- Location
- Rockford, USA
- Pronouns
- They/Them
That's the real-life figure, yes. Mass Effect is further along; power generation is their hurdle, at the moment. They've managed to get efficient lasers well enough. Now they need power.
Terminus Quest: A CKII Mass Effect Quest
- Location
- Orlando, Florida
Ah. Speaking of which, I haven't found many sources as to what ships in Mass Effect actually use to generate power. However, I've heard that ships use antimatter for their engines, so some sort of antimatter reactor would be perfectly plausible.
Note: I don't see how a substance that requires electricity to produce dark energy could be used to produce power without breaking the First Law of Thermodynamics.
- Location
- Rockford, USA
- Pronouns
- They/Them
They do not use eezo for power generation. BioWare wasn't that obnoxious with the substance. Power plants are honestly left a little vague, but antimatter reactors are probably plausible. That being said, antimatter was the state of the art for warship engines exclusively, and only by the time of the games. We're two millenia out from that point right now. You use fusion torches for propellant, and fusion reactors for power.
- Location
- Orlando, Florida
Ah. So it seems like some sort of fusion is used for power. Hmm, if we are using Helium-3, that would make gas giants a source of fuel (I think people IRL are thinking about mining Uranus for He-3). Well, thanks for answering my questions! I hope I wasn't being obnoxious.
- Location
- Queensland, Australia
I've never played the games, but I've read the wiki a fair few times, and been around when ME's talked about so I have an idea on what I'm talking about here...
According to said wiki, the Normandy SR-2 has a fusion power plant, and anti-photon thrusters.Further reading makes me think that it may be another case of BioWare not being entirely sure what they were talking about and so added 'cool stuff' in... I'd like someone else to double-check, but I think that this is probably more likely to be what's the actual case... Okay, I looked further, and they may actually have thought this out!
The Normandy's Fusion Reactor is just a standard Sci-Fi Fusion Reactor. The availability of Eezo probably has some disadvantages, and some advantages. In other words, ME Fusion Reactors probably benefit from the use of Eezo to create something similar to 'gravitic pinches/clamps' and the like... which basically work by subjecting the reaction mass to immense pressure, thus reducing the temperatures you need to have the reaction mass react to being fusing from the ludicrous temperatures you need in modern thoughts on fusion reactors... Which both increases how much energy you gain from the reactor compared to how much spent (Unless the method you are using to create the 'pinching' is ridiculously energy inefficient, in which case why are you using it?) and decreases the size/cost/maintenance requirements, etc...
And the Antiproton thrusters are one of three types of main propulsion systems that the ME Races use.
The first are Ion Drives. Extremely energy efficient but pay for that efficiency with the fact that they take a looooong time to build up speed, aka extremely low thrust. On the other hand, this means that fuel costs are basically null, as long as you don't have to care about how long it'll take something to get somewhere. So Ion Drives are basically used solely by automated space- and starships. Things like Automated Cargo Barges, where you set up a loop where they are loaded with one thing at Point A, travel to Point B and swap the cargo with a new thing and then travel back to Point A, swap it for the original thing and start the whole loop again. Basically, forget about using it on manned craft, but it's great for merchants and companies setting up cargo transportation from their mines to the factories.
Then you have the Sci-Fi staple, the Fusion Torch Drive. It's... basically what happens when you have a fusion reactor that produces a lot of really hot plasma as a waste product, and you need to do something with it. Really hot plasma you say? Can't keep it on board? Why, it's perfect for shoving out the back of an engine and pushing the ship along! Great thrust, uses up something you already have to have on-board your starship, doesn't really add any new systems and if you need more fuel, just suck up some gas from a Gas Giant. Not like there's a shortage of those around. Perfect for civilian craft. In short, it means the ship has two fusion reactors, one is tapped for power with the waste fused plasma being added to the exhaust once as much power as possible is tapped from it (Probably, I'm not certain), the other is not tapped for power and instead has all that nice, hot, highly energetic, and thus high thrust providing, plasma sent straight out the back of the ship, pushing it along.
