What happens to all that debris?

Jonathan_S wrote:
We still haven't located any text-ev or RFC posts about what might if you try to enter hyper from within the system's hyper limit.

I wouldn't be surprised that if you try to enter hyper when you are too deep inside the system's hyper limit, you will need to replace your hyper generator (assuming that you don't lose the ship entirely).

Robert_A_Woodward wrote:

Jonathan_S wrote:
We still haven't located any text-ev or RFC posts about what might if you try to enter hyper from within the system's hyper limit.

I wouldn't be surprised that if you try to enter hyper when you are too deep inside the system's hyper limit, you will need to replace your hyper generator (assuming that you don't lose the ship entirely).

And perhaps the sails?

I am trying to decide what type of ship destruction is most likely to leave the most intact pieces for an enemy to salvage for secrets. I suppose laser heads and grasers will both result in a runaway reactor.

cthia wrote:And perhaps the sails?

I am trying to decide what type of ship destruction is most likely to leave the most intact pieces for an enemy to salvage for secrets. I suppose laser heads and grasers will both result in a runaway reactor.

simple - compensator failure. The ship is 100% intact - minus 1 failed compensator - and many tons of stinky red jelly rolling around the ship.

Theemile wrote:

cthia wrote:I am trying to decide what type of ship destruction is most likely to leave the most intact pieces for an enemy to salvage for secrets. I suppose laser heads and grasers will both result in a runaway reactor.

simple - compensator failure. The ship is 100% intact - minus 1 failed compensator - and many tons of stinky red jelly rolling around the ship.

You just need something with more acceleration that can catch it and disable its wedge before the runaway ship exceeds 0.8c.

(Well, and there will be some internal breakage from loose stuff or things not bolted down sufficiently well to survive unexpectedly experiencing hundreds of times their normal weight - applied sideways Some of those may build up enough velocity to damage internal ship systems by impact. But the ship itself and its major systems usually survive that just fine)

Theemile wrote:

cthia wrote:And perhaps the sails?

I am trying to decide what type of ship destruction is most likely to leave the most intact pieces for an enemy to salvage for secrets. I suppose laser heads and grasers will both result in a runaway reactor.

simple - compensator failure. The ship is 100% intact - minus 1 failed compensator - and many tons of stinky red jelly rolling around the ship.

Can you imagine the fleet or task force lucky to be taking home a brand new Manty ship intact?

"I'm going to tell Shannon I saw it first. I'll finally get laid for sure!"

But are you sure that will be the outcome? RFC said no automated ships. They need stinky goo aboard to operate them. Or eventually the reactor will blow with noone there to monitor its vitals. The sidewalls and everything else will drop and the ship will be destroyed by debris or a failing fusion bottle. No?

cthia wrote:

Theemile wrote:
simple - compensator failure. The ship is 100% intact - minus 1 failed compensator - and many tons of stinky red jelly rolling around the ship.

Can you imagine the fleet or task force lucky to be taking home a brand new Manty ship intact?

"I'm going to tell Shannon I saw it first. I'll finally get laid for sure!"

But are you sure that will be the outcome? RFC said no automated ships. They need stinky goo aboard to operate them. Or eventually the reactor will blow with noone there to monitor its vitals. The sidewalls and everything else will drop and the ship will be destroyed by debris or a failing fusion bottle. No?

Supposedly, the ships will drop it's wedge after it notices a comp failure; its those handful of seconds with 300gs of accel that turn the crew into Smucker's grossest flavor. The ship will just keep floating off in a straight line. The rad shields would still be up as well as any automated defense systems and the fusion reactor will continue to power the them until they runout of Hydrogen.

Theemile wrote:Supposedly, the ships will drop it's wedge after it notices a comp failure; its those handful of seconds with 300gs of accel that turn the crew into Smucker's grossest flavor. The ship will just keep floating off in a straight line. The rad shields would still be up as well as any automated defense systems and the fusion reactor will continue to power the them until they runout of Hydrogen.

