Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Somewhere
Posts: 2894

The Omega mounts some x-ray lasers doesn't it?

Anyway Norbert is right about plasma weaponry, plasma's the fourth state of matter. If I remember right - and I'm not sure I do - it's matter condensed so that the electron shell is stripped away, letting the nuclei condense to extraordinary levels. Something like that.

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Registered: Apr 2001
Location:
Posts: 1901

Yup...Omega's have X-Ray Lasers. Particle Beams are on the Warlock and G.O.D.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: The Cold Northland!
Posts: 8392

Yup...Omega's have X-Ray Lasers. Particle Beams are on the Warlock and G.O.D.

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Registered: Jun 2002
Location: Leeds, Northern England
Posts: 20

The thing is Babylon 5 only really payed lip service to physics, newtonian or otherwise. Basically the ships were designed to look cool be they chunky Yorkie bar shaped or a more tangy multicoloured rocket lolly type affair. After all, how cool and fearsome looking would an Omega look with huge engines on the front as well instead of fighter bay, heavy cannon and lasers? The entire newtonian physics blather was only created to provide the opportunity to create little exciting plot dilema's and enrichen the detail of the B5 universe. Delenn's drifting in White Star japes is proof of this, as are 'gravity well' problems.

For instance in B5 you frequently see capital ships zip past each other within dangerously short distances, all clumped together, when in reality they would be more spaced out for easier navigation and a larger scope for tactical movements. (Unless they are in an anti-fighter convoy, and lending fire support to each other) But in the show (apart from the cracking and thus far best B5 battle in No Surrender, No Retreat... which is very realistic as far as TV SF goes) they happily zip by all over the place in tight formations in a messy fashion. Why? Because it looks better.

If JMS obsessed itself with such matters, instead of knuckling down and writing pounding story arcs and drama, B5 would be hideously anally retentive. And an over emphasis on science in space opera is decidely a bad thing: look at ST Voyager, dull because most of the episodes hinge around pressing buttons and making physics do useful fizzy things. The sci-fi setting of B5 is merely a setting for epic events, challenging issues and interesting characters. It could have been set in a feudal and mythical Japan, or in an ancient fantasy setting... it would still have to have the above ingredients and would work pretty much just as well. The space setting just gives it a little more scope and is more in tune with the imagination of our times. But I digress.

The B5 TPB crew have got it just right in balancing 'realism' with fun. As someone wisely pointed out earlier the Nova never exactly has enough time against the Minbari to make the power loss tell. I don't care that their guns don't falter in the firing rate or the ship slows down, all I see when Mibari fighters come screaming in and a curtain of fire set up are action pieces akin to the Battle of Midway archive footage. Thrilling and frightening, most sci-fi space battles aim for the midway 'naval battle' effect. B5 succeeds most of all in that, I believe and the TBP even more so. And in TBP I am far too immersed in a fight on 'the eve of destrution' to care about realism.

So. Carry on the way you did before. Only you chaps who work on the project and over heavy modders out there know what is really possible and what ain't. I'm sure you'll do your best.

P.S: By the way, I do actually read your progress reports and plans. Honest. Please carry on with the project in nimble manner. Aw, please.

Cheers

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"If you can keep your head whilst all around you lose...
Ugh! Spilt my ink!
Agh! Ink on my hands!
Eek! Ink on my shirt!
Agh! My only hope! The window!
....
AIEEEEE!"

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Registered: Jun 2002
Location: Leeds, Northern England
Posts: 20

The thing is Babylon 5 only really payed lip service to physics, newtonian or otherwise. Basically the ships were designed to look cool be they chunky Yorkie bar shaped or a more tangy multicoloured rocket lolly type affair. After all, how cool and fearsome looking would an Omega look with huge engines on the front as well instead of fighter bay, heavy cannon and lasers? The entire newtonian physics blather was only created to provide the opportunity to create little exciting plot dilema's and enrichen the detail of the B5 universe. Delenn's drifting in White Star japes is proof of this, as are 'gravity well' problems.

For instance in B5 you frequently see capital ships zip past each other within dangerously short distances, all clumped together, when in reality they would be more spaced out for easier navigation and a larger scope for tactical movements. (Unless they are in an anti-fighter convoy, and lending fire support to each other) But in the show (apart from the cracking and thus far best B5 battle in No Surrender, No Retreat... which is very realistic as far as TV SF goes) they happily zip by all over the place in tight formations in a messy fashion. Why? Because it looks better.