Finally you have the Antiproton thrusters mentioned earlier... And it's kind of mis-named. What they actually are, are more like combined Annihilation/Fusion Torch Drives... They're basically made by taking a civilian Fusion Torch, making it the best Fusion Torch you can get... and then throwing a continuous stream of anti-protons into the reaction chamber of the fusion torch. This produces even more energy! Thus more thrust, allowing warships to manoeuver and travel faster. Great things for a warship! Only problem is you need to either have an extensive industry harvesting natural antimatter particles generated by planetary magnetic fields (of which only Gas Giants probably provide anywhere near useful quantities) or you sent up an even more extensive industry that collects sunlight from a star (really, really close to the star too, you need an enormous amount of power) and then another industry dedicated to taking all that free power and shoving it into particle accelerators to artificially generate antimatter.
Advantage for the second method is it's a lot easier to scale up as demand for antimatter increases, but also a hell of a lot more expensive. Both methods also effectively have 'Shoot Me Now!' signs hanging from them during war, and they aren't exactly easy (or even possible for the second method) to move to somewhere else when the shooting gets close.
-----------------------------As for what we have right now in the quest? I'd say that, as Poptart said, we have less powerful, and less efficient, also most likely larger, fusion reactors and fusion torches powering even our warships. I wouldn't be surprised if the Salarians are playing with using antimatter at the moment, but nowhere close to the sort warships had in the ME Games. I figure that say, by the time of the Krogan Rebellion, Antimatter 'emergency thrusters' might be standard on warships, but not much more. And those might disappear as well as infrastructure gets destroyed and antimatter gets more expensive. By 'emergency thrusters' I basically mean an antimatter explosive on top of a specially reinforced section of the ship's hull. Need to suddenly move your ship because say, that Krogan heavy cruiser's about to line up it's spinal gun with you? Set off one of the 'thrusters' to get an immediate, and entirely unpredictable (For the enemy only, I hope...), adjustment to your course.
Give it a few more centuries (at canon-ME technological progress) and you'll probably see baby versions of the anti-proton thrusters appear. By the time of the Geth, you'll probably have something pretty darn similar to ME Games anti-proton thrusters, just less powerful, more expensive, etc, etc...
And do note Poptart, that the reason that warships are the only people that use antiproton thrusters in the lore, is probably a generalisation, and that other than a bare handful of other roles, they are the only practical users of that sort of drive...
At least until a breakthrough is made making antimatter a hell of a lot cheaper to produce, and someone figures out how to make the heavily increased maintenance requirements of the antiproton thrusters reaction chamber/drives/etc significantly closer to the requirements of normal fusion torches. After all, which are civilians going to use? The thing that gives the best performance but pretty much requires a multisystem government's income to construct and maintain the infrastructure to keep the engine running, not to mention a hell of a lot of maintenance to the engine itself... Or the thing that's 80% as good, can be refuelled anywhere and has no special requirements in maintenance or construction... and needs a lot less maintenance as well...
Hell, even multi-system civilian companies would take the second drive all the time. Means they earn even high profits, and the performance lost isn't particularly noticeable when your competition's using the same engine.
EDIT: And I completely forgot to mention how the fact that the antiproton thrusters need antimatter to work run into legal problems being used by civilians. An entirely different set of difficulties unrelated to the economical difficulties of civilians using them. I mean seriously, it's antimatter! Do you think that the Council/Council Racial Governments are going to let just anyone get their hands on kilograms of antimatter? Hell no! I mean, we already know the Turian Hierarchy has a separatist terrorism problem... due to the fact that they flew a starship into a populated planet... How do you think those guys would react at the possibility of getting their hands on a kilogram of antimatter, even if they needed to smuggle it from outside the Hierarchy...
I know what I think their reaction would be... Absolute... Hysterical... Glee! Well, once they've figured out a way to conceal the magnetic trap that holds the antimatter from detection at least. Doesn't even need an independent power source, just a battery that'll keep the magnetic trap powered for long enough that they can sneak it through the defences into the target zone, get the hell out of there and off that planet, and then wait for the planet-shaking Ka-BOOOOOM!!!!!
And the Council Races are the only ones that can really provide it on the needed scale... The Canon Terminus runs into the problem of all those fights blowing up the stuff building the stuff that gets the antimatter. And if anything is kept intact, I wouldn't be surprised if it encounters a terminal visit from a SPECTRE one day soon...
According to said wiki, the Normandy SR-2 has a fusion power plant, and anti-photon thrusters.
