Status Reports – Page 11 – Sharrukin's Palace

Status Report (29 March 2022)

March 30, 2022 Sharrukin Comments 5 comments

Well, I was beginning to think March would be another month of not reaching my main goals, but the last few days have been more productive than I might have expected.

My primary project this month was to produce the initial partial draft of the “special and unusual cases” section for Architect of Worlds. At the moment, that section isn’t complete, and it probably won’t be complete before the end of the month. On the other hand, I expect it will have about 8000-9000 words of new material, which is right on the threshold of what I would consider worth sending to my patrons as a charged release.

I’m therefore about 90% certain that there will be a charged release for this month, probably appearing on 31 March, consisting of the first interim partial draft of this section of Architect. As with the other sections that I’ve been working on, especially the main design sequence, this is the only draft for which my patrons will be charged. Later additions and updates to that section will be free releases.

I should point out that this is very nearly the last section that needs to be written for Architect of Worlds. There’s still one section outstanding – the one describing how to design maps of interstellar space for a science-fiction setting – but I’m anticipating that section may be fairly short on word count. I may take a crack at that section next month . . . depending, of course, on what else might present itself as ready to spring from my brow, fully armed and with a mighty shout.

What’s really encouraging is that if that last section does get down on paper, virtually speaking, it means the book will actually be finished, at least in a rough draft. The very next step I would take at that point is to integrate all of the sections into a single coherent draft, after which my patrons and readers would be getting updates to the whole book at once. I anticipate a few months of further editing and polishing before the text gets finalized, and I move to actual layout and production.

There seems to be a reasonable chance that Architect of Worlds will actually be published before the end of calendar year 2022. After which I suspect I will be heaving an enormous sigh of relief.

Architect of Worlds: the “Special Cases” Outline

March 6, 2022 Sharrukin Comments 4 comments

A quick taste for what I’ll be working on this month. This is a section of the eventual book that will cover “special cases” in the design process, things that stand as exceptions or as extra details outside the main body of the world design sequence.

Hopefully this will end up being enough material (10-15 thousand words or more) to justify a new release for my patrons this month. Actually, now would also be a good time for any of my readers to suggest anything else that might fit into this section. Drop me a line if there’s some special topic that you want to see addressed that isn’t in this sketch outline.

Special Cases in Worldbuilding

Generating Stars in Unusual Regions
- OB Associations
- Open Clusters and Stellar Associations
- Inter-Arm Space
- Galactic Halo
Unusual Stars
- Massive Main-Sequence Stars
- Neutron Stars
- Black Holes
- Flare Stars
Planetary Systems for Non-Main Sequence Stars
- Brown Dwarfs
- Subgiant and Giant Stars
- White Dwarfs and Stellar Remnants
Planetary Systems for Multiple Stars
Special Features for Planetary Systems
- Asteroids and Comets
- Planetoid Belts
- Kuiper Belt
- Oort Cloud
- Rogue Planets
- Trojan Planets
Unusual Worlds
- Ammonia Worlds
- Carbon Worlds
- Chthonian Worlds
- Lava Worlds
Fine-Tuning World Climate
- Effects of Orbital Eccentricity
- Effects of Obliquity
- Effects of Daily Rotation
- Effects of Altitude
- Effects of Local Geography
- Tide-Locked Worlds

Planning for March 2022

March 5, 2022 Sharrukin Comments 0 Comment

Well, February was at least somewhat successful – I managed a major rewrite of sections of the Architect of Worlds design sequence, and released a new interim draft of that for a wide audience. I think in March I’m going to try to keep up my momentum there, and work on some new sections of the book. It would be nice if I could have the whole rough draft finished before summer, so I could work on final polish and layout and actually get the book out at last.

There’s one new development in how I’m planning to structure these projects. I’m going to break the Human Destiny setting bible into two distinct books for eventual publication under the Cepheus Engine game rules. The core setting bible itself will get the working title of the Human Destiny Player’s Guide, and then there’s going to be a separate Atlas of the Human Protectorate that provides location data and adventure seeds. My patrons will get free updates to the Player’s Guide, since I’ve already charged them for that once, but the Atlas will likely be a charged release once there’s enough material there to justify one.

