Turbolaser questions

[Captain Seafort]

Combat endurance that is best measured in hours is insane. Be it 4 or 16 or 24. Ships that have to refuel after every battle or so lest they run out of fuel are incredibly limited.

Limited? They can melt planets - the short endurance at full power is the price they pay for such power

Or that claiming fuel usage rates that high is either insane or indicative that they don't actually carry fuel with them.

Or they've got very short endurance.

The only issue with that is that you don't see anything like a fuel tank holding half a billion+ tons of fuel anywhere in the ISD cross section.

The mostly likely scenario is that it's super-dense, although I've also seen suggestions that the fuel is stored externally, as a cloud of tachyonic matter orbiting the ship.

[Lt. Staplic]

Quoting big massive chunks of text just to adress one small point in it or to just reply with a single sentance causes needless scrolling and takes up bandwith.

I can understand this but I guess I still don't get the point of the snip, if you want just a small part of a quote you can just quote that part:

Which is less of a pain in the ass on the eyes?

but to each his own I guess. I'm not looking for any kind of big debate as to what's better, I was merely curios.

[Tyyr]

Limited? They can melt planets - the short endurance at full power is the price they pay for such power

So can the ships you're fighting. In ship to ship combat you're up against other ships with similar firepower and the ability to take it.

The mostly likely scenario is that it's super-dense, although I've also seen suggestions that the fuel is stored externally, as a cloud of tachyonic matter orbiting the ship.

There's a limit to the density of matter before things start going screwy, physics wise. We can always invoke some hyperspace mumbo-jumbo to allow you go to insane densities but then you have to ask an ugly question. If you can cram that much fuel into a tank you can't even really pick out in ICS... why don't you take more? Frankly I think my proposal, that the reactor pulls its fuel from hyperspace as it operates, works just as well as a cloud of matter or any of the other ideas. After all, if you're pulling the matter from hyperspace in the first place, and you need that much of it, why not incorporate the fuel extraction onto the ship that already has a huge honking hyperdrive and the need for the fuel?

[Captain Seafort]

So can the ships you're fighting. In ship to ship combat you're up against other ships with similar firepower and the ability to take it.

Hence the need to have matching firepower.

There's a limit to the density of matter before things start going screwy, physics wise.

Somewhat less screwy, I suspect, than when you start going at a trillion miles a second.

We can always invoke some hyperspace mumbo-jumbo to allow you go to insane densities but then you have to ask an ugly question. If you can cram that much fuel into a tank you can't even really pick out in ICS... why don't you take more?

Limitations of the mass they can cancel out the gravitational effects of maybe? Alternatively it might be an issue of volume - the bigger a ship is, the more armour you need to cover it.

Frankly I think my proposal, that the reactor pulls its fuel from hyperspace as it operates, works just as well as a cloud of matter or any of the other ideas.

Except that we have direct statements that the fuel supply of a starship is limited.

[Deepcrush]

Why is it that the fucking IQ in this place seems to be dropping a point a second...

Ships last a day in battle but only have 4 hours fuel? A pure bred warships shutting down none combat systems??? Why the fuck were you pathetic people born?

[Sionnach Glic]

I'm not looking for any kind of big debate as to what's better, I was merely curios.

People generaly just add in "Snip" to show that they're just adressing a small point, rather than the entire piece. It helps prevent accusations of ignoring points, mostly.

[Captain Seafort]

Ships last a day in battle but only have 4 hours fuel? A pure bred warships shutting down none combat systems??? Why the f**k were you pathetic people born?

As I said before, where's your source for the battle of Coruscant lasting more than a day? The cartoons didn't give a time period for the battle. I also pointed out that the only person who's fixated on this figure of four hours is you - do you have a source for it or are you pulling it out of thin air?

[Monroe]

Maybe that 40 thousand tons a second figure is just wrong...?

[Captain Seafort]

Why? 1) It's from a canon book, 2) it isn't directly contradicted by any other source, and 3) it's what's required for a BDZ.

[SuperSaiyaMan12]

Why? 1) It's from a canon book, 2) it isn't directly contradicted by any other source, and 3) it's what's required for a BDZ.

This is the problem with the ICS. Even though it is 'canon', there are contradictions from other sources with battles lasting days. Logic points out that the 40,000 tons per second of hypermatter burned is a wrong figure.

[Captain Seafort]

contradictions from other sources with battles lasting days.

Where?

Logic points out that the 40,000 tons per second of hypermatter burned is a wrong figure.

Wrong. If there are battles lasting continuously for days at full power and without refuelling it means that the fuel capacity of big warships has been seriously underestimated. The 40kt/sec is consistent with the rest of the evidence (mainly BDZ and the Death Star).

[Tyyr]

And again I feel compelled to point out that it simple might not be carrying its fuel with it so much extracting it in real time from hyperspace, where it comes from anyway. It's a possibility that allows for the insane fuel consumption without ridiculously short operational times. Just offering up a possible explanation.

[Monroe]

contradictions from other sources with battles lasting days.

Where?

Didn't the umpteenth Battle of Coruscant against the Vong last more than one day?

While we don't know the power requirements of entering hyperspace we know capital ships can make many many jumps without running out of fuel.

The Maw Installation supported several Star Destroyers for many decades.

[Captain Seafort]

And again I feel compelled to point out that it simple might not be carrying its fuel with it so much extracting it in real time from hyperspace, where it comes from anyway. It's a possibility that allows for the insane fuel consumption without ridiculously short operational times. Just offering up a possible explanation.

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.

Didn't the umpteenth Battle of Coruscant against the Vong last more than one day?

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).

While we don't know the power requirements of entering hyperspace we know capital ships can make many many jumps without running out of fuel.

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.

The Maw Installation supported several Star Destroyers for many decades.

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.

[Nickswitz]

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.