New use for really old tech?

[TheBrain]

I was just thinking of cutting edge research the Imperium and others might be carrying on and a thought came to me for a sort of hybrid development of proven and cutting edge technologies. First off the cutting edge, black globe generators now we all now the problem once anybody sees a ship drop off or start to flicker on sensors everyone thinks "ooh a blackglobe better pump weapons into it and watch the pretty and expensive explosion it makes when the capacitors overload."
Now for the proven/hybrid tech what if you used a black globe generator to act as the as part of fusion reactor? The globe replaces all the usual bulky/massive reactor sheilding saving on volume and mass, and since it absorbs all EM energy even the usual byproduct waste radiation is converted to useful energy increasing efficiency. Additionally since the designer knows the output of the reactor the globe's capacitors can be built to specs eliminatining the overload=big explosion weakness.

 

[veltyen]

I was just thinking of cutting edge research the Imperium and others might be carrying on and a thought came to me for a sort of hybrid development of proven and cutting edge technologies. First off the cutting edge, black globe generators now we all now the problem once anybody sees a ship drop off or start to flicker on sensors everyone thinks "ooh a blackglobe better pump weapons into it and watch the pretty and expensive explosion it makes when the capacitors overload."
Now for the proven/hybrid tech what if you used a black globe generator to act as the as part of fusion reactor? The globe replaces all the usual bulky/massive reactor sheilding saving on volume and mass, and since it absorbs all EM energy even the usual byproduct waste radiation is converted to useful energy increasing efficiency. Additionally since the designer knows the output of the reactor the globe's capacitors can be built to specs eliminatining the overload=big explosion weakness.

There is a massive increase in efficiency for fusion reactors around TL15.

Might indeed be exactly this.

 

[Gadrin]

now the problem once anybody sees a ship drop off or start to flicker on sensors everyone thinks "ooh a blackglobe better pump weapons into it and watch the pretty and expensive explosion it makes when the capacitors overload."

As a GM I'd differentiate between Player Knowledge (which means they know the stuff in the books) versus Character Knowledge (which means they only know what they've been exposed to).

So if the PCs have extensive knowledge of how a Black Globe works then that scenario makes sense, otherwise it's < buzzer > You Can't Do That ! from the GM.

It rapidly becomes: "Our weapons have no effect!"


>

 

[ThunderChilde]

Three comments.
One: If the state of understanding improves at TL16, it may be a key part of what makes Anti-matter power plants both feasable and safe.

Two: An easy fix in the other direction is to say the understanding and the state of the art has led to some spectacular and expensive failures to date. In theory it should work, in practice, not so far.:toast:

Three: It is an astounding breakthrough and at the moment has rendered all fleets in existance obselete.

I personally have never really been a fan of this adoption from Niven's universe. I usually implement a shield tech that acts as a small armour bonus with fringe benes for radiatiion and particle protection.