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[Hajo]

Since a long while I had been working on a list of equipment for a space combat simulation game - I knew I'll never make it, but it was fun now and then to work on this list anyways.

Today I have decided to publish the list for everyones inspiration

http://www.funkelwerk.de/forum/index.php?topic=81.0

Many of the ideas in that list are not original designs. Most are refined/modified ideas that I picked up somewhere, some seem pretty original to me, at least I cannot remember that I read or heard about them before, but knowing me, every idea of mine has had some influence from outside. I still hope the list is helpful and interesting.

Also, if someone has additional ideas, and wants to share them, feel free to post them in the thread, or tell me about them, so that I can include them once I have time to update the list. Of course you'll get full credits for your ideas.

[jisou-kishi]

awesome list but what of em based weapons?  you know like em pulse grenades things to that effect. mainly used to disable computers without destroying the targeted ship. oh and any thoughts on Tesla's death ray?

[Hajo]

Right, EMP based devices are completely missing. I know of two uses, to blind enemy sensors, and to disable the guidance of homing missiles. I'd assume computers inside a ship are shielded enough that only a very strong EMP can destroy them, but it's also an option to consider.

I'm not sure if the tesla technology works in vacuum. If I understood right, it needed surfaces to guide the power. But it is a nice buzzword for sure, and definitely can be made into some interesting device

Thank you for the ideas!

Edit:

Added EMP notes and back-link: http://www.funkelwerk.de/forum/index.php?topic=81.msg753#msg753

[Mikademus]

If you're interested in an quite exhaustive set, grab a copy of the GURPS 4th ed (I think is the latest) rules. There are also four(!) special GURPS rulebooks on space and spaceships! They come with ridiculously exhaustive equipment lists and discussions.

[nihilocrat]

Neat lists, I'm kind-of-sort-of making a space combat sim game, but I've kept stuff pretty simple for now (kinetic weapons only, no shields).

One thing I was thinking I might want to add is "active shielding", in which you've got to actually put your shields up to actively block projectiles, but can only do so for a short time. I think the capacitor stuff would kind of go in line with this. Ultimately I can justify any design decision in my space sim with "because videogames" but it doesn't hurt to have this.

[Hajo]

Active shielding is a nice idea. In some sci-fi novels they went as far as to have faster-than-light scanners and computing devices to pick up the signal from a fired weapon, and put up a shield segment just where the beam would hit.

In an action game, this is definitely something to keep the players busy, and also to give people with twitch-reactions a good feeling of success with the game.

Shields in literature seem to come in two flavours - the one shield is loaded, and will be depleted over time. It recovers only slowly, if at all in a battle.

The other sort of shield needs power to sustain hits, and as long as energy supplies and projectors can deliver the power, the shield will hold. That was the design where the capacitors came into play ... without capacitors it's very similar to the first shield design.

Personally I like it if technology in a game or novel has some "reasonable" sounding explanations (at least nothing that is obviously wrong), but of course almost everything goes with creative explanations.

Ascendency had "magic-technological" devices, if I rememebr right. Those didn't require any explanations, they were just magic enough

[nihilocrat]

Various technologies in even hard sci-fi novels might as well just be magic and are inserted more as a plot device to make the universe or plot more interesting. See: ansibles and travel at relativistic speeds. Mass Effect also has various Progenitor technologies that work with no explanation.

[Hajo]

Arthur C. Clarke said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

[offtopic]A little thing that sometimes bother me, is that even nowadays most people can only press the buttons, but don't know how the gadgets work, which they use. And our gadgets become less and less understandable each year ... a while ago engineers were able to repair a good number of things, now they are so miniaturized that they can't be repaired by any means anymore. Just be dumped and manufactured newly, becuase only the manufacturing process can ensure intergrity.

We've become button-press magicians. We can do a whole lot of very amazing things, but we don't undertsand it anymore how it actually works.
[/offtopic]

[Mikademus]

Arthur C. Clarke said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from science.

I have never been of the belief that magic "just works", in fact, the word "arcane" means "difficult and requiring deep study understand" (well, sort of), "arcana" was used more or less as we use "science" today, and an arcanist was oen who dedicated his time to esoteric stuff, that seemed magical to others. So people are not push-button magicians, they're slaves to out arcanist providers (which, come to think of it, might actually have been what you meant...)

[Hajo]

With "push button magicians" I meant people who can push the "on" switch on their TV or cell phone, but have no idea how it works ... and the problem is, that nowadays very few people know how the more advanced technology works, and even less are able to produce or repair it. But maybe it's been like that all the time, and I should not worry.

I didn't mean to think lowly of the "real" magicians. Recent studies show that the effect of medicine (also the effect of a placebo) can be risen by introducing a complex ritual for taking the medicine. Shamen and medical men did it right - they often had medicine that helped, but only a little, and the rituals helped to improve the effect. Psychology was neglected too long in medicine, it seems.

Also, thanks for explaining "arcane". I didn't know the meaning of that word, and I like to learn more about words - words are often doors to a deeper understanding of things, particularly old words which have changed and lost part of their initial meaning. Often these are also signs how society changed.

Now I wonder if space ships should have medical stations, and if the things we just wrote here should be made into some ideas for that. But I guess cyborg shamen aren't really that helpful. Anyways, thanks for the comments