What about Centerpoint?

[Ben Ingram]

Couldn't the Empire just take Centerpoint, position it in the Delta Quadrant, and use it's ability to create gravitic anomalies to push Earth, Q'u'onos, Vulcan, Romulus, Remus, Bajor, and any other planet that gets in its way right into their respective suns?

[Keevan_Colton]

Couldn't the Empire just take Centerpoint, position it in the Delta Quadrant, and use it's ability to create gravitic anomalies to push Earth, Q'u'onos, Vulcan, Romulus, Remus, Bajor, and any other planet that gets in its way right into their respective suns?

Mmm Global Warming?

[Darth Phoenix]

I don't know if Centerpoint station has that much range.

[consequences]

Completely unnecessary overkill, and it might have to actually be in the Alpha quadrant to do it, but it might work.

[Ben Ingram]

Yes, it does. It can target star systems tens of thousands of light-years away, and it would take Fed ships decades to reach it.

[Darth Phoenix]

Yes, it does. It can target star systems tens of thousands of light-years away, and it would take Fed ships decades to reach it.

It might be better just to target a single planet has a example a show to everyone what would happen if they resist the empire

[RedImperator]

The Empire is more than capable of defeating the Alpha quadrant without resorting to KJA's Kleenex-leavings. But yes, that would be a painless way for the Empire to conquer the galaxy.

(I'm assuming Centrepoint is KJA's doing--it's certainly uberwank enough to be his work)

[Crayz9000]

(I'm assuming Centrepoint is KJA's doing--it's certainly uberwank enough to be his work)

It's not. And fortunately, it isn't as bad as it sounds; the station is fixed in its orbit between the Corellian worlds of Talus and Tralus, is ancient and only has spin-gravity, and on top of that the New Republic still hasn't completely figured it out. The Empire was probably just as clueless.

[SPOOFE]

Why use a superweapon when a conventional weapon does the job just fine?

[RedImperator]

(I'm assuming Centrepoint is KJA's doing--it's certainly uberwank enough to be his work)

It's not. And fortunately, it isn't as bad as it sounds; the station is fixed in its orbit between the Corellian worlds of Talus and Tralus, is ancient and only has spin-gravity, and on top of that the New Republic still hasn't completely figured it out. The Empire was probably just as clueless.

They can control gravity enough to push planets around from tens of thousands of lightyears out and crush stellar cores to force supernovas, but they can't generate their own internal gravity?

[Crayz9000]

They can control gravity enough to push planets around from tens of thousands of lightyears out and crush stellar cores to force supernovas, but they can't generate their own internal gravity?

Yeah, go figure. Well, it might have been a design choice, since according to Republic engineers the station was designed to spin, and de-spinning it could have serious consequences. Maybe it affects the Glowpoint or something

[Illuminatus Primus]

They can control gravity enough to push planets around from tens of thousands of lightyears out and crush stellar cores to force supernovas, but they can't generate their own internal gravity?

Or it stopped working in the last 30,000 years. You decide.

[Crown]

They can control gravity enough to push planets around from tens of thousands of lightyears out and crush stellar cores to force supernovas, but they can't generate their own internal gravity?

WORST. BRAIN-BUG. EVER.

I hated that part, it didn't make sense to me either.

[RedImperator]

They can control gravity enough to push planets around from tens of thousands of lightyears out and crush stellar cores to force supernovas, but they can't generate their own internal gravity?

Or it stopped working in the last 30,000 years. You decide.

So the station's internal gravity broke down, and couldn't be repaired by New Republic engineers with thousands of years' experience with artifical gravity field behind them, but the giant star-killing gravity beams still worked just fine. Fortunately, the station that had been built with artifical agravity just HAPPENED to be designed so it could be spun to generate artificial gravity.

[SPOOFE]

They can control gravity enough to push planets around from tens of thousands of lightyears out and crush stellar cores to force supernovas, but they can't generate their own internal gravity?

Why would the guys who originally built the sucker want to put internal gravity in it? It's a weapon, not a living space.

[Crayz9000]

Let me make it clear: the station was NOT DESIGNED with artificial gravity as we know it in Star Wars. It apparently was built from the start to SPIN to make gravity, which is why it has the double-lobed sausage shape.

[Illuminatus Primus]

Uhm...what's hard to understand....big hollow spheres....centrifugal force + sun-like thing equals habitable space. They didn't fix it because it worked great the way it was. Any big sphere w/ big enough hollow spheres inside it could be spun for artifical gravity. IF IT WORKS DON'T FIX IT.

