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to qualify as a science fantasy you have to abandon even the pretense of being scientific in the areas. FTL is not doable as of our current understanding of the universe but including it, especially as they give some plausable explanations for how it works, is not enough to qualify as science fantasy. You don't need to be ultra-hard on science to qualify as science fiction.


Well outer-dimensional monsters and magic is probable for you then?

Also a fast wikipedia quote as you didn't take the time to read it apparently .....:
Distinguishing between science fiction and fantasy, Rod Serling claimed that the former was "the improbable made possible" while the latter was "the impossible made probable".[1] As a combination of the two, science fantasy gives a scientific veneer of realism to things that simply could not happen in the real world under any circumstances. Where science fiction does not permit the existence of fantasy or supernatural elements, science fantasy explicitly relies upon them.
 
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Well outer-dimensional monsters and magic is probable for you then?

Also a fast wikipedia quote as you didn't take the time to read it apparently .....:
Distinguishing between science fiction and fantasy, Rod Serling claimed that the former was "the improbable made possible" while the latter was "the impossible made probable".[1] As a combination of the two, science fantasy gives a scientific veneer of realism to things that simply could not happen in the real world under any circumstances. Where science fiction does not permit the existence of fantasy or supernatural elements, science fantasy explicitly relies upon them.

I actually did, thank you very much. And I don't think that Stellaris relies on fantasy or supernatural elements. In fact it is debatable how much it consists of, technically speaking there is no "space magic", there is neuroscientific technology that can to some extent imitate the effect of it but there is an important difference even if you refuse to aknowledge it, yes it probably can't be done in real life but in Stellaris it is simply sufficiently advanced science, not literally just space magic, even if the effects are the same. As far as outer-dimensional horrors go even some modern scientists speculate about there being other dimensions, if so then it is hardly beyond the realms of possibility that they can interact with one another. Yes none of this is very probable of working in real life but as you so kindly took up in your quote science fiction is the "improbable made possible".
 
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I actually did, thank you very much. And I don't think that Stellaris relies on fantasy or supernatural elements. In fact it is debatable how much it consists of, technically speaking there is no "space magic", there is neuroscientific technology that can to some extent imitate the effect of it but there is an important difference even if you refuse to aknowledge it, yes it probably can't be done in real life but in Stellaris it is simply sufficiently advanced science, not literally just space magic, even if the effects are the same. As far as outer-dimensional horrors go even some modern scientists speculate about there being other dimensions, if so then it is hardly beyond the realms of possibility that they can interact with one another. Yes none of this is very probable of working in real life but as you so kindly took up in your quote science fiction is the "improbable made possible".

By your definition of improbable there is no science-fantasy just fiction.
 
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By your definition of improbable there is no science-fantasy just fiction.

It does exist. What you seem to have missed is the fact that it does not need to be super hard science fiction for it to qualify as science fiction and science fantasy is when the fantasy and fiction elements are about equal, not simply when it contains some traces of fantasy. Another quote about science fantasy:


"It should be noted that some works may slant towards one or the other [that is between science fiction and fantasy], yet still contain elements of both. Science Fantasy lies near the middle of a continuum between Science Fiction and Fantasy, so there will naturally be a wide range of works that lie somewhere between "Fantasy with a dash of Sci-Fi" and "Sci-Fi with a smidgen of Fantasy". For an explanation of why the genres are so linked, see the analysis page on Speculative Fiction."

Or this:

"Even if we could clearly tell the improbable from the impossible, that wouldn't be enough. Star Trek is Sci-Fi despite having seemingly impossible Psychic Powers and heaping amounts of Applied Phlebotinum (the transporter in particular is way out there); earthborn dragons are fantasy, most of the time, despite being merely improbable, not impossible."
 
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It does exist. What you seem to have missed is the fact that it does not need to be super hard science fiction for it to qualify as science fiction and science fantasy is when the fantasy and fiction elements are about equal, not simply when it contains some traces of fantasy. Another quote about science fantasy:


"It should be noted that some works may slant towards one or the other [that is between science fiction and fantasy], yet still contain elements of both. Science Fantasy lies near the middle of a continuum between Science Fiction and Fantasy, so there will naturally be a wide range of works that lie somewhere between "Fantasy with a dash of Sci-Fi" and "Sci-Fi with a smidgen of Fantasy". For an explanation of why the genres are so linked, see the analysis page on Speculative Fiction."

Or this:

"Even if we could clearly tell the improbable from the impossible, that wouldn't be enough. Star Trek is Sci-Fi despite having seemingly impossible Psychic Powers and heaping amounts of Applied Phlebotinum (the transporter in particular is way out there); earthborn dragons are fantasy, most of the time, despite being merely improbable, not impossible."

Mhhm I concede this point to you then. It's Sci-fi with fantasy elements, I still think that's weird though.
 
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Warhammer 40,000 is a good example of Science Fantasy.
 
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Stellaris is mostly a 4X game from what I've seen, and there are already fantasy 4Xs out there. (Endless Legend is pretty good for instance.)

What exactly distinguishes 'grand strategy' as a genre from 4Xs, if you take away the detailed historical setting? Is it that the map is mostly filled from the start, with lots of countries (some stronger than others) and complex diplomacy?
 
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There'll be a lot of "can I kill all the Elves" posts, that much is for sure.

Stellaris is mostly a 4X game from what I've seen, and there are already fantasy 4Xs out there. (Endless Legend is pretty good for instance.)
... or Dominions.

Fantasy I think makes most sense when the various races play really differently, and so far that's not something Paradox has done to maximum extend (more like a gradual thing. But anyone playing a bit of Dominions can see how that's different from playing CK2-GoT or Stellaris or something). Not sure whether that's an argument for doing it or not ;)
 
I want to see a 'realistic' pdox fantasy game. Less elves and orcs and more 'what if earth was a little different'. Adding full random generation to current pdox games could achieve that. EU4 already does it for half the map. Just let us generate the whole map and maybe generate different religions and cultures. Then port it to CK2 and HoI4 and inevitably to Vicky3
 
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What about Traditional Fantasy instead of High Fantasy? So instead of Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, and shit, have mythological stuff based on Ancient religions.
 
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I hope we will, but it shouldn't be a priority. PDS have already innovated by creating a fifth major franchise in the future, giving us the Big Fives of PDS, and now releasing a new version of the last of those Big Fives or working on creating one of the three other popular periods that are not covered yet is the logical priority in my opinion.