Gnome76
04/07/04 04:53 PM
68.12.224.9
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I don't have my books with me to look this stuff up, but the main questions are about trying to make up rules to deal with fluff text...
1) Why are some dropships (Mammoth and Monolith, I think) incapable of atmospheric operations? Do they not have sufficient thrust ratings?
1a) Explain escape velocity... thanks to lacking knowledge of physics, I'm thinking that a ship would only have to maintain acceleration greater than what is being exerted by a specific planet's gravity until free of the gravity's influence.
2) Why does a dropship (I think the Mammoth is bothering me again) need two docking collars? Is its mass (and possibly volume) so great that it requires a larger extension of the hyperspace field, and one K/F boom just won't cut it?
2a) How does said dropship even access both collars? In TR3057, the jumpships' docking collars (if they had more than one) were arranged symmetrically around the shaft.
3) Fluff text for some aerodyne dropships say the only have rear-mounted drive nozzles, and no bottom-mounted transit drive. This causes the crew to have to rearrange their furniture while planetside, and the dropship would need to go nose-up before taking off (like space shuttles). I figure the cost and mass saved from having only one drive system would be canceled from possible additions to structure and lifting equipment... so the only real effect is that they land like aerodynes, then have to spend a few hours before take-off getting properly oriented, and then lift off like a spheroid.
Sorry about having so much trouble with just fluff text and such, but sometimes the stuff just makes you think either "Hey, that's pretty neat, how would I make that work?" or "What? How the hell would I make that work?"
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Cray
04/08/04 06:51 AM
68.200.105.141
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Quote:
1) Why are some dropships (Mammoth and Monolith, I think) incapable of atmospheric operations? Do they not have sufficient thrust ratings?
Monolith = Jumpship. 
The only reason for not being able to operate in the atmosphere is fluff text. The Mammoth has no real reason; the Achilles is not streamlined or given lifting surfaces.
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1a) Explain escape velocity... thanks to lacking knowledge of physics, I'm thinking that a ship would only have to maintain acceleration greater than what is being exerted by a specific planet's gravity until free of the gravity's influence.
Consider a stone you toss into the air. It's acceleration ceases when it leaves contact with your hand, yet it keeps going up. It slows and eventually comes to a halt, then falls back down.
Rockets do that, too. They pile on speed in a short burst of acceleration, then they're like a rock tossed up into the air. However, at 25000mph (or faster), the rocket is moving so fast that it's actually moving into weaker and weaker levels of gravity, to the point that when they come to a "halt" before reversing...they're actually beyond the limit of Earth's gravity. The Apollo capsules headed for the moon had slowed to a few thousand miles an hour (from their original 25000mph escape velocity) before they entered the region where the moon's gravity was stronger than Earth's (and then they started falling toward the moon).
Getting into orbit is a bit different.
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2) Why does a dropship (I think the Mammoth is bothering me again) need two docking collars?
Because that text was written before the rules for jumpship & dropship construction were finalized. In AT2, one docking collar can handle the largest dropships (100000 tons).
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3) Fluff text for some aerodyne dropships say the only have rear-mounted drive nozzles, and no bottom-mounted transit drive. This causes the crew to have to rearrange their furniture while planetside, and the dropship would need to go nose-up before taking off (like space shuttles). I figure the cost and mass saved from having only one drive system would be canceled from possible additions to structure and lifting equipment... so the only real effect is that they land like aerodynes, then have to spend a few hours before take-off getting properly oriented, and then lift off like a spheroid.
That sounds about right. Lack of bottom mounted transit drives aren't really covered by the rules, but that sounds like a reasonable way to fudge it.
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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Gnome76
04/08/04 11:17 PM
68.12.224.9
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Quote:
The only reason for not being able to operate in the atmosphere is fluff text. The Mammoth has no real reason; the Achilles is not streamlined or given lifting surfaces.
Looked at TR3057 today, and noticed the Hamilcar and Kuan Ti look even less aerodynamic than the Achilles, but they're air-capable.
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so the only real effect is that they land like aerodynes, then have to spend a few hours before take-off getting properly oriented, and then lift off like a spheroid.
I think I just had a "well duh" moment... aerodynes use runways for taking off as well as landing, so the only real effect of no bottom drive is everyone has to move bunks, chairs, toilets, etc. from the wall to the floor...
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Cray
04/09/04 08:24 AM
147.160.1.5
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Quote:
Looked at TR3057 today, and noticed the Hamilcar and Kuan Ti look even less aerodynamic than the Achilles, but they're air-capable.
It's all in the fluff. AFAIK, there aren't rules that say, "This list of dropships cannot land," or "Dropships built in this fashion cannot land."
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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