Starship weight/displacement

[KLM]

Cargo haulers (or even every starship) over a given size,
say 3-400 meters long (or more like over 200.000 tons)
are worth a "visual" check. Mind you, You mentioned
"insane amount of traffic" - that means intense interstellar
trade and that means a lot of patrol ships (there is both
need and funds for it).

You mean this part from me?

Sorry, if it wasn't clear that a "visual" means intercepting it by a patrol ship
(not neccessarily forcing it out of FTL) to scan it, with more accurate,
yet shorter ranged sensors.

Adios
KLM

[KLM]

And I've been mentioning the use of natural vision to view ships in FTL... which is impossible.

Except the ingame physics allow you to enter into the other ship's FTL bubble.

Adios
KLM

[Aramanthus]

I see exactly where KLM and you are coming from. I'm siding with KLM on this one. Sorry Darkmax.

[Aramanthus]

It's ok. It was only a discussion. And I think we need to get back on point again.

[Aramanthus]

Aero-gel sounds interesting. Glad to see it around here.

[Rallan]

now this is also my dilemma.... why are bridges always on a tower somewhere on the upper hull?.... why not the lower hull, or more strategically, within the hull?

Because this is space opera, and all designs have to comply with the Rule Of Cool. A bridge nestled deep within your three-mile-long flying battleship and modelled after the War Room in Doctor Strangelove would be cool, but not as cool as an aircraft carrier style bridge with floor-to-ceiling windows offering a mad uninterrupted view of mile after mile of the armor-plated top deck. And there's no cooler way for evil admirals to die than having a fighter fly right into the bridge and blow up.

Seriously, Phase World is a Rifts setting. When did you start expecting anything in Rifts to be sensible or logical?

[Rallan]

And I've been mentioning the use of natural vision to view ships in FTL... which is impossible.

Well that depends on whether FTL ships in Phase World are still interacting with the physical universe. If they are, you can see an FTL ship as it passes by (assuming it passes close enough), you just won't see it until it's gone past. Light reflecting off the thing will still behave the way light normally does, which means it'll travel from where it hits the ship to you at the speed of light.

It's just that when the ship is approaching you, it's travelling faster than light, so you won't actually see the thing until it's right on top of you. And once it zips past you'll be able to see it receding away from you just fine, although the doppler effect will be putting some serious red shift on the image (probably to the extent where you'd need to be able to see infrared or even radio waves to be able to see it).

Basically it's like a supersonic jet. You can hear the thing alright. It'll just get there before you start hearing it

[KLM]

now this is also my dilemma.... why are bridges always on a tower somewhere on the upper hull?.... why not the lower hull, or more strategically, within the hull?

Because this is space opera, and all designs have to comply with the Rule Of Cool. A bridge nestled deep within your three-mile-long flying battleship and modelled after the War Room in Doctor Strangelove would be cool...

Actually I play like contemporary warships.

Bridge on tower, with huge windows, tactical room somewhere deep under armor.

Adios
KLM

[Aramanthus]

I've also used the modern warship with a bridge and the combat information center deep within the ship. I'll also continue to accept that the ships are distribing the gravity in space.