Eric wanted me to post this response of mine to Ian about hiding is space here on the Aurora forums, so here it is.
Short of repealing the Second law of
Thermodynamics you can't hide your waste energy. Then again if you
broke the Second Law of Thermodynamics in order to obtain stealth in
space, a major unintended consequence is that you simultaneously have
allowed perpetual motion machines of the first kind, infinite free
energy from nowhere, and all the secondary unintended ripple effects.
In essence, if you intend to respect the Laws of Thermodynamics there
can be no stealth in space.
> I think the old Traveller 2300 had a good extrapolation of what
future
> tech space combat would be like - more like modern submarine
warfare,
> with lots of remote operations platforms.
GDW's STAR CRUISER describes interplanetary combat as being like hide
and go seek with bazookas. Stealthy ships are tiny needles hidden in
the huge haystack of deep space. The first ship that detects its
opponent wins by vaporizing said opponent with a nuclear warhead.
Turning on active sensors is tantamount to suicide. It is like one of
the bazooka-packing seekers clicking on a flashlight: all your
enemies instantly see and shoot you before you get a good look. You'd
best have all your sensors and weapons far from your ship on
expendable remote drones.
Well, that turns out not to be the case.
The "bazooka" part is accurate, but not the 'hiding' part. the
starship's thrust power was several terawatts. This means the exhaust
is so intense that it could be detected from Alpha Centauri. By a
passive sensor.
I realise to make things work, we will have to bend, and perhaps even
break some of the theories of physics. But you have to do it
responsibly, remaining true to the spirit if not the letter of the
laws of science. Otherwise this SF setting of Astral Empires will
degenerate into a self-contradictory mass of putrid fantasy
pathetically trying to cover up with scraps of ridiculous
technobabble.
In some cases I know we will have no choice but to violate a theory
of physics. For instance, since we are going to have FTL travel, we
are going to have to violate either relativity or causality; one of
them has got to go.
The important point I am trying to make is to keep the fracture under
control. Sloppy game designers will assume that 'if we have to break
a few theories of physics for FTL, why not just throw all the
theories out the window?' Please don't give in to the temptation.
Omitting physics will degrade the system to a pathetic lack of
accuracy worse than an average Star Wars movie.
And lets try to just to break one theory, not two or three.
Cheers, Thorgrimm
