Sci-fi Writers Guild Forum

The turning is for space combat, and really only refers to fighter craft. I do agree that they could turn around on their axis and fire backwards, but with that in mind, what fighter pilot is going to tail another, knowing that he could get blown to bits? And on the other end, what pilot would allow him to get to the point where he needs to flip around? While he's doing that, the other guy can blow him to pieces!

Just a little nitpick I had back when the whole thing was conformed almost entirely to known physics.

Also, all ACVs do have thrusters, but it becomes annoying to write that out on every single one, so I've pretty much stopped as of late. (I really only did when I was trying to make companies other than the 753rd Imperial BioAndronian Engineering Shipyards. It looked good in theory, but always ended up in a huge mess.)

As for weapon ranges, a bullet or other kind of physical shot, fired in space, would travel forever in the direction fired, only changing speed or direction by way of impact (in the frozen realm of space, that's almost always going to result in shattering) or by way of gravitational pull. Hence, physical weaponry has effectively infinite range. Optical weaponry is limited in range by the fact that as light travels, it looses energy. If you look up at the sky, you have a sense of a fraction of a laser's range, at least one with the starting strength of a large star. Being pure energy in most cases, they would be affected in flight really only by a black hole or possibly a very, very dense neutron star. (If I remembered correctly and they do have a huge and dense gravitational field, and it isn't just surface gravity.)

However regardless of if a laser could go from one end of the universe to the other without completely dying out, it rather has an effective range, the point at which is no longer has enough strength behind it to do much of anything to contemporary armour and shields. (Sure it could completely melt a human being, but how many of those pink little squirmy things are out taking a casual stroll in the middle of a heated battle? xD)

With regards to missile/torpedo ranges, I've never written ranges out, but their range is as far as their fuel allows. Yes, they can and will keep going in whatever direction they were, but unless some fat ACV is sitting in their path, they're more or less space junk now. (Which is why Quantum Missiles, especially Super types, are always fired well within range, and with an almost guaranteed hit, because if they were to float off, hit a planet, and detonate, all hell would break loose. Before 2014, the IBAE would just flip and go postal on everyone, and after that point, the GDA would really, really hate themselves.)


As for how shields work, I don't think I've gone into detail on that front before. (If I have it was lost with so many other papers to the abyss that is my room... Heck, if they're in my vent I wouldn't be surprised. At least that would explain why I get no heat from it!)

I suppose the way I've always used them says that they're more like armour, in energy form. With the scale of the One Man War Universe, such a system would work just fine, as wasteful as it likely is- it would, to me, imply that it just takes the laser like a man, draws more power from its source, and gets over it. With the two typical systems on ACVs being engine-driven (for all intents and purposes, infinite power so long as the engines are generating energy and their fuel supply doesn't run out.) or a single or set of generators that power the engines and everything else separately. (Allows for much smaller engine generators in the case of energy- or gas-derived fuel sources, so the other generator can focus on everything else. Lower fuel endurance than an engine-driven generator system, but it can fight with engines or fuel, essential for submarines or ambushes.)

Engine-driven is technically the more wasteful of the two, as any unneeded energy is simply dumped, with no storage capacity beyond the startup section of the generator. Dedicated generators at least allow any amount of engine energy to be used to top of the other generators, although this system is almost always jury-rigged, or the amount of waste energy the engine create is not worth the time and effort of installing such a system. (Or, in the case of the SwarmCarrier, you have so much energy, that you could run everything at the redline for something like a month and still be able to throw energy around like it was endless. In such a case, a recycling system is moot for all purposes except in the event the universe suddenly runs out of hydrogen, which is usable in virtually any generator.)


Yes, I do use odd fuel sources, I try to mix it up and avoid using the same thing over and over, although after a while you look back and think: "Holy crap, maybe I made too many?!"...

It extends a little to the ground aspect, as IBAE BioTerror Machines use the life energy from people as a fuel source. (Note: a person's life energy is used as they age, but one could live countless lives on their life energy. This is why a BioTerror can keep running on people it captured tens of thousands of years ago, and why trying to rescue someone from a BT's clutches is often less ethical than mercy killing them. Few people survive the transition from a BT's life support to reality, where they are technically long dead. Quite dead, several dozen times over.)

I've no idea what Lumbering Tiger II/ Coronet Tiger II units would use, but for something that towers over cities, it sure isn't oil. (Currently figuring out its rough dimensions, a process aggravated by the fact I have to take into consideration its leg joints, one of which that can bend forwards. I'd like to avoid making it able to bend as far forwards as it can backwards, mainly because it looks a little stupid to me, and I'd rather it be quite wide when it does it, rather than |\_/| shaped.)

Dunno about the faceoff. The Genesis' are more for atmospheric combat, what with the fire cannons and whatnot, but I suppose its size would contribute to a larger general armament size. (Now if we suppose it's being carried in a SwarmCarrier, nevermind a fully loaded SwarmCarrier, nor one in the now very rare original Alpha-Class Armoured Barges... That's a different story! (If you've ever played Age of Empires II, it's like sticking five Champions in a Battering Ram, and sticking twenty of those in one Transport Ship. Goodbye any building in your path.)