 December 10, 2013 - 6:14am | Lab Grown meat has been show to be possible in the real world and its been a minor sci fi element in fiction and games. I'm proposing we develop a beef vat tech for the frontier and for ag ships. Not sure we want to keep the name beef vat though it does have a certain ring to it. It you have ideas on this or examples of this concept from fiction or games please post. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 December 10, 2013 - 8:38am | While this is an interesting idea we should consider the practicality of such a device. On large ships and certainly fancy passenger liners "fresh" meat would be a nice item to have on the menu the device would need to be worth the space it would take up along with the supplies needed to keep it running. It would also need to produce meat which would not be too different from real product in flavor, texture and appearance. We could have top quality machines which produce not only the meat but the bone and fat (very necessary for proper cooking) while cheap machines produce a gray mass which is edible but best in a stew with alot of spice. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
December 10, 2013 - 11:14am | While this is an interesting idea we should consider the practicality of such a device. On large ships and certainly fancy passenger liners "fresh" meat would be a nice item to have on the menu the device would need to be worth the space it would take up along with the supplies needed to keep it running.
I was thinking that in terms of a set of A,B,C,&D vats for on ship and another set that are too big for on ship. But haveing levels of quality like you suggest is probably good even if its not going to measuably impact a game or combat. It would also need to produce meat which would not be too different from real product in flavor, texture and appearance. We could have top quality machines which produce not only the meat but the bone and fat (very necessary for proper cooking) while cheap machines produce a gray mass which is edible but best in a stew with alot of spice. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 December 10, 2013 - 10:48pm | You can take into account economics and preference - maybe that Vrusk is a vegetarian? |
 December 10, 2013 - 11:18pm | OK here is the article I read: http://www.popsci.com/article/science/can-artificial-meat-save-world I can see the frontier having perfected this. They grow meat in trays in incubators and possibly the machine adds layers as it grows to create the fat cells for the proper texture and taste. Also layers of different protiens and meat cells could be mixes and added as it grows to create a more realistic meat. Even meat of non-game animals could be grown so that the protected yazirian creatures of which only a few are remaining could still be consumed by the masses. I would not call the machine a meat-vat. It is a meat culture incubator and assembly machine. I'd guess that some marketing guys would come up with a great name for the automated machines installed in ships and their much larger versions that fill factories. And I like Jedi's take that there is the high end meat assemblies that are hard to distiguish from the real thing and the cheap simple one or two layer/component meat assemblies that are common. The later being cost effective and easy to run and maintain machines. -iggy |
December 11, 2013 - 5:31am | I agree about the name beef vat as that is what it was called in the activision game. Incubator sounds good. Also i'm reminded of the new plastic printers that let you make any plastic part that there is a file for i have the machine. Purely speculative but this sort of technology could be eventually applied to grown meat but then we're almost getting into the area of star trek replicators. For the two tiers of incubator performance i think the simplist thing is to have a set of performance stats for type A,B,C,D incubators but then have two prices for each one as well as two sets of credit values for the output of the incubators. Reality would be that low end and high end equipment should have different performance stats but for game purposes it would be simpler if the were the same. Just the cost for the equipment is different and the end value of the out put is different. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 11, 2013 - 5:35am | As for yazirians I see them as hating this. Meat grown in an incubator has no soul. It was never alive to begin with and the Fo1 might even class this as an abomination or strongly dissuade its use. Of course Pepsi style taste challenges prove that you cant tell which is which but the idea just doesnt appeal to a yazirian. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 11, 2013 - 9:31pm | Vrusk are not vegetarians (Herbivore would be the correct term vegetarians make a choice to eat only plants) they have tearing and rending mandibles. Yazirians on the other hand are monkey family descended. Of the homonid and ape families only the homonids humans and chimps eat meat. Since monkeys don't eat meat the Yazirians are the logical herbivores of the four races. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
December 11, 2013 - 10:34pm | I think Yazirians are too aggressive - Meat Eaters! |
December 12, 2013 - 5:57am | That makes the assumption that carnivores are agressive and herbivores are passive which just isn't true. We would not have bull fights if bulls did not try and gore people when provoked and hippos are one of the most dangerous killers of men in Africa. Actually thinking of it this could be where the Yazirian life enemy comes from. Since they are herbivores, they needed something to get their "blood boiling" so they adopted the concept of taking on an enemy to get them going. Since they tend to fly into fits of rage like baboons the life enemy concept also helped to channel that energy into something more productive. So here ya go Yazirians, have another banana. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
December 12, 2013 - 7:54am | That makes the assumption that carnivores are agressive and herbivores are passive which just isn't true. We would not have bull fights if bulls did not try and gore people when provoked and hippos are one of the most dangerous killers of men in Africa.
Rat t you realize you're going against decades of fan tradition with this? Its an intriguing thought, not something i've supported previously. As we all know there is an extensive body of fan cannon supporting the carnivore view. I think maybe you should start a thread in the core four project on this for community discussion or do an article on for the magazine. An article in the magazine will be the corner stone to changing community perception on this but I suspect there will always be people that treat yours as an alternate view. I find the concept of a herbivore warrior that is not so blood thirsty kind of intriguing even though I've contributed to the fan cannon on meat eating.Actually thinking of it this could be where the Yazirian life enemy comes from. Since they are herbivores, they needed something to get their "blood boiling" so they adopted the concept of taking on an enemy to get them going. Since they tend to fly into fits of rage like baboons the life enemy concept also helped to channel that energy into something more productive. So here ya go Yazirians, have another banana. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 12, 2013 - 12:37pm | Will try something hang on Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
