Thoughts on Technology
Posted July 6, 2008 at 08:12 PM by Kaelon
During the Leadership Team meeting last week, we shared views about technology and technological advances in Aelyria. I thought I'd share mine, as a sort of friendly brain-dump to let fellow readers know where I personally view the evolution of technology in our fantasy world.
What do you think? Where does your view of Technology, and Technological Evolution, fit in with Aelyria? How do you see Aelyria's technology changing in the in-game generations to come?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Juan
Aelyria as a fantasy world remains firmly grounded in the traditions of high fantasy, influenced by faerie tales, mythology, folklore, and legends. Efforts by players to innovate in our game world should be high rewards with equally proportional high risks. For example, there is nothing inherently wrong with building Airships (and Aelyria has had Airships before, and will continue to have Skyships, since these are fantasy staples), but possessing Skyships are major rewards and there should be risks/deficiencies to using them. It is clear that for newly developed technologies, like first generation Airships, they became unstable and have a risk of exploding when pushed to the limit.
Other innovations in technology that push Aelyria towards other genres -- such as gunpowder, flinklocks, and muskets -- are intentionally designed to be individual pieces of art, painstakingly crafted by inventors who are viewed more as artisans rather than as laborers, and as such, they are hand-crafted masterpieces that cannot be mass-produced. When one component breaks, a replacement component usually needs to be built from scratch. It is in this way that muskets remain expensive, but can be more common in certain atmospheres or environments. Nevertheless, like Charlie mentioned last week, "guns" in Aelyria are not weapons that win battles. They are merely distracting devices that when fired are used to draw away the attention by wounding, distracting, and deflecting combatant attention.
Finally, some innovations in Aelyria should never be possible: namely, mass-production. This is because magic itself is an art, not a science, and cannot be used to predictably and reliably create duplicates or perform the same task over and over again through automation. The absence of mass-production or an assembly line ensures that all innovations remain grounded in a realistic set of risks and rewards, and that true innovations are always magical masterpieces that are firmly rooted in our faerie tale universe.
Other innovations in technology that push Aelyria towards other genres -- such as gunpowder, flinklocks, and muskets -- are intentionally designed to be individual pieces of art, painstakingly crafted by inventors who are viewed more as artisans rather than as laborers, and as such, they are hand-crafted masterpieces that cannot be mass-produced. When one component breaks, a replacement component usually needs to be built from scratch. It is in this way that muskets remain expensive, but can be more common in certain atmospheres or environments. Nevertheless, like Charlie mentioned last week, "guns" in Aelyria are not weapons that win battles. They are merely distracting devices that when fired are used to draw away the attention by wounding, distracting, and deflecting combatant attention.
Finally, some innovations in Aelyria should never be possible: namely, mass-production. This is because magic itself is an art, not a science, and cannot be used to predictably and reliably create duplicates or perform the same task over and over again through automation. The absence of mass-production or an assembly line ensures that all innovations remain grounded in a realistic set of risks and rewards, and that true innovations are always magical masterpieces that are firmly rooted in our faerie tale universe.
Total Comments 3
Comments
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I think that 'technology' in Aelyria shouldn't be confused with modern tech; we want fantasy tech. At least, I do. It'd be great to see Aelyria evolve via its players and I think that making unreasonable hindrances kinda discouraging to thde archmage who wants to expand his sphere or the businessman who wants to make A LOT very quickly.
I'm not saying that mods should just give things away. Rather, things should make sense. Enchantments aren't going to blow up unless there is considerable stress on the said enchantment so airships aren't going to explode just because they're pushed 'to the limit'; maybe gadgeteer made airships would, but not arcana in my humble opinion
Posted July 6, 2008 at 11:37 PM by Straylor Leonard
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Well to be honest, I'd rather have a mage than a gun because a mage isn't going to be faulty and randomly implode on me or misfire
When guns were first being developed IRL back a long, long time ago, not many people liked to use them because of their unreliability. I can see that as being a similar case here. Who wants to take the risk of taking off a chunk of your face with something that will most likely miss its target when you could shoot a nice armor-piercing arrow instead?
That being said, I agree with Marwin. There's a difference between modern tech and fantasy tech. Personally I love the idea of the gadgeteer made airships. It's a nice change from most advances in the empire being driven by arcana. True, arcana does play a big part in the world, but it isn't everything.
If someone wants to make advances ICly through hard work, dedication, trial and error, etc. I don't see why not. As long as we keep with the underlying fantasy theme, I think our possibilities are endless, especially with the army of creative people we have flooding the boardsPosted July 8, 2008 at 07:28 PM by Amaranth
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Well a couple opinions here. First, for simple technology like guns and more modern engineering principles, remember that alleria doesn't necisarly have the same set of physics, for all we know gunpowder in its physical reaction has unfavorable arcanic reactions, never mind the noise factor wich could easily distract mages on your side of things. But mostly its a state of mind, why bother with mechanics and all that, when you can just have a mage do the same thing. The cost of a mage is relativly high yes, but development of a whole new mechanical system to repalce said mage is much more expensive, it wouldn't make economic sense within aelyria.
Then to arcana and airships or the like, I'm largely of the opinion they first generation ships should have tons of issues. Arcana isn't a 'science' IC, how many mages have actualy spent years studying the details of aethermechanics, wich I'd note is fairly new, arcana functioned entirely difrently just a few years ago, we function more on result than process, we know what works and we just try to modify or mix those process's for new results. The level of enchantments, and the complex mixture of them needed for something like an airship, IC we have absolutely no clue how they will interact with one another, even realy how they react when used in non traditional manners. Can you disperse an enchantment safely through a large object, or are you focusing the effort in a small area? what happens if you try to spread a spell out over a large area? if its concentrated are we compesating for the strain on the structure, etc.
We assume arcana is understood and things are down to a process IC because OOC we put a lot of work into developing the spells we know, we have to remember though that IC, the arcana institutions have not realy been rp'd putting great effort into arcanic expiramentation, study, etc. In wich case where is all this suposed knowledge coming from? Are allerians k'trella or other creatures more intimately related with these forces politely sitting and writing 'arcana for idiots' for us? To be blunt the seperation of OOC knowledge and development and IC RP and has been just piss poor.
not to say I"m discouraging grand plans or developments by pc's, I just want equivalents level of effort at the IC knowledge, the required trial and error that exists even in modern science wich is far more cut and dry than arcana, etc. Three threads from an archmage is great(random example) but does that archmage even have the IC credentials beyond being a mage to justify the reward, RP effort or not.
but just the two cents of a semi retired player.Posted July 8, 2008 at 11:10 PM by Dimnersti
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