Space Engineers – Armor

Hello again folks,

Things are winding down for a bit as we go into spring here in Michigan. In a lot of ways I’m looking forward to having a “quieter” summer than the last few years when I’ve been busy, busy, busy. Doing some more things for fun will be a nice change of pace. Might even get some more reading and writing done.

Maybe, maybe not. Plenty of things I like to do for fun, and that’s a great segue into what I want to talk about today. My past post about Space Engineers has gotten a lot of love lately, and I’ve had more thoughts floating around in draft form for a while. So today, I’m going to talk more about how I like to design ships in Space Engineers, a game I very much like to play for fun when I get the rare bit of down time.

As I talked about in my last post, most ship designs are a tradeoff. This is the Iron Triangle I mentioned previously; as the major tradeoffs tend to be between Mobility (acceleration and agility, Firepower (Guns, and more guns) and Protection (armor.) Corvettes and frigates tend to skew towards mobility, whereas battleships are built all around armor and firepower.

As mobility is fairly straightforward; being mostly thrusters, engines, gyroscopes and fuel systems I’m not going to go into that. Instead, I’m going to talk about armor in Space Engineers. I have another post in the works about firepower, so that will come at a later time when some “just for fun” filler is needed while I work on more serious posts.

For anyone keeping up with this blog; I like to talk about armor; and steel, in both real and fictional settings. Maybe a bit too much… It’s almost like I’m a blacksmith with an interest in armor or something… Ahem, either way, today we are talking about ship armor. In Space Engineers, armor comes in two broad types, Light and Heavy armor. This might seem rather straightforward, and in broad strokes they are. Light armor is lightweight, but easy to punch through. Heavy armor is the opposite, it adds a lot of mass to a ship but is much more durable.

However, the costs are very different too. Light armor costs a few steel plates, whereas heavy armor is a LOT of steel plates, plus a component called metal grids. Steel plates just require iron ingots in game to make, which come from iron ore or scrap (plus carbon and other elements in real life.) Metal grids for heavy armor, on the other hand, require cobalt and nickel in addition to iron – which makes them a steel alloy. There’s a subtle metallurgy there that makes my little nerd heart happy.

(The three “types” of blocks, from left to right; Interior, Light Armor, Heavy Armor with material costs.)

There is also a third type of component that is also made from iron, and they are called interior plates. This component, to the surprise of none, is used a lot in decorative and interior structural blocks. These blocks are easily destroyed by weapons, and they are not armor in any meaningful sense. That said, they can be used to supplement armor in a lot of creative ways. Because Space Engineers is a sandbox game, there are endless creative ways to combine armor and other blocks in your build.

Harvey, Krupp, and Class A; Oh My!

Now, you might be wondering where I am going with all this? That’s a good question I am happy to answer. There is a long history to the development of naval armor, especially iron and steel armors. I recommend you check out the sources I’ve linked below, as I don’t have the space to recap it all here. That said, towards the end of World War II, the US Navy had three major types of armor for warships; Special Treatment Steel (STS), Class B, and Class A armor plating. Maybe you see where I’m going with this?

In Space Engineers, I like to make broad correspondences between Interior blocks (STS), Light Armor (Class B) and Heavy Armor (Class A). Now, it has to be noted this is not a perfect 1 to 1 comparison, and as Barbosa once said; “It’s more like guidelines than actual rules.” In real life and even in Space Engineers, it’s a little more complicated than that, and there are shades of gray all throughout. As an example from a source below, the difference between the categories could vary by metal composition as much as by thickness.

“In the U.S. Navy, cemented armor was known as Class A armor while thick homogeneous armor was known as Class B armor. Thinner homogeneous armor plate (under 4″ or 102mm) intended for splinter protection was known as Special Treatment Steel or STS. It was similar to Class B armor, but it sacrificed just enough hardness for increased ductility to be usable as structural steel, and it was used extensively as structural steel in warships.” Pacific War Online Encyclopedia

So even in the game, there is some nuance there. In some cases I might consider thinner blocks of Light Armor as STS instead of as Class B armor. I almost always treat Heavy Armor as class A armor, and so it’s usually on the outside and on the most vital areas of the ship. Even then, there are variants. I might combine a thin heavy armor plate with a thick light armor backing. This is similar to something like Harvey Armor, but I would broadly still consider it a Class A type even though it is mostly Class B.

“Harvey” armor, thin hardened face and soft backing.

In other cases, I might combine a thicker Heavy plate with a thick Light Block, similar in many ways to Krupp/Krupp Cemented Armor. This would also be a Class A armor.

“Krupp” armor, thick hardened face and softer backing.

Also, as mentioned above, there I times when I will treat thinner light armor blocks used with interior blocks, and also consider these STS components.

These all might be considered “STS”/interior blocks, even though thin light armor is included.

As you noticed, I tried to color code each of the blocks to make this easier to illustrate. This will be important in the next section.

Green = Interior/STS blocks.

Red = Light Armor/Class B blocks

Blue = Heavy Armor/Class A blocks.

Bringing it All Together

Long story short, it’s complicated. It’s okay, you can take a breath now. With all the mind-melting jargon I just threw at you, I wanted to take some time to just give you some examples of how this might come together as a ship in-game. Here is a very simplified version of how I might layout a warship;

For industrial ships such a freighters, there won’t be as much, if any, heavy armor (blue). I sometimes use it for mining ships or other ships that might be prone to impact damage. It’s the difference between a tank and a bulldozer. In the real word tractors and excavators aren’t “armored” per say. They are made of thick steel plates, yes, but these are not (usually) armor-grade steel. It’s often just mild or medium carbon steel, which is more akin to STS than Class A armor. Again… lot’s of nuance there and I would ramble all day trying to cover all that. Here are a few of my ships and modular armor color coded to illustrate my points;

A modular armor section. A sandwich of Heavy armor (Blue), Light armor (Red) and Interior blocks (Green)

Kuutar-Class corvette. As a warship, all you see is Class A/Heavy and Class B/Light armor.