If JMS obsessed itself with such matters, instead of knuckling down and writing pounding story arcs and drama, B5 would be hideously anally retentive. And an over emphasis on science in space opera is decidely a bad thing: look at ST Voyager, dull because most of the episodes hinge around pressing buttons and making physics do useful fizzy things. The sci-fi setting of B5 is merely a setting for epic events, challenging issues and interesting characters. It could have been set in a feudal and mythical Japan, or in an ancient fantasy setting... it would still have to have the above ingredients and would work pretty much just as well. The space setting just gives it a little more scope and is more in tune with the imagination of our times. But I digress.

The B5 TPB crew have got it just right in balancing 'realism' with fun. As someone wisely pointed out earlier the Nova never exactly has enough time against the Minbari to make the power loss tell. I don't care that their guns don't falter in the firing rate or the ship slows down, all I see when Mibari fighters come screaming in and a curtain of fire set up are action pieces akin to the Battle of Midway archive footage. Thrilling and frightening, most sci-fi space battles aim for the midway 'naval battle' effect. B5 succeeds most of all in that, I believe and the TBP even more so. And in TBP I am far too immersed in a fight on 'the eve of destrution' to care about realism.

So. Carry on the way you did before. Only you chaps who work on the project and over heavy modders out there know what is really possible and what ain't. I'm sure you'll do your best.

P.S: By the way, I do actually read your progress reports and plans. Honest. Please carry on with the project in nimble manner. Aw, please.

Cheers

__________________
"If you can keep your head whilst all around you lose...
Ugh! Spilt my ink!
Agh! Ink on my hands!
Eek! Ink on my shirt!
Agh! My only hope! The window!
....
AIEEEEE!"

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Finland, beyond the Rim
Posts: 164

Well, plasma is the fourth state of substance (there is also a fifth one, Einstein-Bosen condensate, but that has nothing to do with this topic ) in which electrons have so high energy that they escape from their nuclei producing a 'porridge' of nuclei and electrons. Since the electrons are not bound to their space-wasting cells anymore mr. Pauli's rule allows more density and plasma reacts to electromagnetic fields. You can produce plasma by e.g heating hydrogen to some 10 million Kelvins with lasers or in a Tokamak -reactor (experimental fusion reactor) etc... It requires enormously much energy produce it and its 'lifespan' in space (near vacuum and a few Ks) is only a couple of milliseconds so it is very unstable. Of course one can take advantage of the natural plasma producers, the stars (they consist mostly of plasma) but I think no one's nuts enough to go near enough...

And 'ordinary' photon beams DO have recoil. Of course a photon's recoil is forgettable when handling low-on-power radiation sources such as a bulb (photon = pure energy, no mass but still E=mc^2), but when we talk about a few mega- or perhaps even gigawatts recoil cannot be forgotten. I'd say it MAY be enough to cause the ship to move a bit (I'm too tired to calculate it right now), but that's something too easy to correct with thrusters. So everythin' I just said was irrelevant as always. And I had the guts to write this long and boring text using <Enter> only two times .

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Just plain poison... Watch out for your nerves!

Last edited by Kurare on 07-07-2002 at 05:46 PM

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Finland, beyond the Rim
Posts: 164

Well, plasma is the fourth state of substance (there is also a fifth one, Einstein-Bosen condensate, but that has nothing to do with this topic ) in which electrons have so high energy that they escape from their nuclei producing a 'porridge' of nuclei and electrons. Since the electrons are not bound to their space-wasting cells anymore mr. Pauli's rule allows more density and plasma reacts to electromagnetic fields. You can produce plasma by e.g heating hydrogen to some 10 million Kelvins with lasers or in a Tokamak -reactor (experimental fusion reactor) etc... It requires enormously much energy produce it and its 'lifespan' in space (near vacuum and a few Ks) is only a couple of milliseconds so it is very unstable. Of course one can take advantage of the natural plasma producers, the stars (they consist mostly of plasma) but I think no one's nuts enough to go near enough...

And 'ordinary' photon beams DO have recoil. Of course a photon's recoil is forgettable when handling low-on-power radiation sources such as a bulb (photon = pure energy, no mass but still E=mc^2), but when we talk about a few mega- or perhaps even gigawatts recoil cannot be forgotten. I'd say it MAY be enough to cause the ship to move a bit (I'm too tired to calculate it right now), but that's something too easy to correct with thrusters. So everythin' I just said was irrelevant as always. And I had the guts to write this long and boring text using <Enter> only two times .

__________________
<something you really cannot put here...>
-a Weird One

Just plain poison... Watch out for your nerves!

Last edited by Kurare on 07-07-2002 at 05:46 PM

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