I know the solution. We need a map! Okay AoG has a nice map which I was working on at [URL=http://www.norlion.com/b5/main.html]Norlion's B5 maps[/URL]. Anyway we get the firstones forum involved in developing the universe ie factions, places to go, histories of colonies. I still get suprised that I don't have a comfortable feeling that I could move about the universe and know where to go, or what all to see or do.
Oh $$ hmm. Alright after next paycheck I'll make sure so see $$.
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Norlion [/i]
[B]I know the solution. We need a map! Okay AoG has a nice map which I was working on at [URL=http://www.norlion.com/b5/main.html]Norlion's B5 maps[/URL]. Anyway we get the firstones forum involved in developing the universe ie factions, places to go, histories of colonies. I still get suprised that I don't have a comfortable feeling that I could move about the universe and know where to go, or what all to see or do.[/B][/QUOTE]
Could you elaborate on this a bit? It seems like an interesting idea...
Elaboration. Okay. We've got all these systems and places and ships in Babylon 5. Despite all that we saw in the show the locations we visted were fairly few in number. Say for instance you are an independent trader trying to make a buck. What stations are around what systems? What races are friendly? How do they trade? What amazing sites are there to see? What do the civilian craft of other races look like? If I'm around the planet Earth and want to fly to the different stations what will New Hanse, Gagaran, New Kobe, EAS Prime and the rest look like? I don't know that let alone the aliens. We have all these games and mods in the works and most are focused on the relatively limited side of military engagements. What about the explorer?
What if we were to endeavor to "flesh out" the Babylon 5 universe. If would make programming and modding easier because where, what and how things are in the well known parts of space would already have been done.
AoG has tasty tid bits to this effect. Mongoose is trying to go deeper; but look Mongoose just does planets. There have to loads of space stations in every system. Mining, military, zero-g recreation, manufacturing, pirate bases, storage are all industries where space stations would be useful. The whole show is based around a space station. Yet do we ever go to another station besides B4?
What to the flora and fauna of critters on the other planets look like? What foods are good to eat? Like I said we have tid bits, but we could come up with a lot more. This is a grand project that everyone can work on as I suspect every modder has at some point asked questions about information that should be well known in the Babylon 5 universe but isn't.
Norlion's stuff comes from a variety of sources, by the way, mostly AoG's maps. His historical maps (not including year 2000, which came from Wars of the Centauri Republic) are extrapolations from the written history and AoG maps.
My fault. Here I have a degree in History and I am a poor sourcer of material. I bet there is still lot of AoG, but the books are dense and mostly filled with battle stuff. That's fun too, but the real meat is where and what thing are.
btw. Can you point me in the direction of Wiki? Is it a big inputable tree? If so we could put it in by power/system/object or something like that.
Well, a good example of a wiki would be [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page]Wikipedia[/url], which has inforamtion on, among (many) other things, [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki]wiki[/url] itself.
Cool I found the Babylon 5 stuff already there. [URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon_5]Babylon 5 topic in Wikipedia[/URL]. It's got good general information. Presumably we would add a new section. I notice a lack of visuals. I for one think visuals are very important. While most stations, planets etc. won't have immediate pictures to go with them it is important later to establish the "feel" of it all. Unlike present day fiction, science-fiction almost required visuals or is greatly enhanced by it. There might be pictures and I just haven't looked hard yet.
I think what Sanfam was suggesting was that we start our own, from scratch, not unlike [url=http://www.memory-alpha.org/]Memory Alpha[/url], a Star Trek Wiki.
Wow cool! Okay so we just need to set up a wiki on Firstones and then off we go! Start with some cannon (movies, books, comics) and move on to rpg and minitures stuff (aog, mongoose, chamelian ecletic) and then off into the mysterious unknown drawing out our own stuff from plausable explanations citing as we go. I love it. I can say I have a lot of time to investigate setting up this wiki but I can provide information once it is set up. Call it a cheesey cop out but I'm just being honest. Bekenn and I do have almost every AoG ever made, along with most of Mongoose and the more easily found Chamelian Ecletic. of course I believe there are online timelines with some sourcing already in place.
We've also got two options for naming. We could have the site on a seperate domain from firstones, or we could give it a subdomain. But even before that, it needs a name! What will it be called?
The first thing to come to my mind would be the title of that newspaper (The Universe Today?) featured in the series, but it sounds slightly improper for a reference site. Then came Babylpedia, Babcom Datalink, Earthforce Archives, and the straightforward "Epsilon Databank"
But all of these sound sort of silly...
I can't seem to find something that is memorable, but relevant and stuff.
