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Post by srbrant on Jun 5, 2017 0:59:34 GMT
Another idea for shields is an inertial-dampening field Believe me, you do not want to mess with inertia. http:// aleph. se/andart2/physics/overcoming-inertia/ Unless of course you do...Okay, I'll take your advice on that. This method of boarding in my story is also another justification for the widespread of swords (aside from the advent of personal shielding): close quarters, firefights in such an enclosed space are a great way to lose eardrums and if the oxidizer from even a single round of self-propelled ammunition (in the event that the invading party wanted to hold the entire ship hostage or was just too stupid to realize there's no friction in space) were to strike 3600 tons of decane, everyone loses. As for why robots aren't used for boarding actions? Living things can't be hacked, many pirate cartels use it as a rite of passage and that some helionauts just have a serious craving for adrenaline after being stuck on a ship for months. Although a missile that can that lodge itself into a ship's hull and disgorge hordes of sabotage drones would be cool to see.
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Post by srbrant on Jun 2, 2017 22:58:49 GMT
In my story's universe, most of the Human and Transhuman factions have a strict prohibition on any robots smaller than a starving deer tick. So there may need to be a workaround.
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Post by srbrant on Jun 2, 2017 22:44:31 GMT
Another idea for shields is an inertial-dampening field like the one used to keep the crew from being turned into jam at high speeds or impacts. Acting as a quantum whipple shield, it can drastically reduce the velocity of projectiles. Though specialized "shieldbreaker" missiles can outright ignore them.
But that's not the topic on this thread.
Another idea for boarder traps are lattice-mounted armored shutters to turn the vestibule into a maze, buying the crew members inside enough time to escape or build up proper defenses. As for point-defense lasers, I'm certain that those will be the first things a boarding ship would destroy in order to protect their parties.
Another issue that arises is the use of boarding craft as opposed to two ships stuck together with space harpoons or gigantic waldoes while boarders spacewalk between them. Because a lot of pirates are looking for luxury foods, vacuum-sensitive goods and "volunteers" to help them in their quest for plunder. Ramming a ship is suicidal and can be easily dodged, plus there's the gigantic risk of missing the crew module or depressurizing it.
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Post by srbrant on Jun 2, 2017 14:38:38 GMT
Here's my idea on how boarding will work in my story: The space between the internal components and the hull itself is called the "vestibule." The vestibule is used as a safe space for routine maintenance, allowing workers to rebuild and repair without having to risk being thrown off into space by a sudden maneuver or through negligence. Many if not all ships are equipped with "drag tethers", which are similar to harpoons in that they fire cables onto asteroids, derelicts and other forms of debris so they may be recovered or captured. They work equally well on enemy ships (so long as the shields are down) and boarders can force their way through the hull or hack their way past the outer hatch and access the airlock tucked away inside. The airlock cannot have any security codes so that they can be easily opened in case of an emergency. As compensation, the vestibule can be equipped with various traps that are activated when boarders are detected. Traps such as flechette launchers, shock-nets and kill-floss are often used. How does that sound? Harpooning asteroids and derelicts I understand, but enemy ships?... If you fire it from long distance, you need a LOT of mass for the cable; a weak cable would be broken by accelerating away. If you fire it from short distance, you have already won the engagement by other means to get that close. If you fire the harpoon at hypervelocity speed, it will impact the enemy ship and shatter or turn into plasma, resulting in damage but not attachment. If you fire it at slow speed, it will never get there. If you miraculously manage to attach a tether and it holds, it can still easily be broken by burning the cable through with a laser. Traps are simply wasted mass, considering that boarding is definitely not the most dangerous weapon you can encounter in a combat engagement. Also, competent point defense would be able to shoot attempted boarders quite easily. (How disposable are your boarders?) Lastly, accidents happen; how disposable are maintenance crew? And... "shields"... 1. Supertensile materials. 2. Relativistic speeds are strictly forbidden in this universe; especially because of FTL technology, which can only be safely activated at Lagrange points. 3. I should find a solution to that... Maybe micro-coating them with a special tungsten composite? Or having them launch in large clusters? 4. Fuel efficiency has become advanced to the point where mass restrictions are lower. There ARE still maximum payload restrictions, however. 5. Traps can only be activated manually; using them to kill maintenance crew heavily exacerbates murder charges under Abuse of Technology laws. 6. This takes place in 5525; sufficiently advanced technology. My theory on how shields would work is through particle editing.
