Blades Runner
Posts: 578
Joined: Thursday, 12th January 2012, 21:03
Crawl Physics
aum (mass)
aut (time)
tiles (length)
We can thus say that a wand masses at 10 aum, or that the typical Ticktocktomancer moves at .05 tile/aut.
These units reveal much more about the Crawl universe than it initially appears. Some brief consideration will reveal several important properties of the dungeon. For example:
Str is clearly a unit of force, and one Str equals the amount of gravitational force typically exerted on 30 aum, so the local gravitational field g is equal to .033 Str/aum.
This is an interesting conclusion indeed, since projectiles are never observed spending more than 1 aut in the air. Throwing a rock in an arc from just near the floor to just near the ceiling and back again should maximize the time it spends aloft, which is presumably necessary to obtain maximum range. Since this still takes at most 1 aut, the maximum height of the ceiling can be calculated as h = .5g(.5t)^2 = .5*.033*(.05)^2 = .00004125. Everything in Crawl would thus appear smooshed and pancake-like to us, although they are probably too used to it to notice, and don't think of "up" or "down" except as regards stairs. It is widely suspected that Cheibriados performs "Step from Time" by knocking his followers out and gluing them to the ceiling.
The entire main dungeon could be almost as thin as .00004125*27 = .00111375 tiles. However, it seems likely that side branches are discreetly sandwiched between the main floors, so that all of lair could be jammed in between D:10 and D:11, with all of Shoals then between Lair:4 and Lair:5. The stairways between D:10 and D:11 would then cut straight through all of the Lair levels, which are so thin that no one notices the gap. This explains how two adjacent stairways can lead to entirely different levels. These incredibly thin levels also explain more minor mysteries, such as the inability of a tengu to fly over an iguana,or even lob a projectile over it -- the ceiling is simply too low.
Lightspeed in Crawl is 8 tiles/aut. Nothing is observed moving faster that this, and 8 tiles is the universal limit of LOS because the light from objects outside of that range hasn't reached you recently enough to provide accurate information. This explains why Darkness and Nightstalker also change the range of projectiles -- these effects actually modify the speed of light, limiting the maximum velocity with which projectiles can be thrown.
There are a few exceptions to the lightspeed rule. Long-range teleportation occurs via wormholes through the Abyss (obviously). Teleportation delay occurs because it takes time to establish a wormhole, unless you use a trap, which keeps one up all the time. Detection effects, which can allow you to know things about faraway tiles before light can reach you, is the result of quantum entanglement, which is also suspected to be the underlying principle behind cursed equipment. These two loopholes in Crawl's natural law are the fault of Lugonu and Ashenzari, respectively, and Zin still refuses to invite them to parties.
And now, the question we've all been waiting for:
Q: If my Ogre can throw a large rock at near lightspeed, why can Iron Shot, travelling far more slowly, do more damage?
A: An Iron Shot weighs several hundred aum and barely fits in a single tile.
Q:If that were true, wouldn't it be more accurate?
A: Of course not. Since Crawl monsters are pancake-flat, it often flies right over them.
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