Recent changes. 9 August 1998 Changes to V2ad files since February 1998: ________________________________________ V2ad Errata ________________________________________ P47a Communicators. Change T-com range from 0.000001 in parsecs to 100 In lightseconds. p56a Inertial Compass. The effect is to provide a +3 to navigation rolls. p60a Neural Nets. 4th sentence should read "Most are trained to the IQ limit and taught a language at IQ at the factory, but cheap models may not be." p60a Sentience. 2nd sentence should read "They begin with the standard IQ of 'net complexity+4, but..." P66a Heavy Equipment. Cranes. Change power to 2.5 kW x tons and rate to 1 foot/second. p69a Towed Signs. Cost is $20 per letter. p71a Fuel Transfer. Alcohol still. 1 cf of coal is equivalent to 8 gallons of alcohol. p72a Screen Generators. Streamlining screens are a variation of pressure screens, weight is 0.007. p78a Greywater recycle. Cut the last sentence, about water weight. p82a Steam Engines. Replaced by External Combustion p83a Internal Combustion Engines. Replaced by External Combustion p85a *Refueling Reactors* cut the fuel rods concept and the antimatter cost on p85. Fission reactors are designed to be refueled with fresh fissionables, at a cost of $40 per kW-yr at TL7 or TL8, $4 per kW-yr at TL9+. Fusion reactors are not designed to be refueled, but can be with a major overhaul. Antimatter reactors are refueled at the costs for antimatter on p90. RTG and NPU units must be replaced entirely. p88a Alternative Solid Fuels. Renormalize on bituminous coal, to preserve existing statistics. This also gives reasonable energy agreement with the existing coal consumptions. p89a Types of Fuel. Cut the Oxidizer table. p90 Alcohol cost is $1. p90a Synthetic fuels. Alcohol from distillation costs 3 times normal at TL3, 1.5 times normal at late TL7, 1 times normal at TL8+. p110a Bomb Pumped X-Ray Lasers. To half damage add '(or 5600 yds if using the reduced ranges in air on p125)' p112* Needles should be p111*. p113a Conventional Explosives. Flip HMX and PETN. Add a note that cyclonite (a cinematic explosive from Lensmen) is not The same as cyclonite (a trade name for RDX). p118a Liquids. Drop the irrational stunning effect of cryogenic liquids carried from UT. p125* Damage. Cut the 2nd line, concerning E. p154 Running Aground should have an *, the second Sinking entry should not. p165* Advanced Hex Grid Movement. Replace the current note. Under Suggested Scale, change 100 miles to "1,000 miles (1,760,000 yards)" and change "10 space hexes per combat round" to "2 space hexes per combat round". p179 Damage Effects. Should have an * ________________________________________ Additions ________________________________________ p8* Rotors. The line "Select one of these rotor types for the vehicle." should read "Select an autogyro rotor (TL6) or one of these types of helicopter rotor:" p18 Biomechanical and Living Metal Structures. Instead of a flat 1 hit point per time unit, the GM may want to set the healing rate at 5 or 10% of original hit points per time unit. p20* Gasbag Weight and Cost Table. The weight multipliers for TLs 5-, 6, 7, and 8 should be 0.012, 0.008, 0.006, and 0.004. p32 Hydrojets. Drop the magnetohydrodynamic reference. p43* Mechanical Artillery and Guns Table. The 105mm howitzer Damage entry 6d×9 should be 6d×9[10d]. p46 Cyberslave mounts can be universal rather than casement. p61* Robot Brains. Last sentence, the reference is to pp.RO54ff. p63* Robot Skill Programs. Replace the last paragraph with "Skill points placed in mental skills count quadruple; but regardless of skill points, no skill program's skill level can exceed that of the programmer (as set by the GM)." p74* Crew Stations. Insert "Bridge Access Space: Optionally, large craft may group important crew stations together as a 'bridge.' with extra access space, enabling officers to easily move about, supervising subordinates." p75* Crew Station Table. add Bridge Access Space, --, ×3, -- p82 Steam Engines. The first commercial steam turbine dates to 1885. p83 Steam turbine fuel consumptions should be (realistic values, divide multifuel consumption by 3 to compare to VE83) Steam Turbine (TL6) 0.025C/0.12M Steam Turbine (TL7) 0.017C/0.08M p84* Gas and MHD Turbines Table. The second line under MHD Turbines should read TL 8 and $200* cost. p99* How Long is My Barrel. Add to the end the second paragraph: "If electromag or grav guns, double the resulting barrel length if low-powered or quadruple if normal-powered." p102* Loading Mechanism. Move revolver (TL5) and mechanical Gatling (TL5) into the main list of options for cannon. A barrel size greater than 60 mm reduces RoF (as per pVE107), but is legal. p107* Tangler. Use the burst radius, cost, etc. of CHEM