Beneath Alien Waves

[ORtrail]

I like the setting. As for suggestions? What springs to my mind is how some plants/animals tend to get accidently introduced from one place to another and tend to threaten native species. Less of an issue with your setting perhaps, but what about those not wanting this young colony to succeed?

Some who want the planet for themselves? Some who have a personal grudge against a colony leader? Perhaps massive loans were taken out to finance this venture? Space pirates who had a nice hiding place? A rogue scientist messing with geneticly engineered creatures, but with good intentions (only wanted to speed the colonizing process up)?

What if there WAS an intelligent native species deep down in those depths? They've been in hibernation for centuries, waiting for the radiation to level off... Maybe without much technology, but some psionics and an agressive attitude?

A nice combination of several of the above?

[rust]

Thank you very much for the ideas !

Pharos IV did indeed have a serious problem with accidentally introduced spe-

cies. The worst case was a kind of free-floating algae, the size of a human

fist, which were covered by a layer of slime that contained a contact poison

lethal to its homeworld's predators - and all Terran species. The colonists re-

cognized the problem almost too late, and it was a major operation to get rid

of the algae.

Since I have used this plot very early in the colony's history, it could be a

good idea to use a similar one again now ...

The colonists have discovered one abandoned alien deep sea base with a

"Gate" to the devastated homeworld of the so-called "Builders" and to some

other planets (including Green - greetings, Puck !). It became obvious that

the "Builders" had left their homeworld soon before some kind of natural desa-

ster would have destroyed their civilization there, and therefore these aliens

may still be "out there" somewhere - and there could also be other bases and

"Gates" on Pharos IV, allowing them to return whenever they like ...

Since the colony on Pharos IV has become a safe haven for escaped genetic

slaves (humans bred as slaves), there is an ongoing conflict with the inter-

stellar megacorporation which produces and sells the slaves.

There have been several attempts to destroy the colony, including a long-

term plan with an asteroid brought on a collision course with Pharos IV, and

a number of "terrorist" attacks.

One of these attacks killed my favourite NPC, the "Council Speaker for Off-

world Affairs" (foreign minister) of the colony, when the PCs had a rather bad

day, and another one almost killed the crown prince of a nearby star kingdom

when he visited Pharos IV for the 50 Years-Celebrations ...

[Conrad]

Yes, near enough.

If you think that German would not be a major problem, you could send me a

PM with your E-Mail address, and I would send you the material (currently 3

PDFs with together ca. 70 pages and 6 maps / sketches) in return.

By the way, if anyone else should be interested, too, just drop me a PM, and

I will send you the material.

It is a good job that my elder brother speaks fluent german. I can give him the task of translating some of your stuff for me.

By the way your english is excellent.

[rust]

Thank you very much - playing English roleplaying games seems to be a good

way to learn the language.

The files are on their way, I hope you will like some of the stuff.

[sdavies2720]

Are you still looking for ideas to fill ecological niches on the planet? If so, which ones?

Steve

[rust]

Since "building" an entire biosphere is a real long-term project, my colonists

are always on the lookout for potentially interesting (and non-dangerous)

creatures to introduce to Pharos IV.

Apart from algae and the usual small creatures (plankton, corals, invertebra-

tes, etc.) they have already introduced some marine mammals (dolphins, du-

gongs, wrillabees, Bryde's whales), quite a lot of fish (including several whale

sharks, the "heraldic beasts" of the colony, and tunas, the first non-mammal

predators) and some small reptiles.

Cats have been introduced as the traditional seafarers' pets, and some rats

have managed to immigrate without permission.

And then there are the native deep sea animals ("snails", "worms", "octopoids"

and some others), which are now protected by a law that prohibits the intro-

duction of new species which would inhabit the sea beyond a depth of 1,500

meters.

So, (almost) all of the ecological niches have now been filled, but there are

still very few species in each of the niches - often only a single species.

Therefore, if you have any ideas of what could be added, please let me know

- any proposals would really be most welcome.

[sdavies2720]

My quick brainstorming (and seed for each):

Sea bottom (Nutrients from stuff raining down from above)

* Trilobyte - derivatives adapted for deep sea, big armored tanks

* Sea trees: Probably derived from coral, but able to root in the deep sea (for nutrients) and expand up near surface (for energy). Possibly exploit temperature differentials for transport & energy, and maybe have expendable tops (grow back fast) to weather storms.

* Varient amoebas that wander the sea bottom

* There are a couple of aquatic carnivorous plant types -- one of which entangles worms, and another that creates a vaccum in a pouch so that when the hatch opens it can suck in passing creatures

* STarfish are carnivorous. And can regenerate. Make them move fast enough, make them bigger, and that's pretty scarey

Surface (Nutrients from other animals or anchored at upwellings, energy from sun)

* Colony: Rift off Man-o-war, but a colony of animals and plants that is able to defend itself (stingers), float on the water, take advantage of best of air and water living. Storms would shred them, but each part would then regrow into a new colony

* Polyps of other species: It could be fun to have a poisonous/dangerous difference between the larval and adult states of animals.

