[Spaceships] Homebrew - Alternate Contragrav

[DaltonS]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I would think simple contact of anything capable of scuffing paint would count. It wouldn't have to be vehicle damage by any Gurps or even common language definition.
But defining what percentage is lost over time scuffed, as that would likely matter greatly for anti-gravity purposes, I have no clue.

Sounds like a GM decision to me. Probably quarterly touch-ups at 10% standard cost as part of the standard maintenance cycle to keep full effectiveness (with a 10% reduction for each month touch-ups are missed) with a full strip and re-paint every five years at full cost as part of a regular major overhaul and re-certification effort. Note that this assumes the paint is exposed to the elements (such as they are); paint layers under armor systems (see below) or stealth hull options (SS1. p.30) can be considered maintenance free unless major hull damage has occurred.

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

On a more serious note, I'd imagine anyone above TL 5 or so would try to laminate or cover up the active paint with some kind of ablative material even if it acts as dead weight.

An interesting point. If the GPP layer is "protected" by an armor system, the "weight" of that hull section would be reduced by the mass of the other systems in that section. Thus lift-off thrust would only need to exceed 15% of the ship's mass times local gravity if each hull section has an armor system protecting the paint. As always, net acceleration = (total thrust - lift off thrust)/(ship mass). To find the effective escape velocity from a planet for this ship, multiply the planet's natural escape velocity by the square root of 0.15 (0.3873 approx.). Because this isn't a force field, I'm not sure if the G-Screen Damper mentioned above would work. Maybe a big electro-magnet could hold an iron/steel armored ship in place. This would be a "magnetic tractor beam" system (SS7 p.20).

Dalton “isn't re-painting the ship a crew function?” Spence