Comments/Discussion about StarTraders: Shadow of Shalun Here

[travail]

Dayan, I am all caught up- it's brilliant on all scores. Nice, nice work!

[Deleted]

Thanks. Glad you're liking it.

I'm having to change the location in the next scene. Slayer's Star Traders chart is useful but don't include information on the planet, colony, or anything else in the game. I'm trying to be accurate, but my only alternative is to fart around in the game surveying planets. And unfortunately I keep running out of gas and have to keep restarting and other wasting of time.

So having had a chance to go looking for a location that more or less matches the location I drew, I'm changing the next scene to Marquette. What I was looking for was a preferably low security, not necessarily Independent (just not Cadar) non civilized planet with a colony town thats nothing fancy. Opix was described as looking rather opulent, with spires and towers. Thats NOT what I drew. (I know I should have just messed around in the game instead of Slayer's chart)

[rabidbite]

Darn Dayan. When do you sleep? That's a lot of work!

rabid

[Deleted]

Lately, haven't. Bad time of year on my sinuses. I'm. Not designed for dry air.

[Deleted]

I'm calling a hiatus for a bit. Driving down to visit family for a week. I'll bring my notes and scriptbook but no art for a bit. This is a big scene change, introducing the second crew in a dive of a bar in the local spice district. If it weren't for the trench coats and flight suits it might look more like a western. Scenes and background have always been very hard for me. As a result i have a tendency to turn on the wide angle lense for a lot of close ups. That was okay for the bridge of the Sanda's Slay. A bar is more dynamic and i wanted to show that.

[Deleted]

Hey Cory and Andrew, it might seem paltry, but judging by activity on my deviantart, it looks like I'm sending some new blood your way.

"Holy shit...it's a game too? Thanks a lot, pal, now I'm going to be glued to my phone by yet another RPG."

In other news:

Here is a forward view of the Verge Manta with struts and ramp deployed and with the wings folded. You can also get a good idea of the scale with the lone sentry by the ramp and 2 crew in the cockpit windscreens. This will eventually be part of a panel.

[Deleted]

I'm still tinkering with the sky for the webcomic version, but here is an establishing shot of the Marquette settlement spaceport. Like I said before backgrounds aren't my forte` and I'm trying not to let it show. I defaulted to the isometric views from games like Warcraft and Command & Conquer and tried to piece together where things would be. I wanted to show an out of the way, quaint place for the captain in the next scene to plan his crew's next move. Dirt roads, torn welcome sign, hell- even the unused corners of the spaceport are kept like a used ship lot /junk yard. You can see the beginnings of the high rent/palace district in the corner right a few miles away.

Certainly not the towering spires of Opix or the mountain monastery described on Gloomhorn. These are big planets and most aren't urbanized with high security so there are probably plenty of undeclared settlements all over.

[Jamozk Ekhiss]

My first thoughts are that it looks like it used to be a military outpost, and was then converted to a residential area when it was no longer needed.

[Deleted]

Its probable. There is a reinforced bunker warehouse in the center there with built up concrete walls to redirect blasts like those used on airbases. You can keep just about anything flammable/explosive there: fuels, munitions, caustic/reactive chemicals, ect.

I'll also add in that I added geodesic agro-domes because the game mentioned occasional radiation hazards.

[beuns]

dayan : I know it has been said before (and it's justified) : very nice work !! I really like the mood you had manage to create with the switch between the different characters. Love it

[Deleted]

Thanks! It might sound strange, but for as little experience as I've had putting a story together as a comic, I'm almost along for the ride as well. The story develops quite a bit from the script I have layed out as new and better ideas come along. I'm almost ready to drop page 9, and as a fan of not just sci fi but modern science I thought to bring up a bit about possible snack food of the Quadrant. Yep. Useless to the story but a cute throw-in.

First a bit of history: Saltines, and crackers in general were developed from pilot bread, a kind of crispy, advanced hardtack used by explorers and as a survival ration for hundreds of years. And pilot bread is indeed still quite popular in places like Hawaii and especially Alaska; which is rugged enough to give sundry supply problems to this day.

On to space. There are two types of foods that NASA has been looking at as a staple crop that can be used as a main food source and as supplemental oxygen for long space voyages: Soybeans and Spirulina Cyanobacteria. Both have been used by Asian and MezoAmerican people for centuries, and are among the plants that get the most complete nutrition for human beings by themselves. You might have had soy products like soybeans, edamame, and especially as meat substitutes.

On long voyages, people will get sick of the same old things quick, so there are lots of different ways to prepare them that will probably become traditional staples and standard ship's ration as time goes on. In the case of Star Traders, I was thinking of Spirulina crackers (tastes like a crusty spinach wafer)and dry roasted edamame as more common and cheap snack foods than, say peanuts or pork rinds- which are probably still around as luxury rations.

[Deleted]

Oh, just to add, I don't think that Heroes of Steel poster looks too out of place in a spice district dive, even one that decorates with plastic fish XD.

[rabidbite]

Davan, a quick question on Sci-fi unreal versus Sci-fi logical.

I've always found the idea of having the bridge of military ships be visible and exposed (windows?) to be a really ... really bad idea. In fact, a military ship should have no windows unless the ARMOR can be turned transparent. Otherwise, windows become avenues for armor penetration.

SO, how would a ship without windows look?


Don't think I've ever seen a human, windowless, ship drawn anywhere. I have seen alien ships without windows, where the lack of windows is attributed to the 'xeno' and not to practical military prudence.


rabid

[Deleted]

Good point. The best place for any command center is under as much protection as possible. Some of the Star Traders designs look to do that. Just none of those I've tried to interpret yet. Probably because most ships in that age are smallish types that don't offer enough protection or automation to make burying a bridge or CIC worth losing a backup observation port for navigation.

The bigger capital ships will have access to sensor clusters, optical and radio telescopes, ect that cover all three axis and can even project an artificial open environment kind like the newest supersonic commercial jets.

abcnews.go.com/Travel/plane-seat-window/story?id=22602728

[beuns]

Feb 27, 2014 16:08:54 GMT -5 rabidbite said:

Davan, a quick question on Sci-fi unreal versus Sci-fi logical.

I've always found the idea of having the bridge of military ships be visible and exposed (windows?) to be a really ... really bad idea. In fact, a military ship should have no windows unless the ARMOR can be turned transparent. Otherwise, windows become avenues for armor penetration.

SO, how would a ship without windows look?


Don't think I've ever seen a human, windowless, ship drawn anywhere. I have seen alien ships without windows, where the lack of windows is attributed to the 'xeno' and not to practical military prudence.


rabid

I wonder if it's a matter of usefulness (the pilot would need to see what's in front of the shuttle) or a matter of psychological need (the pilot would feel wrong to see what's in front of him through electronic means)...the debate is open