SciFi Worldbuilding Tropes

[Baltenstein]

One that I really hate seeing is that aliens always seem to find us first, and they’re always super advanced. Just once I’d like to see an instance where we find them first and we’re more advanced. Where humanity’s first contact with ET is initiated by us, not them.

If First Contact is established by humans, the aliens will almost universally turn out to be horrible man eating predators/parasites.

[Crysuko]

I realise why it's a convention, but I find humanoid aliens being commonplace really played out

[United Communal Burrow Republics]

I feel like space battles and how close they look in Sci-fi is a bit of a trope. Space is absolutely massive, and there's literally no reason why ships would ever get close enough to each other for stuff like boarding or ramming to be important. There should be hundreds of km between ships on the same side even most of the time, so them being neck and neck just doesnt make sense unless one side let the other get that close.

And you may ask how this relates to worldbuilding? Well primarily, it leads to cartoonishly unrealistic ship designs with battering rams and battleship like structures that just wouldn't make sense in the long distance environment that is space.

Interestingly, WH40k - the 'Standard' setting for RAMMING TACTICS! with spaceboats specifically designed for it - is also a setting that oftentimes does this right. While it heavily depends on the author (and BFG has to shorten distances by several orders of magnitude as an inevitability of being tabletop), combat ranges in the tens to hundreds of thousands to kilometres are common enough. 'Fighters' are oftentimes boats with multiple decks and a crew of a dozen, which is what they should be. It's a curious mix.

For absurdo-ranges, I also recommend the Cultureverse, which routinely engages over distances of multiple lightyears. For something more reasonable, Perry Rhodan also runs combat ranges in the millions of km. Requires German and fighting through a ridiculous backlog, though. And then there's Forge of God/Anvil of Stars, which usually hammer it out in the hundreds of millions to a couple billion kilometre range.

Anytime someone commends 40k as a positive in space battles I take 5 years off my life expectancy.

[Crysuko]

Interestingly, WH40k - the 'Standard' setting for RAMMING TACTICS! with spaceboats specifically designed for it - is also a setting that oftentimes does this right. While it heavily depends on the author (and BFG has to shorten distances by several orders of magnitude as an inevitability of being tabletop), combat ranges in the tens to hundreds of thousands to kilometres are common enough. 'Fighters' are oftentimes boats with multiple decks and a crew of a dozen, which is what they should be. It's a curious mix.

For absurdo-ranges, I also recommend the Cultureverse, which routinely engages over distances of multiple lightyears. For something more reasonable, Perry Rhodan also runs combat ranges in the millions of km. Requires German and fighting through a ridiculous backlog, though. And then there's Forge of God/Anvil of Stars, which usually hammer it out in the hundreds of millions to a couple billion kilometre range.

Anytime someone commends 40k as a positive in space battles I take 5 years off my life expectancy.
/skipme

There’s a cutscene from BFGothic which shows 2 ships basically spitting distance apart plinking away at each other

[Destyntine]

One that really bugs me is when there's an alien race that is extremely technologically advanced and yet they act like dummies. How are alien races that are capable of building dreadnaughts and laser weaponry still acting like barbarians. May involve broken speech (grunting and broken English to communicate), territorial violence (caveman attitude), terrible aim, no plan other than 'shoot the enemy', and their forces being gunned down like fodder.

[New yugoslavaia]

One that really bugs me is when there's an alien race that is extremely technologically advanced and yet they act like dummies. How are alien races that are capable of building dreadnaughts and laser weaponry still acting like barbarians. May involve broken speech (grunting and broken English to communicate), territorial violence (caveman attitude), terrible aim, no plan other than 'shoot the enemy', and their forces being gunned down like fodder.

Because the good guys need an unsympathetic foe so they can massacre them with no ethical problems.

On another note, a trope that's somewhat annoying is when Earth is always a one world government in the future. Wouldn't it be interesting if it was still split up in the far future while we're colonising space. Not nations per say, but rather a handful of large blocs.

