The Chieftan is annoying

Jenner

I wish I was English like my hero Tj.
Yup, I thought the same the moment I saw the landing gear deploy in the steam. Heh heh.

Rule Of Cool.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
Yes, I'm afraid. World building is all in the detail.


That's not the point. ED does not try to predict 3300 technology; it tries to depict our idea of 3300 technology. It has to be relatable to us, here, now.

Exactly. You can get a feel for this by looking at science fiction written by Jules Verne in the 1800s. He liked doing hard sci-fi in that he calculated everything and tried to make it as plausible as possible, but he was limited to writing what he and his readers believed plausible. So when he wrote about humanity going to the moon, he had the characters in the story calculating the correct weight and thickness of the walls of the spacecraft... which would be launched from a giant cannon.
 
That's not the point. ED does not try to predict 3300 technology; it tries to depict our idea of 3300 technology. It has to be relatable to us, here, now.

I try not to make it a habit of relating to things that do not exist. Even it it might 1000 years from now, unless we come up with actual cryostasis tech to put us to sleep until then or a way to live that long at all, what good is it for me to worry about it? Am I also to try and relate to fire breathing dragons because lizards may evolve or mutate into that in a few million years?
 
Y'know, that is all very plausible, and I've often assumed that ED ships use some kind of ion-drive myself.
The only trouble is, if that's the case, what is taking up all the space inside a ship's hull?

We know it's not cargo/passenger/crew space cos that only accounts for a tiny percentage of the internal volume of big ships.
I guess it could be the PP, shield generator and/or FSD but the configuration of ships like the T9 and T10 (ships with "outboard" thrusters) suggests that the thrusters, themselves, are big ol' assemblies.

In the case of the Chieftain, if the thrusters aren't filling up those pods, why are the pods (the front ones in particular) there at all?
If it's the gimbal mechanism that's taking up the space, and requires the pods, we're back to wondering how the landing gear fits in there as well.

For the most part, as long as a sci-fi ship looks cool then I'm happy but it's that little extra bit of plausibility that really makes a thing believable.

Seems like it might help if FDev got one of their artists to make some basic sketches of components such as thruster assemblies, FSDs, PPs and shield generators etc in, say, small, medium and large sizes to use for reference when ships are being designed.

I only just discovered this but, on a related topic, the producers of Star Trek write a "technical manual" for each series, which contains basic info' about what all the in-universe tech can and can't do.
The manuals aren't detailed, and they don't explain how anything works, but they lay down basic rules so that writers and designers can always come up with stuff that abides by all the rules that pre-exist in that fiction.

Well said youngster ...

Y’all crack me up! Using today’s technology as a guide to 3300 tech. This thread just illustrates to me how society is stuck in using one way of thought to define everything. Thus, if I cannot understand it, it must be wrong.

It would seem that some things in 3300 tach is a little introverted if you ask me (which you did not) ....

I don't really see the confusion/conflict TBH.

It's well-known, for example, that Minecraft was created as a "geology simulator" in that it creates terrain which gradually changes depending on a variety of factors in an attempt to simulate how different types of terrain blend and interact with each other.

Same thing with ED.
They've taken what we know about how galaxies form and used it to extrapolate an in-game galaxy based on our knowledge.

I doubt anybody would dispute that Minecraft is a "planet simulator" and, in the same way, it seems fair to say ED is a "galaxy simulator".
Maybe people just don't like that they call it the "Milky Way" when it's really just a procedurally generated galaxy with a bunch of known systems mixed in?

More good points (don't get the wrong idea, this is not a date ... LOL)

An odd thought on equipment placement/allotment in our ships. Was watching HGTV renovations and it struck me as young couples buy a "small" house and then start changing up things like it was Dr Who's Tardis. Yea I know, nothing to do with the Chieftain ... I'll slink back off now ...

Cheers ...

Chief
 
Well said youngster ...



It would seem that some things in 3300 tach is a little introverted if you ask me (which you did not) ....



More good points (don't get the wrong idea, this is not a date ... LOL)

An odd thought on equipment placement/allotment in our ships. Was watching HGTV renovations and it struck me as young couples buy a "small" house and then start changing up things like it was Dr Who's Tardis. Yea I know, nothing to do with the Chieftain ... I'll slink back off now ...

Cheers ...

Chief

Said by the man after whom FD named a ship :)
 
You know @OP, those people working at FD are not engineers, so they do what they can, as an engineer, I really don't want to go down that road, because it will get very frustrating, so why don't we leave it at that?
 
No harm in pointing out these inconsistencies. So that they know and consider in the future.

If we wouldn't, next thing you know the developers would model a potato and tell us all about how the moving parts on ships don't need to be consistent because they just telepresence out of existence when they're not needed.
 
The chieftain is actually quite believable to me, the ship that gives me the greatest concerns regarding its internal arrangements is the mighty cobra mk iii. From behind it looks like everything can fit in it, from the front it doesn't look like anything can fit in it. Still it's a great ride and a highly versatile ship.
 
You scoop hydrogen to power everything so most likely Fusion

It's probably just plasma burning as a fusion drive would have a wake that you could weaponise and sterilise planets with. They'd be banned near an inhabited world as their wake would be hundreds of km long and could destroy the biosphere from orbit.
 
It's probably just plasma burning as a fusion drive would have a wake that you could weaponise and sterilise planets with. They'd be banned near an inhabited world as their wake would be hundreds of km long and could destroy the biosphere from orbit.

