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Post by inquisitorarantel on Feb 3, 2007 20:09:50 GMT
Dropping big lumps of rock into seas would be a bad idea, a large distance would increase the risk of tsunami. They'd be better off as something like volcanic islands- cut the top off and float it and you have the basis of a floating refinery!
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Post by Doug on Feb 3, 2007 20:16:20 GMT
True enough...whichever way, people like Bolshevik's idea of something based on a very big lump of rock then?
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mohauk
Artisan
Bringer of Fish
Posts: 75
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Post by mohauk on Feb 3, 2007 21:00:08 GMT
I very much like the square tower. It means that the usual way hives are formed - slowly built up as one building is higher, and another is added on top etc etc - can still occur, but gives it a slightly more AdMech, constructed feel, and also loses the stereotypical 'spire formed from a million tiny skyscrapers and spires' image, which is nice, and very cool and gothic, but needs a change for this scenario.
And yes, it just seems to fit much mroe to build the berg on something natural - the asteroid thing is just so cool - hook one down from space, build us a nice city and oil-rig type thing, and drop her in.
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vendile
Enginseer
The doodler
Posts: 234
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Post by vendile on Feb 4, 2007 1:54:07 GMT
Somehow i think that the AdMech - an organisation capabile of creating shuttles large enough to both safely land and launch Emperor Class titans planetside - would be able to deal with taking some suitable asteriods from the systems asteroid belt and land them in the ocean in the right place with minimal effect.
I will get an updated version of my thoughts done tommorrow and post it up asap.
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Post by inquisitorarantel on Feb 4, 2007 12:15:44 GMT
OK, they can drop Emperor-class titans on solid ground using technology they don't really understand; however, there's very little risk of the aforementioned Titan creating an almighty splash when it hits the dirt. They'd need something new and innovative to drop big rocks into the sea without making waves, and the AdMech don't do innovation.
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Post by Doug on Feb 4, 2007 12:17:24 GMT
Not necessarily - they'd need something that was new and innovative fifteen millenia ago, that has been lovingly maintained and worshipped as a gift from the Omnissiah
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Post by inquisitorarantel on Feb 4, 2007 12:22:04 GMT
Oh, OK then... Maybe it could work...
Has anyone seen any background on exactly how they land Titans, by the way? If it involves an almighty thump, this may not work...
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vendile
Enginseer
The doodler
Posts: 234
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Post by vendile on Feb 4, 2007 13:08:56 GMT
the landing and launching of an Emperor class titan is told in "False Gods" - it does involve a bit of a thump - but consider that the largest hive-bergs would have been amoung the first to be landed in the ocean - i.e. before there were any land-based settlements other than a small AdMech camp creating the first starport. Thus, nothing to be damaged by any minor tidal waves.
Note tho, that it would be entirely possible to land the asteroids on the other side of the planet to the only populated landmass - all the interveaning currents, small island chains, etc would easily break up any large waves long before it reach the huge distance to the other side of the planet.
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Post by bolshevik on Feb 4, 2007 14:04:07 GMT
Considering the hivebergs are one of the key ideas would it not be easier to give the whole or a large part of the planet an artic climate. Then the hives can actually be built on proper ice bergs. Ice bergs can be absaloutly huge so theres no problem there, and even when they do drift in to warmer areas they take years to melt.
A rock based one would just erode like a coast of a country and eventually thin away.
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vendile
Enginseer
The doodler
Posts: 234
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Post by vendile on Feb 4, 2007 14:19:45 GMT
It does not take an iceberg years to melt. If it did then the artic circle wouldn't practically disappear every summer.
Rock errodes at vastly varying rates - compare granite to sandstone for instance. what is there against saying that these asteriods are formed of a porose(explained earlier as entirely possible) with a miniscule errosion rate considering the shear size these rocks have to be anyway.
Additionally, it takes a long time for rock to be erroded in any form by water currents - sure, by now with our timeline the oldest of the hive-bergs have been around for 5,000 years or so - and enevitably they will have a fair bit of ware and tare, but the erosion to have taken place will be only about 10 meters at the ASBOLUTE maximum. Erosion is afterall a very slow process.
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Post by bolshevik on Feb 4, 2007 15:13:52 GMT
Alright calm down I was only suggesting.
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Post by thenephew on Feb 4, 2007 16:43:26 GMT
I am a big fan of the rock-based HiveBergs. I'm not a fan of the dropping rocks idea. If the resource is a fuel, and nearly all liquid fuels, even in the 40Kverse, work by burning it, then dropping a massive lump of re-entry hot rock into it is a bad plan. Aside from which, the tsunami would be nearly impossible to contain, no matter what wou do - the lowering would have to be done over a period of at least a week, during which an artificial construction would ahve to bare most of the weight of a lump of rock (that would need to be pretty hard to avoid erosion, therefor pretty dense, and so pretty heavy) that need to be big enough to support even a relatively tiny Hive. The only feasible suggestion so far seems to be freeing landmasses from island chains and similar. This also conveniently explains why the planet isn't covered in HiveBerge; "We run outta planet, Guv".
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vendile
Enginseer
The doodler
Posts: 234
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Post by vendile on Feb 4, 2007 17:22:01 GMT
okay then, heres another posibility; The floating rocks were already there when the settlers arrived, after some research the AdMech believe them to be ancient blast-rocks blown out by huge volcanoes during a period of mass volcanic activity a couple million years ago, but they have never been able to 100% confirm this theory.
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Post by bolshevik on Feb 4, 2007 17:25:58 GMT
I say that will do. I dont hink we should get bogged down in the science of it. but needs a change for this scenario. Tell me what you mean and I can change it if u like.
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Post by necris on Feb 4, 2007 20:25:07 GMT
The whole rock idea just seems very ork to me.
also the trouble of boring out a huge rock when you can build a metal one, perhaps there could be a mix of both rock and metal and even hybrids from said fallen asteroids (things like that happen naturally)
and to make the asteroids floatable they'd have to be porus rock formations which could cause an interesting problem when mining into them occurs.
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