Ask here for explanations of the Battlezone Universe, and the physics nerds (I believe NK1 and I, anybody else?) will try to answer your questions with real-world physics theory :-D
Let's start with power generators.
Converting biometal into energy is much easier than most metals due to its unusual nuclear structure. When it is vapourised and ionised into a plasma, its nucleus becomes unstable. It releases massive amounts of gamma radiation very quickly, decaying almost into nothing. The gamma radiation can be used to generate nuclear power.
Personally, i have always considered power generators (ISDF ones), to use a much more stable power supply system. The rotary core, is actually an enormous electromagnet, all sealed within its large container. The ISDF use the electromagnet and the field it generates to produce electricity.
As for power lungs, i have always considered them to be some sort of solar powered object. They act like some kind of hi-tech solar panel/ray filter, which extracts energy from the sun and converts it into power. The lungs are full of some kind of transparent bio-metal gas which heats up and produces electrical sparks occasionally etc which are collected by the corresponding building.
What about hover tanks? How do they work?
Quote from: AHadley on November 13, 2009, 12:47:16 AM
Ask here for explanations of the Battlezone Universe, and the physics nerds (I believe NK1 and I, anybody else?)
Me :-D
Though probably not to the extent of you two (only done one and a half years of physics)
Quote from: TheJamsh on November 13, 2009, 03:30:11 AM
Personally, i have always considered power generators (ISDF ones), to use a much more stable power supply system. The rotary core, is actually an enormous electromagnet, all sealed within its large container. The ISDF use the electromagnet and the field it generates to produce electricity.
As for power lungs, i have always considered them to be some sort of solar powered object. They act like some kind of hi-tech solar panel/ray filter, which extracts energy from the sun and converts it into power. The lungs are full of some kind of transparent bio-metal gas which heats up and produces electrical sparks occasionally etc which are collected by the corresponding building.
I always thought that lungs drew their power from the atmosphere. Seeing as their called lungs, and I believe I read it somewhere in game.
never looked at it like that. good idea though
Quote from: Arbystrider on November 13, 2009, 03:39:10 AM
What about hover tanks? How do they work?
Well, in the early thirties a man named Thomas Townsend Brown(BB effect) discovered a new form of propulsion later known as "Electrogravitics" which is accomplished by using a high-voltage power source with high-k elements on the front and rear of the craft "manipulating" gravity to lift the an object, or tank in this instance, causing people to think this is "anti-gravity" which it is actually creating your own gravity around an object(that is how you can maneuver in the air or in space).
The tanks and other vehicles in battlezone use what is known as a "flame-jet generator" sometimes multiple.
The Flame-jet generator uses a rocket or jet engine as the base and the generator is at the end, when the engine is turned on the FJG is adding negative ions to the flow of the jet allowing for electrogravitics to take place propelling the craft in virtually any direction only depending on the direction of the positive and negative ions.
This was just a quickie here, although there is an abundance of information out there, so have fun discussing this one! :D
Quote from: TheJamsh on November 13, 2009, 03:30:11 AM
Personally, i have always considered power generators (ISDF ones), to use a much more stable power supply system. The rotary core, is actually an enormous electromagnet, all sealed within its large container. The ISDF use the electromagnet and the field it generates to produce electricity.
I believe I read in some of the game's literature that they were plasma generators.
Also, the propulsion systems (blue flame) are plasma-based. Plasma is used for weaponary in the real world too.
Biometal itself seems to have a natural antigravimetric field of some sort. One theory would say it reflects gravitons. Early craft used this in combination with chemical thrusters to keep craft afloat. By the time of Battlezone II, this as been perfected to keep craft fully in the air and in some rare cases even allows for direct propulsion. It should be noted that from the beginning the Furies have had a better use of this technology then we have yet to achieve.
where is all the literature im obviously missing?
Biometal also has natural E.D.D. (Equal Distribution of Damage) properties. This is why machine gun rounds don't rip through a scout as they would an F16 in real life.
