Me Via Twitter: I've been studying relativity! I'd forgotten that it's quite mad. Quantum physics is only a bit more mad. All tutorials skip the hard stuff.
On GChat:
John: What possible use could you have for relativity?
me: I thought maybe the time dilation effects could be an interesting mechanic.
Imagine a chess match where the various parts of the board have different internal clocks.
John: OK, I can see that.
I remember modeling games with non-zero communication propagation times, but never tried tracking local age of units.
me: Well, think about it: the faster you go (the more you advance), the fewer turns you get to take.
It's a built-in negative feedback loop. Choosing the best point will always be a tradeoff.
John: Interesting.
I guess I'm having a hard time imagining the metaphor for a game in which it was so important that you do something on a ship (or conveyance of your choosing) that the tradeoff would become relevant.
me: Yeah, I'm having a bit of a time with that, too.
I'm thinking of throwing in the mass distortion effect, and having some kind of cosmic gravity-ball.
Relativistic pong, maybe.
John: Hmm.
Does relativity guarantee that inertial mass is alway equal to gravitational mass after distortion?
me: I was thinking of ignoring reality just a little.
John: That was actually a legitimate question, not a narrow insinuation, but I will take your answer as I choose.
me: :)
John: I suppose anything with RKV's might benefit from being able to calculate their physical properties.
me: Only to some extent. After about 0.7c, there's not much point. Everything is dead.
Nonviolent relativistic games are all I can come up with.
John: Perhaps interstellar wine shipping?
me: Radioactive material shipping...
Same idea.
John: You need the wine to age a certain number of years before it comes to market, but you want it to be sold as soon as possible?
me: "It was a very good year. Before their sun exploded."
John: Actually, never mind. The math works out that you would always age it locally and then send it as fast as you could.
me: Ah-ah, you're assuming relativistic travel has no effect on the wine.
John: Its true!
me: Winefolk will certainly be able to taste that "space aged" flavor.
Or think they can, at any rate.
"My, did you fly this through a nebula? Excellent nose on it..."
John: Why do I get the impression you'd have a lot more fun writing the NPC's for that game than the game itself?
me: I'm gonna do it.
I'm gonna build a relavitistic wine-merchant game.
And I'm gonna post this conversation to my blog, 'cause I'm a nerd.
John: hehe
Go for it.
6 comments:
*slow, stunned applause* wow. that was indeed fabulously nerdy, well done!
i'd play that game. seriously. if only for S&Gs. john's right, the NPC dialogue for that game would no doubt be the best part.
get cracking, i say. :P
Yes, I approve of this entire post.
Now all I need is a slew of really terrible voice actors!
I´d like to volunteer my voice acting talents.
Oiy that´s geeky! (Think of an imitation professor Frink voice).
What I think I'll do is program it and then VO everything myself. Once complete, I'll take VO "replacements" to replace my camp baritone with other, more applicable, but equally camp voices.
I do a pretty good, "No parking in the red zone. Pick-ups and drop-offs in the white zone only." and "At the beep, the time is now...."
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