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Mobility question

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Fri, 2016-08-12 11:04

Wyvernjack Wyvernjack's picture

Mobility question

Ionic Flight - What does it look like visually, fluff says "the shell is spun for stability" and that there's plasma. Does this mean the morph is spinning round round while surrounded by glowing plasma? Rotorcraft - How big do they need to be. Can they possibly be concealed as part of the shoulders and fold out for hover flight? Hopper - How high can you jump with this + pneumatic limbs?

Fri, 2016-08-12 11:58

DivineWrath DivineWrath's picture

I don't like some of the

I don't like some of the vagueness either. Ionic flight is worth investigating because Reapers have it. I think it would be quite silly having a Reaper to be spinning around just to fly. How would it shoot strait if it is constantly spinning? Another concern is how to determine which mobility systems are better. Many seem to take up the same role. Is it better to be a walker or hopper? Walker is cheaper, but is there an advantage to being a hopper? Another example, wheeled and tracked have the same price, but wheeled is faster. Is there some advantage to being tracked (maybe better traction)?

Fri, 2016-08-12 14:04

Trappedinwikipedia Trappedinwikipedia's picture

Ionic propulsion doesn't look

Ionic propulsion doesn't look like much. Here's a video of an actually ionocraft: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a65oRYFxO8M Presumably its much more capable in Eclipse Phase, but visually there's nothing really there. Spinning is probably reserved for moving really quickly. How small you can make a rotor is actually kinda complex to figure out. EP rotors can probably spin very quickly, so ones as small as a few to several feet across could likely lift a person, but this heavily depends on the local atmosphere. They would be able to fold up very small though, so fitting them inside a robot should be possible. Hopper doesn't specify a height it can jump by default, so there's nothing to double with pneumatic limbs. If I was a GM ruling this, I'd say hoppers can jump a little more than twice as high as walkers, and double that. Should give a pneumatic hopper about a 5 meter vertical leap. As for which is better, Gatecrashing mentions a bit. Recon hoppers are often used because they handle rough terrain better than walkers, and are especially useful in a vacuum. I'd expect tracks vs wheels to be similar to the modern comparison: Tracks have more traction and surface area, making them less likely to bog down in rough terrain, but they're slower and less efficient. I'd make it have rules by reducing penalties for moving through nasty terrain in both cases.

Sat, 2016-08-13 11:55

Wyvernjack Wyvernjack's picture

Trappedinwikipedia wrote

Trappedinwikipedia wrote:
Ionic propulsion doesn't look like much. Here's a video of an actually ionocraft: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a65oRYFxO8M Presumably its much more capable in Eclipse Phase, but visually there's nothing really there. Spinning is probably reserved for moving really quickly. How small you can make a rotor is actually kinda complex to figure out. EP rotors can probably spin very quickly, so ones as small as a few to several feet across could likely lift a person, but this heavily depends on the local atmosphere. They would be able to fold up very small though, so fitting them inside a robot should be possible. Hopper doesn't specify a height it can jump by default, so there's nothing to double with pneumatic limbs. If I was a GM ruling this, I'd say hoppers can jump a little more than twice as high as walkers, and double that. Should give a pneumatic hopper about a 5 meter vertical leap. As for which is better, Gatecrashing mentions a bit. Recon hoppers are often used because they handle rough terrain better than walkers, and are especially useful in a vacuum. I'd expect tracks vs wheels to be similar to the modern comparison: Tracks have more traction and surface area, making them less likely to bog down in rough terrain, but they're slower and less efficient. I'd make it have rules by reducing penalties for moving through nasty terrain in both cases.

Yeah that's the video I found when looking up the subject. What made me unsure is the fluff text of "Surrounded by plasma" and "Shell is spun for stability." shell could refer to the plasma, but they already refer to morphs as 'the shell' in mobility section so it seemed super odd.

Wed, 2016-08-17 09:23

ORCACommander ORCACommander's picture

DivineWrath wrote:I don't

DivineWrath wrote:
I don't like some of the vagueness either. Ionic flight is worth investigating because Reapers have it. I think it would be quite silly having a Reaper to be spinning around just to fly. How would it shoot strait if it is constantly spinning? Another concern is how to determine which mobility systems are better. Many seem to take up the same role. Is it better to be a walker or hopper? Walker is cheaper, but is there an advantage to being a hopper? Another example, wheeled and tracked have the same price, but wheeled is faster. Is there some advantage to being tracked (maybe better traction)?

you can't get the same speed out of a walker as you would a hopper in low gravity tracks are better for heavier chasis and crossing difficult terrain

Wed, 2016-08-17 09:51

Lu-Ka

Be careful not to confuse

Be careful not to confuse Magneto-Hydro-Dynamic Propulsion and Ionic propulsion M.H.D. Engine: You ionize the surrounding environment (outside) and you use Magnetodynamic fields to support you on this ionized medium to propel you Ionic propulsion: you ionize fuel (inside), you accelerate it using electromagnetic fields (still inside) and you reject these ions in a reactor Ionic propulsion works in a vacuum (and is used today for space probes), not propulsion M.H.D. (which is still very long to currently exist) The video rather describes a propulsion by magnetic repulsion

Thu, 2016-08-18 07:09

ThatWhichNeverWas ThatWhichNeverWas's picture

Fly my pretties!

It wierded me out a bit when I first saw Ionic as a flight type - IRL it kinda sucks, and spinning the shell shouldn't be "necessary" because gyroscopes exist. However, then I found out about Nasa's WEAV, so I think that's how it works - the plasma is accelerated using superconducting magnets to increase it's thrust.x In any case, visually Ionic is simple levitation - the plasma shouldn't be emitting in any visual wavelengths, and certainly not with any intensity.

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