The Normandy's Fusion Reactor is just a standard Sci-Fi Fusion Reactor. The availability of Eezo probably has some disadvantages, and some advantages. In other words, ME Fusion Reactors probably benefit from the use of Eezo to create something similar to 'gravitic pinches/clamps' and the like... which basically work by subjecting the reaction mass to immense pressure, thus reducing the temperatures you need to have the reaction mass react to being fusing from the ludicrous temperatures you need in modern thoughts on fusion reactors... Which both increases how much energy you gain from the reactor compared to how much spent (Unless the method you are using to create the 'pinching' is ridiculously energy inefficient, in which case why are you using it?) and decreases the size/cost/maintenance requirements, etc...
And the Antiproton thrusters are one of three types of main propulsion systems that the ME Races use.
The first are Ion Drives. Extremely energy efficient but pay for that efficiency with the fact that they take a looooong time to build up speed, aka extremely low thrust. On the other hand, this means that fuel costs are basically null, as long as you don't have to care about how long it'll take something to get somewhere. So Ion Drives are basically used solely by automated space- and starships. Things like Automated Cargo Barges, where you set up a loop where they are loaded with one thing at Point A, travel to Point B and swap the cargo with a new thing and then travel back to Point A, swap it for the original thing and start the whole loop again. Basically, forget about using it on manned craft, but it's great for merchants and companies setting up cargo transportation from their mines to the factories.
Then you have the Sci-Fi staple, the Fusion Torch Drive. It's... basically what happens when you have a fusion reactor that produces a lot of really hot plasma as a waste product, and you need to do something with it. Really hot plasma you say? Can't keep it on board? Why, it's perfect for shoving out the back of an engine and pushing the ship along! Great thrust, uses up something you already have to have on-board your starship, doesn't really add any new systems and if you need more fuel, just suck up some gas from a Gas Giant. Not like there's a shortage of those around. Perfect for civilian craft. In short, it means the ship has two fusion reactors, one is tapped for power with the waste fused plasma being added to the exhaust once as much power as possible is tapped from it (Probably, I'm not certain), the other is not tapped for power and instead has all that nice, hot, highly energetic, and thus high thrust providing, plasma sent straight out the back of the ship, pushing it along.
Finally you have the Antiproton thrusters mentioned earlier... And it's kind of mis-named. What they actually are, are more like combined Annihilation/Fusion Torch Drives... They're basically made by taking a civilian Fusion Torch, making it the best Fusion Torch you can get... and then throwing a continuous stream of anti-protons into the reaction chamber of the fusion torch. This produces even more energy! Thus more thrust, allowing warships to manoeuver and travel faster. Great things for a warship! Only problem is you need to either have an extensive industry harvesting natural antimatter particles generated by planetary magnetic fields (of which only Gas Giants probably provide anywhere near useful quantities) or you sent up an even more extensive industry that collects sunlight from a star (really, really close to the star too, you need an enormous amount of power) and then another industry dedicated to taking all that free power and shoving it into particle accelerators to artificially generate antimatter.
Advantage for the second method is it's a lot easier to scale up as demand for antimatter increases, but also a hell of a lot more expensive. Both methods also effectively have 'Shoot Me Now!' signs hanging from them during war, and they aren't exactly easy (or even possible for the second method) to move to somewhere else when the shooting gets close.
-----------------------------
Give it a few more centuries (at canon-ME technological progress) and you'll probably see baby versions of the anti-proton thrusters appear. By the time of the Geth, you'll probably have something pretty darn similar to ME Games anti-proton thrusters, just less powerful, more expensive, etc, etc...
And do note Poptart, that the reason that warships are the only people that use antiproton thrusters in the lore, is probably a generalisation, and that other than a bare handful of other roles, they are the only practical users of that sort of drive...
At least until a breakthrough is made making antimatter a hell of a lot cheaper to produce, and someone figures out how to make the heavily increased maintenance requirements of the antiproton thrusters reaction chamber/drives/etc significantly closer to the requirements of normal fusion torches. After all, which are civilians going to use? The thing that gives the best performance but pretty much requires a multisystem government's income to construct and maintain the infrastructure to keep the engine running, not to mention a hell of a lot of maintenance to the engine itself... Or the thing that's 80% as good, can be refuelled anywhere and has no special requirements in maintenance or construction... and needs a lot less maintenance as well...
Hell, even multi-system civilian companies would take the second drive all the time. Means they earn even high profits, and the performance lost isn't particularly noticeable when your competition's using the same engine.
