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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

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Author Topic: Ballistic weapons generating Flux?  (Read 13979 times)

naufrago

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Re: Ballistic weapons generating Flux?
« Reply #30 on: July 30, 2013, 01:40:31 PM »

I tend to refer to sci-fi tech-y shenanigans as 'space magic'. Because as the saying goes, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
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Wyvern

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Re: Ballistic weapons generating Flux?
« Reply #31 on: July 30, 2013, 02:22:49 PM »

I tend to refer to sci-fi tech-y shenanigans as 'space magic'. Because as the saying goes, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
And, of course, there are the corollaries... things like: "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced," or "Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from SCIENCE!"

...But we were talking about flux and ballistic weapons.  Then again, when one of the ballistic weapons is described as firing miniature black holes, I think it's good odds that we're firmly in the "space magic" category.  (Science note: The decay rate of a black hole is inversely proportional to its size.  What this means in practical terms is that - assuming the mjolnir cannon doesn't fling moon-sized masses around - the black holes it uses would actually explode quite violently, roughly equivalent to an equal mass of matter/antimatter annihilation.)
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Wyvern is 100% correct about the math.

Gothars

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Re: Ballistic weapons generating Flux?
« Reply #32 on: July 30, 2013, 03:16:32 PM »

There are some hints that flux is p-space related. Ships have flux coils (to harvest flux from p-space?), the only other mention of coils in the lore are phase coils. Then you can't vent it in p-space. And the violet color is another hint.

My personal guess is that flux indeed serves as a kind of cooling medium flowing through conduits, but also absorbs phase-, possibly quantum related and other kinds of "entropy". I think its even conceivable that flux, originating in p-space, has one central law of our universe reversed. The second law of thermodynamics requires a closed system to strive for maximal entropy, maybe in p-space minimal entropy is the final state. That would make p-space matter into an ultimate organizer and stabilizer (heat is one from of chaos).

Soft flux has probably absorbed "entropy" in a controlled fashion and can be regenerated (by cleaning it in vents), hard flux has absorbed "entropy" in a fast and uncontrolled manner and is permanently inactivated, so it has to be dumped and replaced. 

I would also theoreisize that "EMP" weapons do not damage the systems, but inhibit the entropy absorption of the flux, so the adjacent system can't get rid of its excess heat/quantum-instability/phase-shifting/molecular damage/de-crystallization anymore and shuts down.
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The game was completed 8 years ago and we get a free expansion every year.

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Temstar

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Re: Ballistic weapons generating Flux?
« Reply #33 on: August 12, 2013, 08:40:57 PM »

Time for some TLDR space magic:

Throughout history the goal of physics has always been to build better and more intricate models to fit the world that we know: from Newtonian physics to Relativity to our current model of Brane Cosmology. Nevertheless student of physics should be reminded of a simple fact: all the theories and models are wrong!

Newtonian physics failed us when we looked at things moving at relativistic speed, Relativity failed us when we looked at things in the sub-atomic scale, and today Brane physics continue to fail us when we try to peer into the universe below the planck scale.

However, evidences do exist that hint at even higher theories possessed by the Domain of Man during the height of mankind’s progress – the lost theory of Quantum Gravity.

To the casual observer, the ubiquitous energy shield that allows such thing as high velocity Brachistochrone orbital manoeuvre and deep space warfare appears to be nothing more than a solid wall manifested by energy. However, latest experiment involving bombarding target shields with all manner of source material reveals a much more complex structure. The flash of gamma radiation seems to display incomplete physical information corresponding to the incoming material before destruction by shield. The incompleteness of the data can only mean one thing – violation of Second Law of Thermodynamics.

Since no known theory allows violation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, yet it’s clear now that it happens every day around us there is no choice but to accept that all of our current brane physics is wrong and is only an approximation of certain truer laws of physics possessed by the Domain under which the same results can be derived in narrow cases – the same way that Newtonian physics and Relativity derive the same results at anything below relativistic speed. This theory, which we will call Quantum Gravity for the sake of giving it a name does indeed allow violation of Second Law of Thermodynamics. Or rather: our brane physics and the laws of thermodynamics are all good approximations of Quantum Gravity under certain narrow conditions.

