Black Globes and Nuclear Dampers

[BP]

Fishing for clarifications/comments regarding High Guard ship screens...

• The text on HG page 50 states Black Globe generators require 50 tons, yet the table on pg 65 lists from 10 to 30 tons based on ship size. (Table also may imply Black Globes cannot be installed on smaller vessels.)
  
  The same table lists Nuclear Dampers ranging from 20 to 60 tons for capital sized ships, while Core indicates a fixed 50 tons (and a cost variance) for 'normal' vessels.
  
  Do any MGT starship designs exist with Black Globes (source reference)?

 

[IanBruntlett]

PMFJI... what are Black Globes?

 

[EDG]

PMFJI... what are Black Globes?

They're ultratech devices that project a spherical forcefield around a ship. The field absorbs all incoming energy, but can be set to flicker very rapidly so that it absorbs most of the energy, but also allows the ship to see out of it and to change its direction and to fire weapons (if timed properly). If the field is fully up, the ship can't see out, can't change vector at all, and can't affect the outside world.

The energy is routed to onboard capacitors, which means that if the field is 100% up, ALL incoming energy is absorbed - the capacitors have a limit, and if they take in too much energy then they will explode, usually taking out the ship. So flickering is actually a better thing to do most of the time.

There are also White Globes, which are even higher TL, which IIRC do the same thing as Black Globes but also allow ships to move out and see out while fully up.6

 

[alex_greene]

They're force fields and cloaking devices, all rolled into one.

A black globe generator projects a spherical energy field around the vessel which absorbs all radiation and matter falling upon it. Its event horizon is black (albedo 0.00), hence the name.

(They're an Ancient invention, but I suspect it could be more easily explained as some sort of dark energy interaction.)

Two drawbacks: all that matter and energy have to go somewhere, and it usually finds its way into the ship's jump capacitors. Once filled, the ship explodes. The other drawback is that the ship can neither sense out of the sphere nor manoeuvre while the globe is on full.

The ship can, however, flicker the black globe, allowing partial protection but also partial sensors and manoeuvrability during the "off" phases.

 

[BP]

Additionally, The energy can be dischared from the capacitors to avoid overload - based on ship tonnage, power plant rating and flicker rate..

Black Globe generators are covered in MGT High Guard. Which mentions them 'as experimental screens on Imperial capital warships'. Hence, I'm wondering if any MGT source has listing them on a ship yet.

I am also wondering about the apparent discrepency between the text stated 50 ton versus the table listed 10-30 ton size requirements. (A source ship listing might clarify this...).

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Regarding the difference between the TMB and HG, that is probably due to simple vs detailed design.

The Generic BGG or ND are 50-tons, but if you want to take into account the TL variations etc from HG, then you can install smaller (but more expensive) units.

 

[alex_greene]

The thing about a ship protected by a black globe is that within the globe, normal sensors do not operate, and normal manoeuvre drives cannot work.

Nobody said anything about psionics ...

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Psionics will be Referee decision. You are right, the rules are silent on that issue.

That might be a NASTY little surprise that the Zhos can throw at the Imperium in the next Frontier War (there will be another one you know...)

 

[alex_greene]

Using the Psion rules thrown at us in Book 4, I dare say they will be a nasty little surprise ...

 

[BP]

Regarding the difference between the TMB and HG, that is probably due to simple vs detailed design.
...
The Generic BGG or ND are 50-tons, but if you want to take into account the TL variations etc from HG, then you can install smaller (but more expensive) units.

Thanks Rikki Tikki Traveller, but the TMB Nuclear Dampers versus HG Nuclear Dampers doesn't wash - this wouldn't be consistent with the TL Mods in HG, more importantly, the ND size goes by ship tonnage in the table and starts at 2 1/2 times smaller and 40% cheaper in a slightly larger vessel (say a 2000 ton versus a 2100 ton vessel)...

High Guard starts out its Weapons section with changes to the TMB. For Nuclear Dampers this should probably be 10 tons and 20 MCr for vessels under 2,001 tons, or at least identical to the smallest capital ship.

For the BGG - the 50 tons @ MCr 100 versus the 10-30 tons @ 100-300 MCr could be for the ancient devices versus TL-15 prototypes - or it could just be a mistake in the text...

Any reasonable sized publication will have errors - and these are not significant (irrespective that in roleplay they can all be ignored to one's personal satisfaction) - I'm just seeking other published sources that may be used as clarification...

Unfortunately, I do not own many books yet - and Supplements 2 & 3 or the Golden Age books might have designs that would use these conficting rules (one of the samples has nuclear dampers - but it is a capital sized ship). I also may be mis-reading things... :shock:

 

[BP]

Good point alex_greene - I assumed psionics would work through a Black Globe... though I guess since certain psionics affect matter and energy that is absorbed by the BGG, there could be limitations - I would tend to argue that if they aren't generally blocked/absorbed by normal matter/energy interactions they would be immune...

As for the Zhos vs Imperium, my understanding is that there are very few BGGs, and thus, this would probably have little impact on a war (well psionics would, but this assumed weakness of BGGs - not so much).