Quote from: Clavin12 on November 13, 2009, 06:21:47 AM
I always thought that lungs drew their power from the atmosphere. Seeing as their called lungs, and I believe I read it somewhere in game.
I think they may work in the same capacity of the ISDF generators, however instead power their reactions from the organic (breeding) processes of the biometal, which would likely require respiration, either drawing in oxygen on the inhale process, or disposing of gas-based wastes during during an exhale process.
Quote from: General BlackDragon on November 13, 2009, 11:41:57 AM
Biometal also has natural E.D.D. (Equal Distribution of Damage) properties. This is why machine gun rounds don't rip through a scout as they would an F16 in real life.
I speculate that the thing that gives biometal its EDD properties, is the biological element of biometal's ability to retain information and recall the position of its neighboring biometal molecules. In this way, it will always retain the form it is given, however it tends to store energy which resonates throughout the surface of the biometal object (like the way a tuning fork resonates when struck) until enough resonance (in the form of damage) has been stored to shake apart the entire structure and cause the biometal object to vaporize.
Hence why there is often no solid ship remains left after a battle, instead the biometal returns to liquid form.
Speaking of Plasma, where do ISDF gun-towers store their plasma? Also, why do you need a relay bunker to build one?
Quote from: iron maiden on November 13, 2009, 02:08:43 PM
Speaking of Plasma, where do ISDF gun-towers store their plasma? Also, why do you need a relay bunker to build one?
Plasma is a state of mass, exactly like solids, liquids and gasses. When bioled, ionic substances (salts - like sodium cholride or potassium carbonate) form plasma rather than gas, which are amongst other things capable of transmitting electricity. Plasma is created within the Gun Tower's cannons - or rather just behind them. This means there is no need to store plasma anywhere.
Ah, thank you, that question has been bugging me for a long time now.
Now to discuss the Morph. :-P
If I remember this correctly, the biometal composing the ship actually has the ability to store more than one structural shape, thus triggering the rearranging of molecules until the alternate shape is obtained.
I assume the restructuring of shape can also answer how this applies to the ability of accessing an assault/combat form of existing weapons systems.
If that is so, why does the ISDF never use morph on their ships? Also, how is the pilot affected by the morph?
I think that the ISDF simply hasnt discovered morph technology yet.
Either that or vehicles which morph must have weak armor, given that all scion vehicles which use shields have the weakest armor class when they are unshielded.
Just thought that they would have learned it from the scions following the war.
And ISDF Scion hybrid unit would likely feature armored plates that did not reconfigure and an underlying biological structure. As a result the morph would be more of a deploy than an actual morph, though the systems underlying the armor and modern weapons systems would change, the visuals would be limited to moves and sliding weapons panels except where the underlying tissue or membranes are exposed.
Quote from: iron maiden on November 13, 2009, 05:20:40 PM
Just thought that they would have learned it from the scions following the war.
they did. Remember the Scimitar in FE? It was a Sabre that morphed. I think it may have actually been a scion design, but technological hybrids eventually came about.
Quote from: ScarleTomato on November 13, 2009, 08:46:56 PM
they did. Remember the Scimitar in FE? It was a Sabre that morphed. I think it may have actually been a scion design, but technological hybrids eventually came about.
Yes I do, but that was a 1 off unit that was not even in any story line, just in a special unit (IIRC).
Though that might have just been using classic Scion low armor too. The morph IIRC was rather limited. fvfish was that unit BTW.
How would string theory affect our understanding of biometal?
It would fit perfectly with the Thunderbirds "strings" theory of hovering. :-D
Quote from: TheJamsh on November 13, 2009, 03:30:11 AM
As for power lungs, i have always considered them to be some sort of solar powered object. They act like some kind of hi-tech solar panel/ray filter, which extracts energy from the sun and converts it into power.