rounds. p108* Cost Per Shot (CPS). Change Cl and Tl with C and T in both the text and formula. p112 Ammunition Table. Missing line: APHD Cr 1.33xKE(5) -- -- x12 -- p112* Ammunition Table. Micronuke cost is "spcl." p112* Ammunition Table. Canister ammunition has a damage of (2.7×KE)/B. Shrapnel ammunition has a damage of 1d. Beehive ammunition has a damage of (2.7×KE)/B. p113* In the notes, after "C is the bore size cubed -- B×B×B" add: Exception: If B is less than 20mm, C is 400×B. p113* Special Cases. For SICM minimum CPS is $1,000 at TL8, $500 at TL9, $200 at TL10 or $100 at TL11+. Delete the words "full size" before "nuclear warhead". p114* Warheads. Add CHEM to the TL6 and x$20 lines. p125* Damage (Dam.). Delete "E" from the formula and drop its note. Instead add an asterisk to "O" so the formula reads ``Damage = (square root of O*)×B×T. Add the note "* If output is under 1,000 kJ, multiply O by 0.03 instead of finding its square root." p125* Damage. Under T replace "Remember that rainbow lasers are TL9, not TL8" with "Note: Particle beams under 10,000 kJ, and all rainbow lasers are TL9; antiparticle beams under 10,000 kJ are TL13." p127* Cost. Replace "except UV, IR or rainbow" with "except rainbow". p132 wSR. If the vehicle isn't a catamaran or floating on pontoons, subtract 2 from wSR if Lwt is less than 1/4 the maximum flotation. p148* Hazard Control Rolls. Damage. The threshold is for damage from a single event or damage roll, not simply 5 points of damage in a turn. p158 Collisions. To prevent low speed impacts from vaporizing small objects base collision damage on the body hit points of the lowest hit point object involved in the collision. p173* Vision The Mk.1 Eyeball. Paragraph 2 "average spotting range" should be "maximum spotting range" and "beyond 2,000 yards" should be "beyond 200 yards." p175* Gunner Specializations. Add Releasing bombs. p179* Indirect Fire. At end of the first paragraph, change "increases the weapon's maximum range" to "multiplies Max range by 2.5 (5 if a missile)." p180* Indirect Fire (Continued). The modifier for "Relying on observer to find target" is 0**, not -5**. Under **, change "penalty is reduced" to "this is increased" and "increased by the amount it fails by" to "decreased by the amount it fails by". Under Correcting Fire, change the last sentence to read "To correct fire, roll again, but at a +4 bonus for the first shot or +8 for the second, with an added +2 for each subsequent shot at the same target; however, the total bonus for correcting fire cannot exceed the weapon's Accuracy." p182* Component Damage Table. Result 7-Equipment also includes items from the Instruments and Electronics chapter. p183* Components and Damage. In the third paragraph following the Component DR Table, the first sentence should read "A fuel tank checks for fire (see p. 184) if damage from a single damage roll exceeds 10% its current hit points; if reduced to 0 hit points, it bursts and all fuel is immediately lost." The next sentence begins "Also" not "Instead". p184* Fire and Explosion. In the first paragraph of Fuel Tanks, "at least 5%" should be "at least 10%". p193* Homing Missiles. Passive Electromagnetic Homing (PEH) can be used as OH, IIRH, ARM, or PRH. All four options can be tried for lock-on. p195* Using Inertial Guidance (IG) Missiles. Paragraph 3 should begin "Once launched", not "One launched". In the next sentence "use its skill" should be "use the Gunner's skill". p197* Exotic Missile Abilities. Evasion. Replace the first sentence with "Any TL8+ brilliant missile can be programmed with an evasive course; this halves effective speed and thus range." Aknl: Add credits for Geoffrey Brent, Bob Huss, Michael Layne, Erik Manders Michael A. Miller, David Morgan-Mar, Christopher Thrash, Jeff Wilson ________________________________________ New and altered sections ________________________________________ _________________________________________ Propulsion and Lift p41a Progravity Generators _________________________________________ Progravity artificially enhances the pull of gravity, increasing the apparent weight of the vehicle. Use the statistics for Contragravity Generators, effective gravity increases by ('lift'/Lwt) Gs. Mass does not change, so mass based statistics (accel, MR) are usually unaffected. Though less useful than Contragravity, there are some applications: increasing aircraft dive speed, increasing orbital velocity without changing orbits, exceeding the gMR limit on low gravity worlds, or building submersibles that only sink when the power is on. _________________________________________ Instruments and Electronics p62a Terminals _________________________________________ *Option -- Microterminal* a fairly minimal computer peripherals package - keyboard, low