 January 4, 2016 - 7:30am |
The Copterpack is another option in the field of 1-man mini-vehicles available for use on planets all across the UPF. Small, agile, it is fairly energy efficient, and perfect for scouting and patrol operations. Copterpacks consist of little more than a power source, engine, rotor, and canopy mounted on a semi-articulated, rigid frame that supports the pack when not in use on a pair of skids. The whole system collapses down into an area of less than 2 by 2 by 2 meters for storage. Exploration teams use Copterpacks as often as they use jetpacks or paragliders because they offer greater stability than a jetpack, decent range, and are fairly easy to operate, even by untrained pilots. The pack is flown primarily by the pilot shifting his weight within the frame. The gyroscope notes the change in body position and the pack's systems adjust accordingly. Two small joysticks built into the “arms” of the articulation frame are available for ultra-fine control and as a backup.
Copterpack in stowed position | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 January 4, 2016 - 7:49am | Like this, I would advocate that they went with a type 1 parabsttery for wt and space savings. And a double set of rotors over head to cancel out the rotation to the pack. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
January 4, 2016 - 7:51am | Civilain models for rent tend to have none of the extras, military, police and search and rescue models have IR scanners as standard. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 January 4, 2016 - 8:48am | I'm not sure I'd want rocket flare so close to my feet and shoulders... |
January 4, 2016 - 9:18am | Like this, I would advocate that they went with a type 1 parabsttery for wt and space savings. And a double set of rotors over head to cancel out the rotation to the pack. I'd already thought of the double rotor thing, but there's only so much modding I can do to the image. I might try it later and see what I can do. As for the Parabattery, a Type 2 by my calculations should only be about 13x13x13 cm. That's 5x5x5 in. Assuming that all parabatteries store energy at the same density that is. Even doubling the size would only make it about the size of a car battery. As for the worry about missiles firing off that close, the game already has rockets firing off that close or closer (gyrojets). Apparently they've developed a "cool" burning fuel of some kind. You could say they burn that, or that they have a 1st stage that does before a more powerful burn is ignited after it's travelled a few meters. If that doesn't satisfy, then maybe they do a "drop and burn" launch like some missiles we use today do. |
January 4, 2016 - 9:57am | Editing the images turned out to be easier than I thought it would be. |
 January 4, 2016 - 12:00pm | Cool... "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
 January 4, 2016 - 3:38pm | Just a comment on the parabattery. If it's only 13cmx13cmx13cm and weighs the 50 kg that the rules say it weighs, then it has a density of 22.76 g/cm^3. Which is unbelivably high. Even nickel-iron, compressed above its "normal density" of ~8.2 g/cm^3 by the mass of the earth at its core only has a density of about 12-13 g/cm^3. It would probably really need to be at least 4 times larger (say 13x26x25) or more likely 6-8 times larger to have a realistic density at that mass. Otherwise, very cool. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
January 4, 2016 - 4:28pm | As for the worry about missiles firing off that close, the game already has rockets firing off that close or closer (gyrojets). Apparently they've developed a "cool" burning fuel of some kind. You could say they burn that, or that they have a 1st stage that does before a more powerful burn is ignited after it's travelled a few meters. If that doesn't satisfy, then maybe they do a "drop and burn" launch like some missiles we use today do.
Gyrojet pistols/rifles use much smaller rockets and their exhaust is vented away from the shooter by the exit nozzle. Even the grand daddy rocket launcher is in a tube that vents the exhaust behind the shooter. Now if it's a missile that can drop/ignite, totally different story. |
January 4, 2016 - 5:35pm | @ Teri: As seems to be typical, the "canon" information tends to contradict itself at times. I am very aware of the problem of how small the Type 1 and 2 get if you use the existing information as a base to plot an extraction. I hadn't factored in for weight (and hence density). *Sigh* Back to the proverbial drawing board, when I get time. @ Shadow Shack: Well there you go then...problem solved :) |
January 4, 2016 - 7:16pm | Just out of idle curiosity, I did some checking into the size of a real life motorcycle battery (equivalent to a Type 1 parabattery). I grabbed a battery supply website and went hunting for dimensions. http://www.batteryspec.com/html/Motorcycles_Scooters.htm The largest battery they sold was about 7x7x7 in (roughly 18x18x18cm). That's with current tech. The Frontier has tech that puts 20,000 jules of energy into a battery the size of a pistol magazine. Make of that what you will. |
January 4, 2016 - 7:39pm | Don't sweat the picture, I'm sure I can work up a sketch, or we can locate one. Don't cycles in game use 1 type 1 parabsttery? I think keeping it in line with the other personal use vehicles is best but I suppose a copter might require more power than ground and hover cycles so a type 2 is probably not a big deal. On the other hand I also recall that in the Star questions published in Dragon one reader asked how far a robot could travel on his available power and the ruling was 1km/ SEU. Do you feel the 1km/SEU for the copter is in balance with this? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
January 4, 2016 - 7:45pm | Oh yeah last thing any pilot is going to want to do is have a weapon system that drains the power that keeps the craft aloft. Perhaps swap out that laser. Also this isn't going to be armored so its hard to see it in an attack role, more than likely its a scout mission platform and covert operations platform. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
January 4, 2016 - 7:58pm | I thought about that, but I can see at least allowing for a personnel scale laser. There wouldn't be a problem finding enough storage for a dedicated supply of 1-200 SEU, given that you can fit 50 SEU into a pack the size of a medium fanny pack at the largest. As for the chopper's energy supply, I realized I made a critical mistake. I was trying to cram the power storage into the engine compartment, when vehicles store their energy is their FUEL TANKS. So I went digging again. Using a groundbike as an example, a big travelling bike can have a fuel tank up to about 7.5 gallons (29 liters) the physical volume is ~ 28,390 cubic cm. Now, 7.5 gallons of gasoline (grade unspecified, I assume regular), carry 988,200 kj worth of energy. That's at today's level of tech. This is the part that keeps messing me up. At the level of tech we assume for the frontier, how many cubic cm would it take to store that much energy in kJ? That would give us the minimum volume for a Type 1 parabattery. |
January 4, 2016 - 10:48pm | Yeah, some of you all clearly like Math and that's nice, have fun with that. I retained enough Algerba to help me computer EXP in Advanced D&D. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
January 5, 2016 - 12:36am | ^Heh. Hopefully Teri will chime in... :) |
January 5, 2016 - 2:15pm | Yeah, some of you all clearly like Math and that's nice, have fun with that. I retained enough Algerba to help me computer EXP in Advanced D&D.
AD&D?!? That's a complicated game system, more so if it's 3+e where you actually need a degree in math. |
January 5, 2016 - 7:32pm | Yeah, some of you all clearly like Math and that's nice, have fun with that. I retained enough Algerba to help me computer EXP in Advanced D&D.
AD&D?!? That's a complicated game system, more so if it's 3+e where you actually need a degree in math. Like I said the Algerba I retained was connected to stuff I needed to figure out for the game. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
January 5, 2016 - 11:09pm | That was more tongue-in-cheek comparing the simplicity of SF versus AD&D than the need for math. You know, as in attempting to make a simple game system complicated...like Zeb's Guide did. And you know how I can't resist taking a shot at Zeb's.  |
February 9, 2016 - 10:06am | I rewrote/expanded the text, renamed it, and submitted it to the wikki http://starfrontiers.wikia.com/wiki/Rotorpack |
