(01-27-2016, 07:32 AM)Surge Wrote:

(01-27-2016, 07:25 AM)Lost Rinoah Wrote: At that point the pilot may as well give someone a hug and eject. (Put all that wild energy to SOME use)  As they'll be left fused afterwards.  Leg will be melted together.  Mech will probably be on it's route to going critical with heat constantly going up and no way to stop it after flushing coolant.

God I'd forgotten about the fusion core. Course even those old mechs that can't fight ammo burns will sooner dump their core than let it go critical. You'd need a total and instantaneous detonation to compromise the core before the computer dumps it, and at that point the meltdown is just fuel in the HEAP fire.

(01-27-2016, 07:48 AM)Lost Rinoah Wrote:

(01-27-2016, 07:32 AM)Surge Wrote: God I'd forgotten about the fusion core. Course even those old mechs that can't fight ammo burns will sooner dump their core than let it go critical. You'd need a total and instantaneous detonation to compromise the core before the computer dumps it, and at that point the meltdown is just fuel in the HEAP fire.

Older ones couldn't dump their core either, mate.  :/

But yeah.  Looong time ago, Somehow jammed 6 PPCs on a thor.  Moment I alpha striked the core blew, lel. 

So yeah.  Remember, during that period flamer arrays were fricking EVIL weapons.  Could just shut heavies down and let everyone else pick em apart like Vultures.  ;P

(01-27-2016, 07:54 AM)Surge Wrote: I don't see anything on Sarna about core dumping being a new feature, just that any Fusion Engine has enough safety measures against a meltdown to make it a virtual non-issue.
"Such dramatic failures are rare, though. It is difficult to sustain the fusion reaction and very easy to shut down. Safety systems or damage to containment coils will almost always shut down the engine before such an explosion occurs. The massive shielding of the engine (in the case of standard fusion engines, this is a tungsten carbide shell that accounts for over 2/3 of the weight of the engine) usually buys the safety systems the milliseconds needed to shutdown the engine when severe damage is inflicted. "

(01-27-2016, 08:42 AM)Lost Rinoah Wrote:

(01-27-2016, 07:54 AM)Surge Wrote: I don't see anything on Sarna about core dumping being a new feature, just that any Fusion Engine has enough safety measures against a meltdown to make it a virtual non-issue.
"Such dramatic failures are rare, though. It is difficult to sustain the fusion reaction and very easy to shut down. Safety systems or damage to containment coils will almost always shut down the engine before such an explosion occurs. The massive shielding of the engine (in the case of standard fusion engines, this is a tungsten carbide shell that accounts for over 2/3 of the weight of the engine) usually buys the safety systems the milliseconds needed to shutdown the engine when severe damage is inflicted. "

Ahh.  Thank you for this knowledge.  Did not know that.  Should have figured, with how we already make our nuclear reactors even today.

Quote:What does a battle rifle have in common with a microwave?
They both go "ping" when they're done.

(01-27-2016, 02:37 PM)OdinYggd Wrote: Oh yeah, fusion isn't so flawlessly clean either. A core breach would go off like a dirty nuke, scattering radioactive isotopes over a wide area.

The common D-D fusion reaction that is being aggressively pursued by most researchers spews a steady stream of neutrons when in operation. Although these neutrons do not participate in the reaction like their fission counterparts do, they cause the reactor body to be transmuted into unstable isotopes that decay again over time.

Fortunately, fusion is nicer than fission because all you have to do to turn it off is release the pressure or lower the temperature, both of which can be done quite quickly at the pressures and temperatures involved.

(01-27-2016, 03:44 PM)Jim_Clonk Wrote:

(01-27-2016, 02:37 PM)OdinYggd Wrote: Oh yeah, fusion isn't so flawlessly clean either. A core breach would go off like a dirty nuke, scattering radioactive isotopes over a wide area.

The common D-D fusion reaction that is being aggressively pursued by most researchers spews a steady stream of neutrons when in operation. Although these neutrons do not participate in the reaction like their fission counterparts do, they cause the reactor body to be transmuted into unstable isotopes that decay again over time.

Fortunately, fusion is nicer than fission because all you have to do to turn it off is release the pressure or lower the temperature, both of which can be done quite quickly at the pressures and temperatures involved.

Also a fusion reactor stops producing high levels of radiation once shut down, unlike fission reactors, in which the fission fuel continues to radiate regardless.

Spoiler

(01-27-2016, 04:15 PM)OdinYggd Wrote:

(01-27-2016, 03:44 PM)Jim_Clonk Wrote: Also a fusion reactor stops producing high levels of radiation once shut down, unlike fission reactors, in which the fission fuel continues to radiate regardless.

No, actually. While turning the reactor off does result in a drastic reduction in how much radiation leaks from it, the entire core assembly has become radioactive itself by neutron bombardment. Thus it will continue to emit potentially dangerous amounts of radiation for several weeks after being shut down as the shorter half-life neutron capture isotopes break down. Long term though it still produces only a fraction of the radiation that a fission core does, and because the reaction stops immediately the cooling system only needs to deal with the thermal mass- there is no long-term decay heat.

(01-27-2016, 05:10 PM)Reks Wrote: I managed to create an actually decently attractive character in Inquisition, in comparison to my normally ghastly ones.

Screencap was a little wonky, though.

Spoiler

[image]

(01-27-2016, 05:10 PM)Reks Wrote: I managed to create an actually decently attractive character in Inquisition, in comparison to my normally ghastly ones.

Screencap was a little wonky, though.

Spoiler

(01-27-2016, 07:29 PM)Shaadaris Wrote:

(01-27-2016, 05:10 PM)Reks Wrote: I managed to create an actually decently attractive character in Inquisition, in comparison to my normally ghastly ones.

Screencap was a little wonky, though.

Spoiler

Very good. Yeah, the more in-depth a character creation system, the more difficult it is to make good looking characters...
and the more fun it is to make intentional abominations. You should see some of my old Soul Calibur 5 creations... Heh.

(01-27-2016, 07:43 PM)SCN-3_NULL Wrote:

(01-27-2016, 07:29 PM)Shaadaris Wrote: Very good. Yeah, the more in-depth a character creation system, the more difficult it is to make good looking characters...
and the more fun it is to make intentional abominations. You should see some of my old Soul Calibur 5 creations... Heh.

Did somebody say intentional abomination?

Double the smashing

(01-27-2016, 02:37 PM)OdinYggd Wrote: Oh yeah, fusion isn't so flawlessly clean either. A core breach would go off like a dirty nuke, scattering radioactive isotopes over a wide area.

The common D-D fusion reaction that is being aggressively pursued by most researchers spews a steady stream of neutrons when in operation. Although these neutrons do not participate in the reaction like their fission counterparts do, they cause the reactor body to be transmuted into unstable isotopes that decay again over time.

Fortunately, fusion is nicer than fission because all you have to do to turn it off is release the pressure or lower the temperature, both of which can be done quite quickly at the pressures and temperatures involved.

(01-28-2016, 04:03 AM)Surge Wrote: Felt good to play men of war with friends again, even if we got literally nowhere and at one point I just flipped on march of cambreadth so I could pretend we were dying heroically or actually going to pull through at some point.