definition display and single removable media drive. Skill rolls for complex interactions are at -5 Microterminal x0.15 x0.15 x0.15 x0.5 _______________________________________ Miscellaneous Equipment p71a Fuel Transfer and Processing _______________________________________ *Hydrogen Photolysis* (TL8): Several technologies can generate hydrogen from water and sunlight, biotechnology or advanced catalysis are the major ones. Because of the sunlight requirement this is a surface feature like Solar Cells. Weight is 0.2 lb/sf, cost is $2/sf if biological, $50/sf if metal catalysis, hydrogen production in full sunlight is 0.01 'gallons' of hydrogen gas per hour per sf. Each gallon produced uses 0.63 gallons of water. *Fusion Fuel Processor* (TL7): an electrolysis and evaporator unit able to concentrate fusion fuel from seawater (GM note, if fusion fuel is pure deuterium fresh water also works, but light metals are available only in salt water). Decide on the number of gallons processes per hour. Each pound of fusion fuel requires 5000 gallons of seawater. 7 Fusion Fuel Processor 15* 0.75* $500* 15* ________________________________________ Miscellaneous Equipment p72a Field Generators ________________________________________ Anihilation Dampers (TL12): generate a field that supresses matter/antimatter reactions, disabling antimatter powerplants, drives and warheads and negating any advantage of antiparticle beams over p-beams. At the GM's option this may also disable total conversion technology. The antimatter still exists, and when it is no longer within the damper field the antiparticles react normally. An anihilation damper allows you to store antimatter in ordinary fuel tanks, normally as liquid antihydrogen at 263 grams/gallon of tank. The required damper field volume is 0.2 cf per gallon of tank. Note it is virtually impossible to clean all the antimatter off something, a layer of anti-atoms will remain on the surface, some will have migrated into the structure etc. Assume anything that has ever been in physical contact with antimatter explodes if brought out of the field (as the same weight of TNT). Anihilation Damper 0.004 $15 0.01 _______________________________________ Crew and Passengers p77a Environmental Systems _______________________________________ *Capsule Lifesystem* (TL6): An option for Environmental Controls (p77), Full Lifesystems (p77), Full Water Recycle (p78a) or Air Systems (p77a). If the system supports a single person in a sealed suit - or for that matter a sealed crew station or other sealed container under 100 cf - it can dispense with much of the plumbing and distribution equipment. Install it in the same location and divide the weight and cost by 2, and the volume by 5. _______________________________________ Power and Fuel p82a External Combustion _______________________________________ In external combustion engines a working fluid is heated by the combustion of the fuel, rather than being a direct product of the reaction. The major advantages are that any heat source can be used, and since there are no design limits on the combustion it can be freely optimized, allowing cleaner and more efficient burning. The downside is heat transfer systems increase the weight. Startup time is also sometimes an issue, though even at late TL5 it is possible to add a flash evaporator which reduces starting time to 2 minutes flat - this is standard on Rankine engines and vapor turbines. *Atmospheric engines* (late TL4) are the earliest steam engines, in which the work is done by the atmosphere on the compression stroke rather than expanding steam. The first commercial versions are Newcomen engines in 1712. *Watt engines* (TL5) are condensing steam engines built under the James Watt patent, available in 1769. Early steam engines (VE82) are the fully developed form of the low pressure condensing steam engine, as available after 1830. *High pressure steam engines* (TL5) were experimented with from quite early, but metallurgy wasn't up to production models. The forced draft engine (VE82) is the fully developed high pressure steam engine as available after 1860. Successful experiments date to as early as 1798, but are up to 10 times heavier and 100 times as expensive. *High pressure compound engines* (TL5) were also experimented with early, but between the pressure problem and theoretical errors weren't too successful. The triple expansion steam engine (VE82) is the fully developed form, as available after about 1880. *Steam turbines* (TL6) use a jet of steam to turn a turbine. The first commercial models produced in 1885 were about 5 times heavier and used 12 times as much fuel. By 1895 they were down to twice as heavy and 5 times the fuel use. By 1910 the full TL6 version (VE82) is widely available, and