Re: Accumulators: A concept for GURPS Spaceships
 

This is the kind of thing that, at Spaceships resolution, is most likely just an integral part of the hyperdrive. Just as many weapons likely incorporate on-mount capacitors to translate between steady reactor power in and intense spike power needed for firing, below the resolution of the system.

Re: Accumulators: A concept for GURPS Spaceships
 

I think they would have to be background specific. If you are running a space opera game go ahead and create an Accumulator system that stores X power points where X is whatever doesn't break your game. This will skew your ship designs into those with smaller reactors, at least for short engagements. Smaller ships with limited endurance like fighters will probably favor accumulators over reactors.

Re: Accumulators: A concept for GURPS Spaceships
 

[QUOTE=Ulzgoroth;2146905]There may be some

...And what batteries are you expecting to retain EMF for decades?

[QUOTE]

Neither batteries nor capacitors store EMF (voltage) they both store electrons. The only electrical or electronic device that stores EMF is an inductor (coil) which stores voltage in the magnetic field generated when current passes through the coil.

Re: Accumulators: A concept for GURPS Spaceships
 

The Vingean singularity, specifically, is exponential growth of self-modifying code. How does that work without computers?

Re: Accumulators: A concept for GURPS Spaceships
 

Batteries sort of store electrons, but they generate EMF.

(Though at sufficiently high current values it must be more complicated than that.)

Re: Accumulators: A concept for GURPS Spaceships
 

Present-day chemical batteries can be thought of as having their own internal circuit - sort of, in a simplistic way. The electrons are stored, but the chemical action of the battery releases them at two levels. The low-level release rate is when there is no external circuit and thus the battery charge can last years, if not decades. If there is an external circuit, the battery releases a steady stream of electrons and the total circuit resistance opposes that release; thus, by Ohm's Law (E=IR or more accurately I=E/R) voltage happens. Any EMF generated is a byproduct of the fact that the battery is releasing electrons.

Re: Accumulators: A concept for GURPS Spaceships
 

Comparing an aircraft engine power/weight ratio with modern battery storage capacities, and considering how Spaceships systems are put together (IC engine systems include some fuel), I get an back-of-the-envelope result of 20-30 minutes of output from modern batteries at one power point (i.e. they can produce the same output as an IC engine+ hours of fuel for 20-30 minutes). If one assumes a heavier IC engine (and given aircraft engines operate in an environment that's easy to dump heat in, this is reasonable) and better batteries, an hour might be reasonable or perhaps two power points for 20 minutes (the longest Spaceships combat turn). Higher TLs would increase duration, not output, to be consistent with the way other power plants work.

Assuming a TL^ 'super battery' with more capacity is the logical way around this fairly small capacity. I expect that to fill the role the OP wants they'd have high output rather than high duration.

Re: Accumulators: A concept for GURPS Spaceships
 

It's probably meant to refer to exponential growth of technology generally and not just computers They have that in Lensman.

Note that in the "conventional" Singularity it's just sort of thrown in that when the smarter than human computers aren't designing new computers even smarter than themselves in even less time than it took themselves to be designed they sort of solve every question in physics, cosmology and Science! generally as a sort of side effect to what was really important.

Re: Accumulators: A concept for GURPS Spaceships
 

That's why I said 'vingean singularity level'.

That's the form Vinge thought it would take, but the idea of the singularity is that it's a cutoff point in history, beyond which we can't predict anything meaningful because technology has advanced to the point of obviating everything in our experience. The super-duper-magical AIs might understand the universe so well, after exponential increases in intelligence, that they could make anything happen, leaving us like chimps dealing with humans, or worse.

I have never for a moment believed that the pure Vingean 'computerageddon' was a valid concept, not 25 years ago and not now. Though I've seen reasonable arguments that the period from ~1840 to 1950 could be seen as a transport/communications/warfare 'singularity' from the POV of previous time.

But the technology of Civilization/Boskonia, by the time of Kimball Kinnison, is so advanced in terms of travel, weaponry, energy sources, etc. that it could reasonably said that the characters have access to god-like (with small 'g') power. They can move entire planets from galaxy to galaxy more easily than we can move a plane-load of cargo from North America to Europe, and volatizing entire planets is a relatively trivial exercise. The power of the Death Star is easily within the reach of either side of that war, in far more convenient and portable form. Their individual space suits have interplanetary capability on their own power, and if they really want to do it they could make them interstellar capable, it's just a pointless exercise to do so.

Now none of this seems to affect daily much, but this is space opera, after all, though more thoughtful space opera than most.

Re: Accumulators: A concept for GURPS Spaceships
 

Are you seriously trying to assert that batteries generate fixed current regardless of the circuit they're in? You have to know that's completely inaccurate. EDIT: That's blatant violation of conservation of energy stuff.