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wingsofwrath In reply to frazamm [2011-10-23 17:03:08 +0000 UTC]

Thank you for your praise!

The reason aircraft carriers look like this is the fact there is no rubber (or rubber substitutes) in this world, so regular landing and arrestor gears are hard and expensive to build.
To overcome this problem, they've found the expedient solution of having airplanes hang from trapeze-like structures attached to overhead rails. This solves both problems with landing (when attached to a weight they work well in killing the aircraft's momentum) launching (when attached to a steam catapult) or simply marshalling in the hangar. For special maintenance however, the aircraft might be lowered onto ground based trolleys.
This solution works OK, but the lack of wheeled landing gear has the disadvantage that ground landings outside of purpose built aviation fields will result automatically in severe damage to the airplane.

You have already found the answer, they use rocket artillery.

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frazamm In reply to wingsofwrath [2011-10-23 17:25:03 +0000 UTC]

So what about the rest of transportation? They don't use wheels at all?

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wingsofwrath In reply to frazamm [2011-10-23 19:07:02 +0000 UTC]

Of course they do, they just don't have rubber tyres on them, that's all. Actually, right now I'm working on some road vehicles designs (both military and civilian) and I'll post them soon, once they're finished.

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frazamm In reply to wingsofwrath [2011-10-23 20:34:13 +0000 UTC]

So I have to assume they use different road surfaces than what we use in order not to damage the roads.

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wingsofwrath In reply to frazamm [2011-10-24 20:23:36 +0000 UTC]

They use cobbles for urban areas, tarmac for main roads, and the side roads are metalled. Country roads, are, of course, unpaved. Even though they don't use rubber tyres, the roads don't get damaged that easily. After all, they've been using tarmac since 1845 while the first rubber tyre was invented in 1887...

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frazamm In reply to wingsofwrath [2011-10-25 05:39:49 +0000 UTC]

Rubber is used for many things and you have also ruled out substitutes. There is no rubber I assume because there are no such trees to produce it? I think you need several workarounds for most things that use rubber or something similar. What about plastics? I know it might be early years for its synthesis but someone could be researching it.

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wingsofwrath In reply to frazamm [2011-10-25 11:22:25 +0000 UTC]

Because they originally came from a high tech world as refugees, they know vaguely the basic concept of rubber, but, unfortunately, there are no rubber trees in this world and they haven't found anything to replace it.
They are actively researching for alternatives, but so far all the plastics they've managed to manufacture are brittle and were produced experimentally in limited quantities. They are, however, well on the way of discovering a viable rubber substitute.

Of course, when I took the step of eliminating rubber, I made a list of all the different uses it has in our world and thought of workarounds. For Example, no rubber means no high pressure applications such as pneumatics and hydraulics are possible, and all lower pressure applications that must be liquid or gas proof must do with treated leather instead, which also caused the raising of livestock to become a very profitable industry.

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frazamm In reply to wingsofwrath [2011-10-25 12:37:26 +0000 UTC]

Have you published this? Or do you intend to? Keep us posted. This is very intensive world building!

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wingsofwrath In reply to frazamm [2011-10-25 13:30:50 +0000 UTC]

I'm still at the final polishing stages, I hope to have the first chapter of the graphic novel up on the internet before the end of the year. I'm glad you like my little project!

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wingsofwrath In reply to ozoneocean [2011-01-16 21:09:54 +0000 UTC]

Thank you!
And, of course, you nailed dead on in terms of inspiration, even though I did sneak some bits from WW2 Japanese ships as well...

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wingsofwrath In reply to kittyexplosion [2011-01-14 18:25:58 +0000 UTC]

It's an alphabet based on the early Glagolitsa, the precursor of the modern Slavic alphabet, with several influences from the Armanian wryting system thrown in. The whole lot was then transformed into a computer typeface so that it can be easily typed using a standard Latin alphabet "Qwerty" keyboard (not in this case, of course, since here all was hand drawn, but you get the idea).

That is, of course, the lazy man's way of making a foreign looking language (Tolkien would be ashamed) - create a typeface that roughly corresponds to the typical 26 letter Latin alphabet and use an already known language in which to write the text (I speak five. I can choose )

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kittyexplosion In reply to wingsofwrath [2011-01-14 23:55:49 +0000 UTC]

I'm lazy a bit in that regard too. I just go over to [link] Omniglot and poke until I find something I like.

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wingsofwrath In reply to kittyexplosion [2011-01-15 14:10:57 +0000 UTC]

Heh. Yeas, that site is indeed a good place to start, because it encompasses the basics of many languages in the same place. Of course, if you need something more complicated than "my hovercraft is full of eels", you can then go to a specialist website...

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