 April 8, 2020 - 8:17pm | Why do robots require a type 1 parabattery? Besides because the rules say so. Std. robot body requires a type 1 parabattery Hvy duty and anthropomorphic requires a type 2 parabattery type 1 is 500SEUs and 600 Cr and 25 kg Type 2 is 1000 SEUs and 1,200 Cr and 50 kg but what is it a robot really needs? SEU In theory one might red neck engineer a robot to operate off of a 20 SEU clip in an emergency. I believe it was a star questions in a dragon magazine that specified that 1 SEU allowed a robot to travel 1 km, at least that is the figure I've been using for almost 2 decades. Does a maintenance robot on a ship really need a pool of 500 SEU? it can plug in and replenish SEUs off of the engine any time if not daily. My point is that why not have a Type AA parabattery that is 250 SEU 300 Cr and 12 kg Of course that in theory creates a problem with the power back pack of 100 SEU 500 Cr and 10 kg we could equally say they strip the battery packs out of the power back pack package it like a parabattery such that its conforms to stats of the power back pack at 100 SEU 10 kg and a cost of 400 Cr (i figure some savings by not engineering it to be a backpack). I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 April 9, 2020 - 4:39am | I would say that they can run on something that is essentialy a power back pack. The again, Zebs describes some small power sources, so it's also possible that this reflects new tech not around in Alpha Dawn. That in turn means that maybe robots can run on something smaller. I also imagine small robots being able to run off of small power sources - SEU clips, maybe even a power helmet pack or other things from Zeb's. |
April 9, 2020 - 6:52am | So the choice is 1. cut the type 1 parabattery's stats in half which means 20 SEU/kg or 2. de-back pack the power back pack and use those stats but make it a little cheaper to reflect the easier manufacture and this one is 10 SEU per kg of wt. I think its got to be approached from the back pack side so that we dont create a problem by halving the type 1 parabattery ie a cheaper more powerful source of energy than the power backpack Although dont want it to be a straight conversion of the power backpack- Call it a mini parabattery or a type AA for 12 kg; 150 SEU, 400 Cr. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
April 9, 2020 - 9:17am | Wouldn't the ones from Zeb's be of any use? |
April 10, 2020 - 11:41am | Wouldn't the ones from Zeb's be of any use?
SEU Microdisk, Minipowerclip, Power Helmetpacks? they're all low SEU. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
April 10, 2020 - 10:50pm | Yes, but possibly a small robot has a small SEU demand in order to work. I mean, you wouldn't hook up a car battery to a digital watch - well, normally anyway  |
April 11, 2020 - 5:51am | Yes, but possibly a small robot has a small SEU demand in order to work. I mean, you wouldn't hook up a car battery to a digital watch - well, normally anyway small drones like we have in the real world would work on the SEU Microdisk I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
April 12, 2020 - 1:00am | Yeah, and having small robots working from an SEU clip seems to also be a possibility IMHO. Back in the day I did wonder whether there were civilian versions of the clip, belt and backpacks that were used for other things. For example, something like a jackhammer could run off of a backpack or beltpack. Ditto for an arc welder. |
 April 13, 2020 - 2:39pm | There are many weight / length inconsistency in Star Frontier. I think most of the time the authors were just taking "feet" and "pounds" and substituting "meters" and "kilograms" without doing the calculations. |
April 13, 2020 - 3:14pm | There are many weight / length inconsistency in Star Frontier. I think most of the time the authors were just taking "feet" and "pounds" and substituting "meters" and "kilograms" without doing the calculations.
I'd by that for a dollar, err I mean a centi-credit. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 October 13, 2020 - 1:46pm | Again, I'm late to this discussio, so my apologies, but I do agree with your line of thinking. The standard parabattery/SEU usage definitely needs some sort of revision. Especially the costs for recharging. Joe Cabadas |
October 13, 2020 - 5:29pm | @ JCab 747 Yeah since you happend to point out that the cost of chem rocket fuel per load for a chem rocket ship is less than a recharge for a ground car ......and that we have previously speculated that the Frontier runs on an energy economy So yes the cost of energy needs a serious overhaul for the setting. Star Questions in Dragon stated that a robot or a vehcile could travel 1 km on one SEU- that seemed low to me. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
