The Factory Floor - 2017-08-25

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12:00 AM

I see. So, is it possible to use gamma lasers and UV lasers as weapons? Come to think of it, what's preventing us from using lasers as weapons? I think it's the dust particles in the air that makes it difficult to use lasers as weapons, but I could be wrong.

@SCPilot atmospheric effects do make it hard to make laser weapons, but they're in a fairly late stage of development already -- it wouldn't surprise me if we get something practical for shipboard use within the next decade or two (if you can get something fast-firing and M61 or GAU-8 sized, imagine having a CIWS with infinite ammo)

(either that, or something slow-firing that replaces say a 5" deck gun)

I see. That makes sense.

12:27 AM

Hm....Did you see that pic I posted on here of how to get dragons to fly?

1 hour later…

1:39 AM

@SCPilot yeah

6 hours later…

7:16 AM

@dot_Sp0T It's been some time since I last saw you in the chat. What have you been up to? And how come you are online at ~1 to 2 am?

Also, good morning WorldBuilding

Mithrandir24601

7:29 AM

@Secespitus Mornin'

7:51 AM

@Secespitus Gooooooooooood Morning Worldbuildingnam!

@Secespitus mostly my summerly 'exodus' - losing a feeling of time, playing games I haven't yet had time to check out, procrastinating exam prep, hurried exam prep

I regularly stalked the top-questions, but there didn't seem anything that caught my attention. And in the same vein I didn't have anything particularly exciting I wanted to ask that hadn't been asked since my last attempt on that geology question :)

@dot_Sp0T "You have 4 weeks for this assignment" "Yay, 3 weeks and 5 days no work!"

@dot_Sp0T Summer seems to have an impact on the question quality.

Good old German humour - never fails

Well the American school system provokes summer to being a true exodus of 3 months nothing whatsoever

May 12 at 21:11, by Secespitus

@NexTerren "How many Germans does it take to change a light bulb?" "One. We are efficient and don't have humour."

Well, I'll be right back - need to catch a bus, then a train, then a bus

@dot_Sp0T Good luck

8:17 AM

I shall prevail

But I haven't asked how you've fared @Secespitus , please take my apologies

8:32 AM

@dot_Sp0T Apology accepted ;)

Except from an ever increasing number of "posts edited" and "helpful flags" not much has changed on my side

You really should ask a question once in a while. Start a project. Learn new things :)

The weather is bad as usual, so the usual summer exodus is kept in check

@dot_Sp0T I'm trying to start with learning japanese again. But that's not really something I could ask on WB

My current "project" is the DnD campaign I started with a few friends.

@Secespitus there's an SE for japanese :)

But you make me feel guilty about all the foreign language learning material dotted around my room

@Secespitus sweet! what system if i may inquire?

@dot_Sp0T 5e. As nobody in my group of friends has ever played any RPG that is not played on a computer I just thought using the newest system of the most nerdy game in existence might be a good start.

So far it's been three sessions and it's pretty cool.

Yeah 5th ed is great for newcomers. Lots of prebaked stuff for characters und campaigns alike, so you can concentrate on the playing aspect. I personally prefer the GURPS system though

8:39 AM

First of all I have to get them hooked on RPGs in general, after that I can try to find other systems that might be better suited.

I'm currently playing 5th ed, 4th ed and StarWars EotE :)

That's a lot of different systems. I already have problems scheduling regular sessions for one system. But part of that comes from trying to schedule a session with 7 players and the DM

that is huge indeed

we normally play 5th ed every other week and starwars every 3 weeks (different groups); 4th ed varies on the DM (which I'd be next in line but I don't get around finishing prep.....)

From what I read about 4th on RPG.SE is that it required battle mats and stuff like that. Plus the magic system is very different. What are the Pros and Cons of 5th vs 4th in your opinion?

well you just need a grid for 4th in order to resolve effects correctly, then again 5th also uses the same grid. 4th seems more hardcore, there's more you can do and everything is an edge more complicated. 5th is friendlier

The skillsystem in 4th is more varied than in 5th, this is good and bad as skilchecks work quite different thus

I think I prefer the skillsystem in 4th edition to that of 5th edition. But combat seems less tedious in 5th.

