I agree that projectile and for that matter plasma and fusion guns are not a
reasonable option in a standard TNE universe. Which is why I postulated a
universe with no gravitic focussing which drops laser ranges, especially at
the lower TL end of the spectrum, way down. Then to keep balance the range
modifier of PAs and Meson Guns needs to be modified to make these weapons
much short ranged. Then with 3 minutes turns and approx 200 km hexes
projectile weapons become useful as normal ship board weapons.
Fire control is largely computer controlled in any case. You could add a
beam pointer to a projectile weapon if you wanted, I would just assume this
is the central axis of a conical firing solution the this time scale by the
way the standard beam weapons only fire 1 shot (this is for the 10/30 minute
base) the rate of fire for a projectile weapon should be much higher which
will help with these short range firing solutions.
In my experience most players prefer "hollywood" style combat, flying down
the trench of the death star etc. Rather than a variation on submarine v
submarine combat.
But for the normal TNE universe or normal combat turns fit lasers, PAs or
Meson guns with your long range missiles.
Antony
-----Original Message-----
From: Eamon Watters
Sent: Thursday, 28 June 2012 1:53 PM
Subject: Projectiles in Space Combat (was Re: [Traveller_TNE] Re: 6mm)
I'm not sure that projectile weapons are reasonable options in TNE space
combat, save for one or two situations I'll expand upon later.
Projectiles have to have a good chance of hitting the vessel they are
targeting. At the typical ranges of combat, tens to hundreds of thousands of
kilometers I think this is just a no-no. Sensors not only have to get a very
accurate lock on the target, turrets and firing ship have to be capable of
directing fire at the extreme accuracies required, and the target has to
make virtually no deviation from its course. On the last point, even if the
target is unaware that it is being fired upon -even to the extent of being
unaware of the target lock upon it - I would think there would be some need
for course corrections (updates to destination trajectory being the main
one). This would render the projectiles useless, though perhaps with smart
munitions a civilian ship could be at risk.
Projectiles could be useful both for attacking craft in low orbit, like
assault landers or COACC craft - or for forcing larger craft farther out to
take evasive maneuvers and hence interrupt operations (small craft ops,
bombardment, maintenance, etc). Warheads could include sand (degrading laser
and sensor arrays), webs (like the Homing Overlay Experiment), shot,
or maneuverable payloads akin to Brilliant Pebbles.
Another use for projectile weapons would be in auxilliary craft. It can be
hard to pack a decent ship-to-ship weapon into a TL-12 minus small craft
that does not take up a horrendous portion of the craft. Of course, small
craft, if being used as an auxiliary vessel for a military ship can always
rely on the mother craft for protection under a lot of circumstances.
However, if it has to close with an object (ship, station, or a facility on
a planet) sooner or later it is going to be hard to fire on an object that
has become hostile without risking hitting the auxilliary. A projectile
weapon allows such small craft to directly threaten a target under such
circumstances.
On the topic of projectiles making the space lanes more hazardous - whilst
they might do so, would they be an appreciable hazard? The standard of TNE
Combat is the BL Hex - 30,000 km wide. In order to have any effect in combat
a weapon should at least be able to cross this minimum distance in a combat
turn: 30 minutes. That requires a velocity of just under 17 km/s. That's
just under the solar escape velocity at Jupiter. However, taking into
account the need for time to handle such things as getting/maintaining
locks, handling evasive maneuvers etc, we could say that the velocity the
minimally effective projectile needs is at least over Jupiter's solar escape
velocity. For a truly effective projectile I have a gut feeling that it is
going to need to be able to cross a hex in a tenth of a combat turn - which
gives us a much higher velocity, one in which even combats close to the sun
will have projectiles easily achieving solar escape velocity.
Of course, this does not mean there is no hazard, but just a more transitory
one.
Eamon
reasonable option in a standard TNE universe. Which is why I postulated a
universe with no gravitic focussing which drops laser ranges, especially at
the lower TL end of the spectrum, way down. Then to keep balance the range
modifier of PAs and Meson Guns needs to be modified to make these weapons
much short ranged. Then with 3 minutes turns and approx 200 km hexes
projectile weapons become useful as normal ship board weapons.
Fire control is largely computer controlled in any case. You could add a
beam pointer to a projectile weapon if you wanted, I would just assume this
is the central axis of a conical firing solution the this time scale by the
way the standard beam weapons only fire 1 shot (this is for the 10/30 minute
base) the rate of fire for a projectile weapon should be much higher which
will help with these short range firing solutions.
In my experience most players prefer "hollywood" style combat, flying down
the trench of the death star etc. Rather than a variation on submarine v
submarine combat.
But for the normal TNE universe or normal combat turns fit lasers, PAs or
Meson guns with your long range missiles.
Antony
-----Original Message-----
From: Eamon Watters
Sent: Thursday, 28 June 2012 1:53 PM
Subject: Projectiles in Space Combat (was Re: [Traveller_TNE] Re: 6mm)
I'm not sure that projectile weapons are reasonable options in TNE space
combat, save for one or two situations I'll expand upon later.
Projectiles have to have a good chance of hitting the vessel they are
targeting. At the typical ranges of combat, tens to hundreds of thousands of
kilometers I think this is just a no-no. Sensors not only have to get a very
accurate lock on the target, turrets and firing ship have to be capable of
directing fire at the extreme accuracies required, and the target has to
make virtually no deviation from its course. On the last point, even if the
target is unaware that it is being fired upon -even to the extent of being
unaware of the target lock upon it - I would think there would be some need
for course corrections (updates to destination trajectory being the main
one). This would render the projectiles useless, though perhaps with smart
munitions a civilian ship could be at risk.
Projectiles could be useful both for attacking craft in low orbit, like
assault landers or COACC craft - or for forcing larger craft farther out to
take evasive maneuvers and hence interrupt operations (small craft ops,
bombardment, maintenance, etc). Warheads could include sand (degrading laser
and sensor arrays), webs (like the Homing Overlay Experiment), shot,
or maneuverable payloads akin to Brilliant Pebbles.
Another use for projectile weapons would be in auxilliary craft. It can be
hard to pack a decent ship-to-ship weapon into a TL-12 minus small craft
that does not take up a horrendous portion of the craft. Of course, small
craft, if being used as an auxiliary vessel for a military ship can always
rely on the mother craft for protection under a lot of circumstances.
However, if it has to close with an object (ship, station, or a facility on
a planet) sooner or later it is going to be hard to fire on an object that
has become hostile without risking hitting the auxilliary. A projectile
weapon allows such small craft to directly threaten a target under such
circumstances.
On the topic of projectiles making the space lanes more hazardous - whilst
they might do so, would they be an appreciable hazard? The standard of TNE
Combat is the BL Hex - 30,000 km wide. In order to have any effect in combat
a weapon should at least be able to cross this minimum distance in a combat
turn: 30 minutes. That requires a velocity of just under 17 km/s. That's
just under the solar escape velocity at Jupiter. However, taking into
account the need for time to handle such things as getting/maintaining
locks, handling evasive maneuvers etc, we could say that the velocity the
minimally effective projectile needs is at least over Jupiter's solar escape
velocity. For a truly effective projectile I have a gut feeling that it is
going to need to be able to cross a hex in a tenth of a combat turn - which
gives us a much higher velocity, one in which even combats close to the sun
will have projectiles easily achieving solar escape velocity.
Of course, this does not mean there is no hazard, but just a more transitory
one.
Eamon