Bay 12 Games Forum

It shows up in the list of all techs, but it doesn't show any indication that research points have been applied to it. Looks the same as all the other spoiler techs like plasma torpedoes.

Screw the prime directive. Nuke/lase/weapon of choice them to death from orbit. If you really want to be nasty, hitting the population hard enough from orbit will make them surrender without any ground forces present.

Anybody got tips for starting up a game with multiple factions on earth? I'd like to do a sort of "second space race" scenario.

I might be crazy, but I sort of think wind turbines look cool, in a weird sort of way. I'd be perfectly fine with sticking one on my house.

Wouldn't breaking c be like breaking mach, but with light instead of sound?

When mach is broken, all of the sound created/reflected after the break hits any observer at the same moment.

If someone broke c, wouldn't that just mean that all of the light created/reflected after the break would hit an observer at the same moment (likely in a blinding flash, if they couldn't just see every point between the break and the moment of "impact"?)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherenkov_radiation

You're probably thinking of this. It is somewhat analogous to a sonic boom.

So, uh...Is there any way to find out if a race I've just met is precursors or not?

I started out with 0 NPRs and precursors on, then bumped NPR creation up to 30% once I felt comfortable with the game and got a few systems between me and the border.  And now, in the year 2038 (okay I'm slow) I just ran into a system with ships that hit 10,000 km/s which is about 3x my fastest ships and that launch swarms of nukes.  I only just started ramping up my off-Earth colonies--Earth has hit its decline--and it's a little important that I know whether the enemy ships are going to leave their system or not (even if I have to cheat to do it).

I couldn't communicate with them, in any case.

(Invaders and Star Swarm are turned off.)

If you can't communicate with them at all, then there's a fairly good chance that they are precursors. Also, precursors don't vent atmosphere when you hit their ships.

Yes, modulus of elasticity is Young's modulus.

Here's some values for yield and ultimate strengths, from the same source. The book is very spotty with the values (i.e., some materials don't have all stats listed).

Structural steel
     Density: 7860 kg/m^3
     Ultimate tensile strength, tension: 400 MPa
     Yield strength, tension: 250 MPa
     Yield strength, shear: 145 MPa
Gray cast iron (listed as 4.5% carbon)
     Density: 7200 kg/m^3
     Ultimate tensile strength: 170 MPa
     Ultimate compression strength: 655 MPa
     Ultimate shear strength: 240 MPa
Malleable Cast Iron (2% carbon, 1% silicon) (ductility is listed as 20x that of gray cast iron and 1/2 steel, but I don't really have a baseline to go off of)
     Density: 7300 kg/m^3
     Ultimate Tensile strength: 345 MPa
     Ultimate Compression strength: 620 MPa
     Ultimate shear strength: 330 MPa
     Tensile yield strength: 230 MPa
     Modulus of elasticity: 165 GPa
     Modulus of rigidity: 65 GPa
Annealed copper
     Density: 8910 kg/m^3
     Ultimate tensile strength: 220 MPa
     Ultimate shear strength: 150 MPa
     Tensile yield: 70 MPa
Yellow Brass (65% Cu, 35% Zn), Cold Rolled
     Density: 8470 kg/m^3
     Ultimate tensile strength: 510 MPa
     Ultimate shear strength: 300 MPa
     Tensile yield: 410 MPa
     Shear yield: 250 MPa
Tin Bronze (88% Cu, 8% Sn, 4% Zn)
     Density: 8800 kg/m^3
     Ultimate tensile strength: 310 MPa
     Tensile Yield: 145 MPa
Monel Alloy (Ni-Cu), cold worked.  No nickel or copper proportions listed.
      Density: 8830 kg/m^3
      Ultimate tensile strength: 675 MPa 
      Tensile yield: 585 MPa
      Shear yield: 345 MPa
Cupronickel (90% Cu, 10% Ni), cold worked
       Density: 8940 kg/m^3
       Ultimate tensile strength: 585 MPa
       Tensile yield: 545 MPa

Also, for comparison

Titanium Alloy (6% Al, 4% V) I really don't think this would fit in the DF setting.
      Density: 4730 kg/m^3
      Ultimate tensile strength: 900 MPa
      Tensile Yield: 830 MPa
      Modulus of elasticity: 115 MPa
Douglas fir (most other woods listed had properties close to these)
       Density: 470 kg/m^3
       Ultimate tensile strength: 100 MPa
       Ultimate compression strength: 50 MPa
       Ultimate shear strength: 7.6 MPa
       Modulus of elasticity: 13 GPa
       Modulus of rigidity: 0.7 GPa


Hope this helps.