An industrial mining ship. No Class A/Heavy armor.

As always,

Thanks for reading.

Sources/References;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_treatment_steel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krupp_armour

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_armor

http://pwencycl.kgbudge.com/A/r/Armor.htm#mozTocId712130

https://www.eugeneleeslover.com/ARMOR-CHAPTER-XII-A.html

Drachinifel – A Brief History of Naval Armor

Drachinifel – Battleship Armor Engineering

Making Charcoal: Part the Second

Hello folks,

I am going into another busy year. House projects are underway, but also nearing completion. I am really hoping I don’t spend the whole year being busy like I did last year, but I am also really bad at being idle. As such, it should come as no surprise that I came up with new ways to keep myself occupied. At least there is more time for the fun things I want to do, and less of the things I have to do. The struggle of modern life, am I right?

So let’s jump right into it shall we? As a blacksmith, and with an academic background and dabbling interest in experimental archaeology, I am often in need of charcoal. Not coal, but charcoal. Charcoal is made be burning wood (or other organic material) in the absence of oxygen, leaving the carbon mostly unburnt. In a previous post, I talked about the process of how to make charcoal in pits. Pit charcoal is among the oldest ways that humans had made charcoal.

This post is an updated version of mostly the same process, with some added tools. It starts out the same, with small pieces of wood. But instead of this pit, this time around we are using barrels.

The Design

To build my charcoal kilns, I needed a 55 gallon metal drum. The ideal would be with a removable snap ring lid, but I wasn’t that wasn’t available to me. So I made due with a closed lid barrel, and made my own sealing method. It is a 12″x12″ iron plate, a 1″ flange, pipe, and cap. I used self tapping screws to secure the flange to the plate. Voila! Small smoke stack.

The smoke stack assembly

After that I used my angle grinder to cut a hole in the top of the barrels, and my drill to create 8 1″ holes around the bottom. The hole cut out of the barrel is less than 12×12″, so that the plate fits on top instead of falling down into the barrel.

The barrel with top hole and lower holes visible

I set these barrels into shallow pits, because it makes closing the lower holes easier. More on that in a moment.

The Process

After the barrels are all cut out and set up, the process is much the same as making pit fired charcoal. You load up the barrel with cut/split wood, and light it up from the top. This make take a few tries and some patience, and I find that using some charcoal under your kindling can really help get things going. I use mostly dried pine and spruce bits. They take fire real easy, and then also stay burning for a while.

Kindling fire

Once it is burning, give it some time to light the wood underneath and deeper in the barrel. When I have a good bed of burning charcoal underneath the fire, I put a poker down into the barrel and get the embers to drop down. This opens up the fire to air from the lower holes, and also knocks down the burning embers so the barrel starts burning from the bottom.

Once the embers have fallen down the bottom, they will ignite and start to take oxygen from the 1″ holes at the bottom of the barrel. When this happens, my barrels start to make an audible hum that I think sounds a bit like a rocket engine. This means it is time to start thinking about choking off the oxygen. If it goes on too long, you won’t have anything left but ash.

Bottom holes burning *huuuuuum*

At this stage I start by putting the chimney setup on the barrel, and leaving the cap off. I seal the smoke stack assembly with dirt so smoke doesn’t get out. This starts to choke off the oxygen at the top, while still allow water vapor and smoke to vent.

Stacked barrel (bottom holes open)

After a while, I will use a shovel and some dirt to cover up the holes at the bottom of the barrel. This is where the small pit comes in handy, because it makes this easier. You can do it on the ground too, but I like 1) having a small pile from the pit, and 2) it makes burying the holes easier and uses less dirt.

Bottom holes buried

This step removes all oxygen from the fire in the barrel, and so it will start to go out. I let it burn until the chimney isn’t smoking much, and then cap that off too. There should be residual heat in the barrel that will continue to cook what is left in the barrel.

Two capped kilns.

Then I leave the barrels to cool overnight, and the next day I get to see what I got. If I do everything right, I will get about 40% volume charcoal compared to the amount of wood I put in. It is not unusual for there to be some pieces that have not fully charred, and I just set those aside for the next batch. They catch fire a lot easier, and will burn to charcoal in the next batch.

Fresh batch

Leftover biochar for garden

Charcoal. Good.

Once I get the charcoal out of the barrels, I sift it (about 1/4″ mesh) over a wheelbarrow and send it to storage. The larger pieces will make great fuel for the forge. The small pieces get spread and tilled into my garden as biochar, and a ready carbon source for the soil and plants.

There is not much to it beyond that. It will take some trial and error to get good charcoal, and heck I’m still making adjustments. But it is a pretty inexpensive way to make a kiln for charcoal.

As always,

Thanks for reading!

The Findians

Hello again folks,

Recently, I was down the internet rabbit hole, and I came across something that I think would be interesting for the readers of this blog. As I am a citizen of Michigan, I spend a lot of time reading about the history of this land and state. This inevitably means I spend time reading about Native Americans of this region, and the history of European colonization of the area.

Which of course brought me across the topic of today’s post; The Finidians.

First, it is important to start out with the caveat that the history behind what I am going to talk about today is well beyond that of any single blog post. The Native American (Ojibwe, Anishinaabe, Algonquin and others) is more than enough for a series on it’s own. As usual, I am providing several links at the bottom of this post for those that want to explore more.

