Astro_Alphard

I want to build large things that will inevitably benefit everyone, Mostly I want to be doing shipbuilding

Interstellar flight will probably be released with the release of stargates and FTL travel. I really hope this happens!

The armour wouldn't protect from tank shells is not the point. The point is about urban combat. A mech would do far better in a city full of tall buildings than a tank ever would solely by the nature of a mech's design. The armour wouldn't protect against tank shells but the building the mech is hiding behind will. I'm not talking about cool factor. It doesn't even factor into the equation. However the fact that you are only comparing armour to armour is where you have this wrong. Using a mech like a tank will get you killed, there is no doubt about it. If a mech and a tank squared off 1v1 on an open field the tank would win 9 times out of 10. But in an urban environment with plenty of cover, tall buildings, and narrow alleyways a tank is simply the wrong tool for the job. Fighting in urban environments is a nightmare for a tank. Tight streets and sharp turns that stop you from moving your gun, short sightlines that hamper your aim, and the problem of elevating your gun high enough to hit the top floor of the building beside you. But sometimes you absolutely need big guns on the ground, for this mechs are perfect. They can easily traverse over rubble, hide behind cover, and although they are just as vulnerable as tanks to RPGs and the like they can shoot in any direction they want! Why do you think current warfare doctrine focuses so much on IFVs (infantry fighting vehicles) compared to tanks? Because infantry are capable of using terrain to their advantage in a way that tanks just can't match.

I know I'm touching upon an iffy subject but what kind of things do you think should be made laws in DU? This thread is for general laws and player protections made by players of DU to ensure quality experiences. I was thinking about stargates (a long way off) and wondered what would happen should one be destroyed. Since stargates will inevitably become an integral part of DU's economy I wonder what sort of laws (player made) should be there surrounding these stargates. Should it be ok for an organization to destroy a enemy organization's stargates? Or should stargates be considered inviolable much like the Spacing Guild Highliners of Dune where no warfare can take place within a certain distance of a stargate? Understand that laws like this may have to be enacted for the player experience. Laws would protect new players until they got off the ground otherwise larger organizations would squash smaller ones preventing new organizations from forming and prevent people from randomly destroying valuable projects (like stargates) that would be valuable to the whole of the DU community.

That's what this guide is about, how to structure a transit system in a big city, especially when planning it.

Let me find a better picture also MBT stands for Main Battle Tank While a tank would win on an open plain tanks have a hard time doing things like shooting from behind cover, engaging enemies above it, and generally fighting in an urban environment. Also the nemesis of hovertanks will be stairs

I saw a partial eclipse two years ago and it was really neat I can't see a total eclipse where I live though I decided to capture it on my point and shoot camera (handheld shot so it's blurry)

There is one place that mechas (smaller ones) would have an advantage over MBTs and that's within large urban centres (should cities ever get planned out) These mechs would likely only be a bit larger than a human though. (something slightly larger than this) These mini mechs would be useful for urban operations where an MBT's gun would be limited in movement and Infantry would not be able to carry heavier weapons. Vehicles like IFVs and humvees would work but they have their limitations (when a mech could in theory be piloted by one dude) The anime Gasaraki does show a battlefield niche for mecha, operating as massive versions of infantry and using buildings for cover in dense urban environments.

The likelyhood for actual life to survive in space is unlikely (mostly because of the near vacuum) and Star Wars isn't known for being realistic. The only things we know that can survive in space naturally are single cell organisms. Even tardigrades (the toughest multi cellular organism on planet earth) will die after a month of being exposed to space.

I would think that the first real cities would be created by Organizations and there will most likely be a large settlement around the Arkship (i was using it as an example by the way) even if it's a cluster of disorganized buildings. Proper cities will most likely be planned and designed later on into the game and would function more like Guild Halls do in other MMOs. Most large organizations will organize some form of city. A few examples regarding designing around public transit include: The Venus Project Skyscraper Cities Paris, Seoul, Tokyo, San Francisco (Early) These are some of the examples I took into consideration when writing this paper. Of course these guidelines are how I imagine an ideal city to function in order to be comfortable to it's inhabitants however it doesn't detail what a city will look exactly like, and the layout is very flexible. I've decided to continue with my original 3 parts for IRL cities and add another 2 part for DU cities. Real World: Part 1: City Planning: Transportation Grids and the 5 Minute Rule Part 2: Building Layouts: The Town in a Box Part 3: Power and Resource Management: The Sustainable City. DU specials: Part 4: Fortifications, defences, and the Fortress Town Part 5: Hover cars and Spaceports: The Future City

