organic ships

[Mayito777]

But there not cybernetic implants. There organic implants for an organic ship. I'm talking about organs, legs and arms here. It would be a bit yuk to have to mix and match parts like that. So growing parts seems cleaner some how.

Depends in how you name the parts, if you for example, name a part that will increase the speed of the ship as "multicell booster" there will not be anything yuk on it, but if you called "liver enhancing booster" that is other thing. I think

[utilae]

Well from a game point of view, the player will still design an organic ship in parts, eg laser, shields, etc.

But from a story point of view, adding the laser is not stitching on a laser but it is instead growing a laser (ie the organic ship will recieve dna instructions and promptly grow a laser).

This is my point anyway. How it works from a story point of view. It's not important, just fluff, technobabble from an organic point of view, so yeah.

[Rapunzel]

That is why I would say that Organic ships shouldn't be able to be refittet. The DNA plannes it all and if you want to refitt such a ship you would have to stitch ... but those kind of ships should have some advantage ...

[utilae]

In the Alien movies evolution and growth is rapid, eg chestbusters pop out and grow into full xenomorphs within a few hours.

So you would think that would be the advantage we want for organic ships.

[marhawkman]

Well from a game point of view, the player will still design an organic ship in parts, eg laser, shields, etc.

But from a story point of view, adding the laser is not stitching on a laser but it is instead growing a laser (ie the organic ship will recieve dna instructions and promptly grow a laser).

This is my point anyway. How it works from a story point of view. It's not important, just fluff, technobabble from an organic point of view, so yeah.

Hmmm... You could do it so that the ship is (in a way) just carrying the non-organic parts with it.

That is why I would say that Organic ships shouldn't be able to be refittet. The DNA plannes it all and if you want to refitt such a ship you would have to stitch ... but those kind of ships should have some advantage ...

Why not Mutate the DNA? Instead of upgrading an Organic ship you could simply feed it a mutagen that would cause it to turn into the newer ship.

[Rapunzel]

Why not Mutate the DNA? Instead of upgrading an Organic ship you could simply feed it a mutagen that would cause it to turn into the newer ship.

I try to look from the gamplay perspective where there have to be advantages and disadvantages. If there are only advantages there will only be Organic spaceships.
By the way Organic ships could have rearly havy armor tike turtles ...

[Mayito777]

Another thing you could consider is the use of "organic nanotechnology" that can be used to grow or improve/upgrade those parts of the ship. Maybe a new tech such as "Organic Nanotechnology" could be use to refit those organic ships.

[utilae]

I try to look from the gamplay perspective where there have to be advantages and disadvantages. If there are only advantages there will only be Organic spaceships.
By the way Organic ships could have rearly havy armor tike turtles ...

I think the disadvantage should be weak armour. So yeah, they explode in a flurry of blood and guts

[Kharagh]

Another disadvantage of organic ships could be that you can't transfer its experience to newer, bigger ships.
On an organic ship, there is no crew, the ship gets the experience. So you would have to transplant the ship's brain to use its experience for another ship.

maybe we could add some extremely high special tech which allows you to transfer a ships conscience into a newer, bigger ship and thus allows the transfer of experience, but that should really be at the end of the tech tree.

[Rapunzel]

I think the disadvantage should be weak armour. So yeah, they explode in a flurry of blood and guts

All right, that is a gross part of organic ships that wont get away
But low armor is only important if it is imporatant in battle, so this should be somewat significant ... although I don't know, why organic ships shouldn't have Laser-reflecting Skin, or something like that...

Another disadvantage of organic ships could be that you can't transfer its experience to newer, bigger ships.
On an organic ship, there is no crew, the ship gets the experience. So you would have to transplant the ship's brain to use its experience for another ship.

Why is there no crew? In Lexx there is a Crew. This doesn't have to be like BC, although there only the fighters have no crew, the big ships still have manny abord.

[Skaro]

I like how organic ships are handled in B5, the Shadow and Vorlon vessels could basicly faction with and without a crew.

Or in the Guyver anime/manga, the organic ship there even has a chat with whoever is connected to the system.

[marhawkman]

Or Gomtuu in Startrek.... I think the main thing here is that Bio ships can function normally without a crew at all. Maybe have certain funtions work better with a crew, but they wouldn't need them.

[MikkoM]

Personally I have always admired organic ships especially in Babylon 5 as I think producing a living organism which can survive in space, travel faster than light, endure damage in space battles and have some sort of weapons demands very advanced technology.