With that said, let’s start with the Ojibwe, a people Native to the Great Lakes region. The map below is from Wikipedia; Ojibwe Territory, before European contact, encompassing Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the Midwest, and Canada.

The Ojibwe are an indigenous people to the area, and obviously were here well before European settlers arrived. Just as the briefest introduction, here I brief selection from Wikipedia on the Ojibwe;

“The Ojibwe language is Anishinaabemowin, a branch of the Algonquian language family. They are part of the Council of Three Fires (which also include the Odawa and Potawatomi) and of the larger Anishinaabeg, which also include Algonquin, Nipissing, and Oji-Cree people. Historically, through the Saulteaux branch, they were a part of the Iron Confederacy with the Cree, Assiniboine, and Metis. The Ojibwe are known for their birchbark canoes, birchbark scrolls, mining and trade in copper, as well as their harvesting of wild rice and maple syrup.” (Wikipedia, Ojibwe)

Now, after Europeans started to land on the continent, fight their wars, and eventually form the US government *hand waving over a buttload of contact history*; in the 19th and early 20th century another group of immigrant found their way across the ocean and settled in the same areas. The Finns. The map below is from Wikipedia as well, and these people settled in many of the areas of the colonized Ojibwe.

“Between 1860 and 1924 some 370,000 people left Finland for North America to seek a better life. The main reasons to emigrate were unemployment, social problems and the period of ‘Russification’ before Independence–but a desire for adventure was also a factor. In America Finns worked in the forests and the mines. While out in the woods and at trade union meetings they met Native Americans and even married some of them. The majority of marriages were with members of the Ojibwa tribe, the largest in the region. Finns tended to have less knowledge about their new home country–and therefore also fewer prejudices about the people native to the land than immigrants from other European countries.” (The Findians)

And to the surprise of none of you following along, the Findians came into being. It also turns out, that the Native Ojibwe and the Finns shared something in common; a deep love of the forests.

“There are many reasons for the common understanding forged by Finns and Native Americans, but above all they were united by their intimate relationship with the forest. Just like the Ojibwa Finns hunted, fished and foraged. The locals also valued Finns’ handiwork skills: the ability to build a boat or carve skis. Finns learned how to cultivate maize and use medicinal herbs, among other things. In return they lent their expertise in building log cabins and weaving shoes out of birch bark.” (The Findians).

As sometimes happens when two cultures meet and find common ground, a syncretism resulted that bonded the two people, in marriage and in culture. They shared knowledge and stories, and formed a unique community of people. I realize that is painting with a broad brush, and does gloss over some rather darker truths of colonization and indigenous cultural genocide, Again, that’s way out of the scope of this short post.

But this particular Findian rabbit hole does come at an interesting time for me. There are more thoughts coming; on multiculturism, and syncretism that is part of the American experience, and also part of my own. There is something that speaks to me here, as a Michigander of Nordic/Finnish desecent. (A long long time ago, but still.) There is a common experience of a settler on colonized indigenous land, and maybe the glimmer of finding a better future. But those are all thoughts for another post.

As always,

Thanks for reading!

Sources/References;

The Findians. (Check out this site for amazing pictures and more context. https://web.archive.org/web/20210911100325/https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/findians__the_story_of_finns_distant_cousins/9087943

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Findians

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_Americans

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ojibwe

Thoughts and Updates – 11/2023

Hello again folks,

I know it has been a quiet year on the blog front. This year has just flew by, and it is not from a lack of being busy. I have been insanely busy; building things, creating things, studying things, and most of all doing a little self care. Like I said in my last post, I came “out” (it’s still ongoing, most just aren’t caring much anymore) of the pandemic really burnt out. I’m still pretty burnt out if I’m being honest. Struggling with various aspects of myself, and tired a lot. Just really tired, but also with little glimmers of light once in a while. Like this little bit of writing here, and probably my last for the year. I can’t believe the end of this week starts December already. Yeesh.

I should note that this post is more a stream of consciousness than anything, you’ve been warned. I might wander in circles a bit.

I’m working away on the animism manuscript, and it it probably 80% or so done. At least with the current draft. Still a bit to go, but probably closer to done than not. Yes, I decided to keep it as a manuscript, as I continued to look at it. I think it would be more work to convert it to blog form than it would be to just finish the damn thing. The real work comes after the writing of course, as I’m still not sure how I am going to publish it. Cheapest route would be self-pub through Amazon, but I already have a lot of deals with that particular devil. I’m thinking of going through a local bookstore, but that brings an added cost. I’m just not sure at this time if that is a viable option, and/or if this kind of book would have enough interest to fund a campaign (Indiegogo/Kickstart, etc.) We will see I guess.

This year has been one for reevaluation and reworking, for sure. In my crafting and smithing journey, I find myself more and more drawn to armor-smithing, and I’ve been dabbling there for sure. Not much to show for it just yet. With the burn out and associated mental ailments, it’s been tough to find things that ignite my spirit, and this is one of those things. Again, no idea where this takes me, but it is nice to find something that actually brings motivation, and joy, along with it. It’s funny, because crude attempts at armor were one of those things that really brought me into smithing. It’s amusing to me how things come full circle sometimes.

I’m looking out at the snow covered conifers in my yard, and it brings me a certain kind of peace. A restful kind of peace, as the land settles in for the winter nap. I wish I could settle in for long winter nap, but alas, there is the day job and the ever present demands of our economic system. Work. Produce. Wake up and make the money. Maybe bears have a better idea, with a long, warm cuddly hibernation. As an adult, sometimes you look back at the idea of the “winter break” you got in school with a certain sense of nostalgia.