Nikola Tesla, when inventing wireless RF(microwave) energy transmission systems said that his designs were also capable of capturing and harnessing other forms of radiation such as x-ray and gamma and the likes.
Wouldn't be to difficult to believe that an advanced form of this energy capture technology evolved into what the isdf and scion use.
Or maybe just the Scion, since it would to me at least seem more likely that they would be catching the cosmic winds :P
and the Isdf.. A self sustaining antimatter capture and energy extraction system.
Along the same lines, Tesla also created something else, something we all had in battlezone1 but not battlezone2 :P
.
.
.
Thumpers :D
His frequency research also included being able to use a thumper device (for the lack of a better word) to create a oscillating mass that was at the right harmonic frequency was said to destroy solid objects, This was tested on myth busters, myth busted but Tesla's research sits in government hands, general fact.
Thumpers are now in BZ2 thanks to 1.3.
From the FM 6-1201-309-62, The National Security Agency Field Manual:
A Memorandum from President Dwight D Eisenhower to General George Collins, regarding the establishment of the National Space Defense Force (NSDF):
We've established a research facility in Nevada in order to investigate this "bio-metal". The results of these efforts are astounding. The material itself remains a complete mystery, but we have manged to fabricate some promising munitions from it. It seems that the biological element fo the metal contains some sort of memory that allows it to reshape itself into it's previous form.
and a missive from Andrew Goldman, NSDF, to President Dwight D Eisenhower regarding Astronomical Research Assessment 3750.
Per your request we have completed an assessment of the debris found in the Bering Straight meteor shower of 1952. The samples found are most definitely the result of otherworldly sentient manufacture, and are known to be only a small portion of the quantity that has passed through our solar system over the last several years. The source of the debris is assumed to have been some sort of cataclysmic event involving a massive alien structure, possibly the size of Earth or larger. Estimates based on the velocity of the meteor shower at impact and the apparent duration since the meteor fragments were formed put the source object in the order of 100 trillion kilometers away when it shattered. At htis distance, it is likely that bio-metal fragments have passed within the gravitational pull of every other planet in the solar system.
Now, later on it mentions the EDD (equally distributing damage) armor and gives thicknesses for the various craft. Nowhere that I can find does it mention that the vehicles hover, which is something I would think they'd spend some time on...
Later on you get into specifics about the Recycler and Factory:
NSDF TU11 Mobile Bio-Metal Fabricator:
The Recycler builds vital base resources and unit supplies, as well as basic offensive and defensive units. It does this by projecting ultra-lightweight endo-skeletal beams inside of its construction bay while generating extreme temperatures that melt its supply of bio-metal. It then coats the beams with the liquid bio-metal, and holds the new unit's engines and internal machinery in place while the bio-metal cools. The entire process takes seconds.
Now, "endo-skeletal" means "outside the body", basically, which is strange as biometal craft seem to be more like 'bubbles', looking more like a shell without frame or supports. I always envisioned it more like one generic frame with engines and hardpoints, over which liquid biometal is sprayed. As it's sprayed the 'memory' kicks in, and it takes on one of the shapes stored in the Production Unit. Lol, maybe a Recy is so large because of all of those giant reel-to-reel tape drives used for early computers... :)
So, as the first exerpt states, the physical properties of biometal are mysterious. We've seen a lot of biometal lying around, and doing various things, so we should be able to come up with a list of properties of our own.
First of all, biometal isn't naturally 'anti-gravitic'. If that were the case it would just float off into space... but what we see is biometal lying around on the ground like normal scrap metal. We also have vehicles that sit on the ground when not piloted, and some that are so large and dense that they can't hover at all. So, activated biometal can hover, but it seems to be more of a repulsive type of energy than true anti-gravity. I actually prefer to think of it as just not really caring much about what gravity wants right now, thank you... :)
We also have evidence that biometal can very easily be turned into energy, and vice versa. Everything from the Flash Cannon to the 'tele-transport' of biometal from BZ2 Scavs/BZ1 Silos to and between Production Units, to the Blink weapon used by the Scions, seems to show that to biometal there's not much difference between energy and matter.