We know that before The Collapse, Domain’s research efforts focused on “The Final Question” - that is reversing of entropy on a massive scale. I postulate that they succeeded with Quantum Gravity and were finally able to penetrate the planck scale to look upon the very foundation of the universe. Energy shield then was just the first practical use of this technology. Rather than using some kind force field, shield actually destroys incoming matter by proton decay – a process that would normally take around 10^34 years. But of course armed with Quantum Gravity and control over entropy it would be a simple matter of accelerating this process. In effect the energy shield is a region of enormously accelerated time – so much so that when solid matter is submerged in this field it immediately becomes liquid like due to the rapid motion of its atoms from vastly accelerated quantum tunnelling. Within fraction of a second nucleons would decay into gamma ray photons and leptons – the well observed shield flash.

Logically, if the arrow of time could be speed up, it should be possible to slow it down too. This explains the small field generators embedded into weapons churned out by autofactories. By submerging the most vulnerable components such as the rails of liner accelerators in a “reverse” shield you protect it from the ravages of time and so all the other forces of the universe.

Obviously running these two systems incur a cost as observed in ship’s flux system. If the fields are entropic in nature then it stands that the “flux” they generate is also entropic. Normal shield and negative shields would generate different types of entropic flux that cannot be simply combined to annihilate each other (no more than trying to mix a pile of ash with a bag of sugar and expecting an unburnt tree to reform out of the mix). We observer that the shower of highly energetic particle released by flex vents, particularly during crash venting has a signature unlike any other particle source in nature of in physics laboratories.  This must mean that flux capacitors operate on Quantum Gravity principles. The requirement of large volume of very cold helium hints at the workings of the capacitors. At those temperatures the helium would form Bose-Einstein condensate displaying macroscopic quantum phenomena, if subtle teased in various ways whole different family of exotic virtual particles could be produced. It may well be that Domain has discovered a way to arrange suits of virtual particles in such ways to as to create bubbles of metastable false vacuum. Each bubble would be a completely alien universe with entirely new set of “laws of physics” that can arise under the more general Quantum Gravity. Entropic flux could then be directed into the bubbles to be stored until a later time where they could be dissipated safely by flux vents. If a bubble were to be overloaded, then the potential wall between the false vacuum and the “true vacuum” we live in will be breached and our universe will aggressively attack the less stable bubble universe until it’s destroyed in a violent burst of high energy particles capable of shorting out a ship’s system.

Venting of flux then acts as “closing of the loophole” caused by shield’s violation of the second law, entropy is not decreased when shield swallows some matter, rather it’s only stored in bubble universes until a later time when it is safe to release it back into our universe.

Phase generators can then be logically linked to the progression of this technology – by refining the generation of false vacuum, at the end of its days Domain was able to create a machine that could tunnel macroscopic objects (ie: a whole ship) intact into a false vacuum bubble. P-space must be one of the countless possible configurations of universes possible. The laws of physics in P-space must be different so that the analogy of “matter” in that universe does not interact with each other via the electromagnetic force (and possibly strong/weak forces too). So in effect all matter in P-space are similar to the ghostly dark matter that exist in our universe.

The progression of this technology also offers a hint at the cause of the Collapse. Domain wanted to reverse entropy, not just speed it up or slow it down. In their bid to do this they may have discovered something truly horrible beyond comprehension – that the universe we know is not a “true vacuum” at all but another false vacuum. A long lived false vacuum sure but metastable nevertheless and not the ground state of the universe. In trying to reverse entropy Domain may have tunnelled through the potential wall between our universe and a “truer vacuum”. Once generated this bubble of universe that is more stable than ours will immediately expand in all direction at the speed of light, fuelled by the fabric of the universe itself. Thus the closing of gates may be a safety measure aimed to protect the Colonies from the approaching true vacuum, at least for a time.
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Grug

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Re: Ballistic weapons generating Flux?
« Reply #34 on: August 12, 2013, 08:57:38 PM »

Very nice space apocalypse theory. I like it.
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Gothars

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Re: Ballistic weapons generating Flux?
« Reply #35 on: August 13, 2013, 12:58:08 AM »

In effect the energy shield is a region of enormously accelerated time – so much so that when solid matter is submerged in this field it immediately becomes liquid like due to the rapid motion of its atoms from vastly accelerated quantum tunnelling.

