May 9, 2024: The May '24 Report is up.
News: April 23, 2024: Dwarf Fortress 50.13 has been released.
News: February 4, 2021: Dwarf Fortress Talk #28 has been posted.
News: November 21, 2018: A new Threetoe story has been posted.
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"Uh....did....Richard send you or...""Um, kinda?"
That final idea of yours is almost exactly what these drones would be, at first. Except they would be expected to hover around the ship, and be able to come back if they survive.Which kinda negates most of the purpose of the missiles in the first place, because it means they need to be a lot bigger and more expensive and have more fuel.
Another, related but more exotic possibility, is taken straight out of Battletech. FTL drive. Ships could be cheap as heck but for the interstellar drive system they carry, which, for whichever reason (economy of scale perhaps, again) can't be fitted to small ships. Whether by dint of using hard-to-process exotic matter, or having production costs way above mere "construction" costs, FTL systems could be immensely important - allowing their use as a sort of self-hostage. "Destroy this ship and you're taking its FTL drive with it", in essence, making the combat again focused on disabling and capture rather than destruction of the enemy.Well, in that case the FTL drive is more or less the most valuable part of the ship. Strategy? Determine where the FTL drive is and destroy everywhere else until you've knocked enough holes in the hull that they surrender or die.
A rather more extremely idealistic option is simply that both sides abhor incurring unnecessary loss of life in their wars...Thanks, I needed a laugh.
I was imagining more like a tank with magnetic treads. I didn't give the matter much thought at any point, but it seems like the surface area of the treads would let them stick to any crater small enough for the slope to risk drifting away.QuoteHa ha. Um, first off what kind of non-ship-destroying weapons are melting large sections of hull?!? Second off, molten metal is also magnetic, and if it was molten enough to slip off you'd have problems of big holes appearing in the ship because you basically jellied a big section of hull, and since it's big and loose enough to impede a magnatank rolling across it, it's by far big enough to blow outwards under the pressure of air inside and cause major problems for people in the ship. Forget fighters, that laser is the big weapon.I was thinking more in terms of heat deformation, not loss of magnetic capacity. A pulsed laser will crater the surface, creating a mighty speedbump for any wheels (roller spheres, more likely) fit for rapid movement and change of direction. Or do you propose magnetically propelled maglev hovertanks? They'll lose all hope of magnetic attachment the moment they overheat due to induction forces. Space is hot. Not to mention they won't be able to draw power from the ship readily, making them no different from fighters - and with a much more limited and finicky propulsion system to boot.
Anyways, the idea that fast-moving turrets are going to be flying off the hull...not happening with smart design, and if it is for some reason you just have competition between railturrets and magnatanks. It's not enough of an issue for people to waste the resources and such on fighters.
If your complaint is that magnatanks have issues...well, they do. But let's look at your analogy, eh?QuoteDon't try to look for the perfect weapon--there isn't one.Hence "evolution of weapons".
We'll need to find a time and a place to do that.QuoteWell, I'd be glad to do that if I had time to think this through and a better handle on the starting conditions. Sociopolitical/Economic issues are implied but not stated. Why are they fighting a war? How much resources do they have? And past that, what "tech level" are we talking about?Hmm. Actually, I'd be happy to discuss that sort of thing. I like worldbuilding.
...Did I mention that I'll probably overthink it?
You left out the cockpit and the life support.QuoteYou still have limited fuel, which is kind of a major issue. And how the heck are you going to be maneuvering without sending mass in the opposite direction? Isn't that a violation of Newton's Third Law of Motion?Yep. They can't evade forever - one way or another they are going to get hit. And with them being not much more than a gun, a fuel tank, and an engine, the moment they are hit they are gone, simple as that. Unless extreme-rapid-fire scattershot pulse lasers are made, I guess, to just chip away at them with lucky hits.
And, um, are you saying that fighters wouldn't need to be repaired? Because that implies that they would keep getting destroyed.
And limited fuel is less of an issue when fuel on the ship is plentiful, engines are efficient, and the ship itself acts as a shield when the fighter's on pit stop.So, the fighters are going to be sticking right next to the ship and sniping rather than engaging in techniques anything like what people think of when people say "fighter"?
