Re: Some FT questions

On Fri, 10 Jul 1998 22:03:21 -0500 Noah Doyle 
<nvdoyle@midlink.com> wrote:

>>> Somebody on the list mentioned that you can get blank 
decal-type sheets, and run them thru a laser printer?  Is 
this true/feasible?  It would be great, and I could make my 
own hull markings; just need a Cyrillic font (anyone?) and 
translation help (anyone?). <<<

Yep, it works fine. You can even use a colour copier and 
get markings, like I did for my Federation fleet (all the 
nacelle stripes, etc.). The ink is not completely opaque, 
however, so a light background is a good idea. Can't help 
you with a Cyrillic font, sorry...

Later, Brad Holden wrote:
>> I recently reread A Mote in God's Eye and was wondering 
if anyone had put together any rules for FT for the 
Niven/Pournelle Empire universe. It seems like it would be 
straight forward, the important thing would be to write 
rules for the black globe generators or whatever those 
shields are called. The cool thing (or is it hot thing?) is 
that everyone at the table knows how much more damage you 
can take. <<

I agree with the points that Noah made (colours, 
accelerations, fuel, etc.), and have been working on 
Langston Field rules for a while -- very intermittently, 
though, so don't hold your breath...

The Field itself is fairly straightforward, although 
complicated by things like the Motie expanding field; the 
damage system is less so, because you have to allow for 
burn-throughs (before Motie superconductor) -- how much 
energy does one of those dissipate? What effect does it 
have? Where do the threshold checks come? And so on.

Later, it was Noah again who wrote:
> I think it was in one of Niven's Known Space novels, where
they're talking about the new mega-fast hyperdrive, and they're
realising that it's practically useless - it takes 12 months to
go nowhere (to edge of solar system where a jump can be made),
and 13 months to go anywhere (other side of the galaxy). <

That's 12 and 13 _hours_, and they're only talking about 
going anywhere in Known Space, which is roughly 60 
light-years across. So, the Quantum II hyperdrive can do 
about a light-year per minute, but it still takes 12 hours 
at sub-light speeds to leave and arrive at a planet.

At that speed, a Q2 ship could cross the galaxy in 70 
days; from Earth, it's possible to get anywhere in the 
galaxy in just over 49 days -- or, rather, it would be, 
were it not for 2 things:
 i) the radiation zone at the centre of the galaxy, caused 
by all the closely-packed suns going nova, and
 ii) the need for a live pilot to navigate the ship around 
all the stars. Get too close to a gravity well, and you 
disappear. Unfortunately, you can't use computers to fly 
because the mass detector requires a living brain to work, 
and flying at that speed is very tiring.

For other details, read "At The Core" and "Ringworld". And 
the ship may also be in "The Ringworld Throne" -- can 
anyone confirm?

Phil, using ESU and some home-made stuff to make a 
representative EoM fleet.
------------------------------------------------------------
"I think... I think I am!     |        I think _I_ am:
 Therefore I am... I think?"  | 	Phil Atcliffe  
   -- The Moody Blues	      | (Phillip.Atcliffe@uwe.ac.uk)