More previews on Monday

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Jason Richards
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More previews on Monday

Unread post by Jason Richards »

Not gonna say too much, but tune in on Monday for what I think promises to be a very interesting preview.
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Jason Richards
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Re: More previews on Monday

Unread post by Jason Richards »

:( No love? I thought it was a pile of awesomesauce.
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glitterboy2098
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Re: More previews on Monday

Unread post by glitterboy2098 »

interesting...some sort of hover-firetruck/ambulance, IMO. must be flight capable, given the rapelling arm.. three water-cannons.. space for about a dozen people in the passenger section..
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Re: More previews on Monday

Unread post by Jeffrey W. »

Jason Richards wrote::( No love? I thought it was a pile of awesomesauce.


Well, it is a pile of ...

No, just kidding, Jason.

I'm sure this book will be good. I predict it will better than any Rifts: Chaos Earth book published between 2004-2009. What? There weren't any published during those years? Well, I'm right again!

The vehicle deck plans are lousy. What sort of hover-vehicle would have no gun port arc covering the starboard or aft sides of the transport? I just hope that every event only occurs on the port side of the vehicle. And where are the engines, reactor plant, etc? At least you did put a ramp in the rear of the vehicle for the trunk monkey (LOL).

Your earlier sneak preview of some book text was better. I look forward to reading about the mutations, the aliens, and more. I believe your gift is your creative writing, but if you were ever a defense contractor, I would seriously consider surrender as an option.

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Dustin Fireblade
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Re: More previews on Monday

Unread post by Dustin Fireblade »

Hey I bet that's the Emergency Response Mobile Platform you mentioned a while back on Facebook!
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Re: More previews on Monday

Unread post by Jason Richards »

What sort of hover-vehicle would have no gun port arc covering the starboard or aft sides of the transport?


what kind, indeed?
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glitterboy2098
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Re: More previews on Monday

Unread post by glitterboy2098 »

Jason Richards wrote:
What sort of hover-vehicle would have no gun port arc covering the starboard or aft sides of the transport?


what kind, indeed?

as i said, this is almost certainly supposed to be a firefighting tool, not a military one. those aren't guns, they're big water pumps for shooting streams of firefighting foam at burning buildings, foam supplied from the tanks of chemicals and water in the center. the rear passenger bay is space for Rescue teams to deploy from, either via the ramp onto a roof or landing pad, or rapelling down lines into a building's sides via the side door.

the powerplant and other such systems are probably located "beneath the floor" of the vehicle. remember, we only see the top view and the bottom view. not a side view, which would tell us how tall the thing is. in a flying vehicle using ducted fan thrust, you'd want the center of gravity as low as you can get it, so the heavy engine and drive train would be located below the crew.

basically, this is a Helitack crossed with an airjeep.
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Re: More previews on Monday

Unread post by Jeffrey W. »

What kind indeed? I suspect that Dustin Fireblade might have revealed it with his guess of an Emergency Response Mobile Platform.

I think that glitterboy2098 makes very sound and logical points concerning the hypothetical engineering of this vehicle, but that said, these deck plans remain flawed, in my opinion. Most flying rescue vehicles would place such engineering above or out to the sides of the rescuers, so as not to compromise the mission itself.

Who would repel from a vehicle which has the air intakes/thruster ducts beneath or to either sides of the hatch? Wouldn't such a first responder just suit up in environmental body armor and travel by jet pack using pre-Rifts technology?

The repelling winch might be usefull to extract victims, but who would raise the victim on the rescue line towards the undercarriage mounted air intakes/thruster ducts during in-flight operations?

The scale of the rear passenger area doesn't look like it would offer much in the way of a victim triage area, so any possible ambulance applications seem curtailed.

In-game use of such a vehicle would seem nonexistent, because there's always the "vehicle couldn't fly in Chaos Earth conditions" argument (because of volcanic ash). That topic is probably a dead horse by now. Some gamemasters will choose to simply ignore that inconvenient truth and move on.

