09-25-2019, 02:39 PM | #11 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: How to Depict a Broken FTL Drive (and other Superscience)
Damaged FTL engines should be dangerous to use. For example, a FTL system that was in a section dealt damage during combat might be at -2 to use, a jury-rigged system might be at -5 to use, and a disabled system might be -10 to use. Critical failure would result in a disabled system, a destroyed system, or a destroyed spacecraft respectively.
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09-25-2019, 02:41 PM | #12 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: On the road again...
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Re: How to Depict a Broken FTL Drive (and other Superscience)
There's a possibility of going at near-light STL instead of FTL, with time displacement. Depending on how things can go, years could pass in realtime while hours pass in the ship.
Of course, this seems more like a plot device to pull folks from the past to the present rather than folks in the present going to the future with no way back. One thing a GM threw at me with a prize ship (the start of the session after I captured it no less *grumblemutter*) was damaging a heat regulator which routed excess heat from re-entry to realspace away from the ship. (More angry over his flat "no" when I asked if there was any way to save the ship....)
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09-25-2019, 02:49 PM | #13 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: How to Depict a Broken FTL Drive (and other Superscience)
Yeah, something producing heat is an interesting damage-control challenge in a spaceship. You have to get the heat to the radiators and shut down the production of heat, otherwise all sorts of things are going to reach temperature limits and stop superconducting, demagnetise, shut down, burn out, or cook.
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09-25-2019, 02:49 PM | #14 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: How to Depict a Broken FTL Drive (and other Superscience)
In general, a damaged superscience device will either be damaged in some way irrelevant to the superscience, such as power supply, fluid lines, etc, or it will damaged in a way specific to the superscience.
In the first case, the hazards are generally the same as a non-superscience device with the same power and material requirements. In the second case, the hazards are likely to be superscience hazards, not hazards that exist in the real world. They should just be hazards that are related to how the superscience works. |
09-25-2019, 02:50 PM | #15 | ||||||||
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: How to Depict a Broken FTL Drive (and other Superscience)
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Yes it does. Incidentally, it is my goal to set as much of this ship on fire as possible. Fire has so much character when compared to a one-off explosion or simple hard vacuum. I'm having a bit of trouble justifying just how flammable this ship is though. Historical Military vessels were crammed full of ammunition and petroleum, which seems a little less likely on this vessel. But I'm absolutely burning everything I can. Quote:
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09-25-2019, 03:58 PM | #16 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Denver, CO
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Re: How to Depict a Broken FTL Drive (and other Superscience)
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And, perhaps by itself or perhaps once the acid reacts with something, explosive gas or liquid. No sparks. No welding. And the ship is damaged, so there are a few places where there are fires or sparks so we need to contain that gas before it gets there. |
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09-25-2019, 09:58 PM | #17 |
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Re: How to Depict a Broken FTL Drive (and other Superscience)
In my world, some FTL drives contain a coil of metal alloy. Under operation, it gets very hot, and so has to be actively cooled to avoid melting.
The coolant is dangerous because it's a deadly toxin. If the vessel around the coil is breached, the liquid coolant will emerge, volatize, and make the surroundings very dangerous. Depending on the concentration, a few breaths could make one violently sick, producing unconsciousness, or kill. It's also odorless and invisible in low concentrations, meaning you could get several breaths, enough to be big trouble, before you know it. It's also carcinogenic, but that's kind of secondary to the immediate effect. The coil itself is dangerous in three ways: 1. It runs hot, and if things go wrong in certain ways, it can start to melt fairly quickly, and spray liquid droplets of metal. This can be esp. nasty in free fall. 2. If things go wrong in certain other ways, it can catch fire, buring with a very hot flame and consuming oxygen very quickly. Metal fires can be a nightmare to put out, too. 3. if things go wrong in one particular way, rare but possible, the coil can vanish...taking anything in its immediate area with it.
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09-25-2019, 11:03 PM | #18 |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: How to Depict a Broken FTL Drive (and other Superscience)
Well obviously electrical discharge. Anything that disrupts its ability to keep it's power contained means that it will will flow out to any conductor in contact with the battery. If the conductor can't handle the amperage, then electrical fire. If it can, you'll have something electrified that will be potentially lethal to touch. Possibly you'll see electric arcs as the power discharges.
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09-26-2019, 08:47 AM | #19 |
Custom User Title
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Indianapolis, IN
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Re: How to Depict a Broken FTL Drive (and other Superscience)
Things that burn on a ship? Aluminum. Pretty sure foamed aluminum will be used in the future.
Non-structural interior dividers in plastics are a good bet as well. Beds made with foam. Seats. Lubricants.
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Joseph Paul |
09-26-2019, 09:33 AM | #20 |
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Meifumado
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Re: How to Depict a Broken FTL Drive (and other Superscience)
If they regulated against flammable foam in airplane seats in the 90's, I'd have trouble accepting that most spacecraft materials would be flammable. That danger would be limited to things like explosives, fuel tanks and unavoidably flammable stuff in engineering.
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