Wil
First Post
jdrakeh's thread about science fiction games brought up a spot that I often forget about in one of my favorite games, Jovian Chronicles. People always assume it's a mecha game (it does, after all, feature mecha on the cover), yet for some reason I always overlook the mecha - partly because they're just part of the setting but moreso because there's so much else that's cool in the setting and the mecha are so easily removed.
So I wanted to sum up some of the things that are cool in Jovian Chronicles, things that might get overlooked by someone who has been turned off by a giant robot on the cover.
* Technology that is not rampant nor completely changing what it is to be human. There are a set of agreed upon treaties, called the Edicts, that intentionally limit research in certain fields. The technology - such as genetic engineering and nanotechnology - is there, it's just controlled.
* Mercurian Merchant Guild solar sail barges
* Venusian polar cities on kilometer high "stilts" (the "stilts" are actually massive heat sinks that not only elevate the city above the boiling ground below, but are serving to cool it down).
* The ultimate puppetmasters, the Venusian megacorps, headed by the Venus Bank. Also, the extremely high technology level that Venusian society enjoys - yet still (marginally) remains within the Edicts.
* Skyhooks - platforms in near Earth orbit that extend into the Earth's atmosphere and out of it as well. An atmospheric cargo craft flies to the landing platform, offloads cargo, and it's shipped up in elevators to the space-based station where it can either be launched via massdriver or loaded onto cargo shuttles or ships. Imagine being somewhere equatorial and looking up to see the fiery trails left by the skyhooks.
* One of the few true "good guys" of the setting, the Martian Free Republic, having hovertanks that beat the snot out of the Martian Federation every single time. It's nice seeing the little guy have a technological advantage like that.
* The 'Vater Crater, the remains of the Martian space elevator that was taken down by terrorists.
* Nomads living in the asteroid belt who value competency above all else, and are the master MacGyvers in the setting. Nomads are highly sought after for ship crews everywhere.
* The Jovian Confederation as the only nation that does not have some kind of terra firma beneath its feet, living in colony cylinders at various points along Jupiter's orbit. The depiction of life within their massive colony cylinders really helps to understand what it would be like to live at the outskirts of human-explored space.
* Cool ship designs (most have rotating crew sections...that's cool enough).
* No aliens, FTL, or psionics.
Those certainly aren't the only cool things, but they're what pops into my head before I even think of mecha. So, the next time you're looking for a hard science-fiction setting give Jovian Chronicles a second look, if the first time you glazed over it because of the mecha.
So I wanted to sum up some of the things that are cool in Jovian Chronicles, things that might get overlooked by someone who has been turned off by a giant robot on the cover.
* Technology that is not rampant nor completely changing what it is to be human. There are a set of agreed upon treaties, called the Edicts, that intentionally limit research in certain fields. The technology - such as genetic engineering and nanotechnology - is there, it's just controlled.
* Mercurian Merchant Guild solar sail barges
* Venusian polar cities on kilometer high "stilts" (the "stilts" are actually massive heat sinks that not only elevate the city above the boiling ground below, but are serving to cool it down).
* The ultimate puppetmasters, the Venusian megacorps, headed by the Venus Bank. Also, the extremely high technology level that Venusian society enjoys - yet still (marginally) remains within the Edicts.
* Skyhooks - platforms in near Earth orbit that extend into the Earth's atmosphere and out of it as well. An atmospheric cargo craft flies to the landing platform, offloads cargo, and it's shipped up in elevators to the space-based station where it can either be launched via massdriver or loaded onto cargo shuttles or ships. Imagine being somewhere equatorial and looking up to see the fiery trails left by the skyhooks.
* One of the few true "good guys" of the setting, the Martian Free Republic, having hovertanks that beat the snot out of the Martian Federation every single time. It's nice seeing the little guy have a technological advantage like that.
* The 'Vater Crater, the remains of the Martian space elevator that was taken down by terrorists.
* Nomads living in the asteroid belt who value competency above all else, and are the master MacGyvers in the setting. Nomads are highly sought after for ship crews everywhere.
* The Jovian Confederation as the only nation that does not have some kind of terra firma beneath its feet, living in colony cylinders at various points along Jupiter's orbit. The depiction of life within their massive colony cylinders really helps to understand what it would be like to live at the outskirts of human-explored space.
* Cool ship designs (most have rotating crew sections...that's cool enough).
* No aliens, FTL, or psionics.
Those certainly aren't the only cool things, but they're what pops into my head before I even think of mecha. So, the next time you're looking for a hard science-fiction setting give Jovian Chronicles a second look, if the first time you glazed over it because of the mecha.