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Post by srbrant on Jun 2, 2017 0:05:15 GMT
Here's my idea on how boarding will work in my story:
The space between the internal components and the hull itself is called the "vestibule." The vestibule is used as a safe space for routine maintenance, allowing workers to rebuild and repair without having to risk being thrown off into space by a sudden maneuver or through negligence.
Many if not all ships are equipped with "drag tethers", which are similar to harpoons in that they fire cables onto asteroids, derelicts and other forms of debris so they may be recovered or captured. They work equally well on enemy ships (so long as the shields are down) and boarders can force their way through the hull or hack their way past the outer hatch and access the airlock tucked away inside. The airlock cannot have any security codes so that they can be easily opened in case of an emergency. As compensation, the vestibule can be equipped with various traps that are activated when boarders are detected. Traps such as flechette launchers, shock-nets and kill-floss are often used.
How does that sound?
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Post by srbrant on Feb 9, 2017 3:32:45 GMT
And then there's this issue: The ships (most of them) have artificially generated gravity, but even then should I have the decks be arranged horizontally like a seaship or vertically like a rocket?
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Post by srbrant on Jan 6, 2017 4:12:00 GMT
Not what I meant by that regarding the 2.0 scale. What I meant was that there are _some_ liberties taken. The science is pretty hard for the most part, with the rest handwaved as sufficiently advanced technology.
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Post by srbrant on Dec 29, 2016 6:18:51 GMT
The thing about fantasy technology in SF is that it acts as motivation and inspiration for scientists and engineers. Were it not for Star Trek, anyone who wanted to research teleportation, FTL travel or cloaking devices would be laughed out of the laboratory. So I like to aim for that, but also aim for, well, realism. Create ships and colonies that are not only fantastic, but also believable. As for propulsion - and please forgive me if I already mentioned this - Reaction mass tanks would be noticeably smaller because of numerous advances in engine design and fuel efficiency. Ships would also have their reactors closer to habitat modules thanks to better radiation containment as well. Regarding colonies, I'm thinking that many of them on airless worlds would be built underground (Like the Vaults of Fallout fame) for a number of reasons, such as radiation shielding, meteoroid protection and greater defense from piracy. Because ship speeds around asteroids and dwarf planets are mind-bogglingly slow, getting to and from warp points would be a pain, meaning that their populations would be very self-sufficient and have to carefully manage their populations to ensure that everyone gets what they need. I imagine they would also have to have a number of tourist attractions to motivate trade and make long STL travel times worthwhile. And then there's the issue of having to live in a ship for weeks or months on end without going straight-up mad. One of my ideas was a communications module that allowed for FTL internet/TV access and games galore. And if the comms module is on the fritz or there's other communication problems, there's the textbook-sized issues of Helionaut Magazine - the space traveler's quarterly digest. Printed and written especially for long-haul flights. I'll elaborate on the subject tomorrow, I'm bushed. First question: How scientific-hard is your project? tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness[Going full science] 1. Yes, sci-fi is one of the main motivations, but plausibility. That's the problem. Cloaking devices are perfectly possible, and is invented. However, there's no way it can enable stealth in space because of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Teleportation would requires quantum mechanic exploitation, and requires VERY, VERY smart Archai to do it. FTL violates Special Relativity, and thus, 'Special Relativity, Casualty, FTL.' Select any two. 2. I know, amat/conversion drives with Li-6 radshield, right? 3. You can, and should be using the brachistochrone trajectories within smaller bodies, because you wouldn't want to wait for the hohmann transfers which could take days around. 4. Most people in 5000 years' time wouldn't even know what a screen is. Their entertainment would be virtual worlds within their spacecrafts where they can upload themselves into one, and even that is possible in few hundred years' time. Communication between star systems is possible with systems of wormholes. Even Orion's Arm wormholes required to be placed far from any big objects, you might take it less serious and place one around every planet, and in larger ships to enable FTL travels and communications. I'd say 2.0 on the scale. 