becomes the standard method of electrical generation, a role it still holds, since no more efficient large scale combustion engines have become available. *Rankine (or vapor cycle) engines* (TL6) are closed loop external combustion engines where the working fluid is recondensed and recycled. Where the fluid is water this is basically the Watt engine design with a pipe connecting the condenser to the boiler. For a time automobiles and even aircraft were built with closed cycle steam engines, and a great deal of effort went into rapid startup and lowered weight, but in the long run internal combustion won out. The most common alternate working fluids are halobenzenes. *Vapor turbines* (TL6) are use a jet of vaporized working fluid to turn a turbine. Small steam turbines are less efficient than their larger cousins, but significantly lighter. *Stirling cycle heat engines* involve two pistons - the working piston and a displacement piston separating the hot and cold ends of a cylinder. In the combustion engine configuration an external burner heats the hot side. This provides the multifuel capability, quiet operation (no detonations) and high economy, low pollution fuel use (burn optimization is independent of cycle constraints). In modern designs the pistons are sealed and filled with 100 bar hydrogen or helium as the working fluid, Stirling's original design used low pressure air, which hurt efficiency significantly. External Combustion Engine Table 5 Atmospheric engine 1800 x kW (1000 x kW) + 4000 $5 0.7C/3.0M 5 Watt engine 800 x kW (400 x kW) + 2000 $2 0.35C/1.5M 6 Rankine 35 x kW (15 x kW) + 100 $2 0.15M 7 Rankine 20 x kW (10 x kW) + 50 $4 0.12M 8 Rankine 15 x kW (8 x kW) + 45 $4 0.10M 6 Vapor Turbine 50 x kW (20 x kW) + 150 $2 0.12M 7 Vapor Turbine 20 x kW (12 x kW) + 40 $4 0.10M 8 Vapor Turbine 15 x kW (10 x kW) + 25 $4 0.08M 7 Stirling 20 x kW (15 x kW) + 25 $10 0.06M/0.0125C 8+ Stirling 10 x kW (8 x kW) + 16 $5 0.04M/0.0085C Open cycle steam engines, which include all Atmospheric, Watt, Early Steam, Forced Draft, Triple Expansion or Steam Turbine engines, also consume water. Multiply the coal consumption in cf by 20 to find the number of gallons of water required. _______________________________________ Power and Fuel p86a Waterwheels _______________________________________ Waterwheels generate power from moving water. This is usually not a vehicle system, though there have been moored floating waterwheels in some rivers. It is possible to extract energy from a moving watercraft - if rather dumb aboard anything but a sailboat. Subtract 100 x kW generated from the motive thrust of the ship. An ideal undershot waterwheel transforms 8/9 of the kinetic energy of the water flowing through it (0.44 x rwp v^3), an ideal overshot waterwheel also converts the potential energy of the water falling over it (r^2 wpgv) where r is the wheel radius, w is its width, p is the water density, v is the speed of the current and g is the local gravitational acceleration. By TL5 real undershot wheels reach 30% efficiency and overshot wheels about 70%. By mid TL7 hydropower turbines routinely exceed 90% of the theoretical efficiency. A typical system weight is 1200 lb x kW, volume is 650 cf x kW and cost is $1/lb, though variations span an order of magnitude or more. ________________________________________ Power and Fuel p87a Energy Banks ________________________________________ For some applications discharge time is critical, short high power loads such as firing energy weapons or initial FTL drains. Many energy banks can't be discharged that quickly; several systems below have lousy energy densities and shelf lives, but remain in use because they discharge in microseconds. The systems capable of near-instantaneous discharge are capacitors, explosive generators, pulse generators, spinning inductors, superconducting loops and ultracapacitors. Flywheels, clockwork and anaerobic biocells take a few seconds to discharge, lead acid batteries and thermal systems 15 minutes, high capacity storage batteries take 30 minutes, advanced batteries, air breathing biocells, cryogens and thermal storage take an hour. *Advanced Batteries* (TL6) batteries with higher energy densities than lead-acid are available in 1901. The TL6 versions are nickel-zinc or nickel-iron (Edison batteries); at TL7 nickel-cadmium, zinc chloride and silver-zinc are typical, at TL8 most are lithium based - lithium chloride or lithium organic electrolyte. Advanced batteries are normally rechargeable, but half cost versions are available which are not. *Biochemical Cell* (TL10) the energy bank equivalent of a bioconverter, a living machine that stores energy as energetic biomolecules. The air breathing biocell uses sugar molecules, requires oxygen to