Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale/No Sense of Mass: Difference between revisions
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(There isn't actually any power statted in the rules that would let you do that, because they simply don't have the range. Also, investigation rolls are only applicable if you can actually perceive the entire area of search with your senses.) |
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* Weber does it also in his story ''Mutineer's Moon'' and sequels, in which the starting premise is that the Moon (i.e. Luna, Earth's natural satellite, ''that'' Moon) is actually a starship. Yes, the whole thing. It has a layer of rock around the outer hull carefully sculpted to match the surface appearance of the ''original'' Moon that once orbited the Earth, tens of thousands of years ago, before the starship removed it and took its place. Incidentally, the entire human population of the Earth in these books descend from the human crew of that starship. |
* Weber does it also in his story ''Mutineer's Moon'' and sequels, in which the starting premise is that the Moon (i.e. Luna, Earth's natural satellite, ''that'' Moon) is actually a starship. Yes, the whole thing. It has a layer of rock around the outer hull carefully sculpted to match the surface appearance of the ''original'' Moon that once orbited the Earth, tens of thousands of years ago, before the starship removed it and took its place. Incidentally, the entire human population of the Earth in these books descend from the human crew of that starship. |
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** At no point does Weber write the ship as if it was 2,000 miles in diameter, though, nor is it ever seriously explained why it needs to be that big. He writes the starship as if it were a few miles in diameter. |
** At no point does Weber write the ship as if it was 2,000 miles in diameter, though, nor is it ever seriously explained why it needs to be that big. He writes the starship as if it were a few miles in diameter. |
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*** Did you miss how fast the internal transport speeds are? Those tube capsules are travelling at ''supersonic velocity''... the only reason the occupants don't notice the motion is because of inertial damping technology. If you to have to get on a Mach 1+ bullet train just to go from the captain's cabin to the bridge, the ship is being written as anything but 'a few miles in diameter'. |
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** The book does state that the type of FTL engine used and the reactor to power it (as well as the [[Subspace Ansible|Hyperspace Radio]]) all reached optimum efficiency only when scaled up to planetoid dimensions. To give you an idea of just how much power their reactors put out, it took only six Battle Planetoids working together to force a star to go supernova. |
** The book does state that the type of FTL engine used and the reactor to power it (as well as the [[Subspace Ansible|Hyperspace Radio]]) all reached optimum efficiency only when scaled up to planetoid dimensions. To give you an idea of just how much power their reactors put out, it took only six Battle Planetoids working together to force a star to go supernova. |
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** Given the information presented in the books it's entirely possible that the living areas of the ship are only a few miles across with the majority of the ship being dedicated to weapons/propulsion/power systems etc. Of course it still seems unlikely that such a large unit is really worth the resources (especially when it's demonstrated that smaller war ships can be FTL capable). |
** Given the information presented in the books it's entirely possible that the living areas of the ship are only a few miles across with the majority of the ship being dedicated to weapons/propulsion/power systems etc. Of course it still seems unlikely that such a large unit is really worth the resources (especially when it's demonstrated that smaller war ships can be FTL capable). |
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