I'm running a game set in a dieselpunk setting where hovercars are a thing...

The diesel fuel forces anti-gravitons through the flux capacitor causing the hoopajoops to produce 82 anti-grav pulses every second

You could do something with ground-effect.

Maybe ducted fans to generate lift. Without a ground-surface to push against, the lift they'd provide drops off rapidly, so your hoverbikes can't get more than a few feet off the closest floorlike surface.

It's also not very exploitable, so you can limit your players from doing anything really stupid you didn't expect.

You could handwave something with magnetic levitation. You'd need more powerful magnets/superconductors than exist in real life, though. That's a bit exploitable as well.

This might give you some ideas too.
projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/antigravity.php

pure logic

pfft, I'd love to do that but that'd probably piss him off

I was thinkin some kinda metal that loses gravity when an electrical current is run through it

Basically reverse-engineered ancient alien tech. They figured out that if you process a particular blend of metal alloy in a special way, it floats.

Could very easily just make them air-jet engines. Or antigravity!

holy fuck that can't be real

>if you process a particular blend of metal alloy in a special way, it floats.
Sounds like repulsor/antigravity tech, just in its infancy! I like it!

L A S T

E X I L E

Try this on for size.
youtube.com/watch?v=bZe5J8SVCYQ

>reciprocation dingle-arm to reduce soinosoidal repleneration
this is gold

Fuck yes, appreciate it.

Works for me!

>ground-effect
I could imagine there being racecraft that use that to reduce power consumption.

oh this would be good if he wants added maneuverability

yeah? do you have any more info on that stuff?

Last Exile is one of my favorite series, it's a primary inspiration for my setting

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Ok so I am just pulling this out of my ass.

>Hover tech
Anti-gravity generator running off a large diesel engine generator. The same GenSet powers the forward, reverse and side thrusters. Upwards and downwards motion is produced by increasing power to the anti-grav, thus lifting the car or powering it down, making it drop.

So lets say you have 1.2MW of power (for example) you will have to decide what uses the most of the power. If you overload the car and max out the power on the anti-grav, you won't have anything left for the thrusters etc etc.

>Modification

Your character can attempt to either increase the power of the engine and generator (thus generating more power to use all systems at 100%), he could try to make the anti-grav require less power or make the thrusters more efficient.

Either that or he could attempt to add jump jets at the bottom, for fast altitude gain and then a slow descent. Adding thrusters because why not and also you could modify the anti-grav to make a repelling shield by directing all fire (probably not explosions) back from where it comes from by generating a intense anti-field. This would require the vehicle to be motionless as the anti-grav function wont work on the vehicle during the shield.

Hope it helps.

That particular mech runs on magma.

Isn't there some kinda bullshit infinite energy system that runs off of that? It was something like the Deen Drive or whatever

That's fuckin great, I'm already getting some good ideas for other modifications he could work with.

And I'm getting some devious ideas to fuck with them. What happens if they're flying hundreds of feet in the air and they lose power? Hope he invested in some crash systems or redundancies.

murata's designs are so fuckin delicious

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Don't forget to reduce the engine output every time he stacks armor or weapons on it

If you want to get technical, you could always say that the anti-grav technology works by heating up a radioactive material/fuel in its core. Said material/fuel counter-acts gravity depending on current heat levels. Thus by overloading the core for additional lift too much, you could technically cause the generator to rupture. I don't even want to think what would happen if super heated, anti-gravity material would get exposed to the atmosphere.

Same principles could be applied to the thrusters, by pushing away from the current position. Either that or turbines.

This game was my fuckin jam. You could have rip some ideas from the customization system.

I wouldn't say it would reduce output. It would merely increase the minimum required threshold of power to get the vehicle moving, hovering etc etc. Thus by maxing out the anti-grav, you will move forward at a snails pace. Also, no telling how long the engine will last under maximum load and output.

>I am not a robot

lastexile.wikia.com/wiki/Claudia
>Claudia is a fluorescent blue ore mined on the floating world of Prester.

>Dissolving Claudia in alcohol dramatically increases the energy density of the fuel. This is why steam engines are the predominant technology of Last Exile, instead of the internal combustion engine. Technology design documents from the production of the show indicate that the steam engines of Last Exile have a power to weight ratio exceeding that of a modern gasoline fueled internal combustion engine.

>Guild ships are shown to use a higher grade of Claudia fuel, utilising unknown methods of processing in its production. Non-guild steam engines are seen to experience a much higher performance when using this fuel.

>Claudia, when dissolved in water, serves as the primary drive fluid in a claudia unit. When Claudia fluid is heated and compressed, it generates lift. A vanship engine has a distinctive claudia circulation pipe loop, where the supercritical fluid generates both lift and thrust.

hhhhmmmmmm

What if you had the propulsion systems and the antigrav systems derived from the same mechanism? Like those ionocraft things.

From what I understand of the player, he'd probably stick all kinds of go-fast mods on it over adding armor and weapons.

I like the idea of a bad roll resulting in a nuclear explosion, but that might cause problems for my world (and me) when they inevitably go on a GTA-style rampage.

