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Old 09-27-2013, 03:30 PM   #21
Varyon
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Default Re: Potential Pitfalls for a Superscience Technology

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Originally Posted by Terwin View Post
You mentioned 'blade' shields.
What is to stop someone from using one of those to provide heat to their power plant? Presumably if you have multiple blades on one satellite, they do not fully enclose the reactor...
Blades are a special case that do require power input (they aren't self-sustaining), and they heat up at the rate of a similarly-sized reactor. The maximum size for a Blade reactor is about 1.5 tons (an SM+5 system). You can technically get larger, but the above gives you the greatest length of Blade possible (around 10 yards). So, you can't generate energy from the heat they produce (although a clever system might be able to recoup some of the energy lost).
Mecha in the setting are typically SM+6 and mount two Blades, one in each arm (an Arm Blade system is 1/3 for each blade, 1/6 for each dedicated capacitor; arms are separate systems). They use the cooling/venting system from their main shield generator for the arm blades, meaning it heats up about 2/3 faster when both blades are active - mecha typically only use their arm blades for very short periods at a time!
The satellites have about 4 Blades, all of which use the same venting as their main generator. They only activate when the incoming projectile gets very close.

EDIT: I haven't decided yet if human-scale Blades are available. The smallest Shield generators are 3 lb, if I assume Blade generators can be the same size, that would be a 3 lb hilt (requiring somewhere around ST 10) that generates a 1-yard Blade. Because it doesn't generate a heat-blocking Shield to keep the heat in, it would probably be able to function without difficulty in atmosphere, but maybe have a little heating issue in vacuum.

Last edited by Varyon; 09-30-2013 at 07:59 AM.
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Old 09-27-2013, 03:35 PM   #22
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Default Re: Potential Pitfalls for a Superscience Technology

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Originally Posted by Nereidalbel View Post
So, how expensive would it be to outfit missiles with K-Sinks, effectively making them 100% accurate? They should have a rather nice bonus for SM difference, after all.
I don't think that would make them 100% accurate: the effect is only one of matching velocity with the target. Though You can certainly pull some interesting tricks with matching speed, aiming, and then accelerating again.

Tracking devices are valuable though... they stay a safe distance away, but are easy to lock onto things.

I don't see why making a requirement to lock onto the whole shadow excludes floating cities. You have the same velocity relative to the mass of the planet, even if you're in the shadow that aggregates to give you the shadow. And since you have to tether the whole thing, you can only slow falls and rises.
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Old 09-27-2013, 03:36 PM   #23
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Default Re: Potential Pitfalls for a Superscience Technology

Also, what happens when you bang two shields together?
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Old 09-27-2013, 03:49 PM   #24
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Default Re: Potential Pitfalls for a Superscience Technology

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Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
I don't see why making a requirement to lock onto the whole shadow excludes floating cities. You have the same velocity relative to the mass of the planet, even if you're in the shadow that aggregates to give you the shadow. And since you have to tether the whole thing, you can only slow falls and rises.
Your velocity relative to the planet can't be modified using a K-Sink, because for all intents and purposes you are part of the planet. For example, when a K-Sink is active, people within the ship can still move around freely.

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Also, what happens when you bang two shields together?
At low velocity, Shields are slightly "sticky," and movement can be transmitted through the shield to the underlying vessel, allowing mechas to grapple. At high velocity, the shield moves too rapidly for the vessel to compensate, and it ends up going into the vessel, destroying matter along the way. The above assumes shields of equal size/strength - for unequal size, the smashing really only occurs to the smaller vessel.
At relativistic velocities, impacting a shield of any strength will utterly and completely vaporize an object of just about any size. However, subspace has a set "origin" point, and going too fast relative to this (going fast enough that you could make a shielded relativistic missile that would vaporize anything in its path is far above this threshold) means the shield can't keep up and ends up collapsing in on the vessel, damaging/destroying it.


EDIT: I should note that back when I worked out the bonus to hit a target for a K-Sink-equipped bullet, I discovered a practical lower limit on the size of a K-Sink - at SM-3 and lower, a K-Sink-equipped object will can only tether to something it has already impacted (assuming that something has the same density as the spaceships from SS). If it's already impacted, of course, it can't actually tether because it's effectively part of the same object. I'll need to decide what the actual lower limit is, but at least I now have a guideline.

