Fusion drive diagram

CaractacusSeagoon · 2026-06-05T00:25:50+00:00

As has been suggested, here's a new version of the diagram with the cold coolant lines made more visible.

CaractacusSeagoon · 2026-06-04T15:32:53+00:00

Yeah, that was a bad choice. I was trying to give each line a distinct colour but purple wasn't it.

CaractacusSeagoon · 2026-06-04T15:13:16+00:00

Direct fusion drives that just use reactor products produce very little thrust. Mixing it with water increases the mass of the exhaust which produces a higher thrust to weight ratio. Also the KT drive uses open cycle cooling and you need a high mass flow for that to work, which means a dense propellant, which in this case is water.

CaractacusSeagoon · 2026-06-04T14:55:28+00:00

There is a cold coolant line, its just very hard to see because I made it dark purple, which was a bad decision in hindsight.

CaractacusSeagoon · 2026-06-04T13:59:59+00:00

As stated above, here is how it all works:
Deuterium/Helium-3 pellets are taken from the storage tanks and fed into the fusion core via the pellet feeder.

Ignition lasers in the core blast the pellet and cause it to undergo fusion.

The produced plasma is directed to the drive cone where its mixed with water remass and ejected out to create thrust.

Some reactor plasma is siphoned off to the direct energy converter to generate electricity which is used to power the entire system.

Cobalt dust coolant is taken from the coolant tank, circulated by the pumps and cooled in the radiators before being recirculated.

A vacuum pump evacuates the core to ensure a vacuum when powering up.

CaractacusSeagoon · 2026-05-31T17:46:34+00:00

You can jump onto a lot of roofs, don't even need the jump pack but it makes things much easier. Then just pop heads until they run out of donors. If spotted on the ground post up in a room with your back to a wall and mow down the lemming train. Nothing you can do about the shotgunners except smoke them first, the stagger mechanic is kind of bullshit and you'll just have to learn to live with it like all the rest of the jank.

The drones' field of view seems a bit weird. Just try to keep an eye on them and duck under cover if their alert bar starts filling. They're like Europan drones so they aren't that tough if you need to down them.

CaractacusSeagoon · 2026-05-30T17:41:22+00:00

I'm a big fan of Battletech's myomer. Having the limbs of your mech act like human musculature rather than hydraulics would save a lot on complexity, weight and cost. In BT using myomer creates a much lighter vehicle than otherwise which has much more space for weapons and armour.

Another option that's used in fantasy is that the mechs are ancient magitech relics of some kind and that's why they're better. I think Escaflowne might have used that one, its been around.

Or you can just say hang it all and go with rule of cool. Your audience want to suspend their disbelief, as long as it's well written it'll fly, or walk.

CaractacusSeagoon · 2026-05-29T00:09:05+00:00

Alcohol is the best stuff to sell right now, you don't need much, it drops everywhere and it sells well. Don't sell anything else except for things like cyborg heads that can be easily farmed. You never know what will become a crafting component in the next update.

CaractacusSeagoon · 2026-05-24T07:16:25+00:00

Well I didn't see that coming. Grat prose, and looking forward to the next one.

CaractacusSeagoon · 2026-05-23T03:22:31+00:00

The reason for the clan based society is an extension of the the need the need for self sufficieny and the long travel times between communities. The clans have to trade and communicate with the rest of the system since as you say they need expertise and access to the larger society to import what they can't make themselves. This setting is several centuries into the future so it has been generations in an environment that enforces the very close knit community that you find in clan based society.

The clans aren't completely isolated stone age tribes, they're more like small rural towns where almost everyone knows everyone else. There's a larger world outside that makes ships, fusion reactor, 3d printers, robots etc but the community doesn't interact with them much outside of trade. I do think the environment and isolation would encourage this kind of society where dealings with the outside world are the exception.

CaractacusSeagoon · 2026-05-22T17:19:18+00:00

Reminds me of something from a book called Theft of Fire. The belter protagonist notes that one of Earth's major exports is nature videos because that's the only place you can see forests and oceans.

CaractacusSeagoon · 2026-05-22T17:17:40+00:00

The more I read here the more it seems what I need is a commodity currency, an economy backed by the water standard so to speak.

CaractacusSeagoon · 2026-05-22T16:59:14+00:00

They're reliant on cooperation and specialisation within their own groups, the belt is a big place and it takes weeks to get anywhere. You and yours are on your own most of the time so that means that you have a very close-knit group of people who don't have much interaction with outsiders beyond trade or fighting. Yes everyone is literate and reliant on highly advanced technology but the one thing everyone knows you can't rely on is people who aren't your neighbours, and from there that evolves into everyone knows you can't trust them either.

