Latest blog post: Redraw of chapter 1 is happening (2024-05-11)

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New

Am I the only one to notice someone took the time to build her a tail-rest extension?

Out of old boards apparently. Thats typical military : Tons of expensive items stuffed into full warehouses but when someone needs a xtra long bed for an alien there is not one to find

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Visitor

What was in that briefing? I know there were some creative liberties, but it's hard to imagine a civilization that produces the level of radio emissions that first drew your attention but hasn't advanced beyond stored muscle power for weapons.

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Senior

Grammar suggestion:
if they wanted [us dead] they'd have killed us already
or
if they wanted [to] they'd have killed us already

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Senior

Have to wonder what was going through the pilot's head. Primitives with bows and arrows shouldn't be lighting up their planet the way we do either.

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Senior

I kind of interpret her thoughts here as realizing that she has to make her own judgements now rather than just going along with the brass.

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Senior

"But primitives should be shooting bows sand arrows, not interceptor missiles."

They definitely had a far more peaceful ascent to the stars than humanity. Bows and arrows in an age of mass radio traffic? Seems illogical, unless for some reason they completely skipped over the era, or it was so far in the past that they have simply forgotten, lost in the cracks of the taught history.

But having caught up, I'm real impressed by what I've seen, and will be sticking with this. I look forward to more.

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Senior

Or maybe for Nea the bar that separates primitives from non-primitives is lower than the usual. I'd agree that somebody who can shoot rockets at you cannot be called primitive.

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Senior

What actually is the Alliance's bright line for primitive vs non-primitive? I mean, we're in the space age. I think the original Prime Directive in Star Trek specified FTL capability, but honestly that always seemed pretty stupid to me. Or maybe not so much stupid as cynical, like they only call you civilized if you can come and threaten them.

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Senior

Starfaring civilizations that do have such directives or standing guidelines, vary. The Deathworlders had the line at FTL, then shifted to knowledge and understanding of calculus. Others draw the line at advanced communication systems, or seemingly arbitrary points in time.

But drawing the line at vaguely "can strike at us" isn't a bad one either, if you want a measure of if they are roughly on par with your civilization. It could perhaps be argued as practical.

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Senior

It's actually very blurred and case by case. Laymarans were contacted when they looked like medieval savages for example (But they actually were in indefinite post-apocalypse state, so it's complicated). The cut-off after which no questions asked is the interplanetary andor interstellar manned flight phase.

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Senior

I wonder if she's actually strong enough to break down the cell door like that. It's probably built to be human-proof, but Raharr soldiers might be fitted with body augmentations to give them greater capabilities. I mean, they all show one cyborg component already.

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Senior

Well, no, but in one's imagination, you can dream, right? X)

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Visitor

Is the world on its side in the picture? I thought it was supposed to be upside-down. Or is this a memory of hers and she saw it at this angle? I could buy that. :-)

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New

From her perspective, it would look sideways based on our perception of “up” and “down” as the map on the bridge was entirely “upside down.” But, who’s truly right? There isn’t a true up or down in the void.

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New

That's pretty cool actually

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Senior

Probably a memory. Reentry is a bit simpler along an equatorial trajectory, since that way the planet's rotation is along the same axis as the ship's movement. Meanwhile, all else being equal, the pilot would align the ship so that the planet is below the ship's horizon, for both practical and instinctive reasons. So, someone aboard the ship would most likely remember seeing the planet with either the eastern or western limb at the top.

...Then again, page 52 shows the ship going east to west and so that line of reasoning would have the planet lying on its other side, so take what I say with a grain of salt.






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The author is against any kind of application of AI to his artwork.

TRIVIA
Insectoids in a lot of ways are the weird ones among the Alliance members. Besides having a completely unpronounceable name of the species, they have dextero amino acid biochemistry, which makes their food and biosphere to be inedible by the rest of the Alliance, and vice versa.