In 4th you need to keep track of dozens of abilites, different attacks, bonus' etc... in 5th this is solved more smoothly

So I prefer my 5th ed sorcerer to my 4th ed psionic in terms of combat. but I find that my 4th ed psionic is more fun to play outside of combat

8:57 AM

5th basically has a handful of modifiers and skills in which you might be proficient and after that you just ask whether you have advantage or not. That's the most important things for combat.

Also the more complex combat system lends itself to more crazy stunts that still adhere strictly to the rules of the system, while in 5th you get more leeway with the rules - which can be bad with some players

Quick question - I haven't asked a question in a while, but just need to quickly check on-offtopic-ness

@Aify Go for it

Yeah in 4th you get additional proficiencies or boni almost every level-up depending on the class you play - can be tedious

in 5th you get everything at the beginning, that's it

@Aify shootsies

I'm about to finish up with a question that asks about a reality check for whether or not the musculature of an alien species makes sense (I have the actual intended functionality in mind already and it will be included in the question), AND i would also like to include a section asking about the limb-eye(s) coordination aspect of having 3 eyes in a triangular fashion on the creatures head

Too broad?

8:59 AM

Sounds like two questions

So far the only tags i have are Creature Design, Science Based, and Reality Check; I couldn't find any tags for musculature or whatnot

@Aify What about [aliens]?

see the thing is tho, i really dont want to make it two questions as the question itself does require images to explain properly

ooh i forgot that one

@Aify [biology] maybe?

Er

Yes that one too

oh theres xenobiology

that's better

i can take off aliens then

9:01 AM

Found one that's better than biiology, xenobiology

still two questions

Hmm

you can reuse your images

How about posting a draft in the sandbox?

or link them to each other

9:01 AM

Might be easier to talk about seeing the images

Hmm the eye equestion really only hneeds one picture

i guess icould write two questions

user image

take a look at that

@Aify this is... a blob

sorry if I don't see it :/

That's the side view of my creature - For asking about musculature I was also going to include a rough skeletal sketch on top of an isometric view with the joints, and then circle the actual relevant muscle groups

er

i.stack.imgur.com/9STS4.jpg Iso view

It's certainly alien. That's pretty good, most of the time aliens are just "humans with bigger heads" and similar stuff.

Definitely looking forward to your question(s)

With the way I described having the musculature & skeletal structure on a picture, do you think that would make the question more clear or would it be er... obfuscating

9:05 AM

In the case of something that really is alien pictures are important. Explaining your creature just in text might prove... difficult

Yea i thought so..

The way i described the earlier "2 questions" does make it two questions

the way i have it phrased in my post right now hto

the draft post

If you ask about muscles then bonestructure is important, especially joints - if it works like humans

"examine the adaptation of a third eye combined with a bipedal lower body plan and monobratso (single arm) upper body plan helped this alien species become the top land predator on their planet."

it's kind of all linked together

it is linked indeed; but the specific questions can still be multiple ones

one going into detail of the advantage and function of 3 eyes

like, what i really want to know is whtehr or not that third eye combined with the muscular design & skeletal structure is realistic enough to cause defined traits

9:07 AM

another going into detail of the muscle-plan

hmmm

e.g. check out my series on my hexaped

Fair enough. Now i have to figure out how to name and phrase the questions differently with a interetsing title for both

you don't have to

Hmmm.. Aite thanks for the chat. Ontopic for sure though right?

9:09 AM

Definitely on-topic

My hook: "In this episode of Strolling with Nightmares, we examine the realism behind the musculature and skeletal structure of a bipedal lower body plan and monobratso (single arm) upper body plan."

I am definitely looking forward to your question(s)

Aye and I'm out.

2 hours later…

10:44 AM

@Secespitus Die Vermessung der Welt (D Kehlmann) ist Fiktion oder?

Fiction.

@dot_Sp0T Ich glaube schon, habe ich aber nie gelesen

But it has a weird subgenre.

Just making sure. I was positive it is fiction, but a comment on my comment of it being fiction made my doubt my sanity. thanks you two

@Mithrandir24601 About 2.5X3 Foot (if my conversions are correct)

10:53 AM

@dot_Sp0T I thought insanity was a prerequisite to sign up on this site.

