A while ago, I was given several books -- all of them by Jerry Pournelle, except one, where he worked with Larry Niven to write it. I read all of them, and liked them a lot. Recently, (due to lack of reading material) I've started re-reading the Mote in God's Eye , the novel by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven, who are now two of my favorite SF authors. I noticed some similarities between the EV documentation and Mote...

The way hyperspace is described in EV is very much like Pournelle's Alderson Jump Drive. The descriptions of EV's 'warp lines' and the 'Alderson tramlines' seem to be almost identical.

In the documentation, it talks about 'New Washington,' a planet that -- as far as I know -- doesn't appear in the game, but a planet that is in the universe that the Mote in God's Eye is set in.

I wonder if Matt read this book (or one of the others set in the (url="http://"http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/heinlein/326/CoDominium/")CoDominium/Empire of Man(/url) universe) before creating the EV scenario...

By the way, if you haven't read any these books yet, I strongly reccomend them.

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(This message has been edited by skyblade (edited 02-28-2001).)

Quote

Originally posted by skyblade:
**A while ago, I was given several books -- all of them by Jerry Pournelle, except one, where he worked with Larry Niven to write it. I read all of them, and liked them a lot. Recently, (due to lack of reading material) I've started re-reading the Mote in God's Eye , the novel by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven, who are now two of my favorite SF authors. I noticed some similarities between the EV documentation and Mote...

The way hyperspace is described in EV is very much like Pournelle's Alderson Jump Drive. The descriptions of EV's 'warp lines' and the 'Alderson tramlines' seem to be almost identical.

In the documentation, it talks about 'New Washington,' a planet that -- as far as I know -- doesn't appear in the game, but a planet that is in the universe that the Mote in God's Eye is set in.

I wonder if Matt read this book (or one of the others set in the CoDominium/Empire of Man universe) before creating the EV scenario...
**

I have indeed read both Mote and The Gripping Hand - in fact I make myself re-read them every year or two just because they're so cool. You'll probably notice a few tributes to Niven and Pournelle in EV (and perhaps in EV3!). The idea of having systems be connected by discrete hyperspace links has been a staple of computer games for years, but who's to say that the designers of earlier games didn't lift the concept from that 1974 book...

mcb

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Matt Burch
(url="http://"mailto:mburch@ambrosiasw.com")mailto:mburch@ambrosiasw.com(/url)mburch@ambrosiasw.com

(quote)Originally posted by mburch:
**I have indeed read both Mote and The Gripping Hand - in fact I make myself re-read them every year or two just because they're so cool. You'll probably notice a few tributes to Niven and Pournelle in EV (and perhaps in EV3!). The idea of having systems be connected by discrete hyperspace links has been a staple of computer games for years, but who's to say that the designers of earlier games didn't lift the concept from that 1974 book...

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**

i havent read them but they sound neat. maybe i will go get them and read them. hee hee

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-Asmodaethur