extract the energy, and vents carbon dioxide. The anaerobic cell stores phosphoenolpyruvate, and recovers energy by hydration, it operates completely independent of the environment. Install a bioconverter if they are to be recharged. In settings with advanced biotechnology both biocells and bioconverters may be TL8. *Capacitors* (TL5) store energy as separated electrical charge. They are heavy and quickly lose stored energy (any power not used within 4 hours is lost) but are used because they can discharge almost instantaneously. *Clockwork* (TL4) stores energy in compressed springs, giant rubber bands, or similar mechanical energy storage systems. Clockwork is rechargeable by rewinding. Add 5% to the weight, volume and cost of the clockwork for gearing and motors if this is to be done by a power plant. Otherwise it is rewound manually 0.02 x ST kWs per second of labor. *Compressed Air* (TL5) stores energy in a high pressure gas, usually air, but cylinders and cartridges of other gases may have special applications, and share the same statistics. Compressed air storage requires a compressor to recharge; this weighs 1.5 lb and costs $20 per kW, and occupied weight/50 cf. *Cosmic Cells* (TL16): Provide energy by means incomprehensible to science. Unlike Cosmic power plants, Cosmic Cells can produce any power level, but may only supply a fixed amount of energy. Standard cells supply the same amount each day, but non-recharging versions which appear limitless until they completely drain the microuniverse they tap are a common variation. In a sense powerstones are Cosmic Cells, weighing about 10 times as much. *Cryogen Storage* (TL7) recovers energy by operating a heat engine between the surrounding warm air and a stored cryogen, typically liquid air. This has been seriously proposed to meet tough anti-pollution laws, since the exhaust is the boiled cryogen if you use liquid air.... Half the system weight is the cryogen. It can be recharged by refilling the tank, if you have a source of cryogenic liquid. *Explosive Generators* (TL7) produce a short pulse of electrical power from the detonation of an explosive. They can only be fired once, and any energy not immediately used or stored elsewhere is lost. *Flywheels* (TL5) store energy kinetically, in a rapidly rotating ring. Kept in a mediocre vacuum a flywheel can spin for months. Note heavy flywheels don't provide the best energy densities, since stress on the rim at a given speed also increases with mass. Lighter materials allow faster speeds at the same stress, and energy storage increases with the square of speed. The earliest flywheels are cast iron, advanced alloys are used at TL6, glass or carbon fiber composites at TL7. Flywheels can be recharged. *High Capacity Storage Batteries* (TL8): are cheap rechargeable energy banks introduced in Autoduel. It is unclear how they work, though regenerative fuel cells seem the most plausible excuse. They are flammable (fire number 10) so a chemical fuel seems likely. *High Temperature Batteries* (TL7) use electrochemistry that runs only at high temperatures. They are inert at room temperature - so they have essentially infinite shelf life. A small pyrotechnic is fired to heat them to the working temperature, and they must be drained in a few hours or the stored energy is lost. Most applications are those you need a lot of power at once possibly a long time in the future - emergency gear, missiles, interplanetary probes. The TL7 systems are usually sodium sulfur. Lithium-iron sulfide and lithium tellurium fluoride are typical at TL8. High temperature batteries cannot be recharged. *Lead-Acid Batteries* (late TL5) are the standard lead-lead oxide batteries in sulfuric acid electrolyte found in every automobile engine. Though far from the best battery technology, they were developed early and use cheap chemistry, which keeps them in use where weight isn't critical. Many later applications use TL6 lead-acid batteries for the cost savings. The TL7 versions are sealed cells. All lead acid batteries can be recharged. *Metal-Air Batteries* (TL7) generate electricity by reacting a light metal (such as lithium or beryllium) with oxygen in the air. Weight triples by the time the battery is dead. They cannot be recharged, though light metals are expensive and so the metal oxide is normally recycled. *Metal-Water Batteries* (TL7) work similarly, storing energy as an active metal reacted with the environment, in this case surrounding water. They are popular for deep diving submersibles. Metal-water batteries generally use cheaper metals - magnesium or aluminum, since the reaction energy for more exotic metals with water is simply not enough better to be worth it. *Pulse Generators* (TL7) are devices delivering precisely shaped