ScrumbleShip is the most accurate space combat simulation devised to date. Gather resources, construct a capital ship out of individual blocks, then pilot it with AI or human help against other players.
Organic damage healing
Post a comment
Description
This video is released on a CC-BY-ND 3.0 license.
Dam i have good timing! Got here and only had to refresh to see it.
Very cool!
awesome!
This is extremely cool, and completely unique. And it raises a lot of possibilities. For instance, your whole ship need not be organic - as long as one layer of the hull is flesh (and is supplied with blood by arteries), that layer will heal up when damaged. Your ship can have flesh covered by a titanium "shell," giving it both durability and self-sealing.
My line of thought as well. One or more layers of carapace covering a titanium hull could provide a self-restoring shield against lighter blows and still defend against heavier blows.
Or the other way, as you said. Place the metal on the top and flesh under it and if someone manages to break through, the atmoshpere will stop venting after a while. Kind of like real life jet fighters.
Or both!
And then we get a ship that is too bulky to mount any weapons or sensors or thrusters.. or life support.
It doesn't matter how thick it is as long as the ship is large enough so the internal volume is big enough to hold all the essentials. The bigger the ship, the thicker the armor can be, the more room it has for propulsion, life support, etc. It all scales up.
Well, it ALL scales up, including the area you need to armor. You have to put in more engines to haul that scaled-up weight, wich also means more power and fuel needed. More space would also need more life support, sensors and weapons to cover the space, etc.
In other words, you still have to sacrifice something for armor.
Oh, absolutely. You're right that it'll be quite expensive to make and fuel really large ships. I'm just saying it is no less technically possible as the ship sizes increases.
Ah, I misunderstood then, I though you were saying large ships outperform smaller ones. Sorry for that.
Now just to see if Dirkson got my message.
I actually do think larger ships will outperform and outgun smaller ones (if the size difference is significant). I imagine the thicker armor and greater number of higher-powered weapons will negate any mobility advantage a smaller ship has. Weapons will be on rotating turrets, so it should be pretty easy to bring the guns to bear even if the bigger ship is slow.
I could be wrong though - as they say, "no battle plan survives contact with the enemy." :)
Well, it depends on how much of an advantage you consider mobility to be, I personally like the ability to maneuver behind and shoot enemy's engines. But you said it well, battlefield (or Dirkson) will decide who is right.
The only issue I see with this, is that it gives organic ships a bit of an overpowered effect over non-organic. Unless the organic can withstand far less damage (which makes sense), or it takes a different resource (like nutrition) for the organic to repair itself.
It does make sense that organic material can withstand less damage, and I believe that is the plan. It will also require oxygen and blood from a network of arteries connected to a heart to live.
The melting point of steel is ~1640 kelvin, tungstel is ~3700 kelvin. Compare this to the melting points of flesh and chitin, at ~370k and ~570k, and you'll start to realize that, while flesh heals, it NEEDS to heal to be a viable hull material.
Combine this with organic parts need to be oxygenated, and organic parts' relative rarity and suddenly it starts looking awfully even : )
Cheers,
-Dirk