Last edited by Varyon; 09-27-2013 at 03:55 PM.
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Old 09-27-2013, 04:24 PM   #25
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Default Re: Potential Pitfalls for a Superscience Technology

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Originally Posted by Varyon View Post
Shield

The Shield is based on (i.e. ruthlessly stolen from) the Molecular Detachment Device from Ender's Game, which produces a field within which "electrons can't be shared," causing matter to fall apart. For the MD field, each time it interacts with matter it gets stronger and extends further, meaning one hit will utterly destroy a ship (and send out a field that can hit adjacent ships, potentially wiping out an entire fleet in one well-placed shot). The Shield is the same effect, but doesn't propagate as effectively - you'd probably require something like neutronium to get the supercritical reaction you see from the MD Device (although neutronium, with its lack of electrons, would be unaffected).
So, it prevents chemical bonds from working (effectively breaking them and thus releasing heat energy, which is part of why the Shield heats up so quickly).

At the moment, the smallest possible shield generator I would allow would be something around a 7-lb sphere with a 5-inch radius. This would produce a Shield sufficient to protect a 140-lb (SM-1) vessel. While a Shield that would work for a human does exist, the setting's cybernetics aren't advanced enough to replace a human's core with the 10-lb generator (and part of the torso with the other 10 lbs of cooling/venting hardware) necessary - and even if there were, either human body temperature would shut the shield down to rapidly or the generator would probably end up cooking the human.

The Shield takes about 10 seconds to come online after it's been activated, but drops as soon as it's turned off. It blocks light of all wavelengths, although that flicker effect means some will get through. To the human eye, while protected by a Shield everything outside looks darker and you'll pick up some occasional flickering. When looking at something protected by a Shield, the object itself is darker and occasionally flickers darker/brighter. Most vessels are designed such that their screens only display while the field is flickered off, giving lower FPS but preventing the darkness effect. I haven't considered the effects on sound waves, as I originally considered the Shield to be a vacuum-only technology (once I opted to use it to justify mecha, however, having it function in atmosphere became necessary). The field partially blocks small molecules and the like (you'll typically need an internal air supply while the Shield is active), so I'd imagine it would block sound propagation as well - meaning while within a Shield you can't hear as well either. While this could theoretically allow someone to use the technology for stealth, the Shield is easily detectable by most sensors, and living things can feel one nearby from a tingling on the skin. In GURPS terms, once a Shield is online it grants a +12 to detect/locate whatever it's protecting (characters unfamiliar with the technology won't realize what they've detected, but they'll know "something" is "over that way").

As for the heating/cooling problem, I had considered making it so the generator shuts down at a relatively-low temperature, but I think this would require a decent amount of energy to keep it cool enough to function in atmosphere. And, unless we make it require an extremely low temperature (which would cause serious issues), it would still be possible to use it to generate energy during winter or at a planet's poles. I think I want to stick with it actually getting hot (although not ridiculously so, possibly a bit hotter than boiling water).
I haven't seen this mentioned - how does a forcefield that breaks up chemical bonds strip an object of its momentum? Because if you crack a 2-ton gauss projectile into its component tungsten atoms or whatever, you'll just be hit by a jet of tungsten particles travelling at the same speed. They might be easier for armour do deflect, but they'll still dump a huge amount of kinetic energy into your ship. I like the idea of a disintegration field (and yes, it would be a cool power source), but I don't see it being very useful defensively.

Of course, we're not talking hard science here, but there should probably be a nod as to why the anti-chemical-bond device can bend laser light.

Otherwise, I really like your K-tether idea, though I'll have to reread it to fully grasp how it functions, but it essentially looks like it enables chase scenes in space which I'm definitely interested in for my space-pirates campaign (matching velocities with a speeding ship is hard, so I wanted to give everyone boost drives, but this sounds a bit more involved).
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Old 09-28-2013, 07:46 AM   #26
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Default Re: Potential Pitfalls for a Superscience Technology

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Originally Posted by Seneschal View Post
I haven't seen this mentioned - how does a forcefield that breaks up chemical bonds strip an object of its momentum? Because if you crack a 2-ton gauss projectile into its component tungsten atoms or whatever, you'll just be hit by a jet of tungsten particles travelling at the same speed. They might be easier for armour do deflect, but they'll still dump a huge amount of kinetic energy into your ship. I like the idea of a disintegration field (and yes, it would be a cool power source), but I don't see it being very useful defensively.