https://board.dualthegame.com/index.php?/topic/11246-city-planning-and-building-layouts/ I made a topic about guidelines for city planning based on the layouts of various "best place to live" cities as well as what made them good. I will be adding more parts to this as I complete my research. ] Real World: Part 1: City Planning: Transportation Grids and the 5 Minute Rule Part 2: Building Layouts: The Town in a Box Part 3: Power and Resource Management: The Sustainable City. DU specials: Part 4: Fortifications, defences, and the Fortress Town Part 5: Hover cars and Spaceports: The Future City

Yes I understand that people are uncooperative (every group project ever) but I think in time (a few years) we will see cities become a bit more organized mostly due to necessity if nothing else. Especially around the Arkship (because people might build buildings on top of your buildings). I think we'll see a lot of interesting things come out DU and cities. Again these are guidelines based off the real world (and for improving real world city design) so they may need to be modified for DU.

I'm well aware of that, and I actually modelled the design more in terms of european cites (Paris was one of the cities that I looked heavily into). Large Asian cities and European cites were actually the inspiration for the paper (well and that I have to commute 3 hours to get to work 1 way). Essentially it means that the less horizontal distance travelled the better, but that's addressed in Part 2. And while both cities were adapted to the technology of the time one can definitely learn from this in order to plan the cities of the future. As for the huge boulevards that break down into smaller streets, that was the basis for my tiered grid system only now it's a bit more modernized.

Social Engineering and the integration of technology (at least for Canada) Rather than force humans to work through their difficulties instead it may be prudent utilize non-conformative traits to further social goals. Humans do not seek a “dream job” or a “dream home” they seek to have three categories of desire, each motivated by a fear, filled. These categories are “physiological”, “psychological” and “social” Society must be designed to accommodate these needs Stages of Life Child Open minded biologically geared towards gathering information Teen Determining self identity, filling in the knowledge gaps to be able to make logical and optimized deductions as an adult. Awkward line between computational engine adult and information repository child Adult Protector role for next generation Set in the mind, the adult’s sole goal is to maintain the society they grew up in for the safety of their children. Eliminate as many unknown variables as possible. Adults do not differ in their goals only with the scope that they see things as well as items assigned in a priority list (brain optimization) What does a society need to function? Economy Labour Material Division of labour Distribution and production Mediation body Justice system Rules and Laws Government Politics .Customs/Rituals Coming of age Partnership Birth Death Holidays Festivities Significant challenges: Overcoming mob mentality Fostering an understanding of diversity Acceptance of technology ________________________________________________________ Currently almost all our infrastructure relies on electricity. The only thing that doesn't is our transportation system. Thus the transportation system must be redesigned Definitions: AMS: short for Autonomous Mobility System. Any robot designed to transport anything from one place to another without a fixed track. Autos can take any form of transportation. NAVAMS: Naval AMS, ships, boats, ferries. AIRAMS: Aerial AMS: Planes, airships, helicopters, quadcopters. PRT: Personal rapid transit. An autonomous public version of the car. LRT: Light Rail Transit ET3: Evacuated tube transportation technology, also refers to Hyperloop style partially evacuated systems. Revamping the transportation system Using AMS to redefine intra city transportation through the use of PRT networks at the community level that connect to a larger LRT network. Overlaps in the PRT network allow for quick route pathfinding without having to transfer. These PRTs would be constantly cycling through the system allowing for less congestion, more area freed up as parking will not be a necessity, and will run on electricity supplied by either charging stations or “charge roads” where coils beneath the pavement wirelessly charge the vehicle. Longer journeys within cities would take place using an LRT network that bridges 8 radial spokes from city centre that connect to an outer circular LRT line. Additional “radial” and “circumference” lines may be added as cities expand. An LRT line does not have to be exactly as outlined and must be adapted to each city’s unique structure. Long breaks in LRT lines may be supplemented by PRT zones. Outlying urban areas in close proximity to the main city (akin to what Okotoks is to Calgary) could also be linked to the main city via LRT or a separate ET3 station. Intercity travel between large population centers would take place using ET3 replacing the need for large domestic air travel particularly the niche dominated by the Boeing 737 and similar planes. Biofuel cars that use biofuel to drive a turbine to produce electricity would be prevalent in rural areas where such mass transit systems would not be cost effective nor efficient to maintain. However since these vehicles can still rely on the power grid and a system of charge roads as well as charging sockets would be enough to allow for rural living. _______________________________________________________ Politics and governing structure Politics would use a modified parliament model based on the one used in Canada. A House of Representatives as well as a Senate. With an executive branch and an overseer (much like the governor general). The house of representatives would be elected using proportional representation with a prime minister elected from which party has the majority. Party solidarity is not required. The senate, comprising 211 seats, would be elected using a system of constituencies whose borders cannot be altered. 14 seats will be given to the Native population with chiefs from each province and territory with the last seat being given to the National Chief. 14 seats for each province and territory, each seat divided evenly by population and representing a certain area (urban, rural, else). 5 seats for each: Scientific Committee, Economic Board, Education Board. These individuals are elected by the House. Overseer: A computer designed to tell when a decision may lead to a global disaster this is to prevent Trumps from getting in office. This computer will only intervene if the scientific data states that there is a greater than 50% chance that something terrible will happen (Anarchy, Epidemic, climate failure, open nuclear warfare, asteroid hitting the earth) because of a decision. The computer will not be able to make decisions only to advise on bills. Economy Basic universal income Robots heavily used in all facets of industry from manufacturing to services Robots used for mass manufacturing, as well as dangerous jobs and mundane jobs. Robots work with humans I am going to expand on this paper later. But I believe a paper like this would be enough to form the basis of such a society that leads to robots taking over jobs and a transitional period from 2017 to 2057.

