I fear I am something of an arm-chair quarterback on this one, but from what I understand, the relative velocities of even in-system ships would preclude any meaningful contact except perhaps 1-2 rounds of beam-weapon fire where you need to lead the target because you are so far away and the relative velocities are a non-trivial fraction of c.
On the other hand, if you want to destroy any (mostly) stationary object, you can just take a barrel of fist-sized rocks, accelerate at a few Gs for a few days/weeks, and dump the barrel out the air-lock before veering away. You would not even need to get into sensor range and each rock would have kinetic energy potentials similar in scale to nuclear weapons.(6 minutes of 1g acceleration = rail-gun velocities, 6 months = 0.5c 5 kg at 0.5c = ~25 of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima. Multiply that by the cargo capacity of a normal trader and you have lots of people flying around with the capability to not just destroy ships and stations, but significant portions of entire planets. On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 11:09 AM, Alaconius <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Onno, > This project has been years on the back burner precisely because of GURPS > TRAVELLER, so it isn't surprising that it would look like it was for > Traveller ;) > > The thing for me is, to build what I call a Virtual Table Top (VTT) that can > encompass the vastness of space, and maintain what amounts to be, a form of > "realism" that can be sustained precisely because it is computer driven as > opposed to GM driven at a table. > > Ignoring gravitational pull of the huge masses would be the first phase of > "programming" for this VTT, such that it can be added later on when time > permits. I've already figured out how to handle ship motion and recording > the following: > > Current Ship location relative to the center of the star system's mass. > Polar Coordinates being what they are, are perfect for using the > Angle,Distance aspect to describe any point relative to the sun itself. > > Current Built up velocity: This is relative to the ship's position, in that > it records the direction of thrust, and the "vector" of built up velocity in > that given direction. This would be the distance the ship has to travel if > it does not accelerate, nor has any other forces acting upon it (such as > gravity from a nearby planet or gravity from the star itself). > > Projected Acceleration: Again, this is a vector in that you determine > direction of acceleration, and the duration of said acceleration (which then > modifies the built up velocity vector). > > The hard part was being able to add all three aspects together - and I > searched in vain for Vector addition using strictly polar coordinates. In > the end, I found I had to convert to Rectangular coordinates, do the > additions/subtractions, and then convert back to Polar in order to keep the > ability to describe various aspects (built up velocity, current location, > etc) simple to store. > > What was lacking was the ability to describe planetary motion for elliptical > motion. > > Your comment about Delta-V is one that I've not given any real thought to > just yet, simply because I haven't got the basics fleshed out, which was the > purpose of this thread. In theory? That VTT should be able to handle ANY > ship design system from GURPS, and should be able to not only track where > ships are, where ships are going, etc - but should also be able to track the > time it takes to get there, as well as where any-one ship is relative to the > other ship. This in turn would permit for keeping track of sensor ranges, > and ultimately, combat ranges. For traveler, it would also keep track of the > fact that approach vectors might preclude a ship to ship battle because the > time taken to change course and vectors would be prohibitive. > > In the end? It would be a laboratory for actual GURPS TRAVELLER style combats > between ships, and would result (I would hope) in a clearer picture of what > warship captains would have to contend with. In the end, if this program > were finished (either by myself, or by someone who has more talent for > programming than I do!), anyone could use it - whether for GURPS or > TRANSHUMAN SPACE or even Classic Traveller or any incarnations of Traveller > itself. > > Now, as to the benefits of using elliptical orbits in the simulation? A GM > who wants that level of complexity, can let the program determine what is the > trajectory a ship has to follow in order to reach any given planet from any > location in the star system. If maneuvering in normal space to a given > location will take less than 7 days, ship captains might want to use maneuver > drives instead of jump drives to reach a given point. If a pirate wants to > lay off a planet, but between a desert world and its closest gas giant (for > in system refueling, or for commercial refueling craft to skim the gas giant > and bring fuel to the main world), the VTT should be able to do that as well. > Should ;) > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] > On Behalf Of Onno Meyer > Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2011 6:01 AM > To: The GURPSnet mailing list > Subject: Re: RE: [gurps] Planetary movement and checking the Math > > Hello Hal, > > some suggestions regarding the fundamentals of your project: > > * If your setting is anywhere close to Traveller, we are talking > about sustained acceleration in the 1 to 6 G range. Is there a > benefit from simulating planetary movement, or would you be > better served to disregard that, and get a simulation for > ship movement under thrust? > > * Delta-V is not an issue. By contrast, most real-world designs > are limited more by fuel an by acceleration. > > * If you want planets to move, what are the benefits from having > elliptical orbits? Ships will move in such orbits, but they're > accelerating. > > * Planets are in orbit around the sun, and so are the various > vehicles, but does the forces from the sun matter, compared > to the thrust of the engines? > > Regards, > Onno > > _______________________________________________ > GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> > http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l > > _______________________________________________ > GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> > http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l > -- All persons possessing any portion of power ought to be strongly and awfully impressed with an idea that they act in trust and that they are to account for their conduct in that trust to the one great Master, Author, and Founder of society. -Edmund Burke _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
