Mr. Hands

@mrhands

Sexy game(s) maker

he/him

I do UI programming for AAA games and I have opinions about adult games

Discord

mrhands31

Mr. Hands @mrhands10/11/2023, 11:56 AM

Mr. Hands @mrhands

Mr. Hands @mrhands10/11/2023, 10:14 AM

The cool thing about worldbuilding is that none of it matters. As a writer, you can justify any stupid thing you want.

Is the idea of two rivers flowing in opposite directions rotating a town built on a giant cog stupid? Yes.

But is it awesome? Double yes.

#writing #worldbuilding

Mr. Hands @mrhands10/11/2023, 11:56 AM

The risk with making this concept more "realistic"

Instead of finding a place with two rivers flowing in the opposite direction, you should find a river with a C-shape curve for your settlement. Those are naturally occurring anyway.

But it would be way more efficient to put the cog right-side up. You would have more surface area in the direction of the water flow for generating power. And the town wouldn't have to rotate either.

Hmm... But the river doesn't always flow at the same rate, so the power output would unpredictable. However, if you dam up a section of the river, you can let the water flow through at a consistent rate, generating power on demand.

And.... now the cool fantasy concept is a modern hydroelectric dam. How drab!

#writing #worldbuilding

You must log in to comment.

in reply to @mrhands's post:

Quantum Jump @quantum-jump10/11/2023, 10:26 AM

honestly I think both approaches to worldbuilding are incredible, as long as you know which approach you're going for. Worldbuilding based on rule of cool is awesome and fun, and can lead to some really good settings, but also I really appreciate the effort that goes into settings where it's like "I know that absolutely everything in this is possible irl under the right circumstances"

It's a spectrum of course, I'm currently working on worldbuilding for a setting in which I'm simulating the plate techtonics with a piece of scientific research software, but I've also got a society of elves with plant telepathy. It's kinda like hard sci-fi and soft sci-fi; if you go in knowing you're going to break the rules that's fine, but following the rules isn't bad in and of itself

Mr. Hands @mrhands10/11/2023, 11:37 AM

Agreed on all points. The important thing is that you're consistent with the rules of your world. Bending the laws of nature is fine, but keep the consequences in mind!

Cliff 🦖 Pervocracy @pervocracy10/11/2023, 11:25 AM

I don't offhand know anywhere that two totally separate rivers flow different directions, but there's lots of rivers that make hairpin turns, which would give you the same effect

Mr. Hands @mrhands10/11/2023, 11:35 AM

Yeah, that's the consensus on Reddit as well. C-shaped hairpins are quite common in natural rivers, but a society could create one artificially to power their city. It really depends on what kind of story you want to tell!

Cliff 🦖 Pervocracy @pervocracy10/11/2023, 11:37 AM

I don't think you really need it to power the city? if the river is big and fast enough it can turn the cog from one side. you just don't get the epic concept art aesthetic

Mr. Hands @mrhands10/11/2023, 11:47 AM

Congratulations! Now we're just building a dam to control the water flow. 😄

Three Gorges Dam in China

@Ballance10/11/2023, 11:57 AM

A problem with two rivers might be that they could flow at different rates at different times depending on the weather further up to where their sources are. I'm not sure if it would be a huge deal, but it might make the slower river more turbulent or put undue stress on the cog's teeth/fins on the both sides. Not a dealbreaker really because I would actually like to read about the lives of the people who have to maintain this extremely bizzare set-up. How do they keep it lubricated?? Maybe the city floats on oil or something? Who knows! It's certainly fun to think about

in reply to @mrhands's post:

A second cooler Cardinal @SprungX10/12/2023, 6:40 AM

I do like the idea of making things more realistic and then going back down the other side. Damsville, city of dams, 72 dams all stacked atop and aside each other so the 20 miles of coastal mountain outlet looks like a massive tide pool and the residents all farm fish of different environmental niches. Playing into some natural feeling classism as upper dam people get fish that generally reside higher in the food energy pyramid and lower dam people do bottom feeders and mud bugs.

Pinned Tags