1. The only idea I have for making stealth in space work is a software that scrambles its Black Box so that, when detected, it will show up as a completely different ship (for example: The helionaval frigate Northern Star fears detection by an enemy faction, so it changes its electronic manifest so that it appears on sensors as the civilian freighter Tireless.) 2. Um, pardon? 3. May want to clarify that. 4. It takes place centuries after a war that resulted in thousands upon thousands of technologies being lost to time. Plus, it operates on a philosophical theory of mine which states that technology isn't so much about progression as it is about expression. "Who needs the holodrome when you have three friends and a poker deck?" as one of my characters would say. Plus, I imagine getting ripped out of a deep, virtual world and into harsh reality because of an engine fire would not be a pleasant experience. It may even twist a person's sense of reality into knots. Plus, nothing beats curling up with a good book. Also, video games and other applications aren't programmed anymore; they are taught how to operate and there's software that can reprogram itself to suit a certain task.
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Post by srbrant on Dec 28, 2016 5:13:18 GMT
The thing about fantasy technology in SF is that it acts as motivation and inspiration for scientists and engineers. Were it not for Star Trek, anyone who wanted to research teleportation, FTL travel or cloaking devices would be laughed out of the laboratory. So I like to aim for that, but also aim for, well, realism. Create ships and colonies that are not only fantastic, but also believable.
As for propulsion - and please forgive me if I already mentioned this - Reaction mass tanks would be noticeably smaller because of numerous advances in engine design and fuel efficiency. Ships would also have their reactors closer to habitat modules thanks to better radiation containment as well.
Regarding colonies, I'm thinking that many of them on airless worlds would be built underground (Like the Vaults of Fallout fame) for a number of reasons, such as radiation shielding, meteoroid protection and greater defense from piracy. Because ship speeds around asteroids and dwarf planets are mind-bogglingly slow, getting to and from warp points would be a pain, meaning that their populations would be very self-sufficient and have to carefully manage their populations to ensure that everyone gets what they need. I imagine they would also have to have a number of tourist attractions to motivate trade and make long STL travel times worthwhile.
And then there's the issue of having to live in a ship for weeks or months on end without going straight-up mad. One of my ideas was a communications module that allowed for FTL internet/TV access and games galore. And if the comms module is on the fritz or there's other communication problems, there's the textbook-sized issues of Helionaut Magazine - the space traveler's quarterly digest. Printed and written especially for long-haul flights.
I'll elaborate on the subject tomorrow, I'm bushed.
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Post by srbrant on Nov 23, 2016 5:36:41 GMT
The general shape is still going to be best as a simple convex shape. Until you don't really care about mass ratios, that's how it will be for high performance craft. Either that, or you only armour the craft in specific parts ie: armour the reactor, crew compartment, and weapons magazine/area, but leave the fuel tanks in between unarmoured. The craft would have a bulging kind of look. For armour design, I tend to agree that either a strong side or an armoured frontal aspect is ideal. The forward-facing design is great for minimal cross section - avoid getting shot is a good defensive concept. One issue with going nose-on or bow-on is your main engine only really lets you aim or thrust forward. You could have a side-stepping high thrust combat engine for those needs. You'd only need one, since you just roll the ship to aim it. Of course if we're going that route we can just get rid of the engine at the rear and have the main engine in the midsection. Its not like we need to be aerodynamic. I'm sure you've seen the UFO saucer-like designs some people have made. In the game, I've found that radial engines are incredibly useful in maneuvering, though I'm sure heavy-duty RCS modules may do the same. I'll definitely put those in my series. But since my story is 3500 years in the future, newer technologies would allow for more liberties to be taken in terms of shapes, weaponry and other modules. So some work-arounds or "handwaves" may be necessary. For my work, starship design theory is a careful balance between ships like those in Children of a Dead Earth and The Killing Star versus the ones described in Jodorowsky's Dune or the ones shown in Tenchi Muyo! A few...colorful descriptors of ideal starships from Jodorowsky himself. That man is my idol. He was on...something, certainly, but that man is still a genius. So I just have to mix something like that with something well-grounded in scientific reality.
