Celestia Forums

Dear fellow Celestians,

I've seen the ML.

I've seen the web-site.

I clearly understand this as a work of fiction, but if you care to post your take on what the whole Arcbuilders thing is especially with it's relation to Celestia. I for one whould be interested to know...to clarify, As a work of fiction it does not hold that much interest for me (in regard to Celstia that is..) but am I missing something else here?

regards

Osmium

osmium wrote:Dear fellow Celestians,

I've seen the ML.

I've seen the web-site.

I clearly understand this as a work of fiction, but if you care to post your take on what the whole Arcbuilders thing is especially with it's relation to Celestia. I for one whould be interested to know...to clarify, As a work of fiction it does not hold that much interest for me (in regard to Celstia that is..) but am I missing something else here?

regards

Osmium

To clarify the main question (I think it is the main question), the ArcBuilder relation to Celestia is actually quite shallow. Celestia provides me with an excellent tool to visualize the fictional setting for the ArcBuilder Universe. The Motherlode provides me with an excellent place to provide these Add-ons to others, in case they are interested (as some have surprisingly been). There really isn't any more of a relationship than that.

Where you looking for some other meaning or information on the setting?

...John...

Dollan wrote:
To clarify the main question (I think it is the main question), the ArcBuilder relation to Celestia is actually quite shallow. Celestia provides me with an excellent tool to visualize the fictional setting for the ArcBuilder Universe.
...

Well, since someone is asking what I always wanted to know:

What is the ArcBuilder Universe?? Is this a piece of world literature that I missed or following a TV series or a movie...or what?

Bye Fridger

t00fri wrote:Well, since someone is asking what I always wanted to know:

What is the ArcBuilder Universe?? Is this a piece of world literature that I missed or following a TV series or a movie...or what?

Bye Fridger

**chuckles** I wish. It is a fictional setting designed by myself and my wife, and is an ongoing project. It is something of an online collaborative effort as well, the fruits of which - I hope - will lead to published works. Currently I have several writing projects set in the ArcBuilder Universe, but these are worked on in my spare time. When I get the chance, I sit down and pound on the computer; one of my writing projects is up to about 200 written pages. But coupled with work and family, this is a very slow going process!

I do try to make things relatively accurate, scientifically, but since my knowledge base is rather limited (and it *is* science fiction after all), I'm certain that there is a huge amount of room for improvement in those areas!

...John...

Dollan wrote:

t00fri wrote:Well, since someone is asking what I always wanted to know:

What is the ArcBuilder Universe?? Is this a piece of world literature that I missed or following a TV series or a movie...or what?

Bye Fridger

**chuckles** I wish. It is a fictional setting designed by myself and my wife, and is an ongoing project. It is something of an online collaborative effort as well, the fruits of which - I hope - will lead to published works. Currently I have several writing projects set in the ArcBuilder Universe, but these are worked on in my spare time. When I get the chance, I sit down and pound on the computer; one of my writing projects is up to about 200 written pages. But coupled with work and family, this is a very slow going process!

I do try to make things relatively accurate, scientifically, but since my knowledge base is rather limited (and it *is* science fiction after all), I'm certain that there is a huge amount of room for improvement in those areas!

...John...

Thanks! At last my knowledge base has been upgraded accordingly

Bye Fridger

t00fri wrote:Thanks! At last my knowledge base has been upgraded accordingly

Bye Fridger

Always glad for the chance of a wee bit of self-promotion!

...John...

Thanks for the clarification.

It is a cool idea/project

Thanks

Osmium

I've installed much from Arcbuilders, even though I never really knew what it was all about. I enjoy meandering about the quadrant manually (by joystick, that is), pretending to explore. Arcbuilders simply fleshes out more star systems. I enjoy the diversity, and since I've never made an effort to learn much about the different ficitonal systems, I'm often surprised by what I find.

-

Captain Nephilim wrote:I've installed much from Arcbuilders, even though I never really knew what it was all about. I enjoy meandering about the quadrant manually (by joystick, that is), pretending to explore. Arcbuilders simply fleshes out more star systems. I enjoy the diversity, and since I've never made an effort to learn much about the different ficitonal systems, I'm often surprised by what I find.

-

Many of the systems there are horribly out of date, unfortunately. A lot of the newer ones have models in them that give a bit more visualization to the whole setting. The out of date ones I'm trying to replace in good time, but the going is slow, especially now that I'm working on updating the Sol System to fit into the setting.

...John...

Hi, this message is for Dollan. Do you have a website describing the arcbuilder universe. Also. I noticed you said you have a lot of question regarding the scientific accuracy of the work. If you have any particular science questions, id be very happy to help.
-chris

chrisr wrote:Hi, this message is for Dollan. Do you have a website describing the arcbuilder universe....
-chris

Yup. Listed with my sig file. Feel free to browse around, or even join the list if you choose.

...John...

John is too modest. For those who have not yet found the links to his work here they are;

Here is the index page for John's Arcbuilders website
http://arcbuilder.home.bresnan.net/Index01.html

here is the Arcbuilders worldbuilding Yahoo mailing list;
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/arcbuilders/

here is the Planetary Classification list, which is also used by many other worldbuilders apart from the Arcbuilders group
http://arcbuilder.home.bresnan.net/PCL01.html

(and here is the Orion's Arm version, also written by John)
http://www.orionsarm.com/science/Non-lu ... tions.html



Worldbuilding is an unusual hobby, one which I have been involved in for more than thirty years in one way or another. Building your own world, or set of worlds, can be fascinating and absorbing in itself; creating a plausible world can involve knowledge of, or research into, astronomy, geology, chemistry, biology as well as political science and philosophy.

Worldbuilding can be used as a basis for works of fiction; this aspect of the craft has long roots, with such authors as Tolkein, C.S. Lewis and even the Brontes creating their own detailed worlds for fictional purposes.

Celestia is an extraordinarily useful tool for worldbuilders, and we are very grateful for this program. If it seems strange that worldbuilders like John and myself are creating so many fictional add-ons, all I can say is that this should not deter the creators of non-fictional and educational material; as a worldbuilder I am always extremely interested in scientifically accurate add-ons and other material and respect the creators of such work.