EDIT: And I completely forgot to mention how the fact that the antiproton thrusters need antimatter to work run into legal problems being used by civilians. An entirely different set of difficulties unrelated to the economical difficulties of civilians using them. I mean seriously, it's antimatter! Do you think that the Council/Council Racial Governments are going to let just anyone get their hands on kilograms of antimatter? Hell no! I mean, we already know the Turian Hierarchy has a separatist terrorism problem... due to the fact that they flew a starship into a populated planet... How do you think those guys would react at the possibility of getting their hands on a kilogram of antimatter, even if they needed to smuggle it from outside the Hierarchy...
I know what I think their reaction would be... Absolute... Hysterical... Glee! Well, once they've figured out a way to conceal the magnetic trap that holds the antimatter from detection at least. Doesn't even need an independent power source, just a battery that'll keep the magnetic trap powered for long enough that they can sneak it through the defences into the target zone, get the hell out of there and off that planet, and then wait for the planet-shaking Ka-BOOOOOM!!!!!
And the Council Races are the only ones that can really provide it on the needed scale... The Canon Terminus runs into the problem of all those fights blowing up the stuff building the stuff that gets the antimatter. And if anything is kept intact, I wouldn't be surprised if it encounters a terminal visit from a SPECTRE one day soon...
-----------------------------
Whhhhyyyyy did I decide to actually research all this and write up a post? Whhyyyyyyy??? I thought it would only be a 300 word thing at most! Instead it's this monster... Oh wait, it was a starship tech discussion, Problem solved!
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KnightDisciple
Brotherhood. Unity. Peace.
- Location
- Midwest, USA
Oddball idea: take the static charge our Eezo drive builds up and dump it into capacitors for laser weapons.
- Location
- Hawaii
If we manage to head down the particle weapons tech tree, perhaps we could adapt the idea of a fusion lance from nuXCOM. Rather than any old ionized particles, the weapon accelerates deuterium and tritium to c-fractional velocities (probably still less than .001% of c, can't be bothered to math at 5am) and on impact (theoretically) triggers a fusion reaction. There's probably a bunch of issues with it, but 5am for me.
- Location
- Orlando, Florida
That's a pretty good summary. I will point out that a fusion torch by itself will produce very little thrust, which depends upon the amount of mass being thrown out of the back and the energy put into it, even though it will have a massive exhaust velocity and therefore be highly efficient. In order to boost thrust to the multiple gees of acceleration needed for combat, you'll need what's referred to as a fusion afterburner. Essentially a ship with a fusion afterburner carries tanks of ordinary propellant such as water or methane and injects said propellant into the fusion torch to be superheated into plasma and thrown out of the engine. Therefore, a warship with a fusion torch would require propellant tanks of methane or water as well as fusion fuel to function, though it could cheat a bit by using EZ to lower the mass of the warship. You can read all about fusion drives here:
Engine List - Atomic Rockets
Now, the "Ion Drives" in ME are probably more like VASIMRs than the Hall Effect thrusters which could only push around a tiny space probe. They still have low thrust, but at least they can actually push a cargo craft around. Finally, antimatter production would be practical if you could build a magnetic scoop around a neutron star or a black hole. Figuring out a way to actually make a functioning engine and reactor out of it is a major engineering challenge though. An intermediate step would be to develop a miniature fusion reactor whose reaction is kickstarted with a bit of antimatter, which could be mounted on sidearms, or create a fusion torch whose reaction can be boosted in emergencies by injecting a bit of antimatter into the reaction.
So... basically the ideas so far are Propulsion, Weaponized Directed Energy, and Energy Conduction/Production?
Query. Would studying the gravitic effects of Ezzo in order to replicate it via more mundane means count as none reaper tech branch? Obviously not the lowering, or increasing mass effect. But the actual gravitational forces that it is suggested to produce? I imagine we can, eventually, make ezzo-less 'anti-gravity' propulsion, 'artificial gravity' deck plates, heck might even manage real inertial dampeners. But more, a stable, regulated gravity sink/pinch could be useful in making true Annies, and use less Ezzo for on board fusion plants. (might still use it for those fusion torches, though really, if we can get Annies, probably won't be using fusion reactors even for that) That's not even counting using that research to build a basis for gravitic shielding, that could lead to projected energy barriers, before eventually combining both for energy shields. That's not even getting into using it (or ezzo for a shortcut for the time being) to make molecular furnaces (oddly enough, the closest to that are game era omni-tools, and I'm almost certain the codex mention nanites being used for fabrication effects instead (too tired to actually dredge through the wiki to find the codex entries)) And that again, isn't even considering the most basic of uses, tractor beams. For a given value of 'tractor' and 'beam' though. More likely if one can project a field around an entity, then it's attractant field on the one doing the pulling, could tractor just about anything. Also something to shortcut using current ezzo models.
