Other Jimness > Cinder Spires Spoilers
Better Living Through Etheric Exploits: Technology Brainstorming/Discussion
Brightbane:
Couldn't they just make a helicopter that runs off electricity instead of fuel? Like, they have an endless source of electricity and from the looks of it it generates far more energy than a battery of the same size
Heir of the Void:
A lift crystal is better; no moving parts and probably greater efficiency.
Brightbane:
--- Quote from: Heir of the Void on December 08, 2015, 02:47:13 AM ---A lift crystal is better; no moving parts and probably greater efficiency.
--- End quote ---
Yeah, but a lift crystal does just that. They need a propel crystal.
Which, come to think of it, wouldn't that just be an altered lift crystal? Why do they need the webs at all when they can just have a ton of lift crystals that lift in different directions?
Heir of the Void:
That's basic enough that I think they would have already done it if it were so simple. As far as I can tell, the Lift Crystals, when powered, move against the direction of the local gravity field. I have no idea if they're actually responding to gravity or something completely different, but that's the hard part of an airship; propulsion is a lot easier than suspension.
Quantus:
--- Quote from: Brightbane on December 08, 2015, 03:23:43 AM ---Yeah, but a lift crystal does just that. They need a propel crystal.
Which, come to think of it, wouldn't that just be an altered lift crystal? Why do they need the webs at all when they can just have a ton of lift crystals that lift in different directions?
--- End quote ---
The lift crystals do not "manipulate" gravity as we might expect; they Invert it, specifically, meaning that it only ever applies force directly opposite to natural Gravity. That's why they can lift the bulk of an airship, but must use completely different mechanisms for lateral propulsion, or else have to rely on Dive maneuvers to convert vertical lift to horizontal speed.
As far as the height limitation, that was stated to be a function of the Core crystal's efficiency, and implied that there is simply less ether at high altitudes or when you venture away from the normal Etheric currents.
As far as the sails, they are more like actual sails than some kind of energy harvesting net. Whenever the silk is carrying an elecrtic charge, the charged silk can interact with the etheric currents directly and get physically pulled on. When one gets burned off, the web yanks on the ship as one would expect. It like those folks you see on boardwalks that have a big para-sail kite that is pulling them along of a skateboard or rollerblades.
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