Mycall4me wrote:
Obviously you're one of the people who believe that impeller drives won't be available in a spider drive ship
Well, all of that is encouraging. On point two about size, I seem to recall that the spider drive is a bulky installation, so that is also encouraging (for the good guys)
Where did you get the idea that a spider drive won't operate in a spherical sidewall field?
Even if you can mount a spider drive and a wedge together, one issue is the mass of the 2 systems - on an SD, the Wedge and Compensator take up >10% of the mass of the ship (the smaller the ship, the larger the % of the ship is used by the drive system,). A conventional SD has a weapons fraction of 55% - add in the Spider drive, upgraded grav plates, and the bubble wall, and that will leave a weapons fraction in the 35-40% range (conventional Frigates had a weapons fraction ~35%).
Also, Geometry is important - for there is a ratio between the width and length of the ship and the compensation field. The field can be changed in shape, but that lowers the max compensated acceleration for said volume. Also, there is a ratio between the diameter of the node ring and the distance between the 2 rings when sails are being created - that's why the node rings are mounted on sections of the hull which are tapered from the max width of the ship. Since spider ships are a consistent width, we would need a ship long enough to create the proper separation between the node rings if the given width of the ship
