04-03-2017, 05:42 AM | #1 |
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Pseudovelocity Drives: should "Gravity and Acceleration" apply?
Greetings, all!
This is something I've been answering fuzzily over the years, but which I want to tackle now. When a ship turns on its Pseudovelocity drive, and assuming it doesn't have any special gravitic generators/compensators/etc., should the pilots experience some sort of shift in experienced gravity? I'm intuitively inclined towards answering 'no', but maybe I'm missing something and the answer should be different? Thanks in advance! Last edited by vicky_molokh; 04-03-2017 at 06:43 AM. |
04-03-2017, 07:39 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Dallas, TX
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Re: Pseudovelocity Drives: should "Gravity and Acceleration" apply?
"Pseudovelocity" is sufficiently vague that it will depend on the specifics of how the drive is defined in any given setting.
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04-03-2017, 07:49 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Eindhoven, the Netherlands
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Re: Pseudovelocity Drives: should "Gravity and Acceleration" apply?
The most reasonable version of psuedovelocity I can think of would be something like an alcubierre drive on very slow speeds, which means space is moving, and not you. I don't know for sure what that would look like, but given that you aren't under any stresses of forces, or that you aren't accelerating, I would think, by default, that it wouldn't.
Granted, I'm pretty sure series like Star Trek and lots of other space opera series use something like pseudovelocity, because it's more intuitive ("I've turned the engines off, so now we're just drifting."), and in those, there's definitely something of a lurch when they start moving, so that argues in favor of at least a small (likely miniscule, given the speeds involved) g-force going on.
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04-03-2017, 07:50 AM | #4 |
Join Date: Jan 2014
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Re: Pseudovelocity Drives: should "Gravity and Acceleration" apply?
My brain says "No, because you aren't actually moving."
My heart says "Yes, because in Star Trek, they say the inertial dampeners are broken and everything starts shaking." |
04-03-2017, 08:02 AM | #5 |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: Pseudovelocity Drives: should "Gravity and Acceleration" apply?
At its most basic, pseudovelocity is a scheme where you change your position without "really" moving. So, everything else should work normally. Now, if in your setting pseudovelocity is due to some sort of field that stops you from interacting in certain ways with the universe, there may be other effects, but that's going to depend on the specifics.
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04-03-2017, 08:19 AM | #6 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: Pseudovelocity Drives: should "Gravity and Acceleration" apply?
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100x was default to match the increase in space ranges for X-ray lasers. It's a problem in 4e that energy weapon ranges don't increase in vacuum. This makes it more difficult to make pseudovelocity space combat just like air combat. This G-force reduction is a minimum because it's necessary that the 100x changes in direction required by the 100x higher speeds don't crush the pilots. Invoking Alcubierre as the source of psedovelocity is definitely a retcon. It wasn't in our minds at all at the time. The Lensman "inertialess" drive was probably closer but mostly we were thinking of Star Wars and similar sources vague Air/Space equivalency drives. So acceleration forces are at least reduced to maintain Air/Space symmetery or are removed altogether for some reason of logic are your leading answers. That acceleration remains to make pseudovelocity impractical was never considered and would obviously make the whole thing futile and why would you be doing that?
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04-03-2017, 10:35 AM | #7 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Pseudovelocity Drives: should "Gravity and Acceleration" apply?
Eh, I think I was the one to coin that particular terminology, and an alcubierre warp drive is an appropriate version -- most methods I can think of for pseudovelocity involve some sort of sublight warp drive (something like a 2300AD stutterwarp would also count). I would assume by default that there's no felt gravity.
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04-03-2017, 10:35 AM | #8 | |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: Pseudovelocity Drives: should "Gravity and Acceleration" apply?
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04-03-2017, 10:38 AM | #9 | |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: Pseudovelocity Drives: should "Gravity and Acceleration" apply?
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04-03-2017, 11:12 AM | #10 |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: Pseudovelocity Drives: should "Gravity and Acceleration" apply?
Like with all magic and genre conventions, it's probably best to start with what you want, then work backwards to justify it.
Do you want there to be a jerk when shifting the drive on or off? If so, then it doesn't have to come from the field itself but perhaps as a secondary effect from the technology.
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acceleration, gravity, pseudovelocity |
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