While the first city on DU will be a long way off I have a bit of a paper to present on the topic of building cities and proper city planning. While it's based in real life I believe it will be a useful tool for those looking to build cities and large space stations. If you have any ideas please feel free to comment. Designing Cities for Public Transit and the 5 Minute Rule With the advent of ever increasing urban sprawl and soaring birth rates. People are increasingly frustrated by commuting from one place to another. As such it begs the question, where are we going to put the next billion humans? And more importantly how do we do it without giving everyone a massive headache from commuting? By designing our cities in a certain way we can drastically reduce transit times thus reducing stress and anxiety caused by a long commutes. We can design cities to use solely electric vehicles that are optimized to their role allowing for easy maintenance and less parking. By segregating these types of transportation we can automate a large portion of the system. First a few definitions: PRT: Personal Rapid Transit Bus: Bus LRT: Light Rail transit ETS: Express Train System HSR: High Speed Rail, includes systems such as Hyperloop So how do we make the sustainable city of the future? The answer is a three part solution of which we will talk about the first part in this paper. The first part is reducing commuting times by designing our cities around PRT systems and mass transit rather than around automobiles. This means reintroducing the 5 Minute Rule otherwise known as the “walking distance rule”. Everything a person does should be within walking distance (5 minutes) of the nearest centre (including their place of residence). A centre is defined as place where lots of people meet. This can be the local grocery shop/ strip mall, vast multi acre malls, downtown cores, or industrial shopping centres. Anywhere designed to host commercial enterprise is a centre. Universities and schools are also centres. As are airports, large hospitals, and ETS terminals. Each centre has a level corresponding to the grids it services. Level 1: Local: strip malls, gas stations, grocery stores, playgrounds. A centre no larger than a 50x50m space. Level 2: Minor: large grocery stores, outlets, schools etc. A centre no larger than a 300x300m space. Does not include large hospitals or other critical care facilities. Level 3: Major: Large malls, hospitals, Universities, and parks. A centre no larger than a 1000x1000m space. Level 4: Hub: City Centres, airports. Any centre larger than 1000x1000m. City is divided into 3 grids and these grids are defined by speed limits Level 1 grid: city blocks/housing units. A level 1 grid is known as a walking grid, one unit of a level 1 grid is defined by how far a person can walk (3km/h) for 1minute or a distance of roughly 50m. Bus stops should be positioned at 2 unit intervals on a level 1 grid and residences should be no further than 2 units away. Level 2 grid: A level 2 grid is known as a residential grid. This grid is the basis of PRT and bus systems and has a speed of 30-40 km/h and a single unit of a level 2 grid is defined as the distance a vehicle moving at speed of 30km/h can cover in 1 minute including acceleration and stopping times. Roughly 250m/unit. Level 3 grid: A level 3 grid is known as a city grid. This grid is the basis of LRT systems and has a speed of 60km/h and a single unit of a level 3 grid is defined as the distance a vehicle moving at speed of 60km/h can cover in 2.5 minutes including acceleration and stopping times (roughly 2.0km). LRT stations should be placed roughly 2.0 km to 3.0km away from each other (or on every point of the grid). LRT should also pass through minor and major centres as well as hubs. Level 4 grid: A level 4 grid is known as a metropolitan grid. This grid is the basis of Express Train Systems (ETS) and has a speed of 100km/h and a single unit of a level 4 grid is defined as the distance a vehicle moving at speed of 100km/h can cover in 5 minutes including acceleration and stopping times (roughly 6.0km). ETS stations should be placed roughly 5km to 7 km away from each other. ETS should also pass through most major centres as well as through all hubs. Level 5: Intercity: A level 5 grid is known as a intercity grid. This grid is the basis of High Speed Rail (HSR) and has a speed of 300km/h and a single unit of a level 5 grid is defined as the distance a vehicle moving at speed of 300km/h can cover in 5 minutes including acceleration and stopping times (roughly 24km). HSR stations should be placed roughly 22 km to 26km away from each other though this can vary heavily based on the locations of various hubs. HSR should also pass through most major centres as well as through all hubs. Level 5 grids are highly variable and can even incorporate aircraft into them where HSR, Hyperloop, or vacuum tubes are too expensive. TL;DR Level Name Speed Grid unit Centres Services 1 Walking 3km/h 50m Residences PRT 2 Residential 30-50km/h 250m Level 1/2 PRT, Bus 3 City 50-80km/h 2,000m Level 2/3 LRT 4 Metropolitan 100km/h 6,000m Level 3/4 ETS 5 Intercity 300km/h >24,000m Level 4 HSR, aircraft Going from a house to nearest local centre should only take 5 minutes. Going from a house to nearest minor centre should only take 10 minutes Going from a house to nearest Major centre should only take 15 minutes Going from a house to nearest Hub centre should only take 20 minutes Getting across the city from any point to another should take no more than 1 hour Going from a house to another city’s Hub should only take 1 hour. While building taller certainly reduces travel time in some places it may not be possible to do that (due to heavy wind) as such these are general guidelines for city building and planning. The Arkship will most likely be a Hub should DU players ever decide to construct a city in the area around the Arkship. Automated transport (rudimentary) should still be possible most likely confined to rails.