Meanwhile, I really need to get unblocked on Krava’s Legend again if I can. it’s been well over a year since The Curse of Steel was published, and it needs to start getting sequels if the series is ever going to attract an audience.

Here’s the list for March:

Top Priority (“this is how I’ll judge whether the month has been successful”)
- Architect of Worlds: Start work on a section describing the structure of the galaxy and of interstellar space, and providing guidelines on how to make maps for interstellar settings.
- Architect of Worlds: Start work on a section of special cases and additional worldbuilding material that doesn’t fit into the design sequence.
- Human Destiny: Start compiling material for the eventual Atlas of the Human Protectorate, meanwhile giving the Architect of Worlds material a good workout.
- Krava’s Legend: Review and possibly rewrite the existing partial draft of The Sunlit Lands, and write a few new chapters.
Second Priority (“work on this as time permits”):
- Human Destiny: Design additional new rules systems for the Player’s Guide and add these to the interim draft.
- Krava’s Legend: Write the second short story for the “reader magnet” collection.
Back Burner (“work on this only if everything else gets blocked”):
- Human Destiny: Finish the novelette “Remnants” for eventual collection and publication.
- Scorpius Reach: Write a few new chapters of Second Dawn.
- Scorpius Reach: Start work on a third edition of the Game of Empire rules for Traveller (or Cepheus Engine)

I think the top priority for a charged release will be to get the initial draft of the “special cases and additional worldbuilding topics” material finished. The other items are more likely to give rise to free updates for my patrons.

Status Report (26 February 2022)

February 26, 2022 Sharrukin Comments 0 Comment

The best-laid plans of mice and men, and all that.

My plan for February was to get a major update of the world-design sequence for Architect of Worlds out the door, and then pivot to finishing the Human Destiny novelette “Remnants” before the end of the month. Okay, one out of two isn’t bad.

It turns out that writing a murder mystery is hard. I’ve rewritten “Remnants” three times in the past couple of weeks, and I keep finding plot holes that mean the story still won’t work. I don’t think there’s any way the story will be finished to my satisfaction before the end of February. I’m honestly not sure how long it will take me to get it straightened out, even if I stay focused on it to the exclusion of other projects.

It appears to be time to throw in the towel and move to something else, while the back of my brain works on “Remnants” on its own schedule. That means there will be no charged release for February for my patrons. I’m going to concentrate on getting started on a new project for next month, and in the meantime pushing a book review out with what’s left of this month. I’ll post a planning message early in March as usual.

Planning for February 2022

February 2, 2022 Sharrukin Comments 0 Comment

Well, my day job is a little less demanding as January turns into February – my two big projects for calendar year 2021 are almost finished and I don’t have any big new projects for 2022. At least not yet. So I’m expecting to make good progress on a couple of creative projects this month. Here’s the main list:

Top Priority (“this is how I’ll judge whether the month has been successful”)
- Architect of Worlds: Rewrite sections of the Introduction and Design Sequence segment, based on new research, hopefully simplifying several steps of the sequence having to do with the placement of planets. I may also take this opportunity to update all the worked examples and make all the mathematical notation more consistent.
- Human Destiny: Finish the novelette “Remnants” for eventual collection and publication.
- Human Destiny: Finish writing an article for the Cepheus Journal about the game-book project.
Second Priority (“work on this as time permits”):
- Krava’s Legend: Write a few new chapters of The Sunlit Lands.
- Architect of Worlds: Start work on a section describing the structure of the galaxy and of interstellar space, and providing guidelines on how to make maps for interstellar settings.
- Human Destiny: Produce a high-level map of terraformed Mars.
- Human Destiny: Research and produce a timeline for the terraforming of Mars.
- Scorpius Reach: Write a few new chapters of Second Dawn.
Back Burner (“work on this only if everything else gets blocked”):
- Architect of Worlds: Start work on a section of special cases and additional worldbuilding material that doesn’t fit into the design sequence.
- Krava’s Legend: Write the second short story for the “reader magnet” collection.
- Scorpius Reach: Start work on a third edition of the Game of Empire rules for Traveller (or Cepheus Engine)

The work on Architect of Worlds is probably the top priority this month. The end result there will probably be a version 0.8 draft of the Introduction and World Design Sequence. That new document will be a free update for my patrons.

