Transportation Issues

[RoadWarriorFWaNK]

Ok, for you survival nuts out there. I'm running a Chaos Earth game in southern Wisconsin. The PCs are NEMA operatives, running around the ruins and the wasteland rescuing people and searching for supplies.
In having the group move from one place to another, i'm trying to keep things interesting by limiting their mobility. The streets are full of rubble and debris, the roads are caked with ash and snow, the ash in the air is clogging filters and jets, etc. There's no rules on any of this, and i'm neither scientific nor survivalist mentality, so i have some questions.

Ok, first of all, what exactly are the effects of ash falling from the sky on vehicles? Is fixing the problem really as simple as shaking out the vehicle's air filter? One of the players had the idea of covering a Silver Eagle's intake vents with pantyhose. How viable is this as a solution?

Speaking of the Silver Eagle, and SAMAS in general, do other GMs allow these armors to carry passengers in the long term? It just doesn't seem to me like that would work. The shape and size of the SAMAS seems to me like it would prevent it from carrying someone for very long, not to mention that there is no place to store the rail gun while the armor has its hands full.

As a freelance writer for PB, and as a GM, i've been leaning towards the idea that pre-rifts civilian vehicles were smaller than the ones we use today, and mostly ran on electric batteries. Only older vehicles used combustion engines. After three months of no use, and no charging, how would the engines on these cars and trucks still be holding up? I once read that gasoline evaporates from gas tanks pretty quickly, but one of my players said that gas tanks are air-tight, so the gas vapors would have nowhere to go and could still be used even months later. Would electrical engines still have a charge after this time? Keeping batteries in the cold makes them last longer, right?

[Dustin Fireblade]

I'm not sure about the pantyhose trick. There's already some sort of a screen on the Silver Eagle's air intakes.

Of course, one could always introduce a specially equipped SAMAS designed for scouting in extreme conditions, such as looking for survivors after a volcano. (I wouldn't worry too much about the mechanics unless its something you want to introduce in your writings). And no, long term travel of passengers wouldn't be very viable.

As far as the electric vehicles go, I came to the same conclusion. The only people who use gas powered vehicles would be police, fire and rescue services. Perhaps city/municipal workers as well. Of course there would also still be NASCAR and other races. Charge should last for a good while - depending on just how well batteries advance in 80 years.

Gas vehicles could have their gas preserved through the use of STA-BIL.
http://www.goldeagle.com/brands/stabil/default.aspx

There shouldn't be a lot of evaporation going on either.

[Colt47]

Well, aircraft and power armor using standard jet engines will be grounded for the a good month or two after the initial super eruption. Weather will generally remove most ash from the air with precipitation, especially around the great lakes areas. The real danger the ash presents is weighing down vehicles and caving in the roofing of homes and businesses. Likewise, ash will abrade and cause damage when wiped or washed off of objects, so the best way to get rid of ash is to vacuum the dry particles up. I guess I'd ask more so why the player group would want to move out of the adventure areas to begin with? Their purpose is to save lives that are trapped in the area, so rubble shouldn't be what is keeping the players in the area.

Here is some safety information about ash fall that would apply even during the more advanced times of 2098: http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/ash/todo.html#fall

I'd assume most rescue groups would also bring with them a significant bio hazard clean up crew with high powered vacuums to remove dry ash.

[keir451]

Not sure on the pantyhose trick, but the U.S.Army used green scrubbies taped over their vehicle intakes during Desert Storm, and that WOULD work, Just rinse out the scrubbie after each flight (which means very, very frequently). The APC's (IMO) don't have an air itake so they could run continuously and could be used to help transport people, the SAMAS could carry up to two people at a time, but loses the ability to use the railgun, the bigger bots could carry two to four people(2 per hand) at a time.
Any vehicle that has an air intake would get clogged by the ash being sucked in, gas does evaporate if left in the open, but in a gas tank after a while you'd get the fuel seperating into it's seperate components and being effectively useless, batteries eventually die, as even they have an effective lifespan (ahh, consumerism). Remember your car battery or flashlight batteries that haven't been used in a year or more. So electric vehicles may become useless if they aren't charged after a certain time. After the ash clears (could take up to year if the volcano is still erupting) ground vehicles can move freely and the ash will dry up and blow away (the Apocalypse happened in winter) but this creates an even gerater hazard for it being sucked into intakes more easily.

[glitterboy2098]

pantyhose wouldn't help. on ground vehicles, a fine mesh screen (like the fabric of the hose) will keep most of the grit and dust out, but on aircraft, like a jet or a SAMAS, you'd have to suck in so much air every second to fly, that obstructing the intakes will stop you flying. you just can't get enough air through the mesh to keep up the thrust needed for flight. and thats assuming you have ultra-tough MDC pantyhose that withstand the suction a SAMAS's engines would put on the intake. after all, those engines are getting a not-very-aerodynamic one ton powered suit to fly at 300mph, and hover in place. even ductaping the stuff in place over the intakes wouldn't keep the intake from sucking it in from the pressure diffrential.

[keir451]

pantyhose wouldn't help. on ground vehicles, a fine mesh screen (like the fabric of the hose) will keep most of the grit and dust out, but on aircraft, like a jet or a SAMAS, you'd have to suck in so much air every second to fly, that obstructing the intakes will stop you flying. you just can't get enough air through the mesh to keep up the thrust needed for flight. and thats assuming you have ultra-tough MDC pantyhose that withstand the suction a SAMAS's engines would put on the intake. after all, those engines are getting a not-very-aerodynamic one ton powered suit to fly at 300mph, and hover in place. even ductaping the stuff in place over the intakes wouldn't keep the intake from sucking it in from the pressure diffrential.

Agreed. Even the green scrubby trick may end up being ineffective to a degree as the finer particles of ash in the air may still by bypass it and get sucked into the intakes.
(Love the "Rifts under seas 2" image , now THAT'S what I think of for Underseas!)