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Sanfam [/i]
[B]The first thing to come to my mind would be the title of that newspaper (The Universe Today?) featured in the series, but it sounds slightly improper for a reference site.[/B][/QUOTE]
It's also already being used by a kickin' [url=http://www.universetoday.com/]astronomy newsletter[/url].
How about something based on "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars"? That had a big honkin' archive.
Or maybe "Sparky"?
"So maybe level 12 doesn't get its quota of oxygen today because I was distracted, what do you care?"
Wasn't the communications system called BabCom, with a symbol displayed on all the data terminals? Seems more appropriate to me, since ISN was the news and BabCom was where you wnet for information.
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by bobo [/i]
[B]Wasn't the communications system called BabCom, with a symbol displayed on all the data terminals? Seems more appropriate to me, since ISN was the news and BabCom was where you wnet for information.
Comments
Oh $$ hmm. Alright after next paycheck I'll make sure so see $$.
[B]I know the solution. We need a map! Okay AoG has a nice map which I was working on at [URL=http://www.norlion.com/b5/main.html]Norlion's B5 maps[/URL]. Anyway we get the firstones forum involved in developing the universe ie factions, places to go, histories of colonies. I still get suprised that I don't have a comfortable feeling that I could move about the universe and know where to go, or what all to see or do.[/B][/QUOTE]
Could you elaborate on this a bit? It seems like an interesting idea...
What if we were to endeavor to "flesh out" the Babylon 5 universe. If would make programming and modding easier because where, what and how things are in the well known parts of space would already have been done.
AoG has tasty tid bits to this effect. Mongoose is trying to go deeper; but look Mongoose just does planets. There have to loads of space stations in every system. Mining, military, zero-g recreation, manufacturing, pirate bases, storage are all industries where space stations would be useful. The whole show is based around a space station. Yet do we ever go to another station besides B4?
What to the flora and fauna of critters on the other planets look like? What foods are good to eat? Like I said we have tid bits, but we could come up with a lot more. This is a grand project that everyone can work on as I suspect every modder has at some point asked questions about information that should be well known in the Babylon 5 universe but isn't.
I'm a canon whore. As much as I like non-canon b5 stuff, there would have to be a distinct seperation between where canon ends and fan fiction begins.
Were this to be segmented between canon, fan, aog, etc, I think it'd be extremely nice :D
Edit: as for the means of organization, something just sprung to mind: Public Wiki! It's simple, it's open, it's easy to organize and maintain.
Norlion's stuff comes from a variety of sources, by the way, mostly AoG's maps. His historical maps (not including year 2000, which came from Wars of the Centauri Republic) are extrapolations from the written history and AoG maps.
btw. Can you point me in the direction of Wiki? Is it a big inputable tree? If so we could put it in by power/system/object or something like that.
The first thing to come to my mind would be the title of that newspaper (The Universe Today?) featured in the series, but it sounds slightly improper for a reference site. Then came Babylpedia, Babcom Datalink, Earthforce Archives, and the straightforward "Epsilon Databank"
But all of these sound sort of silly...
I can't seem to find something that is memorable, but relevant and stuff.
ISN Archive
[B]The first thing to come to my mind would be the title of that newspaper (The Universe Today?) featured in the series, but it sounds slightly improper for a reference site.[/B][/QUOTE]
It's also already being used by a kickin' [url=http://www.universetoday.com/]astronomy newsletter[/url].
How about something based on "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars"? That had a big honkin' archive.
Or maybe "Sparky"?
"So maybe level 12 doesn't get its quota of oxygen today because I was distracted, what do you care?"
ISA Database. We could stick the Human-Vorlon from 1 million AD on the front.
[B]ISN Archive [/B][/QUOTE]
I like this one.
Full domain, or subdomain? A full domain would set me back a whole $8, which isn't exactly much at all. So cost is not an issue.
[url]www.isnarchive.com[/url]
[url]www.isn-archive.com[/url] (I hate dashes, but it's an option)
isn.firstones.com
archive.firstones.com
isnarchive.firstones.com (long...)
;)
And a seperate domain is good since firstones.com is [i]theoretically[/i] mostly about ITF and it's history.
-Φ
Hey, it's being started by us, it should be clear to all who see it.
babcom.firstones.com?
[B]Wasn't the communications system called BabCom, with a symbol displayed on all the data terminals? Seems more appropriate to me, since ISN was the news and BabCom was where you wnet for information.
babcom.firstones.com? [/B][/QUOTE]
Try it and see what happens. :D
I have no idea what I just poked my head into, but it looked kinda neat.