11:14 AM

@Secespitus presumably

11:34 AM

What should I call the condition that makes a person a troll? Y'know, similar to Lycanthropy or Vampirism?

@Piomicron Trollism?

:/

Mithrandir24601

@Hannah 56 inches would be about 4.5 foot...

Currently I'm going for 'Troglodytis

@Mithrandir24601 ... oh i used google to do it directly from cm... Maybe it gave me a different 'foot' measurement

.... yeah i got a little under 2.5X3 Foot

... i think there might be a difference between british inches and american inches... not sure

although apparently they're the same??

@Mithrandir24601 Oh, just realised, that was a mistake. - I meant to say 36 not 56

Mithrandir24601

11:54 AM

@Hannah ah... I should have looked at your measurements in mm...

@Mithrandir24601 Yeahhh....

They were very rough values, i just took a ruler to measure them quickly

@Piomicron I didn't know you could be troll-ified

12:19 PM

@Mithrandir ... Anyway, Currently there's no sale - She and her Husband have spoken to my parents about it, and they've talked about where the costs come in, I'm also definitely not selling for less than £200 (not sure if i'm including postal or not, as if that includes postal then i'm losing money)

Future Historian

Alright, so.........I just realised something.

I am starting to get the feeling the chances for survival of the former NATO and PACT members, especially the States and Soviet Union are........rather problematic, and even if they do somehow survive, the reconstruction chances are slim. As in: 0.0001% chance that any full scale reconstruction effort would happen without some chaotic mess ensuing.

As for the question, I am going to post a bounty when the time comes, but I am starting to become less and less certain that any continuity of government plan could succeed without running into problems.

So, anyone else coming to that conclusion?

@Bellerophon and/or @Mithrandir24601?

You two happen to have had run to conclude similarly?

12:59 PM

@Hannah Do you have a picture of it anywhere?

user image

that should be the most recent one i took...

ah, cool

@FutureHistorian The US and USSR probably wouldn't survive as nations. The leadership might and so they would be nations symbolically and may have some political influence but militarily and economically they would be practically non-existent. The USA might be able to rebuild to some extent with help from the UK, France if they were not attacked (I don't know if you are having people nuke Europe) but the USSR would certainly collapse.

Future Historian

About that......

This is in the sequel to my previous Cold War Gone Hot question.

And Europe would be the first to be obliterated anyway, along with Korea and Japan.

As in: except for Sweden, Yugoslavia, Finland, Albania, Austria and Switzerland early on, most of Europe is just.....dead (with some remnant governments still standing and newly formed nations emerging).

6

Q: If the Cold War went hot in the early 1970s, do NATO and the Warsaw Pact have any plans to rebuild after the last nuclear warhead goes off?

So, if you are thinking this is just another random scenario, it is not. It is a sequel to my previous question on whether the Soviets and other Warsaw Pact forces, henceforth referred to as PACT forces, could reach the Rhine River or not (at least until NATO decides to nuke them and the nuclear ...

warfare alternate-history politics post-apocalypse cold-war

This question is the one I am referring to.

@Bellerophon? So, if the Northern Hemisphere (except for the remainder of Asia that I did not mention) is gone, what could any surviving remnant governments do to rebuild?

1:18 PM

@FutureHistorian Get help from the Southern hemisphere. The UK naval fleet (whatever is left) usually have in their orders for nuclear war to report to New Zealand or Australia as they are in the Commonwealth. I suspect much of what is left of the west would ask nations such as Australia for help.

Future Historian

And I think we forgot something.

Remember: this is MAD. So, would that mean the Southern Hemisphere would have worse problems to handle?

Like refugees, economic meltdown, and the complete breakdown of social order?

Artificial African borders would probably get the worst of it.

@FutureHistorian Tons of refugees, massive economic problems given the USA has just been obliterated and mass panic. Probably looting, nations propped up by the US would collapse. Similar story with ones propped up by the USSR. Fighting might break out in places like Israel, maybe Vietnam.

Future Historian

Exactly.

So, any reconstruction plans from before the war that could be implemented (with varying results) by the surviving remnants of the States and Soviet Union?

@FutureHistorian I don't know. You should probably ask a historian.

Everything I know on the period comes from a GCSE in history and a short essay I wrote on MAD for a school project. Once you go into any depth my knowledge is pretty inadequate.