If the ship can notice that, then the ship can also arm booby traps and scuttling charges.

cthia wrote:

Theemile wrote:
simple - compensator failure. The ship is 100% intact - minus 1 failed compensator - and many tons of stinky red jelly rolling around the ship.

Can you imagine the fleet or task force lucky to be taking home a brand new Manty ship intact?

"I'm going to tell Shannon I saw it first. I'll finally get laid for sure!"

But are you sure that will be the outcome? RFC said no automated ships. They need stinky goo aboard to operate them. Or eventually the reactor will blow with noone there to monitor its vitals. The sidewalls and everything else will drop and the ship will be destroyed by debris or a failing fusion bottle. No?

Theemile wrote:Supposedly, the ships will drop it's wedge after it notices a comp failure; its those handful of seconds with 300gs of accel that turn the crew into Smucker's grossest flavor. The ship will just keep floating off in a straight line. The rad shields would still be up as well as any automated defense systems and the fusion reactor will continue to power the them until they runout of Hydrogen.

If there is a compensator failure, in all likelihood it would happen under battle conditions. Under battle conditions the reactor's output would be at maximum power generation sending huge amounts of power through the system so it would be readily available for use. If power hungry systems are shut down then the reactor's output needs to be dialed back. Bad things happen when huge amounts of excess power is being fed through the grid. If everyone is goo, there's nobody around to coddle the reactor.

cthia wrote:If there is a compensator failure, in all likelihood it would happen under battle conditions. Under battle conditions the reactor's output would be at maximum power generation sending huge amounts of power through the system so it would be readily available for use. If power hungry systems are shut down then the reactor's output needs to be dialed back. Bad things happen when huge amounts of excess power is being fed through the grid. If everyone is goo, there's nobody around to coddle the reactor.

Though a reactor isn't exactly a hand stoked steam boiler. The moment to moment control is going to be handled by automated systems; as well as having automated safety systems to attempt to protect against unsafe operating conditions. So unless battle damage disrupts them the reactor's automatic controls should prevent it from running away or providing excess power after demand drops (and ships have huge amounts of capacitors to shunt that excess power into while throttling back reactor output. Though depending on exactly what happens, and how they're programmed to respond, the automated control systems may end up protecting the reactor by performing a safe shutdown of it (especially when they aren't getting human response to alarms).


That said, baring a perfect golden BB that hits it, compensator failures are very, very, rare even when warships are pushed beyond the normal safe operating limit for them.

Jonathan_S wrote:

cthia wrote:If there is a compensator failure, in all likelihood it would happen under battle conditions. Under battle conditions the reactor's output would be at maximum power generation sending huge amounts of power through the system so it would be readily available for use. If power hungry systems are shut down then the reactor's output needs to be dialed back. Bad things happen when huge amounts of excess power is being fed through the grid. If everyone is goo, there's nobody around to coddle the reactor.

Though a reactor isn't exactly a hand stoked steam boiler. The moment to moment control is going to be handled by automated systems; as well as having automated safety systems to attempt to protect against unsafe operating conditions. So unless battle damage disrupts them the reactor's automatic controls should prevent it from running away or providing excess power after demand drops (and ships have huge amounts of capacitors to shunt that excess power into while throttling back reactor output. Though depending on exactly what happens, and how they're programmed to respond, the automated control systems may end up protecting the reactor by performing a safe shutdown of it (especially when they aren't getting human response to alarms).


That said, baring a perfect golden BB that hits it, compensator failures are very, very, rare even when warships are pushed beyond the normal safe operating limit for them.

No, it isn't a steam boiler. It is much more dangerous than that. I considered an auto-shutdown, and I can readily accept that some form of that happens under normal battle conditions, but managing power distribution of a reactor to all mains and subsystems is a finely tuned process simply not meant for automated systems that are not recommended for auto shutdown. Auto-shutdown is desired under very specific conditions. You wouldn't want a computer deciding to cut all power under battle conditions.

Plus, if the reactor is shut down, what powers the necessary subsystems like rad shielding for the smaller debris and whatever system handles the larger debris - at maximum military power. Power has to be finely nuanced and rerouted by a real person. It isn't something meant, or designed, for total computer control.