[The New California Republic]

If something spins and it has lots of flashing lights and buttons on it then it's important.

[Destyntine]

One that really bugs me is when there's an alien race that is extremely technologically advanced and yet they act like dummies. How are alien races that are capable of building dreadnaughts and laser weaponry still acting like barbarians. May involve broken speech (grunting and broken English to communicate), territorial violence (caveman attitude), terrible aim, no plan other than 'shoot the enemy', and their forces being gunned down like fodder.

Because the good guys need an unsympathetic foe so they can massacre them with no ethical problems.

On another note, a trope that's somewhat annoying is when Earth is always a one world government in the future. Wouldn't it be interesting if it was still split up in the far future while we're colonising space. Not nations per say, but rather a handful of large blocs.

Good point. We always see humanity's point of view in a war but never the point of view from the alien. In the rare cases that we do get to see the alien's point of view, they are practically humanlike in nature anyway.

That is a concept that also came across my mind. If multiple countries on earth are all capable of space travel, who's to say who gets what claims on a planet? I always thought it would be 'first come, first serve' but other nations on earth may be at edge with other nations over land claims in space and might be willing to take them with force. We rarely ever do see any human vs. human conflict in settings that have alien races along with a non-unified earth.

[Esthe]

Because the good guys need an unsympathetic foe so they can massacre them with no ethical problems.

On another note, a trope that's somewhat annoying is when Earth is always a one world government in the future. Wouldn't it be interesting if it was still split up in the far future while we're colonising space. Not nations per say, but rather a handful of large blocs.

Good point. We always see humanity's point of view in a war but never the point of view from the alien. In the rare cases that we do get to see the alien's point of view, they are practically humanlike in nature anyway.

That is a concept that also came across my mind. If multiple countries on earth are all capable of space travel, who's to say who gets what claims on a planet? I always thought it would be 'first come, first serve' but other nations on earth may be at edge with other nations over land claims in space and might be willing to take them with force. We rarely ever do see any human vs. human conflict in settings that have alien races along with a non-unified earth.

It’s probably because it would be too confusing for our little minds.

[New yugoslavaia]

Good point. We always see humanity's point of view in a war but never the point of view from the alien. In the rare cases that we do get to see the alien's point of view, they are practically humanlike in nature anyway.

That is a concept that also came across my mind. If multiple countries on earth are all capable of space travel, who's to say who gets what claims on a planet? I always thought it would be 'first come, first serve' but other nations on earth may be at edge with other nations over land claims in space and might be willing to take them with force. We rarely ever do see any human vs. human conflict in settings that have alien races along with a non-unified earth.

It’s probably because it would be too confusing for our little minds.

Which one?

[New Antarcticania]

Generic space federation #5839374
Bonus points for-
"OH WeRE ThE GoOOD GUYS!"
Some form of corrupt goverment

[Heloin]

I realise why it's a convention, but I find humanoid aliens being commonplace really played out

Did convergent evolution shape them all by chance,
To fit in Star Fleet’s regulation shoes and pants?
What narcissism makes five-fingered hands
Prerequisites for venturing from native lands?
There’s more richness in a single planet’s zoo
Than the sameness in a Federation crew.

[Heloin]

Generic space federation #5839374
Bonus points for-
"OH WeRE ThE GoOOD GUYS!"
Some form of corrupt goverment

Welcome to our unique space cold war. Star Trek? Never heard of it.

[New haven america]

One that I really hate seeing is that aliens always seem to find us first, and they’re always super advanced. Just once I’d like to see an instance where we find them first and we’re more advanced. Where humanity’s first contact with ET is initiated by us, not them.

You've never seen Stargate? Or Star Trek?

ST has like, 10 episodes on this subject.

[New yugoslavaia]

Generic space federation #5839374
Bonus points for-
"OH WeRE ThE GoOOD GUYS!"
Some form of corrupt goverment

Welcome to our unique space cold war. Star Trek? Never heard of it.