Mithrandir24601

2:02 PM

@Hannah I'd certainly say that it's worth more than that... (although I don't know anything about art) the last piece of art I saw of that size was supposedly worth about £5k, although it was utterly stunning and probably by someone well known or something, so £200 seems a bit... Low... Would you consider selling them a print at a lower price?

@Mithrandir24601 Possibly... (and that figure was my bottom line for the piece, and was therefore so low because a. its my first commission and b. it was for who i'd thought was a family friend (one who had been having money issues recently). evidently not.)

2:15 PM

The comments in this question are hilarious:

10

Q: What possible scientific reasons could there be for a vampire to only be killable via wooden stake to the heart?

This excludes metal stakes, knives etc. to the heart, it's not the bleeding out that's the issue. Just for some reason, a wooden stake to the heart ends a vampire. Why? Assume the type of vampire that is common in fiction (can't go out during the day, doesn't like garlic or crosses, but can pass...

science-based biology science-fiction science vampires

> So you want "scientifical" reasons on why someone who has become inmortal, highly flammable under sunlight, allergic to garlic and cross-phobic due to a viric infection can only be killed through a stake in the heart, but only if it's made of wood? Really?

... one explanation to that i've heard (magical reason) is that wood absorbs magic/energy...

but thats also linked to how the vampires in this fic were created in the first place

Future Historian

3:00 PM

Hmmmmm.

So, in the timeline I made so far, what is 2017 like?

As in: how is post-apocalyptic Earth doing assuming we are still alive?

@Bellerophon? Now that I think about it, by the start of 1974 up until 2017, what is the state of Earth like?

Other than nuclear winter?

And fallout?

@FutureHistorian Wrecked probably.

Future Historian

I want to know Earth's post-War geopolitical state.

Southern hemisphere will be the major world leaders while any northern hemisphere nations will be 3rd world and/or in debt (financial or moral) to somewhere in the South. There will be fewer nuclear weapons.

Future Historian

Which nations in particular can I expect?

As leaders or to still be around?

Future Historian

3:06 PM

Most of Africa is out of the picture, due to artificial borders established by pre-War European powers suffering a breakdown.

First as leaders, then as survivors.

So, who are new leaders post-War?

Leaders probably Australia, New Zealand unless the fallout reached them. They would be the worlds most powerful states by now although Australia would probably have much less empty space as refugees flooded in and founded new cities. Possibly some of South America may do O.K. but I don't know if they would develop without the USA nearby.

Did China get nuked?

Future Historian

No, but the fallout from nearby Korea, parts of Siberia, the Soviet SSRs known as the -Stans in our timeline and Japan is probably not going to help China.

And Mao was on his last days at this point.

True. So China maybe if the fallout isn't too bad. Likewise with India and Pakistan who would potentially be the only remaining nuclear states.

Future Historian

About that.

Pakistan never really invented nuclear weapons until the 1990s and India's nuclear program back then was still being R&Ded.

Pakistan started their nuclear program the year before WWIII and in our timeline, India's first nuclear test was a year after the war in this timeline.

So international pressure and horror would probably prevent the Indian and Pakistani nuclear programmes.

Future Historian

3:14 PM

And South Africa is not due for their nuclear test until 1979, so........

Thankfully, no nuclear weapons except for whatever stockpiles of former NATO and PACT arsenals survived, and never got deployed.

In that case your leaders are probably Australia and New Zealand although they will only just be returning to normal having absorbed the brunt of the refugees.

China maybe a power depending on how much fallout hit it.

Future Historian

What about Brazil and Argentina?

I don't know much about 1970s South America.

Argentina would probably regain the Falkland Islands.

Future Historian

Brazil at this time was starting to produce biofuels, while Argentina's government just a few months prior had restored Perón to power.

In our timeline, he was due for another coup in 1976.

They could become powerful if they have the infrastructure to cope with the North and Central American refugees who would arrive.

Future Historian

3:21 PM

NOTE: I was thinking about South Africa under apartheid as a leader, but it depends on whether its isolation worsens post-War or not, and whether it can handle all the refugees from the rest of Africa.

So, South Africa = superpower/great power or not really?

