Bombs in a Vacuum

Bombs in a Vacuum

Phenoca 1256706373|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Reminded me of FG inter-fleet combat: http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos101.html

And also - how are we going to do FTL-battles versus orbital battles? Does one fleet suck the other fleet up into a spacetime rupture? Does the battle take-place inside of a wormhole, or a blackhole, or do we just pretend they instantly slow-down to equal velocities, or do we do something unique like warping local spacetime into a torus? Could we pick a non-orientable surface? Would it matter?

Imagine you are wearing a shirt, and fleet A is travelling down your left arm; fleet B is travelling down your right arm. If you hold your sleeves together, then fleet A cross onto the other sleeve to intercept fleet B, and move up your right arm. But such curvature of spacetime is impossible.

Another possibility would be portals, or warpgates.

And… I've removed the rest of my post because I just kept coming-up with the above idea, with wormholes being made by creating a large mass between both fleets which will curve spacetime enough to create a wormhole. I also found out that making a wormhole through time breaks the laws of physics… And if we "shrink" a 3D wormhole, then we get a 2D playing-field. If we shrink a 4D wormhole (with time not a dimension) then we might get a 3D playing-field until the wormhole collapses (your shirt sleeves are no longer connected). And the velocity of fleet B inside of the wormhole will start as (velocity outside of wormhole minus v-components in direction of velocity of fleet A outside the wormhole) all with respect to fleet A.

So if fleet A creates a 4D wormhole, I propose that the battle takes place in 3D space with fleet A's start velocity equal to 0, and fleet B's start speed is equal to (velocity of fleet B outside of wormhole)*sinθ, where θ is the angle between fleet A and fleet B's velocity, and fleet B is travelling away from fleet A.

Re: Bombs in a Vacuum

Craig Macomber 1256774946|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

And also - how are we going to do FTL-battles

We are not going to. Ships can only go FTL outside/between solar systems, and there they can not do anything else.

Re: Bombs in a Vacuum

tbg10101 1257136415|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

@Craig
I disagree Craig. I think that sub-light speeds will be too slow for intra-system travel. A three tier system must exist: Sublight, FTL, and a relay or teleportation system for inter-system travel.

@Phenoca
FTL and sub-light interactions depend heavily on the type of FTL that is used. For example an Alcubierre drive warps space to apparently move faster than light. No matter can survive the transition between the bubble and the outside universe. Not to mention that detecting a ship at FTL may be impossible.

These are all decisions that we will need to make.

last edited on 1257136742|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by tbg10101 + show more

Re: Bombs in a Vacuum

Craig Macomber 1257138080|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

@Craig
I disagree Craig. I think that sub-light speeds will be too slow for intra-system travel. A three tier system must exist: Sublight, FTL, and a relay or teleportation system for inter-system travel.

We are not going to. Ships can only go FTL outside/between solar systems, and there they can not do anything else.

intra-system travel is only FTL. Other stuff is strictly non FTL, thus no ships ever interact when they are going FTL, nor interact with ships going FTL. Problem solved. There is an assumption that interstellar space is huge and empty, and that no ships can interact there. Also, detecting FTL ships in a useful manner is impossible because they go faster than you can see them even if you could see such small things at those ranges. You might as well wait for them to arrive before you see look.

The assumption that you can not use FTL within a system is a gameplay decision we made a log time ago (with the possible exception of constructed special areas of jump gates). We could change this, but I don't think we should. If you want quasi physics excuses to justify this limitation, I can provide several.

Re: Bombs in a Vacuum

tbg10101 1257187648|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I made a strong distinction between inter-system and intra-system travel. Sub-light speeds are too slow for a local modern economy inside a system.

In-FTL battles would not exist though, I agree. There would be no way to detect incoming ships and no way to attack them either.

last edited on 1257187725|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by tbg10101 + show more