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Harder and Softer Science fiction: a discussion

Well that was a topper, so I'll ask a new question here.

What are the technologies and parts of the setting that are a bit softer, but make SARP, SARP?
 
I said this in discord, Soban, when you asked about tech that is key to the setting, but aether.

I don't think I could have planned 3/4 of the missions and their ends without aether and I don't think the setting would feel the same without it.

I hope I didn't just paint a bullseye on aether and I hope you understand there are other cool technologies in the setting, but aether gets us place to place and shoots the biggest baddies.

I think our FTL from Star Trek is cool, too :p
 
Just reading it i'll admit I don't know a lot about the sci-fi part of it but coming as a new player that just wanted to get into the rp I enjoy the soft Sarp. I mean I know we have a ftl system and I can understand that with out having to know all the technobabble ( I had to do a lot of reading as a engineer in a previous rp). I can understand a lot of the weapons systems and the weapons and what they are basically so thats a plus. I'll admit the only confusion I get is from the skill tree and the damage system since I know there is a backlog and looks to be a revamp so that might be just a left over.

What makes Sarp Sarp I mean its taking elements from other systems based on 80s/90s anime and some futuristic with cyber punk and making a love child out of it. We have space Imperial Japan, we have genetically engineered cat girl solderers that im still learning the ins and outs but I know there here. I can understand how we get around with ftl drives, we got some suits that reminds me of old Starship trooper armor ( the books and marunder suits) and we got classical mobile armors. We got weapon systems that are a mix of plasma and traditional fire arms. I mean its a love child that has all the soft bits that reminds me of some old anime that you'll see late on night and thats what fun, I can jump in with out knowing all the lore and I can make a charcter that is learning it ( Neko!) so its nice.
 
Aether is only heavily used by Yamatai, every other plot outside that faction has plenty fun stories without relying on space magic. Not saying we need to remove it as obviously that is not something we could do even if wes wanted to without tearing the faction apart.

Personally, just the space aspects in general including weapons, designs, engines. Also being able to say equipment has 100% efficiency is nice despite it being almost impossible. To answer your second question soban.
 
I'm a little disappointed that this devolved into "I want to change the setting that's existed for more than a decade based on personal preference."
 
I think it's more than a little disappointing that no one here seems to want to hear the other side. But I guess that's life.
 
I feel kinda sorry for @Soban He made a legitimate thread with a legitimate question. And instead of answering his question, it's turned into a battle of opinions, not based on what SARP wants, but based on what individuals want.

This is the simple fact of it guys. SARP is how it is. If something is going to change in SARP, there's gonna need to be -evidence- of improvement to change it. This is why I worded my initial post the way it was. I understand some of you don't like softer sci-fi settings, that is your right. But will making SARP harder sci-fi be objectively -better-? The answer to that is no. There might be individual things we can improve, but the answer for a sweeping 'correction' of science principles in the setting as a whole, is a no.

As for those individual things that would improve with harder sci-fi, those things would have to be talked about individually, and strong reasoning, and some proof are going to be needed to show that those changes will improve the site, and not just be because that's what you like. Because everyone has something that they like, and there are people here and out there that like SARP the way it is.
 
Then I will objectively be playing the physics of said weapons to the letter up to and including most weapons T9 or higher simply causing extinction events with a single shot when fired at a planet.
 
I'm just here to say that uh, Tier 9 is for taking out mechs and stuff like that - and there is one heck of a difference between a mech and a planet so...

Onto the original topic of this thread though, I honestly love how many options there are for accelerating projectiles - as someone who comes up with more weapon ideas than they turn into articles its fun to just conceptualize every now and then.
 
You can do what you want but if you ignore the physics of the universe too much it can result in decannonizing your thread. However I'm not sure you understand that the higher tier weapons do wipe people out on planets. They're not generally fired at planets. However they have been in setting and it's been utterly devastating to the planet. It's not like we think the ship scale weapons are pea shooters. We've blown up planets and moons, we've used moons -as- weapons too.
 
In spirit of putting the thread back on rails - like Syaoran and Skully did.

I like where it's at, every faction has their own stuff and technological advances which is somewhat unique to the general style of such faction. It's a good and fun difference to see a bit of competition between these IC and show that different approaches can be taken to grow in power. That's why I dislike the given of hard fiction myself. I honestly think it'll kill off this diversity and force anyone to do hard logic - which might mean there's just one way to go about FTL, or nearly limitless energy, planet-busters, etc. Etc.

In short, I like soft scifi more than hard scifi because it doesn't limited creativity as much.
 
Just for my input? I don't think anyone wants a return to the Dark Times, where every single piece of tech had to have a rigorous scientific founding and had to be Hard Sci-fi or get out.
 
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