I'd say moderately powerful. Nothing like the economy or military of a modern power (not even near somewhere like France or the UK) but still one of the more powerful states of the new world. It is one that is seen as racist and not really standing up for human rights but still a powerful ally.

Future Historian

So, at best, a regional power?

Or is it a great power?

Because for me, "superpower" in this post-War world would refer to the status held by the former US and USSR.

Politically it is a great power because there are so few stable, powerful countries. But it doesn't have the wealth and military of a great power.

Future Historian

Oh......

So, now to look North.

Which nations in the North have survived the nuclear exchange?

As in: which pre-War nations north of the equator are still standing in some form?

3:46 PM

I don't really know. That would depend on how you want the bombs to fall.

Probably not Britain or France as we both have nuclear weapons.The most likely ones might be places like East Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and those kind of areas.

Future Historian

Actually, to be honest, no NATO or Warsaw Pact nation emerges unscathed.

6

Q: If the Cold War went hot in the early 1970s, do NATO and the Warsaw Pact have any plans to rebuild after the last nuclear warhead goes off?

So, if you are thinking this is just another random scenario, it is not. It is a sequel to my previous question on whether the Soviets and other Warsaw Pact forces, henceforth referred to as PACT forces, could reach the Rhine River or not (at least until NATO decides to nuke them and the nuclear ...

warfare alternate-history politics post-apocalypse cold-war

This is the base scenario.

Most neutral nations are not nuked.

However, the fallout is too significant for them to survive to 1974.

Then you have your answer for which Northern nations survive.

Future Historian

So besides a few new nations and scattered remnants, "Europe is just dead" to quote AlternateHistoryHub.

@Bellerophon. What I meant was: which of the former NATO and PACT members have a remnant government still standing?

The USSR and the US are obvious remnant governments, but who in Europe has a provisional government composed of pre-War surviving leaders capable of executing some form of authority?

@FutureHistorian No idea. Canada maybe.

Future Historian

The not-so-populated parts of Canada, until nuclear winter kicks in.

3:56 PM

Finland, Iceland?

@FutureHistorian Sure, but they can leave.

Future Historian

Iceland? Ever heard of Keflavik?

Wait, Iceland was NATO.

Future Historian

That place has a military base and it is likely nuked into oblivion.

The initial ICBM wave smashes their targets in 30 minutes maximum for both North America and NOT European USSR, while 15 minutes for European targets to be completely destroyed (including the European USSR).

I think Finland if they are lucky and the fallout from Russia takes a while to reach them.

Future Historian

The rest of the detonations are mainly from strategic bombers, SLBMs and whatever remaining warheads the two alliances still have.

3:59 PM

@FutureHistorian Doesn't help me. I told you, I don't know much about nuclear bombs.

Future Historian

Oh.

To clarify, the initial ICBM barrage was meant to target mostly military bases, especially those capable of deploying nuclear delivery systems, with the occasional population centre being targeted.

The majority of the strategic bombers would wipe out most population centers and SLBMs are meant to take out any remaining targets still standing.

The remaining 45 minutes are spent delivering what little deployed warheads both alliances have left.

So, the fallout is not looking very nice.

And Finland has nuclear winter to worry about.

@FutureHistorian But they can evacuate.

At least, the government and rich officials can.

Future Historian

Oh and NOTE: I am wondering about the two Germanies.

I don't think they have a chance.

Future Historian

Remember: I had a conventional war last for three weeks before nuclear fire was unleashed on Earth, and the Rhine River was where NATO first nuked the advancing PACT forces.

The Warsaw Pact (which means Soviets, East Germans, Poles, Hungarians, Czechoslovakians, Bulgarians and Romanians) retaliated and got as far as Saärbrucken before a NATO counterattack and prior nuclear barrage pushed them back to the Rhine and a stalemate ensued.

4:05 PM

West Germany was pretty densely packed with military bases. Also the USSR didn't like it. East Germany I don't know about. Maybe it would be o.k. Berlin might be the only city left standing.

Future Historian

Saärbrucken is near the border with France, so.......

That's why I think East Germany could survive.

Although its economy was already wrecked so I doubt it would do particularly well even if it did survive.