And that's just off the top of my sleep addled head.
Query. Would studying the gravitic effects of Ezzo in order to replicate it via more mundane means count as none reaper tech branch? Obviously not the lowering, or increasing mass effect. But the actual gravitational forces that it is suggested to produce? I imagine we can, eventually, make ezzo-less 'anti-gravity' propulsion, 'artificial gravity' deck plates, heck might even manage real inertial dampeners. But more, a stable, regulated gravity sink/pinch could be useful in making true Annies, and use less Ezzo for on board fusion plants. (might still use it for those fusion torches, though really, if we can get Annies, probably won't be using fusion reactors even for that) That's not even counting using that research to build a basis for gravitic shielding, that could lead to projected energy barriers, before eventually combining both for energy shields. That's not even getting into using it (or ezzo for a shortcut for the time being) to make molecular furnaces (oddly enough, the closest to that are game era omni-tools, and I'm almost certain the codex mention nanites being used for fabrication effects instead (too tired to actually dredge through the wiki to find the codex entries)) And that again, isn't even considering the most basic of uses, tractor beams. For a given value of 'tractor' and 'beam' though. More likely if one can project a field around an entity, then it's attractant field on the one doing the pulling, could tractor just about anything. Also something to shortcut using current ezzo models.
And that's just off the top of my sleep addled head.
GhostKing 666
Bringing Nightmares to life evey minute
Even if you can make magic scifi plasma weapons like Halo you run into the issue that all it takes to render them useless in starship combat is for a ship to reconfigure their kinetic barrier into a spherical form rather then the standard hull hugging form. Plasma weapons do their damage from their heat not their kinetic impact, and the vacuum of space makes a very good insulator(it's kinda the main reason why heat is such an important and dangerous issue during ship to ship combat). Unless you have a way to shoot plasma at speeds significantly greater then a mass accelerator round, a plasma projectile isn't going to be having the same type of kinetic impact behind it that a solid projectile.
And thus you end up with a weapon that fires a slower, less dense projectile compared to a mass accelerator round, whose main form of doing damage(the heat) can be easily blocked by a combination of kinetic barriers and vacuum.
Laser weapons are used in Mass Effect but they have issues, heat being only one of them.
A starship's's General ARea Defense Integration Anti-spacecraft Network (GARDIAN) consists of anti-missile and anti-fighter laser turrets on the exterior hull. Because these are under computer control, the gunnery control officer needs to do little beyond turn the system on and designate targets as hostile.
Technical Considerations
Since lasers move at light speed, they cannot be dodged by anything moving at subluminal speeds. Unless the beam is aimed poorly, it will always hit its target. In the early stages of a battle, GARDIAN fire is 100% accurate. It is not 100% lethal, but it doesn't have to be. Damaged fighters must break off for repairs.
Lasers are limited by diffraction. The beam 'spreads out', decreasing the energy density (watts per m2) the weapon can place on a target. Any high-powered laser is a short-ranged weapon. GARDIAN networks have another limitation - heat. Weapons-grade lasers require cool-down time, during which heat is transferred to sinks or radiators. As lasers fire, heat builds within them, reducing damage, range and accuracy.
In Combat
Fighters attack in swarms. The first few will be hit by GARDIAN, but as battle continues, the effects of laser overheat will allow the attackers to press ever closer to the ship. Constant use will burn out a laser.
GARDIAN lasers typically operate in infrared frequencies. Shorter frequencies would offer superior stopping power and range, but degradation of focal arrays and mirrors would make them expensive to maintain. Most prefer mechanical reliability over bleeding-edge performance where lives are concerned. Salarians, however, use near-ultraviolet frequency lasers with six times the range, believing that having additional time to shoot down incoming missiles is more important. Similarly, the geth have also been known to use ultraviolet frequency, with one of their dreadnoughts being capable of carving through multiple quarian ships in the battle over Rannoch.
Lasers are not blocked by the kinetic barriers of capital ships (bar the ones employed by the Reapers, whose barriers are capable of blocking them to an extent). However, the range of lasers limits their use to rare 'knife fight'-range ship-to-ship combat.
