Whats wrong with a t-rex vs a rocket launcher? - sounds fun to me! :D

+ couldn't you build your own generator? (rather then steal / buy one)

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Original post by Iron Chef Carnage In another Heinlein novel, "Glory Road", the hero bounces through a variety of universes. Basic physics is a little off from world to world, so some tech just doesn't function the way it does here. Once, for instance, he's picking weapons, and goes right for a big old M1 rifle. He's told to leave it behind, because gunpowder won't work where they're going. Chemistry isn't quite the same on the other side of the portal, and so the gasses can't be made to expand fast enough to propel the bullet. Swords and bows are the peak of human weapons technology that can be transferred effectively. As a nuance of the same physical anomalies, large lizards have evolved with the ability to breath fire without harming themselves. Quirky. Some lawyer in California just wrote a book about how fine the balance of physical laws has to be for our universe to behave as it does. If hydrogen behaved only slightly differently, the sun wouldn't be able to burn. If water was just a touch thinner, salt wouldn't dissolve properly, and vital chemistry would be impossible. A tiny shift in the balance of electromagnetic radiation would keep all our atoms bouncing endlessly, without slowing enough to form solid matter. Tiny little tweaks like this can explain most anything.

In that very same book, the portals required the energy of the person pulling everyone through the gate to work. The more stuff, the harder. Also, living things or once living things were the easiest. So, in that book, they went to this very dangerous world and expended a lot of energy, and Star (the heroine and the witch) got really tired out. The last jump they made they had to all go naked because she was so worn out. So, if you did something like that, with the once living or currently living being easier and the whole thing requiring energy, then it would be balanced and the wilderness would pose a threat. However, if this is for straylight, wouldnt they just use starships to get there? Meh, I guesss you've been changing it.

Also,

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Original post by Jotaf Great ideas :) There's a small problem though. What about the nano-construction cannon you mentioned? You could just build the base and vehicles on the other side using nano. Other than that, it's really cool! What about if you break away from Stargate's notion of gate, and make it so that each one only leads to one other planet? Some hub planets would have lots of gates scattered around, while others would be connected only to a few. This way you'd have to cross halfway through 3 planets to get where you want. You could play around with "gate maps" so not every gate is revealed and you can stumble across the only gate to an un-charted planet. So star travelling using spaceships suddenly doesn't sound so stupid after all, when compared to using gates! Make each method of travelling have its tradeoffs, but overall the effort is the same.

Neat idea Jotaf, that would be great for people who like to explore, and it would introduce interesting gameplay doing things like going through Girome, Thanni, Titan-4, and Jynx just to get to Kalim.

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Original post by Jotaf There's a small problem though. What about the nano-construction cannon you mentioned? You could just build the base and vehicles on the other side using nano.

I'm thinking that there are processors that drive the nano. You can bring it, but you're just bringing micromachines you can't power, communicate with or even control. The processors are not completely destroyed by the nano, but are so small because of all the heavy shielding that they end up being useful for only small, simple objects. This should be fine because I don't mind you gaining technological footing eventually, I just don't want you to be godly right away.

I'm going to have to do a bit of handwaving here, btw, because I need your head to be filled with cyberpunk hardware. It's the only way to manage several metagame ideas I have. But I can say that it's protected by being distributed along your dendritic pathways or somesuch.

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What about if you break away from Stargate's notion of gate, and make it so that each one only leads to one other planet? Some hub planets would have lots of gates scattered around, while others would be connected only to a few.

Yes, this is exactly what I was thinking, so that planetary travel is a journey. I'm thinking that gateways become stabelized by tech in time. This lets you keep bringing your gains from other planets with you and creates a sense of worlds / frontiers being tamed.

I'm also thinking that gates in space and gates on the ground relate to each other, so that you might have to take a ship to a planet, then go through several gates to reach an untamed gate. This travel would happen quickly as an option, but might involve various factions / races that you have to deal with along the way.

I do think, though, that gates should become more like the stargates after a time. If they didn't, you'd have huge trips to make going back to civilization.

So maybe they can be upgraded? First they only connect one world, then 2, then 3, etc. So you end up building a map of gates yourself?

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Original post by TwilightAegis However, if this is for straylight, wouldnt they just use starships to get there? Meh, I guesss you've been changing it.

Well, I have been changing things, but only to knock starships from center stage. The responses I kept getting back here on the forums and elsewhere made me realize that I was focusing too much on spacecraft. Now they're going to be a means to an end, rather than a full-blown combat sim (which I now doubt most RPG gamers would have bothered playing)

As for using ships, the whole network of gateways (the Mobius Strip as it's called) is made up of space and land gateways. Some places have both, but most have only one or the other. This means that there are stars that ships have no access to without special hardware, which comes with its own unique and deadly dangers.

The most significant portion of the idea of "Wilderness" is not the dangers or the personal defenses you have, but that you are apart and away from civilization and aid. You might very well be able to fight off a small army of dinosaurs - but you're on your own and there's no escape or rescue.

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Original post by Run_The_Shadows The most significant portion of the idea of "Wilderness" is not the dangers or the personal defenses you have, but that you are apart and away from civilization and aid. You might very well be able to fight off a small army of dinosaurs - but you're on your own and there's no escape or rescue.

You're right, a good part of this is psychological vulnerability. But of course this has to be balanced with the need to make this experience fun (like a good scary movie).

I think it might be enough for the no escape part to come from the fact that the gate cycles, and so you're alone for awhile even if you have tons of reinforcements "right next door." So maybe the variable lengths of time for each gate can act like a difficulty level? You might be good enough to survive the wilderness for a day, but how about a month? A year?

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Original post by Wavinator Quote: Original post by Run_The_Shadows The most significant portion of the idea of "Wilderness" is not the dangers or the personal defenses you have, but that you are apart and away from civilization and aid. You might very well be able to fight off a small army of dinosaurs - but you're on your own and there's no escape or rescue. You're right, a good part of this is psychological vulnerability. But of course this has to be balanced with the need to make this experience fun (like a good scary movie). I think it might be enough for the no escape part to come from the fact that the gate cycles, and so you're alone for awhile even if you have tons of reinforcements "right next door." So maybe the variable lengths of time for each gate can act like a difficulty level? You might be good enough to survive the wilderness for a day, but how about a month? A year?

Perhaps a justification that all gates are one-way. When explorers first arrive on a planet via gate, they're basically trapped there until they build their own gate to let them leave.

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Original post by Wavinator If you're in a modern / high tech setting, what are some ways to make you vulnerable when in the wilderness?

Anomalies, large man-eating plants, long falls & monsters/animals