electrical pulses with high voltages, currents or energies, such as electron accelerators or Marx generators. They lose power very quickly (assume a maximum of 10 minutes of storage) so are normally charged from another source which is not capable of either such rapid discharge or precise control. *Spinning Inductors* (TL7) store energy in a rotating mass coupled to an inductive load. Homopolar generators and compulsators are the most common examples. Spinning inductors can be recharged. *Superconducting Loop* (TL7) store energy in a magnetic field generated by a current flowing around a superconductive loop. The TL7 version is a rare metal alloy cooled in liquid helium. At TL8+ room temperature superconductors make this a possible explanation of rechargeable cells. *Thermal Storage* (TL5) stores energy as heat, normally the latent heat of a phase transition. At lower TLs it is recovered with a conventional heat engine, but at TL7+ some systems are thermoelectric. The main problem with thermal storage is shelf life, heat leakage dissipates any energy not used within 4 hours (TL5), 1 day (TL6) or 1 week (TL7+). Thermal storage was tried for light rail vehicles at the end of TL5, but appears to have been killed by the heat loss problem. Thermal storage can be recharged. *Thermal System* (TL6) is a vague name for a very specific kind of power plant, also known equally vaguely as a stored chemical energy unit. A highly exothermic chemical reaction with condensed products (so there is no exhaust or pressure buildup) boils the working fluid of a closed cycle vapor engine. The reactions used are not particularly friendly - active metals, halogens, sulfur, selenium and tellurium - a typical version reacts a lithium boiler lining with sulfur hexafluoride gas. Thermal systems are not rechargeable, but are controllable enough to shut off and restart a few times - assume each cycle wastes 5% of the stored energy. *Ultracapacitors* (TL8) are advanced capacitors storing charge in a the double layer of an electrolyte at the surface of a very high surface area electrode, typically a carbon aerogel. Energy Bank Design Table 6 Advanced Battery 0.01 $2.5 7 Advanced Battery 0.005 $10 8 Advanced Battery 0.001 $30 10 Anaerobic Biochemical 0.007 $75 10 Biochemical Cell 0.00015 $100 5 Capacitors 50.0 $1 6 Capacitors 6.0 $15 7 Capacitors 3.0 $30 4 Clockwork 0.25 $20 5+ Compressed Air 0.03 $0.5 16 Cosmic Cells 0.00000012 $10 7+ Cryogenic Storage 0.01 $20 7 Explosive Generator 0.005 $100 8 Explosive Generator 0.001 $100 5 Flywheel 0.8 $0.5 6 Flywheel 0.1 $6 7 Flywheel 0.01 $15 8 Flywheel 0.005 $15 8 Hi Cap Storage Btry 0.0005 $4 7 High Temp Battery 0.002 $50 8 High Temp Battery 0.0008 $50 5 Lead Acid Battery 0.03 $0.25 6 Lead Acid Battery 0.025 $0.5 7+ Lead Acid Battery 0.02 $1.25 7 Metal-Air Battery 0.0005 $100 8 Metal-Air Battery 0.0001 $200 7 Metal-Water Battery 0.0025 $5 8 Metal-Water Battery 0.0005 $5 7 Pulse Generator 3.0 $30 7 Spinning Inductor 0.15 $20 8+ Spinning Inductor 0.05 $20 7 Superconducting Loop 0.02 $25 5 Thermal Storage 0.012 $1 6 Thermal Storage 0.008 $2.5 7+ Thermal Storage 0.004 $5 6 Thermal System 0.004 $100 7 Thermal System 0.001 $100 8 Thermal System 0.0005 $100 8 Ultracapacitors 0.12 $15 9+ Ultracapacitors 0.04 $10 Volume: for most systems, volume is weight/50. For lead-acid batteries volume is weight/200. For advanced, high temperature, metal-air or metal-water batteries, explosive generators or cosmic cells, volume is weight/100. ________________________________________ Power and Fuel p87a Energy Banks - Power Cells ________________________________________ Power cells are the standard GURPS ultratech energy storage device, from GURPS Space onward. Unfortunately they weren't designed for consistency. TL8 power cells range from 7200 to 28800 kWs/lb, weight/316 to weight/880 cf and $100 to $16,000 per lb. Vehicles opted to use the E cell (18000 kJ/lb, $100/lb) as the standard, which was probably a mistake since most equipment uses B through D cells at 7200 kJ/lb. Selecting that as the standard changes the smallest number of equipment statistics. The specific energy of all power cells is multiplied by (TL-6)/2. Power cells and related technologies are capable of instant discharge - they have to be since their major game role is to allow beam weapons. *Power Cells - Nonrechargeable* (TL8) are the standard GURPS power cells, generally described as using an exotic fuel like californium or metastable helium. They are not rechargeable. *Power Cells - Rechargeable* (TL8) the standard GURPS rechargeable power cells are usually described as superconducting or photonic loops. They are identical to nonrechargeable power cells, except they store half as much energy and are rechargeable. *Power Slugs* (TL8) introduced