Turbolaser questions

[Tyyr]

I don't have a problem with the theory per se - the issue is that we have definitive statements that ships a) carry fuel and b) it runs out in a few hours.

Since I don't have ICS on me, what's the quote? Does it specifically spell out the fuel carried? What I'm getting at is could it possibly be a reserve stock, a stock for fueling fighters, or just that they might store several seconds of fuel on board in case of the need to suddenly surge the reactor's output and the extraction process might lag?

Yes, however the battle wasn't continuous - it was a series of hit-and-run engagements that would have allowed time for both sides to rotate ships out to refuel and rearm (and for the crews to rest).

Honestly that's what I'm getting at, having to refuel and rearm your capital ships midbattle is just nuts. You need the fuel on board to be able to fight an extended engagement.

We also know that ships can jump to lightspeed with little or no preparation, demonstrating that the energy required is equivalent to only a few minutes or seconds of a ship's reactor output.

Or that the reactors have the ability to rapidly increase or decrease their output. If you want to say hyperspace travel uses little power because they can just order it and go then you can say the same about the shields. They flip those up and down in a matter of seconds or less. So either the reactor can spool rapidly or the shields that supposedly stop these incredibly powerful blasts from the weapons require next to no power themselves.

ISDs that were doing bugger-all. Don't forget that the limit of a few hours only applies at maximum output, not the miniscule fractions of maximum that the ship would usually be operating at.

Puttering around or not they weren't mothballed. They would have been testing their shields, weapons, and engines from time to time.

Just throwing this thought out there, maybe they weren't fighting at full power during engagements, I know it sounds like a stupid idea, unless they knew how long they could last at full power and realized that it would be more efficient to use less power in order to hit longer and be able to run afterwards.

Yeah, that's an incredibly stupid idea. The moment your opponent realizes you're holding out to try and increase your longevity they go full power and blow you away. If you want to draw out an engagement firing half power isn't the way to do it.

[Captain Seafort]

Since I don't have ICS on me

Me neither - I'm basing my assumption on what others have said in this thread regarding VenStar endurance.

Honestly that's what I'm getting at, having to refuel and rearm your capital ships midbattle is just nuts. You need the fuel on board to be able to fight an extended engagement.

Why? It's no more nuts than aircraft having to do exactly the same thing.

Or that the reactors have the ability to rapidly increase or decrease their output. If you want to say hyperspace travel uses little power because they can just order it and go then you can say the same about the shields. They flip those up and down in a matter of seconds or less. So either the reactor can spool rapidly or the shields that supposedly stop these incredibly powerful blasts from the weapons require next to no power themselves.

Why not? The frontal armour of a modern tank can stop pretty much anything it's likely to encounter, and requires no power whatsoever.

Puttering around or not they weren't mothballed. They would have been testing their shields, weapons, and engines from time to time.

They wouldn't have been utterly immobile the whole time, but neither would they have been involved in the sort of high-energy activities we're talking about.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

I have the ICS for TPM and AOTC in my room. What do you folks need looked up?

[Captain Seafort]

Not much help, unfortunately - unless I'm mistaken the reference in question is in the RotS ICS.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Damn. Sorry, Seafort.

[Captain Seafort]

*shrugs* Not a problem.

On another note, we do have solid proof that the fuel is carried internally rather than as an orbiting cloud or drawn from hyperspace. Take a look at this - just below the extreme forward end of the bridge tower.

[Tyyr]

Why? It's no more nuts than aircraft having to do exactly the same thing.

Not the same thing. We're not talking about aircraft who go out, perform a mission and return. These are capital assets, ones you'll be expecting to take and hold space. Having to pull out to refuel every hours is going to put a crimp in the "hold" part.

Why not? The frontal armour of a modern tank can stop pretty much anything it's likely to encounter, and requires no power whatsoever.

And tank armor is a physical object who's protection is inherent in it. It's designed to stop a physical threat. You don't have to turn it on or off. Shields are not physical, they can be turned on and off. They appear to be an energy field of some sort.

They wouldn't have been utterly immobile the whole time, but neither would they have been involved in the sort of high-energy activities we're talking about.

