Re: [TML] Why do those big ships carry so many fighters? Jeffrey Schwartz 07 Oct 2014 18:59 UTC

On Tue, Oct 7, 2014 at 2:28 PM, Craig Berry <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
> Yes, gravitics change a lot. But you still need streamlining to
> operate in an atmosphere -- both per the rules, and per reasonable
> extrapolation. A streamlined shape will move through the air more
> easily, with less turbulence. This is going to be especially true for
> a fighter, which presumably will be zipping around at high Mach
> numbers. All those smooth curves and fairings are dead mass for a
> vacuum fighter.

Do they have to be dead mass though?

I mean, the curved surface is going to contribute to armor
protectiveness, for example, which is an advantage in space as well.
I guess the amount of 'waste' depends on how much unusable volume is
between the hardware and the skin.

I think the rules give a 10% increase in weight for streamlining, and
I half remember wedges having no weight penalty for streamlining.

Is 10% a big enough difference for a _meaningful_ edge?

IIRC, the example fighter in MT was too small for M-Drives, so it had
"just" 12G of gravitics, and accepted the penalty for using gravs on
the distant edges of a gravity well.

I'd read that as out between 50D and 100D, the fighters have 1.2G or
1.3 G of accel, both of which round down to 1G for combat rules...