erin
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Smash Mouth Plays From The Depths Of Hell As You Traverse A Deep, Rat-Infested Cave
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Post by erin on Oct 4, 2016 1:31:11 GMT
One of the things I wonder about the materials in CoaDE is, would a lot of these compositions for stuff like armor actually work in space without significant modification? Specifically, are the materials rated to withstand hard vacuum, without additional processing? Radiation-proofing, treatment against outgassing, and other stuff comes to mind, which I might think substantial enough to change the armor properties. Especially for spacecraft operating closer to the Sun. I'll admit I'm not extremely well-read on the matter so I welcome input, and I suppose metals and alloys would tend to have less of a problem about this, but for plastics and other materials I'm uncertain.
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erin
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Smash Mouth Plays From The Depths Of Hell As You Traverse A Deep, Rat-Infested Cave
Posts: 57
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Post by erin on Oct 4, 2016 1:54:55 GMT
An additional concern: How does the game handle stuff like microscopic fissuring and other material stresses that build up in the medium-long term/over the course of, say, active use of a gun barrel? It's my understanding that nonmetal materials like carbon fiber, for example, tend to build up microscale cracks during use that build up into larger ones.
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Post by qswitched on Oct 4, 2016 2:12:10 GMT
In space, materials are actually easier to work with in a lot of cases. Without an atmosphere, materials will not rust/oxidize, and they remain at a much colder ambient temperature (though that can be problem if the temperature raises suddenly). Similarly, you don't need to galvanize your metals or perform additional protective measures in the absence of an atmosphere. One issue in space is cold welding (which has it's own article in game), where metals weld together at low temperatures since there are no oxidation layers.
Outgassing for propellant tanks is taken care of by adding an additional % of unusable propellant to the actually propellant tank (rated for the default 6 months).
Long term damage is not accounted for in game, as in most missions, combat takes place very quickly with very long durations in between for crew to perform repairs if necessary.
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erin
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Smash Mouth Plays From The Depths Of Hell As You Traverse A Deep, Rat-Infested Cave
Posts: 57
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Post by erin on Oct 4, 2016 6:29:43 GMT
Fair points, although I feel like the temperature thing comes into question a bit at Venus and Mercury. I was actually referring to outgassing in the sense of gases escaping from the materials themselves due to the nature of their formation/composition, rather than gas escape through tank walls, although that's neat to know as well. With regards to repair -- I'm aware of metal and glass annealing but I'm uncertain if that would be sufficient for various ceramics, organic compounds, and so on. And I inquire about it because it seems like it could become a significant concern in the heat of battle. Perhaps "long-term" was the wrong word choice. It's more like... I've read about how much downtime tanks and fighter aircraft need for maintenance to ensure they're in fighting condition. While finding downtime clearly isn't an issue in this case, I do question whether the stress buildup on various materials (especially nonmetals) would not be significant in combat operation of, say, a coilgun. |
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