Jumps, energy and black globes

>The hull net remains energized at a low level throughout the trip to
>maintain a little pocket of "our" universe around the ship.  Should
>there be a hole in the net, a finger of the jumpsace will poke into the
>ship.

Which brings back my earlier question. How many hull hits can the ship sustain
before it is unable to jump? Under High Guard, the only ways to prevent the
other ship from jumping are to disable something critical (drives, bridge,
computer) or to drain its fuel. Using this "net" system, even a few surface
hits would prevent a breakoff by jumping.

>>Ah yes. These fellows also think gauss guns are silent.
>
>Actually, wouldn't they be about as silent as a pistol with a silencer?

As I said, if the projectile is subsonic. Silencers are designed to reduce the
velocity of the bullet to subsonic for just this reason. But a 9mm slug is a
lot heavier than a 4mm needle. And even then, the silenced gun has a very low
penetration, much less than that of a gauss pistol. In Striker, a 9mm pistol
(unsilenced) has penetration 2. A gauss pistol has penetration 4.

>The Starship book doesn't mention anything about Black Globes or
>alternative charging methods in the Jump Drive chapter.

My quote was from GDW's Book 5, High Guard, and is therefore official rules.
Of course, the rules may have changed a bit. As you've probably noticed, I'm
still using good ol' Traveller (with add-ons like Striker).

>Talking about extra capacitors, anyone ever design a ship which has
>piles of extra capacitors? I designed some ships which would burn the
>reserve capacitor energy to feed infrequently-used things like weaponry
>and active defenses.

When designing warships, I almost always allow sufficient power to let the ship
use its full agility and still use all weapons and screens. Anything else is
very dangerous if the other ship fires a spinal mount meson gun or particle
accelerator at you. I don't include extra capacitors, as the amount needed to
make a significant addition uses a lot of space which is badly needed for other
things. But the ship does often use energy from the capacitors instead of the
power plant - in fact, it has to, to avoid overload! My black-globed ships also
have another device, which may violate the spirit of the rules but should be
possible; a globe interrupter. This briefly turns off the globe to allow
out-going fire to pass unhindered. The ship's computer synchronises all fire
to cross the globe boundary simultaneously (fire missiles, then particle beams,
then lasers). Result; my globe does not protect the enemy. There is a slight
chance that enemy fire will hit my ship at the same time, but the computer
tries to make intervals between salvoes as unpredictable as possible.

Question 1: What happens to a missile which hits a black globe?
Question 2: Does a black globe absorb gravity? If so, I've invented a perpetual
motion machine and free power source. Just have a black globe generator linked
to a laser and timer. Turn on the globe; it absorbs gravity, and
slowly gains height. After a preset time, the globe is turned off by the timer
and some associated circuitry. It fires its laser at a receiver, getting rid
of the energy it picked up by absorbing gravity. It also falls. After another
preset time, the globe goes back on again, restarting the cycle.
	If a black globe doesn't absorb gravity, then repulsors and tractors
can be fired through one, which gives a ship with its globe fully on a way of
discharging its capacitors.


 "Keyboard? How quaint!" - M. Scott

 Adrian Hurt			     |	JANET:  [email removed]
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