It doesn't matter how much empty space you own unless you have planets, all that space is just that, cold hard vacuum. No doubt some territories (like planets) and asteroids and other resource based areas will be a lot more valuable than others. Even in empty space if you control transport corridors, space stations, and other valuable assets in that space then you'll be better off. Besides I would love to have a small amount of space where I can build without worrying about griefers.

I would love to be part of this chronicling. I often do stuff like this for fun, thought I'm not sure if I'll be too busy building ships!

I'm going to go against the introduction of "heatsinks" as a game mechanic because if you look at all spacecraft designed today they don't have much interior space. In spacecraft design, well, space is at a premium. The same thing will hold in the future, Any form of sublight travel using momentum drives (like current rocket/ion thruster technology) will automatically include a heat vent in the fuel system (use waste heat to preheat the fuel), Also the vast majority of spacecraft have thermal insulation so only things on the surface of the craft get hot and the easiest way to disperse that heat is simply by rolling the spacecraft by 180 degrees. It just doesn't make sense to employ a heat mechanic without giving players the option of active cooling systems and insulation. Both of which take up valuable internal space and have to be put in as fixed functional blocks. This limits the types of ships that could be built, practically eliminating the reason why people are attracted to DU in the first place. It also makes starting gameplay needlessly complex. I'm an engineering student so I'm fine with the stat and numbers game but i have friends who don't understand the first thing about thermodynamics. Implementing heat as a game mechanic will raise the bar for entry, especially for a teenage audience or an audience that doesn't have a background in sciences. I know people who don't know what a joule is and are excited to see this game, imagine how confusing it would be for them to see Joules for energy (fuel) and Joules for heat.