It makes me think of how we structure time and the seasons. I’ve long just based my personal and spiritual calendar around the solstices, equinoxes, and the turns of the moon. It’s the nature based way I structure time. I always struggle with where to put the beginning and end points though. In the West, the New Year is at the end of December. Is the winter solstice point zero? That would make sense with the summer solstice as midpoint in the year. Has a good symmetry to it. But the start could also be at the vernal equinox, when life begins to start moving again in the spring. I like the romance of the start and middle of the year in spring and fall, my two favorite seasons. Winter gets a third, and summer dead last. Sorry summer, but long hot days just are not my favorite thing.

Lastly, but certainly not last, that brings me to thoughts about my spirituality. That has certainly been in flux this whole year, flittering about like a barn swallow. Along with the seasons, I’ve just spent a lot of time rethinking things this year, what works, and what isn’t. Many books were donated this year, and I have been rearranging my spaces and my beliefs. I don’t think too many major things have changed, but priorities, energies, and focus most certainly have. Some shrines get way less attention than before, others get more. Even the way I build shrines and sacred places have changed, and I don’t see that process slowing down anytime soon. Sometimes you have to take the time for a good, hard look at your ideas and beliefs.

I think that is where I will leave this update for now.

As always,

Thanks for reading,

Nature Erupts (and a few updates)

I’m a bit behind on everything, as life has thrown me a long series of curveballs. More on that at the end of this post. For now, I want to bring to you Nature Erupts!

This anthology released on June 22nd, and I had the honor to be a part of it along with a host of other amazing authors. This is part of the World’s Revolution trilogy, like Gaia Awakens before it.

Be sure to check it out at your favorite store with this universal link! (Also, remember to show love to your local indie stores!)

Updates and things;

For those that are interested in updates, here are a few. It didn’t make much sense to create a whole new post for this as it is going to be short. I have ended up much busier than I expected this year, with several big projects in the works. In addition, some personal issues have popped up, and while I won’t go into the details here, know that these take first priority over everything else right now. Which is a long and winding way of saying I still have no definite idea on what the future of this blogs looks like.

I can say for sure that this is going to be a quieter year for writing than even I expected. Life can be wild like that sometimes. On top of that, I think I have decided, after much hemming and hawing, that I am going to go forward with turning my animism manuscript into a book. It just doesn’t make sense to put all the effort into it and then 1) leave it sit or 2) go through even more effort to make it blog friendly. More importantly, I think I can actually see a route forward on it, a way past all the blocks and obstacles I encountered.

As always,

Thanks for reading!

Updates, Struggles, and the Future

Hello again folks,

Spring is already in full swing, as I am already up to my eyeballs in projects for the new year. Doing some construction and some renovation, and all the yard and garden work that comes with the warming of days. Plus the day job has decided to suck up more of my time than usual, so all in all, I’m pretty tired most days. Just mentally and physically exhausted. Sometimes in a satisfactory sort of way, with the knowledge of a job well done. Other days, not so much.

Which brings us to the struggles part of this post. After trying my best, and absolutely fighting with myself, and I can’t say the past winter has been great for longer writing projects. In fact, it has come with a great deal of grief. The pandemic took a lot of things from us; not the least, millions of lives. Normal routines, financial security, jobs, the list goes on and on. It also left us with a great deal of collective trauma. Some of us did our best, accepted that things were gonna be different, and that we had to do our best to keep one another safe. Others chose denial, anger, and political weaponization. Especially for those of us in the US, and our individualized culture, it’s a weird feeling knowing at least a third of the population doesn’t really care if you and yours live or die. Add in the lack of any kind of universal healthcare (especially mental healthcare), and I would wager the US stays scarred from the whole experience for a long, long time.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t come out the whole experience a little more jaded and cynical. With slightly less faith in humanity, in our ability to do the right thing when the chips are down. Moreso, as eluded to above, it seems one of the many things I’ve lost through the last couple years is the… ability/drive (?)… to write long form. I just can’t right now. I lose focus more easily, and it feels like a lot more work than it use to be. I just, don’t have it in me as much anymore. Which as you can imagine, being a writer and novelist, this is a blow to how I see myself as well as a bit of an identity crisis.

I think you might have an inkling of where this is going. I’ll say it outloud; I don’t currently know what the future of this blog looks like. I still have things I want to say, and I’m sitting on a MOUNTAIN of unpublished work, but I don’t currently know what to do with all of that. On the one hand, I’m tempted to just push out what I can onto this blog, and then hang in the towel as that winds down. Maybe another year? On the other hand, my stats are currently booming because ChatGPT is scrapping this blog for material. I don’t consent to this, in any way. Especially if I’m not being cited. I’ve put over a decade into this work, just to have it chewed up and regurgitated by a machine prompted by someone who doesn’t want to do said work.. There is all kinds of complex feelings around that, and another part of me just wants to drop this all here. Ride off into the sunset, and hope I have made some kind of impact with all this work. I have my doubts, but hey, I can dream too.

I don’t know, and just don’t have it in me like I use too. I’m tired, and find this feels more like a chore than something I do for fun. My (limited) energies and attention, just aren’t there in the way they use to be.

I have no desire to leave this blog hanging on such a downer, so I’ll say a little bit of what I’m thinking, and if you have other ideas let me know (Nobody really ever comments on this blog, but the option is there). I’m currently sitting on an ‘Animism’ manuscript, and I’m tempted to just retool it to release as longform blog posts over the course of the next year or so. It’s about 10 or so chapters, so maybe a chapter a month or so. Maybe organize them all under an index on this page at the end. There are also things I still want to say, mostly for myself, but maybe for others too. Political commentaries, bits on spirituality, gaming, whatever I feel like. Those may pop up from time to time as well.

There is also, above and beyond the manuscript, a whole mess of spiritual writing I’m sitting on. Some of you come here for that, so there may be some of that too. Again, let me know if you have any thoughts or suggestions on where that might go.

