Grav plates/Intertial compensators

[tolcreator]

In previous editions (Ok in TNE) the amount of thrust that grav plates could counter depended on TL
It was TL-9 if I recall, so at TL-10 you could only counter 1G with grav plates.

Say you have a TL-12 ship. It can compensate 3 Gs.
Pulling 1G: No problem, the crew doesn't notice, down is still down.
Pulling 2G: See above.
Pulling 3G: Ah now you start to notice. The best the grav plates can do is cancel out the drives, giving you zero G.
Pulling 4G: Now corridors are verticle shafts (unless your ship is built like a building standing on its drives, in which case, everything is still normal)
Pulling 5G: Everyone is subject to at least 2G
etc.

This gave an upper limit to the number of Gs a ship could realistically pull, based on TL. I'm seeing some crazy accel possible with reaction drives, but how does the crew not end up a smear on the back wall? Do grav plates counter any thrust, at any TL?

 

[Nerhesi]

In previous editions (Ok in TNE) the amount of thrust that grav plates could counter depended on TL
It was TL-9 if I recall, so at TL-10 you could only counter 1G with grav plates.

Say you have a TL-12 ship. It can compensate 3 Gs.
Pulling 1G: No problem, the crew doesn't notice, down is still down.
Pulling 2G: See above.
Pulling 3G: Ah now you start to notice. The best the grav plates can do is cancel out the drives, giving you zero G.
Pulling 4G: Now corridors are verticle shafts (unless your ship is built like a building standing on its drives, in which case, everything is still normal)
Pulling 5G: Everyone is subject to at least 2G
etc.

This gave an upper limit to the number of Gs a ship could realistically pull, based on TL. I'm seeing some crazy accel possible with reaction drives, but how does the crew not end up a smear on the back wall? Do grav plates counter any thrust, at any TL?

The assumption is that up to M-Drive TL, can be compensated for. If TL 14/15 is 9G M-Drives, then you compensate up to 10G (to create up to 1G regular gravity in addition to compensating 9G).

So for the reaction drive that can add up to 15G to that.. we need to assume some lovely super advanced suits. Perhaps giant water-bubble things or whatever else high-tech would be available

 

[tolcreator]

Ah ok, using Mdrive tech as an indicator of grav compensation is a good rule of thumb.
Hadn't thought of using Mdrives *and* reaction drives.

 

[Nerhesi]

Ah ok, using Mdrive tech as an indicator of grav compensation is a good rule of thumb.
Hadn't thought of using Mdrives *and* reaction drives.

Going to be common on military SDBs and Small Craft Thats a good thing - whole other dynamic!

 

[hdan]

I've always assumed that since a "grav drive" is by definition warping space, that the effective "thrust" that happens to the ship cannot be felt inside the hull, so from the interior frame of reference, the ship is in "Free fall" when under power.

Effectively, they are self-inertia compensating, but "shocks" to the hull will still be felt by the crew, as would thrust from any non-gravitic drive systems.

Most if not all ships also have internal grav-plates as part of their basic ship's systems that create a comfortable gravity environment for the crew.

Inertial dampening fields that are just raw dampeners don't make sense to me, since so many things in life depend on the ability to be able to move freely. Logically, a ship that had inertial dampeners would prevent crew from moving quickly, and might even rob them of heat energy.

But I'm also the sort of heretic that says that your m-drive's field creates a "wake" through interplanetary debris fields, gently moving most of the rubble not immediately in front of your ship out of the way. (Imagine an a-grav field behind a ship that's pushing the ship and anything that's near it away from the drive. That ship would require simple reaction jets for fine maneuvering and docking.)