Creative uses of Artificial Gravity (2024)

Gravity Generator are versatile blocks that can be used to propel things in interesting ways.The following ideas only work in space (zero g), their effect will be drastically reduced or even negated in the natural gravity of planets.

Gravity Cannon / Gravgun

Gravguns are simplistic Player Built Weapons dating back to the days before specialized weapon blocks were available. Its practical value in the current state of the game is doubtful; however, proper designs do demonstrate considerable damage potential regardless of range to target.

To build a gravity cannon, you need: a battery of gravity generators, preferably tuned to affect a narrow column of space, and, mounted in that area of space via a Landing Gear, a slug of arbitrarily large size, with or without an explosive payload. The slug obviously has to be equipped with Small Reactors, Artificial Mass cubes, and Gyroscopes to prevent tumbling. Calculate the exact quantity of artificial masses and gravity generators using the equations "(quantity of gravity generators) * 9.8 m/s^2 * (artificial mass, kg) = (inert mass, kg) * (imparted acceleration, m/s^2)", "v(t)=a*t" (the definition of acceleration), and "s(t)=(a*t^2)/2" (simplified by presuming a uniform field; a good approximation is only counting the area where all the generators overlap) with the aim to achieve the maximum velocity possible in the game, in the range of 145 m/s.

An exemplar gravgun, which generates 36g over a 62.5 m track, projects a 5x5x14 small-block cylindrical slug of heavy armor with sufficient force to penetrate 10 light armor blocks or 4 heavy armour blocks. Without mods, such player-built railguns are limited by maximum speed, but can deal tremendous amounts or damage when mods allow higher speed limits.

A strong advantage of gravguns is that powered projectiles have a virtually unlimited range in zero g, compared to under 1km for regular weapons. This allows performing "sniper bombing" of very heavily defended ships that would leave no chance to smaller ships within range.

Non-jetpack travel

Use targeted placement of multiple sources of Artificial Gravity on a space station to make walking on foot and jumping more intuitive in any orientation desired. You can also use gravity fields to create transport tubes for players. Or you can let players walk on the inside of a “rotating” space station drum, like in Babylon 5 or in the movie “2001”. You don’t actually need to rotate the drum since in game, rotation is not what creates the centripetal force.

Wheeled vehicles on asteroids

Artificial gravity and Mass blocks are a must when using wheeled vehicles on asteroids due to obvious reasons. Gravity Generators also help conserve suit power by allowing travel on foot and jumping. For example vehicles, see the Sparks of the Future Scenario.

Acceleration Gate

Propelling ore, personnel, and ships from point A to point B in space by imparting acceleration far in excess of what engines can produce. Inertial dampeners on grids must be offline until destination.

Floating ore may despawn over longer distances: Check your Trash Cleanup settings on the Admin Screen.

Gravity Drive

A peculiar characteristic of in-game physics is that gravity generators affect even Artificial Mass blocks mounted on the same ship. This is frequently exploited to create a reactionless drive/warp drive, with the potential of being more effective at accelerating large-grid ships than thrusters. You control your flight by changing the generator's Area of Effect. Gravity Drives work in space only.

Gravity funnel

The gravitational force produced by a Spherical Gravity Generator will affect any small rocks and ore produced while mining asteroids in zero g. Similarly, it affects floating components when salvaging. This can be utilized to funnel floating ores and components for easy collection. Typically, four generators are focused toward a central point, where a fifth generator will draw them toward the ship's Collector. This can be combined with angled armor to build a physical funnel.

Gravity grapple

The gravity grapple works along the same lines as the funnel, using six gravity fields in combination with Artificial Mass blocks. Small ships with artificial mass blocks can be held in position near a larger ship even while it's moving. The small ship's inertial dampeners must be turned on so that they help stabilize its position.

Launch tubes

A must-have among Battlestar Galactica fans is a reduced-power gravity cannon and an artificial mass cube in the nose of their replica Colonial Viper, which cause the craft to be violently propelled out of the carrier when combined (disable inertial dampeners for launch). "Necessary" amenities are a triangular-shaped launch tube and two blast doors; and install a Connector to control the launch process from inside the craft.

Practical applications utilize the capacity to quickly pick up distance from a carrier, either to avoid being blasted on take-off or to quickly enter the battlezone; see Acceleration Gate above.

You can also have a 3-4 gravity generators and have a connector and a storage container filled with items (drills or other tools, components, stone/ore). Put 1 item into the connector, have the connector eject the item, and then turn the gravity on. Aim before you fire.

Gravity shield

If you equip all ships and PBW with artificial mass blocks you can set up gravity generators around your ships so that they repel gravity-affected grids that get close. This would be a mod-free way to make a gravity-based shield that repels incoming items and PBW projectiles.