Ship size vs. weapons

[Aub]

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Originally posted by BKrani:
But don't forget that this is just a game... Repeat after me - 'Just a Game'!. ...

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'Just a Game'. 'Just a Game'.

Ok, I realize that. But the calculations involving the distance from Earth to Moon and how much acceleration a human body can withstand sounded soooo serious! So I could not resist the temptation

On a more serious note, indeed, I strongly believe that each addition/modification in the game should be cosidered from the gameplay point of view first (what does it add to the game? does it throw the balance off?) and only then from the point of view of "realism" (whatever it is). People tend to forget that it's 'Just a Game' so often.

Aub

[Puke]

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Originally posted by Aub:
'Just a Game'. 'Just a Game'.

People tend to forget that it's 'Just a Game' so often.

Aub

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bah. games are how people choose to spend their time, and they embody a person's prefered Version of reality. take the game seriously if you will. but remember, everything else is 'just reality.' unless you are a serious freakin stoner, or some kind of enlightened monk, you cant very well choose your own reality. games, now, THAT you can choose.

[BKrani]

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Originally posted by Puke:
mirror finish will reflect all kinds of lasers.. but good luck having any kind of stealth with that.

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At the distances we're likely to be at, it's not likely that anyone will be using light as the medium of choice for detection. More likely would be mass detection or ... Actually, I have no idea. But i think it's unlikely to be only light. a mirror finish would be unlikely to effect detection after a few thousand kms or so.

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I remember some star trek quote from the klingons... "i respect the federation, who else has the balls to paint their war ships WHITE and put RUNNING LIGHTS on them."

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Oooh. I like it!

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i digress. as far as FTL information travel, we are doing it today (in the lab anyway) with intertangled pairs of photons and funkey quantum mechanics that I dont even pretend to understand.

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I'd heard something about this but frankley, I have no idea if it's just wind, or there's some substance to these claims.

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FTL travel in the SEIV case involves neat fiction like space 'folding' or wormholes[/b]

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My (limited) understanding of this type of travel is that it doesn't invalidate our current understanding of physics - it mereley bypasses it.

Cheers.

[BKrani]

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Originally posted by Aub:
On a more serious note, indeed, I strongly believe that each addition/modification in the game should be cosidered from the gameplay point of view first (what does it add to the game? does it throw the balance off?) and only then from the point of view of "realism

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Wholehearted agreement here.

From a strategic or logic puzzle POV, game ballance is the king. Loosing that tends to kill the game. Now a good, balanced game, with a bit of flavour (wierd science, strange events, odd happenings) is all the better.

[Tomgs]

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Originally posted by Aub:
Hmm, according to the Einstein there is no way they can know it is coming. Information cannot travel faster than light -- or it can cause all kinds of temporal paradoxes.
Aub

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Speaking about temporal paradoxes what about a race that has event predictors . We have temporal races in this game to get around these messy details.

[Seawolf]

Since all this tech stuff is above me let me address the fields of fire issue. In space a ship would be able to rotate in any direction so that all weapons can come to bear.

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Seawolf on the prowl

[apache]

Yep, a ship sure can turn to be able to fire all of its weapons at one target. But, it would take quite a while to do so if it had an inertial propulsion system. A dreadnought trying to aim its rear guns at an escort would have one hell of a hard time. But, again, I always assume a non inertial propulsion system in this game, so yes, they could turn pretty easily to engage with all weapons.
Now, as for Einstein's relativity, well, the fact is that this is all theoretical, not a proven fact. Just because the equations say its so does not mean the equations are valid. I will remind you that they said the exact same thing about the speed of sound, and were proven completely wrong. Yes, the equation used to calculate drag shows that as you approach the speed of sound, drag force goes to infinity. But in practice, there are more complicated effects that no one could predict until they tried and passed the speed of sound.
There is no proof that the light barrier is some ultimate all defeating universal property. The equation is actually identical to the drag equations of long ago. And think about it, if something actually were going faster than light, how could we possibly detect it?
Something else to note is that the speed of light is not a constant. It varies based on the medium it is actually travelling through. Information can definitely travel faster than light. It is possible to slow light down so much that you can actually walk faster than the beam of light.
Another property theoretically claimed by light is that it is massless. But then you have to ask yourself, how is it then affected by gravitational forces?
Now, on to the beam attenuation subject again, a laser beam will not attenuate or lose focus over a significant amount of distance in space. Right now, there are lasers with enough power to vaporize a bulldozer at 1000 yards. In space, you really would not want to get in the way, no matter how far away you are. Less powerful lasers can be used to transmit power to satellites for propulsion or simply powering a few systems on the satellite. This requires pinpoint accuracy by the laser, and it can be done. Now, yes, the beam will attenuate considerably though the atmosphere, but once it gets through the atmosphere, its rate of attenuation is approximately zero since there is nothing to cause attenuation.
Laser light is super focused, and no lenses are even used when making laser light. It is simply by the nature of the reaction itself that lasers are that focused. Also, a laser's power does not depend on how focused it is, it depends on how many photons are travelling in the beam. Basically this means that in the atmosphere, the laser light will attenuate severely as the photons are reflected off or absorbed into the air molecules. In a vacuum, there is nothing to diminish the power of the laser, and so the beam diameter at a long distance, though still almost exactly the same as it was when the laser beam was generated, will still be carrying the same amount of energy that it had when it left. What does it mean? It means that if you fire off a terrawatt of power in a laser in space, you can be sure a terrawatt is going to hit something (and probably blow it up since a terrawatt is a ridiculous amount of power).
Now, one other point to make, none of the beam weapons in the game are using light as their main energy form. They are all using subatomic particles. There is, sadly enough, no laser weapon in the game.
But yes, when it comes down to it, it is a game, and we are all nerds for even trying to explain it realistically.

[SunDevil]

What the else can you say after that post, but damn. Thanks apache I learned something new today.

[jimbob55]

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Now, as for Einstein's relativity, well, the fact is that this is all theoretical, not a proven fact.

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snip etc.
Um... Drag increasing to infinity is slightly different to mass increasing to infinity. I believe that the increased mass effect has been shown through experimentation. Even if your spaceship managed to hit 99% light speed without hitting anything nasty (like a hydrogen atom) you will need an almost infinite force to accelerate that extra few metres per second. The answer to drag was to create very pointy things which brush aside the medium (air). The only way round lightspeed barrier is either a shortcut (wormhole or suchlike) or hyperdrive (something that pushes space out of the way, positive gravitational curvature generator or suchlike) Neither of these devices has been widely used in the real world.

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Laser light is super focussed

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Incorrect. Laser light is very high number of photons / cubic area with waveform 'in phase'. There is beam attenuation over distance because even the longest lasing chamber will not produce a completely cylindrical beam. Even a few moments of a degree of diVersion at the emitting end of your 3 mile long lasing chamber will produce a bit of attenuation. With a Terrawatt laser, it doesn't matter too much if you're shooting at something within say one Astronomical unit. Anything outside that distance and you end up with beam attenuation because of the sheer volume of emptiness you're shooting through. (1 particle per cubic km isn't much when you need to breathe, but it adds up to a lot over 4.2 light years)

It's just a game...it's just a game...Oh damnit, which part is just a game and which is reality....MEDIC!!

[Daynarr]

Well, after Barnacle Bill posted a link to Starfire homepage, I paid it a visit and there I found an explanation of the drive system used there. Since Starfire inspires SE series, that explanation might work here too.
To see explanation go here: http://www.starfiredesign.com/starfire