I’m also considering releasing the new partial for free on this blog site, in an attempt to generate some new interest for the project. There have been a lot of changes and improvements since the version that’s currently available to the public. My patrons will continue to get any further updates to that document as free rewards, until there’s another major overhaul or the book as a whole is about ready for layout and release.

Meanwhile, I should be able to complete the novelette “Remnants” this month, and if that ends up being long enough, I’ll likely make it the charged release for February.

Status Report (30 January 2022)

January 30, 2022 Sharrukin Comments 0 Comment

Well, the honey and the biscuits are not quite coming out even.

I’m making decent progress on “Remnants,” a new Human Destiny novelette. However, that’s going more slowly than I had expected; I’m discovering that writing a murder mystery is a bit more challenging than my usual genre. I’ve also settled on an indie novel to review before the end of the month, and I’m plowing through that text at a rapid pace. Unfortunately, I don’t think I have enough free hours left before the end of the month to get both tasks finished.

Doing at least one book review a month has to take precedence, so as a result, there will be no charged release for my patrons for January 2022. I’ll most likely be able to finish “Remnants” in the first week or so of February, and that will probably be the next charged release. I haven’t settled on the next major project to get attention, but I suspect I may be looking hard at a major round of revisions to the Architect of Worlds design sequence, based on the new research I mentioned in this post from last week.

More news early in February.

New Models for Planetary Formation

January 24, 2022 Sharrukin Comments 5 comments

Rings in the protoplanetary disk around the young star HD163296 (Image courtesy of Andrea Isella/Rice University)

The science of planetary formation has been advancing in leaps and bounds for the last decade or two, driven by the discovery of thousands of exoplanets and fine-detail imaging of other planetary systems. This has been giving us a lot of insight into not only the history of our own Solar System, but also the general case of planetary formation elsewhere.

With my Architect of Worlds project, I’ve been trying to keep abreast of the current science while designing a world-building system for use in game design and literary work. The current state of the system is pretty good, I think, but it’s a bit complicated. I’ve built a model that tracks the formation of a system’s primary gas giant (if any), follows that planet as it migrates inward (and possibly outward), and uses the results of that evolution to determine the mass and placement of the rest of the planets. Lots of moving parts there, and a few of the steps are kind of unwieldy.

Now there’s some recent research suggesting that I might be able to simplify the model and still get good results. The pertinent paper is “Planetesimal rings as the cause of the Solar System’s planetary architecture,” by Andre Izidoro et al., released in December 2021. Here’s a layman’s article from Rice University: “Earth isn’t ‘super’ because the sun had rings before planets,” published on 4 January.

The idea is that it wasn’t specifically the migrations of Jupiter that brought about the architecture we see of the inner Solar System. Instead, the protoplanetary disk probably had several “pressure bumps,” places where infalling particles released gases due to the increasing temperature close to the embryonic Sun. These pressure bumps tended to accumulate dust particles, and created an environment where planetesimals could form and coalesce, without continuing to spiral into the Sun. The authors of the paper predict the presence of three such “pressure bumps,” which ended up giving rise to the rocky inner planets, the gas giants, and the Kuiper Belt objects respectively.

The idea makes a lot of sense, especially since we’ve started to get fine-detail images of young stars and their protoplanetary disks, and we sometimes see exactly the system of “rings” that the model would predict. Take the image that leads the Rice University article, which I’ve included above.

Scientifically, speaking, the neat thing about this new model is that it explains several things that previous models (which assumed a more uniform disk and relied on Jupiter-migrations to make things work out) had trouble with – especially the specific isotopic composition of inner-system as opposed to outer-system material. The new model also doesn’t have any trouble producing a small Mercury or Mars, or a planetoid belt (with mixed composition) between Mars and Jupiter.

From my perspective, it may mean that I can simplify the model on which Architect of Worlds is built, making the whole thing much easier for people to use. I’m going to be reading the literature on this, and thinking about the implications.