And, any good Doctor Who fan knows that when unlimited energy and gravity manipulation meet it seems that dimensional rifts aren't far behind. :) The TRO Portal and Cloak both mess with other dimensions to transport the player, either to another Portal or just 'shifted' enough to cloak them.
Finally, the way biometal explodes when structural integrity is lost is part of the 'EDD' mentioned. This ability to distribute damage evenly is very strange, but more interesting is the indication that there's a threshold of thickness below which biometal can't maintain its 'remembered' form. This may indicate that biometal 'memory', and possibly sentience, is a function of mass, such that smaller forms can't reach sentience beyond a certain amount. For example, Furies may be the smallest intelligent biometal 'life forms' and as such may not be the brightest critters... :) Something like CORE, however, could be a vast intelligence due to the incredible mass involved.
I'd also like to point out some things about scrap and pools...
In BZ1 most of the scrap you run into is 'painted' as if it all comes from human craft. This is true even of the scrap found on Mars that supposedly came from the Hephestus thousands of years ago.
This leads me to think either:
1. The scrap we find is 'mimicing' markings on other forms it's been exposed to, such as CCA or NSDF ships.
2. The scrap we find is what's left of human forces that have already been fighting wherever we are, which I sortof like as it adds to the 'cyclical nature' of the story. (find old biometal, make new war machines, leave new scrap) :)
The first one is interesting, though, as it would mean that even scrap has a low level of intelligence, or intinctive reaction, and is aware of it's surroundings to some extent.
It could also be that BZ2 scrap is a silver blob because the weapons are more powerful, creating enough heat to eliminate any markings. This could mean that the weaker weapons in BZ1, which weren't powerful enough to melt the scrap, are the reason there's no pools... it could be that only the silver blob scrap eventually forms pools, such that more advanced races with stronger weapons ends up creating biometal pools.
These pools seem (to me at least) to escelate the fighting, as they give you an undending resource to make more units from, at a fixed location that focuses the fighting.
These pools could also be the first stage of a planet being turned into something like Miasma, meaning Miasma was the scene of some heavy biometal fighting some time in the distant past.
Lots to think about for a simple computer game... :)
-Av-
Wouldn't this imply that meteors are able to leave silver, "pure" biometal and that the form we see in BZ2 is the very form we found it in here on Earth? (Melted scrap)
Perhaps it is charging biometal with electricity that makes it reflect gravitons. Interestingly, this means biometal could be put into its own reaction where it converts itself into energy, thus charging the remaining mass and defying gravity until the point it is used up.
Quote from: Warfreak on November 14, 2009, 06:30:20 PM
Wouldn't this imply that meteors are able to leave silver, "pure" biometal and that the form we see in BZ2 is the very form we found it in here on Earth? (Melted scrap)
Hey, that's good... I hadn't thought of that and I needed to. :)
Quote from: Nielk1 on November 14, 2009, 06:33:47 PM
Perhaps it is charging biometal with electricity that makes it reflect gravitons. Interestingly, this means biometal could be put into its own reaction where it converts itself into energy, thus charging the remaining mass and defying gravity until the point it is used up.
I think such a thing quickly becomes a runaway reaction cough*DAYWRECKER*cough...
Pity whoever figured that out first... :)
-Av-
HAH! You thought daywreckers with quakes were bad. What do you do when they drop the bomb and everything gets shot into the sky as the atomized biometal reflects all the gravitons in your area.
Quote from: bigbadbogie on November 14, 2009, 04:27:31 PM
Thumpers are now in BZ2 thanks to 1.3.
I know, probably before you did ...
On another note, Any theory to the construction process?
isdf in particular..
