Shadows of Sindal question or typo?

[MasterGwydion]

1. Will the hurricane buffeting substantially move the Broadsword away from it's flight path?

2. Will the buffeting effect the crew and components? The answer is no, due to inertial compensation.

3. Will it damage the hull? Armoured, I believe.

4. Can you outrun the hurricane? Probably.


In terms of mass, smallcraft are probably in danger, but atmospheric turbulence for the larger ones, in likelihood, gets less so the larger it becomes, regardless of configuration. Maybe unarmoured dispersed.

As to Number 1, I would say definitely move it from it's flight path. Once the wind flips you over, your "thrust" is now pushing or pulling you the wrong direction, significantly altering your course. Think of what happens when you light off a model rocket motor before you put it in the rocket and add things like aerodynamic stabilizers.

Number 2) Agreed.

Number 3) Agreed

Number 4) With raw power yes. Now if only you could actually direct that force in the direction you want to go, but without atmospheric controls, that is not likely.

 

[Garran]

Another consideration: it's a 'very thin' atmosphere, which means that hurricane-speed winds would only be exerting a fraction of the force that they would here on Earth. A Broadsword is massive enough that it wouldn't be in much danger of losing control; getting pushed a bit off course is more likely.

 

[MasterGwydion]

Another consideration: it's a 'very thin' atmosphere, which means that hurricane-speed winds would only be exerting a fraction of the force that they would here on Earth. A Broadsword is massive enough that it wouldn't be in much danger of losing control; getting pushed a bit off course is more likely.

Even a mild breeze on a big object pushes pretty hard and the Broadsword has no atmospheric attitude adjusters to keep it level, so how does the pilot keep the M-Drive thrust going in the right direction when your ship can't steer in an atmosphere?

It is one reason why I like the MgT changes to the Spherical Hull, automatically giving it "Partially Streamlined", so it would come with atmospheric attitude adjusters.

 

[Condottiere]

A curved surface, not accounting for nooks and crannies, is probably more difficult to effect.

Hurricane winds category five are above two hundred fifty klix per hour, which a manoeuvre drive should be able to outrun.

 

[MasterGwydion]

A curved surface, not accounting for nooks and crannies, is probably more difficult to effect.

Hurricane winds category five are above two hundred fifty klix per hour, which a manoeuvre drive should be able to outrun.

Can't outrun anything if the direction of travel can not be controlled. No matter how much "power" the engines have, there is no fine attitude controls to keep the Broadsword facing the same direction. The M-Drive has huge amounts of power, but it can't escape anything if all it does is spin or it otherwise can not control it's direction of thrust in relation to the ship's attitude towards another object, such as a planet while the ship is in it's atmosphere. Same as if you shoot off a model rocket motor without putting it in the model rocket first.

 

[Condottiere]

In theory, spacecraft are capable of any vehicle speed band, including hypersonic.

In practice, I'd narrow it down.

 

[MasterGwydion]

In theory, spacecraft are capable of any vehicle speed band, including hypersonic.

In practice, I'd narrow it down.

True. I have not seen anywhere in the modern versions of the rules, Max Atmospheric Speed the way some of the other additions had.

But is did find this in the MgT2 Rulebook, 2022 Update,

An unstreamlined ship is completely non-aerodynamic
and if it enters an atmosphere it runs the risk of
sustaining serious damage. Such a ship must make a
Pilot check at DM-4 when it enters an atmosphere and
for every minute of flight. Each failed check inflicts 1D
damage to the ship, ignoring any Armour

So yeah. Lots of pilot checks or mess up your ship under the current rules and pilot checks have DMs in an atmosphere, based on speed band... I think... I am still looking through the books to see if this is true or not.

 

[Condottiere]

A lot depends on how manoeuvre drives actually work; which may or may not have integral lifters and/or vectored thrust.

 

[MasterGwydion]

A lot depends on how manoeuvre drives actually work; which may or may not have integral lifters and/or vectored thrust.

They are gravity drives, unless I am mistaken. I have always considered it to be a bit like the repulsor/tractor beams, lock on to a gravity well no more than 1,000D, then your drives push or pull you along depending on if you want to go closer or further away from the gravity well regardless of the orientation of the ship at the time the drives are engaged. Therefore, everytime the orientation of the ship changes after engaging the drive, you have to change the alignment of your M-Drives to reflect your new orientation. This is not an issue if the pilot is the one controlling the changes in orientation, but if the changes are being controlled by a force outside of the ship and those changes can't be countered by the ship's attitude control surfaces, (Like an atmospheric vessel in space or a non-streamlined vessel in an atmosphere), then the ship can't accurately control it's direction of travel. Or am I missing something? I was under the impression that craft not designed to operate in an atmosphere, do not have atmospheric attitude adjusters. That would be like putting thrusters designed to operate in a vacuum on a sailboat. Sailboats are not designed to operate in a vacuum, just like non-streamlined craft are not designed to operate in an atmosphere.

At least this has been My take on the whole thing, based on both the MgT rules and real world design concepts.

P.S.- Doesn't all "thrust" have to be "vectored" to be considered "thrust"? What is thrust without a vector? Potential energy versus kinetic energy? Or something else?

 

[Condottiere]

Again, it depends on how they actually work.

It's either a field effect, or thrust , or both.

Previous edition mentioned vectoring at about ten percent of factor, if I recall correctly, allowing a soft landing.

 

[MasterGwydion]

Again, it depends on how they actually work.

It's either a field effect, or thrust , or both.

Previous edition mentioned vectoring at about ten percent of factor, if I recall correctly, allowing a soft landing.

Why would the designers include the hardware to make an atmospheric landing if the ship is never designed to go in an atmosphere?

My theory is that M-Drives are field-based, otherwise the 1000D limit on M-Drive usage wouldn't exist. You can use a Reaction Drive anywhere, but an M-Drive requires a gravity well to operate at above 1% efficiency.

 

[Condottiere]

Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle.