Brandon Cope:
>(1) Consider the 1 hardpoint per 100 tons a *legal* restriction, not
>a design one. Military and pirate ships ('What laws?') do not have to
>obey this restriction. However, to keep some sanity, perhaps limit
>the volume of weaponry to 10% of the ship's volume. This includes
>turrets, spinal mounts, bays, whatever.
We have tried this. No conclusions reached.
>(2) Merchant ships must use weapons of a lower technology than what
>is available for the military. It should be at least 2 TLs lower,
>perhaps as much as 4. Pirates will fall in-between the merchant and
>military ships, since they will loot weapons off of whatever they
>can. This should also apply to armor, and other offensive/defensive
>items.
Reasonable for merchants, tough on pirates. Who are the pirates going
to steal the good stuff from? And if they can't get the good stuff,
the Navy will walk all over them. And if they can, then how much
trouble can it be for a merchant to come by it?
(yes, yes, I know: we've had this argument before...)
>------------------------------
>On fusion rockets:
>
>I tried using George's modification for fuel consumption. George
>multiplied fuel consumption by a factor of 40000. Thus the 200,000
>disp ton tanker I was using which only had an acceleration of 1G
>could fire the engines for 41 minutes. Instead of the 3+ years I had
>originally planned on.
>
>Ok, that may be correct from a engineering and physical reality point
>of view, but it makes them totally useless when compared to grav.
>Well, I think that to make the game fun, your fusion rockets should
>allow a higher acceleration, but more fuel needed. THat sounds like
>a reasonable compromise. But George's fuel consumption outlaws their
>use completely. (sigh)
>
>As much as I like to see things realistic, they should be usable
>too. (I also prefer the notion of somthing I can understand (fusion
>rocket) as opposed to something I can't (gravitic propulsion).
George's solution was NOT based on "physica reality", but rather on
engineering that we can foresee today. It loses it a little after
3000 years of knowledge acquisistion. Try using the (rather close to
physical limits) fuel consumption of 3Kl per hour.
Later...
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I have learned to use the word "impossible" with the greatest caution.
--W. von Braun