I made an MS word document a couple of years ago, detailing my thoughts about biometal and its role in the BZ2 universe, I am thinking of retitling it to:
Everything you wanted to know about Biometal (but were afraid to ask) (http://zeroangel.overminddl1.com/misc_files/biometal-theory.doc)
(click to download)
Quote from: Zero Angel on November 14, 2009, 11:22:12 PM
I made an MS word document a couple of years ago, detailing my thoughts about biometal
you scare me some times
i've noticed that in bz1 the chunks of scrap stay there, and do not disappear after awhile. (the bz1 scrap is not melted)
but in bz2 the scrap disappears after awhile, its like its liquid and it gets absorbed into the soil, eventually all of the scrap gathers together and forms scrap pools of the melted scrap.
maybe it evaporates? :|
if it evaporated then creatures would breathe it in, and you would get suffocated jak-killers because it would get stuck in their lungs.
Well, what if the Jak-killers have built up an immunity of sorts? Also, Does it not evaporate on Miasma?
BZ1 scrap does disappear when you reach the engine's limit, but that's a coding issue... I like it that BZ2's scrap disappears after time because it does support the idea that something interesting may be going on with it... but let me point out that it disappears on Bane, and Rend, and Mire, and Core, all of which have pools. None of the BZ1 'worlds' had pools that we know of, so maybe it's not the scrap that's disappearing... maybe the world in question, one already 'infected' with pools, is doing the absorbing.
:)
-Av-
So its kind of like the T1000 effect? After awhile the loose scrap 'wakes up' and starts slithering underground to meet up with the rest of its scrap buddies?
Quote from: Zero Angel on November 15, 2009, 06:49:38 PM
So its kind of like the T1000 effect? After awhile the loose scrap 'wakes up' and starts slithering underground to meet up with the rest of its scrap buddies?
That sounds about right.
Quote from: iron maiden on November 13, 2009, 02:08:43 PM
Speaking of Plasma, where do ISDF gun-towers store their plasma? Also, why do you need a relay bunker to build one?
I think that theres a reason that the relay bunker can be the only standalone building in the field, and thats because it uses a different type of power than the ISDF base buildings, but a type of power that can be transmitted long distances. The relay bunker would be needed to act as a conduit for this power, and then send it to the GTs which are adjacent to it.
Wow, long post avatar!
Quote from: Avatar on November 14, 2009, 06:00:05 PM
From the FM 6-1201-309-62, The National Security Agency Field Manual:
A Memorandum from President Dwight D Eisenhower to General George Collins, regarding the establishment of the National Space Defense Force (NSDF):
...
Is this from BZ1?
QuoteLater on you get into specifics about the Recycler and Factory:
NSDF TU11 Mobile Bio-Metal Fabricator:
The Recycler builds vital base resources and unit supplies, as well as basic offensive and defensive units. It does this by projecting ultra-lightweight endo-skeletal beams inside of its construction bay while generating extreme temperatures that melt its supply of bio-metal. It then coats the beams with the liquid bio-metal, and holds the new unit's engines and internal machinery in place while the bio-metal cools. The entire process takes seconds.
I actually like this explanation more than the one that I made up: :-D
Modern Construction TechniquesThe latest construction techniques use a combination of electro magnets and a device called an Electron Stream Projector which are used to shape biometal. A control unit stores the patterns for devices to be created and the ESP projects a stream of electrons at defined frequencies towards the object being created. The main components of units are synthesized by a main facility (often a recycler or factory) and additional components are synthesized by auxiliary facilities (such as an armory, or tech center).
QuoteFirst of all, biometal isn't naturally 'anti-gravitic'. If that were the case it would just float off into space... but what we see is biometal lying around on the ground like normal scrap metal. We also have vehicles that sit on the ground when not piloted, and some that are so large and dense that they can't hover at all. So, activated biometal can hover, but it seems to be more of a repulsive type of energy than true anti-gravity. I actually prefer to think of it as just not really caring much about what gravity wants right now, thank you... :)
QuoteNow, later on it mentions the EDD (equally distributing damage) armor and gives thicknesses for the various craft. Nowhere that I can find does it mention that the vehicles hover, which is something I would think they'd spend some time on...
