True Solar Sails

[Joachim]

Originally posted by Renegade 13:
Just one question: Why the defensive bonus???

I guess its to simulate the HUGE size of the sails if you were going to be even vaguely realistic about it. Hence really easy to hit.

[Renegade 13]

Originally posted by Captain Kwok:

quote:

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Originally posted by Renegade 13:
Just one question: Why the defensive bonus???

That's hardly a defensive bonus...it's a 75% penalty to defense.

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Whoops. I think I mighta screwed up with my typing

[Puke]

once the sails are destroyed, does the penalty go away?

either way, this significantly penalizes heavily shielded or armored ships. would be best to pack on weapons or use leaky armor so that you are sure that the solar sail is the first thing to go in combat.

you could also imagine that the solar sail gets folded or detatched in combat, as in battletech.

[General Woundwort]

Originally posted by Joachim:

quote:

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Originally posted by Renegade 13:
Just one question: Why the defensive minus???

I guess its to simulate the HUGE size of the sails if you were going to be even vaguely realistic about it. Hence really easy to hit.

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Just so.

Originally posted by Puke:
once the sails are destroyed, does the penalty go away?

Yes - but so does your movement.

Originally posted by Puke:
either way, this significantly penalizes heavily shielded or armored ships. would be best to pack on weapons or use leaky armor so that you are sure that the solar sail is the first thing to go in combat.
you could also imagine that the solar sail gets folded or detatched in combat, as in battletech.

My idea for this component is to have a viable propulsion alternative for ships that would (most likely) not be engaging in combat.

[geoschmo]

Even though the description says they use solar winds to generate extra movement, a star in the system is not required for solar sails to work. The ability for them is just the ordinary extra movement ability. Same thing if you change that to standard movement in your mod. Either way they will work in systems with no sun, or with black holes.

Edit: Ok, I see what you are doing. You make the sails create energy and store just enough to keep them moving as long as you have a star to create the energy to begin with. Interesting.

Of course you would still have 1 point of movement in a system with no star. Sargasso Sea?

[ May 07, 2004, 12:13: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

[J.]

For making speed depend on the number of stars in the system, would this work:

Make the solar sails give triple the movement, like 18 instead of 6 for example. Also increase the supply storage, but only make them generate enough supplies for 6 points of movement to be possible. This way, when you have a system with three stars, the ship would generate three times the supplies and could use all the 18 points of movement.

Or, is there a problem with this theory?

[rdouglass]

I like the solar sail idea as well, but you said earlier you'd eliminate supply usage from all other components. Are weapons and shields included? IOW, do we have unlimited ammo for weapons? IMO, weapons should not fire at all if you have no supplies.

Also, it kinda' goes against my way of thinking to be able to transverse Warp Points using just inertia. Shouldn't you have to use some kind of active propulsion, if nothing else for vector control, when going thru WP's? Remember, warp lines are not 'in space' so they don't have solar radiation to act as passive propulsion.

It would be nice if SS's were truly sails and not a modified engine component / bonus feature. I can envision Intra-system ships being able to use zero supplies with a Master computer and a solar sail running repeat orders indefinitely. Should be slow movement when compared to active propulsion, but not use any supplies.

Nice ideas nevertheless. I for one would use something like this in my games if available.