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Post by srbrant on Nov 22, 2016 6:44:05 GMT
I've been wondering the same thing. Can you make a super-compact ship?
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Post by srbrant on Nov 22, 2016 6:42:14 GMT
I can figure out the whole naming thing on my own, but what I really need to know is starship shapes. Something more than rods, cones, bullets and cylinders...
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Post by srbrant on Nov 21, 2016 4:05:48 GMT
What about starship shapes? I mean, there has to be more than rods, bullets and cones, right?
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Post by srbrant on Nov 18, 2016 23:21:56 GMT
Forgot to mention: The engines for the ships in Kemono are like those used in Children of a Dead Earth; FTL engines can only be activated where gravity is weakest such as Lagrange points. And yes, they use fusion power. Engines have been tuned in a way so that they cannot exceed .20c in speed. Because if a neighboring empire finds that you've been soaring around at 30% the speed of light, then consider yourself to be miles-deep in shit as The Killing Star has taught us. Although in this setting it's more like a stern reprimand or war rather than outright interplanetary genocide.
As for the issue with radiators and reaction mass tanks, they tend to be smaller because of advances in heat management and fuel efficiency.
It's not so much discovering a miraculous new element as it is inventing new elements. Exotic forms of metallurgy have allowed for the creation of things like adamantium, agricite, weirdium and the alien-made ossium.
The mode for FTL is entering hyperspace, killing the STL engines and simply sailing through ethereal currents until they find a "current loop" where ether swirls around a gravity well. Then they fire it up again and exit back into normal space. The currents can vary in their speed and direction, so there is a lot of room for non-fatal error. The average superluminal travel period is 24-48 hours per lightyear.
As a joke, I was thinking of drawing a cross-section of a warp core, with the insides being so insanely minute and complex that it's impossible to determine what is what and where and how. Or of a character explaining to another of how it works, with their dialogue cut off by a long written description of a nearby loud noise - ending when the character finishes their speech.
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Post by srbrant on Nov 17, 2016 21:12:48 GMT
- Postulate one magic tech and abuse it. Figure out some sort of spooky action at a distance system that allows you to transfer force/momentum to physically objects. Don't explain how it works, because it's not possible as far as we know. Then you can use said force fields to create artificial gravity (aka paragravity) by just pushing everyone to the deck of the ship; you can use it to deploy hundred kilometer sheets of droplet radiators that will allow you to radiate to your heart's content even in combat (because the droplets will be moved around with force fields and won't be lost to space as you accelerate); it will allow you to create compact fusion reaction chambers for propulsion, power, and other fun applications; you can also use them as force fields (through in their case it's more of pushing projectiles and beams away and deploying mobile armor against lasers). This sort of momentum exchange also the structural stress on the hull to be evenly distributed through these force fields, which gives you more artistic license in terms of making ships look distinctive (no longer are you limited to making fuel tank skyscrapers). BRILLIANT! I've already come up with some applied phlebetonium for that idea. One is an element discovered from the manipulation of strange matter that allows for force manipulation. Limitations set for it include that it will disintegrate outside of a special chamber (almost like a sort of spherical supercollider), meaning that it is completely impractical for kinetic weapons, requiring a reactor for power. If too much energy is fed into it, it becomes volatile and either crumbles apart or melts. Not sure what to call the thing. "Witch Engine" sounds cool. Or the "RAGE" (Repulsive Adhesion Generation Engine).
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