That's a great idea, they got awfully specific with some of the upgrade choices.
So for starters, what I'm thinking is for modifications (to this specific light hovercraft):
-Chassis
-Antigrav system
-Engine
-Generator
-Thrusters

Chassis:
-Aerodynamics
-Armoring
-Weapon mounts

Antigrav:
-Alloy Quality (higher quality -> less energy loss)
-Failsafes

Engine:
-Engine Quality (a cheap junk engine won't work as well as a new one)
-Gas Consumption

Generator:
-Generator Quality
-Electrical Storage

Thrusters:
-Thruster Type (duct fans, propellers, magic idk)
-Thruster Quality
-Coolant Systems

I want to say the Generator powers the Antigrav system and the Engine powers the Thrusters. If one of the systems fails, then the other can cover for it in a pinch; say, the Antigrav fails, then the Thrusters can be used as emergency lift for a short time.

Shit, now I'll have to work out flight physics rules if he wants to get super-into the maneuvering side of things. Does anyone have some resources on incorporating flying vehicles into a rules system?

Your alloy sheds gravitons when a current runs through it. If you can get it to shed enough fast enough, it not only negates its own gravity, but the gravity of objects around it as the field expands to encompass them. You can then make a mesh or a frame out of this alloy and charge it to negate the gravity of anything within it.

So when the anti-gravity generator is on, everything inside the mesh, like the engine and other things not made of the alloy are still weightless.

This doesn't make them massless though, so you've still got momentum to deal with

That actually is really interesting, as I was interested in using gravitons as a way to explain how the tech works. I don't know anything about gravitons though, so I didn't feel comfortable using those..

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turboencabulator

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What system are you running??

I always really did enjoy Dio. Almost tempted to watch the second series just to get more of him.

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heavily homebrewed, kit-bashed and modified Fate

But then you remember there was no second season.

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post more

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And that's the last of the image dump
Dieselpunk has always been my favorite -Punk derivative followed closely by Atompunk but that's mainly due to fallout

I've been working on this dieselpunk thing based of of SWN but I haven't touched it in a while. There's not good dieselpunk settings out there so I wanted to fill the niche.

Thank you user. You have just found the answer to all my problems with explaining sci-fi tech without using 'magic'

I was going to look up how the Wipeout games had AG craft but as it turns out they never even handwaved the technology.
They've got this backstory of the inventor and corruption in both the government and racing leave commissions, but they never actually say anything like... energised exotic matter or anything. Just a genius Frenchman physicist who really wanted to invent it and then did.
Kind of annoyed now, I loved the old games and was going to suggest using their explanation.

If you want a non-flying version:

>The modern hovercarriage uses the "magnet-in-ground effect" (MG effect). A typical MG effect engine uses rapidly-oscillating superconductive fluid held in copper coils to produce a "virtual magnet" undermeath the vehicle. This virtual magent repels the magnetized hull, allowing it to hover above the ground.
>However, creating the virtual magnet requires a dense substance to produce the ferro-simulacra effects. Typically, solid ground (such as silica sand or soil) is used as a reference during testing. Iron-plated roads are used in some cities for maximum efficiency, and some iron rail tracks have been retrofitted for hover-train use. Some of the more-powerful "sport" hovercars can induce a sufficiently-powerful virtual magnet in water or even ice.
>Levitation in free air is theoretically possible, but is believed to be impossible with the materials currently know to science (much like a vacuum balloon). However, there are rumors of a man who has made a hyper-lightweight hovercarriage that can indice a virtual magnet within dense clouds!

There's gotta be some hints, right? I mean there's that one opening video of how automobiles evolved into the current hovercraft, there should be at least some hints in there.

I'd go with ground effect. That way you don't have to use handwavium or magic, just a real world phenomenon with a little suspension of unbelief regarding how strong the engine is/the shape of the vehicle.

Pooping in a bucket?

There is a sequel series.

there was only ONE. SEASON.

Does this count as dieselpunk?

I like it! You should definitely keep touching it.

how in the world are those four separate ammo feeds not getting tangled. It works in rigid plane wings where nothing moves, but this arm will be swinging all over the place.

I really want to like the design, but it's been pushed just a little too far.

It's a single belt. The feed mechanisms strip one round but advance the belt by four, letting each barrel strip a round in sequence. They don't all fire at once, they fire sequentially so they all stay cool. The belt locks every fourth round, each link slaved in by the fourth link's master pin. After the last barreled has fired, four links each disintegrate, keeping the line clear.

In my campgain hovercrafts works with xenon ion propulsion, gives them therfore fuel and a real life eqivalent.

Not punk, since the main forces who used it was the military. I'm pretty sure the tech level had gotten back to WWI, so it might be diesel?

Everything in FATE is a character, right? So your hovercar hotrod has a set of aspects. Let's say you start out with "normal vehicle" aspects, representing off-the-shelf, consumer-grade hardware.

>Normal Speed
>Usually Reliable
>Affordable

When he wants to tweak the performance, he's changing an aspect. He wants to go faster? Depending on how good his new aspect is, he'll have to modify other aspects, or even add new ones. This gives him something to tag when he wants to use his modded tech, and gives you something to potentially tag to represent the trade-offs.

Like, say he wants his hovercar to have "Turbo Boosted Speed." Fine. But to do it he has to change one of his other aspects to "Needs Performance Parts" or "Runs Hot." Maybe that isn't enough, and he wants it to be "The Fastest Ride in Town." Okay, now it's "No Expenses Spared" and "Potentially Explosive."

Thanks. I'm 2.5 chapters in.

Aren't ion engines extremely low output?

They are, thats they ingame reason they only can hover, but not full blown fly with it.

> dieselpunk
> not playing Scandinavian Inspired High Fantasy
Found your first mistake kido

porque no los dos

bump

Hey, this is really helpful. Thanks!

another bump, I want more dieselpunk conversations