[Fyron]

Originally posted by Timstone:

quote:

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Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
A sleek starship requires the same force to accelerate as an equal mass oblong hulk. So, an external component shouldn't necessarily be less massive (ie: fewer kilotons (smaller)) than an internal one.

That is incorrect Imperator. A sleek and smooth spaceship requires less thrust for the same acceleration than a bulky spaceship. There is ALWAYS resistance (stray space dust, small meteorites). It's almost nothing compared to the atmosphere of a planet, but there is still some resistance. And that resistance is very large if you're heading in the direction of a sun (the sun is emitting photons, that's why a solar sail gives thrust to certain artificial recon moons) or if you're traveling inside a nebula (particles make up a nebula).

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Sleek vs. oblong hulk was an exaggeration.

The resistance in normal space would be so small as to hardly make a difference for the purposes of SE4. In reality it might make a very minor difference, but SE4 doesn't handle such things. And you cannot make ships move slower when heading towards a star, or in a nebula, in SE4, so that doesn't affect my arguement much in terms of SE4.

Anyways, your points may be valid, but they don't affect my arguement of external vs. internal components a whole lot.