God forbid we actually have a cold war in space that isn't just capitalist republic vs communist dictatorship analogs.

[New haven america]

Welcome to our unique space cold war. Star Trek? Never heard of it.

God forbid we actually have a cold war in space that isn't just capitalist republic vs communist dictatorship analogs.

Haven't gotten past that point IRL, so...

[Zeloria]

How about the good old "planets of hats", where all alien species have a certain trait that makes them better at something. Every species has them except humans, and if humans has one, then it will be something like "curiosity".

[Voxija]

How about the good old "planets of hats", where all alien species have a certain trait that makes them better at something. Every species has them except humans, and if humans has one, then it will be something like "curiosity".

Oftentimes, humanity's hat is something like "diversity" or "not having a hat". Which is the lamest cop-out.

[Crysuko]

How about the good old "planets of hats", where all alien species have a certain trait that makes them better at something. Every species has them except humans, and if humans has one, then it will be something like "curiosity".

The warrior race
The intellectual race
The spiritual race
The economic race
Sign up now and get mysterious precursors for no extra charge!

[New yugoslavaia]

How about the good old "planets of hats", where all alien species have a certain trait that makes them better at something. Every species has them except humans, and if humans has one, then it will be something like "curiosity".

The warrior race
The intellectual race
The spiritual race
The economic race
Sign up now and get mysterious precursors for no extra charge!

Warning: The following purchase comes with a 65% chance of invasion by another alien species, with a 45% of them being assimilators. This condition has a fatality chance of 40% unless you're human, in which case there is a 99.9999999% chance you will be able to overcome it at the last second.

[Heloin]

The warrior race
The intellectual race
The spiritual race
The economic race
Sign up now and get mysterious precursors for no extra charge!

Warning: The following purchase comes with a 65% chance of invasion by another alien species, with a 45% of them being assimilators. This condition has a fatality chance of 40% unless you're human, in which case there is a 99.9999999% chance you will be able to overcome it at the last second.

It’s astonishing that 120 years after War of the Worlds people still fuck up how to make alien invasion stories.

[Madrinpoor]

One that I really hate seeing is that aliens always seem to find us first, and they’re always super advanced. Just once I’d like to see an instance where we find them first and we’re more advanced. Where humanity’s first contact with ET is initiated by us, not them.

Planet 51. A kids movie but it does that pretty interestingly.

[Zeloria]

How about the good old "planets of hats", where all alien species have a certain trait that makes them better at something. Every species has them except humans, and if humans has one, then it will be something like "curiosity".

The warrior race
The intellectual race
The spiritual race
The economic race
Sign up now and get mysterious precursors for no extra charge!

The warrior's, who are either the badguys, or are just rivals to the good guy peaceful humans.
The intellectuals, the most smug species in the galaxy. Bonus points if they talk like robots, or are robots.
The spirituals, just as smug, if not more then the intellectuals. They might have psychic powers because apparently they follow the right religion.
The economic race, depiction of them depends on writers opinion of capitalism.
And the precursors, the species that are most likely responsible for the REAL badguys that threatens everyone.

[New yugoslavaia]

Warning: The following purchase comes with a 65% chance of invasion by another alien species, with a 45% of them being assimilators. This condition has a fatality chance of 40% unless you're human, in which case there is a 99.9999999% chance you will be able to overcome it at the last second.

It’s astonishing that 120 years after War of the Worlds people still fuck up how to make alien invasion stories.

Could of gone to literally any other resource rich planet, but you just had to go to the one inhabited with nuke wielding murder apes.

[Crysuko]

It’s astonishing that 120 years after War of the Worlds people still fuck up how to make alien invasion stories.

Could of gone to literally any other resource rich planet, but you just had to go to the one inhabited with nuke wielding murder apes.

is Earth even particularly resource rich. we have silicates and oxides galore, iron, copper, other common elements.