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thedemonapostle
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Joined: 02 Aug 2011
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Location: Texas
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 Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 2:31 am Post subject: hypothical power core |
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if one could find a power core the size of a brief case that put out upper end capital scale levels of power, for example: in stargate they have ZPM's (zero point modules). what then would you allow to be installed on a ship? extremely powerful shields? massive weapons? super fast sublight drives?
i ask because the idea intrigues me. if say a light freighter swapped out its power core for one that could entirely be fit into a briefcase, how much cargo space would be freed up? how much could you mount on the ship? how long before others came after you for this alien tech?
thoughts? questions? feelings? anything?
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Fallon Kell
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Joined: 07 Mar 2011
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Location: Tacoma, WA
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| Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 11:58 am Post subject: Re: hypothical power core |
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| thedemonapostle wrote: | if say a light freighter swapped out its power core for one that could entirely be fit into a briefcase, how much cargo space would be freed up? how much could you mount on the ship? how long before others came after you for this alien tech?
thoughts? questions? feelings? anything? |
Nuclear submarine reactors are probably a good place to start, as far as determining the size and weight of a light freighter's power core. I assume they have a ballpark similarity.
As far as special capabilities, I would run capital scale shields, One big turbolaser, and one big ion cannon on a light freighter.
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jmanski
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| Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 1:45 pm Post subject: |
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Overheating would probably be a problem with such a device, even if extremely well designed. Perhaps it can only run at full power for a short amount of time?
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Quetzacotl
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| Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 2:30 pm Post subject: |
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If you think in terms of a Stargate ZPM, overheating is not a Problem.
So, what could probably profit from much more engery?
Definitely Shields, so you could power higher Scale shields without much of a Problem.
Weapons have mostly the Problem, that you have to increase the size of the Weapon as well, so that might not work as good.
In terms of drives, I would say Hyperdrive could profit from that (decreasing the multiplyer by 1 or 2), but I don't think that sublight drives would have any benefit (because it looks like sublight drives work mostly with thrust, so more energy wouldn't do much, if anything at all).
Sensors might benefit from more Energy as well, but I'm not really sure here. But you might increase the range of the different active scanning modes. |
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Fallon Kell
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| Posted: Thu May 16, 2013 3:52 am Post subject: |
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| Quetzacotl wrote: | | If you think in terms of a Stargate ZPM, overheating is not a Problem. |
True, if you hook it into a system designed to handle that much power. If you hooked it up to your headlights, the "overheating" might vaporize your car...
You would need to update a ship's power systems to handle that kind of throughput.
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Quetzacotl
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| Posted: Thu May 16, 2013 6:59 am Post subject: |
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| ah yeah ok, if you mean it like that, maybe. It depends on a lot of faktors, but yeah, that really might be an issue. |
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DougRed4
Rear Admiral
Joined: 18 Jan 2013
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Location: Seattle, WA
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| Posted: Thu May 16, 2013 2:29 pm Post subject: |
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I like this basic idea, but adding much to the shields, say, might open a can of worms for the GM, in trying to find tough enough things to pose a challenge down the road, if they augment them too much!
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garhkal
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| Posted: Thu May 16, 2013 3:17 pm Post subject: |
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Big thing i wonder is would the SW hyperspace have any issues on ZPM like power sources unlike how it was for stargate?
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thedemonapostle
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| Posted: Thu May 16, 2013 3:17 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | True, if you hook it into a system designed to handle that much power. If you hooked it up to your headlights, the "overheating" might vaporize your car... |
i guess it would be like star trek then. got shot in the butt and the control panels on the bridge blow out. i guess in futuristic space ships, circuit breakers, surge protectors, power regulators and more are a lost technology.
besides as far as i know of, cable wiring and fiber optics can only handle so much of a load before they short out and if theres anything like a fuse installed before the short, it will "blow" the fuse, trip the breaker/surge protector, etc.
with shields in star wars, it always seemed as though the shield rating was its maximum output per arc.