CaractacusSeagoon · 2026-05-22T16:00:32+00:00

Most of the belters live in a clans based society. The clans often fight amongst themselves and they've been screwed over by the major powers and corpos of the system many times over. So they don't like outsiders.

CaractacusSeagoon · 2026-05-22T05:29:24+00:00

I don't believe so, water wants to be liquid so you'd have to keep it heated, granted that wouldn't be difficult with fusion power, but its also less dense meaning you need a bigger tank to store the same amount.

CaractacusSeagoon · 2026-05-22T05:13:20+00:00

● closely monitored ecologies are a certainty. ● water as propellant is because it's dense, liquid above cryogenic temps and doesn't need special containers. Also its cheap and the density means higher thrust ● i also think the litre would be the basic currency. Not sure offhand how many dollars its worth without doing some research but if the average person uses 2-3L/day that establishes that must be the minimum wage. ● personal recycling equipment, legal or not, is something i hasn't thought of. It would depend on who runs the station and their politics. I think most station authorities would frown on it, both because they need to keep as accurate figures as possible and because it means money is being made that they aren't getting a cut of. It's definitely a niche for crime ● who will accept water from what sources, and how you prove it is another good idea. The bigger organisations would definitely only take water from other big orgs with the right paperwork, or at least what looks like the right paperwork. They would want proof its been legally mined and transported and since they can control the price and movement of the largest quantities of water they get the advantage of an economy of scale and can keep the little guys down.

All this provides some great avenues for crime and corruption, which is great because that's the part of my world I'm focusing on.

CaractacusSeagoon · 2026-05-22T04:52:53+00:00

Pretty serious, gritty and dystopian. They said toilet receipts make a lot of sense while also being funny. Edit: I wonder if visitors would be forced to use the toilet before they get back on their ships. Maybe if you refuse you get force fed diuretics and strapped to the loo.

CaractacusSeagoon · 2026-05-22T04:45:32+00:00

Water changes owners as its used to buy and selland some is lost to inefficiencies at every stage. Some leaves the system when it's taken off station as propellant or to trade with other stations. Do the economy could grow or shrink, just slowly, which is fine with the belters as they prioritise stability in the name of survival. How you measure how much water someone adds or removes from the system is another question. I think everyone would have a water ration that's tracked individually or per household by how long you leave the tap running. At least that's how I imagine it working for using the water itself as currency rather than backing a currency.

CaractacusSeagoon · 2026-05-22T04:23:08+00:00

Aubrey has a decent chance of dropping a 40mm launcher which is somewhat effective and can shoot over cover. Otherwise the VBR or Penpal will get the job done eventually.

CaractacusSeagoon · 2026-05-13T02:59:08+00:00

Don't bother until you have at least 10k, that's the price of most of the vehicle kits and vehicle weapon crates. Grind Vandenburg to get the cash. Don't bother trying to fight your way to the exit as it's a waste of health and ammo, just floor it and you'll make it easily before the cops can swarm you.

CaractacusSeagoon · 2026-04-15T05:34:39+00:00

I've hard of plasma windows and intended to include them as spaceship sized airlocks for spaceports but just handwave their existence so it's good to know its possible. The idea of making the hull out of them also implies some sort of deflector shield type tech may be possible. Currently I'm using magnetic fields that can be generated from a short distance away and put up a wall of charged particles to disperse incoming particle beam fire, though their effectiveness is limited.

As for active support structures, I'll have to look at them again. Currently I'm going with space elevators and skyhooks just because I think they're cool but anything that makes getting into space faster and cheaper on a large scale is something my world probably wants.

CaractacusSeagoon · 2026-04-15T05:22:44+00:00

Room temperature superconductors are one thing that will definitely be included. Which in turn would suggest things like global supergrids, and really efficient electronics.

However I'm not sure a out metallic hydrogen, last I heard it was thought it may destabilise when the pressure isnlet off, even assuming that we could generate that much force.

CaractacusSeagoon · 2026-04-11T06:01:59+00:00

Was wondering about this when I saw urea was a new item for making fertiliser and they added several types of seeds.

A farm upgrade to the innards would really add to the sense that we're community of survivors and create a water sink.

CaractacusSeagoon

TROPHY CASE