Wouldn't a field of accelerated time also mean that matter passes through the field much faster? It would effectively stay unaffected for the outside observer (or the target's hull).
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The game was completed 8 years ago and we get a free expansion every year.

Arranging holidays in an embrace with the Starsector is priceless.

Temstar

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Re: Ballistic weapons generating Flux?
« Reply #36 on: August 13, 2013, 01:25:30 AM »

In effect the energy shield is a region of enormously accelerated time – so much so that when solid matter is submerged in this field it immediately becomes liquid like due to the rapid motion of its atoms from vastly accelerated quantum tunnelling.

Wouldn't a field of accelerated time also mean that matter passes through the field much faster? It would effectively stay unaffected for the outside observer (or the target's hull).

I suppose you could say only the part of a projectile in contact with the field would accelerate, which has the cool affect of ripping up an incoming projectile into impossibly thin slices before each slice then undergo proton decay.
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phyrex

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Re: Ballistic weapons generating Flux?
« Reply #37 on: August 13, 2013, 10:34:22 AM »

Time for some TLDR space magic:
Awesome but coherent technobabble

im loving this man, i think you basicly solved, or at least gave a solid basis to explain the science behind starsector.

good job !
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silentstormpt

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Re: Ballistic weapons generating Flux?
« Reply #38 on: August 14, 2013, 09:08:54 AM »

Btw this is from what been testing while modding ballistic weapons, as soon you hit around 9000+ projectile speed, the shot will go further then its initial range and bypass shields
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phyrex

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Re: Ballistic weapons generating Flux?
« Reply #39 on: August 14, 2013, 01:05:07 PM »

Btw this is from what been testing while modding ballistic weapons, as soon you hit around 9000+ projectile speed, the shot will go further then its initial range and bypass shields

sounds like a good basis for some sort of relativistic railgun weapon
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Vinya

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Re: Ballistic weapons generating Flux?
« Reply #40 on: August 15, 2013, 05:43:37 PM »

Btw this is from what been testing while modding ballistic weapons, as soon you hit around 9000+ projectile speed, the shot will go further then its initial range and bypass shields

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weed33

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Re: Ballistic weapons generating Flux?
« Reply #41 on: August 16, 2013, 12:31:13 PM »

I'm kind of against the common idea that flux is related to heat dispersion, the way I see it is a bit more "sci-fi" imo. Flux is generated through all ways in which a ship will receive excess energy, such as ballistic and energy weapons overheating, shields absorbing the kinetic energy of projectiles fired at it etc. Flux is the name given to the ingenious method of dealing with this which is to do with converting the energy to matter, or rather a mix of both matter and antimatter.

The antimatter - being antimatter... doing what antimatter does best -  is the limiting factor to how this can be stored/vented and so only a certain amount can be stored/vented at any given time. The problem with venting it is that it can cause damage to the external components of the ships if they're not adequately shielded, that's where active venting comes in, it allows you to shut down your weapons and other external systems in order to allow the ships active venting systems to jetison both the matter and antimatter to space, naturally this results in a bright colourful cloud around the ship as they combine.

EDIT: also the overloading comes from when the antimatter reaches critical levels and the ships failsafe systems kick in, allowing the 'flux' to combine in a controlled way inside the ships reactor, thus providing a massive boost in reactor output, being more than the ship is designed for causing an overload, the alternative to this either being allowing an uncontrolled combination or venting it out to space without adequate shielding and permanently damaging the ship.

I feel this makes more sense that heat dispersion as there are no loopholes or exceptions that I can see.
« Last Edit: August 16, 2013, 12:37:41 PM by weed33 »
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