[gurps] TL10 ocean going

[Thomas Thrien]

I think first you have to define what "big waves" are. It can either 
mean "long waves" or "high waves".

On a large, deep ocean (likes Earth's Pacific ocean) waves tend to be 
longer than on a smaller one. On a world with 90+% water on the surface 
we will have a  definitely a larger one ...

But one aspect we haven't discussed yet is about how deep the ocean is 
on that world. Do we have a world with deep oceans and the dry areas a 
only a few islands that are in fact the peaks of some really high 
"undersea mountains"? Or do we have mainly shallow waters with just a 
few deep trenches and some land that is just a few meters above the water?

Do we have a moon? If so, and if it is a large one (like Earth's moon), 
this may have some dramatic effects on a deep ocean world, while these 
effects are less significant on a shallow ocean world.

In both cases, the weather on this planet is different from that on 
Earth. But to determine how different depends from a bunch of additional 
feature, like the average water temperature, and the difference between 
the highest and the lowest temperatures (the average temperature of the 
air does not really matters here as it is highly dependent on the water 
temperature on a water world). Air pressure is another factor, as it has 
an influence on the vaporization of the oceans (I hope I looked up the 
right term ...). As the world is habitable, the amount of Carbondioxide 
in the air should not be so different from earth, but it is still a 
factor that may influence the weather.

Back to the original question: what kind of sea going vessel is to be 
used on such a world?

As someone else said already: if most of the habitats are on the ground 
of the sea, some kind of submersibles would make sense. But if the 
oceans are shallow, even going underwater would not protect from the 
weather.

On a deep ocean world with a moon the tidal currents may be so strong 
that either only settlements far from the ocean can survive (in this 
case, ships are not really usefull for transport), or you will build 
your underwater habitats in really deep areas (so you must use 
submersibles). The third option is having floating cities. Given they 
are really large and can provide enough energy for some kind of engines 
that keeps them in position, they are nearly invulnerable by the weather 
- and ships on the surface would make (some) sense. Although, perhaps we 
should also discuss worlds with more than one (large) moon.

On a shallow ocean world, I would not rely on any kind of seagoing 
vessel for important tasks, as there is no way to protect it from the 
weather. For mass transport I would connect the settlements by tunnels 
unter the seaground, for individual transportation flying vehicles are a 
good choice. And boats are only used for recreational purposes when the 
weather is fine.

Perhaps you might have noticed that I avoided to define what "shallow" 
or "deep" oceans are. To be honest, I have no clue, where this border 
is. I would say that the Atlantic or the Pacific oceans are definitely 
deep oceans. But if the Mediterranean Sea is also a deep one, or already 
a shallow one ... perhaps you will have to distinguish even more than 
just "deep" and "shallow".

Regards

Thomas Thrien

----------| Am 02.03.2008 08:58 schrieb rekres: |----------
> On Sat, Mar 1, 2008 at 4:34 PM, Rupert Boleyn <rboleyn at ihug.co.nz> wrote:
>   
>> HK piter wrote:
>>
>>  > On further reflection.   Things will be slightly different.
>>  > Certainly Robert's suggestions hold true.  Submarines will be king
>>  > (especially in open waters).  Like he said, supercavitation will
>>  > probably be used on the smaller vessels (but not the larger ones).
>>  > With weather like that hydrofoils are *OUT* (their fragile foils will
>>  > be broken in those huge swells).
>>
>>  In some ways really big waves make things easier on such things, because
>>  the ship runs up and down them, rather than smashing into them.
>>     
>
> I don't see any appreciable difference.  If you are lucky enough to
> ride up the face of the wave and over the peak, you'll still smash up
> when you crash into the following trough... just as you would have if
> you had smacked into the wave face.
>
> If we are talking Earth-normal weather patterns, then the bigger the
> wave is the more violent it tends to be.
>
>
>
>   

-- 
Thomas Thrien
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