Something I was reminded of by the discussion of Zero-G Movement, and can’t recall seeing anywhere (or I’ve accidentally skim-read over it) …
Do the starships in Infinity have artificial gravity, or are they restricted to spinning sections of the ship, or applying thrust burn to provide ‘gravity’?
The layout of the Nomad ships would seem to militate against spin or thrust ‘gravity’, given the differing alignments of the domes on Bakunin and the sideways position of the University Circle on Tunguska.
Thanks!
(Inspired by the fine tradition of messing with gravitational controls in Traveller to inconvenience your opponents if you have access to, or have hacked, them.)
This snippet from the GM’s Guide has the most detailed summary of gravity I think.
Experiments in synthetic gravity
have had mixed results, and
no examples have been more
than proof-of-concept tests
with highly classified results.
Thus, the matter of microgravity
environments is a concern for
those travelling in space, as it
can lead to significant health
issues. Treating these problems is
within the capabilities of modern
medicine, but it’s still better to
prevent them in the first place.
Some vessels resolve the issue
at least partially by orienting
their decks so that the ship’s
engines are beneath their
feet, so that when the ship
moves, its acceleration serves
as a substitute for gravity.
Other vessels use centrifugal
force, generated by rotating
the ship along its axis, to
replicate gravity. Others still
use diamagnetism to simulate
a gravitational force, though
typically at less than 1g due
to power consumption. These
solutions don’t work equally for
all ships in all circumstances,
however, so the search for a
better solution continues.
I concur, the layout of the Nomad ships won’t work for any of the given methods of generating artificial gravity by thrust or rotation.
In some presentations of Infinity spaceships (the Circulars, for example), there seems to be a bit of confusion even amongst the illustrators. Some ship designs imply artificial “grav plate”-like gravity. Others are more oriented towards rotation/thrust gravity generation.
In the Outrage graphic novel, there is artificial gravity on a Druze caravansary. I think this might be a discrepancy between the Infinity RPG and N3 Infinity, because I think I remember somewhere in N3 that the motherships do have artificial gravity.
There are a few places they talk about specific instances of how Gravity on particular ships works.
Aboard the circulars, large “compartments” are built with spin gravity sections while other parts are left in free-fall. I initially thought that circulars might use just endless thrust to create directional simulated gravity, but can’t see space-trains doing a flip-and-burn without a lot of passengers being hurt. I think one of the preview adventures covers how gravity on a circular works… the one where you have to sneak on board a Remora.
Back when the GMG was being put together I asked about Artificial Gravity and gave some examples, Lloyd gave a response…
The Dolly Dagger likely uses one of the Gravitational systems described below. Inconsistent power would cause gravity to malfunction. We did ask Gutier directly about A.G. when writing up ships initially
Some vessels resolve the issue at least partially by orienting their decks so that the ship’s engines are beneath their feet, so that when the ship moves, its acceleration serves as a substitute for gravity. Other vessels use centrifugal force, generated by rotating the ship along its axis, to replicate gravity. Others still use diamagnetism to simulate a gravitational force, though typically at less than 1g due to power consumption. These solutions don’t work equally for all ships in all circumstances, however, so the search for a better solution continues.
So given the Dolly Dagger is a super-spy/O-12 ship it probably uses Diamagnetism in combination with Thrust generating gravity. Given the scenes in the Manga and the Druze Caravansary seems to use Grav-plating… but it looks like it all misaligned pointing all over the place and large section of that station also appear open to vacuum yet filled with breathable atmo… so I dunno what’s going on there.
As for the Nomad Motherships, in the Nomad sourcebook they talk about people having to spend time in G-Zone’s regularly and how some of those places are essentially just gymnasium, but other areas are setup to spin and provide simulated gravity in excess of the minimal gravity caused by ship thrust. Vast sections of the ships are probably in free-fall often.
And I otherwise assume given the nature of Nomad’s everyone gets around with mag-shoes or something able to allow limited normality when walking through a ZeeGee area (combo with lot’s of hair gel and you probably dont see much difference)
combo with lot’s of hair gel and you probably don’t see much difference
With something the size of the Circulars, some form of axial spin might work, as it would also provide gravity to any Remoras that dock with dorsal locks. The Nomad ships do seem inconsistently designed for that, though!
If you look at the proposed designs/concepts for Asteroid bases their are plenty that use internal rotating areas or gravity wheels attached to the outside, you dont need to spin the entire thing to simulate gravity in that fashion, thats how I assume the Nomad ships work.
And lets face it, aside from the 1 mothership that started life as a O’niel style colony they all (and even that one really) more or less grew by people bolting on new bits as needed so a lack of design consistency is VERY Nomad
TBH, it was mostly the domes with cities inside that made me think, as they’re pretty much useless for anything other than generated gravity, or possibly thrust ‘gravity’ - for spin, etc, you end up walking on the dome and looking ‘up’ at the ‘city’. Or walking around the outer edge of the dome, and looking ‘up’ at the centre.
