Jack Bohn wrote:
> Mac Breck wrote:
>
>> Jack Bohn wrote:

>>>>>>>  *Crusade
>>>>>
>>>>> the Excalibur main gun.
>>>>
>>> I just could never understand how it could work that way.  Loss
>>> of power before firing as they divert it to charging the gun I
>>> can see.
>>
>> So can I.  If it's an energy storage device like a capacitor, some
>> energy is always used keeping it topped off at full voltage.
>
> Well, you don't *always* have to keep it topped off.  Depending
> on how *much* more power it takes than you can produce at one
> time, you may try to get away with only charging it before you
> expect to use it.

Remember, it's also for the jump engines, and you have to keep it fully
charged if you want to be able to jump to hyperspace quickly.  In B5, it
was only on rare occasions when they tapped into it, for example to get
more power to the guns on the Whitestar to kill a Shadow Battlecrab.
Remember when Lennier was asked how soon before they'd be able to jump
and he said "20 standard minutes"?  ...and so they had to turn and
run/evade in normal space?


>>> But after it fires, what is keeping the generators from
>>> making power?  Or, if they are making power, where is it going?
>>
>> It makes sense.  Think of it as a capacitor bank.  It's sitting there
>> all charged up, before firing the gun or using the jump engines.  It
>> can be switched to *either* the gun *or* the jump engines.  Once used
>> (depleted), the capacitor bank needs to be recharged before either
>> the jump engines or gun can be used again.
>
> Now I *will* have to watch Crusade, or "A Call to Arms" from the
> movie pack, because I was under the impression that they couldn't
> do ordinary ship functions, like normal maneuvering, after
> firing.

IIRC, gravity and life support were all that they had left for those 60
seconds after a firing of the Excalibur or Victory (1st ship of the
class) main gun.  Actually, 60 seconds isn't that bad, compared to 20
minutes for a Whitestar.

> You can see my point in that case?  "Don't worry about
> filling the capacitor, get out of the way!"  Perhaps I was only
> anticipating it being something stupid and did not pay attention
> to the actual case.

They never covered doing a partial charge in Crusade.  I suppose it
might be possible, and you could get some systems back in 10 or 20
seconds with a partial charge, and maneuver a bit, but we're still only
talking about 60 seconds.  The key is *NOT* to do what Sheridan did in
"A Call to Arms" by firing the main gun at the null space WHILE THE SHIP
IS STILL MOVING TOWARD THE NULL SPACE.   After firing, they had no
thrusters (nothing to brake with), and were drifting toward something
completely unknown.  Sheridan got lucky, and didn't suffer from his
brain fart.


>>>>>>> 2002
>>>>>>>  -start of Sci Fi original films
>>>>>>>  -Legend of the Rangers
>>>>>
>>> And -correct me if I'm wrong- introducing a big bad race that the
>>> Shadows were afraid of.
>>
>> Yes, The Hand, and please don't remind me of that horrid, horrid
>> movie.
>
> The three things I remember from it are that the ship was haunted
> somehow, this "My new supervillain is so bad it eats the old
> supervillain lunch," and the ship's weapons were activated by Tae
> Bo (and somewhere in the engine room, Scotty must be suspended on
> a forcefield treadmill, running for all he's worth.)

Aaaaaiiiieeeee!!!  I said don't remind me.

If you can suffer through it again, go back and pay attention to Dulann
(Minbari XO), Na'feel (Narn engineer) and Firell (Minbari healer).
*They* were good.  Capt. David Martel was usually mediocre, but good in
his scenes with Dulann.  Then, when Sarah Cantrell (the weapons officer)
has lines, put your fingers in your ears and hum real loud, and when she
has her conniption fit, leave the room for awhile.

-- 
Mac Breck (KoshN)
-------------------------------
"The Dresden Files" (2007)
Harry Dresden: [re. Bianca] What is it about bad girls?  They lie,
cheat, won't suck your blood even when you beg them to, and for some
reason, no matter how badly they treat us, we still can't walk away.
--- SBBSecho 2.12-Win32