I’m also going to be devoting my limited creative energies to digital art, smithing, and other various crafts that grab my attention. With the Rise of the AIs (and associated stolen work from artists and writers), I don’t know if that work will appear here or not. I’ll be keeping myself busy for sure, but perhaps in a more low key kind of way. Living more of that hobbit life quietly in my garden.

It’s been a journey over the last 12+ years on this blog, but things may be winding down. I’m not done yet, but I do want to say to each and every one of you, thank you so much for being along for the ride. It has meant a lot to me. A lot more than I can put into words for sure. I started all this for me, and still, most of this writing is also for me. It still does my heart good to see people are reading the various goofy shit I thought only I cared about. Again, thanks for that.

So… let’s see where things go in the near future. I’m hoping to find some time for some rest and reflection, and perhaps, just maybe, some new writings too.

As always,

Thanks for reading.

Space Engineers – Ship Design

Hello again folks,

After this post this blog will be on hiatus the next few months while I work on longer manuscripts. I have a new novel and a work in progress I want to spend time on, and it’s just easier without having to blog in the the interim. Winter is the best time for such longer work, and a good time to meditate and reflect on the year gone by.

With that in mind, I wanted to leave you all with another ‘just for fun’ post after all the seriousness of politics and spiritual philosophy. As I’ve talked on the blog before, I’m a big fan of the game called Space Engineers. I really enjoy building, exploration and creative games, and being able to build starships just brings me a lot of joy in life. As such, I want to show all some of how I design and classify ships in Space Engineers.

The Basics – The Ship Design Trifecta

Every ship, in real life, and especially in Space Engineers is a compromise, a trade-off between various aspects that shape the ship to its intended mission. The major trade-offs are armor, firepower, and mobility. These three points make up the design trifecta, sometimes called the Iron Triangle.

Mobility – Mobility is the turning agility and acceleration of a ship. Engines, fuel tanks and gyroscopes take up space, and take up most of the interior space of a given ship. In line with power-to-mass ratios, mobility decreases with increased mass (without adding more engines etc, which also add mass). As such, ships designed for high mobility often sacrifice heavier armor and weaponry.

Armor – Armor is the basic protection of the ship, as well the major component for hull structure and durability. However, it adds mass to the ship, and heavier armors obviously add more mass than lighter armors. Adding mass limits mobility, and so heavily armored ships tend to be less mobile.

Firepower – All the dakka on the ship; turrets, artillery, rail guns, missiles and so on. Firepower tends to add a fair bit of mass, but also takes up a fair bit of space inside (ammo, conveyers, magazines..) and on the outside of the hull. In order to add more bada-boom to any ship, you will often lose some mobility and armor as a result.

I classify my ships primarily in the game by mass and block count. More blocks (guns, armor, engines) generally adds more mass, so larger ships simply mass more. There is some variability of course, as some blocks (such as heavier armor) mass more than lighter armors or interior components. Still, the general rule holds, more blocks = more mass. The other consideration is in-game PCU limits, and the abilities of my admittedly aging gaming PC. I don’t want to cook the poor machine after all, so I probably build smaller than players with higher-end rigs.

With all that in mind, the last note is the game Stellaris. I love Stellaris, and I take inspiration from that game when it comes to ship design. The short version for my purposes is that every ship class in Stellaris is twice the size of the ship class before, starting with corvettes. I use that system for my SE ships. A corvette is a size ‘1’ ship. A destroyer is twice the size, a size ‘2’ ship, and thus double the mass/blocks of a corvette. A cruiser is double the size of destroyer, and so on. Of course, industrial ships don’t always fit this scheme so I’ll talk about those last. Let’s jump into it!

Corvettes and Frigates (Mass: 500,000 – 750,000 kilograms. Blocks: 500 – 750 approx)

Kuutar Class Corvette

Zisune Class Frigate

Corvettes and frigates are the smallest classes of warships I design in Space Engineers. Corvettes are the smaller of the two, with frigates basically being ‘heavy corvettes/light destroyers’. These ships are designed for short range escort and scouting missions. As such, they are usually fleet or station based, and heavily select for mobility above all else. They sacrifice armor and firepower for agility, making them great ships for exploration, raiding and piracy… I mean fighting pirates. Totally legitimate salvage operations….

Destroyers (Mass: 1 million kilograms. Blocks: 1000 approx.)

Etsija Class Destroyer

Destroyers are the gunboats of Space Engineers. They are bigger than corvettes and frigates, and designed to bring extra guns to the gun fight. At the expense of armor and some mobility, these ships select for firepower. As short-medium range ships, they operate best as fleet support or station based operations. They are mobile enough to hunt corvettes, as well as powerful enough to bring the fight to larger ships in limited engagements.

Cruisers (Mass: 2 million kilograms. Blocks: 2000 approx.)

Risteil Class Cruiser

Cruisers tend to be the workhorses of my fleets. They bring a good balance of armor, firepower, and mobility to any operation. In addition, these tend to be the ships I loadout with jump drives for medium to long range tasks. Cruisers gotta cruise. These ships are large enough to operate solo for exploration and patrol, as well as bring smaller support craft along for the ride as group leaders. The balanced nature of these ships makes them a good choice for many different tasks.

Battleships/Battlecruisers (Mass: 4 million kilograms. Blocks: 4000 approx.)

Tuho Class Battleship

Battleships are the largest warships I build in Space Engineers. Their entire purpose is to bring pain to the unlucky sods of the opposing force. Due to their immense size, mobility is out the window and these ships select for maximum armor and firepower. Like cruisers these ships are usually jump capable, but due to their large size and low mobility are best found leading battlegroups that can screen them from smaller, more agile craft. With numerous forward facing railguns and artillery, these ships also excel at breaking bases and fortified stations.