Status Report (23 January 2022)

January 23, 2022 Sharrukin Comments 0 Comment

A quick post to update things, as we’re moving into the last week of the month. My day job has been insanely busy so far this month, with two major projects coming to a conclusion more or less at the same time. Still, I’ve survived the critical few days and still gotten some creative work done. Fingers crossed that I’ll hit my major milestones by next Monday.

I’ve just finished putting together a new partial draft of the Human Destiny setting bible and game sourcebook. This is the first draft under the assumption that the eventual product will be published as a Cepheus Engine book – the main block of new material is a complete draft of the character design rules, including all the lifepath tables. A PDF of the draft just went out to all of my patrons as a free update.

I’ve also finished polishing up the existing partial draft of a Human Destiny novelette, with the working title of “Remnants.” This is actually the first Human Destiny story I ever started writing, seven or eight years back, and I’m hoping to finish it over the next few days. If I can get that whipped into shape before the end of the month, it will be a charged release for my patrons.

In other news, I have an opportunity to write an article for the Cepheus Journal, the foremost fanzine for the Cepheus Engine family of games. The article will probably be a summary of the Human Destiny setting, with some designer’s notes about ways in which the eventual game book will be distinctive. Cepheus Journal isn’t a paying market, but that’s okay – I’ll bring in more attention for that particular project that way.

Meanwhile, I still need to finish reading a novel or two for review by the end of the month. I’ve got a couple of promising candidates, but we’ll see how that goes.

Eight days to go, and I think I’m ahead of the usual monthly curve. Hopefully nothing unexpected will get in the way.

Planning for January 2022

January 8, 2022 Sharrukin Comments 0 Comment

Things have been a little hectic here at the Palace lately. The period since Christmas has, ironically, been one of the busiest I’ve had at my day job in some time, with three major projects all coming to a head at the same time and demanding a lot of my attention. On top of that, throw the disruption of the worst surge since the pandemic started and our usual pattern of getting heavy snow in January, and it’s kind of been chaos. Not conducive to getting creative work done.

Still, I have a calm weekend at the moment, and it’s a good time to outline work for the rest of this month.

Top Priority (“this is how I’ll judge whether the month has been successful”)
- Human Destiny: Finish a draft of the character design rules and release the first partial draft of the Human Destiny setting bible as a Cepheus Prime sourcebook.
- Human Destiny: Finish a new novelette for eventual collection and publication.
- Human Destiny: Produce a high-level map of terraformed Mars.
- Human Destiny: Research and produce a timeline for the terraforming of Mars.
Second Priority (“work on this as time permits”):
- Krava’s Legend: Write a few new chapters of The Sunlit Lands.
- Architect of Worlds: Start work on a section describing the structure of the galaxy and of interstellar space, and providing guidelines on how to make maps for interstellar settings.
- Architect of Worlds: Start work on a section of special cases and additional worldbuilding material that doesn’t fit into the design sequence.
- Scorpius Reach: Write a few new chapters of Second Dawn.
Back Burner (“work on this only if everything else gets blocked”):
- Architect of Worlds: Return to improvement and polishing of the Introduction and Design Sequence document, leading to a new minor-version release. This work may involve updating all of the worked examples, and making mathematical notation more consistent.
- Krava’s Legend: Write the second short story for the “reader magnet” collection.
- Scorpius Reach: Start work on a third edition of the Game of Empire rules for Traveller (or Cepheus Engine)

I’m clearly focusing on the Human Destiny universe some more this month. I’ve actually worked out most of the Martian material, although it’s all scattered notes at the moment, and producing the map is proving a little more challenging than I thought. I’m making good progress on the Cepheus Engine hack for the sourcebook. Meanwhile, I’ve come across one of my older partial stories – possibly the first piece of fiction I ever wrote in the setting that eventually became Human Destiny – and it seems likely that I’ll be able to finish that fairly quickly. So that’s where the low-hanging fruit are at the moment.

For my patrons, the most likely releases this month will be the next partial rough draft of the sourcebook (free release) and the new story (charged release, if it’s long enough). As always, I’ll update as the month progresses and it’s clearer how things are going to go.

Sharrukin's Palace

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