Need Help with Random Ideas

[Geordnet]

I've got a problem: I've got too many ideas. They just keep bouncing around in my head, constantly colliding with each other to spawn a new generation of ideas, which is good— except for the fact that this distracts me before I can write down the previous generation.

Which is why I decided to star this thead. I'm going to post the occasional rant here on anything I think of, so that at least it's all down.

But I need some help. When I come up with something (eg. a setting) I usually visualize the entire thing at once. This makes internal consistancy easy, but I'm often overwhelmed and don't know where to start. Additionally, I can never finish any one project before I'm distracted by something else; assuming of course I have the knowledge, skills, tools, and/or experience to act on it in the first place.


Which is where you, the forumgoers, come in. If you ask questions about my ideas/settings/etc., then I can start fleshing out things more, so go ahead and ask. Especially if you like my ideas and want to use them, because I'd probably never get around to using them myself.



Now hopefully I can stick with this idea, at least...

[Geordnet]

ll right, my first idea is for a Sci-Fi setting.

Hardness is Moderate/Mixed. Future is Far. FTL is Slow.


Future History:
While the events of the Third Millennium are as well-remembered by the common man as those of the Roman Empire are today, the important fact is that uncounted numbers of colony ships were launched into deep space during that period, using Atomic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_pulse_propulsion) Power (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_thermal_rocket) to achieve relativistic STL speeds.

All known surviving examples carried their passengers in some form of stasis, set out without knowing their final destination. They were designed to plumb the unknown depths of deep (potentially intergalactic) space in search of a habitable exoplanet, of which none were known at launch. The main computers were programmed to wake the crew only once a habitable (or easily terraformable) planet was found. Which they all did at the same time.

The undisputed conclusion amongst modern scholars is that the mainstream race of Man had undergone an entire epoch of scientific discovery while the far-flung colonists were in deep space, reaching levels of advancement far beyond the theoretically possible. They are believed to have terraformed and colonized these planets, before vanishing. And this is where the theories diverge.

From the ruins of the so-called "Missing Epoch", many 'impossible' technologies have been unearthed, including FTL.


And from here, I haven't decided what happens yet. I know I want a state of feudal warring, or somesuch; but from here there are so many possibilities... I think it's fine as-is, because it leaves a lot of room for 'sub-creation'. As I flesh out the other constants, I think I'll have a workable universe without any plot-important names, dates, or figures set in stone.


First Addition!
The Techno-Savants:
In the future, Science has hit a wall. The true physics behind the mircle of FTL, and almost anything else from the Missing Epoch for that matter, are beyond the ken of mortals. After all, those who do would sneer at the notion of 'only' 11 dimentions. In fact, most would promply point out that there's at least twenty-three and a half.

They are the Techno-Savants, those whom themselves are often beyond understanding.


Hmm... How to explain them...
Well, have you ever heard of Rain Man? He'd be the closest thing we've got in the real-world.

They vary widely in terms of 'normal' functionality. Some are like Rain Man, but many are worse-off than him; their intellects would never have been recognized without mind-machine interface tech. Others are passibly normal at times, if a *wee* bit eccentric at times. Few are entirely sane, and the very brightest never are.

All Techno-Savants are issued an AI 'handler', exclusively female, who ranges in function from verbal UI to secretary to interface with the world. 'Her' personality varies from non-existance to scoring higher on the Turing Test than some humans, developed based apon her charge's needs.

Politically they are free entities, their immunity enforced by their handlers. The more functional ones will take job orders, although completion is not gaurenteed; while the less functional are just fed raw materials, with what gets spit out of the workshop being combed through carefully for anything useful.

When addressing one, titles such as 'Magos', 'Adept', or 'Magister' are all acceptable.

Physically, expect various degrees of cybernetics.

The only entities belonging to the Techno-Savants as a whole are the Academies, usually built in space or on airless moons.


Their origins are unknown, even to themselves. They landed on the coremost worlds after their colonists had settled in, bearing remarkedly preserved copies of history up to the Second Millennium, but absolutely nothing past that.


And that's all I'm willing to say now on what's really a minor topic; I've got a lot more on these guys, but I really should move on...



Second Addition...
More Future History:
CAVEAT: I think I may have been a bit too specific in some places here. Remember that there is a LOT of space, and I'm just describing the 'Typical' case.



Space is BIG. And the far-flung colonists have been flung... FAR. But they still haven't reached the extent of humanity's reach during the Missing Epoch...

Civilization now forms a ring with radius of over a thousand light-years. Later colonists often travelled faster than earlier ones, so there's no stratification in terms of tech level. Each colony grew exponentially on the fertile new earths, and spawned new generations of colony ships. Most of the original colony ships were retrofitted with schavenged FTLs and sent out to colonize as many new worlds as possible. Some are rumored to continue to the present day, forever sowing the seed of humanity across the stars.

Then they started encountering enclaves of the Techno-Savants. They were found in stasis onboard identical ships on or orbiting the very worlds on which the colonists had first landed. The leading theory is that they used a proto-FTL to tail the colony ships then land ahead of them, to wait until society had stabilized and built up a solid industrial base.

With the Techno-Savants, the colonies were able to develop a reliable FTL, and the age of Imperialism began. The Imperialists found many worlds already settled by Colonial-era humans, and it usually went as well as should be expected. Of course, no empire can last forever...


As the original colony ships were generally drawn from one particular nation, and each Empire is decended from a single colony, each is unsuprisingly culturally distinct. Cultural drift and a small breeding pool have made the effect even more pronounced.

In addition, any given world the 'civilized' population will be concentrated in just a few cities. City growth is limited to infrastructure, and so anyone wanting to build, say, an office building will have to do it in an existing city. What's more, modern infrastructure is reliant on the kind of self-sustaining, self-replicating manufacturing systems that were packed onto the colony ships, so building a new city on one planet still requires a colony ship which could go to other planets instead.


