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When was gravity plating developed?

 
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Mr_Tricorder
Lieutenant JG


Joined: 05 Aug 2011
Posts: 59

PostPosted: Mon Aug 15, 2011 3:12 am    Post subject: When was gravity plating developed? Reply with quote

I'm working on an adventure where the crew encounters an old lost Texas-class ship from the Federation-Romulan War. Did the ships of that era have artificial gravity plating? I want to know if my away team is going to need to bring over gravity boots (or just float around if they prefer) or if they'll be able to operate normally. Also, it affects several other things I want to do with the adventure.
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Nerroth
Fleet Captain


Joined: 08 Oct 2006
Posts: 1744
Location: Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Mon Aug 15, 2011 3:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

There's a rough guide to tech limits on pages 22-23 of GURPS Prime Directive 4e.

While a few of the stories which show TL9 (non-tactical warp era) ships in the SFU (one involving a Romulan-Gorn encounter in CL29, and the recent Fed-Romulan event in CL43) seem to indicate the ships involved have workable artificial gravity, the guideline states that TL9 ships have "gravity compensators" instead. Now, the Romulans may have figured out true artificial gravity at some point prior to the Treaty of Smarba, exactly how far back that should be is hard to say.

What will be tricky, however, is how to get your away team there and back. With no transporters (they only appear with the onset of the first tactical warp drives) you will have to either use a sublight shuttle to get your team down and back, or to have a ship capable of landing on a planetary surface. Landing troops on an enemy ship or base is going to be quite a challenge.

EDIT: Sorry, read it wrong; thought you were operating in that old era, too.

In the absence of a formal ruling saying what kind of grav plating (if any) the old Province-class Terran ships had prior to the onset of tactical warp, you should have enough wiggle room to decide for yourself how you want things to go.

Besides, even if the ship had some sort of plating, there's no guarantee your crew would be in a position to repair it short of having the hull towed to the nearest starbase...
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Mr_Tricorder
Lieutenant JG


Joined: 05 Aug 2011
Posts: 59

PostPosted: Mon Aug 15, 2011 3:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the response, even if it isn't a definite answer. I'm actually planning on having survivors (or rather their descendants) still living on board the ship and keeping life support running, but the warp engines were damaged beyond repair and the ship's shuttles were grounded on a nearby planet.

I'll probably have gravity at least in some areas of the ship. It would definitely make things easier on me and it really isn't crucial to the story.
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