Future Historian

Except that East Germany also was victim to chemical attacks following the Battle of Schotten (which ended in the use of chemical weapons while the NATO forces there tried to make a fighting retreat, only for the defenders to get a missile full of Sarin gas to the face) during the conventional stage. So, I am not sure if that chemical warfare helps.

Chemical weapons are fairly localised in effect so although the area will be devastated the rest should be alright.

Future Historian

True.

Still, not sure if Rostock getting gassed in retaliation for the gassing of Schotten was exactly going to help East Germany.

And Rostock is East Germany's largest seaport.

So, Rostock getting gassed = what for the PACT war effort?

4:15 PM

Since they're getting nuked in a few weeks, probably irrelevant.

I have to go now, see you another time.

Future Historian

4:57 PM

So?

Now what?

3 hours later…

7:28 PM

Good evening builders of many worlds

Mithrandir24601

@dot_Sp0T Rytsas!

@Mithrandir24601 And Rytsas to you old friend

Mithrandir24601

@dot_Sp0T kirimvose, melon (yeah, I know I'm mixing languages... :P )

@Mithrandir24601 I like melons too, especially the not so squishy ones

Mithrandir24601

Melons are delicious, although it's been a while since I last had one...

7:35 PM

@FutureHistorian just looking at the title, but.... This question seems to ask about historical knowledge - which in turn is a perfect fit for history.se, not?

@Mithrandir24601 That's why you buy them in pairs; so you still have one left after devouring the first. Also so you can mix honey and water melons.

Mithrandir24601

@dot_Sp0T Oooh - there's a good idea :)

@Mithrandir24601 careful though, you might not like it

Mithrandir24601

How could I not - it's clearly a good idea - I like both honey and water melons and, well... Twice as much melon... Win, win, right?

You can never have too many melons

Everyone cheer, melons are here?

Filled with seeds that grow out your rear!
We eat melons every day, drop your pants burn the seeds away!
Burn, burn, the seeds away, make my ass safe for today!
Burn, burn, the seeds away, make those melons, DIE!

There's a clip that goes with that I'm sure... I just can't remember where to find it...

@Secespitus I posted my question, btw.

7:50 PM

@Aify Saw, upvoted and starred it already. I like the frogodile idea :D

Yea, I liked his idea too, but the concept didn't make sense to me - I couldn't figure out how to make it jump/leap, so I asked him for a diagram lol

8:02 PM

Can I ask about whether an idea I had for a ship could work?

@Bellerophon ...can we stop you?

:D

@James Yes, as a room owner you could ban me.

Also, I have stopped myself by losing the file with the diagram. I might ask later when I have remade it.

...I hadn't thought of that. People in WB chat are generally cool and haven't given me an excuse to exercise my almighty power yet.

honestly its kinda disappointing

@James We are all sorry to have failed you, great James, Crusher of Dreams, First of your name.

I don't think I have ban power actually, I think it needs to be a moderator. I just have room management options so far as I can tell.

8:14 PM

Hail James of many names!

What up dot

dab dee ba di dup

day drinking then?

I'ts 2215 here, I consider this drinking time

Oh. Normal evening drinking then. Good man.

8:16 PM

Also not really - just one. Doctor said I gotta step back once in a while for my stomach

But i've been swimming some 8.5km

I think thats about 5 miles for you sticklers

you swam five miles at once?

5.3 miles, good guess

Well.. technically in a river

but yeah

Damn. Thats impressive. Swimming is hard freaking work.

well, down river

still...

8:20 PM

idk it's like cycling - you just start and eventually realize that it's already been 2 hours

also most of it is floating

I think the most I have ever done is 1.5 miles.

I don't manage more than 250m active swimming in my current form

so navigatin a river feels good

most of the active stuff you do is treading the water or moving to a better position to not evade trees, banks, bridges

@dot_Sp0T that sounds fun

@James if I could it's all I'd ever do

can you send the measure distance stuff on google maps to others?

...I've never tried.

8:28 PM

too bad

:/

so what have you been up to?

Started a new job about a month ago, dnd, blacksmithing, kids, wife. About the same as always.

read that as blackmaling your wife

All things considered it only makes sense.

but newjobs are always great! congratulations

Well...they're great when they pay more ;)

8:34 PM

Idk, I've never considered better payment an incentive unless the only reason i did the current job was the payment

but then again that was the reason i did my last job

in the end that't why I show up to work, I mean bonus points if I like it and the people on my team...