Battlecruisers differ from battleships slightly in that they tend sacrifice some armor for greater mobility while still bringing the same amount of firepower. ‘Fast battleships’ is an apt name for a battlecruiser. These can have thinner hulls, lighter armor, and even make up some the mass in extra engines and gyroscopes for added mobility.

Industrial Ships (Mass and block counts vary.)

I just wanted to note that the above classes are more for warships than for many of the other types I build. For industrial ships, those for welding, grinding or mining, the scheme I’ve outlined here doesn’t really apply. Warships are built around combat, and often have extra armor, redundant systems, extra bulkheads, and avoid empty space (like docks and hangars) where possible. These are critical weak spots in combat. These kinds of guidelines aren’t followed in my work ships, which are set up for different and more varied tasks than warships. So here is a just a few examples of those kinds of ships, and a brief discussion of what makes them different.

Arbeider Class Industrial Frigate

The Arbeider is built on the corvette and frigate designs above, but with slightly lighter armor and less weapons, and more capacity for salvaging, mining and transport. Like with most industrial ships, it tends to be very durable, and honestly this one works alright in corvette and frigate roles. It’s more tailored for short range mining though.

Telakka/Tyolainen ‘Cruisers’/Mobile Bases

These ships are by far the largest in my fleet currently, coming in at around five million kilograms. They mostly serve the role of mobile bases and shipyards. However, it would be a mistake to call them battleships in any meaningful sense. They are fairly well armored and durable in order to withstand the rigors of space industry as well as the occasional ship-to-ship impact *coughs* ahem… They are only defensively armed however, and would not stand up in any kind of prolonged fight. They have jump drives and are meant for deep space mining and construction. Both these ships have refineries, assemblers, as well as open hangars for small ship maintenance. The Telakka in particular is meant to service and maintain a single Arbeider slung underneath in the shipyard area, as you can see above.

I hope you enjoyed me geeking out a bit and showcasing my ships.

As always, thanks for reading! Wish me luck on my hiatus with these bigger projects!

Michigan Politics & Animism – Democracy

Hello again folks,

I am into the part of year where I start focusing on longer projects and this blog goes on a temporary hiatus. There are about three more blogs in the works, and I’m a little bit behind posting this one. There is this post, one coming on the nature of spirits from my perspective, and then a ‘just for fun’ post about Space Engineers, because we will end off on a silly note.

While the bulk of this post was written before the election, it is now being published after the US midterms that took place on November 8th. While this country continues all the failures of a two party system, there were some needed victories in the mix. Michigan passed all three ballot proposals that I talked about in my last post, as well as having a Democratic trifecta at the state level for the first time in about 40 years. That’s a big deal, and I’ll talk about that more later in this piece.

Let’s jump into it today. I have to admit, I struggled a lot with how to really kick this series off. What issues and policy would I talk about? Because the truth of the matter is, a lot of this stuff is intersectional in that many policies have impacts on others. They don’t live alone on separate islands in isolation, they impact one another in real (and sometimes unintended) ways.

As I mentioned in my last post, let’s just get the basics out of the way. I support democracy, I support the idea of governments by the people, for the people. Not dictatorships, not monarchies, not oligarchies… So let’s get basic definitions out of the way. The US is described as both a republic and a democracy; so let’s define those curtesy of Merriam-Webster;

Definition of republic
1a(1): a government having a chief of state who is not a monarch and who in modern times is usually a president
(2): a political unit (such as a nation) having such a form of government
b(1): a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law
(2): a political unit (such as a nation) having such a form of government

Definition of democracy
1a: government by the people
especially : rule of the majority
b: a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections
2: a political unit that has a democratic government

There is also a great discussion under “republic” on Merriam-Webster on whether the US is a republic or a democracy. I agree with the ‘both’ definition. We are a republic because our chief executive is not a monarch, and specifically, a president. We are also a government where power resides in the people, and we elect people to represent our interests. This is also the B definition of a democracy, as we elect representatives directly or indirectly. I’ll get more into this in a moment, but I think it is best to refer to the United States as a constitutional republic (the shape of said republic is outlined by a constitiution) AND a representative democracy. (we elect representatives via elections.)

Now, there is a great deal of nuance within both of these concepts and I’d like to explore that more in two specific contexts, the US Federal government compared to the state of Michigan.

Michigan and US Federal Government Comparison

Democracy exists on a kind of spectrum. On one side, there is representative democracy. This should be self evident – in that this is a democratic system in which representatives are elected by the people to make decisions on their behalf. On the other side is various forms of direct democracy, in which the people directly deliberate and vote on decisions and policy. In between the two stands the semi-direct democracy that combines aspects of both.

There are all kinds of variations on these forms, from parliaments to presidential systems to executive councils. I’m not going to cover all those here for brevity reasons.

As such, the US Federal Government, the national government, is a presidential representative democracy. We the people elect the President, Senators and House Representatives to make national level decisions on our behalf. This is not a direct democracy, as we do not directly vote on nor propose legislation.

By comparison, Michigan is a semi-direct democracy. In addition to electing the Governor, Senators and Representatives at the state level (as well as local elections), we also have citizen initiated legislation and petitions. The citizens of Michigan can recall our elected officials, directly propose legislation as well as constitutional amendments or even entirely new constitutions. Michigan has had four constitutions in it’s history, and has been amended many times directly by the citizens. In fact, we just passed in the most recent election all three constitutional amendments, which I have discussed before here. These proposals expanded essential democratic foundations such as voting rights, government transparence, and basic reproductive rights. In addition, the Democratic Party won all three branches of Michigan government, and I’m hoping they pass some policy more in line with what I value.