They would be involved in them from time to time if only to continue to test systems and give crew's needed training. Even a few minutes of combat level activity can consume millions of tons of fuel. With combat endurance of hours even a few minutes of activity is a serious expenditure of fuel.

*shrugs* Not a problem.

On another note, we do have solid proof that the fuel is carried internally rather than as an orbiting cloud or drawn from hyperspace. Take a look at this - just below the extreme forward end of the bridge tower.

The reactant silos? It definitely carries some reactant internally.

[Captain Seafort]

Why? It's no more nuts than aircraft having to do exactly the same thing.

Not the same thing. We're not talking about aircraft who go out, perform a mission and return. These are capital assets, ones you'll be expecting to take and hold space. Having to pull out to refuel every hours is going to put a crimp in the "hold" part.

Who says they need to withdraw? As I've already pointed out modern warships need to withdraw every few days as it is - SW ships, except in an all-out battle, have far superior endurance.

And tank armor is a physical object who's protection is inherent init. It's designed to stop a physical threat. You don't have to turn it on or off. Shields are not physical, they can be turned on and off. They appear to be an energy field of some sort.

And? Unless they're doing work (in the technical sense of the term) their energy requirements will be non-existent.

They would be involved in them from time to time if only to continue to test systems and give crew's needed training. Even a few minutes of combat level activity can consume millions of tons of fuel. With combat endurance of hours even a few minutes of activity is a serious expenditure of fuel.

Why would they need to operate at anything like that level? Through a combination of simulators and low-power testing, they could keep the crews skills up and make sure the guns still work without wasting millions of tons of fuel.

[Tyyr]

And? Unless they're doing work (in the technical sense of the term) their energy requirements will be non-existent.

Maybe, maybe not. Also it does no good to "raise shields," if you aren't going to have the power to operate them for several minutes as your reactor spools up.

Why would they need to operate at anything like that level? Through a combination of simulators and low-power testing, they could keep the crews skills up and make sure the guns still work without wasting millions of tons of fuel.

Because you can't do a real test until you crank things up to full power and see how they operate. A low power test only confirms that it's functional at low power.

[Captain Seafort]

Maybe, maybe not. Also it does no good to "raise shields," if you aren't going to have the power to operate them for several minutes as your reactor spools up.

Unless, as I've already stated, their mechanism doesn't require power to operate. Given that they're nothing but a heat pump I don't see why they should have vast power requirements.

Because you can't do a real test until you crank things up to full power and see how they operate. A low power test only confirms that it's functional at low power.

Fair enough - crank them up, fire off a shot or two, and your done - you don't need to keep going for several minutes. Plus, of course, we don't know what sort of fuel storage the Maw Instillation had.

[stitch626]

I believe in one of the technical books it mentioned something about shields drawing just as much power as weapons... can't remember where though, its been a while since I've read them.

[Sionnach Glic]

Could the fuel carried by the ships themselves be a sort of reserve supply, if the (undoubtedly finnicky) system for extracting fuel from hyperspace was to break down?

[Deepcrush]

Okay, two things.

One, if I missed anything I don't care, this topic just pissed me off.
Two, I miss read the fuel burn. I read it as 40,000 kg somewhere... which I think was stated as four hours.

40,000 tons... well, that means it will last a bit shorter then four hours... just a bit... by a bit I mean fucking ton less.

If the VenStar is burning 40k tons per second then she's running out of fuel in a few seconds. I guessing this based on her size vs burn rate.

Theory... Her power plants are able to burn that much fuel but in fact never do as the ship itself is unable to use that much power. This guarantees that the ship will always have as much power as it can take while not having to worry about over stressing the power plants.

[Tyyr]

Could the fuel carried by the ships themselves be a sort of reserve supply, if the (undoubtedly finnicky) system for extracting fuel from hyperspace was to break down?

That's pretty much my suggestion. Those fuel silos are so freaking tiny that unless you're using some kind of funky gravity compression deal to crush it down incredibly small and keep it there you've got at best a couple seconds of fuel in those tank.

[Sionnach Glic]

I'd go for them being a reserve amount.

Or perhaps the process to pull the hypermatter (or whatever it is) out of hyperspace requires fuel itself? If so, that could be what those tanks are for.