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[icepick37]

Haha, yeah Ghoti, I was thinking the same thing.

Or perhaps you blink the shield at just the right moment to allow pass-through. And the astronomical odds of enemy fire passing through at the exact same instant is just abstracted away to nothing.

[GUNINANRUNIN]

I've always kinda wondered, just how are shields explained in starfarer 

Since well, they seem to be selectively able to choose what passes through (your weapons) but blocks everything (their weapons) but also not everything (fighters)
Seems like it is just another one of those deus ex machinas

Fighters are presumably flying over and around the ship.

[sdmike1]

(This is the only place I could think to post this so here it goes...)

Perhaps i am reading to far into this but, it almost seems like with many of the factions that we have met you can draw detect parallels  with parts of Alex's life particularly his childhood.  Little bit of background on Alex for those who don't know, he was born in Moscow, judging from the way he talks (online) and the games he says he played as a kid i would place his age in the late twenties to early thirties , the wall was still up when he was born he later moved to America where he has lived sense(feel free to correct me on any points which i am wrong).  Take the Hegemony for instance; big, militaristic, dominating, use a large cheap military, all traits similar to the USSR.  The Tri-Tachyon corp on the other hand represents america or more precisely capitalism unbounded.  They use a expensive  relatively small force (similar to America in the cold war).  The player may represent Alex attempting to navigate the world.

Thoughts, feedback, any and all is appreciated!

[Gothars]

Yes, you are reading to far into this.

[harrumph]

Au contraire! The US and the USSR during the Cold War each represented the textbook definition of hegemony, and both were big, militaristic, and dominating. Both used large, expensive militaries (Soviet equipment wasn't always well-maintained, but it was extremely sophisticated and cost them far more than they could really afford). They may have wrapped themselves in different flags, so to speak, but they behaved very similarly. I think you could actually argue that the US was the more aggressive, more archetypically hegemonic power; the Soviets generally maintained a defensive posture and didn't engage in such dramatic adventurism as the Americans.

And yeah, you're definitely reading too much into it, but I like the idea of applying literary textual analysis to a game. It's a shame we don't do it more often!

(If I were Alex, though, I think I might be a little weirded out.)

[BillyRueben]

I like the idea of applying literary textual analysis to a game. It's a shame we don't do it more often!

It really isn't. People read in to things that just aren't there to begin with. Of course, people do the same thing with any kind of art.

[Alex]

(If I were Alex, though, I think I might be a little weirded out.)

 

Off-topic question: does anything about the way I speak write give away that I'm not a native English speaker? Aside from the occasional dropped article, that is - for which, if on Twitter, I plead 140 chars

[BillyRueben]

Off-topic question: does anything about the way I speak write give away that I'm not a native English speaker? Aside from the occasional dropped article, that is - for which, if on Twitter, I plead 140 chars

Write? No. Speak? Yes. Until I heard that interview you did for (insert gaming website here), I didn't suspect anything.

[Uomoz]

Off-topic question: does anything about the way I speak write give away that I'm not a native English speaker? Aside from the occasional dropped article, that is - for which, if on Twitter, I plead 140 chars

Write? No. Speak? Yes. Until I heard that interview you did for (insert gaming website here), I didn't suspect anything.

Ha! Googled that out: http://www.immortalmachines.com/?p=641

[Alex]

Gah! Man, it's so weird to hear yourself talk.

Sorry for taking this completely off-topic

To bring it back:

Or perhaps you blink the shield at just the right moment to allow pass-through. And the astronomical odds of enemy fire passing through at the exact same instant is just abstracted away to nothing.

Or the shields are one-way. Or the technology allows for small gaps to be created, in time with the projectiles leaving the ship. Advanced enough technology, magic, etc. (Not that it doesn't need to be self-consistent, but that's a slightly different matter.)

[Uomoz]

What about shields similar to what Dune have: in that case is the speed of the projectile that matters, in SF maybe the *direction* and *vector* (outgoing projectiles are allowed).

[harrumph]

It really isn't. People read in to things that just aren't there to begin with. Of course, people do the same thing with any kind of art.

Yeah, I studied English literature (and may yet go on to get a PhD) so this kind of nonsense is my bread & butter. Not to derail the thread even further, but I do think there's value in "things that just aren't there to begin with"—literary criticism has gone way too far in terms of thinking authorial intent irrelevant, but there's often more to a text than just what its author consciously intended.

[BillyRueben]

It really isn't. People read in to things that just aren't there to begin with. Of course, people do the same thing with any kind of art.

Yeah, I studied English literature (and may yet go on to get a PhD) so this kind of nonsense is my bread & butter. Not to derail the thread even further, but I do think there's value in "things that just aren't there to begin with"—literary criticism has gone way too far in terms of thinking authorial intent irrelevant, but there's often more to a text than just what its author consciously intended.

I guess I'm just going to have to agree to disagree. I find that a lot of the time the author just wants to tell a good story and a game developer just wants to make a good game.

[icepick37]

Off-topic question: does anything about the way I speak write give away that I'm not a native English speaker? Aside from the occasional dropped article, that is - for which, if on Twitter, I plead 140 chars

Yeah, sometimes the way you write things hints of the second language. But it's all nuance and I can't think of a specific example. And I wouldn't have been sure until you said that.

[sdmike1]

(If I were Alex, though, I think I might be a little weirded out.)

 

Off-topic question: does anything about the way I speak write give away that I'm not a native English speaker? Aside from the occasional dropped article, that is - for which, if on Twitter, I plead 140 chars

I was talking in terms of age not if English is your second language sorry for the confusion