The Physics Nerds' Theory Thread

[Nielk1]

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.

[Avatar]

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.   

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-

[Nielk1]

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.

[Scout]

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..

[Zero Angel]

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)

(click to download)

[Scout]

I made an MS word document a couple of years ago, detailing my thoughts about biometal

you scare me some times

[Rocket]

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.

[iron maiden]

maybe it evaporates?

[Rocket]

if it evaporated then creatures would breathe it in, and you would get suffocated jak-killers because it would get stuck in their lungs.

[iron maiden]

Well, what if the Jak-killers have built up an immunity of sorts? Also, Does it not evaporate on Miasma?

[Avatar]

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-

[Zero Angel]

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?

[AHadley]

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.

[Zero Angel]

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.

[Zero Angel]

Wow, long post avatar!

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?

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.

I actually like this explanation more than the one that I made up: 

Modern Construction Techniques

The 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).

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...     

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...

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

Lots to think about for a simple computer game... 

-Av-

No doubt.