Why do I mention these things? To illustrate clearly that there are many ways to do democracy, and many ways it might be improved. In addition, when you look globally, you can see countless forms of democracy and governance. Some of those ideas might be better than what we are doing now.

Expanding democracy and the limits of two parties

There a lot of ways I think we could improve and expand on our democracy, and for inspiration I pull from both the US Green Party and the Democratic Socialists of America. I think in many ways Michigan, and even the US, would be a more functional democracy if they looked like Finland, Sweden*, and the EU, respectively. These include elements such as;

1. Enact proportional representation voting systems for legislative seats on municipal, county, state and federal levels. (Most of Europe uses some form of party lists, that tend to be more proportional.)
2. Enact Ranked Choice Voting for chief executive offices like mayor, governor and president and other single-seat offices including U.S. Senate. (Alaska and Maine are already experimenting with ranked choice, as are several US cities.)
3. Substantially expand the number of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives together with electing the House from multi-seat districts by proportional representation – both by Federal legislation – to help make the House far more representative of the nation’s population and rich diversity. (This would be required under a more proportional system.)
4. Enact elections by proportional representation from multi-seat districts on federal and state levels, with enough seats in each districts to eliminate the possibility of unfair representation produced by gerrymandering, because in such multi-seat districts, even small political minorities do not waste their votes and are able to elect their fair share of representatives…. Enact federal legislation requiring that Congressional districts be determined by state-established independent citizen-redistricting commissions. (Michigan passed an independent redistricting commission in 2018, and may have resulted in the Democratic trifecta just won in the 2022 midterms.)

The above list is pulled from the US Green Party platform primarily, and is of course edited for brevity. As I have said before, I think the two party system of the US is incredibly limited, in scope and in the diversity of political expression. The EU has about 8 parties in it’s much larger parliament, representing views from the far-left to the far-right, and everything in between. By contrast, Michigan and the US are represented by two parties, both of which are right wing in general, making the mythical us ‘center’ at best center-right. We deserve more diverse and more proportional representation, and I think the points above are good starts for sure.

As far as implementation, both of these would have to happen through constitutional amendment. In Michigan we just passed three, so I can see this being on the ballot for some future election. We are a semi-direct democracy after all. As to the US, I’m less optimistic that such a change will be implemented by either legislation or constitutional amendment due to the constant gridlock and duopoly of the two major parties. I also think the US would benefits from some aspects of semi-direct democracy, but again, that’s probably an impossible longshot of a constitutional change. The vast majority of Americans won’t entertain that notion, and those that do are probably best described as ‘fringe elements’ of the population.

But wait, what does this have to do with animism?! Maybe that is what you are thinking, and where does the ‘wellbeing of persons, human and other-than’ come into play? Well, the well being of humans should be obvious, and I think a robust democracy is necessary to the protection of human rights and well being. Michigan just passed voter rights and reproductive rights into our constitution, that is good an necessary animistic work. In addition, if we wanted to really think about ‘persons’ in an animistic wordlview, we could talk about the rights of nature, and environmental personhood as aspects of a robust ecological democracy too. After all, should non-human voices (or their representatives) be silent in an animistic-inspired democracy? A rhetorical question to be set aside for the moment.

I think I will leave that here, so as always;

Thanks for reading.

Sources/References and notes;

* Sweden is technically a constitutional monarchy, but I refer here more to the multi-party nature of their parliament. I am not promoting monarchy here. Finland is a parliamentary republic with a multi-party parliament, and more closely resembles what I would like to see in Michigan.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/republic

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/democracy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy

https://www.gp.org/democracy

https://www.dsausa.org/dsa-political-platform-from-2021-convention/#deepening

Michigan Politics & Animism – Ballot Proposals

Hello again folks,

As it is the midterm election season, politicing and political ads are all around us right now. As it is ‘in the air’ as the saying goes, I think this is a good opportunity to talk about a handful of issues that are part of that national conversation, as well as on the Michigan ballot.

Unlike the United States national (federal) government, my home state of Michigan has aspects of a semi-direct democracy. Not only do we, the voters, elect officials and representatives; we also can petition and vote on direct legislation, recalls, and even constitutional amendments. This midterm election, we have three such proposals on our ballot, and I want to talk about each of them from my own perspective.

For each of these, I am going to keep each as brief as possible, focusing on the language on the ballot and not on the full text of the proposals. Each proposal is linked for additional information, as well as Google being available to pretty much anyone reading this.

Proposal 1 – Legislative Term Limits and Financial Disclosure Amendment (2022)

This proposed constitutional amendment would:

• Require members of legislature, governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, and attorney general file annual public financial disclosure reports after 2023, including assets, liabilities, income sources, future employment agreements, gifts, travel reimbursements, and positions held in organizations except religious, social, and political organizations.
• Require legislature implement but not limit or restrict reporting requirements.
• Replace current term limits for state representatives and state senators with a 12-year total limit in any combination between house and senate, except a person elected to senate in 2022 may be elected the number of times allowed when that person became a candidate.

This proposal adjusts Michigan’s term limits, and in my opinion more importantly, requires major political positions report annual financial disclosure statements. This would make publicly available records of how a high office holder is financed from a variety of sources. This kind of disclosure is painfully opaque in Michigan, and it is nice to see efforts to increase government transparency, especially in regards to funding, on the ballot. In Michigan, we still have a looong way to go in regards to making government more transparent. We have a notoriously low reputation in this regard.

