Neutonium, unobtainium, etc

[Falaris]

I believe it was Master of Orion that pioneered various imaginary armor types - I recognize a few here in this game; neutronium, zortrium, adamantium, xentronium. Neutronium just over tritanium (a titanium alloy). And the usage of it in Star Valor is a time-honored way of doing it. I cannot honestly object to it in that context.

I think that, conceptually, it's easier to just say it's a brand name for a type of armor and not actually neutronium. Because...

Neutronium, as a physical concept, is absurdly strong and dense. What is Neutronium then? First of all, it's an imaginary material 'invented' by Andreas von Antropoff in 1926.

What it is, is a solid mass of neutrons. It is theorized to be at the core of neutron stars. They don't behave like atoms because they are not atoms. They don't orbit. They form a a densely packed lattice. Unlike protons and electrons they have no charge and don't repulse each other. You still need some sort of force or energy to keep them together, though; you would need the gravity of a neutron star otherwise which is 'impractical'. It is basically a semi-singularity. One step denser and you'd have a black hole. Let us for argument's sake say that it requires a neutrino or graviton field to remain cohesive and bound. (This is very much quasi-science.).

Note that in actual chemistry a neutron has a half-life of 15 minutes and decays into a hydrogen atom and a spare antineutrino; the 'neutron armor' would become an enormous cloud of hydrogen in half an hour. However, a tetraneutron - a combination of four neutrons - could be bound, stable and actually have an application; none have ever been observed and is theoretical only. Anyway, upshot being a neutrino field might not actually be necessary to keep neutronium from self-destructing randomly.

Anyway, what would be the properties of neutronium? First of all, heat. Heat is an acceleration of atom orbits; neutronium are not atoms and has no orbits. Heat doesn't exist to it.

Radiation, particles or waveforms all rely on space between particles to pass. This is a superdense field. No radiation, particles or waves can pass through or affect it. At all.

You could basically detonate a nuke on the other side of it, and the extent of the result would be, you'd turn to the guy next to you and ask, "Hey, did you hear something just now?" "Nah, you're just imagining things.". And that's being fully aware of just how powerful a nuke is.

It is ridiculously dense. One centimeter is equivalent to about 175 earths' thickness of carbon steel.

You could probably have a piece of paper's thickness of neutronium armor and it would still stop planet destroyers easily.

This is what you get with 65 armor value in Star Valor, at the cost of +30% ship's mass.

Game balance aside, I feel like materials like this should be a bit more of a paradigm shift in protection. It's just so ridiculously extreme. I think the only thing that would realistically work against it would be antimatter warheads, and they'd just dismantle the neutronium particle by particle.

Of course, another aspect of that is that you'd need another fiction, inertial dampers (or something along those lines) to let you accelerate a ship armored in this at anything above glacial rates. Literally. Add a neutrino/graviton field to maintain cohesion, and ginormous engines.. it would require a lot of ship infrastructure to function.

Now, with all that said... I am perfectly happy to say Neutronium armor is just a brand name for a strong armor material. But... it'd be cool if it wasn't, right? :)

[Viper]

So then peter parker is going to kill everyone with radiation after being bit by a radioactive spider? ......So if he gets Maryjane pregnant ..and she gives birth those kids are going to kill everyone in the room unless they wear hazmat suits.,..?

[Grathagis]

OP doesn't know what Science FICTION means.

[Laious]

You are right about those names coming from Master of Orion 2. It's one of my favorite games and a big inspiration for Star Valor.
The Neutronium armor is just one of those when i'm out of ideas :D I'm open to suggestions though, if you have any.

[Falaris]

@Viper:
You'll have to explain your point here. It seems a bit too tangential.

@Grathagis:
Look at the first part of that expression. The one about 'science'. What you're looking for is space opera. KTHXBYE.

@Lacius:
Master of Orion 2 is one of the classics. :) And, nah, you're doing fine.

[Jaasrg]

TIL stuff in video games don't always follow the rules of real world.

[MrPurple33]

On the One Hand, I'll Be Obvious and Join What the Others Are Saying (and Yourself)
That Neutronium, and the Others, Are Just Sci-Fi Sounding Names For the Different Armors

But On the Other Hand, THANK YOU For Such a Detailed and Interesting Dive and Descriptions Of Neutronium, Neutrons, and Neutron Stars- I Like To Be Informed
About a Wide Array Of Subjects, and Have Some Concept Of Neutrons, and Neutron Stars,
But You Added Quite a Few Extra Bits Of Info I Didn't Know

-Award Sent-

[Morphic]

Originally posted by Falaris:

@Grathagis:
Look at the first part of that expression. The one about 'science'. What you're looking for is space opera. KTHXBYE.

The "Science" in science fiction can be anything from "basically magic but there's logic behind it" to "things that follow closely to what we already understand and are theoretically possible".

It means a lot of things to a lot of different people and ultimately boils down to taste, hence the "fiction" part being the dominating factor. I generally prefer stuff that leans harder into "actual science" rather than "magic science", but rule of cool is always neat/interesting.

[Falaris]

Originally posted by Morphic:

Originally posted by Falaris:

@Grathagis:
Look at the first part of that expression. The one about 'science'. What you're looking for is space opera. KTHXBYE.

The "Science" in science fiction can be anything from "basically magic but there's logic behind it" to "things that follow closely to what we already understand and are theoretically possible".

It means a lot of things to a lot of different people and ultimately boils down to taste, hence the "fiction" part being the dominating factor. I generally prefer stuff that leans harder into "actual science" rather than "magic science", but rule of cool is always neat/interesting.

Science fiction is a big room with space for a lot of things. I would say that the bar for excluding something from that room, like Grathagis tries to do, is pretty high; even space opera is more of a subcategory than a separate category. I assume you've read Niven/Pournelle if you're into hard science fiction; Gibson, Heinlein, Jules Verne, Asimov shouldn't be strange names either. More recently I've been more into less 'hard' scifi, or tv shows, but .... as mentioned, it's a big room. There's not that much good hard sci-fi shows out there; three of the better scifi shows that I'd recommend are Altered Carbon, the Expanse, or, perhaps surprisingly, Stand-Alone Complex. (Probably hinting rather strongly at my age here...)

Admittedly, I'm really less keen on the theoretical mathematical works of fiction? imagination? invention?, like The Emperor's New Mind or Engines of Creation. They are important, but not my cup of tea.

If you want rule of Cool, Warhammer 40k is fine. I mean, most of the stuff written for it is horribad, but there IS some good stuff there - and good games. (Rogue Trader for one).