I'll predict that the deck plans to this vehicle do not make it into the published book, in the interest of quality control.

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glitterboy2098
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Re: More previews on Monday

Unread post by glitterboy2098 »

I think that glitterboy2098 makes very sound and logical points concerning the hypothetical engineering of this vehicle, but that said, these deck plans remain flawed, in my opinion. Most flying rescue vehicles would place such engineering above or out to the sides of the rescuers, so as not to compromise the mission itself.

i was trying top be nice. there are some major flaws involved. IMO, the ducted fans would be best located in front and behind, like the Airjeep i posted. build them into the fuselage, and place the cockpit at the top of the vehicle, above the personell compartments, or in a nose ahead of the front fan. secondary fans, used for manuvering and forward propulsion not lift, could be positioned along the sides, ideally above the personell compartment, so you don't have suction hazards when deploying via line. the side door is OK, but it needs to be larger, with doors on either side. stick the water and chemical tanks above the personell compartment, perhaps even in a "hump" on top of the vehicle. the rear hatch should be junked, too small, and not compatable with a rear fan. add a second sliding door on the opposite side, just like modern helicopters. it too should be equipped with rapelling lines. the water cannons should be either pintle mounted in each doorway, or one big one underslung on the vehicle in a remote turret. you need some small "running boards" below each doorway, so you can have the passengers/crew tethered to the vehicle, and be able to sit half out of the vehicle. this will increase your passenger space, allowing you to airlift out people from buildings, without having to leave the firefighters behind.

you know, skip it. just take one of those flying Glitterboy transports from Free Quebec, give it a hump for water storage, and some water cannons. ideal firefighting vehicle with airlift capacity. those GB firing steps make wonderful platforms for getting people out as well, just tether them to the vehicle (like how the Apache can be used to pick up wounded..)
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Jason Richards
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Re: More previews on Monday

Unread post by Jason Richards »

I'll predict that the deck plans to this vehicle do not make it into the published book, in the interest of quality control.
Interesting, since you're just guessing (wrong) about many of the vehicle's functions. Seems like it's tough to condemn a sketch of a work in progress when you don't even know what the end product is. :roll:

gb is much closer and raises valid points that I have considered. Regarding the location of water tanks, I struggled with exactly what you're talking about. I initially had the tanks stored overhead. The problem comes with overturning forces applied by "sloshing" water. If the water is stored high on the vehicle, the weight of tons of water (a substantial percentage of the total vehicle weight) moving around becomes a problem. My preference would be that it be carried under the vehicle, but I haven't worked out how that is possible without conflicting with other mechanical systems.

Maneuvering is achieved in this case by pivoting the blowers that are on the undercarriage, or on the side of the vehicle in the case of the rear jets. That's just sort of how most vehicles are depicted in Rifts/Chaos Earth. It also has the advantage of not having to run mechanical drive systems into the vehicle, but for it to be built entirely into the chassis.

You're right on the running boards. I'll add that, probably not static and built in, but a kick-out step when the door is opened. I did design the vehicle to operate in firefighting operations with doors closed, just for practical reasons such as avoiding the heat and air quality issues that come along with structure fires. The air jets make underslinging the water cannons a problem.

Also, don't worry about air intakes affecting people rapelling from the side of the platform. I have that covered. Both for that reason and to protect the intakes from smoke/ash of a structure fire, the intakes are directed away from the port side. Reflected undercarriage plan will show the mech'l systems.

I enjoy the constructive give and take. :)
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Dustin Fireblade
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Re: More previews on Monday

Unread post by Dustin Fireblade »

duck-foot wrote:what are we talking about and were can i see it?



Go here -
http://www.jasonrichards.net/

and scroll down until you see "another peek...." and click on it.
Jason Richards
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Re: More previews on Monday

Unread post by Jason Richards »

innaresting, lakota. I'll look into that. It could work very well in this application.
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