in stargate it was more of a the more power we have the stronger they get. i cant recall if there ever was a theoretical ceiling to the shield output.
weapons: i definitely see energy weapons as having a variable output to an extent. but after a while it would be like a double powder loaded .45acp. youd get a random number of shots off before it blows up when fired, with the minimum number of shot fired before this happens being ZERO.
one would need to build a weapon without a limit to how much power can be channeled through it. everything from say starfighter scale all the way up to death star and maybe even beyond. charging might be an issue as going too fast might overload any circuitry and wiring involved. unless the power source is directly in the weapons barrel at which point any kind of overload can be easily solved by just firing the weapon.
| Quote: | | In terms of drives, I would say Hyperdrive could profit from that (decreasing the multiplyer by 1 or 2), but I don't think that sublight drives would have any benefit (because it looks like sublight drives work mostly with thrust, so more energy wouldn't do much, if anything at all). |
definitely agree on the hyperdrive, though to what degree is still debatable.
as for the sublight drives. maybe i jut missed it somewhere but i dont recall it saying anywhere that they are a solid/liquid/gas fuel system. i always though of it as having some kind of energy conversion system that converted raw energy, from a power core, to something that creates thrust. if this is indeed the case then having more power to create would hen allow for more thrust to be made. or am i wrong and need to be corrected?
sensors, i imagine it would be like turning on a flashlight in the dark kind of thing. better range and more detail as to whats there, but no real specifics.
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Quetzacotl
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Joined: 29 Jan 2013
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| Posted: Thu May 16, 2013 4:12 pm Post subject: |
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| thedemonapostle wrote: | | i guess in futuristic space ships, circuit breakers, surge protectors, power regulators and more are a lost technology. |
That sentence is just perfect and so true 
| thedemonapostle wrote: | | as for the sublight drives. maybe i jut missed it somewhere but i dont recall it saying anywhere that they are a solid/liquid/gas fuel system. i always though of it as having some kind of energy conversion system that converted raw energy, from a power core, to something that creates thrust. if this is indeed the case then having more power to create would hen allow for more thrust to be made. or am i wrong and need to be corrected? |
Honestly, I don't know how sublight drives work in the SWU. I always have the millenium Falcon in mind, seeing the big Thrusters on the back of the ship that seems to me like it was a thrust based drive that throws something (particles, gas, whatever) back in order to create propulsion for the ship. Looks the same with all the other ships. But if that truly is the case, I don't really know.
Always imagined it would be some kind of mix between adjustable Repulsorlift-Technology (for flight near a Gravity Well, like on a Planet or something like that) and thrusters for flight in space. But that's just me guessing here. |
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Esoomian
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| Posted: Thu May 16, 2013 4:15 pm Post subject: |
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I would definitely make regular shields that were just supplied more power have problems with burnout and perhaps even critical system failures. There would be a boost in performance but it would be something you only turned on when something big was about to hit you because of the risks.
You could however just take out the regular shields and entirely replace them with capital ship scale shields. I'd be inclined to say they would weigh double what they should because the housing and the cables and all the other connectors have to be specially modified to accommodate something that large but it wouldn't have the same risk of burnout that overpowered shields would have... quirks perhaps but not catastrophic failure.
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Tupteq
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Joined: 11 Apr 2007
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Location: Rzeszów, Poland
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| Posted: Fri May 17, 2013 5:10 am Post subject: |
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| Esoomian wrote: | | You could however just take out the regular shields and entirely replace them with capital ship scale shields. I'd be inclined to say they would weigh double what they should because the housing and the cables and all the other connectors have to be specially modified to accommodate something that large but it wouldn't have the same risk of burnout that overpowered shields would have... quirks perhaps but not catastrophic failure. |
I think the same. You had to sacrifice few dozens tons of cargo capacity, and there wouldn't be much space left for other capital ship upgrades. Maybe you could install one capital scale turbolaser and then your freighter becomes something like destroyer class ship. It's not a freighter anymore because you can't freight anything on it. |
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