Of course, we're not talking hard science here, but there should probably be a nod as to why the anti-chemical-bond device can bend laser light.
In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it explanation earlier, I noted that the shield "actively blocks energy and particles." The idea behind the shield is that it creates a link to subspace, a dimension wherein chemical bonds don't function, and everything consists of a dense "fog" that greatly impedes movement of small particles, including photons (if they existed in subspace, that is). The outer layer created by the shield holds a small bit of subspace at the surface of the vessel, so objects trying to pass through are exposed to the effects (destruction of bonds, blocking of small particles).
It won't block everything, but it should block enough that the particles/photons that do reach the target aren't capable of accomplishing anything.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Seneschal View Post
Otherwise, I really like your K-tether idea, though I'll have to reread it to fully grasp how it functions, but it essentially looks like it enables chase scenes in space which I'm definitely interested in for my space-pirates campaign (matching velocities with a speeding ship is hard, so I wanted to give everyone boost drives, but this sounds a bit more involved).
Its primary purpose is to allow cheaper, faster space travel, as there's no need to maintain half your delta-V to be able to slow back down at the end of your trip (just dump that energy with the K-Sink). Combined with the superscience drives that get 150 mps per tank of hydrogen at 0.1G (and require 0.1PP) in high-efficiency mode or 5 mps per tank at 3G (and require 3PP) in high-thrust mode (and you can adjust to anywhere in between, like 15 mps and 1G), they let the above cheap, fast travel exist. I previously had it only able to link to stars, but that caused problems with the above so I extended it to planets, then realized there was no good reason not to let it link to other ships, and that this would allow docking, boarding, and of course melee combat (for mechas) to be quickly achieved.
It would indeed be good for chases - perhaps too good, as the only way to escape the chasing ship is to blow it up (or maybe get it to tether to something else, if you're really lucky). I might allow it to be possible to use a K-Sink to "break" a tether, although I'll need to work out the mechanics of it.
EDIT: To try and establish a tether to facilitate chases and/or boarding actions, it's actually not that difficult to game out. Try to ram your target, getting a bonus on the attack roll equal to your SM+3 (so +13 for an SM 10 ship). Your foe may attempt to Dodge, as normal (optionally, his Dodge actually subtracts from your MoS, at -1 if he has MoS 0, -2 per MoS otherwise; for example, if you succeeded by 5, a Dodge by 3 will avoid the tether; if you don't want this, I suggest you allow your players to make Deceptive Attacks). If you succeed, make a roll to tether, as explained previously (skill 12, +/-1 per SM of difference; optionally, skill 20+ means no roll is necessary). Success here means you've successfully tethered the craft, and may Rendezvous freely on your next turn (a very good success might allow you to Rendezvous instantly).
The above assumes deep space, optionally you can subtract from the skill bonus if they are close to another tether point. For simplicity, you can probably ignore this aspect.
EDIT2: For breaking a tether, I'm thinking something like a regular contest of skill 8 (tethered vessel) vs skill 12 (tethering vessel). Having multiple K-Sinks gives +1 per additional K-Sink, having a small K-Sink gives -3 at 1/3 mass (-1 SM system), -10 at 1/10 mass (-2 SM system), and so forth. You may attempt to break the tether once per minute (roll up to 3 contests per 3-minute turn, 10 per 10-minute). Optionally, you can also roll a quick contest between Piloting skills, with the victor adding his MoV to the roll.
Successfully breaking free makes you immune to tethering by that foe for minutes equal to your MoV. You'll want to get out of tethering range in that time!
Alternatively, it might be interesting to treat tethering as a special case of grappling, adapting the rules from TG.

...

Having given it further thought, I think I've figured out how I want the skill roll of the shield to progress. It's at skill 10 to block anything of SM-1 (EDIT: I mean your SM -1, that is SM+9 if your vessel is SM+10). Each -1 to SM gives +1 to skill, but each +1 to SM gives -2 to skill. As for speed, follow the Speed/Range table, reading "yards" as "miles per second." That is, the shield is at +0 at 2 mps, +4 at 10 mps, -3 at 0.7 mps, and so forth. The maximum penalty the shield can suffer due to speed is -5, at 0.3 mps. Skill is capped at 17, not 16, but if skill reaches 30 no roll is necessary (automatic success).
This means some "smart" bullets (that is, those equipped with K-Sinks) might start out at some very high velocity (to prevent the target from getting out of the way), then slow down to a velocity that is more likely to get through the shield. I rather like this idea.