* Philip Jose Farmer invented Wind Whale that stayed up through bouyant lighter-than-air sacs. You could do something like that to populate the sky without requiring land

* Free-floating sponges that clog intakes, or are big enough to be interesting

* Branched coral that has enough symbiotic species that it is protected against predators

* Giant rotifors that are big enough to create whirlpools when they are feeding, and can suck man-sized (or bigger) into their maws (Charybdis)

I'm sure you've run through variations of the interesting fish as well (sea horses, pufferfish, cows, skates, rays. Sea turtles?

Steve

[rust]

Thank you very much for the many interesting ideas, I think I will put most

of them on my "To Introduce" list !

I especially like the amoebas (something new to "discover" for the scientist

characters) and the idea with the poisonous larvae (someone forgot to ask

the right questions when introducing the adult forms).

Some of the other species could "immigrate" to Pharos IV through an as yet

undiscovered "Gate" at another abandoned station of the "Builders", which

could make for a nice advenuture: Find out where those strange critters co-

me from, discover and explore an abandoned (?) alien deep sea base ...

I considered sea turtles, but unfortunately they need at least some land to

lay their eggs. However, this might well be different with non-Terran spe-

cies ...

Edit.: I have just introduced your Sea Trees, as a native species of the pla-

net Donen 19, to Pharos IV. They will become a part of the artificial Barrier

Reef near the capital Avalon City in the year 90 n.L. (after landing). The ARC

(Avalon Research Center) has decided to introduce them in order to expand

and stabilize the reef, which serves both as a protection of the capital from

tsunamis and as a leisure area for the Avalonian divers (and, hopefully, a fu-

ture tourist attraction).

Again, thank you very much !

[sdavies2720]

Have the sea turtles lay egg cases like skates (I think -- the dark brown/black hard rectangular things you find on the beach). Gotta have turtles. If they need oxygen to hatch, make the cases lighter than water.

[Dredj]

Out of curiosity, what are the adventures going to be like on this planet? What will the main themes be?

[rust]

Have the sea turtles lay egg cases like skates ...

Another very good idea, thank you again !

Now I only have to make these egg cases taste terribly, in order to keep the

dolphins from eating them ...

[rust]

Out of curiosity, what are the adventures going to be

like on this planet? What will the main themes be?

Our group has been playing characters involved in the development of the co-

lony for 9 real months / about 80 game-years now.

The adventures are based upon the "axis events" of the colony's history. The

first adventure was the discovery of the planet, then came its exploration,

the search for finances and colonists to establish the colony, the construc-

tion of the first floating settlement, and so on.

At the moment we still have a mostly unexplored planet, the relics of the Buil-

ders and conflicts between the various groups of colonists as potential ad-

venture themes.

Apart from these colony-based adventures there are many (nowadays most)

adventures dealing with the offworld relations of the colony.

Pharos IV is on the very edge of the known space, so there is an entire sec-

tor to explore, there are new trade routes and pirates, there is diplomacy to

deal with the established regional powers and their rivalries and occasional

wars, and so on.

With the colony as the background, and the development of the colony as

the "reason" of the game, we can play almost all kinds of science fiction ad-

ventures you can imagine - even "urban" adventures, although until now

only on other, more developed planets.

[Daefaroth]

Weather is going to be a real issue. There's no land to cause hurricanes to lose their power. :eek:

[rust]

Weather is going to be a real issue.

Yep, weather is a real issue.

Cyclones and extremely heavy rainstorms are quite common on Pharos IV,

so all floaters and water vehicles have to be designed and built according-

ly. For example, most of the major ships are SWATH catamarans:

Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the long term, all the major settlements except the surface spaceport

(there is also an orbital spaceport) will probably be seafloor settlements.

The colony's capital, Avalon City, already has a sizeable deep sea quarter,

Avalon Deep or "Downtown", where now all the vital installations of the

colony are located.

[Dredj]

Does Pharos IV have polar regions? If so, pycrete might be useful:

Pykrete - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There was mention of using lasers for recreating the ozone layer, but you said that there wasn't enough energy. Maybe SPS could be a solution:

The Space Settlement FAQ by Mike Combs

or

Ocean thermal energy conversion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Salt water as fuel? Erie man hopes so--this latter one could even be used as a weopan!

Maybe even orbital colonies for growing things like fruits and vegetables for the colonists along with space elevators:

Space elevator - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hope these help.

[Dredj]

Here's a device that got patented that converts water into energy. It's a dry read and I only skimmed through most of it, but there might be something useful in it:Device for converting the energy of sea water - Patent 4162409

Here's another device:Energy of Seawater Desalination

And here's an idea:Wired 13.06: The Mad Genius from the Bottom of the Sea Btw, the third page of this overlong article sums everything up. And it's a great way to produce fresh water, too!