Would this ship idea work?

user image

@Bellerophon it'd be a start if you'd label things

There would be two of the rings, possibly with more engines, and they would have containers slid into them then carry them. They would restock and drop off containers outside of orbit.

@dot_Sp0T The ring is a ring. The blobs are engines.

@Bellerophon do the engines face 4 of the 6 directions in space or how do i interpret them?

I mean a torus ship is a common trope in scifi - so i guess they should work

although i'd assume using the torus for living and having an engine cluster at the 'rear' would be more efficient :/

8:41 PM

@dot_Sp0T Damn, I forgot the engines would need to turn.

@Bellerophon I mean you could make them some sort of gyro-engines-pods

Mithrandir24601

@dot_Sp0T Yeah, the point is that they rotate to simulate gravity

yeah you could make the thrusters some gimbally thingies

that would be properly alien

9:12 PM

Nah, I have redone it and rethought it through. The ships are freighters. The carry large cargoes on established straight line roots between stationary . They can turn if they only run the engines on one side but it is slow, power consuming and rarely done. There is a small skeleton crew who do very little except in emergencies and when loading/unloading.

user image

Not sure how it generates gravity or anything like that.

9:34 PM

don't make much sense for the torus if they don't need to maintain gravity for a larger crew

also unless your space-shield-tech needs to connect points or something to make a shield it doesn;t seem sensical to suspend carge inside a superstructure in space instead of just attaching it like a tug and barges

if you don't have spaceshields you'd most likely just have a huge wad of metal or even rock in front behind which you suspend everything

@dot_Sp0T That's true.

I might be too hard-headed though

I'll just come up with a way to justify my ship so that I don't have to spend time designing and making a new one.

Aren't toruses the shape they plan to use for nuclear fusion?

nice idea

I'm thinking the toruses are there to provide the power (by fusion) to power the engines which allow it to go faster and further with less weight than a conventional engine which short range ships use.

9:39 PM

you could use the superstructure as a particle accelerator or similar

or one of those iron-man-arc-reactor-things

but you still need a way to break, so why not mount half of the engine pods into the other direction?

also how big is this going to be?

Yeah.. It would also explain the large ship with a small crew leading to wasted space.

@dot_Sp0T They are reversible, they can power it either direction.

you'd still need matter to expell though?

so you could either have huge sections for storage (gases, whatsoever that you can expell from the engines with the energy you make)

@dot_Sp0T True.

for thrust

or maybe add a ramscoop sort-of installation in the empty area of the front torus

@dot_Sp0T 3 of the cylinders could be for matter storage of some hyper compressed gas. The other cylinder is the crew. The two toruses are nuclear thingies for power.

@dot_Sp0T Ramscoop?

9:43 PM

tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RamScoop

similar to a jet, trying to gather the little helium and other stuff in space to use as fuel

but I mean I like the two-torus design, I'm a sucker for things that look like that tbh

I wish there was some place on the internet that I could ask questions about how much fuel I would need to travel certain distances.

Also is there a word for space travel within the solar system?

@Bellerophon inter-planetary-travel?

@Bellerophon uhm rocket equations? The amount of fuel you need is related to the time you want to spend in transit

There's a certain amount of thrust you need to generate to break a planets attraction (if you want to put it that simple)

Future Historian

10:27 PM

And........the question is about to get closed, just because someone confused the question for pre-War reconstruction plans for character building.

Would a mass for the ship of roughly twice that of the load it is carrying be realistic?

hey there @Bellerophon

Hi.

how're things going?

I have discovered I do not understand how to calculate rocket equations.

Mithrandir24601

10:54 PM

@Bellerophon Just make it spin around :P

@Bellerophon It's not rocket scien... Oh, wait...

I think I have figured it out based on traveling to Ceres from Earth in 90 days.

But I think I made the cargo too undense.

What sort of cargo would a interplanetry civilisation need to transport?

stuff you can't get locally

11:31 PM

@dot_Sp0T In the end it is around 760m long with a volume of about 171,500,000 m^3 and a carrying capacity of twice the weight of an oil tanker but much higher volume (it normally carries gas which is far less dense than oil).

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