My theory says something different:
Biometal Hover Technology
Shortly after the development of biometal, it was understood that biometal based hover technology could be adopted for such a purpose. Biometal generated to certain frequencies produced a repulsion effect which could push away nearby matter to a certain distance. Such repulsion effect had little use until it was applied to single planar surfaces. The repulsion effect allowed biometal particles to form a field of repulsor particles in vapor form, and when applied to the bottom of light craft, allow it to seemingly float in midair when current was applied to it. Most light craft are fitted with generators which provide enough current to power the electromagnets which keep the repulsor surfaces active. This technology has been employed in the creation of M-curtain mines, which use high amounts of energy as well as powerful electromagnets to repel other energy forms in addition to matter.
QuoteFinally, the way biometal explodes when structural integrity is lost is part of the 'EDD' mentioned. This ability to distribute damage evenly is very strange, but more interesting is the indication that there's a threshold of thickness below which biometal can't maintain its 'remembered' form. This may indicate that biometal 'memory', and possibly sentience, is a function of mass, such that smaller forms can't reach sentience beyond a certain amount. For example, Furies may be the smallest intelligent biometal 'life forms' and as such may not be the brightest critters... :) Something like CORE, however, could be a vast intelligence due to the incredible mass involved.
I like this description. I think biometal would tend to act as a neural network of sorts, as it congregates, different biometal tends to perform different tasks, such as surface biometal would carry out respiration whereas the core biometal that its connected to would feed off of the metal in the planetary core and pass those nutrients upwards to the rest of the biometal organism.
QuoteIt could also be that BZ2 scrap is a silver blob because the weapons are more powerful, creating enough heat to eliminate any markings. This could mean that the weaker weapons in BZ1, which weren't powerful enough to melt the scrap, are the reason there's no pools... it could be that only the silver blob scrap eventually forms pools, such that more advanced races with stronger weapons ends up creating biometal pools.
Heat would be a good explanation. Or perhaps since biometal techniques would have advanced since the CCA/NSDF era, that biometal armor would have higher integrity (thanks to newer manufacturing techniques) but upon being overloaded, would vaporize more violently, returning the biometal to liquid form.
QuoteLots to think about for a simple computer game... :)
-Av-
No doubt.
How exactly is this related to the CP?
From the FM 6-1201-309-62, The National Security Agency Field Manual:
A Memorandum from President Dwight D Eisenhower to General George Collins, regarding the establishment of the National Space Defense Force (NSDF):
NSDF TU11 Mobile Bio-Metal Fabricator:
The Recycler builds vital base resources and unit supplies, as well as basic offensive and defensive units. It does this by projecting ultra-lightweight endo-skeletal beams inside of its construction bay while generating extreme temperatures that melt its supply of bio-metal. It then coats the beams with the liquid bio-metal, and holds the new unit's engines and internal machinery in place while the bio-metal cools. The entire process takes seconds.
It's in the book that comes with battlezone1
if you were unfortunate enough to get just the jewel case of battlezone then you missed out on a lot.
Quote from: Clavin12 on November 16, 2009, 06:55:16 AM
How exactly is this related to the CP?
Nobody mentioned the CP. This is the theory thread for explaining everything Battlezone.
Note how many more units of biometal are used per craft in BZ2.
Quote from: Nielk1 on November 16, 2009, 12:36:25 PM
Note how many more units of biometal are used per craft in BZ2.
Maybe that's just a change in units. Imperial to SystemInternationale and the like. Maybe there's a seperate SI unit for Biometal.
Quote from: AHadley on November 16, 2009, 01:04:38 PM
Maybe that's just a change in units. Imperial to SystemInternationale and the like. Maybe there's a seperate SI unit for Biometal.
