the fact that it has a minimum size has everything to do with it, i am saying you couldn't fit a interglatic engine into a small fighter, but you could fit an engine in, a more powerful, realiable and effiecent one could be fitted if there was enough room

This is what i am getting at.

Also there should be a cost factor in building such large ships, i mean larger ship constructions get more buget and the best of everything normally goes in, better engines in larger ships would be the least of it, they would be more effiecent if they for instance had a recycling facility, there are many things that would and could be considered

I am only suggesting something to increase attacking speeds, and this counts towards homeworld assaulting as well

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Naltsa Abe, The one, the only, the craziest welshman in the game!

You may have the troops and the assaults to go with them, but always remember....

I have crashed the server!!!

I still can't shake the fact that the mass of the ships would be what ? millions of tons maybe. That would require massive amounts of energy. though if you think of it on the science fiction side, you might say it's run on a fusion engine



On the game side, I say : OF COURSE !

that would be cool even though I don't want to agree with it scientifically


anyways, I have to get up early tommorrow so good night !

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Proud member of the Space Cowboys

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Aude aliquid dignum

Actually I think for engines it depends on the energy transfer of the actual engine. You can have the biggest engine you like, if it only transfers 5% of the energy from it's fuel into useful power, it's not going to get you places as fast as a small and efficient engine. However that's a tangent of this idea that came to me while I was reading this.

I like the idea, gravity and mass don't exist in space, everything is weightless. Therefore there is no resistance on any of the materials being pushed through said space. Therefore teh speed of a ship would depend on the output of the engine and as Abe rightly states, the larger the engine, the largely the output is likely to be (see point above).

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Make your move, reindeer games.

It depends on the time spent in acceleration.
I would think that there should be a way to load small ships (fighters) on to a transport to save fuel.
A bigger ship means more fuel capacity and therefore a longer burn time would be possible.
I remember reading that something like a third of the fuel on a fighter is used for the launch.
I ramble

well actually mass does exist in space and technically so does gravity but not like ON a planet because its effects are very weak, besides why else would planets orbit around suns?

If you all want to get technical, why not face up to the fact that Space has no air resistance, and that the engine in all ships, par the ones with hyperdrive, all have the same engine as they run on the same fuel!

Without air resistance and any other forces slowing down the spaceships, the smaller ships would actually be faster.

Say a ship with a mass of 1000kg (Or 1 Ton) burns 1000 uranium giving off say, a force of 1000Newtons in a direction, it would have a larger velocity than say a ship weighing 500,000Kg that burnt 1000 uranium.

They would both have the same force of movement, but it would take a hell of alot longer for the Big ass to get somewere.

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slgrime@hotmail.co.uk - Add Me!

ah u see the whole same engine so same fuel thing is true but as in cars u can get cars that all run on unleaded petrol/or gasoline for u americans but the car engines for example my clio was a 1.2 yeah it had a half decent acceleration on it wen it wanted to but it didnt have the top speed say that a 2.5 audi A4 would have

so yeah so just because they have the same feul it doesnt mean they have the same engine

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It's allways been my fault

Mass is very important in space. Think about the cost of moving a soda can arround in space versus the cost of moving an asteriod or a planet. The cost of moving something in space is based on F = MA and, although gravity IN space is not an important consideration, MASS is very important. Overcoming inertia in space takes energy or force, so fuel. A large object will take more fuel to move at the same speed as a small object, with the cost not so much based on distance as it is based on cost of acceleration and deceleration at the start and end of the flight. In other words, it really should not take much more fuel to fly across the galaxy than it does to fly a few spaces for the same size (MASS) of ship.

Now, having said that, not sure the game has to reflect these economics, but it would be interesting to make fuel used independent of distance, but proportional to size (Mass) of the ship.

For assaults, in theory, cost of fuel should be higher, as these ships do have to deal with gravity as they are landing on a planet (presumably) with their load of troops.

However, such changes might be added complexity or modifications to game that are not desirable, and I for one had not even though about this issue until Abe raised it here.

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"Of all the things I have lost, I miss my mind the most."

By same engine i meant fuel type wise, not capacity and all the other horsepower effecting gizmos n what not

Dont forget proff that when flying across space you need 2x the energy needed to move the ship; 1 half of this To make it move in required direction, and of course 1 half to stop it.

Who said the uranium is to make the ship move neways? Maybe the uranium just provides enough power to keep the essential life support systems online, and the toilets runnin for after the crew eat their madras( No deemers ) while the ship is moving? After all, with all the systems and suns floating about, why wouldnt any intelligent species utilize solar power?

"Oh and what about when the ship is lying still for 8months with no uranium Mr Smarty Panties?" - Thank you so kindly, and id presume the crew just made use of the solar power to keep them afloat while they were vegetating

Oh and incase youre wondering about intergalactic flight on fast speed, maybe they do have some form of turning uranium into motion

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slgrime@hotmail.co.uk - Add Me!

If we want more realistic items, how about ship damage incured in-space.
Even sitting still an in-space object will recieve damage.
Maybe the the defence value of a ship should decrease with age.