[OT] Re Underwater questions

>I'm working on creating a background for a RPG set on a waterworld and
I have 
>the fallowing questions:
>1)  What is the maxium practical speed for under water transporation?
>2)  What does a person need to live and what should be in the under sea

>comunites?
Food (no problem in the ocean unless the biochemistry is weird (and if
it is what idiot picked the planet to settle on). Air, no problem, can
be recycled pretty well, oxygen and H2 can be cracked from water using a
bige nuke plant to provide fuel for the smaller subs.
>3)  Is there a detailed design system for Submarine design?
Why not use Full Thrust, with the hull strength limiting the dive depth!
>4)  Would a submarine fighter (like from Sea Quest or Archemdian
Dynasty) be 
>practical?
I doubt it, torps are fast but the endurance problem is a killer and
they are much slower than fighter aircraft (50kts, admittedly for WW
II).
>5)  What is the best shape for a lander desgined to move though the air
and 
>go into the water?
Streamlined
>6)  What would be the best simulater for underwater combat be?
No idea, but combat would be slow (minutes not seconds) at anything but
knife-fighting ranges.
>7)  Would "cralwers" be usable?
Yes, not very fast and probably limited to shallower water if manned.
>8)  What does it take to do under water mining?
Robots? Pressure is again the problem, Surface mining is easier than
actual underground mining, They do mine under the seabed now but they
are surface mines that have galleries extending out under the sea and
thus relativly shallow. I think it would be possible in shallow water
but in deeper water I doubt it.
>9)  What would be the normal shapes that buildings be based on?
Domes, strong and simple,though as long as the pressure balances almost
any shape would do?
>10) What type of weapons would work (lasers are out, but what about
Sonic 
>weapons)?
Lasers would work, blue-green ones anyway. Range might be limited
though, depending on the clarity of the water, hmmn, estury mouth, lots
of suspended sediment, 1/4 range.
Almost anything would work but ranges would be way down, tens of metres
instead of hundreds for any projectile hand weapon.
Torps. Im thinking of the Russian rocket powered torps, cannot remember
the speed but fast.

What were those David Drake (?) stories about a waterworld with really
hostile plant life on the islands?

Another nice book is T.J. Bass's 'The Godwhale'.

Michael