I find it much more likely that more biometal is used in BZ2 craft. The entire craft is biometal, every bit, so it takes a ton more. With pools around it's not like you can run low.
Quote from: Nielk1 on November 16, 2009, 01:14:10 PM
I find it much more likely that more biometal is used in BZ2 craft. The entire craft is biometal, every bit, so it takes a ton more. With pools around it's not like you can run low.
Probably slow. Not switched on today.
Sorry if this had already been discussed, but I thought I would share something:
I found a glitch in 1.2 where if you put a TAP (fbtemp) adjacent to certain objects and drive over it, you will be rocketed up into the air at an incredible speed. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to test some things I've been wondering about BZ2 physics, so I started calculating. The speed at which the glitched TAP blasts a person up into the air is almost exactly 10 km/s (22,369 miles per hour). I reached a max height of 999,999 meters above the ground before the glitch could dominate no more and the game began to apply gravity to my Scout again (I used a nav beacon to test height). 10 km/s is (according to Wikipedia) some kind of orbital speed. It takes an object about 12 hours to rotate around the earth going that fast.
I then decided to experiment with gravity. Using real-world kinematic equations, I found that, in 1.2, gravity pulls at about 12 m/s on a Scout. It could be different for any vehicle, I guess. I just haven't looked into it. (This reminded me of in 1.3 how the default gravity setting is set to "12" on the slider. I felt like an idiot for wasting my time experimenting with it, but was impressed that I got the same result using real-world equations.)
After a certain amount of time, I noticed that I was falling at a constant rate (still using the nav as a guide). It was REALLY fast. I was probably falling at about 3 km/s, and assumed this to be the "terminal velocity" of a Scout in free fall (sounds funny, I know... there is no real air in BZ2 to create a terminal velocity, but it worked for some reason). I can't remember the exact numbers that I calculated at this time, unfortunately, so that might be a little inaccurate.
In all, I think I remember it taking about 5 minutes to reach the ground after falling from that height. One second I was in the air and suddenly I was on the ground. There is no "bounce" in 1.2 when you hit the ground hard, so I just landed softly and continued on my way.
That was my little experiment this past Summer... yeah.
What is the TAP anyways?
"fbtemp" is a TAP.
It is an incomplete asset that was supposed to paint anything that came within its range. ISDF have a similar, incomplete component.
Do they? I've seen the scion one, but not the ISDF one... somebody should complete all these things.
isdf one is a gun tower model called 'motion sensor'
I wondered why that always seemed so useless.
ssuser and myself had some good back and fourth about BZ1's "reality" when I tried my hand at redoing the Grizz. I also threw some conjecture at BZE's version of the Mortar Bike.
http://www.battlezoneclub.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2288
http://www.battlezoneclub.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2537
My blast tank is fueled by the tears of noobs.
HAH
I have a question: Why do shots disappear after a could hundred yards? :P
I believe it is either due to the bio-metal or other weapons having only a limited range, or it is simply the games programming.
Balancing.
And the loss of velocity, fuel, or simply energy or mass.
Lazyness of the weaponsmiths...There is an xplExpire to define the effect of a shot expiring, it is not used at all in stock weapons, I like to make rockets and stuff that explode anyway. Other cool effects like dud shells dropping to the ground can also be made with simulateBase = "sim_ember" and renderBase = "draw_geom"
damn... thought i had that idea first :P
All this discussion about the physics and the 'reality' of the BZ universe made me remember a podcast at Thanksgiving with one of the biggest sci-fi authors of all time; Jerry Pournelle.
If you're familiar with HARD sci-fi genre and the top 10 writers of all time, one of which is certainly Larry Niven, Pournelle is Niven's buddy and co-writing "science checker". Of course...now...Pournelle has been a master writer in his own right for the last 20 years.
http://thisweekintech.com/223