What weapons did the cap ship fire?

POSTED BY: Juggernaut
UPDATED: Thursday, December 19, 2002 21:41
VIEWED: 9698
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THEGN

Sunday, October 13, 2002 9:29 PM

Haha

Actually, there's nothing wrong with it being plasma. It's special, futuristic plasma...made from dylithium crystal dust. I'm not so sure it was meant to be scrutinized that closely. Someone just decided that a ball of green fire would be neat, so thy put it in like that.

I’m going to go with the missile theory, because I like missiles and I think I’d like futuristic missiles even more.

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In the Dark Ages, Romano-Celtic Britannia was over-run by Viking-like cultures collectively called the Anglo-Saxons. They were led by warlords called Drytinns, and the greatest warriors among them were the Thegns.

WHATNOW

Thursday, October 17, 2002 3:25 AM

Read Arthur C. Clark why missles make poor space weapons.

THEGN

Thursday, October 17, 2002 3:57 AM

What did Arthur C. Clark say about missiles in space?

I know what some say, but they have never been proven correct. Some people believe that a chemical explosion in space would produce no shockwave. And this is hogwash. If this is what Clark says, then I say, let him go up in space, I'll detonate 2000lbs of high explosive near him. If he's still around to protest, I'll admit I'm wrong.

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In the Dark Ages, Romano-Celtic Britannia was over-run by Viking-like cultures collectively called the Anglo-Saxons. They were led by warlords called Drytinns, and the greatest warriors among them were the Thegns.

WHATNOW

Thursday, October 17, 2002 5:52 PM

You may force me to look it up,but its nothing to do with shock waves. I thought it involved range and accuracy.

THEGN

Thursday, October 17, 2002 9:57 PM

Ah. Must have been an earlier statement. One he wrote back when he was doing radar stuff for God and Queen. Back then he might have been correct, but today it's a different story.

I think Clark would be fairly surprised to see the capability missiles have for both speed and accuracy. Unhindered by either gravity or air resistance a missile can reach alarming speeds in a very short time, and electromagnetic discrimination is much simpler and easier in space where the atmosphere doesn't produce lots of weird outgassing and glowing effects.

Although particle beams and lasers, if they can be built with sufficient energy sources would also be very effective in space. Given a sufficiently large means of power, they might be more effective then missiles, but that doesn't mean missiles would be a poor space weapon. And missiles, as of right now, have a decided advantage over PB and lasers, which is they are not limited by the huge power reserve. A missiles carries it's own power reserve.

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In the Dark Ages, Romano-Celtic Britannia was over-run by Viking-like cultures collectively called the Anglo-Saxons. They were led by warlords called Drytinns, and the greatest warriors among them were the Thegns.

HOBBES

Thursday, October 17, 2002 10:19 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Thegn:
Although particle beams and lasers, if they can be built with sufficient energy sources would also be very effective in space. Given a sufficiently large means of power, they might be more effective then missiles,

But lasers and PB's would be affected by a mirror coating on the ship's armor. Also at high distances (multiples of light seconds) they would be limited by being direct fire weapons (they can't turn to follow a ship) and by the fact that power use would increase.

I like railguns, less energy required but still fast and cheap (compared to a missile).

I like missiles too.

-------------------------------------------------
May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May you be in heaven an hour before
The Devil knows you’re dead.

THEGN

Thursday, October 17, 2002 11:05 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Hobbes:
But lasers and PB's would be affected by a mirror coating on the ship's armor. Also at high distances (multiples of light seconds) they would be limited by being direct fire weapons (they can't turn to follow a ship) and by the fact that power use would increase.

Not exactly.

Particle Beams would be uneffected by the optical properties of a target's armor. And the only lasers that would be effected by a mirror coating would be optical lasers.

Also there are ways that the beam of both lasers and PB could be directed. Particle Beams, for instances, could be directed by using two sets of magnetic plates to adjust the direction of the beam in the x and y. And the further the distance the target is the less energy it would require to aim it. And it could be aimed very precisely and very quickly. Furthermore, the beam would retain a considerable amount of coherency over long distances so it could actually be a very effective weapon at long range.

As for distances of light seconds, missiles have their own disadvantages. Combat from that kind of distance would be a beast of an entirely different color, I think. I mean, you could be talking millions of miles. You don't just open fire on something millions of miles away. It would be sort of analogous to attacking a target, today, with cruise missiles.

But for close combat, dogfighting kind of stuff, nothing need replace the heavy caliber automatic cannons and the missiles. But rail guns and PB could both be effective also, if certain requires are met. Requires that as of yet, have not been met, but who knows.

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In the Dark Ages, Romano-Celtic Britannia was over-run by Viking-like cultures collectively called the Anglo-Saxons. They were led by warlords called Drytinns, and the greatest warriors among them were the Thegns.

HOBBES

Friday, October 18, 2002 12:04 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Thegn:
Not exactly.

Particle Beams would be uneffected by the optical properties of a target's armor. And the only lasers that would be effected by a mirror coating would be optical lasers.

Oh. Ok, thanks for the correction.

Quote:
Originally posted by Thegn:

Also there are ways that the beam of both lasers and PB could be directed. Particle Beams, for instances, could be directed by using two sets of magnetic plates to adjust the direction of the beam in the x and y. And the further the distance the target is the less energy it would require to aim it. And it could be aimed very precisely and very quickly. Furthermore, the beam would retain a considerable amount of coherency over long distances so it could actually be a very effective weapon at long range.

I'm not debating that you could turn the beam but if the ship is doing random evasives it won't matter. A missile could follow and railguns (more likly nailguns for that kind of thing) could saturate the area easier.

-------------------------------------------------
May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May you be in heaven an hour before
The Devil knows you’re dead.

THEGN

Friday, October 18, 2002 12:53 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Hobbes:
I'm not debating that you could turn the beam but if the ship is doing random evasives it won't matter. A missile could follow and railguns (more likly nailguns for that kind of thing) could saturate the area easier.

Maybe. Maybe not. I guess that depends a great deal on what technology you have available to you. If I had a particle beam, I think I'd want it hooked up to tracking computer with a sensor package and good discrimination software. All of which exists today, and should be capable of locking on and tracking a target so that the PB could be accurately aimed and fired even during many evasive maneuvers. What I think I would want to be careful about doing would be haphazardly saturating the space around the battle with high velocity bullets, since there would be nothing to slow these bullets down. They would be as deadly a million miles away as they would be coming out of the barrel. So if I wasn't careful were I was shooting I might end up shooting my own people.

A missile would probably be the only weapon to be fully effective during evasive maneuvers. Any kind of weapon that is dependent on the flight path of the firing vessel would suffer from inaccuracies if that flight path were unpredictable as it might be in evasive action.

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In the Dark Ages, Romano-Celtic Britannia was over-run by Viking-like cultures collectively called the Anglo-Saxons. They were led by warlords called Drytinns, and the greatest warriors among them were the Thegns.

WEBWARRIOR

Friday, October 18, 2002 4:44 AM

It was a Mass Driver!!!!!!!!!!!!

A more controled virsion a a rail Gun!!!

Electo Current Base Gun!!!!

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