Area 51 » rbwhitaker

Jul 8	comment	Music Fans: Which electronic instrument is used to produce the sound at the beginning of “Good Vibrations” by the Beach Boys? I'm removing my downvote with the edit. This is much better.
Jun 18	comment	Music Fans: Which electronic instrument is used to produce the sound at the beginning of “Good Vibrations” by the Beach Boys? There are so many good questions here, people should spend their votes on ones that actually make sense instead of what they think the intent is. Can't the original asker revise it for clarity? At the very least, someone should post another question that phrases the underlying concept more clearly and we should vote for that instead.
May 20	awarded	● Nice Question
May 1	comment	Worldbuilding: How do you collaboratively build a magic system in a way that doesn't let one contributor's spells overpower another's? @Styphon, it's not unique to game development. It's something I actually faced when building a fantasy world with a group of other people.
Apr 15	comment	Worldbuilding: Is it possible to terraform Mars with no liquid core? If no, is it possible to make the core liquid? @Styphon, that's a valid reason.
Apr 14	comment	Worldbuilding: Is it possible to terraform Mars with no liquid core? If no, is it possible to make the core liquid? This has picked up two down votes in the last day or so. I'm not sure I understand why. Can anybody explain?
Apr 11	comment	Worldbuilding: What marks our humanity will left after a random and quick disparition ? I don't really understand this question.
Apr 10	awarded	● Fanatic
Apr 7	comment	Worldbuilding: What are the advantages and/or disadvantages of a capital city of a monarchy being landlocked or coastal? I agree with congusbongus. I don't think telling people what they should and shouldn't do is answerable in an objective way, and shouldn't be considered on-topic. But I think we should be able to help people understand the tradeoffs of a decision.
Apr 4	comment	Worldbuilding: How much similarity to a real (historic or modern) culture is too much in a created world? That would help the vagueness, but I don't think it would help the subjectiveness. I think you could help that part by being clearer about what you mean by "too much". Are you asking for how different you need to be to stay away from legal trouble? (FWIW, I think asking legal questions should be out of this site's scope.)
Apr 3	comment	Worldbuilding: How many settlers is required to start to populate a colony? kexx, you might consider deleting this question and asking another one. With 6 downvotes, I think it's pretty clear this one isn't going to make it as is, and if you trash it, you'll be able to ask another question that has the potential to get positive votes.
Apr 2	awarded	● Nice Question
Apr 1	awarded	● Nice Question
Mar 28	comment	Worldbuilding: How big would a dragon's wings have to be if it weighed about 16 metric tons and was roughly shaped like an apatosaurus? I really like this question. It makes you think. I would actually hope that the "correct" answer to this would give some sort of equation or way to estimate what it would take for a broad range of weights, rather than one specific number.
Mar 26	awarded	● Nice Question
Mar 25	comment	Worldbuilding: I have an idea for a <world-building project> that's too big for me to complete by myself. How can I get started? I wasn't one of the downvoters on this question, but I suspect it's because this is really broad.
Mar 25	comment	Worldbuilding: How would having more than one moon affect a planet? I agree it seems like a perfectly valid question. You may not get downvotes if you were more specific. For example, "How would having multiple moons affect a civilization's time keeping (calendars)?" Or how does tide get affected by multiple moons?" That might help, but maybe not. None of the downvoters have bothered to explain why they did so, so it's hard to know what problems they felt it had.
Mar 21	comment	Worldbuilding: What would be a practical way for a creator to keep track of generations in a fictional world population? Also, for what it's worth, look at real life and you'll see generations quickly start to overlap because some people have kids at 18, while others have them at 36.
Mar 21	comment	Worldbuilding: What would be a practical way for a creator to keep track of generations in a fictional world population? I'm curious if this is a question of how a fictional society would track their own generations (perhaps since some significant event) or how the creator of the universe should keep track of which generation each character is in.
Mar 10	comment	Worldbuilding: How do you collaboratively build a magic system in a way that doesn't let one contributor's spells overpower another's? @JayNeely, but it is an element of collaborative world building, and thus would be (IMHO) a good fit for this site. And if you have multiple fantasy authors who are writing in a shared world, this is going to be a concern. This specific case has absolutely nothing to do with game development.
Mar 9	comment	Worldbuilding: How do you collaboratively build a magic system in a way that doesn't let one contributor's spells overpower another's? @JayNeely, care to explain why? I think this question would be better suited for people with experience collaboratively building a setting, not people who play RPGs or create computer/video games. I'll admit this question could probably work well in either of those places, but I think you'd get the best experts over here, not there.
Feb 27	awarded	● Nice Question
Feb 20	comment	Worldbuilding: What is the total cost of a bigger scale war by a month? How can you calculate it? I might suggest editing this question to fit more along those lines. My guess is that it would do well. Or perhaps instead of editing, just add a new question to that effect. That way it doesn't start with a -3, but at 0. But it's up to you, kexx.
Feb 20	comment	Worldbuilding: What is the total cost of a bigger scale war by a month? How can you calculate it? I think this question could be a really good one, if it were far more focused (a war with starships will inevitably be vastly more expensive than one with sticks and arrows) and if instead of asking for a specific dollar amount, it asked for people to describe how to arrive at the answer yourself. Depending on how your particular universe is structured (their financial systems, their economy, the cost of using weapons or tools that are unique to your universe) it will vary wildly. But if the question asked for what to consider instead of a dollar amount, it would probably be viable.
Feb 19	comment	Worldbuilding: How do you collaboratively build a magic system in a way that doesn't let one contributor's spells overpower another's? The thought occurred to me that the questions proposed so far have all been specific questions somebody might have regarding how their world/universe should actually work. There's a second area that I, personally, think this proposal should include, and that is on the process itself. I'd love to see other people post others as well.
Feb 19	proposed question	Worldbuilding: How do you collaboratively build a magic system in a way that doesn't let one contributor's spells overpower another's?
Feb 19	proposed question	Worldbuilding: Is it physically plausible for twin planets to form in orbit around each other (e.g., if the Moon were the size of the Earth)? Do we know of any yet?
Feb 19	proposed question	Worldbuilding: What causes some cities to form radial and circular roads (Paris, London) while others have grids (New York)?
Jan 23	comment	Worldbuilding: How many settlers is required to start to populate a colony? I think the reason this got so many down votes is because it is too broad to be answerable. For starters, are we talking about a colony on Mars, where things like in vitro fertilization is an option? Can we safely assume that the people we choose from are genetically diverse to begin with (we're not getting groups of siblings)? How hostile is the environment that is being settled, and do we need to account for a high level of death in the process? Given the right setup, a question like this could be useful, but as written, I don't think this would work well.
Jan 11	awarded	● Commentator