Bussard Ram Scoop

[BusbyLogic]

then why does fuel never replenish in the game in WC2 if you flew the broadsword around long enough you would start burning up its fuel * i know this cause it preventing me from finishing my mission i couldnt jump back*

 

[Frosty]

Because it's a gameplay element designed to force you to budget your afterburner use.

That's not the kind of answer you're looking for, I know. It's certainly not an inexplicable phenomenon, though; perhaps you can't take in enough fuel while underway to build an afterburner reserve while at the same time fueling standard engine activity. Or perhaps afterburner fuel is different from the typical fuels you scoop up while flying and can only be tanked up aboard-ship.

I confess I don't know the actual reason if there is one, but with science fiction it's not hard to concieve of some explanation or another for any number of seemingly odd things you might come across.

 

[Devari]

then why does fuel never replenish in the game in WC2 if you flew the broadsword around long enough you would start burning up its fuel * i know this cause it preventing me from finishing my mission i couldnt jump back*

First, are you sure you're thinking of the broadsword? It doesn't have any afterburners and always starts with enough fuel to make two jumps, so the only way to run out of fuel in a broadsword is either to jump twice (in which case you're back where you started and should be able to land on your carrier) or to take damage to your fuel tanks. Otherwise you should have been able to fly around all day without draining your fuel.

You might be thinking of the morningstar, which draws fuel for both its afterburners and jump drives from the same tanks. If you make a jump in a morning star and then use the afterburners too much you can run out of fuel for the return jump. But as I mentioned this shouldn't happen in a broadsword since it doesn't have afterburners.

To answer your question about why the scoops don't allow you to replenish your fuel tanks, that's because the drag from the scoops requires the ships to burn the fuel as fast as they take it in to maintain their velocity. If the scoops didn't cause any drag, then you would be able to refuel your afterburner tanks since you could simply accelerate the ship to a high velocity, shut down the engines and store the fuel as the scoops collect it. But because of the drag the engines need to run continously to keep the ship moving.

That's the techincal explanation, but I agree with Frosty that the real reason you can't replenish your tanks is simply to make the game more challenging. After all, the games were simply designed to be fun to play, they didn't care whether the technology made any sense or not. It's really just a coincidence that the description of the hydrogen scoops from the novels does a good job of explaining the way the ships work in the game.

 

[BusbyLogic]

no no it was most definately the broadsword i remember well. But anyways i think i will close out my comments here it has been fun and learned alot. I look forward to another on a later date.

 

[Crowley]

Maybe the earlier models had more inefficient ramscoops which could collect fuel only slightly slower than it was consumed.