The world of Melody Box, spoilers included.

[Robin Ryuu]

I'm just trying to think of any signs that would giveaway that the environment was artificially created rather than being altered by natural causes, if that makes any sense.

[Robin Ryuu]

No I've never read it. I haven't read a lot of the books talked about on here.

[Jalyha]

I think it would depend on how well they did the terraforming (and how good the tech was)


I should think that a level which would allow them to create dragons would be able to do some terraforming without any obvious signs... although... Most people have a hard time doing anything truly "randomly", so your trees might be spaced more evenly, or rivers a little straighter...


I suppose that depends, as well, on the people who did the initial terraforming.

Me, for example, I wouldn't care how it LOOKEd... I'd build for survival. There'd be a unscalable cliff protecting each village, fresh water rivers, lakes and streams everywhere their might be a civilization, domes covering all the cities and crops, etc. Then again, I'm paranoid.

Someone else might try to make it as "earthlike" and natural as possible.

People might develop some parts of the world more than others, or make it perfectly even. I don't know how you would tell.

[waldronate]

A dinosaur fossil in a coal seam holding a sign that reads "End Nuclear Testing Now" might be a clue that it's not natural. Or a range of mountains in the shape of the terraformer's initials might be another. Or even the world being a disk.. All examples from the book Strata by Terry Pratchett.

[Jalyha]

okay waldronate you're my new hero.

[Robin Ryuu]

Lol that would work, but to fit the story I think I need something a little more...subtle. I'll need to put some thought into it. I did however have a few interesting ideas last night. If the cities detached and landed on different areas of the planet, once communications are cut off then each cities inhabitants would create their own civilizations, right? And I'm thinking that a very long time has passed so it would be possible that the different people would develop different traits, perhaps one of them would be short and sturdy, another one could become tall, thin, with a possibility of pointed ears. It would fit the style of this story, sci-fi with a theme of stereotypical fantasy. And I was also thinking that before the.... I'm just going to call it the collapse. Before the collapse the people would need a way to get to the other cities and to the Melody Box, so when I was playing mine-craft in my brother's room I was also listening to the Star-trek episode he was watching, (not very closely, I heard something about Abraham Lincoln and a living rock) and then the captain explained that their ship's teleportal converted matter into energy at which it traveled and then reformed back into the same matter that it was.... I don't think I explained it very well but... Anyways something like that could be possible in my story.

[Jalyha]

Weeeeeellll... Yes that would work.

But (as a reader: ie: when initially reading this) the first thought that popped into my head was... "WAIT! They're sophisticated enough to keep a box orbiting a planet (a planet they terraform!!!) that can create new LIFE and they don't have technology enough not to lose contact with each other on landing???!!?"

So I thought and said "Well, maybe they crashed, and lost contact anyway"

Then I said, "yeah, but they created DRAGONS, *after* landing, so they could have just created a horse-like cheetah-speed mule-bird or something that could carry a message, quickly, to the other civilizations."

And before too long they'd be mingling again....

So, after a 10 minute convo with myself (I'm an excellent conversationalist, when I'm the one who's listening) I figured the only way that would work is if 1 of the people crashed and lost ... well... everything... even contact with the Melody Box. Then their civilization would devolve, while the others thrived, and they would spread/migrate and THEN they might evolve differently.

But honestly, it seems way too complicated to make it enjoyable, and I liked where you were going better without the whole "evolving vulcans" issue thrown in :/

[Robin Ryuu]

Wait, what? Ok um lets see, either I did a horrible job of explaining it or.....

I'll update this once I figure out where the problem is.

Okay it seems I wasn't clear about this; when they landed and for quite awhile afterwards they did have contact with each other and could travel the great distances between the cities almost instantly using the teleportals. However when the event happened that caused the main systems to fail they did too, which is what caused the isolation.

Did this help?

