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Thread: Oceania

  1. #1
    Publisher Facebook Connected bartmoss's Avatar
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    Wip Oceania

    Alright, here's Yet Another Map. This one is going to be fairly simple, since it's an ocean world. It's part of my Sci Fi universe, and I am mapping it as a reference for something else (non-map) I am working on.

    Background: Oceania was discovered during the golden age of the first wave of interstellar expensaion. Earth and her colonies were prosperous, and with countless colonies providing ample resources and living space, this terratype planet was considered to be worthless: With the only major landmasses being small and in the artic regions, most resources it held would require submarine mining - costly and dangerous. There was also simply not enough living space to set up a large scale colony. Kelp farming was considered the only possible industry, and frankly seaweed did not sell for much on the interstellar markets.

    The world was subsequently acquired by a wealthy businessman, who turned it into a vacation planet. The countless islands provided endless beach-front real estate, and clever marketing made the world famous throughout Federated space.

    First WIP attached.

    Locations are (mostly) named after famous Earth seaside locations and islands.


    Click image for larger version. 

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    Guild Journeyer Ryan K's Avatar
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    Nice one, Bart!

    A couple of ideas - with regards to industry, could algae-derived biofuel be feasible, as kelp is basically big algae. Even if it was for local (global) consumption?
    Floating cities / large luxury liners - if this is a holiday world, would there be scope for there to be large resort-barges, or floating cities? Would these need to be covered on the map?

    Just some food for thought
    Regards,

    RK

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    Guild Expert rdanhenry's Avatar
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    Yeah. You do realize that water planet will likely have massive storms, right? [1] That no more means you can't have a tourist trade than the hurricane regions of Earth, but you'd better take it into account in your development. Submarine development might still be preferred to stay out of the winds. And once you are there, you would use some of the tourism money to develop local industries. Visitors need to eat, so there's the sea farming (and if there are alien worlds with compatible life, or good enough genetic engineering, you could have a greater variety of edible sea flora than on Earth), fishing, a little land farming/pasture on the islands, hydroponics. Then ships will need fuel and you'll do well to create and power your local transport on planet unless space travel has become insanely cheap. And at least a couple of local industries that allow for suitable souvenirs.

    [1] Without land to break them up, hurricanes can keep on growing. Overall storminess depends on a lot of factors, but in general, a planet without continents is going to see bigger storms than a planet in the same circumstances with continents.

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    Publisher Facebook Connected bartmoss's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ryan K View Post
    Nice one, Bart!

    A couple of ideas - with regards to industry, could algae-derived biofuel be feasible, as kelp is basically big algae. Even if it was for local (global) consumption?
    Floating cities / large luxury liners - if this is a holiday world, would there be scope for there to be large resort-barges, or floating cities? Would these need to be covered on the map?

    Just some food for thought
    Thanks Ryan. For power, these people would definitely use fusion power plants, and small vehicles would run on battery power. Larger vehicles are self-powered with fusion plants. There might be local consumption of seaweeds of any kind by the staff, but the vast majority of food will be imports.

    Small update: Now with the major cruiselines.

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    Publisher Facebook Connected bartmoss's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rdanhenry View Post
    Yeah. You do realize that water planet will likely have massive storms, right? [1] [1] Without land to break them up, hurricanes can keep on growing. Overall storminess depends on a lot of factors, but in general, a planet without continents is going to see bigger storms than a planet in the same circumstances with continents.
    Yeah I know. I decided against major continents solely based on story needs.

    Quote Originally Posted by rdanhenry View Post
    That no more means you can't have a tourist trade than the hurricane regions of Earth, but you'd better take it into account in your development. Submarine development might still be preferred to stay out of the winds.
    There will be a few underwater cities and so on, but they were built solely as entertainment facilities/hotels.

    Quote Originally Posted by rdanhenry View Post
    And once you are there, you would use some of the tourism money to develop local industries. Visitors need to eat, so there's the sea farming (and if there are alien worlds with compatible life, or good enough genetic engineering, you could have a greater variety of edible sea flora than on Earth), fishing, a little land farming/pasture on the islands, hydroponics. Then ships will need fuel and you'll do well to create and power your local transport on planet unless space travel has become insanely cheap. And at least a couple of local industries that allow for suitable souvenirs.
    Space travel has become insanely cheap; this is kind of a requirement for having any sort of large scale interstellar society. That aside, yes, minor industry is fine: Fishing will definitely exist, but it's all on a tiny scale compared to what a full-fledged colony would require. I do assume in my setting that hydroponics and - to borrow a Piper term - carniculture, i.e. meat vats - exist, but would you really want your high class tourists to eat "synthetic" food? Even if that stuff is just as good - or even better than "natural" food, it's all about the marketing. So it gets imported. And you are right that any sane colonial government would attempt to diversify local industries and become self-sufficient, but this is a company-run planet focussed solely on the one thing this company knows to do: tourism. Why build an unsightly factory when you can just ship in what you need and build another luxurious hotel instead? This approach is not entirely stupid, assuming that it's financially sustainable: Specialize on your core competency and outsource the rest. Otherwise you risk bogging down your company.

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    Publisher Facebook Connected bartmoss's Avatar
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    Experiment in beautification. Unfortunately I lack the skill to draw a nice tropical scenery.

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    Edit: Yes looks like a few pixel got cut off on the right side.

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    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
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    That backdrop is quite nice.
    If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
    -J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)


    My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps

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    Publisher Facebook Connected bartmoss's Avatar
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    Thank you, Sir. It is an easy cheat though: I photographed it myself some years ago, and just did a bit of blur magic etc on it, plus an easy drop shadow.

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    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
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    It makes it stand out really well without being distracting.
    If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
    -J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atom bomb) alluding to The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32)


    My Maps ~ My Brushes ~ My Tutorials ~ My Challenge Maps

  10. #10

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    Looks cool! Sign me up to go! Surfing would be killer there!

    Where's Hawaii? I've heard Hawaii is the island farthest from any other land mass on earth.

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