Ambrosia Software Web Board: Note to Slug - Ambrosia Software Web Board

I just happened to be reading the closed "Death Of StarLance" topic and I believe there is an extremely easy way to destroy the StarLance and its lesser ships.

The dreadnought has liquid metal hull (am I right in saying that?) which automatically closes all breaches. However, what if someone launched a cyropod into the StarLances hull?, which will freeze the hull when the Cyropod explodes and injects its freezing liquid. Then you smash the hull with any weapon and everybody in the ship will be sucked into the vacuum of space.



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It's not liquid, at least in the traditional sense. It's neutron star matter, one big atom. Exactly how you'd get it to stay that way on a (comparitively) small ship like the StarLance, I won't bother with.

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*Error: target is violating the laws of physics*
*Error: target is locally exceeding c*
*Error: unable to determine if target exists or not*
*Error: target cannot be hit*

Um, not really. The hull comes in liquid form, and robots fill in the holes with the liquid form. The liquid form then hardens into the hull. There are also 3 hulls, which makes things harder.

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"You can get much further with kind words and a loaded gun than you can with kind words alone."
- Al Capone

Thank you Slug for giving us that knowledge.

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With war there is great amounts of death. Men and women make themselves known, doing dangerous feats in their attempt to become heroes.
Some succeed, some don't...

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Mag, neutron star matter cannot exist in "liquid" form. Liquid implies more than one atom. Any piece of neutron star matter is an atom. That's why it's so hard to damage. The Starlance either has neutron star matter armor, or liquid armor. It can't have both. I'd say it has liquid armor. Neutron star armor on that light (in steller terms) an object would need artificial gravity.

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*Error: target is violating the laws of physics*
*Error: target is locally exceeding c*
*Error: unable to determine if target exists or not*
*Error: target cannot be hit*

I guess we'll just have to wait for Slug, then.

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"You can get much further with kind words and a loaded gun than you can with kind words alone."
- Al Capone

Ok, what I say about the StarLance and it's universe goes. I created it and if you insist on ruining it I won't release the plug on the AresCentral.com page.

Here are some examples of what I mean:

Mag Says: There are robots that fill in a liquid hull.
Slug Says: The Hull is an ablative multilayered sheath, the outermost layer being a highly-reflective force-field, the second layer being a layer of Neutron-Star matter one micron thick, and the other layers consist of several miscalanious polymers.

Darkk Says: The StarLance has a black hole cannon.
Slug Says: No it doesn't. A black-hole cannon is impossible.

Zell Says: You can shatter liquid armor by freezing it and knocking it around
Slug Says: If a material is exposed to open space and is still liquid, a few of those annoying pods won't do anything.

Darkk Says: The Aliens that wiped out humanity in the StarLance's universe "...called themselves... Salrilians...."
Slug Says: No, then my plug wouldn't be a total conversion.

Sargatanus says: The StarLance-Class dreadnoughts were immune to practically all attacks, but some of his ships managed to destroy them in the first few shots.
Slug Says: While these ships are not quite up to par with the origional StarLance, they were the ultimate ships. Humanity sacraficed itself to build the StarLance. Only one was ever built in that dimension. It spent hundreds of years reaming the dimensional planes, destroying all alien life and placing humanity on the top "where it should be".

Mag Says: There are robots that operate sections of the StarLance
Slug Says: Close. There are six Artificial Intelligences in the StarLance's vast computer cores that control various funtions of the ship.

Sorry if I sounded cranky, but I find this kind of stuff most annoying. One of the reasons I left the RPG.

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
-Alduran Outlaw Rick Blazer
StarLance

[This message has been edited by Slug (edited 11-21-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Slug (edited 11-21-2000).]

Actually, I was the one who said that the Salrillians destroyed humanity in that alternate universe. However, I did correct myself. Just a few more facts that are straight now.

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Ne Cede Malis Sed Contra Audientor Ito

Didn't your info page describe the chronokinetic beam as firing a singularity? To me, that's a "black hole cannon".

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*Error: target is violating the laws of physics*
*Error: target is locally exceeding c*
*Error: unable to determine if target exists or not*
*Error: target cannot be hit*

*Shrug* And this is why I don't bother with fleets or anything for my particular character in the RPG. You can't get the ships wrong if they don't exist, right?

Still, this is a good example for everyone: Don't assume anything. It's nice to think we know what everyone else is thinking, but we don't. So, before you go assuming things about elements introduced by another person, just check with them first. That'll keep everything nice and neat.

Sound good?