in Cyberworld (CW94) as a transitional step to power cells. They also range all over the place, from 50 to 3000 kJ/lb, weight/120 to weight/2200 cf and $2.1 to $16 per lb. As written smaller power slugs actually under-perform conventional batteries. *Power Cartridges* (TL8) relatives of explosive generators introduced in UltraTech2. They weigh 0.72 times as much as an equivalent capacity power cell. Cost is likewise reduced (it is still $100 x weight). Like explosive generators they can only be used once, and any unused energy is lost. Power cells and realism. All energy storage technologies are fundamentally limited in energy storage density by the strength of the containing forces. For most the limiting energy density is set by the strength of the chemical bonds holding the storage system together - it equals the yield strength of the material divided by its density. A device storing more than that will explode. For high strength metal alloys this can be as high as 500 kJ/lb, for diamond it works out to 14430 kJ/lb, and even the theoretical limits aren't much more than twice that. _______________________________________ Power and Fuel p90a Scale and Ultimate Energy Sources _______________________________________ So how much power is a lot? A low tech civilization consumes about 0.25 kW per capita, almost all of it as biomass - food or firewood. Industrial civilizations consume 3 kW per capita at late TL5, 6 kW at TL6, 10 kW at TL7. Based on the standard of living curves it is reasonable to continue doubling per capita consumption every TL, though the late TL7 trend is for energy use to actually drop slightly in the richest nations. World energy consumption at the end of TL7 is 11.5 TW (0.99 EJ/day), from which we can conclude a significant fraction of the population is not living at the standard of living of even a TL5 industrial civilization. A power utility - whether steam, nuclear, a hydroelectric dam, or bay barrier tidal plant usually generates at least several hundred MW, and few exceed a GW. In terms of reserves, the Earth's standing biomass is about 13,000 EJ. The original fossil fuels reserves were 300,000 EJ coal, 30,000 EJ petroleum and 30,000 EJ natural gas, so far humans have burned about 15% of the oil and gas, and 2% of the coal. Fissionable reserves are actually fairly modest, only 3500 EJ with current technology, though perhaps as much as 700,000 EJ with breeder reactors. Fusion resources from seawater are 18,000,000,000 EJ for Li-D fusion, 1,200,000,000,000,000 EJ for D-D, which should make it obvious why fusion is highly desirable for long term civilizations. Total output from the Sun is 3.9 x 10^14 TW, but only 175,000 TW of that touches the Earth. About 100,000 TW reaches ground level, 65% of which is immediately reflected to space. About 4000 TW dissipates in the atmosphere, perhaps 40 TW of it in near surface winds. About 10,000 TW end up in the water cycle and oceans - mostly in temperature gradients and heat driven currents, but also 10 TW in waves, 3 TW as the potential energy of rainfall onto land (potential hydropower) and 2.6 TW for the osmotic potential of mixing of that same fresh water. Solar flux at ground level depends on clouds, latitude, time of year and a host of other factors. For mid-latitude deserts 2.9 kWhr/day per square meter is typical, up to 10.8 kWhr/day at the best spots. For temperate climates the range is 1.9 to 6.4 kWhr/day per square meter, changing with the season. Recovery efficiency varies tremendously, hydropower routinely comes close to 100% at late TL7, while ocean thermal systems start bumping thermodynamic limits at less than 2%. Also, tapping more than a few percent of any solar flow probably has significant environmental consequences. Photosynthesis is the cheapest form of solar power by absolute costs. Coniferous forests are about 1% efficient (50 MJ/yr per sq meter), tropical forests are about 2% efficient and get more light (150 MJ/yr per sq m), tropical reed swamps can exceed 3% (250 MJ/yr per sq m). Some algae can reach 8% conversion, but drying it so it will burn uses much of the energy you can extract by burning it. Current forest could supply about 1 TW renewably, current cropland about 2 TW, increasing to 5 TW if all the planet's grasslands are converted to crops. Of other 'renewable' sources, currently tides dissipate about 2.4 TW, a third of it in near-shore shallow water, but redesign of the ocean floor could increase this considerably. Tidal energy comes from slowing the rotation of the Earth and the angular momentum mostly ends up increasing the distance to the Moon. Geothermal heat flow through the crust is 32 TW, 6.5 TW of it in hydrothermal discharges near mid-ocean ridges and 0.3 TW through volcanoes or hot springs. There