Last edited by Varyon; 09-28-2013 at 09:31 AM.
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Old 09-30-2013, 07:59 AM   #27
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Default Re: Potential Pitfalls for a Superscience Technology

I discovered an error in my previous calculations - for some reason, I thought the weight progression of SS followed the Speed/Range Table (well, it does, but goes 3 steps per SM instead of 1). The minimum sized generator (SM-1) would be 3 lb, and around 2.5 inches in radius.

At first I thought this would cause issues for my mechas - scaling this up to SM+5 for their arm blades would require ST 316, while I thought SM+6 spaceships only had ST 200. They actually have ST 300, though, which is probably close enough. I'll post their damage profiles in the future.
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Old 10-07-2013, 02:56 PM   #28
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Default Re: Potential Pitfalls for a Superscience Technology

It took some doing, but I think I've got the blades working the way I'd like. They can be used with Thrust or Swing (swing is always better, however), either way they do 4d dDamage against a Shielded target (a target that lacks an active Shield instead takes 6d; essentially, an outer "layer" of the blade is stripped off in bypassing the shield). Thrust gets armor divisor (10), swing gets armor divisor (2), down to a minimum of Cover dDR* (0.2/armor system for SM+6, scale follows SSR) for Thrust, 5x Cover dDR for Swing. Cover dDR is the limiter for Ice, Stone, and Steel armor.
The above is for an SM+5 system, the largest a Blade can get. Blades can be scaled down to SM-1 (appropriate for a human**) and follow the dDam1 progression from SS67, at -1 step against a shielded target (so a human scale blade would be 6d damage, 4d against a shielded target).

The damage type is a special case of Corrosion damage. Damage is multiplied by 30*(Cover dDR/dHP)*Density (relative to water). For spaceships (where Cover dDR=dHP/3, and density is 1/3 that of water), this is x3. For most living creatures, with Cover dDR=dHP and density equal to that of water, this is a x30 multiplier! Basic penetrating dDamage is capped at Cover dDR for Thrust, 5x Cover dDR for Swing.
This effect also applies to the target's armor, which often results in an otherwise-nonpenetrating attack damaging the vessel. Rather than force the working out of such damage, I've figured out the amount of resulting dDamage per point of dDR absorbed by the armor (after divisor). The Swing column is only really used when you fail to penetrate (it's already worked in otherwise).
Code:
Armor		Thrust	Swing
Ice		12	60
Stone		25	125
Organic		2	10
Steel		30	150
Alloy		6	30
Laminate	6	30
Advanced	4.4	22
Nanocomposite	1.2	6
Diamondoid	0.4	2
It may be appropriate to round these to the nearest value on the SSR table, for ease of use.
This disintegration effect is resisted by the matter in the way, making it resisted by Cover dDR (for thrust) and Cover dDRx5 (for swing). For speed of play, all vessels will have the Cover dDR of each facing recorded next to dDR.

Sounds really complicated, right? I suspect it won't be too bad in play, really - I'll just need the armor divisors, the x3 for penetrating, and the above chart (along with the stats for the targeted ship). For example, let's say we have a mecha attacking an SM+12 vessel. We'll have it attack a section that's armored by, say, 3 nanocomposite systems. Checking the stats of this ship, we see said section has dDR 300, Cover dDR 6. It'll be Swinging (because Thrust is kind of useless), so it's contending with dDR 150. The mecha rolls 16, which fails to penetrate. Checking the chart, we see it's producing 6 dDamage per point negated, so that's incidental dDamage of 96. This is resisted by the armor's Cover dDR 6, x5 for swinging (so dDR 30), for 66 penetrating dDamage. That's more than 10% of our vessel's dHP, so we Disable a system.

*Credit where it's due - these numbers - and indeed the concept of Cover DR as a limiter - are based on lwcamp's work with energy weapons, seen here.

**As yet, I'm still undecided on if I want Blades this small, as they will be the ultimate melee weapon. With 6d(10), most armor will be possible to penetrate with a thrust, for a one-hit kill (each point of penetrating damage is 30 injury). For armor that isn't possible to penetrate with a thrust, the incidental damage from a swing will most likely kill the target (you need DR 300 or so to be safe from being killed outright by a thrust; that's probably going to require diamondoid armor, which is only going to give you Cover DR of 4; an average swing is going to get 42 incidental damage, for 22 penetrating, possibly risking death and likely incapacitating the target).
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