Deployment
Systems Alliance Frigates are equipped with GARDIAN systems; a Codex entry is gained from examining the gunnery station on the SSV Normandy's bridge. Due to her unique stealth system that allows her to evade enemy contact, the Normandy has not needed to rely on her GARDIAN too heavily as of yet.
The SSV Iwo Jima was also equipped with GARDIAN, which allowed her to destroy an enemy rover on a planet's surface. However, when a mass accelerator cannon was fired at her hull, the GARDIAN was unable to handle so many tiny projectiles fired at short range. Because the Iwo Jima had dropped her kinetic barriers to land, the projectiles ripped through her hull and she was quickly shot down.
GARDIAN laser turrets are also known to be used as ground defenses; their range, accuracy, and power make them effective against the weak, lightly armed, frigate-sized vessels usually employed by pirates and slavers. The Alliance deployed several of these turrets to the colony of Horizon when it was suspected that slavers in the area had been abducting human colonists
Technical Considerations
Since lasers move at light speed, they cannot be dodged by anything moving at subluminal speeds. Unless the beam is aimed poorly, it will always hit its target. In the early stages of a battle, GARDIAN fire is 100% accurate. It is not 100% lethal, but it doesn't have to be. Damaged fighters must break off for repairs.
Lasers are limited by diffraction. The beam 'spreads out', decreasing the energy density (watts per m2) the weapon can place on a target. Any high-powered laser is a short-ranged weapon. GARDIAN networks have another limitation - heat. Weapons-grade lasers require cool-down time, during which heat is transferred to sinks or radiators. As lasers fire, heat builds within them, reducing damage, range and accuracy.
In Combat
Fighters attack in swarms. The first few will be hit by GARDIAN, but as battle continues, the effects of laser overheat will allow the attackers to press ever closer to the ship. Constant use will burn out a laser.
GARDIAN lasers typically operate in infrared frequencies. Shorter frequencies would offer superior stopping power and range, but degradation of focal arrays and mirrors would make them expensive to maintain. Most prefer mechanical reliability over bleeding-edge performance where lives are concerned. Salarians, however, use near-ultraviolet frequency lasers with six times the range, believing that having additional time to shoot down incoming missiles is more important. Similarly, the geth have also been known to use ultraviolet frequency, with one of their dreadnoughts being capable of carving through multiple quarian ships in the battle over Rannoch.
Lasers are not blocked by the kinetic barriers of capital ships (bar the ones employed by the Reapers, whose barriers are capable of blocking them to an extent). However, the range of lasers limits their use to rare 'knife fight'-range ship-to-ship combat.
Deployment
Systems Alliance Frigates are equipped with GARDIAN systems; a Codex entry is gained from examining the gunnery station on the SSV Normandy's bridge. Due to her unique stealth system that allows her to evade enemy contact, the Normandy has not needed to rely on her GARDIAN too heavily as of yet.
The SSV Iwo Jima was also equipped with GARDIAN, which allowed her to destroy an enemy rover on a planet's surface. However, when a mass accelerator cannon was fired at her hull, the GARDIAN was unable to handle so many tiny projectiles fired at short range. Because the Iwo Jima had dropped her kinetic barriers to land, the projectiles ripped through her hull and she was quickly shot down.
GARDIAN laser turrets are also known to be used as ground defenses; their range, accuracy, and power make them effective against the weak, lightly armed, frigate-sized vessels usually employed by pirates and slavers. The Alliance deployed several of these turrets to the colony of Horizon when it was suspected that slavers in the area had been abducting human colonists
Ships in Mass Effect don't use anti-protons for maneuvering thrusters or at least the Systems Alliance doesn't.
Intended for next-generation fighter craft, the Heed Industries Helios Thruster Module propulsion system far outpaces the typical liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen reactions that power a frigate's maneuvering thrusters. By using metastable metallic hydrogen, the Helios boasts a fuel that burns at far greater efficiency than liquid H2/O2. Navigators can execute the numerous small course corrections inherent to any long-distance travel without fear of exhausting the ship's fuel supplies. This net gain extends to forward impulse as well: a ship powered by antiprotons can coast temporarily using the Helios to reach an inferior but highly sustainable speed. Such efficiency lowers antiproton consumption, a constant concern for any warship.
