Terry Mixon
Emperor Mongoose
Ouch, on both fronts.
Using High Efficiency Batteries for Jump Drives
- Thread starter Sageryne
- Start date
Arkathan
Emperor Mongoose
If that was not a metaphor (what's a Meta for?) get better soon.
WHULorigan
Emperor Mongoose
I am guessing that in the pulse laser, all 4 Power Points (after losses) are stored in a high-energy rapid-discharge capacitor which the power supply charges over time and then discharges very rapidly in the pulse, whereas in the beam laser the beam is continuously maintained by the power supply feed while firing (or very-rapidly "mini-pulsed" while continuously firing).
The difference in damage would be that the pulse laser dumps all of the energy rapidly onto a single spot (with a hit-or-miss philosophy, thus the worse attack roll, but more punch, as all of the energy is delivered, all-or-nothing to one point), whereas the continuous or rapid mini-pulse beam is delivering that same 4 Power Points of energy (after losses) over a time Δt, but not necessarily focused at a single spot in a super-pulse, as the target may move under or away from the beam. But you are more likely to have contact with the target over some contact time period Δt (hence the better attack roll - you are just not dumping all of the energy of the beam at one point, so less overall damage).
If the above is the case, then the Pulse Laser is your model for energy to damage conversion.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Batteries are a lot cheaper than jump capacitors.
We could remove those, and install batteries as replacement.
We could remove those, and install batteries as replacement.
Terry Mixon
Emperor Mongoose
Sounds logical.
Geir
Emperor Mongoose
I think here we have contradictory competing concepts (and my injury is entirely conceptional). And I could swear that some earlier Traveller version let you use black globe capacitors to power a jump drive without using jump fuel... but that's probably a Chat-GPT-level hallucination.
Maybe I need to read the SOM more closely. Or maybe create a special Nova-Chernobyl™ fission reactor certified for jump... or is that what those single-use jump drives are based on? 'Melts in your Jump Space bubble, not in your hands!'
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
There probably are some issues that might impact that.
We know that jump capacitors can't hold a charge, permanently, whereas, superficially, batteries do.
Probably can't use them as black globe buffers.
Capacity is default forty to sixty power points; capacitors fifty.
We know that jump capacitors can't hold a charge, permanently, whereas, superficially, batteries do.
Probably can't use them as black globe buffers.
Capacity is default forty to sixty power points; capacitors fifty.
Sigtrygg
Emperor Mongoose
They are contradictory in setting and rules.
The hydrogen filled bubble should be removed, it was a miss-reading of the MT SOM that lead to the T4 authors getting it wrong.
No other iterations of Traveller other than T4 or MgT include it, despite Marc's article being canon for MgT and the aforementioned contradictions.
No, the rules have always said you need to charge the capacitors and have the fuel.
Please, don't let yet another incorrect Mandela effect get into the game.
How about going back to basics and then having options for referees to choose for their settings?
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Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
As I recall black globe buffering, you can immediately utilize that to kick start the jump drive, if it doesn't get siphoned off to the power plant.
Terry Mixon
Emperor Mongoose
Just bite the bullet and make the supercapacitor batteries part of the jump drive. Add the cost and tonnage and then they are part of every unit, ready to go at need after charging.
Geir
Emperor Mongoose
Been looking at this wrong... ignore whether or not you can use the batteries for the jump drive. You can use them for everything else! So for that jump turn as long as you have enough power for the jump drive, you can use the batteries for everything else: life support, weapons sensors, low berths, medical bays, biospheres, manufacturinging plants, et. al., etc., ad infinitium.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
That K'kree has already bolted the common area.
You can have jump drives requiring only two and a half power points per hundred parsec tonnes.
You can have jump drives requiring only two and a half power points per hundred parsec tonnes.
Maybe not, but it still makes sense. Deploy the panels to charge up; once the battery is full, stow them and prepare to jump...
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
If you have two units of deployed advanced solar panels, they can generate four power points.
A highly advanced ten tonne jump drive only needs two and a half power points for a hundred parsec tonne jump.
You can have an entirely green jump with renewable energy.
You can have an entirely green jump with directly connected renewable energy.
A highly advanced ten tonne jump drive only needs two and a half power points for a hundred parsec tonne jump.
You can have an entirely green jump with renewable energy.
You can have an entirely green jump with directly connected renewable energy.
Terry Mixon
Emperor Mongoose
True.
That seems to be being clawed back a little. Aside from being specifically listed as a Chartered Space thing, Robot Handbook brings in self-aware machines that can happily do the job, and has lesser automation just getting a -4 on the Astrogation task (essentially turning it from a 4+ to an 8+, which a smart, skilled computer should be able to make most of the time, especially if it takes extra time on the job). Since that just chains into the Engineering task to make the actual jump, a solid robot jump engineer with top end Expert software should be able to get the ship there reliably. Most likely your robot ship is going to want to take longer to calculate the Astrogation plot than a meat one usually does, but as of RBH I think automatic ships are practical.
As are brain ships, ofc.
Don't forget to have extra batteries to cover a week in jump space, though.
Otherwise who knows Watt would happen...?
Terry Mixon
Emperor Mongoose
And, while this is true, the Express Boat can't work if the batteries don't power the jump drive. I need to make an alternate one that can, even if it's a bit larger.
Arkathan
Emperor Mongoose
They are correct on the X-Boat example. The battery bank is rated at 40. The power plant at 20.
The basic requirements are 20. The jump drive is 40.
The batteries power the drive, because there is no other source onboard capable of doing so.
Not that I know of. CT Book 5 has this though:
"If a ship absorbs enough energy to make a jump, and is supplied with sufficient fuel, it may jump at the end of the turn."
So if their power plant is damaged, Globe charged up capacitors can fill in. Fuel is still required, as it is for the X-Boat. Whose description says is charged up by the power plant on the X-Boat tender.
High Guard is where the requirement for a ship to have a computer rated the same as the jump number was introduced, by the way, and is probably why the Traders and Gunboats X-Boat listing has a Model/4 and a Model/1bis listed in different places. The latter was legal under 1977 Book 2 for J-4; by 1980 (and made explicit in the 1981 Book 2) the former was required.
Other things mentioned in Book 5:
"Because of the delicacy of jump drives, most ships perform maintenance operations on their drives after every jump. It is possible for a ship to make another jump almost immediately (within an hour) after returning to normal space, but standard procedures call for at least a 16 hour wait to allow cursory drive checks and some recharging."
"Any jump, regardless of number, takes approximately one week (150 to 175 hours); ships in jump space are untouchable and cannot communicate with other ships or stations. Although jumps are usually made at low velocities, the speed and direction which a ship held prior to jump is retained when it returns to normal space."
"Tech level requirements for maneuver drives are imposed to cover the grav plates integral to most ship decks, and which allow high-G maneuvers while interior G-fields remain normal."
And my very favourite bit, which MegaTraveller ignored to its detriment:
"The ship design and construction system given in Book 2 must be considered to be a standard system for providing ships using off-the-shelf components. It is not superceded by any system given in this book; instead this book presents a system for construction of very large vessels, and includes provisions for use of the system with smaller ships."
I LIKED that regular civilian ships were handled by the simple design sequence. This also provides support for not needing to bother with local TL for Book 2 ships. All the parts are "Imperial standard" manufacture and are probably manufactured at an industrial hub like Mora or Glisten anyway.
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