 April 24, 2017 - 6:15pm | I've had an itch to re see this movie having seen it in the base theater when I was a kid. It was one of the early sci-fi movies that certainly inspired my love for Star Frontiers. I enjoyed rewatching it despite how dated the music is. Some fun facts they made it for 1 million dollars. and since building sets would have cost triple they got the Navy to let them use the aircraft carrier Valley Forge as a set allowing them to repaint and dress up as a space ship. Its very convincing. Some recent Sci Fi channel shows did much the same but you could tell they would filming on a Navy ship so you had to suspend disbelief. They ended up using compartments in the ship for offices, a class room, film editing etc. Bruce Dern is a runner and he marked a 1/4 mile track on the flight deck and ended up running 200 miles during the filming. Since the Valley Forge space freighter was 2000 feet long they built a 25 foot model. The robots were young human actors who were also double amputees who could walk on their hands. The goal with the robots was to have robots that were totally under human control and not trying to kill man kind. It was Bruce Dern's first chance to be the hero after being typed cast as a villian for years.  I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 May 4, 2017 - 4:48am | I don't think it needs to be explained. After all, various other things in the game aren't explained to any great depth WRT to the minutae of their inner workings. Grav plates would perhaps mess up ship designs as they exist right now but maybe they're classed as ships from the previous generation. |
May 4, 2017 - 9:33am | There's no issue with a ship flipping and applying thrust against it's direction of travel as everything will be forced against the floor due to thrust being against the direction of travel. Flipped the engines are now pushing against momentum and crew experience simulated gravity forcing them against the floor. I'm generally in favor of having new generation tech in the setting. Old style tech is simply obsolete equipment still in use. And I like to make the players "earn" the new stuff. So grav plates as a break thru in quantum physics or a new application of inertia field tech isn't a big deal. But just because someone publishes an article on grav plates I won't suddenly dump the vertical decks of KHs, simulated gravity thru thrust is elegant, free since you're using engines anyway, and cost effective especially for non warships. And I believe in treating the Canon material as the baseline language around which we all gather to communicate and share. Someone new joins in and hasn't read a key article from 4 years ago it's no matter he's able to keep up with the rest of us. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 May 4, 2017 - 12:25pm | I'm not say you should change the design of the ship in SF. It gives them a certain quaility no other game system and makes the interesting to play. Artifical Gravity just allows certain things to be overlook and makes the game less complex and enjoyable. |
May 5, 2017 - 2:15am | I'm not say you should change the design of the ship in SF. It gives them a certain quaility no other game system and makes the interesting to play. Artifical Gravity just allows certain things to be overlook and makes the game less complex and enjoyable.
I think it's rather elegant.
However, you are quite right and I heartily agree that the ships in SF have a quality that no other game system matches. Although the Palomino from the Black Hole is totally Star Frontiers while the Cygnas is something else. Loved that movie but wished we had seen the Palomino in more action. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
May 19, 2017 - 8:27am | Another take on a similar idea - artwork by Paul Alexander: http://bit.ly/2rz8QYv |
 June 16, 2017 - 7:04am | I fall back to my old standby, Babylon 5. Before the Omega Class Destroyers, EarthForce ships didn't have any type of gravity. They lived in 4-point seatbelts and inertia chairs. Not until they had rotating sections of the ship did they have "gravity". This goes for ALL the Narn ships as well. Even their toughest ships, the G'Quan class Cruisers, had no gravity, artificial or otherwise. The Centauri and Minbari had AG, but their technology was gravitic-based. You can't argue with the invincibly ignorant. - William F. Buckley |
 September 5, 2017 - 7:17am | At ships were mostly for stationing in systems where there are no habitable worlds that could produce food. Systems with much higher populations than the " Bugs in the System" example. FIAWOL
TANSTAAFL!! |