When a Helios-propelled ship must refuel, however, it typically relies on a large carrier or nearby planetary factory to synthesize the metallic hydrogen. This process uses extremely dense mass effect fields to create the metal under pressures of over a million Earth atmospheres, an activity most safely done while planetside. While that process may seem like a drawback compared to "skimmer ships" that can gather hydrogen and oxygen from anywhere in the universe, the combat superiority of the Helios' maneuvering capabilities is often a worthwhile trade-off. The same efficiency that allows for microburn course correction can power rapid bursts of motion. Once a pilot becomes used to the ship's new energetic responses, she can easily put the ship wherever and at whatever angle she desires.
When a Helios-propelled ship must refuel, however, it typically relies on a large carrier or nearby planetary factory to synthesize the metallic hydrogen. This process uses extremely dense mass effect fields to create the metal under pressures of over a million Earth atmospheres, an activity most safely done while planetside. While that process may seem like a drawback compared to "skimmer ships" that can gather hydrogen and oxygen from anywhere in the universe, the combat superiority of the Helios' maneuvering capabilities is often a worthwhile trade-off. The same efficiency that allows for microburn course correction can power rapid bursts of motion. Once a pilot becomes used to the ship's new energetic responses, she can easily put the ship wherever and at whatever angle she desires.
Ardyn
The true Chosen King
- Location
- Insomnia
Since we have been on the topic of energy weapons being possible and viable in the future there are three things I wanted to bring up.
1. Shielding, if we made energy weapons it would drive others to develop there own or steal and reverse engineer ours, so after we develop the weapons, some form of energy shielding should be a priority.
2. Alternative methods of FTL, I don't like how easy it is to bottleneck us because we are reliant on the relay sistem, so an alternative FTL would be a huge advantage in terms of war mobility.
3. Army development.
We have mostly focused on ship on ship combat, but a invasion wether we are the invaders or defenders, is inevitable if we want to defend or capture a planet, so we should definitely try to develop some army tec to make our troops supperior to our enemies and neighbors. One idea I had was power armor.
1. Shielding, if we made energy weapons it would drive others to develop there own or steal and reverse engineer ours, so after we develop the weapons, some form of energy shielding should be a priority.
2. Alternative methods of FTL, I don't like how easy it is to bottleneck us because we are reliant on the relay sistem, so an alternative FTL would be a huge advantage in terms of war mobility.
3. Army development.
We have mostly focused on ship on ship combat, but a invasion wether we are the invaders or defenders, is inevitable if we want to defend or capture a planet, so we should definitely try to develop some army tec to make our troops supperior to our enemies and neighbors. One idea I had was power armor.
GhostKing 666
Bringing Nightmares to life evey minute
Oh sure, can you mention any real life pieces of physics that would allow for none-eezo based artificial gravity and gravity manipulation? Because unless PoptartProdigy makes this a crossover, then the only method for things like artificial gravity and ftl is the use of eezo. And eezo itself does not generate gravity, when an electric current gets run through eezo it produces a field that alters the mass of anything inside it and that can be used to manipulate gravity but eezo doesn't manipulate gravity directly.
And another bit, eezo is not Reaper tech, the Reapers do not have a monopoly on eezo, they did not create eezo artificially and scatter it across the galaxy as part of some weird tech trap, nor did they leave Prothean beacons specifically intact so that other races would copy them, that's not how the Reaper's trap actually works.
The Reapers did not create eezo, they did not leave booby trapped Prothean relics behind. All they did was create the Citadel and the Mass Relay network, something so damn bloody useful that a race would have to be moronic to not use it. And thus allowing the Reapers to know where they are and have control over their movements.
Eezo is a naturally occurring material in the Mass Effect universe, one that while rare in the sense that it's not exactly in the top 10 most common elements of the galaxy list, is still common enough for a galactic civilization of trillions to have access to all the eezo it could ever want and exploit the properties of eezo to the limits of their abilities. And while many races have Prothean relics, unlike the Mars Archive most of those are just that, damaged, decayed relics that might offer a useful insight but still requires the modern races to do the R&D legwork to make use of it(even the Beacon Archive on Thessia is less useful then fanon likes to think. Right now the thing is still shutdown, waiting for a Prothean(or Shepard) to show up before the VI controlling it will let itself be turned on and it's contents datamined).
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- Source of confusion itself.
I wonder if we could branch out from lasers and particle canons, to some kind of FTL engine. It might make us a bit of a one trick pony, having weapons and propulsion based on the same thing, but mass effect tech does that too and this is quicker that way.