[Jalyha]

Okay.
No. I'm bad at explaining stuff. If you're lost, it's my fault. Let me try again


We're human. We've developed our technology far beyond what it is now. We can settle on other planets. We can terraform other planets. We've developed a technology that lets us build LIFE with our MINDS.

We can send that technology into orbit, and it's built so well that even after generations of us having forgotten it, and no one performing any kind of upkeep, it's still working all those generations later.

These are the basics from prior posts, yes?
COOL. I like it.

So. We are the elite. We land on the planet and... lose all communication with every other human. ...? (WHY? HOW? With all our sophisticated tech, everything stops working when we land? For EVERYONE?)

Fine, something disrupted the communication devices, maybe something in the planet's atmosphere. Idk, you're the writer, you decide. Whatever it was, now we can't talk to anyone else.
(What? Wait? ALL those ships full of super-tech-advanced-hoomans, and NOT ONE SCIENTIST who can build a primitive phone system?)

Fine, okay, it's a bunch of ships full of farmers and builders for an intial settlement (why would they be trusted with tech like the melody box, and terraforming a planet if they aren't scientists?) (Shut up Jalyha, let that one go...) and these settlers can't build up communications again. All contact with other humans is lost. (Okay, fine)

And then, we make some dragons as in your first posts, with our minds and the melody box. (Wait, so we can make a complex critter like a dragon. Why can't we make a complex (or simple) critter to communicate with other humans?)

Solution: Either A) Everyone on the ships was simple-minded, or B) Some people lost tech and some people didn't.

Okay, we don't want a bunch of stoopid hoomans.... let's go with B.

So a bunch of ships can still communicate and access the melody box after landing and a bunch can't. So we have these 2? 3? more? ships communicating, and no one says "Hey, why haven't we heard from bob and his crew... or jim and his... or jeff and his?" and goes to find them? Or builds a communication critter? Back to the earlier problems again.


But if it was just ONE ship that lost communication, then everyone might assume (especially if there was a crash, Jalyha!) that they had died. No one would go looking.

Ahhhh now it's working.

So... let's say, cause we want multiple races now, that the settlers on ship #missinginaction do go looking for help.. at least some of them, and in small bands.

Okay now they are spreading out.

So, it's a big planet, and they are on the wrong side, and never find help. Instead, they build settlements in different areas, and now we've finally got to a point where it's possible that

...a very long time has passed so it would be possible that the different people would develop different traits, perhaps one of them would be short and sturdy, another one could become tall, thin, with a possibility of pointed ears. It would fit the style of this story, sci-fi with a theme of stereotypical fantasy....

Then you want them to start trying to restore communications again, so... why would they start up with that again if it's been long enough for different races to develop? That's generation upon generation there!

So some guy finds his great-great-lotsofgreats-grandpa's journal, talking about the melody box and the loss in communication, the fruitless search.... and meanwhile that race of people has developed/advanced a bit from when they first settled, and somehow they restore access to the melody box and create this new teleportation technique... or vice versa... they create the technique and then restore access to the melody box...


(Wait, why didn't the first guys do that?)

Which is why it's too complicated for my tastes... Either the smart guys in Generation Alpha figure out a way to communicate, or there's no way to communicate.

If they figure out a way to communicate, then it won't have been long enough to develop different traits.

If they don't figure out a way to communicate, then there's something in the area making it impossible, and they won't ever develop it.

Did that make more sense?

The "vulcan" comment was cause, as soon as you said "one with pointy ears" I thought, "oh, someone's been watching LoTR or Star Trek" and then you said you were watching star trek, and I said "see!" and then you said about the transporters, and I think, and I might be wrong, that you liked the concept of what you heard so much that you're trying to force it into your story. And in *this* story... I don't think it can fit.

However, maybe you'll find a way to surprise me, and it will, and I will look silly for doubting I'd like that. I strive for silliness.

[Robin Ryuu]

I suppose actually knowing what caused all the systems to fail and then figuring out what effects it would have would help............. but I have no idea, or rather I have plenty of ideas but none that fit.