Well...I dunno what to say there.QuoteAnd the "ultimate" (at some point in time) solution is to make more ships, small and fragile enough that they'll be destroyed by any good hit?The "ultimate" solution is to make ships small and cheap enough to allow to destroy them with impunity, I guess. I don't know how to take that hypothetical war beyond turret fighters without starting to break the underlying paradigm of big ships being nominally safe from casual destruction.
Well, yes, but a shuttle or two requires much less space and such than a bunch of fighters. And reserve fuel and such.QuoteAlso, remember that hangars pose both a significant resource cost, and a big weak point in your ship.Hangars, small ones, I see as existing almost regardless of ship type. In absence of teleporters, you want to have a way to send someone over to somewhere that doesn't have a standardized docking port in your ship's size, and you have to have a shuttle or two - and leaving them hanging in the open on the outside of the hull is just asking for them to get accidentally blown off.
Turns out it wasn't very interesting at all. Even less interesting was the code black on the terror mission that followed. Damn you, broken-highway-terror -map and your spawning all enemies in the back!That sounds...fun...
No, no, no.Viral videos transmitted via psychokinetic amp?THE ULTIMATE RICKROLL
Dont worry GWG you've done worse things then thisGee, thanks...
"Hi, Alistair! Um...did you hear about the house?"((You know, I've been complaining about this, I might as well do something about it...))"Uh...hey..."
When Alistair gets out of school or whatever, back on Tuesday, Angel's there.
"Alistair! Alistair! Over here!"
Yeah, but STD's aren't necessarily only transmitted that way. Often they may be transmitted various other bodily fluids.True enough. No blood transfusions, then.
Maybe everyone has implants that give them 'STDs' when they have sex before marriage.Given the number of people who have engaged in premarital intercourse and gotten nothing more than the STD of life, if that, I doubt it.
Yeah huhIndeed.
Nuh uh
Yeah huh
Nuh uh
Yeah huh
More accurately, we have a logic error. Because those two things have apparently been defined withSeriously, the only difference is that there are some creatures native to Void.conflictingmore or less identical premises.
But what is infinite times the infinite?Less than infinity to the infinite.
Nodoka looks up at Will, pouting and waiting for him to say something.Dude. I need to sleep some.
The origin of demons? About all we've worked out is that they're creatures of Void as much as of Creation.
Their role? Well...I suppose they help with afterlife stuff, but mostly demons keep to Hell. Demons who don't stick to demonic affairs tend to be pursuing their own agenda, so they can't really be said to have an overall "role". They might deal with mortals, slaughter people start cults, but they don't have any one role.
*Continued Conversation Below*"I really like it! One of the parts of it is the memetic I use to transform!" She grins."Her first book was The Divine Comedy.""Oh really? What did you think of it, Nodoka?"
<Guys, in case you didn't notice the explosion, which I'm sure is the reason why you didn't immediately come to my aid, I am in a bit of trouble right now.><Oh. That wasn't an intentional explosion?>
"To be fair suddenly seeing your friend after a few days and finding out that they're ten year older and have a kid tends to make one want things to renormalize. Not that the ten years have done anything bad for your figure...""...Well, I guess that's just you renormalizing."
Kyle just stays quiet for the rest of the procedure.Will remains for a bit, then wanders out.
((You know, I've been complaining about this, I might as well do something about it...))
When Alistair gets out of school or whatever, back on Tuesday, Angel's there.
"Alistair! Alistair! Over here!"
Also, we wouldn't necessarily recreate the prison. Maybe we can find the real owner of the warrens and break the cycle by defeating him.What makes you think there is a real owner?
Are you sure? Do you by any chance have a vote tally? I seem to recall a pretty good amount of support for that.does this mean we're not allowed to tactical diplomacy a shopkeeper, period?no it means that ~the public~ doesn't want to diplomance a shopkeeper
Wait, I thought I was on the red team.Spoiler: blue team chatter @ GWG (click to show/hide)