Now if we think of our own time for example we can already send ships to space and split atoms to produce energy, but if we look at our bio tehnology it is still in a very early stage. We can`t for example construct living cells from non living substances, we are just beginning to realize how our genes work etc.

This just shows that the ability to do complicated things with biology, like altering our own gene make up, demands alot of knowledge of other sciences like physics and chemistry. And that is why I see the organic ships as one of the highest points in the ship development.

Now this brings up the problem if some species should have organic ships in the early stages of the game. Personally I think that if all the species start the game from the same point of technological development then there probably shouldn`t be any organic ships in the early stages of the game as like I already mentioned it takes very advanced technology to be able to build these ships. Unless of course some species could use some other organisms to produce the ships for them like bees produce honey to us, but this seems like a very strange possibility.

I think that the organic ships would enter the game in the very late stages of technological development and they would be one of the highest points in the ship development. Now of course then there should be also a similar highest point of development in the more traditional metal and electronic technology kind of ship production. One of the possibilities that comes to my mind is that maybe these ships could be like living biological ones, but insted of biomass these ships could be made by using nanotechnology. And example of this could maybe be found from Babylon 5 as well, as some people think that the Shadow ships were made out of nanites, although I personally have always considered them as organic ships.

Now what advantages the organic ships could have. Personally I think that they would be able to repair themselves much faster than the traditional ships as the cells would divide and fix the damage caused by weapons. Also they wouldn`t need so much maintenance as the traditional ships as they would be quite self sustaining organisms, although you might need a couple of vets to take care of your fleets. And what comes to the food I think that the organic ships could maybe use photosynthesis or some other synthesis to produce their food so that they would only need some basic elements and maybe some sun light to produce their food. Also the ability to grow them could give them lower production times than those of the traditional ships.

I wouldn`t see the ability to use electrical technology in organic ships or the other way around so unnatural, as if we think of the achievements of our modern medicine we can already use some sort of electrical equipment to give a blind person the ability to see atleast some shapes. So maybe you could have for example a bio hull in a traditional ship. This kind of ability would also help the player to take advantage of the technological development as even if you couldn`t yet grow a completely organic ship you would be able to use some organic components in your traditional ships.

[utilae]

Now this brings up the problem if some species should have organic ships in the early stages of the game. Personally I think that if all the species start the game from the same point of technological development then there probably shouldn`t be any organic ships in the early stages of the game as like I already mentioned it takes very advanced technology to be able to build these ships.

If the race is a plant race, then this technology comes natural to them. Artificial ships made of metal would not come natural for them in this case.

We could handle this a few ways.
(for an organic race, eg plants)
-Biology techs in general get a research bonus, while engineering gets a penalty.
-Specific organic ship techs are placed at the bottom or near bottom of the tech tree, while metal ship techs are placed near the top.
-The race may pick one high level biology tech (eg organic ship), but the penalty is not being able to research techs in Engineering category above X levels. Alternative penalties, is that the opposite tech (metal ships) is 'banned' or placed at a high level.

One of the possibilities that comes to my mind is that maybe these ships could be like living biological ones, but insted of biomass these ships could be made by using nanotechnology. And example of this could maybe be found from Babylon 5 as well, as some people think that the Shadow ships were made out of nanites, although I personally have always considered them as organic ships.

A better example of a nanite ship is from Stargate, the replicators. They had a ship made entirely of replicators (an alien nanite race). A captive on board the ship watched as the walls around her changed dynamically and even formed into a human form replicator to interrigate her.

And what comes to the food I think that the organic ships could maybe use photosynthesis or some other synthesis to produce their food so that they would only need some basic elements and maybe some sun light to produce their food. Also the ability to grow them could give them lower production times than those of the traditional ships.

It is a good idea that an organic ship has no maintenance, since they heal and only really need food (like a plant race sunlight, water and minerals). Disadvantages for organic ships might be lifespan, do they die. Do they grow slowly (or fast like in Alien movies). Advantages may be do they reproduce.

A nanite ship may have similar properties, no maintenance since they are so small if a nanite is lost, they could probably manufacture more by forming some nanites into mini factories. A food source may be a source of energy, each nanite might have micro reactors, maybe they don't need for as a result, or their communication means is also there means of communicating power, therefore no powersupply in range and they die.

[marhawkman]

so when do all of these nice ideas get used?