Author Archives: Astrographer

Special Circumstance Cards

Posted on May 28, 2020 by Astrographer

It’s been a year since my last post. Consider this an aside, in lieu of a quick and easy post that turned out to be neither. EDIT: In retrospect, I posted this without any explanation of what I’m even trying … Continue reading →

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It looks like I’m getting a lot of traffic lately. I have about three posts that are in a distinct state of “not ready for primetime.” It looks like I need to get cracking on finishing one and getting it … Continue reading →

Posted on May 31, 2019 by Astrographer | Leave a comment

Gas Giant Texture Tutorial

Posted on April 23, 2018 by Astrographer

So here’s my much delayed tutorial for making better gas giant textures. I really did intend to get this posted by Friday, but it proved shockingly slow, with a lot of false starts and dead ends. Particularly shocking since I … Continue reading →

Posted in Mapping, Planetary Stuff, World Building | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Well, I’ve gotten behind and let my post queue evaporate Over Spring Break, I drove the family down to California. It was a good vacation, but I didn’t have a chance to send any posts up the pipe. Since returning, … Continue reading →

Posted on April 12, 2018 by Astrographer | 1 Comment

Using Blender to Bake Icosahedral Maps

Posted on April 9, 2018 by Astrographer

Getting back to my usual maps and planetary textures, today I am responding to the comment by Gregrox, here. I did previously make some recommendations for converting equirectangular maps to the icosahedral projection, but Photoshop and Flexify are far from … Continue reading →

Posted in Mapping, World Building | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Ksufesh Wyvern

Posted on April 2, 2018 by Astrographer

The Ksufesh Wyvern is an airborne predator which has used its speed and flying ability to nest in extensive caverns high in the mountains of Ksufesh’s largely desolate continents, keeping the young safe from most predators while the parents are … Continue reading →

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Life in the Bubble, part 2

Posted on March 26, 2018 by Astrographer

Here I am going to lay out some basic assumptions about the physical universe of our world. FTL is possible. Not only is it possible, but it works, is fairly cheap and not a lot of trouble. It is based … Continue reading →

Posted in Science Fiction, Science!, World Building, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Food in the 25th Century

Posted on March 19, 2018 by Astrographer

When discussing the dietary habits of humans in 2448, it is useful to differentiate the population groups. In general, most people from Earth tend to lump Spacers, Settlers, Colonists, Loonies, Martians, Belters and Outies together as,”Spacers,” but they display a … Continue reading →

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Life in the Bubble, part 1

Posted on March 12, 2018 by Astrographer

Human Space The distribution of humans is still very much concentrated near Earth, but they are spread very widely. Of the roughly 27 billion humans alive in 2448, about 18 billion live on the Earth, 7.5 billion live spread about … Continue reading →

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Just as a quick aside, I now have posts up the pipe for Monday, March 12th and Monday, March 19th. I’m going to try to make Monday posts a regular thing. I’ve already finished a post for Monday, March 26th. … Continue reading →

Posted on March 9, 2018 by Astrographer | Leave a comment