is also a 400,000 EJ reserve in near surface hotspots, but tapping it kills most of the hydrothermal and volcanic sources and diverts that heat to recharging these reservoirs for millennia. _______________________________________ Surface and External Features p94a Attachment Components _______________________________________ *Soft Contacts* Often links are established at some relative speed - railway linkages, aircraft attaching to airship carriers, spacecraft with poor maneuvering control. This normally causes collision damage, DR applies, and adding a reusable impact absorber (p71a) to either side of the link reduces the impact appropriately. _________________________________________ Weaponry p127a Giant Electrostun Weapons (Mecha playtest out-take) ________________________________________ Any hand weapon can be electrified, although giant batons and giant whips are most popular. An electrified weapon uses a powerful but carefully modulated electric jolt that incapacitates living things without killing, and which can sometimes even be felt through light vehicle armor. To build an electrostun weapon start with a Mecha-Sized Medieval Weapons (p.ME110). Making a weapon "electrostun" is 1 lb., .02 cf, and $200 times the weapon's Weight Multiplier. It uses one B cell times the weapon's Weight Multiplier (B cell weight is included in this weight) and can make 20 zaps. If an electrostun weapon is used against a mecha or vehicle, the shocker only has an effect if there is a cockpit or battlesuit segment occupying the location that struck. A mecha striking with an electrostun weapon that would normally do crushing damage can opt to do no crushing damage (simply touching its opponent) and use only the electrical zap. This is a good way to disable unarmored "pedestrians." ________________________________________ Weaponry p127a Tsunami Cannon (Mecha playtest out-take) ________________________________________ Tsunami Cannon: This is only usable if the mecha is standing in a fair-sized body of water -- at least 1,000 cubic yards of liquid. It allows the mecha to shape water into a powerful wave and attack with it! Its effect is identical to a wind cannon (pME00) except range is shorter while damage is greater. A tsunami cannon will extinguish all fires in its area of effect. Baroque Weapon Table Name Weight Volume Cost Power Tsunami Cannon 2,500 50 $25,000 10,000 Heavy Tsunami Cannon 10,000 200 $100,000 40,000 Baroque Weapon Statistics Name Type Damage 1/2D Max RoF Tsunami Cannon Cr. 8d x 50 50 150 1 Heavy Tsunami Cannon Cr. 8d x 100 100 300 1 _______________________________________ Performance p136a Space Performance _______________________________________ *Density and Specific Impulse* The highest specific impulse fuel does not always give the best total performance, sometimes denser fuels are better. This is particularly true of aircraft, where less dense fuels mean larger tanks, hence more surface area and more drag, but it's true any time fuel is a large fraction of the vehicle loaded weight. Consider a TL7 rocket that is 90% HO fuel (2.1 lb/gal, 460 seconds Isp). It has a total delta-v of g x Isp x ln (1 + fuel wt/dry wt) = 21.9 x 460 x ln (1 + 90/10) = 23200 mph. Now drain the fuel and replace it with kerosene/LOX (8.5 lb/gal, 346 sec), a lower specific impulse but 4 times heavier. Dry weight is unchanged, so total delta-v is now 21.9 x 346 x ln (1 + 4.0*90/10) = 27400 mph, not a trivial difference. ________________________________________ Combat p192 Guided Missiles _________________________________________ I'd change the mechanisms for two of these. The first section becomes Operator Guided -- roll against Gunner(OG Missile)+4 on launch, and each turn (early TL7) or every 5th turn (later) of flight to keep the missile on target. This includes TVG missiles, the weapons that don't require operator rolls to maintain targeting are Optical Homing, not TVG. Cut the roll to recover control, it is simpler to give a bonus to all rolls and call any failure an unrecoverable loss of control. The other change is Inertial Guidance -- the missile flies to a preset location. To launch, roll against Gunner(Rockets)+4, if successful the missile automatically hits the programmed coordinates. Whether the desired target is located there depends on the Cartography, Navigation or Forward Observer rolls made to determine them. Use the Indirect Fire rules (p179). ________________________________________ Combat p196a Unguided Torpedos _________________________________________ The rules for this are extremely obscure. I think the best approach is to treat this as indirect fire, using Gunner (Torpedo) for to hit rolls, and optionally instead of Forward Observer skill. If the target detects an incoming torpedo allow it a Dodge roll.