Accumulators: A concept for GURPS Spaceships

[starslayer]

Originally Posted by YankeeGamer

I was trying to keep it simple, without needing to distinguish between types of storage. (Call it ultra-tech equipment.)

Using the Accumulators to fire won't be stealthy, but they have no emissions until the gun is fired, keeping the emissions low until that first blast from a spinal gun. Reactors will radiate when idling, as long as something is reacting--they don't really have an "instant on" function.

They're still useful for a hyperdrive that needs a massive jolt to enter hyperspace, or ships that don't usually need lots of power, but when they need it they need it NOW, or need LOTS for a few minutes.

I'm sure that cloaking will be much more effective if there's no reactor running, too.

If the reactor can be turned on and off at will (which is not the case for any current atomic reactor), then it will have no problem turning down to enter 'stealth mode' and only providing the bare requirements for life-support and the cloaking device while reducing its emissions to near-nil in the process (unless the stealth system is particularly hungry, but then you go back to the stored energy releasing so much gauss and EM that its a beacon in and of itself)