Proposal 2 – Voting Policies in Constitution Amendment

This proposed constitutional amendment would:

• Recognize fundamental right to vote without harassing conduct;
• Require military or overseas ballots be counted if postmarked by election day;
• Provide voter right to verify identity with photo ID or signed statement;
• Provide voter right to single application to vote absentee in all elections;
• Require state-funded absentee-ballot drop boxes, and postage for absentee applications and ballots;
• Provide that only election officials may conduct post-election audits;
• Require nine days of early in-person voting;
• Allow donations to fund elections, which must be disclosed;
• Require canvass boards certify election results based only on the official records of votes cast.

This proposal at it’s heart is the protection and expansion of voting rights and access. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say the US democracy is at risk, and is even ranked as a flawed democracy. Feel free to click that link if you want the reasons why. If you’ve been paying attention to events in the US, much of this is self evident and I’m not going to spend the time harping on it again here. Either way, as someone who supports democracy, and voting along with it, as a basic right; this proposal has a lot to recommend itself. Democracy is messy, chaotic, and less than perfect a lot of the time, but I still think placing those rights in the Michigan constitution is a good idea.

Proposal 3 – Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative

This proposed constitutional amendment would:

• Establish new individual right to reproductive freedom, including right to make and carry out all decisions about pregnancy, such as prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, sterilization, abortion, miscarriage management, and infertility;
• Allow state to regulate abortion after fetal viability, but not prohibit if medically needed to protect a patient’s life or physical or mental health;
• Forbid state discrimination in enforcement of this right; prohibit prosecution of an individual, or a person helping a pregnant individual, for exercising rights established by this amendment;
• Invalidate state laws conflicting with this amendment.

This one has been a biggie in the national discussion, especially since the overturning of Roe v. Wade by a very conservative Supreme Court. I’m not gonna mince words here, I entirely support the right to an abortion for anyone that needs it. It’s not my business, and broadly this kind of thing is between a patient and their doctor. Reproductive care is healthcare, and I’d even go a step farther. We can look at the Nordic countries, and I’d also add we should have universal healthcare, childcare, family planning, pre-school and universal education right along with reproductive care. Having a child, and all the potential complications that go with that, should not force a person into poverty. Taking care of parents and children for the public good is something almost every industrial country handles better than the U.S.

These things should be basic rights, something no one should go without. Strangely, in the ‘greatest and wealthiest country in the world’ we can’t seem to figure that out. This proposal is an important first step. I’ll be talking about the other policies in future posts, so I’ll leave this here for now.

As always,

Thanks for reading!

A Michigan Animism – The Grand River and Lake Michigan

Hello again folks,

My wife and I recently got to go on vacation, and there is a lot to consider and write about. Coincidentally, this trip also overlapped with my Michigan Master Naturalist coursework on inland waterways and coastlines, so it was the perfect time to go exploring!

First, a little bit of context. As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, my home is on the Grand River watershed. This is a large watershed that connects a large section of the west side of this state, and flows through my home city of Jackson, connected with the Red Cedar that flows through MSU (my alma mater), and from there through Grand Rapids, Grand Haven and out to Lake Michigan.

It’s a big one. There is also a great artwork in Grand Haven in bronze of this watershed. Too big for one picture, sadly.

Grand River/Grand Haven

The Grand River is a very important river to me, and a very powerful spirit in their own right. The Anishinaabe people know the river as Owashtanong, the “Far flowing water”. That should be no surprise, owing to the length; the longest river in Michigan.

In addition, this river is deep in part of Michigan’s colonial history. From wikipedia;

“The river formed part of a major demarcation of land ceded by Native Americans enabling U.S. settlers to legally obtain title to land in the area. In the 1821 Treaty of Chicago, the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi ceded to the United States all lands in Michigan Territory south of the Grand River, with the exception of several small reservations.”

My understanding of spirits is in the ‘natural phenemona’ school of thought, in that I think of spirits as the totalilty of complex systems that intersect cultural and natural features. This river spirit has appeared to me in an plethora of ways. As fish racing down the streams, as water cascading over rocks, and of course; at the beautiful confluence where it meets Lake Michigan.

Grand Haven, MI

Grand Haven, MI

Lake Michigan

It is damn near impossible to even begin to describe the majesty of Lake Michigan natural and spiritual sense. It’s just too big, figuratively and literally. Trying to describe the natural features, as well as the deep cultural interconnections of countless indigenous and settler cultures could fill libraries.

According to wikipedia, the name of this Great Lake, and the state of Michigan;

“The word “Michigan” is believed to come from the Ojibwe word ᒥᓯᑲᒥ michi-gami or mishigami meaning “great water”.”

In addition, according to the Decolonial Atlas, it has the following names;

Ininwewi-gichigami (Illinios’ Sea): Lake Michigan

— ALSO AS Mishii’igan (Grand Lake): Lake Michigan

— ALSO AS Mishigami (Great Lake): Lake Michigan

We visited this Great Lake both at Grand Haven, via the state park, and also at wonderful park south of town called the Rosy Mound Natural area. If there was a case to be made for a ‘secular Shinto shrine’ on Lake Michigan, this would be it. It’s a stair heavy trail that takes you through woodlands, and up and over dune lands to a great scenic outlook over the lake. We left our offerings there, and stayed just to take it all in.

Up, up, up the stairs we go. Rosy Mounds Natural Area

The overlook. Great meditative area.

And the view of Lake Michigan from the overlook.

Closing Thoughts

It would take a lot more words, spiritual poetry, art, and other things to really begin to even encompass how these spirits impress upon you in person. I could have stayed in these places a lot more time (and will in the future) to even to understand where to begin… There is so much more work to be done.

These spirits are old and powerful, and trace their ancestries back to the glaciers that shaped this land. This is where the words fail, and all you are left with is the experience. For that, I am grateful.

As always,

Thanks for reading.

Sources/References;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_River_(Michigan)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Michigan

Decolonial Atlas