Faster than 6G

[DeusX]

Hi All

Any thoughts on the Small Craft rules that upped the anty on going zoom?

Any personal thoughts on Inertia Compensation and TL and greater than 6G?

Any thoughts on whether it should apply to starships as well as small craft?

The MGT main book page 54 mentions "overcharging m-drive thruster plates to increase ships agility" as an example use of the Engineer skill.

IMTU we came up with a house rule to model this which we apply to all grav vehicles and starships.

The basic house rule idea is that 6G is max sustained (cruising) thrust, but an engineer can overcharge the m-drive by 50% for a short period (max military power or colloquially 'boost') A ship's artificial grav/inertial compensators can only do 6G sustained or 9G briefly in emergencies.
So anything over 9G has to be handled by the crew & passengers - either in fluid g-tanks or couches or strapped in to their bunks. [Higher G would be possible if the crew is in low berths/frozen watch]

From an engineering perspective, we give an overcharged m-drive plate a small failure chance (2 on 2d6). A drive can be double-overcharged, for an additional 25%, but failure rate is 1 in 6. Tested hourly "the engines canna take it capt." Likewise above 6G the compensators also have a failure chance, that can be lethal.

Example: The fast trader Marie Celestial is rated at 3G - it can overcharge to 4.5G or double overcharge to 5.25G, still below the 6G inertial limit.
My Eel V Heavy Interceptor (30 ton TL15) fighter is rated to 16G, with a max boost of 24G, but the int. comps only take 6-9G off that, leaving a dangerous 9-15G load on the pilot. This is too much for unaugmented humans to remain functional but it is designed for water-based races to pilot. They tend to be better 3D thinkers too. [16G 30ton combat wasp drones can pull a max 28G when double overcharged according to this house rule.]

YMMV

DX

 

[savage]

6G

I've always taken 6G as an in gravity well design max. Outside of the influence i allowed for higher acceleration by sophont craft by multiplying Mdrives, cost etc at higher tech levels.

http://www.angelfire.com/empire2/savage/1WorldOrder/My_Popular-Media-Designs/BG_TurboVipers_T20.html

Beyond the visible, crew couches require additional features, structure to support the occupant.

:smirk:

 

[ThunderChilde]

Getting back to race team idea, it has to be more exciting than a solar sail regatta. Closed, relatively short courses, nav boueys to mark course changes, etc. I'm thinking something like Le Mans back in the sixties, crossed with the jet boats of today.

Opportunities for:
Skullduggery
Espionage
Crew brawls
Sabotage
Bribed officials
Underhanded Tactics
Space is dangerous
ETC.

 

[Klaus]

Getting back to race team idea, it has to be more exciting than a solar sail regatta. Closed, relatively short courses, nav boueys to mark course changes, etc. I'm thinking something like Le Mans back in the sixties, crossed with the jet boats of today.

Opportunities for:
Skullduggery
Espionage
Crew brawls
Sabotage
Bribed officials
Underhanded Tactics
Space is dangerous
ETC.

I once fooled around with a jump-race in the Glimmerdrift when I was using T20. Can't remember offhand but there was a good circle of worlds perfect for a J2 tournament but also so a J4 ship could jump ahead to warn the worlds what was happening so a 'crowd' could build up. A couple of systems where racing to get the best H2 patches while diving around a gas giant would have been a highlight.

 

[ThunderChilde]

Ah, the difference between the "Formula 1" and "Dakar Rally" classes of racing ships.

 

[Icosahedron]

Thanks for the info...but, if it wasn't clear above, I did understand this. My question was answered by Aramis. I understood what would happen, gaining mass at faster acceleration, not accelerating at a full 6Gs, taking longer...before I posted. I was wonder how long that would take.

I actually thought it would take longer than 11 days.

Sorry, I misunderstood the humour in your last response to Aramis. No probs.

If one looks at the Travel Table in CT, you'll see the longest duration by any of the drives listed is the last one for the 1G drive.

Reason: Any trip longer than 7 days can be done quicker by using the J-Drive.



But, here's an interesting question. What about cost? The M-Drive is vastly less expensive to use than the J-Drive.

If you've got a ship with a 1G M-Drive, and the destination is 3,000,000,000 km away, the travel forumula says you'll get there in 12.68 days.

Is this calculation off because it's over 11 days? Or, was the 11 days mark specifically for 6G vessels.

I've never checked this out, because I, too, figured you'd need to accelerate for quite a while before relativity kicked in (never did the maths to see if I needed to do the maths...)

The travel calculations are based on the LBB2 Newtonian formula, though, so I would assume they are wrong. I can't imagine that LBB2 was corrected for time-dilation.