physicist call

[Atrocities]

I remember a joke that was going around before the launch of the Hubble telescope. "Well if it doesn't work, they can call it the Hubble Ruble Scope."



Unfortunetly this is just a picture of one start, but because the lense is dirty, you get this odd effect. I recomend some windex and a cloth.

[Krsqk]

Perhaps better would be if you just had "classic sci-fi" artificial gravity technology.
Then you'd put an outward gravity force starting just above your armor, so weapons are slowed down (less kinetic damage) and energy beams are redshifted down to less harmful energies.

"Sir, the enemy appears to be armed with giant green flashlights."

[Slick]

http://www.iam.ubc.ca/~newbury/lenses/research.html

Slick.

[Dralasite]

How about Implosion for a cool gravity based damage type? Make the ship weigh so much it collapses on itself.

Don't forget about neutron stars, as well. They are stars that didn't quite have enough mass to collapse all the way into black holes, but are still dense (I think the most dense in the universe that we know of). In a tech tree, maybe you can use them as the tech you get before you black holes, etc.

[Captain Kwok]

I have neutron stars as a system type in the TNG mod. They operate like blackholes, except their effects are less. I also added pulsars, which have sensor and shield effects.

[ January 07, 2003, 17:45: Message edited by: Captain Kwok ]

[Desdinova]

sci-fi is full of gravity related devices. star wars' yuuzhan vong ships use gravity as propulsion, defense and weapon. star trek used it for gravity aboard ships.

as defense: gravity can be used to distort the path a incoming weapon travels causing it to miss you, regardless of energy or projectile. using a high gravity focus you can actually suck incoming atks into it. using a variation of anti-gravity you can form a shield which will repulse incoming atks. as gravity inside a ship it can be used against boarding parties you can either increase gravity imobilizing them or change the direction of "up" causing them to fall to the ceilling or wall.

as a weapon: see graviton hellbore in seiv for 1 thing. again using a focused gravity source you could create a short range device that crushes enemy ships from the high gravity. also can be used as a tractor/repulsor device which can move objects around or can be used to slow down a target making it easier to hit. can also be used as a sheild depleting device.

propulsion: thruster plates that can absorb graviton particles from one direction and project them out another or by creating a gravity well in the direction you want to travel and your ship constantly falls towards it.

miscellaneous: using a variation of the grav plates for gravity you can create minor inertial dampening devices allowing increased combat maneuverability.

[ January 07, 2003, 19:09: Message edited by: desdinova ]

[capnq]

You could probably also make a Gravy Gun

Just the thing to fight potato pixies with.

[Taera]

thank you all for your replies, they are helpful.

i didnt get a responce to my question about shapes though. does spherical shape have theoretical positive effects on ship's gravity-field generation?

[Suicide Junkie]

There is no theory behind it.

Whatever looks the coolest and highest-tech will do

[Dralasite]

I don't know this but it makes sense that planets and stars are close to spherical because gravity isn't a "directional" force, being a curvature of space/time. Most celestial bodies arn't perfect spheres due to other forces. For example the rotation of the earth causing a bulge at the equator.

The way I see it, if you can control gravity, it doesn't really matter what shape your ships or weapons are. Spiral them like a corkscrew. Have them in seperate pieces. Make them inside out. Or all of the above