolky: No.

Crostoneman: Yes...

Yolky: A bit...

Crostoneman: She has got a wart!

rhofman: What makes you think she's a witch?

Yolky: Well, she turned me into a newt!

rhofman: A newt?

Yolky: I got better...

Crostoneman: Burn her anyway!

Fans: [Burn her! More shouting of approval]

rhofman: Quiet... Quiet... Quiet! Quiet! Well then, tell me... What do you do with witches?

Fans: BUUUUURN THEM! BURN THEM UP!

rhofman: And what do you burn apart from witches?

Crostoneman: IGMOO`ERS! [Gets elbowed by Yolky]

Yolky: Wood!

rhofman: So... why do witches burn?

Yolky: (After several seconds of puzzling) Be... (After several more seconds) ...because they're made of wood?

[rhofman]

That was really good.

I take it you've had enough of this thread.

[Sabaron]

I'm not terribly concerned with the "evolutionary history" of the Etherians... the Antarans have done enough tampering to insure that we can never be sure which of their traits are inborn and which were added.

"Mining the core" of gas giants seems to make the most sense. Our scientists know that gas giants indeed have a core, though I don't think we know what exactly the core is made from.

[Yolky]

good one roland.

Davor

ps get more wood just incase