• If you were supposed to get an email from the forum but didn't (e.g. to verify your account for registration), email Wes at stararmy@gmail.com or talk to me on Discord for help. Sometimes the server hits our limit of emails we can send per hour.
  • Get in our Discord chat! Discord.gg/stararmy

Muffin

Zack

Inactive Member
1. About the Muffin
The muffin was designed to enhance the capabilities of the Nepleslian police force by providing surveillance and crowd control capabilities. The skin of the drone doubles as microwave radar and active denial field equipment as well as light ballistics protection. A camera system is mounted below the craft on a rotating mount while the engine is placed in the center of the saucer shaped muffin.

2. History and Background
The Muffin was designed on Nepleslia for nepleslian use. After the passage of the second bill in the nepleslian senate the major corporations left Nepleslia and created an incredibly fast growing market for corporations. As such the corporation building the muffin plans to make many sales very quickly.

3. Dimensions and Crew Compliment
Organizations Using This Vessel:
Nepleslian Army
Nepleslian Police Department
Type: Surveillance Drone
Class: Muffin
Designer:
Nepleslian Arms and Munitions
Heram J. Wazu
Manufacturer: Nepleslian Arms and Munitions
Production: 100 units for the first production run.

Crew: 0
Maximum Capacity: 0
Appearance: The muffin is a white saucer with a small ball hanging down from the ‘front' of the craft. The sides have a rough texture which is part of the microwave systems built into the drone. The center of the craft has a depression in it which houses the engine and thrust vectoring flaps on the underside of the saucer. The upper side of the saucer has various openings around the top which allow air to be processed for useable materials fed into the engine. The pod in the front of the craft is 1 and a half feet in diameter The entire pod rotates 360 degrees horizontally while the camera lens in the front of the pod rotates vertically 220 degrees

Length: 5ft
Width: 5ft
Height: 3ft
Decks: 0
Mass: 45 pounds
4. Performance Statistics
Speed (STL): 125mph
Range (Distance): atmospheric, 1 mile altitude ceiling. Unlimited distance.
Range (Support): Unlimited
Lifespan: 4 years
Refit Cycle: once every 2 years.

5. Ship Systems
Communications system: The muffin uses a combined radio and laser communication system to transmit signals and images to its control station. The muffin uses a basic encryption system for security, changing passwords every few seconds. Built into the underside of the drone is a speaker system and microphone. A secondary direction microphone is installed in the forward ball mount.

Computer interactions: The muffin responds to simple commands such as secure area or disperse crowd or shoot target over voice recognition however it does not do as well with vague commands unless it is being remote controlled by an officer's datapad or a control center. The optical systems are accurate enough for visual identification of targets and friendlys. The drone is also capable of independent action and taking steps that it thinks are necessary. The drone is also capable of notifying its controller when it detects something worth mentioning. Interactions can be verbal or through text commands.

Fusion Engine: The muffin takes in particles from the atmosphere and feeds it into its fusion engine to create energy for the craft. The air intakes are located on the top of the saucer, and are circular much like the craft.

Ion Drive: The Muffin has a centralized ion drive to maintain its levitation. Thrust vectoring systems around the underside of the saucer allow movement in all directions.


Weapons:

Active Denial Field (1): The active denial field uses microwaves to stimulate pain receptors under the skin to create a painful sensation when in range of nepleslians and other creatures. The ADF also incorporates a microwave radar feature which gives the muffin a 360 degree view of its surroundings.
Location: Skin of the muffin
Primary Purpose: crowd control
Secondary Purpose: radar
Damage: Less than Lethal
Area of Effect: 50 ft sphere from the craft.
Range: 50 ft
Rate of Fire: continuous
Payload: unlimited so long as the craft provides power.