Random Blurbs:
Einstein was wrong. It turns out general relativity, while accurate within a moderate gravity well such as what exists in the inner solar system, starts breaking down at very high or very low gravitational fields. Guess nobody ever thought to try the Maxwell Experiment in deep space. Oh, and it turns out c is really infinate, we just can't get a hard enough vacuum to see the value asymtote. So, throw all modern physics out the window when it comes to FTL.


Space Fighters exist, and are actually designed to maneuver like atmospheric craft because getting people who can think in three dimentions is hard enough.


A planet is generally considered conquered when all ground-based defence systems that might be used by partisans are taken care of. Therefore, most planets possess a hidden stock of space-capable atomic missiles which are never used. This forces a would-be invader to fight a lengthly ground war.


A soldier will generally never see his home again. After each conquest, the oldest and most worn out regiments are disbanded, usually forming the core of the new garrison/PDF.


The fact that it usually takes months to travel between stars doesn't deter some adventureous souls with cryochambers. And rich ones, who can afford a fast FTL.


Never ask a Techno-Savant for the value of pi.

The Techno-Savants haven't put normal engineers out of buisiness, not by a long shot. After all, sometimes those in charge want what they asked for, this Tuesday.

[Yora]

I know exactly what you're talking about. I see lots of great stuff in other settings and think "Oh, I want to have that too!", but all you eventually end up with is just a big tub full with random stuff that doesn't really fit together and feels very generic.

My approach to this is to first start with writing down what the setting is about. Then later I'll always get back to that original concept and everything that really doesn't belong to a setting with the primary idea gets cut.
Often I end up with something too tangled up to be able to cut stuff out, then I make a blank page and start all over again with the things that I think the setting really needs and then continue from there.

[Geordnet]

Hm, well a tub of stuff is what I have. It's sort of a melting pot of ideas, of everything I've ever liked in a given genre. The thing about it is that I could base any sort of story I want in this setting, because it's more like a template.

Ah, that's a better way to describe it: a template. I'm building frameworks, setting up canvases, and putting it up here so that anyone who wants to can use them.


Basically, I've got nothing but a very well-fleshed-out premice:
There are interstellar empires. There is lost technology. There is a cult devoted to said tech. There is uncharted territory. There's regressed cultures. Einstein was wrong. Depending on where you go you can get Hard Physics (with some adjustments) or Magic by a Different Name. And they both can exist in the same overarching metaverse. (Although perhaps not at the same time.)

And I haven't written the half of it yet.


Now just wait until I get to my fantasy setting...

[motoko's ghost]

Have you considered something like what BESMs got?
A different world(s) for each theme all linked together into a bizarre multiverse.
(BESM=Big Eyes, Small Mouth the anime/manga RPG)

[Omeganaut]

I say what you need to do is quickwrite all your ideas down. Then step away from that for a day or two. Come back, and filter what you have down, cutting the stuff that isn't good and making sure to save the really good stuff. Apply that stuff where you think it will fit. Most of all, as long as it isn't set in stone, (or metal,) you can change it if you have new thoughts about it. As for your existing framework, this allows you to create a Imperial faction, or a single colony, or what ever, and fit them into the setting however you want. Just try to revisit anything that will be seriously affected by new ideas and adjust each to work with one another.

[Geordnet]

Well, the thing is that I've got nothing. Not a single name, place, or thing that's even set in wax.

And that's what I need help with.



EDIT:

Well, actually I do have some, but that's only the Techno-Savants. Politically they're more like a force of nature than anything else though.

[Omeganaut]

Well, if you don't have any names, think about what kind of cultures would arise. Make sure you include representations of pre-existing earth cultures. Use a translator to find a name in whatever language that culture would use, and start with that. Just start writing stuff down. Ideas stuck in your head will stay there, but letting them out creates room for more ideas or expansions of the ideas you did write down.

[Geordnet]

It's funny then, that this brings me to my second idea...

An algorithmic name/world generator. (If you're not a programmer, then just ignore this one.)
I'd probably end up doing something like this in my head anyways, so I might as well make it reusable... So, I guess I could make a large name database, sorted by cultures said name would fit in. That at least solves the name problem.

Then comes the hard part, making more setting-specific generators. For example, an SF setting can start with a starmap. Then just plop down a few subregions, and attach a label to each to get things started, like 'Klingon', 'Democratic', or 'British'.

From that point on, there'd be generators for each increasing level of detail (eg. system -> world -> city) that could give a basic 'what'; from there it's my job to decide plot-related details, modify for consistancy, and (most importantly) figure out the why.


And that is a lot easier for me. Of course, I'm not really searching for programmers here; so unless you know something that already does this then it's just more ranting.

[Storm Bringer]

right, couple of questions:

why is it more ecnomical to send a colony ship to another world, months travel away, than to another part of the same world?

If the colony ships that created the colonies have the ability to found a self substaining city, with all the infrastruture you would need to do that (mining ops, parts manufacturing, food gathering, etc), then go do it agian, on another world, then they must be able produce copies of those critical infrastructure devices. thus, nothing stops the population spreading a bit into more cities, as they can just whip up the new generators and such and start building. now, I accept that only the colony ships have the ability to start a new city, and possibly allow a city to grow over a certian size (or is thier a hard limit on city population? can one city only hold X number of people?), but it would be much easier to build 10 cities over one planet than city on 10 planets.


how much did the humans of the Missing Epoch leave behind? were their any cities or traces of cities on the terraformed planets? any starships, any satalites? any old farming robots quietly tilling the fields next to the smoking ruins of a arcropolis? any signs of the culture, their language? did they leave any messages to the colonists?