who cares about all that junk. your posting in the wrong forum.
THIS IS FOR SPOILERS

Buying lvl.10 sheild:$1,000,000.00
Buying titan:$500,000.00
watching enemys blow up:priceless

Evidently more than a few people care. If you have nothing to contribute, don't read the thread, and don't post in it. Leave those who find the topic interesting to talk about it.

And the moderators moved this thread to the spoiler forum from the discussion forum because one of the posters mentioned the dyson sphere that appeared in one of the later SP missions.

It should have to collapse under it own weight.

According to Newton, Gravitational Force = (GMm)/r²

The furthur greater the radius of the dyson sphere (And hence it's distance from the centre of the star), the less gravitational force it experiences.

Ryzier,

These guys are talking about a dyson sphere so massive that it generates its own gravity. If it does, it WILL collapse.

Perhaps they used the same concept as the Star Trek Dyson Sphere with the magic of the ficticious 'Structural Integrity Field' which everybody seems to have.

Sorry i put this in the wrong forum....i was merely talking about a dyson sphere with no mention to the game itself...didnt mean to prematurely spoil it for anyone!!
Anyhow, the gravity of a hollow sphere actually cancels out when in the centre of the hollow sphere, with only the gravitational force of the sun acting on you when inside the sphere .i.e on the surface inside (see Gauss' theorem). To create gravity you use the reaction force or centripetal acceleration upon the mass(or as some people like to call this force 'centrifugal' ). The stresses on a sphere of 1 AU radius are pretty ridiculous though if its rotating and being attracted towards the sun. Like was said in the website I quoted earlier, if you CAN build a dyson sphere, you dont NEED to. Were not likely to see any in the sky ......

Chandrasekar Limit,

Everything has gravity by virtue of their mass, it's just how large the gravitational force is.

A properly built structure should not collapse. Like the equation I quoted earlier, gravitational force depends on the mass of the star and the sphere, and follows an inverse square law. Assuming we build it far enough with strong enough materials, I envision no problem.

However, keep in mind that this will probably work for only small dwarves like our Sun. I don't think it'll be possible for large stars like Eta Carinae.

P.S. And the answer to you nickname is 3 solar masses. Haha. =)

WHat i want to know is how the hell did the ships get in there in the SP campaign?? Hypergates the can transfer matter through something 3 meters thick???

Anyone read Ringworld by Niven?

"Got anything for me?" - Trent, A.K.A. 'Mr. Eloquent'

Chrome_Lancer, a better question will be how hypergates work in the first place and whether they are feasible by the standards of modern physics.

But we have to remember that we are talking about modern physics like Ryzier said, but we also have to think that their technology is undoubtbly far more advanced than what ours is, of course we dont live in that time (i know it is only a game too...) so therefore we cannot pass judgements on what may or may not work.

Also, if the alliance is that far ahead in technology, just imagine the coalitian

Aw, C'mon... everyone knows that no one in their right mind would build a Dyson Sphere... they would only have to build a slice of one. Kinda like a Ring. Hmmm... a Ring World. Hey, that's not bad. Maybe someone should write a book about that...

If I remember right, the hypergate only transported the attack group to outside the sphere. Trent and his flight took out the shield covering the opening in the sphere's wall (hull?).

"Never had use for one. Never said I didn't know how to use one" ~Matthew Quigley

it is true that on the (anywhere)inside of a holow sphere there is no gravity (look up gaussian sheresand newtonian gravity) but on the outside of said sphere there is. even if 'outside' is inside a larger sphere (notice that the battle goes on between two spheres)
the hypergate did not go thru 3 meters of matter becouse we had to go thru that forcefield protected hole thing.it does not mean that hypergates could not go thru mater becouse that would limit the usefullness, seen that any trip worth making might go thru some celestial body or another.
the structure would not be required to colaple, it all depends on how it is built. a couble decades agor we couldnt build as high as we can now, this is due to advances in technology, which will advance for quite some time.
and race cappable of building a dyson sphere would to get as much energy as possible for every aspect of their society. it would also give them new places to live instead of searching for planets that could sustain their life
also, the most resistant shape is not the circle but the triangle. a bunch of triangles aranged in a geodisik (i have not idea of how i should spell that) sphere-like-structure can resist much more pressure.
what else...
the theory behind the jumpgates has already been discussed in another forum, if you want your mind shattered by it a bit deeper let me know.