Perhaps the artifical gravity would interfere w/ the mechanics of the main device. It wasn't designed as a habitation.

Artificial gravity systems would be less deeply protected then the heart of the device, the ancient space-time warping gravity thingy.

[Illuminatus Primus]

Let me make it clear: the station was NOT DESIGNED with artificial gravity as we know it in Star Wars. It apparently was built from the start to SPIN to make gravity, which is why it has the double-lobed sausage shape.

Bzzt. Wrong.

The cylinders are part of the main-device's mechanism. The "living-space" that they're whining about that had no artificial gravity was the fucking things energy-flare up containment area; why the FUCK would it be designed to live in? They spun it for their own purposes later.

[Crayz9000]

The cylinders are part of the main-device's mechanism. The "living-space" that they're whining about that had no artificial gravity was the fucking things energy-flare up containment area; why the FUCK would it be designed to live in? They spun it for their own purposes later.

|-/

Jenica Sonsen, the station's ad hoc administrator, said that the administration had looked into de-spinning the station, but discarded the idea as it might put too much stress on the station at that point.

AFAIK, it had always been spinning, but the "Hollowtown" was indeed never designed to be habitable.

[RedImperator]

They can control gravity enough to push planets around from tens of thousands of lightyears out and crush stellar cores to force supernovas, but they can't generate their own internal gravity?

Or it stopped working in the last 30,000 years. You decide.

Uhm...what's hard to understand....big hollow spheres....centrifugal force + sun-like thing equals habitable space. They didn't fix it because it worked great the way it was. Any big sphere w/ big enough hollow spheres inside it could be spun for artifical gravity. IF IT WORKS DON'T FIX IT.

Perhaps the artifical gravity would interfere w/ the mechanics of the main device. It wasn't designed as a habitation.

Artificial gravity systems would be less deeply protected then the heart of the device, the ancient space-time warping gravity thingy.

Let me make it clear: the station was NOT DESIGNED with artificial gravity as we know it in Star Wars. It apparently was built from the start to SPIN to make gravity, which is why it has the double-lobed sausage shape.

Bzzt. Wrong.

The cylinders are part of the main-device's mechanism. The "living-space" that they're whining about that had no artificial gravity was the fucking things energy-flare up containment area; why the FUCK would it be designed to live in? They spun it for their own purposes later.

First the artifical gravity broke down. Then it never had it because spin gravity worked just fine (never mind that on the inside surface of a rotating sphere, gravitational pull is going to decrease the further you get from the equator). THEN it was an energy overflow containment sphere that was never designed to be habited at all, and they started spinning it later. Which is it (besides a technowank)?

[Crayz9000]

God damn it, do I always have to break my Corellian Trilogy books out?

Showdown at Centerpoint, p.95 (paperback)
"The spin must get to be an awful nuisance," Kalenda said. "Why haven't you shifted over to artificial gravity?"
"We've thought about it. Cap Con Ops--sorry--the capital construction operations office--has done about a dozen studies on de-spinning the station and switching to standard artigrav."
"So what have the studies come up with?" [Luke asked.]
"Too expensive, too complicated, too disruptive, and too many unknowns. The station's structure might not respond well to the shifted stresses. But it's your problem now..."

p.98
"What you've got to understand about this place is that no one understands it," Sonsen said. "We just live here. It's here, so are we, and that's about it. No one thought much about why things were the way they were. We didn't know much about why Centerpoint did the things it did, but we knew what most of them were. At least we thought we knew, up until a while ago..."

p.99
"The Glowpoint being a sort of artificial sun?" Luke asked.
"That's right," said Sonsen. "And someone made it go crazy."
"Who normally controls the Glowpoint?" Lando asked.
"No one, of course," Sonsen replied, as if Lando had just asked where she kept the on-off switch for the galaxy's spin. "As I said, it's just there, they way the whole station is. We didn't build it. I guess it was here when we got here--whenever that was."
"The glowpoint is just there," Lando repeated. "Anyone know how it works? How it gives off light?"
"There are theories of one sort or another. One idea is that the Glowpoint draws its power directly from the gravitational interflux between Talus and Tralus. But no one has been able to come up with an instrument to test the idea. There's nothing conclusive."

p.103
"Those conical structures coming up out of the North and South Poles, right on the rotation axis..."

