• Welcome to the new COTI server. We've moved the Citizens to a new server. Please let us know in the COTI Website issue forum if you find any problems.

General How does maneuver drive propel?

Not if it is grav drive. But, propellentless is the same as reactionless. Propellant being the REACTION mass. Without a REACTION MASS there is no propulsion from a REACTION drive.
WILL you please STOP with the bad MANNERS. If you want a discussion and highlight things use the bold, highlight, underline etc - caps are an indication of snarkiness.

That's why it is called a reaction drive, reaction drives could also use coupling with a field - eg a magnetic or gravitic accelerator. So a propellentless reaction drive is doable.
A reactionless drive would be one in which you move without pushing or pulling on anything else, ie magic contravention of the 3rd law.
 
Depends on the edition.

You do need a large enough gravitational field for the manoeuvre drive to anchor on, and freely manoeuvre upto a thousand diameters.
depends on the edition. In some Like Mg1 and Cepheus) the grav drive creates its own gravity and doesn't rely on an external gravity field.
 
Everyone knows the nozzles on the backs of the ships are light bulbs tied to the throttle. The brighter the light, the faster the ship is accelerating.

It's like those 3rd brake lights we have, or turn signals...required equipment in civilized space so folks can see what it going on.
 
Everyone knows the nozzles on the backs of the ships are light bulbs tied to the throttle. The brighter the light, the faster the ship is accelerating.

It's like those 3rd brake lights we have, or turn signals...required equipment in civilized space so folks can see what it going on.
Slap that jump tape in the pioneer, and crank it up!
 
Everyone knows the nozzles on the backs of the ships are light bulbs tied to the throttle. The brighter the light, the faster the ship is accelerating.

It's like those 3rd brake lights we have, or turn signals...required equipment in civilized space so folks can see what it going on.
So when I am in a steep gravitational gradient and the ship ahead of me brings his thruster-plates on really bright, and then they dim, come on bright again and go dark, I know he has just stalled the Fusion Reactor?
 
CT Book 2 has nothing about using fuel per burn for the M Drive. It wasn't designed as a reaction drive that burns fuel
In its second edition (1981). First edition had it, but with absolutely bonkers fuel burn rates that disregarded not just mass but also volume.

It's where the 10Td/Pn requirement originated. They kept the quantity while changing it's duration from "enough for 1 trip's accelerations / at least 288 combat turns*" to "enough for 4 weeks".

---------
* Context: you won't run out of fuel due to the detours of engaging in space combat.
 
Last edited:
All version of LBB2 use propellantless drives. As long as there is power you can maneuver. Unlimited Delta-V in other words.
77 doesn't.
You get silly amounts of delta-V from the fuel, but not actually unlimited.
The "at least 288 turns" (48 hours flat-out, and handwaved to "you won't run out no matter how far you go") is an implicit handwave, because even if you wouldn't have used all 288 turns of full-power acceleration on some trips (small planets with small 100D radii), the fuel goes away anyhow...

Though it never was stated outright, a trip with sequential wilderness refueling at gas giants (origin, gas giant, jump, gas giant, destination) would easily exceed 48 hours total acceleration in the gas-giant/jump/gas giant portion. It's "enough" because the rules say it is, not because the fuel burn rate works out that way.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top