Re: Expanding Shields

At 02:50 PM 4/3/97 -0500, you wrote:

>>That field absorbed energy
>>  and then attempted to disapate it over time.  If it got overheated
you
>>  could get localized overheating where the radiant energy would
damage
>>  the hull of the ship underneath, or general overheating where the
>>  entire field would collapse and vaporize the whole ship...
>
>Well, I don't think they got any total collapses until they layered the
>ships with superconductor, but that's another story....
  There are total collapses, but ship's usually surrendered when the
amount
of heat in their Langston Field prevented them from extending any
sensors
out, as the sensor stalk would get vaporized.  Read the opening battle
in Mote.
  Don Hawthornes work in the War World Series expanded on how Langston
Fields operated.  Before Motie Super conductive material you would
usually
get a fatal burn through before general collapse.  But then a
catastrophic
burn through can result in total vaporization...

>Hmm, yeah, I guess that does show a basis for expanding shields... of
>course, I don't think any ship could fire out of the shield except the
>one controlling it; the ships had to open "holes" so that their shots
>weren't absorbed by the shield.  Not to mention, a ship could fly
inside
>the shield, and then open fire on the ship inside... at least, I think
>they could....
  Given the size of the field, etc. only ship's boats and fighters could
hide in the Langston Field.  There were boarding boats that would
attempt to
coast through the field to make a breach, but you wouldn't want to do
that
on an enemy whose field was already heated.