happyguy49
06/24/18 03:30 AM
173.239.240.43
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This is basically a piece of equipment for a Jumpship. It visually looks like, and appears on scans, to be a charged Lithium Fusion Battery, but it isn't. (It is actually a clever facsimile.)
This would enable a Jumpship caught without a fully charged K-F drive to bluff an attacker into calling off their boarding attempt or attack. The Jumpship could threaten to use their charged battery to jump, hoping to scare attackers away (so they don't die from being torn apart from proximity to the Jumpship's K-F field).
Is this idea plausible?
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AmaroqStarwind
06/24/18 07:23 AM
108.255.82.176
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Might work better alongside a real Lithium-Fusion battery, otherwise people might stop falling for the ruse.
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ghostrider
06/24/18 11:52 AM
66.74.61.223
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Not sure on how it would look like, as I would think all parts of the lithium batteries would be under the armor on the jumsphip.
Though I guess having the armor bulge out in the appropriate areas might work.
I don't think you can actually scan a jump ship to see if it is charged or not. I haven't even heard of that being done for weapons readying to be fired. The only time I have seen that a jumpship was charged is when it starts the jump.
But then the rules I have are old, so that may be in the newer sets.
If not, then that may be an issue to this.
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Cray
06/24/18 05:18 PM
97.101.136.19
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Quote:
Is this idea plausible?
There's not much to give a sign that a JumpShip has a charged core or battery - there's no "hyperspace drive emanations" that sensors pick up.
All you can do is (maybe) modify the outer hull with some fake panels consistent with a version of your ship that has a Li-F battery and broadcast radio warnings. You'd need a pretty convincing voice actor, though.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
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Requiem
06/24/18 06:40 PM
58.175.193.140
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Would it be cost effective ?
As you would have to factor in ….
First, the initial cost of the equipment;
Second, the down time to have the equipment fixed to your Ship (? weeks to complete) ie. you are not working, no income and the bills still keep coming in – especially if the bank has a mortgage on your ship;
Third, is there available time at a space dock to have this non-essential work completed to the ship? And how much would it cost to rent the space dock and the workers?
Fourth, will the addition of this equipment affect your existing ability to transport drop-ships?
Fifth, how does the cost compare to that of a double jump battery for a Jump-ship?
As this is new equipment for a Jump-ship, I would therefore believe the price tag would be very high, say the same cost for a union/overlord drop-ship?
Therefore you must also consider the principle “costs forgone” – that is if I purchase this piece of equipment – I must also consider what I could have purchased but did not – ie. How about a new union drop-ship, a second hand overlord drop-ship, or I could have used this to reduce the mortgage or put it in the bank for unexpected maintenance expenses and how about that double jump battery?
So as the Captain of your Jump-ship you must think very carefully when considering to purchase this piece of non-essential equipment …
Get thee to Coventry … Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious by this daughter of Tharkad … Our army shall march through. Well to New Avalon tonight.
Edited by Requiem (06/24/18 07:38 PM)
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Retry
06/25/18 01:28 AM
174.70.184.145
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Even if it were plausible, what would be the point? You broadcast "ready to jump in 3 minutes", and the pirates pull away a bit from their boarding attempt, and then... you don't jump. Then what? A Jumpship's not going to be outrunning anything so to escape any pirate vessels they're going to need to get out the jump sail to recharge the K-F drive, in which case it'll be extremely obvious that you're not in fact ready to jump and are extremely vulnerable, if they weren't already clued off by the "ready to jump in 3" broadcast every 3 minutes.
Quote:
Might work better alongside a real Lithium-Fusion battery, otherwise people might stop falling for the ruse.
Not much point to having a fake battery and a real battery alongside each other.
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AmaroqStarwind
06/26/18 01:00 AM
108.255.82.176
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Say you use your second jump just to find yourself in more trouble. That, or making it easier to bluff that your battery is charged when it really isn't.
All things considered, though, might be better to just get multiple batteries.
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happyguy49
07/02/18 06:11 PM
173.239.240.30
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The above post is what I had in mind. A captain with this device is basically daring an attacker to risk their own destruction. If the jumpship wasn't bluffing, it would jump when the attackers are close enough such that they would be heavily damaged or destroyed by the K-F field. This hypothetical device would appear to be a charged LF battery or drive.
Retry, iirc a jumpship is capable of charging its KF drive with its fusion reactor; it wouldn't have to deploy a sail if it were buying charge time by bluffing with this fake-battery-gimmick. Cray says there is no way to tell via observation or sensors if a ships drive or battery is charged or not.
This thingy would probably be MOST useful on one of the 'jolly rogers', (i.e. lightly-armed jumpships). An attacker might see the fake, and be willing to risk a fighter or two to call the bluff, but not a dropship. The bluff stays intact if the jumpship can fight off a couple of fighters.
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Retry
07/03/18 12:20 AM
174.70.184.145
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Quote:
The above post is what I had in mind. A captain with this device is basically daring an attacker to risk their own destruction. If the jumpship wasn't bluffing, it would jump when the attackers are close enough such that they would be heavily damaged or destroyed by the K-F field. This hypothetical device would appear to be a charged LF battery or drive.
Retry, iirc a jumpship is capable of charging its KF drive with its fusion reactor; it wouldn't have to deploy a sail if it were buying charge time by bluffing with this fake-battery-gimmick. Cray says there is no way to tell via observation or sensors if a ships drive or battery is charged or not.
This thingy would probably be MOST useful on one of the 'jolly rogers', (i.e. lightly-armed jumpships). An attacker might see the fake, and be willing to risk a fighter or two to call the bluff, but not a dropship. The bluff stays intact if the jumpship can fight off a couple of fighters.
Aerospace hexes are 18 kilometers across and the deadly jumping effect you're talking about has a radius of 27 kilometers, so an R1 area of effect. The shortest ranged weapons, when using aerospace generic ranges, have a short range bracket of 6 hexes, and anything that's not another Jumpship has the thrust necessary to dictate the range, so there's no real danger of getting caught in the Jumpship's danger field unless they're doing so on purpose.
Even when charging with a fusion reactor it takes ~6 days or so, the K-F drive can't be quick-charged as that just fries the drive. So it'd basically only help if you were already 99.9% charged in the first place.
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ghostrider
07/03/18 08:11 PM
66.74.61.223
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I thought you could charge a jump engine faster, but you dramatically increase the chance of a misjump. Then again, they may have changed that since the original Dropships and Jumpships book. There have been a story in the novels suggesting someone fast charged a drive.
And having the sail out isn't always a suggestion the drive isn't charged. It is economically stupid to jump with a sail deployed, but not impossible. Last I knew, the sail was left in the system you jumped from, though not sure if the changed it's survival rate.
As the sensors on Battle Tech stuff isn't like Star Trek, where you can tell if a person is in the can 40 light years away, they do not detect how much charge is in the drives.
But if you can hack the target ships computer, you could have it tell you. One of the fluff pieces of the original Bugeyes compact warship had in it. Rumors suggested they could hack the internal comms of another ship, so the crews were forbidden to talk for fear of it happening. Weither true or not, I don't know. Makes sense you could do something like it. As long as you got coms in and out of the ship.
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His_Most_Royal_Highass_Donkey
08/06/18 11:53 PM
172.56.7.248
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Wont work.
When you dont jump they will attack.
Why argue if the glass is half full or half empty, when you know someone is going to knock it over and spill it anyways.
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