The Shakaroo Project

Hi Everyone,

Didn’t really work on the project at all today, but did do some thinking about cultures and how I might work some things into the project.  My wife and I went to the Milwaukee Public Museum and saw Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible: Ancient Artifacts, Timeless Treasures. It was an amazing exhibit full of history and artifacts that really made you stop and think.   Actually, the whole museum is outstanding, but this particular exhibit was really worth the trip.

Given a little time to fully absorb everything I heard, read, and saw today I will probably try to work some of the ideas into the project in some form.   It just got me thinking about some new aspects that I might be able to use in the project….and also into my personal life as well.

Later - Steve

Well, today did not start out well.  My wife’s car overheated on her way to a conference in Milwaukee, early this morning.  She drove it to the nearest safe place to leave it, and I went out and picked her up and took her to her conference.  I called to have our mechanic go pick up the car and check it out.  He said that he would give me a cheaper rate for the towing if I could wait until after he closed his shop, so I agreed.  Now we won’t find out anything until tomorrow sometime.  That car is my wife’s pride and joy.  I think she loves it more than me and the kids sometimes.  To say that she has not been a happy camper this evening is an understatement, but I do understand that she is concerned about her car.

On to the project now (sorry, had to vent all that).  I stopped adding to the Wiki and decided to get the forums going again.  Look under the Rosetta Network (http://dd-p.com/ProjectSigma/Rosetta/) to find all the forums related to this project.  I’ve re-worked a few of the Forums as well as several topics.  I’m trying to organize them in some semblance of logical order.  I’m sure it will be an on-going project in of itself.

Most of my work today was on technologies.  Thoughts and proposals on how to handle various areas of tech and some hints as to why certain restrictions have been placed on them.   As a tech minded person in real life, I feel I must know what the technological base is for the area before I can move forward.  Maybe that is just one of my many personal hangups, but it is what it is.

Please review the tech forums and give me some feedback.  Unlike our government, I will read and actually consider what you are saying rather than just say “I’m doing this for your own good, even if you don’t want it.”

Later - Steve

I’m just taking a break from doing dishes.    Been thinking about how ships operate, what their expenses are, and what some of the rules should be that govern their operation.

In the Merchant ship book, whichever number that happens to be, it mentioned port of registry and some of the implications that come with that.  This is something that I am going to do a little real world investigation of.  I know that many cruise ships and Yachts are registered out of countries like Bermuda, Langkawi, or the Cayman Islands.  I want to look at how the port of registry will affect how starships are treated at different ports.

Also looking at the overall operating expenses.  Now I know that my conversion van is no starship, but I have a pretty good idea of what the operating expenses are.  Right now I think my van costs more to operate than some small starships.   The starships don’t really need fuel, they have abundant energy available, and could easily produce all the food and air needed, if I allowed full life support systems.  I’m looking for reasonable ways to limit the range of standard ships and to make them more expensive than the family car to operate.  On the surface, I can’t see how a merchant would not be filthy rich in a very short time, except for the bank payments if it is financed.   If it IS financed, what type of security is in place so that the bank will even make a loan on something so valuable and yet so mobile?   I’ll keep reading and thinking on this subject as I really feel that it has a major bearing on how the rest of the system develops.

Later - Steve

Technology is great.  I’m sitting at the park typing here while the kids play at the playground.  Since the park is across the street, I’m able to hit my home wireless router from the park.   This is great.   Everybody is a winner today! 

Spring cleaning has been eatting up much of my days lately, but I am still finding time to work on the project.   This morning I was inputing data into tables for the ship design sheet.  I’ve worked out most of the formulas needed, so now it is getting the raw data into tables.   The initial sheet will deal with designing ships for the Shakaroo Sector, and later I will expand it to be used by anyone using the GURPS Starships system.  For now I will continue reading through the seven starship books.  Better story telling through research!

Later - Steve

Hello everyone,

I am busy coding a spreadsheet to create starships.  If this works out as well as I hope, I will submit this to Steve Jackson Games for approval for official distribution….and of course I will make it available here as well.  It is taking a long time, but it will be very user friendly and pretty much fool proof….well….okay, fools are pretty resourceful, but it will still be pretty good.

Later - Steve

Hello everyone,

Today is being dedicated to starships because, at least in my mind, they are the single most important technology there is to a space faring society.   How they operate helps shape the society that uses them.  I’m going through a whole plethora of ideas that can be found in the GURPS Starship books, plus some notes I’ve made from the many books and novels I’ve read over the past year.  Many stories, especially movies, have starship designs that are unique to each culture.   For instance, Star Trek fans can easily tell the difference between a Federation ship and a Klingon ship.  Babylon 5 fans can tell a Centauri ship from a Narn ship.  These design difference help differentiate the cultures as well as the capabilities of each ship.

In the Shakaroo Sector, we are only dealing with a small handful of races.  I’m hoping to figure out a way to allow for some good distinction between the designs of the different races.   These differences will probably also help in making other decisions about the races as well.

Later - Steve

I’ve been reading through the 7 Starships books and there is some very interesting material in there.   It has me thinking about a rewrite of how ships will operate in the Shakaroo sector.  Started tinkering with a spreadsheet so I could quickly test some design concepts out.  These are great books.  I got mine as PDF’s from Steve Jackson Games’ e23 site.  Much cheaper than the printed books and more convenient to use for me.

Hello world,

I started going through the Wiki and am finding that I need to do some serious re-writes.  I also found a few more silly posts from the spammers that had to be cleaned out.   I think I have purged the system of all their…material.   Anyway, I am once again going to be adding to the Wiki as time permits.  Please understand that this all takes time and as I am a Mr. Mom to two young children and husband to a very busy wife, my time is somewhat limited.   Still, I really am glad to be back on this project and am looking forward to the upcoming developments.

Later - Steve

Hello everyone,

I have spent many hours going through and cleaning up the mess made by the spammers while I was away dealing with other life issues.  I’m back now and will be tightening up security for the site.  I wanted to keep this a completely open forum for people to tinker as they liked, but obviously, this will not work here in the wild frontier of the Internet.   Anyone wanting to work on this project will have to contact me and request that they be given author status.  I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but this is just the way it will have to be.  I will encourage you to take that step as I would really like to invite as many people as I can to be part of the creative team.

Later - Steve

Hello everyone,

Well, Daniel Dean has contacted me and convinced me to start working on this project once again.  Looks like the Shakaroo Sector will once again have some life breathed into it after almost a year of total neglect.   There is so much to do that I’m not sure just where we will start, so keep checking back here for updates!

- Steve