Three things:
First: the ability for ANYTHING to pump gas is limited by the pressure of the gas it is trying to draw in, thus if you start at 1 atm, the cylinder you are drawing the gas into (say an engine) can at best have 1 atm of gas within it, the next cycle it will have less gas available to draw out and thus the efficency drops.
Getting a 'perfect vacuum' is an ideal environment for physics experiments, however it is also said that nature abhors a vacuum, and I should point out that EVERYTHING has a partial pressure.
If you live in a skyscraper made of steel, you are breathing in iron vapours, live in a wooden house? you are breathing wood vapour.

Second:
Magnetic clamps are less an idea regarding catapults, than a versatile and adaptable means for recovering and deploying small craft without such ships bouncing around in their bays/deployment tunnels like beans in an empty tin can. Think the aircraft carriers elevators with the landing wires incorporated into the same design.

Third:
When loading and unloading various materials, it is typically easier and safer to work inside a pressurised environment, which was the basis of my idea for the pressurised hanger system.
I'll admit having your fighters in vacuum environment for normal combat deployment would be beneficial, and Arioch's suggestion would provide a sensible means to maintain those craft without needing to enter a pressurised hanger space, so I applaud it!
Still I am not a big fan of 'adaptable tunnel' connections between starships, you really need seriously strong connections to make an easy to use system, and even then, orientation would have to be matched to prevent awkward bits where the emperor might have to crawl through a down/up tunnel between two starships to get off her personal yacht onto her primary warship!

if it works, it is not stupid.
If it is practical, it is not awkward.

There are devices created to clean the inside of bottles, called bottle brushes.
For the life of me I consider them one of the most practical but most awkward to actually use items I have ever had to utilise, in particular I find them unbelievably cumbersome when trying to clean bottles with narrow mouths, so much so in fact, I typically dispose of unwanted water bottles rather than go through the difficult effort to clean out the inside properly.

Spending a good half hour trying to get the space shuttle to line up with the connector to the international space station is awkward, yet the link itself is based around being the most practical design that can be adapted to suit a wide variety of other space craft, with the same overall frustration.

I also know of some gate designs which are very easy to use, in no way are the awkward, however the hours you would spend trying to make one of these things work properly makes them at best horribly impractical in terms of making and design, but they are somewhat elegant when you actually utilise them.

Incidentally I have seen a better bottle cleaning product, but I doubt I know anyone willing to fork out 120 dollars for a high pressure bottle cleaning system. (for domestic use anyway)

Connecting the ramps shouldn't be all that difficult. You have your robotic ramp and a small shuttle, which are both fastened to the same object. The ramp is told to connect to the standard connection point on the shuttle, which it does. At worst, when the end of the ramp nears it's target, the action might transfer to a second stage that handles detailed movements. We're talking about (at the worst) car factory positioning technology here, WE could do this with the proper equipment. It doesn't require a new connector technology, the trick is entirely in the 'corridor' that connects the lock with the main body of the host ship. If this is too complex to work, then so are things like the Canadarm. The only passingly difficult thing to deal with is maintaining the air-tightness of the joints, which is a challenge, but probably something that WE have the materials for. Connecting ramps are easy, efficient, and quick, look at the average airplane passenger ramp for a low-tech prototype.

The new character is cuuuuute.

Not so sure she's new, looks an awful lot like Shoe Girl with her hair down.

possibly shoe girl, but there seems to be differences, eyebrow and hair color comes to mind.

This is different girl. Ship of that size should have couple of cabin boys er... girls.
And I think she is having his new space uniform.

Officer:Now take off your clothes. Slowly.

Hm. Could be a uniform, but looks more to me like a backpack of some sort. I wonder what it contains. Is it plot-relevant? Or is this just some random character who happens to run into the party? (I've got five bucks riding on "Alex tries to flirt with her and is violently rebuffed," just because he's silly enough to try it, although considering he's the protagonist I will also propose "No permanent injuries sustained.")

And, like many of Arioch's character designs, she is incredibly cuuuute. I mean, even Stillstorm can be cute. Is there a single non-cute character in Outsider at all? (Discounting the Umiak, of course, although some will make a case for them anyways.)

nice update and Arioch LIVES ( sorry had to say it )

but getting back to WIP, I don't know why but that characters hair style is very familiar to me . . . can;t quiet remember where I've seen it argh.

...Eloree from Our Intrepid Crew?

I was about to say! The WIP update has a touch of MK01's art to it! Very nice.

Is that Cloud with a different hair style or another Loroi?

thanks Arioch, thank you thank you thank you thank you, you made my day I knew its was familiar hehe

Arioch, you are such a cock tease. Like a woman who leads you on with a wink and a little leg... only this lasts for months

So exactly like a woman then, lol.

i see what you did here!

and what exactly are you insinuating ? I figured its was eloree, on my own !, about 24 hours after I saw the image. the old brain was farting for that long and the gases finally parted just as I got online on the forums.

believe or not, its your choice Karst45, but that is the truth of the matter. No secondary motives, no secret e-mails or covert messages . . . nothing I do not take claim any part of nor any fore knowledge of this cameo.

.....telepanties....

actually i was quoting arioch, your were just a collateral damage!


and trying to find some meaning in what i said is falling into my trap!!

yes I'll take full responsiblity for that one, an unfortunate typo that work out in the end



ah but the first step in avoiding a trap is to know that it is their. hear that tapping and clicking noise, I'm breaking out of the cell Karst heheh

but back to WIP: now I'll wait and see if their is a outsider cameo on "our intrepid crew"

Don't think OIC is sufficiently out of material, inspiration or time to need a cameo just jet.. At least I hope it isn't. But then in a spaceport full of alien alien creatures and Umiak or Basram or the like might not be out of place. That repetitive bit wasn't a stutter.

hey I'm not trying to pressure OIC for a cameo or something. I respect the artist has his own story to tell and its up to him to decide weather or not to include cameos.

but it as you said Mikk, it would be interesting to see ( much later on)