Perils of the world-Life of a Sky sailor

[Machiavelliest]

It seems, tech-wise, that alternating current never came about, which means HF/VHF radios aren't a thing.  They'd use semaphore, light signals, or signal flares.

[Sgt. Spoon]

We had a long discussion about all the different messenger pidgeons/owls/ravens etc. that would be used.

Though, I like to think that radios exist in this time, since they were in use during WW1

[Lord Dick Tim]

Could be that the radio is relatively rare, the tech behind it still barely understood.  Or something from the age of dust makes entire areas where radio simply doesn't work.

[Shukketsushi]

The idea of communication in the world would go back to what degree you want to emphasize what's possible in the game. Do you look at the game as being a modified version of the world or the true version? If it's the true version, pilots communicate real-time with each other in combat. This would make the case for some kind of radio device, the technicalities of which can be debated.

[Lord Dick Tim]

Lol, hard line wires strung up between ships so they can talk to one another.

...o crap, two captains want to talk in the air, can't boar each others ships in flight it's to dangerous, so they toss a hard line over with a receiver.  Sound powered phones.

[Machiavelliest]

It would likely be a large antenna (basically a wire) that used AM transmissions in the HF or lower frequency bands.  While an HF broadcast in LA can be heard in Tokyo, the HF arrays used to transmit and receive signals is far more powerful than a basic DC system could provide.  This would limit transmission to the immediate area, something like a LMR's range.

EDIT:  Jargon.  HF = High Frequency, as opposed to V[ery]HF, U[ltra]HF.  Fidelity is relatively low and it's subject to interference from dust storms to solar radiation.
DC = Direct Current.  I'm assuming this era never benefitted from Tesla's invention of AC, or Alternating Current.
LMR = Land-Mobile Radio.  Basically a military walkie-talkie with a mile or two range (up to about 4km).

[Gato Blanco]

Well, the prevaling premise of the world that has been told to me (What is its name again?) is "Its like WWII never ended"  That can be interpreted in two ways, Alternate Earth theory (AET), and Divergent Earth theory (DET). 

AET is a completely different world, cherry picking different events that happen or dont happen, both natural and human influenced.  Martin Luthor King Jr wasn't assasinated.  The Norman conquest never happened.  Middle east based monotheic religion didn't arise.  Dinosaurs didn't go extinct at the end of the Cretaceous peroid.  The major split of pangea went north-south and not east-west.  The "like" in "like WWII never ended" is the operating word when talking about AET.  The whole world is different, it can barely be called Earth, as we know it.  Thus it is coincidence that all the different cultures arose are so similar to cultures of our world.

DET is our world, but is "Like WWII never ended."  If it never ended, what year are we?  Did we nuke ourselves back into the stone age?  Why is "China" right next to "Europe?"  Why is "Russia" and "Japan" part of the same coolition?  The theory I came up with, with a little help from Dick, is a gigantic tectonic event causing a geomagnetic reversal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_reversal).  This, along with time and the use of superweapons, could cause the terrain to change into what we see in the current annum.  This, along with land changing hands from war, could explain why these different cultures are situated where they are in Guns of Icarus.  Furthermore, it also explains why ancient technology was lost; the chaotic effects of an unstable magnetic field would leave the world vulnerable to solar radiation, rendering many places and sensitive technologies useless, as well as kill of much of the flora and fauna in the world. 

With DET, in which case radio transmitters have been invented in the past, but wwere lost and found again, I believe that short range radios are available and somewhat common.  Every warship worth its salt has one equipped, I would also hazard a guess that galleons and larger ships have multiple radios; one for communicating with other captains, another for communicating with the crew.

Also, radar has been rediscovered, although a few nations have it, they're keeping it a secret. 

[Machiavelliest]

I was assuming, if divergent, the world's change occurred at World War I.  Else we'd have nuclear weapons, heavier-than-air flight as the cutting edge, along with jet powered flight, radar, easy radio communications, alternating current, electricity, computers, and more.

[Gato Blanco]

Derp, WWI, my bad.

But the logic rut that everyone seems to be falling into is that "all technological development stopped in 1918."  It is in wartime that the largest advances in technology are made.  If WWI went on for a century, Im hazarding that we would have seen a facimily of the internet by the 50s.

I've read in some of the world posts by the devs that the ancients' technology is very advanced, so all these things, radio, nukes, etc., are there, they have been created.  Its just that the people of this world don't know how to make it.  Yet.  They're advancing fast; they have examples of where to go in the artifacts they uncover.  They can leapfrog ahead with the guidance of the ancients.  The only thing holding them back is their ingenuity and their resolve, as they do not want to follow the ancients into oblivion.

[Lord Dick Tim]

Solid ideas, and points, so we have this situation whee we can build up an almost Indiana Jones series of stories, digging for lost artifacts from long forgotten nations before the age of dust.

"The cities stood tall and proud, man had made for himself a gleaming civilization from the engines of ingenuity and determination.  From the wild jungles of his past the land, sea and air had been mastered.  Great vessels of incredible, impossible size swam through the clouds like great leviathans, hundreds of tiny ships moving about their bulk as floating cities cast shadows that could turn day into night.  Nature herself was bent to our will, food was plenty, the fields bountiful with our great engineerings and scientific might that would have looked like magic to the primitive minds of our ancestors only a few short generations before.
Yet then the darkness came, the troubled times, nations turned their awesome works to dedications of evil.  Farmers beat their plowshares into bayonettes, the crack of rifles filled the air, the ground shook with the thunderous report of a thousand artillery guns.  The fertile fields and lush forests churned to mud beneath the marching boots of a thousand, thousand soldiers.  This great age, this time before, ended in fire, and left us with dust of its ashes".

[Machiavelliest]

Sustained war doesn't beget sustained innovation. Look at the Dark Ages.  While war does drive many technological inventions, most of them are related to the kinetics of war.  That's how I see the current era in GoI--innovation has stalled out because there hasn't been rebuilding between the wars.

[Gato Blanco]

War didn't cause the decline of the dark ages, the rise of christianity did (Pre renaissance christianity was very anti-science).  There were wars during the renaissance, and one of the defining traits of the Roman empire was conquest.  Though I do agree that the lack of resouces during wartime can stunt some research and development, but it won't stop it.  People would constantly develop new idea to survive.  See the frugalness of north america during the depression or the advances of Russian weaponry in WWII

[Lord Dick Tim]

Let's get back to topic scope, war and faith both cause and prevent innovation.  There will be large, long and evolved arguments about the affects of either.

Here's an odd question about air ships.  Human waste removal.

[Machiavelliest]

Over the side.

[Gato Blanco]

You mean Anvalans, or fecal matter? xD

I agree with Mach, they would use a thunderbox, drop where it may.  They wouuld avoid doing so in docks or near cities, out of courtesy, or wait till they're flying overhead if they're unpleasant sods.  I reason they would do this because
a) its a lot easier,
b) most ships in game right now are too small, they don't seem to have a dedicated sleeping area (which can be explained by hammocks) or a kitchen (explained by eating cold rations),
c) it would be a waste of space and carry weight if they were to have a watertight septic tank, weight that could be used for weapons and cargo and
d) even if they used some sort of water reclaimation technology, it would still take up too much space as the water would still be non pottable water