RE: FT3, details of needed changes

In message
<Pine.SUN.3.91N2x.960924182447.16431A-100000@byse.nada.kth.se> you
wrote:

> On Tue, 24 Sep 1996, johnjmedway wrote:
> 
> > 
> > And from the physics I know, economy of scale should make the larger

> > ships _faster_ since they can use more efficient drives. This dread-
> > naughts can only have a 2 thrust while escourts can have 6 is total 
> > bullshit.

Someone else who sees sense... :)

> 
> Hm. Doesn't the 'output increases as square, mass increases as cube' 
> apply to starships...?

But volume increases with the cube of linear dimensions, and surface
area increases with the square.

Mass of hull and armour increases slower than the amount of mass
that can be invested in drives. 25% volume of drives on a small
ship might equate to 25% mass, but on a big ship to only say 10%
mass. So your thrust to mass ratio has just gone up, so the ship
is 'faster'.

This factor is reasonably easy to discover if you use vaguely
realistic ship creation rules.

It's also the case that big drives tend to be more efficient. If
they're not, you just use lots of small drives to get the same
efficiency as small drives.

Hence, big ships are faster. It's counter intuitive to what people
are used to based on the ground, but there's no friction in space
which increases with the size of the ship (as you have in an
atmosphere).

-- 
Be seeing you,
Sam.