[Dredj]

And yet some more energy from seawater:Waves power sea water desalination plant :: Water

And some more ideas that combine most of the above: Science turns sun, surf into green energy - Environment - smh.com.au

No offense, but having enough energy on a all/almost all water planet that's being colonized by a space-faring civilization in the far-flung future, using 'green' technology that's already being developed today, would probably be a non-issue. And within a century, the colonists would have all the energy they need to rapidly replenish the ozone layer. And a lot of the mechanical technology behind these things is not very expensive. A waterworld colony with SPS style energy tech as back-up could be a techno-paradise that could become the intergalactic Silicone Valley, where new tech is being designed thanks to the overabundance of easy to maintain energy resources. Which could also be a reason why outside forces would want to take over Pharos IV. It could also be easy to get funding for the development of the colony, IF proper diplomatic protocols are followed (role-playing opportunity). The only real cost would be due to the remoteness of the colony, but, again, good diplomacy would overcome those costs.

It could also be a great place for scientist all over the galaxy, sector, or whatever, to study terraforming and implement new world building theories (with possible catastrophic consequences).

I realize that the costs of this stuff was already covered in this thread, but the components necessary to create the sustainable energy would be the very first things the colonists would bring with them. Once the colony has an economic foothold, then they can really bring out the "big guns". However, implementing these technologies vs. people and things that don't want them to be implemented could create some very interesting role playing situations.

Also, I strongly recommend studying the concerns for living in "high frontier" space colonies, as those would be the same as the colonies on a planet that has hardly any ozone layer (people having to live indoors all the time).

I discussed this stuff on other forums, so I hope I'm not being redundant on this one.:-) And I suspect you had many of these ideas already in mind.

[rust]

Thank you very, very much for all the interesting and useful informations

and ideas, they really are most welcome !

The Pharos IV colonists have built their first power plant using an ocean

current to produce energy some years ago, but it will mainly be used to

replace the oldest of the fusion power plants they brought with them.

I always wanted to use "green" energy for the development of the colo-

ny, but until now I did not have the time (well, was too lazy ...) to do the

necessary research, so your links come at the perfect time.

The energy would not be the real problem when it comes to the proposal

to use lasers to replenish the ozone layer, the main problem would be mo-

ney. At the moment, the colony simply could not afford a project of this

kind, and the leaders of the colony (a group of player characters, by the

way) currently need all the money they can get to arm the colony in order

to protect it from a newly appeared group of pirates / raiders.

So, the laser-ozone-project will have to wait a couple of game-years, I

think, with all those nasty pirates at the system's "border" ... >:->

[Dredj]

Thank you very, very much for all the interesting and useful informations

and ideas, they really are most welcome !

The Pharos IV colonists have built their first power plant using an ocean

current to produce energy some years ago, but it will mainly be used to

replace the oldest of the fusion power plants they brought with them.

I always wanted to use "green" energy for the development of the colo-

ny, but until now I did not have the time (well, was too lazy ...) to do the

necessary research, so your links come at the perfect time.

The energy would not be the real problem when it comes to the proposal

to use lasers to replenish the ozone layer, the main problem would be mo-

ney. At the moment, the colony simply could not afford a project of this

kind, and the leaders of the colony (a group of player characters, by the

way) currently need all the money they can get to arm the colony in order

to protect it from a newly appeared group of pirates / raiders.

So, the laser-ozone-project will have to wait a couple of game-years, I

think, with all those nasty pirates at the system's "border" ... >:->

Ah, I see where you're going with this:thumb:

[Dredj]

If you don't mind me saying so, I like my idea of using pykrete for polar regions. Here is some info. on ice hotels and igloos:

Igloo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ice hotel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[rust]

Oops, I forgot to answer that one ...

Unfortunately Pharos IV has almost no axial tilt and no polar regions, the

energy transport by the ocean currents is unhindered by continents, so

the regions near the poles are only a little colder than the rest of the pla-

net.

While I like the idea, I have doubts that I could make it work for Pharos IV.

[Dredj]

Oops, I forgot to answer that one ...

Unfortunately Pharos IV has almost no axial tilt and no polar regions, the

energy transport by the ocean currents is unhindered by continents, so

the regions near the poles are only a little colder than the rest of the pla-

net.

While I like the idea, I have doubts that I could make it work for Pharos IV.

I see. Does that mean that Pharos IV is wobbly?

[rust]

Does that mean that Pharos IV is wobbly?

No, at least not in the short term. Since my knowledge of geophysics is very

limited, I decided to use what I considered the most simple model I could

find, with "perfect" ocean currents, jet streams, and all that, and made sure

that the planet has no moon (no tides to calculate ...).

There may be some "side effects" in the long run, like the planet perhaps be-

ing wobbly, but for the time being I simply ignore them ...

[Dredj]

I misread your previous post.

Here's some "green" water transportation:

Sea Water Power | Renewable Energy Desalination, Desalination Watercrafts, Hydrokinetic Underwater Turbines | Future Ecology Eternal Ecology Renewable Ecology Evolving Ecology Sustainable Ecology Electric Ecology Future Ecology & Social Ecologyy

[Dredj]

And more desalination:Wave-powered 'ducks' could purify seawater - energy-fuels - 07 November 2006 - New Scientist Environment