Thread: Hidden Planet Discussion & Affairs

Uli called him Elpenor but that was a private joke

lol
Don't worry, I won't forget I'm on the ship's roof and fall to my death. Haha

Originally Posted by Kamisama420

lol
Don't worry, I won't forget I'm on the ship's roof and fall to my death. Haha
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At least not until we ferment some Turtle-Back and get a still going.

sorry foxee, i would still like to join but i can't until the beginnning of september. I was meant to be getting a laptop but have had to put it back.
Would it be alright if i were to join around then? I'd obviously read and keep up with the storyline but would it be ok for me to make a believable entrance later on in the story?

We can write you in later. Easy enough.

He'd fashioned some sort of drive piston out of landing gear. Uli was surprised he found landing gear on an interplanetary transport but maybe it carried a lander or something.

Yep, I almost fussed about this because you're not really going to have landing wheels (I think back in the original description I mention that the transport was NOT designed for terra landings) but I'm giving this one to Kam...there could be some kind of small wheels and collapsing arm mechanisms to cushion the spaceport docking. Shakey! But the 'lander' idea works okay, too...in any case I decided not to fuss about the components Kam found.

Right...
Well, in my humble opinion, any ship needs wheels. If they want the ship on land for whatever reason (repairs, short distance traveling or even storage), they need them. Unless the ship can actually fly by itself on infinite fuel ?

Sorry, I'm not a professional at sci-fi. Doing my best though...

Trust us. In sci-fi you can easily have vehicles that are constructed in space and are not meant to go into atmosphere at all. Wheels would be silly.

Like I said, though, I can work with it. I'm sure there could be some kind of exterior structure with small wheels for docking. *shrug* Don't worry about it, if I had a serious problem with it I would have told you.

I've posted a bit of scene-setting for us as we get free from the wreckage here.

Deciphering Kamisama's words.

When speaking English, Kamisama will be talking in a typical Japanese accent. In Japan, there are 4 alphabets: hiragana, katakana, kanji and romaji. If I write "flower" in those four alphabets, it would be:

Hiragana - はな
Katakana - ハナ
Kanji - 花
Romaji - hana

If you have questions about those, feel free to ask, but I want to concentrate only on katakana for now. Katakana is used when a foreign word is introduced in the Japanese language. That occurs mainly for things that were brought into Japan following the Edo period. Basically, instead of creating a word, they just keep it as is and try to make the sounds fit. Hiragana and Katakana are not letters, they are sounds. The problem with this method is that some sounds are missing. The most obvious ones are the English pronunciation of "R" and "V". Japanese people can't do those sounds. They have a very hard time differentiating 'R' and "L" sounds, and pronounce "V" as a "B". This is why confusion is easy to create, as "very" would be pronounced "beli", which then sounds like "belly" (or even "berry" to some extend)...

In any case, here are some pointers.
1- Read it out loud. Seriously, you'll find it easier to figure it out. I still do that when reading katakana.
2- Japanese people cannot end a word with a consonant except "S" and "N". If it ends with anything else, there will be a "U", "I" or "O" at the end. That is usually true even if the consonant is in the middle of the word. See examples at the end of this post.
3- Make sure to pronounce every letter. For example, "aimu" would be "a-ee-mu", as in "I'm".
4- "U" is usually a letter they do not pronounce clearly, if at all.
5- There are 5 main sounds in Japanese - A, I, U, E, O. They are pronounced as "Apple", "fEEt", "yOU", "Enter", "Octopus".
6- "R"s will be "L"s.
7- When facing the unpronounceable "R" sound alone, meaning there is no vowel after it (ex: torch, armor, car, horn, etc), the previous letter is made longer (toochi, aamaa, caa, hoon, etc).
8- Make sure to remember not to fall into English pronunciation ! ("oo" is not pronounced as "fOOt", but as a long "O")
9- If you're faced with a double consonant ("TT", "KK", etc), that means your voice has to break a little. For example, "cat" would be "katto". Try to pronounce it as "ka-t-to" and you'll see how your voice "breaks" on that "T".
10- Sounds they cannot make :
R - Pronounced as L or long vowel.
V - Pronounced as B.
Si - Pronounced as Shi (you can see the confusion if trying to say "Sit down" ??)

I think that's about it.
Think you can work it out ? Hahaha.

P.S. This will be heavy at first, but you'll get used to it. Also note that Kamisama will learn English pretty fast. His speech will change gradually to normal English as the story advances, so don't worry if you're having a hard time. You can always PM me if you get confused.You can also ask how Kamisama would pronounce any word in here. Here are some examples to get you in the mood :

Black - Bulakku
Red - Leddo
Attention - Atenshon
Television - Telebijon
Apple - Appulu
Chair - Cheaa
Table - Tebulu

Sorry for the absence, folks! Should be back in action now.

As to the landing gear question, it's likely that ships equipped for planetary landing would have something more advanced and powerful. Maneuvering thrusters are more likely, since screaming down through the atmosphere at terminal velocity would probably break wheels on impact with the ground. But anyway, minor detail!

Especially since this ship wasn't meant to do it...but good point!

Glad to have you back.

Uli has found the resources and leisure for another beachside sojourn, albeit without the perfect weather of the last. Leaving this (Tuesday) afternoon, back Friday. Possibly time for another post, see how packing goes. pp