Six small cones arranged around a central larger cone, with a precise mathematical relationship. It looks like a homage to the inertialess spacedrive of Arthur C Clarke's Rama.

[CmdrWilkens]

They can control gravity enough to push planets around from tens of thousands of lightyears out and crush stellar cores to force supernovas, but they can't generate their own internal gravity?

WORST. BRAIN-BUG. EVER.

I hated that part, it didn't make sense to me either.

It makes perfect sense because they are sending the equivalent of a stream of gravitons (or the equivalent used in repulsors) along a very narrow beam against a target, in other words its a massive directional application of force, like a bomb, which is far different than universal artigrav throughout a 350km station with various regions which would need different orientations. Basically think of the difference as one between building a nuclear bomb and building a nuclear reactor, its easier to use the force in a massive way than to pare it down to that small scale use.

[Illuminatus Primus]

The cylinders are part of the main-device's mechanism. The "living-space" that they're whining about that had no artificial gravity was the fucking things energy-flare up containment area; why the FUCK would it be designed to live in? They spun it for their own purposes later.

|-/

Jenica Sonsen, the station's ad hoc administrator, said that the administration had looked into de-spinning the station, but discarded the idea as it might put too much stress on the station at that point.

AFAIK, it had always been spinning, but the "Hollowtown" was indeed never designed to be habitable.

Objects usually naturally spin.

[Illuminatus Primus]

First the artifical gravity broke down. Then it never had it because spin gravity worked just fine (never mind that on the inside surface of a rotating sphere, gravitational pull is going to decrease the further you get from the equator). THEN it was an energy overflow containment sphere that was never designed to be habited at all, and they started spinning it later. Which is it (besides a technowank)?

Can you differenciate between a list of possibilities and an actual theory? Jesus Christ.

[RedImperator]

First the artifical gravity broke down. Then it never had it because spin gravity worked just fine (never mind that on the inside surface of a rotating sphere, gravitational pull is going to decrease the further you get from the equator). THEN it was an energy overflow containment sphere that was never designed to be habited at all, and they started spinning it later. Which is it (besides a technowank)?

Can you differenciate between a list of possibilities and an actual theory? Jesus Christ.

List of possibilities, eh? Let's review:

Or it stopped working in the last 30,000 years. You decide.

This doesn't sound like a pie in the sky idea. This sounds like you saying it had an artificial gravity system once that broke down. No mention whatsoever that the inner sphere wasn't meant to be habited.

Uhm...what's hard to understand....big hollow spheres....centrifugal force + sun-like thing equals habitable space. They didn't fix it because it worked great the way it was. Any big sphere w/ big enough hollow spheres inside it could be spun for artifical gravity. IF IT WORKS DON'T FIX IT.

First of all, spinning a hollow sphere is a shitty way to generate gravity compared to the systems available to the New Republic. For one thing, it puts stresses on the entire hull because the equator is moving faster than the higher latitudes. If the sphere was never designed to be spun in te first place, you're taking chances hoping the engineers who designed it overengineered enough to withstand those stresses. Second, if the equator has normal gravity in a spinning sphere, the upper latitudes will have weaker gravity and the poles will be at zero gee.

Second of all, in this post, you're still speculating about how an ancient artificial gravity system might have failed while the weapons survived.

Artificial gravity systems would be less deeply protected then the heart of the device, the ancient space-time warping gravity thingy.

I PRESUME you're referring to ancient gravity systems here, not modern ones that have since broken down.

Now, finally, we come to your third post, the one which provoked my exasperated reply:

Bzzt. Wrong.

The cylinders are part of the main-device's mechanism. The "living-space" that they're whining about that had no artificial gravity was the fucking things energy-flare up containment area; why the FUCK would it be designed to live in? They spun it for their own purposes later.

Note that this is time stamped all of TWO MINUTES after your second post. You finally get around to saying definitively that it never had an artificial gravity system (in a roundabout way, by saying it was never meant to be habitable because it's an energy overflow container). Your story changed between your first reply to me to your third one here from "maybe they had artificial gravity but it broke down over the course of 30,000 years, you idiot" to "you idiot, it never had artificial gravity".

If you knew all along that the sphere was never meant to be habitable, it would have been nice if you'd mentioned it in your first post instead of firing off a smartass remark and then acting like I'm an idiot for failing to read your mind. Next time you'd like to argue like this, give me a head's-up, and I'll get the Amazing Psycor to come up here and sort through your contradictions for me.