Light and observation weapon (1): the LOW is designed to combine various sets of light based equipment into a single rotating mount. A prismatic sheen covers the lens of the device which is used to help focus both the panoramic camera and the laser system.
Location: A spherical pod below the nose of the saucer
Primary Purpose: Anti-personnel
Secondary Purpose: Observation
Damage: Light
Area of Effect: 1/2inch diameter circle, 160 degree camera view
Range: 300 feet
Rate of Fire: Continuous
Payload: Unlimited so long as power is provided.
 
Interesting device ... I guess I'll take a crack at it.

1. This thing doesn't sound like it's "saucer" shaped. It has too much height/thickness for that. It's nitpicky ... but I can't get a good visual in my head because I'm going between a satellite dish and squat cylinder. Should I just assume it's a muffin with a cherry on top or something?

2. It seems very ... light. The fusion engine alone, I would imagine, weights a bit more.

3. The LOW is just a pulse laser weapon, then? You never state specifically what it is, other than it provides for both a camera and laser system. Is its laser power comparable to an NSP or a Little Killer?

General questions:

This thing is constantly taking in air, right? Is it a noisy machine, then? Considering it's made for police, I imagine it doesn't need to be stealthy.

Does it have any armor? What's the outer shell made of? (Light ballistics protection doesn't say much.)

We're not talking about a complicated AI system, correct? Does it even have AI?

Can police units on the ground communicate with this thing directly, or do they have to wait for control to get back to them?
 
1: lets go with an upside down muffin with the cherry off toward the edges of the bottom. The height does include the ball mount hanging down off the front of the craft. The saucer section is not 3ft thick.

2: Not really, in this setting a fusion engine could be made fairly light.

3: the discription says panoramic camera and laser and the damage discription says light as in minimal.

Air does not make much noise, and because there is minimal mechanical movement there is minimal sound.

The muffin is radio controled like it says in the discription and it has a very basic AI.
 

RE1. Okay. That I can visualize. Thank you.

RE(4). So wait a second. There are no intake fans on this thing? It just has air flowing through it somehow, even at one or two km/h?

RE(5). Yes, radio controlled. But you say "control station." I want to know if a policeman, on the ground, can directly command the Muffin to do something.
 
4: It uses an Ion drive to silently pull air inside of it through the depression in the top. In retrospect the word depression was not the best one to use to discribe it.

5: good point, I'll edit something in about that specifically to allow cops to use a datapad or something like that to control it.
 
Why an ion engine?
 
Is it safe for use indoors, a population center, or even in the atmosphere? Also, don't ion engines have ridiculously slow acceration?
 
It accelerates faster than popular science would have people belive and is safe for use anywhere where there is enough space for it to operate.
 
Provide references.
 
It ionises air in order to pull it through the top and out the bottom of the drone.

What would be a better name for it?
 
Ionizing air filters? If it's being used to absorb air, filter some of it to the fusion reactor, and then back out the bottom, isn't it going to be underpowered anyway, because it is losing air on the way in?
 
Those air filters are a small Ion engine just like the rotating fans that might be on the celing of your living room are simillar to the props used by airplanes. A scaled up type in both size and power would be viable in this technology setting and would be useable in this kind of equipment.

Those things also take very little time to start up.
 
Cora you have not contributed anything to tech theads other than flame bating. Don't post here anymore.

You seriously want me to prove an Ion engine is workable when people are using scalar fields and such? This IS bull, there is no hideing it.
 
Ionizers have nothing to do with air intake, they release ions into the air so particles (ie odors) clump together and fall to the ground.
 
Yes they do. By giving air a charge it can be drawn toward something of an opposite charge and neutralized. The Ionic breeze uses this to move air without the use of a prop like in most fans. Purifying the air is just something that is also in there that also uses the same concept to purify the air.

If someone wants to prove that those machines don't actually cause the air to move then by all means go ahead and do so.
 
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-F ... ewsNum=266

Okay, I was wrong. They can move air...but as far as levitation goes, it seems like having a guy lay under it and blow up through a straw would be more effective. They look good for space travel, but I doubt they'll ever be able to overcome a planet's gravity.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…