Ardyn
The true Chosen King
- Location
- Insomnia
perhaps the research into a engine capable of producing the energy for a DEW might allow us to develop a energy intensive form of FTL, but other than that i can't really think of a FTL that utilizes lasers.
though i wonder if perhaps we can develop lasers to the point of Hard Light technology.
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That would also provide shielding technology.
Ardyn
The true Chosen King
- Location
- Insomnia
the powerful engine or Hard Light tech?
Hard Light tech would be incredibly versatile in use, as shields for ship and soldiers, weapons that maybe only require exposure to sunlight to reload, perhaps engines that use the same concept to gather energy, and as energy weapons they should have no mass and be able to bypass traditional kinetic barriers that are the norm in mass effect.
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- Source of confusion itself.
The hard light tech.
GhostKing 666
Bringing Nightmares to life evey minute
That depends on just how crazy PoptartProdigy is going to let technology get, or if things are going to remain someone grounded in real life and in mass effect. Frankly I'd prefer that, I get enough of crazy science and ridiculously fast tech growth from that Inheritance of Man mass effect quest. I for one would like to play an actual Mass Effect quest set in the actual Mass Effect setting rather then yet another quest with SUPER SCIENCE, BIGGATONS , EEZO TRAP or finally "Silly Citadel" tropes.
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Well. Developing an alternate to ezo based mass effect tech, is one of the winning conditions. But I wouldn't be worried in your place. If it's a winning condition, it can't be easy to get, so it'l take a while for the realy crazy stuff, in this quest.
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Personally if we want to talk about non-EZ FTL I'm all for the Alcubierre Drive.
GhostKing 666
Bringing Nightmares to life evey minute
Ok no, that doesn't make any fucking sense! In Mass Effect there is no alternative to eezo! It's the only way to get things like artificial gravity and ftl. Hell it's even used in Andromeda, no Reaper shenanigans required. Eezo is not a trap, it's a very useful material with almost countless possible uses(including ones that in Mass Effect cant be done without it), that's in relative abundance when there's a working galactic economy(eezo is not a fuel, it doesn't get used up so between mining new eezo and recycling old eezo there is plenty available). Saying we shouldn't use it and that we need to find an alternative is like saying we shouldn't use iron and that we need to find an alternative to using iron because reasons.
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- Source of confusion itself.
That makes absolute sense. Read The Particulars End Game. It is one of the learning winning conditions.
Besides, I never said we shouldn't use.
Last point, we shouldn't use iron, in many cases. There is a iron alloy called steel. In many cases it's much better than iron, because someone added carbon to it. There is also a lot of other stuff, that is much better than iron, in many situations. If you want to challenge that point, get a cardiac pacemaker, with a casing made from iron. See how that works out for you. Some situations call for other things than the things one already knows, so people invent new things.
Many people claimed that without one thing, some things would be impossible. It was often proven wrong. You compare eezo to iron? I compare it to copper. There might be a real bronze, iron and steel equivalent out there. Why should we not search for it?
If you want to bring cannon and word of god out. Those get always outgrown.
Bronze is a copper alloy is it not? Or is this a suggestion to use a partial E Zero tech, which I would be the most infavor of.
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- Source of confusion itself.
Yes, bronze it's a copper alloy. Yes, this is a suggestion to try out partial E Zero tech.
GhostKing 666
Bringing Nightmares to life evey minute
You cant make steel without iron, which is what I am getting at. Eezo is just a material, a very special and valuable material with immensely useful properties but in the Mass Effect universe is every bit as natural a material as the rest of the Mass Effect periodic table.
When people talk about making no-eezo scifi tech in Mass Effect, they themselves think they are talking about getting out of the "Eezo Trap" that bad ME fanon likes to harp about but what they are actually talking about is pointing at one of the most incredibly useful naturally occurring materials in the ME universe and saying they just want to completely ignore using it either because they blame it for Mass Effect being a classic Space Opera setting(with slow, gradual improvement of scifi technology) and not a Singularity setting(with A.I. super gods everywhere and bullshit clarktech) or out of some stupid power fantasy because technology not based on eezo must be "naturally" superior to eezo using tech(when probably it would just be massively inefficient considering how easy it is to get even a little eezo to be useful) and let them lord their superiority over the Citadel Council.
After reading though more iterations of that type of garbage then I can count, it's little wonder my tolerance for that type of crap has completely withered.