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Old 11-09-2017, 02:21 PM   #21
ckosacranoid
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Default Re: The most efficient body type RE: fuel?

The other fuel rules where listed in the 2nd arena book under springfield by the one dueltrack if i remember right. it was a very little section. have to dig it out later and see what the name of the section was.
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Old 11-09-2017, 02:40 PM   #22
43Supporter
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Default Re: The most efficient body type RE: fuel?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Suncrush View Post
It's also absurd to pull a power plant out to replace it with a smaller plant and an extra machine gun. There's no way you could do that on a real car, but it's fun in the game, so let's do it.
Oh, it could be done -- but this is where skills like Engineering and Mechanic come in, as one attempts to figure out how to remount the smaller plant so the weapon will fit. (Which leads to a discussion of "what an item is shaped like" -- for ex., one maker's ATG may be "1 space wide and 3 spaces long", while another is "L-shaped"....)
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Old 11-09-2017, 03:11 PM   #23
josephrey
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: on the road!! check out www.chingchingwong.com to see where we currently are. :)
Default Re: The most efficient body type RE: fuel?

Ya. I think in another thread we were wondering how "modular" the vehicle bodies might be. It doesn't really MATTER of course as far as the rules and gameplay goes, but I think helps us flesh out the logistics in our heads, and endears us to the game world a bit more.

I might think that in a world where a good number of folk are modding their vehicles pretty often, that a car manufacturer would market a modular design as a distinct benefit. Repairs and major changes will be significantly easier with OUR brand. Mikey likes it.
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Old 11-10-2017, 07:06 AM   #24
swordtart
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Default Re: The most efficient body type RE: fuel?

There was a glib comment in one of the ADQs regarding the space an item takes up, and that space does not equate purely to size.

As an example the extra magazine for an MG takes up a space, but the MG with a full magazine takes up... 1 space.

The poor ballistics (and high traverse) of GW guns implies that they are short barreled versions and the overall weapon system may actually be cuboid for all we know. The art in Uncle Als is fluff and time and time again we were officially told that it was not representative.

Ignore it as it will just make your brain bleed.

Incidentally the Engineering rule says it is for designing cars, but then there is no explanation on how you would actually use it. Mechanic at least has some hard rules attached to it, but even they are a little "custom" and look like rules from another game system co-opted in.

CW can be overly lite ;)
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Old 11-10-2017, 03:34 PM   #25
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Default Re: The most efficient body type RE: fuel?

Quote:
Originally Posted by josephrey View Post
I might think that in a world where a good number of folk are modding their vehicles pretty often, that a car manufacturer would market a modular design as a distinct benefit. Repairs and major changes will be significantly easier with OUR brand. Mikey likes it.
In the write-up for the _Lo-Beam_ in _VG3_, it's explicitly stated the laser is designed to be easily dismounted and remounted.

And as shows like _Roadkill_ have taught us: With enough hacking, anything can be made to fit anything else.... :)
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Old 11-11-2017, 12:24 AM   #26
JimTullis
 
Join Date: Feb 2013
Default Re: The most efficient body type RE: fuel?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Suncrush View Post
But it's fine. It's a game.
If you're wondering how he eats and breathes
And other science facts,
Just repeat to yourself "It's just a show,
I should really just relax
For Mystery Science Theater 3000."

This is True.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Suncrush View Post
But that's not the way a wheel motor would work.
Still, I'm Respectfully Curious as to why you believe a Wheel Motor wouldn't work as part of the wheel?

The following bit is to clarify the terms as I'm using them and not meant to imply that the reader doesn't know this.
There is a difference between Wheels and Tires. Tires are part of the wheels of cars. But I'm using the term wheel to describe the central metal structure regardless of whether a tire is mounted on it.

I've taken a lot of ceiling fans apart. The blades are attached to a metal drum that is the outer shell of the motor. {There is a secondary aesthetic cover with no structural value.} The core of the motor is attached to the ceiling by a simple rod with a mount at the end.

I believe a solid mounting point with a power plug is all one would need on the chassis of a car. The metal structure of a wheel could contain the motor. {This would actually make front wheel drive easier since there is no need for complex couplers to transmit motion to the wheels while allowing steering.} Being an electric motor, it can be designed to also act as a brake, by reversing the current to the windings. {This isn't a good idea on most contemporary electric motors because they aren't engineered correctly to take the strain.} A set of sensors and a simple computer program would be needed to keep the wheels in sync.
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Old 11-11-2017, 03:13 AM   #27
swordtart
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Default Re: The most efficient body type RE: fuel?

You also have to take into consideration the all-wheel drive and all wheel steer of CW cars (which makes those pivots and d6 bends possible). None of these things disappear with gas plants, so gas plants are just electricity generators.

Ahh but what about the ADQ&A ruling that gas powered vehicles need a laser battery if they are to use high power draining electronics? This was to correct the fact that PUs are drained by HP electronics and therefore have a cost per shot/use. Gas plants only worry about miles per gallon and thus all such use would be free.

I think originally the idea may have been that gas engines drove the wheels direct via a drive train of some sort, but then the whole design of a gas car would have had to be different to an electric car (the chassis and crossbow sub-genre had a lot of divergence in the design rules). As issues were identified by the player community rules were fudged by the editor of the day depending on his personal view rather than from a consistent product design vision. This is often identified at the outset in modern products - Phil is clearly all over this if his comments on CW6 are anything to go by.

It perhaps would have been better if the rules for gas plants had stipulated a range equivalent as PUs per gallon of gas and then left everything else as transparent with gas plants a simple direct replacement for electric one.

Of course if that had been the case we might have only needed one set of electric plants rather than different ones for bikes and cars. If there had been a statement that all gearing etc. was part of the wheel/rotor/propeller assembly we could have avoided all those different gas plants for boats, helos, oversized vehicles as well.

C'est a vie.

Last edited by swordtart; 11-11-2017 at 02:43 PM. Reason: Got my worms duddled.
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Old 11-11-2017, 02:28 PM   #28
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Default Re: The most efficient body type RE: fuel?

Info on Wheel Motors:

https://auto.howstuffworks.com/in-wheel-motor.htm

(It's of interest to me not only for the auto usage, but for the big airliners -- being able to use wheel motors powered by the APU to taxi instead of running the main engines....)
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Old 11-11-2017, 03:58 PM   #29
josephrey
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: on the road!! check out www.chingchingwong.com to see where we currently are. :)
Default Re: The most efficient body type RE: fuel?

Yep. It wouldn't take up much room at all:

https://image.slidesharecdn.com/fina...?cb=1463849717

Or even this image here...

http://www.sim-drive.com/english/images/technology1.png

...makes me want to take that modular building/engineering skill idea even further when designing vehicles from the ground up. Then, a la the rules for a 6-wheeled "car" body option, you could arrange the wheels side-by-side or front-to-back as shown above. Your scavenger vehicle would be much more sustainable, as would your tractor trailers.

I know the design rules for 6e are going to be more streamlined, but this might be getting a little too CW Tanks like, as mentioned in the dump truck thread. But still, a whole buncha wheels up front would be fun. :)
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Old 11-11-2017, 06:32 PM   #30
brionl
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Default Re: The most efficient body type RE: fuel?

Quote:
Originally Posted by 43Supporter View Post
In the write-up for the _Lo-Beam_ in _VG3_, it's explicitly stated the laser is designed to be easily dismounted and remounted.

And as shows like _Roadkill_ have taught us: With enough hacking, anything can be made to fit anything else.... :)
Yeah, if you can put a supercharged Olds 455 V8 in a Pontiac Fiero...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65-VhSWspVE
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