Re: Vector Rules / Inertial dampers

On Oct 8, 1997 at 4:04:11 AM, Aaron P Teske <Mithramuse+@CMU.EDU> wrote:

> I think it depends on how your inertial dampers work.  In the
"Gateway" 
> series of books, for example, and Niven's Known Space gravity planar 
> (which I think was an inertial damper), they affected the whole ship, 
> allowing for some radical maneuvers or, at least, radical
acceleration. 
> Gateway ships accelerated *past* the speed of light (neat trick), for 
> example, by damping out *everything*. 

Smith and Trowbridge's geeplane drive works the same way, and functions
as a  
de fecto crash cushion as well.  Panarchic boarding lances use shaped
nuclear 
charges to weakend the target ship's shields, then they overload the
geeplane 
and smash through.  Even with the geeplane, they pull ten gees when they
hit.

Pretty neat trick.  'Tis a shame that space combat in the series can't
really 
be gamed (because of a combination of tactical FTL and lightspeed
sensors and 
weapons), as this series has somee of the best space combat ideas I have
ever 
seen.

--Chris Weuve		[My opinion, not my employers.]
mailto:caw@ascend.com (wk/day)		mailto:caw@wizard.net (h)
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