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How the Energy Bomb works theory...
Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 4:57 pm
by RyanHoots
I have a theory as to how the Energy Bomb works... please don't see this as a means to justify its existence in-game, I'm perfectly fine with it being banned by GalCop. But I just thought I'd try to figure out how it works in the first place.
Feel free to improve my theory, I know it's probably very flawed, I'm no PHD.
In my Ooniverse, the Energy Bomb is a device that releases a shower of incredibly destructive particles in all directions for aprox. 25 kilometers. The particles are charged when they pass through the shields of the deploying ship.
After the particles clear the shields, they accelerate and destroy everything in range, tearing apart shields like paper. The effect is like an atom bomb's full force hitting a car.
The stations are too big to take much damage due to a heavily reenforced hull, although if detonated from inside, all that's left is a Coriolis-shaped shell. 
Re: How the Energy Bomb works theory...
Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 5:01 pm
by another_commander
Not bad, but how can this theory explain the fact that the bomb can be deployed even when in Energy Low situations, when usually all shields have given up long ago?
Re: How the Energy Bomb works theory...
Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 5:13 pm
by RyanHoots
another_commander wrote:Not bad, but how can this theory explain the fact that the bomb can be deployed even when in Energy Low situations, when usually all shields have given up long ago?
Hmmm... I don't know. In that case, theoretically, there would be no boom...
*starts thinking really hard*
Re: How the Energy Bomb works theory...
Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 5:46 pm
by Cmdr Wyvern
It's possible the E-bomb is powered from a destructive, high energy source...like an X ray laser.
You can only fire an X ray laser once, as it's powered from a detonating nuclear warhead.
Re: How the Energy Bomb works theory...
Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 6:34 pm
by Cmdr. Maegil
I think of the energy bomb as a
non-nuclear EMP spiking the running drives (set to simultaneously temporarily disabling the user's own drive).
Re: How the Energy Bomb works theory...
Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 6:40 pm
by RyanHoots
That sounds like a very valid theory... do energy bombs work on asteroids?
Re: How the Energy Bomb works theory...
Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 7:05 pm
by Cmdr. Maegil
RyanHoots wrote:That sounds like a very valid theory... do energy bombs work on asteroids?
Yes they do
Back when we wrote [wiki]FEU[/wiki] fiction, we sometimes got people desperately trying to power down the drive and shut off all systems to avert an imminent energy bombing - then skipping every safety protocol to restart it. Ever since, this has been my view on the matter... until I now found out that the explanation is inconsistent with Oolite.
Re: How the Energy Bomb works theory...
Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 8:14 pm
by RyanHoots
How about the E-Bomb charges the hull of the deploying ship in a way that when the particles clear the ship, they go on their little rampage? Only problem is that this would probably blow the paint job off the hull... 
Re: How the Energy Bomb works theory...
Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 8:37 pm
by Cmdr. Maegil
Since the Tabber's getting ditched from the core in the MNSR anyway, and it seems all be left to do about it is OXPing an internally mounted single-use NNEMP device costing 900Cr... called "Energy Bomb"!
BTW, I had't seen the [wiki]Energy Bomb[/wiki] article before, but it goes precisely in the vein of what I had said before.
Re: How the Energy Bomb works theory...
Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 9:14 pm
by RyanHoots
From that article:
A powerful one-shot device that emits a high-powered electromagnetic pulse, disrupting plasma containment in drives of nearby ships, resulting in catastrophic damage. Well shielded larger vessels are capable of withstanding this assault on occasion, but small ships invariably do not survive. Triggering the Energy Bomb temporarily deactivates sensitive components. The pulse is harmonised with the drive of the firing ship.
How in the world does it work on asteroids?!
Edit:
Oh, wait. It says in the same article:
The release of an energy bomb creates magnetic field shockwaves that can cause catastrophic vibrations in certain minerals, including most asteroidal rock types. This invariably results in the fragmentation of asteroids that are within the range of an energy bomb explosion.
I still think the wiki's version isn't satisfactory...
Re: How the Energy Bomb works theory...
Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 9:41 pm
by Selezen
I love it when I get quoted...
I forgot about that article on the wiki, actually. A_H wrote the first bit and I did the model and the asteroid bit, precisely because someone asked the same question you asked!
Feel free to come up with something better though. I always meant to revisit that article (and the poor attempt at a model) and make it a bit better.
I did ponder some kind of sonic disruption. UHF frequency distortion that resonates in the asteroid. Then I saw a butterfly and got distracted.
Re: How the Energy Bomb works theory...
Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 9:54 pm
by RyanHoots
Selezen wrote:I love it when I get quoted...
I forgot about that article on the wiki, actually. A_H wrote the first bit and I did the model and the asteroid bit, precisely because someone asked the same question you asked!
So I'm not the first one...
Selezen wrote:Feel free to come up with something better though. I always meant to revisit that article (and the poor attempt at a model) and make it a bit better.
It's hard to theorize why an impossible technology works.
But I'll try, anyway.
Selezen wrote:I did ponder some kind of sonic disruption. UHF frequency distortion that resonates in the asteroid. Then I saw a butterfly and got distracted.
Sonics could work... maybe the hull could be used as an emitter, focused outward?
Re: How the Energy Bomb works theory...
Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 9:56 pm
by Cmdr. Maegil
Ahem, sonics in vacuum?...
Re: How the Energy Bomb works theory...
Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 9:59 pm
by Switeck
The Energy Bomb is far more powerful in Oolite than it was in early Elite versions. In older Elite versions, Thargoid warships typically survived an Energy Bomb...making a hyperspace misjump ambush far more dangerous. Plus you couldn't use the Torus Drive or Fuel Injectors to run away from them. Or eject. Or (if I recall correctly) use missiles.
Even the ECM is a blast of energy that would easily destroy circa 2000-2100 levels of space technology.
Re: How the Energy Bomb works theory...
Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 10:01 pm
by RyanHoots
Cmdr. Maegil wrote:Ahem, sonics in vacuum?...
Oh, right...
Back to the destructive particle theory... I'm sure there are problems with it somewhere...