Just like in previous Elites. :)
 
It's probably just plasma burning as a fusion drive would have a wake that you could weaponise and sterilise planets with. They'd be banned near an inhabited world as their wake would be hundreds of km long and could destroy the biosphere from orbit.

In previous Elites, ships were driven mainly by hydrogen fusion thrusters - so fusing hydrogen into helium, with the associated mass deficit converted to heat / KE of the exhaust ejecta per e=mC^2, propelling the craft in the opposite direction per Newton's 3rd law. So, not particularly dangerous, but very, very powerful and enormous fun to fly. You could set out from an orbital station, point the nose down at the planet, open the throttles and seamlessly accelerate down to the surface in a few minutes, in real-time.

So-called military drives were powered by anti-matter, chiefly manufactured by the sinister Sirius Corporation, on its planet Lucifer in the Sirius system. According to lore, vast induction coils were wrapped around the rocky volcanic world, capturing EMFs induced from the planet's motion thru its host white dwarf's magnetic field, such were the energy requirements of producing the stuff, and its reaction products did include radio-isotopes, although there were strict penalties on dumping, so you wouldn't get away with jettisoning it anywhere near a population center.

Military drives had no extra kick, just better power density, allowing more cargo space for other stuff. Again, you opened the throttles and your ship took off, and kept accelerating until you told it not to. So again, great fun to fly.

Obviously, Earth-like worlds have magnetospheres that safely filter out far, far, unimaginably worse radiation - alpha, beta & gamma (just Google "oh my God!" particles)..


What a magnetosphere is going to be utterly useless against is the highly-focused gravity-wave recoils caused by any kind of Alcubierre drive, which absolutely could destroy whole planets, in a mere instant. Whole star systems, in fact.

Couple this with the fact that when i launch out of the station in my shiny new ED ship, point down at the planet and open the throttles, absolutely SFA happens... i mean it lurches forwards for a few seconds then sputters out, its dubious powers of free-flight utterly spent, to basically coast along at a paltry limp of a slow taxiing velocity... the only way i'm getting this pathetic crate down to the surface before teatime is by engaging the warp-drive, so jolly good luck to anyone who happens to be aligned anywhere along my deceleration vector..

As for the dodgy Chieftain design, given that it's probably been tabled a speed limit of a few hundred meters / sec, most of the engine bay might as well be full of undercarriage, or whatever else is so much more important than basic freedom of movement. Cheese, for instance. Unless it fell out, and hit someone with a dairy allergy. A tonne of Edam at 200 m/s could bring you right out in hives, i suppose. Still, i can't see they'd go so far as banning it..
 
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This then raises the other question in my head 'Why did the only put landing gear in the rear pods when from a manufacturing point of view, it would have been cheaper to mass produce two versions of the pods left hand and right hand instead of 4 versions, left with gear, right with gear, front left and front right.'

There are a few turboprop commercial aircraft that have landing gear stowed within the engine pod, and this is for stability and location reasons, for tricycle undercarriage. With respect, you are assuming there's never a valid reason for this and simply retconning how it can't possibly be real and therefore wrong or some sort of manufacturing issue.

It's real, common and pretty much on point by Frontier. They're reflecting the real world, in winged-ship design. So, I'm not sure what you're arguing against, other than an issue based on disagreeance with aesthetics. But don't take my word for it.

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Yep, this isn't realistic at all. Fake news! lol

Yes; costs during manufacturing matter, but so do a whole raft of other concerns, and this is no different for aircraft or spacecraft, than anything else. Some of which, override natural assumptions because of actual constraints.

Sometimes, engineering and design results in wheels that can reside within the main body (particularly larger aircraft that can support the extra structural requirements) and sometimes it's just structurally or more sane space wise, to place the undercarriage wheel wells inside an engine pod. Never mind that sometimes it just comes down to what the designer has intended.

It's also a game, and Frontier has a history of quirky ship design; but many have design queues from existing aircraft or concepts. Which makes them infinitely more interesting, frankly. Because they all share some sense of potentially being real designs.

The only thing that doesn't have form follow function, is hardpoint placement; which is actually far more relevant in the real world; frontier tend to go with what "looks cool" more than from a practicality and operational consideration. It's a game, though, so they have some luxuries, the real world doesn't really allow for (like convergence being an actual consideration).
 
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Yes, it is not believable at all. And for a game that prides itself on being a "simulation", that is a problem, all "handwavium" aside.

What? Have you ever stepped onto a twin engine commuter aircraft, like ever, and noticed where the undercarriage is? Also frontier are the first to admit this isn't a full on simulation. Even so; landing gear in engine nacelle is actually a super common so I have no idea why an actual real world thing fails on the "simulation" front; because this would be to an example of a complete lack of handwavium.

It's more like people haven't actually considered if this is an actual thing, are automatically assuming it isn't, and then claiming all sorts of reasons why it shouldn't be. All while actual aircraft do this all the time.
 
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What? Have you ever stepped onto a twin engine commuter aircraft, like ever, and noticed where the undercarriage is? Also frontier are the first to admit this isn't a full on simulation. Even so; landing gear in engine nacelle is actually a super common so I have no idea why an actual real world thing fails on the "simulation" front; because this would be to an example of a complete lack of handwavium.

It's more like people haven't actually considered if this is an actual thing, are automatically assuming it isn't, and then claiming all sorts of reasons why it shouldn't be. All while actual aircraft do this all the time.

You assume too much.
 
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