This little drone with the massive agility and supposedly no propulsion
unit doesn't make sense, though. To be able to dodge, the craft will need
to be able to apply a thrust in some direction, right? In zero g, unless
a counter-force is applied, the craft will continue to move on its new
vector caused by this thrust, due to inertia. To be really agile, the
ship would have to be able to make many such dodging motions quickly,
perhaps even repetitively. If it did repetitive dodges in the same
direction, thrusting the same way again and again, couldn't the vessel
be considered to be applying a maneuvering thrust? It would probably be
higher than the thrust caused by the Challenge #45 ion drive....
Someone mentioned making fusion rockets less maneuverable than thrusters,
but allowing them a greater acceleration. What if someone mounts BOTH
systems on their ship? I had a vargr corsair captain in a campaign that
wanted to do this to his ship -- he liked the thought of having a backup
engine system that could be used for emergency power and a little extra kick
in an emergency.
The comment was made that fusion rockets couldn't be used for high-gee
agility because they couldn't provide "sideways" thrust without blowing up.
But what is to stop people from mounting secondary rockets on the hull
perpendicular to the main axis of thrust? That rocket, perhaps a quarter
the size of the main engine, could be used in order to augment "sideways"
motion as well. Maybe I'm missing something here.
- --Steve