EVE General Discussion

There's something I don't think anyone mentioned here. If this game was realistic you might not even need dedicated weapons.

Consider; to maintain low orbit around the earth (let's say you were chilling out next to hubble) you need to be go about 8km/s. I decide I have an objection to your contiued existance and fly the opposite way round the planet on your orbit. When we meet we have a combined velocity relative to each other of about 16km/s as I fly past you at close range.

At about this time the ratty old sofa I shoved out of the airlock slams into the front of your ship doing about 16km/s. The effect is probably similar to a dreadnaughts railgun.

Kinetic weapons would be awesome in space combat. Your missiles wouldn't even need warheads if you were flying at the target fast enough when you launched them!

Robinson's First Law of space combat
Something hitting at 3 km/sec (kips) delivers kinetic energy broadly equal to its mass in TNT.

Rick Robinson
Robinson's Second Law of space combat
For every kilogram of handwavium you remove from a setting, you add about 10 cubic meters of impossible to maintain plumbing.

Jon's Law, part 1
Any interesting space drive is a weapon of mass destruction. It only matters how long you want to wait for maximum damage.

It goes on to say:

Jon's Law, part 2
Interesting is equal to "whatever keeps the readers from getting bored."

FROM: http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/prelimnotes.php (this site is really really interesting)


Essentially any sufficently interesting drive is indeed the worlds greatest weapon and shield.

Weapon in the sense is that you have a plasma stream(or something stream) that is strong enough to push an aircraft carrier+more at "interesting speeds". Shield in the sense that any object you turn that plasma stream to will be utterly destroyed and redirected. which is why shields/forcefields don't bother me at all in science fiction, because you're just redirecting your sufficiently interesting thrusts in the direction of bad stuff (which also explains why lasers are so darn popular in space since they're more likely to get through those defenses).

Just did some quick math, regarding interceptor warp speed.

At 10au/s it would take only about 7.5 hours to get from Earth to Alpha Centauri.

FTL travel in eve is pretty fast compared to the apollo missions.

With current technology. Who's to say what a few thousand years of R&D might bring? I figure if there's a way we can kill each other in space, we'll find it.