A thought on EE violations

Loren Pechtel wrote:Now, we have size/mass limits on ships because acceleration drops too much as the ship gets too big. Nobody has said anything about size limits on wedges themselves, though.

Would it be possible to build a planetary-scale wedge? The reason you can't have a big wedge is irrelevant if you don't want acceleration in the first place!

Equip the planet with three separate wedge systems, each perpendicular to the other. No matter where the kinetic strike (and it's kinetic weapons that matter, a laser head firing in the gap isn't going to do much) is coming from energizing the right wedge will stop it.

Actually there was a planetary scale wedge at one point - the entire High Ridge government. Though it wasn't too much concerned about keeping things from entering orbit, it was very adept at keeping things from leaving it to attack other planets. LOL

'Ouch! . . . Hey!'

cthia wrote:

Loren Pechtel wrote:Now, we have size/mass limits on ships because acceleration drops too much as the ship gets too big. Nobody has said anything about size limits on wedges themselves, though.

Would it be possible to build a planetary-scale wedge? The reason you can't have a big wedge is irrelevant if you don't want acceleration in the first place!

Equip the planet with three separate wedge systems, each perpendicular to the other. No matter where the kinetic strike (and it's kinetic weapons that matter, a laser head firing in the gap isn't going to do much) is coming from energizing the right wedge will stop it.

Actually there was a planetary scale wedge at one point - the entire High Ridge government. Though it wasn't too much concerned about keeping things from entering orbit, it was very adept at keeping things from leaving it to attack other planets. LOL

'Ouch! . . . Hey!'

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You are confusing a gravitic wedge with a governmental wedgie -- a phenomenon not unknown in many governments.....

-- Stewart

stewart wrote:What about specialized ships with oversized wedges for intercepting crimes of passion?

You mean as block ships we saw used at Beowulf and were told exist at Manticore?

I think the Manticore ones are dedicated platforms so they probably do carry the largest wedge Manticore can produce on a given frame. However I wouldn't be surprised if you can't oversize a wedge by very much on a given diameter and separation of impeller rings.[/quote]

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The pre-positioned ships (Call them System Defense Destroyers) would need
(1) numbers large enough to intercept on multiple vectors
(2) wedges on standby 24/7 (or 25/7 for Manticore)
(3) enough warning/sensor alert time to bring the wedges to full power

Boewulf's Block ships form the same function for external threats, but an attacker with prior recon (any good attacker) would/could place a threat inside that shield.

No defense is perfect.

-- Stewart[/quote]


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Getting back to the original topic -- Defensive wedge ships, of any sort, are like any defensive system, a balance between the perceived need, the recognized or potential threat, and the available resources.

For a nation like Manticore or Beowulf, freighters or DD's with modified/overpowered wedges are a viable option if enough can be positioned on the potential vectors (see musings on previous post)

For a "less prosperous" nation such as Marsh or Hypatia, designating a flotilla, or even having a flotilla of DD's or freighters available for that duty might be beyond the available resources.

-- Stewart

I know that Weber prohibits fully automated (pilotless) ships. But, can a ship be set to accelerate on its own on a preprogrammed vector? Minus any crew aboard, a ship should be able to withstand full acceleration without worry about compensation. I'm talking the full 0 - 60 performance. If so, might ramming tactics be possible? Certainly on infrastructure and as a means to an EEV?

Do forgive if asked ad infinitum—seems intuitive.

cthia wrote:I know that Weber prohibits fully automated (pilotless) ships. But, can a ship be set to accelerate on its own on a preprogrammed vector? Minus any crew aboard, a ship should be able to withstand full acceleration without worry about compensation. I'm talking the full 0 - 60 performance. If so, might ramming tactics be possible? Certainly on infrastructure and as a means to an EEV?

Do forgive if asked ad infinitum—seems intuitive.

You should go back and read With One Stone from the anothology Service of the Sword - it pretty much covers this.


But the answer is, kind-of. You can apparently reprogram a ship's computer to accelerate on a vector without any crew aboard. You can even, if you first disable all the interlocks, accelerate harder than 100% power. But nodes aren't theoretically perfect devices, so while a wedge can theoretically go instantly to lightspeed, in practice nodes fail very rapidly if pushed much beyond their normal max power. (Also too much uncompensated acceleration and you'd risk critical things breaking, like the fuel lines to the reactor or even overwhelming the containment holding it's fusing plasma in)

And of course given much time to react an unmanned ship on a fixed course is a trivial challenge for any defenses.