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Sundered Angel,
The One and Only
Ares Webboard Moderator, and all-around Nice Guy

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Technically a dot on a graph is a singularity. "Singularity" is not synonymous with "Black Hole" (as "Gateship" is not synonymous with "Battlecruiser")

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
-Alduran Outlaw Rick Blazer
StarLance

Well, I made up that whole liquid armour thing, and I just thought it would be a cool idea. The actual hull is just as slug describes it, the liquid thing would have to be simply a last line of defence, in case something actually manages to penetrate the hull, the ship wouldn't lose pressure. The automated machines that repair the hull were another total fabrication by me, that just seemed like a reasonable thing to have on ship so large, they're just simple arms on rails that drive back and forth sealing hull breaches, and repairing minor damage. Also, any decent sized ship has to have internal bulkheads, and hatches that remain sealed when the ship is cleared for action(much like modern naval vessels, the Cole didn't sink instantly, did it?) Sorry if I pissed you off with that, Slug

Sorry, Slug. I was just saying what I understood from "The Buildup." I guess I should have waited for you. Sorry, again.

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"You can get much further with kind words and a loaded gun than you can with kind words alone."
- Al Capone

I knew I was wrong somewhere. When I meant shatter liquid armor, I meant when it was frozen. Bad typing on my part. But now I know what the StarLance does have for armor. I just thought that when Captain Pharris pulled himself through the armor and when it described how the armor had resealed itself I thought it must be liqiud, since no solid material can reform.

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*cough*JELL-O*cough*

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
-Alduran Outlaw Rick Blazer
StarLance

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I can back up Slug here. If the freezing point is below the coldest temperature normal space can get, a little pod wouldn't do anything. The material wouldn't be below the freezing point, therefore, the armor would not freeze. Furthermore, it would be very difficult to get something that is below the cold temperatures of space, and I doubt most of the races at the time of the battle were capable of that. Even if they could, there would be many pods to get through. One pod wouldn't be able to freeze an 11 kilometer ship. To freeze something, according to many of my science teachers, all the molucules in the liquid have to be at the freezing point (they don't go below until it actually starts freezing).

Sorry Zell, your suggustion was bombed.

Slug, you said something about outfitting my ship with a Salrillian chronon (sp?) cannon because it would be a weapon that could make it past the shields. Is that why Sargatanus destroyed your fleet so easily?

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With war there is great amounts of death. Men and women make themselves known, doing dangerous feats in their attempt to become heroes.
Some succeed, some don't...

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*gasp* You don't know what we are thinking?

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With war there is great amounts of death. Men and women make themselves known, doing dangerous feats in their attempt to become heroes.
Some succeed, some don't...

Quote

Wait a second, Jello is in between liquid and solid stages. That is why it jiggles like it does.

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With war there is great amounts of death. Men and women make themselves known, doing dangerous feats in their attempt to become heroes.
Some succeed, some don't...

Jello is technically an irreversable colloid, like eggs. Anything solid but squishy (humans, toothpaste, ooblek) is probably a colloid.

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*Error: target is violating the laws of physics*
*Error: target is locally exceeding c*
*Error: unable to determine if target exists or not*
*Error: target cannot be hit*

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(For those of you who don't know, the Chronon Gun is the main weapon on a Salrilian Heavy Destroyer)
Well, it opertates on the same principle as the chronokinetic blast but on a muuuuch smaller scale. It affects time less, and the flux is so little you can actually see the singularities. They can pass pretty much straight through ablative shielding so that's why Sargatanus is where he is now. Alive.

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
-Alduran Outlaw Rick Blazer
StarLance

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I did not say that. I had a radical plan of bouncing around your disruptor shots which got reflected by percision timing and hit the cheap StarLance clones. I assume that the strength of the disruptor cannons is fairly constant from ship to ship, but when it comes to armor and other defensive qualities, some universes may have cut corners a little. (and my plan of bouncing around shots isn't any more outlandish than neutron star armor or chronokinetic cannons.)

And maybe the fleet decided to pick a few targets and pound them rather than firing at random dreadnought. This, when combined with some heavier firepower could take a few of the StarLance clones out quickly.

And BTW, we cannot ruin your universe unless we a) hack into your computer for the sole purpose of changing the data in your StarLance files, or somehow hack into your head and change your memories and thought patterns. Your universe is under your control alone. We can make assumptions and speculations, but they don't mean ****. The only thing you would gain by scrapping it would be a whole lot of bitterness from us.

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Throughout their history these "unenlightened" beings have continually opposed and fought abuses of power wrought by their own bretheren. We, as the prophets would do well to learn from these Humans.
-Final statement of the Salrilian reformist Sirthis shortly before his execution.

I take that back. I was in a very bad mood when I posted that, Sargatanus. I'm sorry.

You had huge ships with firepower that actually counted against the dreadnauts. And I must have skipped over and misinterpreted that part about you bouncing the disruptor blasts. Heh, I shoulda read more closely. I recall that, but the rest stands.

This topic will only make people angry so I'm closing it.

Your friendly tyrant,
Slug

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
-Alduran Outlaw Rick Blazer
StarLance