Babylon 5 Mod

[Fyron]

Originally posted by grumbler:

quote:

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Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
Unless, of course, you are the Shadow and bring in a planet killer to blot out the sunlight. The Vorlons can get a similar effect with their planet killers, but not nearly as effective.

Of course, if you kill the planet, are you worried abouthow much sunlight gets in to reveal the remnants?

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You can blockade with a Shadow planet killer easily. Just move it over the target base or planet to blockade, half the work is done for you. Shadow planet killers do not have to be used to destroy planets.

[Fyron]

Unfortunately, the only Vorlon based weapon that seems to exist is the improved neutron laser. Shadow based weapons have a few sizes of improved molecular beams, and that is it. So much potential, so much not there. I think that in the Gold Version of the mod, Vorlon-based and Shadow-based "weapons" should just be cool improved mounts, so any weapon can be enhanced without having to triple the number of components.

[Suicide Junkie]

Plain old Hydrogen isn't terribly good for fusion reactors. Not enough neutrons in it.
You need to pull the minute amounts of Deuterium and Tritium from your collected gas, and that is where the big costs would come in.
http://www.webelements.com/webelemen...xt/H/isot.html
(Tritium has a half-life of only 12 years, and thus isn't in the chart). Neutron bombardment will make you some.

[grumbler]

It is estimated that 1 in 7000 hydrogen atoms are deuterium. Not exactly rare or expensive!

My point is that a fusion reactor as the sole source of power makes far more sense than a mixed fusion reactor and solar panels in an orbiting station. Has anyone any actual evidence that the panels on B5 are primarily solar panels and not heat diffUsers? My copy of the B5 Security manual cals them "Heat Exchangers and Emergency Solar Collectors."

I don't think the game needs to bother with such things as "emergency power sources" else we will get into such trivia as having both "gravitational" and "magnetic" drives on the White Stars!

[Suicide Junkie]

That matches the abundance given in the link below. When 99.99% of your starting material is not what you want, I'd call that pretty rare.

The economics of it are unknown, but the cost, though low, is probably not trivial.

My copy of the B5 Security manual cals them "Heat Exchangers and Emergency Solar Collectors."

Given their use as emergency power, they'd certainly be able to generate enough for rotation and lifesupport.
And, since there are zero costs to using solar panels if you've got them already, they'll always be generating some juice. (As I recall, the star was pretty much always at approximately the correct angles during "daytime")

Considering the station activities, lifesupport would be a very major portion of the peacetime energy budget (if you count illumination too).

Thusly, I would conclude that the solar panels will be juicing up the station for most of the day-to-day operations, with the reactor providing night/combat/peak usage services. Likely running at low output or just "warmed up" all the time except for maintenance cycles.

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PS:
All I really want is for the mod to have a viable set of Solar Panel components as an alternative to reactors in some situations. (Long-term, medium-low energy use bases and probes)

Some modest energy storage components would be nice too. Perhaps 4-turns worth of generation build into the solar panel component?

[ December 05, 2003, 03:46: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]

[grumbler]

Seems the thread is a bit dead recently! I hope this is just because of the release of Victoria

In any case, are we agreed that the radioactive resource is too widely available and too little required?

It would be pretty simple to fix both problems. However, I think that rads should also be needed more in the weapons field (and thus for satellites)... but I am coming to the belief that it is in the area of satellites that solar powered weapons and launch systems should really shine. (pun intended) If we get rid of the auto-refuelling nature of planetary facilities, then the satellites will need a power source, and THAT is where solar will "shine"!

[Klebdog]

Where can I download the latest Gold Patch for B5 and which one is it just to make sure?

[Suicide Junkie]

... but I am coming to the belief that it is in the area of satellites that solar powered weapons and launch systems should really shine. (pun intended) If we get rid of the auto-refuelling nature of planetary facilities, then the satellites will need a power source, and THAT is where solar will "shine"! [/QB]

Setellites have infinite supplies via hardcode, so that dosen't really work.

[pathfinder]

Originally posted by Klebdog:
Where can I download the latest Gold Patch for B5 and which one is it just to make sure?

Go to my post (June 15, 2003) in this link:

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...;f=50;t=000001

[grumbler]

Originally posted by Suicide Junkie:
Setellites have infinite supplies via hardcode, so that dosen't really work.

The truly sad thing is that once upon a time I think I actually knew that!