Question for Kanuck.

[Telros]

I was wondering, Kanuck. I am planning on incorporate a lot of stuff from Schlock into Telros, being a Terran nation that will develop into a powerhouse (hopefully). I was wondering, do you know how gravy guns work? I've browsed Schlock Mercenary several times, and I can't find a very good explanation.

Also, any recommended technologies aside from Annie plants and fabbers would be nice. ^^

[Solar Communes]

The easiest path is to go for my standard-issue explanation for anything that defies RL science: A Wizard Did It.

[Telros]

Yes. But I don't know what they do; it's rather vague on that point.

[Kostemetsia]

I'm reasonably sure gravy guns apply focused gravity fields to certain points to crush objects. Still, I'm not certain.

[Telros]

That was my basic understanding of it, but I feel like there was more to it than that.

[Kanuckistan]

My understanding of Schlock Gravy is they effect areas of rapidly oscillating, high gradient gravitational force, shearing their target apart.

Tho they can also be used to lift, throw, crush, or whatnot, and are not limited by line of sight(so long as the obstruction is matter and not, say, a grav shield - for balance I'd suggest not trying to press them as being able to ignore most sci-fi shields) as their various depictions show, with power and control increasing greatly as range drops - they are, relatively speaking, a fairly short range weapon.

As for the mechanics of generating the gravy, that's AFAIK undefined(which makes sense - Howard likes to ground his kit in hard science, albeit with liberties taken, and we just don't know that much about gravity yet). I haven't followed the forums in years, but the leading theory last I looked suggested it was incorporated into the annie plants somehow - evidence corroborates it somewhat, tho I personally don't like the dynamic; too centralised, one-widget-does-all for my tastes.


As for other technologies, well, you've probably picked up some Annie plant theory if you've seen me talk about my old-style pulsed hawking reactors and neutronium fuel. Tho as far as recommendations go, you'd have to give me some idea of the feeling of dynamic you're looking for.

*eyes potential export market*

[Telros]

Well, I plan on my nation evolving to using traditional, SW-esque lines of battles fleets, with upgrades of course. But I do want to have them eventually evolve into using battleplates and whatever support ships there are. I'd like to be a somewhat Schlock-verse nation, with energy weapons and perhaps other doo-dads to deal with dimensional weaponry and such. I wouldn't mind exchanging help with this for a large export market for ya. ^^

[Solar Communes]

As for dimensional weaponry, I might end with something able to create a relativistic "bubble" in a non-relativistic universe as a FTLi. I'd go far enough to claim Solarian FTLi involves clones of Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton and Blaise Pascal..

[Telros]

*pokes Kanuck*

[Kanuckistan]

*amputates the poking finger and adds it to his collection*

Well, I plan on my nation evolving to using traditional, SW-esque lines of battles fleets, with upgrades of course. But I do want to have them eventually evolve into using battleplates and whatever support ships there are.

Star Wars and Schlock have totally different tech and combat dynamics. Those fleets would play rather differently.

But I assume you're going to opt for the tank-esque battlewagon? Do you want fighters, or just missile swarms? Hell, what kind of ballance do you want between energy, fighters, missiles, and drones? Do you want to mix energy and projectile? What kind of energy weapons?

I'd like to be a somewhat Schlock-verse nation, with energy weapons and perhaps other doo-dads to deal with dimensional weaponry and such.

Well, what kind of social dynamic do you want? How do you want to handle indistry?

Also, dimentional weaponry can be taken many different ways. Most of them broken.

As for dimensional weaponry, I might end with something able to create a relativistic "bubble" in a non-relativistic universe as a FTLi.

I'd suggest insuring it only does FTLi - you might have problems if you try and extend a bubble of your-ship-stops-working around somebody.