MechWarrior001 Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 I know that officially all vehicles are powered by Energy Crystals, but I was thinking that can't be all there is to it. Let's assume that Crystals despite their large individual reservoirs of energy are not enough to power all the mechanical components of a vehicle, in this case the Loaderdozer. Standard LD engines require 4 Crystals to power, but do those power actuators and motors for the drive and arm systems too? Even if they did how do we know that they provide enough torque to do the heavy lifting required by the role of the LD? To my knowledge the maximum output of Crystals was never specified, let alone given a unit such as joules or volts. Therefore the Loaderdozer is going to need a secondary source of energy capable of providing the power and torque, but what? Coal doesn't seem to do the job as it's in-efficient and natural gas, while never mentioned, could be rather common in non-volcanic areas. Or, while it might be a stretch, lava could be used in specially designed facilities to heat water and provide steam for pnuematic systems. Any thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McJobless Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 If about less than 2000 crystals are supposedly enough to power the ship (not sure the exact amount the entire RR team brought in to power the ship back up) can power up an entire cruiser-ship-thing (LMS Explorer), then a couple crystals should be just fine to power a vehicle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elrunethe2nd Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 If Legoland is to be believed, a Chrome Crusher can run off one Energy Crystal, but lets assume two because if it was a symmetrical design, there'd be a compartment on both sides. But yeah, in the RR cameo video, a Chrome Crusher starts up with one crystal as we see from a demonstration from Doc (? Been a while). Believe it or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McJobless Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 I'd say those little crystals have more power than the entire US Power Grid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lair Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 If about less than 2000 crystals are supposedly enough to power the ship (not sure the exact amount the entire RR team brought in to power the ship back up) can power up an entire cruiser-ship-thing (LMS Explorer), then a couple crystals should be just fine to power a vehicle. 100% in all three games adds up to 1447 Energy Crystals (counting red as five greens). The minimum (left levels in PC, all bronze in PS1) is 475. Of course, this isn't counting things like the Crystals in the training missions, or what else might have been collected by other Rock Raiders. Leumeister 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McJobless Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 100% in all three games adds up to 1447 Energy Crystals (counting red as five greens). The minimum (left levels in PC, all bronze in PS1) is 475. Of course, this isn't counting things like the Crystals in the training missions, or what else might have been collected by other Rock Raiders. So I'd say around 2000 because if you want to count the comics/books. So, if only 2000 power a massive ship, about 2 will work for any small vehicle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cirevam Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 Energy Crystals have enough energy to power two to four laser shots, a small catamaran or personal drilling vehicle, a hovercraft, and any building (all buildings requiring power draw one crystal). Bigger and heavier vehicles need more crystals. My estimation is that crystals have roughly the power output of a very small car engine. I don't know what an estimated output in watt-hours would be based on that, but it seems reasonable. Now, can 2000 car engines power a starship that's around 1000 studs long, let alone an FTL drive? Probably not, but maybe turning crystals into juice seen in the ending videos makes a difference, or maybe they had close to enough already but needed a little more. Or maybe they needed to repair the frosting ship after it was hit by an asteroid, had most of its electrical systems shorted, and sent through a wormhole along with other space junk that most likely battered it during that trip. So while they waited for the repair crews, the raiders collected crystals because what else were they going to do? Lair 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phoenyx Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 It depends on several things - the power efficiency of the vehicles in question, the actual power output of the crystals in both raw and refined (as in the juice seen in the ending cutscenes) form, the physics behind the FTL drive on the LMS Explorer and the design of the sublight engines on the LMS Explorer. First off... the efficiency of the Rock Raiders' vehicles is probably very good, since they don't cause the crystals to lose a significant amount of energy. not much to discus there. The actual power output of the raw energy crystals is unknown at the moment, but it's likely relatively high. Although they don't compare to some power sources I've seen (If they were as powerful as Zero Point Modules then the LMS Explorer would only need one), they're probably as powerful as some experimental fusion reactors. The refined fuel probably has a higher energy density, but isn't as efficient - I'd say the equivalent weight of one crystal is comparable to a Mark 3 Naquadah Generator from Stargate, or maybe a Protoss Pylon from Starcraft at most. Next, we have the LMS Explorer's FTL drive. By the looks of it, the Explorer's FTL drive is an Alcubierre drive. This design requires a large power output at the start to create a warp bubble but not nearly as much while in transit to sustain it (albeit still much more than what a truck-full of crystals can provide). If this is the case, it wouldn't take as much energy to power it as one would think. Given the specifics above, I'd say that 2000 would be enough for the initial jump, the sustained FTL speeds, and the return to normal space with a little left over for sublight, as long as everything else is on reserve power. Which brings us to the next subject... The Explorer's sublight engines seem to be ion drives. I'm not a personal fan of these, as not only do they enable an author of a work of fiction to write in a compression coil (the most overused Sci-fi plot device ever), but realistically they have horrible acceleration. The good news about these sublight drives being present, however, is that they are highly efficient compared to both chemical rockets and nuclear drives. Overall, I'd say that 2000 is just enough to return home. Continued operation, however, would be impossible without at least 10 times that amount, if not more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts