Quote:Original post by Ubik
The gravity producing mechanism also offers a good chance for balancing. Gravity mechanism would produce a gravity field representing some mass (one earth for one G), or alternatively it could be something like ships mass * G. Bigger gravity requires more energy, so producing full gravity for a big ship would mean that there is not that much energy to absorb the inertia forces, making the big ships less maneuverable.
I think this could balance nicely for the player who is willing to do a little bit of optimizing for their ship. But rather than using a movement penalty, it may be enough to simply balance the power cost issue of running the gravity generators.
Quote:Original post by frostburn
If I remember correctly from other posts your're going to have a graphical representation of the ships and environment (was it 1st or 3rd person? doesn't matter). If things have to be designed so that everything can be used in zero g and during acceleration etc I'm afraid that the ships won't look anything like a combat vessel
This is a side issue that has arisen: Is it cool if form follows function, or should ships be created to look sexy? Part of this is in the hands of the players as they weld together lego-style pieces in building their ship. Part of it is determined by the ruleset that makes one design better than another. I'm not sure having a flying amalgam of blocks and beveled edges is all that bad, as opposed to a sleek, sexy look (Babylon 5 versus Star Trek ships).
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ID and AG may produce energy signatures that's detectable by other ships. A sound tactic in stealth missions can be to turn off the devices. Ships designed to be very stealthy could be made completely without these devices.
Cool idea. Yes, it would enhance stealth.
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Let all ships have intertial dampening and AG, but give it a bit of a size so that people won't ask for anti-g suits or guns or things like that.
This may be easier in the long run for simplicity's sake. Although making some sort of division would create a difference in feel in tech levels, like the difference between sailing and steam ships if you wanted to create interesting and divergent environments.
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I assume the "playing field" is going to be huge (interstellar). If travel between stars is sub-C you'll have to deal with relativistics. If you're using wormhole, hyperspace, etc. you're already using at least as exotic technology as AG. I can't see why you shouldn't allow AG but allow "shortcuts". If you're using Super-C speeds you need huge acceleration and ID would make this tolerable for the people inside.
Interstellar travel is FTL, but depending on tech level, interplanetary flight may be STL. Here I think handwaving is best in that the g forces and translati
on issues get obviated.
(My criteria for adding a scientific principle or effect is if it is worth doing for the reward and adds to gameplay, not because its real).
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Inertial dampening and combat: As stated, ID removes effect of outside acceleration from the inside of the ship. ID may be controlled by a computer and while it's capable of correcting the steady acceleration of the ship (after all it gets information from the helm), shock effects by explosions will still cause things inside to be bounced around. If the ID device is in disrepair, damaged or destroyed the effects will be worse. Effects wary from a light shaking from an explosion to being thrown across the room to not being able to dampen engine acceleration (pulled toward the engine during acceleration).
Hmmmm... could be useful for saboteurs and boarders.
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Fighters: If you're using manned fighters you have to have ID. A normal human can survive 12Gs for a few seconds, but a missile can sustain heavy Gs without any problem (my cellular phone survives 200G - I would have been crushed). ID in fighters can remove for example 95% of pulling Gs, making it able to be much more manouverable. AG may not be needed.
The alternative is to only use missiles and drones. Or robot pilots [smile].
The drone / robot fighter universe is just too sterile for me, so I'm going with man-machine interface on this one as superior. So, yes, ID definitely.
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Artificial G and combat: If AG is knocked out or turned off things inside become weightless (assuming ID works). If you really want to have zero-g fighting inside the spaceships you can let the AG devices be very suspectible to energy fluctuations etc.
Ah, a delicate system. I've got a mechanism for that built into the combat engine, so I'll have to keep this in mind and try it.
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AG can sometimes also be used as a weapon. If you mount gravity plating in the roof as well as in the floor you can pummel intruders by swithcing the direction of the gravity. It might also be possible to increase the gravity to above normal, either crushing them (but then you'd probably do damage to the ship as well), or letting them feel what an insect feels when it's put in a jar and shaken. Everything not secured will also be thrown about though.
This would be a funny anim and an effective barrier in a corridoor, causing you to have to destroy the plates at range. If they were camoflagued, it would be much worse.
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You could give your soldiers extensive Zero-G training so that if the ship is invaded they'll have an edge during combat by turning off AG. If they have no training and the AG is disrupted they'll flap about like the frogs they sent to the ISS recently. It wasn't pretty.
This was one of the main reasons I thought about it being interesting. I see a galaxy with mishmash tech and its possible to have people using old, reliable tech they don't understand which generates gravity for them when they go into space (mass produced via push-button automation). Yet when they encounter a supposedly more "primitive" culture without AG, they might get their collective butts whipped in space.
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And finally, in Zero-G combat, remember - The enemy's gate is down.
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