page 196: Crossfire

[GeoModder]

Also... it's an abstraction. Don't tell me the Queen isn't actually the most powerful unit on real battlefields.

Depends how many warriors she beds. A real morale booster.

[Turrosh Mak]

Also... it's an abstraction. Don't tell me the Queen isn't actually the most powerful unit on real battlefields.

Depends how many warriors she beds. A real morale booster.

It's good to be the king

[QuakeIV]

When you're in orbit, you can't just drop a rock to hit a target on the planet below... the rock stays in orbit with you. From orbital velocity, it takes more energy to drop to the center of the gravity well than it does to escape it. And to do so, you need to slow down, not speed up.

Also... it's an abstraction. Don't tell me the Queen isn't actually the most powerful unit on real battlefields.

Although thats true, In practice its very cheap because you don't actually need to cancel out your entire velocity, you just need to do enough to impinge off of the surface (or perhaps the atmosphere).

e: Also bi-elliptic is generally slightly more efficient than just a straightforward descent (just takes way longer). If you can put a kick rocket onto your rock to punt it back down at its apoapsis, then its fairly cheap and also falls a lot further before landing.

[Arioch]

Although thats true, In practice its very cheap because you don't actually need to cancel out your entire velocity, you just need to do enough to impinge off of the surface (or perhaps the atmosphere).

Earth re-entry is easy because all you have to do is catch the edge of the atmosphere, and drag does the rest of the work for you.

The Parker solar probe that is being sent into close orbit around the Sun took the biggest rocket available and will take seven years of orbital shenanigans with Venus to decrease its orbital radius by less than 1 AU. The Perseverance probe launched on a much smaller rocket and arrived at Mars in seven months, an increase of orbital radius also of less than 1 AU.

[QuakeIV]

Earth reentry is easy-er due to the atmosphere, but any similarly sized body will generally let you adjust your orbit to intersect with the surface a long time before you kill your full orbital velocity, unless you are at a very high altitude in which case its fairly cheap to zero out in the first place.

Trajectories relating to the sun aren't really comparable to dealing with planets because planets tend to be rather somewhat lower in mass (circa a factor of 330,000 for earth) so the gravitational attraction is a lot stronger and the subsequent orbit much higher velocity. The same thing still applies to the sun, its much easier to catch its outer edge than to fully zero out your velocity, its just so massive that that is still a huge amount of effort.

[icekatze]

hi hi

Earth reentry is easy-er due to the atmosphere, but any similarly sized body will generally let you adjust your orbit to intersect with the surface a long time before you kill your full orbital velocity...

I'm not sure what you mean by "kill your full orbital velocity," but hitting targets in orbit or on the ground never requires matching orbital velocity. Hitting targets in orbit only requires firing straight up and intersecting the orbit before it comes back down again.

[Krulle]

Kessler events, anyone?

Nice way to lock a whole population up, and take the planet out of the war efforts of the opponent.

[CrimsonFALKE]

But can it play starcraft 20000

[kiwi]

Err, let’s keep in mind that it’s a modern skin on a classic game,l. You don’t see people arguing that a real knight can ride in a straight bloody line.

Also, game design is hard. There are lots of objectives (eg coherent theme, balance between strategies, fairness between players) and constraints (no big exploits, complexity within reasonable limits*) and I certainly wouldn’t have the patience for it. So let’s go easy on Arioch and not search for holes, yes?

Edit: oh, and hopefully it should be fun / satisfying.

* I’m looking at you, Twilight Imperium

[QuakeIV]

hi hi

Earth reentry is easy-er due to the atmosphere, but any similarly sized body will generally let you adjust your orbit to intersect with the surface a long time before you kill your full orbital velocity...

I'm not sure what you mean by "kill your full orbital velocity," but hitting targets in orbit or on the ground never requires matching orbital velocity. Hitting targets in orbit only requires firing straight up and intersecting the orbit before it comes back down again.

I mean in terms of de-orbiting objects to strike whatever it is you are orbiting.

[Hālian]

But can it play starcraft 20000

Or worse, Crysis.

[Dan Wyatt]

I notice that the earlier incarnations had the capture target on an elevated hill, but now it looks like it's a lowered gravity well instead, maybe?

The traditional form of the game represents a fortress on a hill; the "modern" version represents a planet in a gravity well. The mechanics are the same in both versions.

Arioch, what is the closest equivalent of a turn-based wargame like the "Crossfire" game in our timeline? And I don't mean the 90's Crossfire boardgame

[Dan Wyatt]

But can it play starcraft 20000

Or worse, Crysis.

*AHEM....
How about, DWARF FORTRESS

[Arioch]

I notice that the earlier incarnations had the capture target on an elevated hill, but now it looks like it's a lowered gravity well instead, maybe?

The traditional form of the game represents a fortress on a hill; the "modern" version represents a planet in a gravity well. The mechanics are the same in both versions.

Arioch, what is the closest equivalent of a turn-based wargame like the "Crossfire" game in our timeline? And I don't mean the 90's Crossfire boardgame

Chess.

[CrimsonFALKE]

But can it play starcraft 20000

Or worse, Crysis.

I wonder will the Historians be able to play that..

[Werra]

They're a Doom wad that went too far.

[inxsi]

But can it play starcraft 20000

Or worse, Crysis.

I wonder will the Historians be able to play that..

And this solves the mystery of why human-loroi contact must be stopped. The Historian construct doesn't want anyone to realize how much of the Tempest's processing power it is using playing human video games.

"I swear, we just put in more RAM. Why is it slower than ever?"

[Hālian]

The traditional form of the game represents a fortress on a hill; the "modern" version represents a planet in a gravity well. The mechanics are the same in both versions.

Arioch, what is the closest equivalent of a turn-based wargame like the "Crossfire" game in our timeline? And I don't mean the 90's Crossfire boardgame

Chess.

I kinda wanna make a physical Crossfire set now. Just gotta find some Heroscape terrain and a 3D printer…

[Arioch]

Arioch, what is the closest equivalent of a turn-based wargame like the "Crossfire" game in our timeline? And I don't mean the 90's Crossfire boardgame

Chess.

I kinda wanna make a physical Crossfire set now. Just gotta find some Heroscape terrain and a 3D printer…

I bought a bunch of cheap chess pieces, and I'm going to print out a board and do some playtesting with family members.

Later in the story, there is a Crossfire match using a fancy traditional set, with a hill-shaped board with pegholes, and stylized pieces in the ancient theme. I may end up building the set in 3D to make the scene easier to render, and if so, it may be possible to 3D print actual pieces.

[Dan Wyatt]

Chess.

I kinda wanna make a physical Crossfire set now. Just gotta find some Heroscape terrain and a 3D printer…

I bought a bunch of cheap chess pieces, and I'm going to print out a board and do some playtesting with family members.

Later in the story, there is a Crossfire match using a fancy traditional set, with a hill-shaped board with pegholes, and stylized pieces in the ancient theme. I may end up building the set in 3D to make the scene easier to render, and if so, it may be possible to 3D print actual pieces.

Awesome!!