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Author Topic: Interplanetary Arms Race: The Network  (Read 25904 times)

ConscriptFive

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Re: Interplanetary Arms Race: The Network
« Reply #315 on: November 24, 2020, 04:14:56 pm »

Analysis and plan...

Enemy Projection:
With Planet Golf reclaimed, enemy will redirect all focus on averting the loss of Planet Foxtrot.  With 1 AC and 3 other warships over Golf, at least one AC loaded with enemy troops will certainly assault Foxtrot.  Two or three escorts from Golf will likely follow.  A new ship from their homeworld may also join the action at Foxtrot.

Quote from: Plan Fleet Protection

Summary: We just dodged a massive fleet battle at Golf and taken ground on Foxtrot.  However, the enemy is well positioned to counter-assault Foxtrot.  The Peitho and two damaged Logos will hold the blockade as all other vessels are relocated for recycling.  An Endeixi built for the relief of Foxtrot next cycle.

    Details:

    1.  The two ITC's at Foxtrot withdraw to A.
    2.  The two crippled Logos at Charlie withdraw to the Hub and are recycled (+6 SPP).
    3.  Peitho "Big Stick" and Logos 06 and 08 hold the blockade at Foxtrot.
    4.  Endeixi 01 is constructed and pushes forward to A (-5 SPP, 1 remainder).

    Friendly Projection:
    Blockade is effective enough to neutralize AC landing.  Friendly forces on Foxtrot take enough ground to deny the enemy resources.  Endeixi 01 positioned in range to relieve and repair space forces over Foxtrot next cycle.  Transport craft arrive at the Hub next cycle for recycling and loading.
« Last Edit: January 04, 2021, 10:52:49 am by ConscriptFive »
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Carefulrogue

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Re: Interplanetary Arms Race: The Network
« Reply #316 on: November 24, 2020, 04:44:22 pm »

Quote from: votebox
Plan Fleet Protection (1): Carefulrogue
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I never thought genocide would look so cute. . .
No reason someone can be dorfed only once. An entire army of Carefulrogue! All in one coffin, it seems.
"Guys if you say 'oops sorry' afterwards it's not a war crime, right?"

ConscriptFive

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Re: Interplanetary Arms Race: The Network
« Reply #317 on: November 28, 2020, 09:09:12 pm »

Quote from: votebox
Plan Fleet Protection (2): Carefulrogue, ConscriptFive

Kashyyk

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Re: Interplanetary Arms Race: The Network
« Reply #318 on: November 29, 2020, 12:42:17 am »

Quote from: votebox
Plan Fleet Protection (3): Carefulrogue, ConscriptFive, Kashyyk

I suggest the following names: Endeixi 01 "So much for Subtlety", Hepaestus 01 "Trade Surplus".
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Carefulrogue

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Re: Interplanetary Arms Race: The Network
« Reply #319 on: December 02, 2020, 04:20:22 pm »

I suggest the following names: Endeixi 01 "So much for Subtlety", Hepaestus 01 "Trade Surplus".
+1 to names
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I never thought genocide would look so cute. . .
No reason someone can be dorfed only once. An entire army of Carefulrogue! All in one coffin, it seems.
"Guys if you say 'oops sorry' afterwards it's not a war crime, right?"

ConscriptFive

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Re: Interplanetary Arms Race: The Network
« Reply #320 on: December 02, 2020, 04:41:11 pm »

Wasn't 'Trade Surplus' the ITC that got blown up?  ITC-02 LIFT to be precise.

Madman198237

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Re: Interplanetary Arms Race: The Network
« Reply #321 on: January 05, 2021, 12:26:03 am »

Turn 9 Strategy Phase: The Network

Military Report

The enemies' lack of attempts to contest Foxtrot's orbit was certainly interesting but perhaps understandable, given the violence of recent clashes. The advance on Foxtrot can best be described as a bloodbath, but it is admittedly a bloodbath we're winning. Progress will undoubtedly slow as we reach the last, concentrated strongholds of the enemy and the Slaughterfields are less spread out across the planet. Some counter to them or some other advantages would be welcome on the planet's surface. The orbital theater goes well, though, and the generals eagerly await the first real fight the Peitho can get into.

----
It is now the turn *10* design phase, since apparently just remembering to increment by 1 every time is too difficult.
----

Spoiler: The Network Control (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: The Network Logistics (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Map (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: The Network Tech (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Credits (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: January 05, 2021, 12:38:28 pm by Madman198237 »
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We shall make the highest quality of quality quantities of soldiers with quantities of quality.

Kashyyk

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Re: Interplanetary Arms Race: The Network
« Reply #322 on: January 05, 2021, 02:46:27 am »

Quote from: 'SparkY' 2: Fusion Bogaloo
Try the "SparkY" Tokamak Fusion Plasma Drive again. I'm sorry, you wanted a more interesting design? Ask again after you've successfully avoided melting down a laboratory for the umpteenth time.

Quote from: S-40 Plasma Caster 'Joiner'
Now, you fine gentlebots get the fun one, mainly because you've not been at fault during the other plasma fiascos. Whilst expensive in both time, funding and reputation, these failures have shown how destructive a force fusion can be.

Superficially similar to the R- series of ship weapons, the S-40 is a mass driver with an attached power plant. However, instead of launching ferrous slugs, we will be launching superheated plasma in a semi-controlled fashion.

Once the attached fusion reactor has brought the plasma up to to temperature,  a small amount will be siphoned off and launched out of the coilgun, being magnetically neutralised at the end of the barrel to ensure the blob of plasma doesn't immediately repel itself and turn into an ever-expanding mist.

Each 'round' should be lighter, allowing for higher velocities,  and thus a reduced time-to-target. Additionally, we do not need separate slug magazines, instead being able to carry additional tanks of fusion fuel, that will be compatible with the primary reactor and thrusters of a vessel, giving us a reduced volume, higher amount of ammo and tactical flexibility in the case of container failure.

Try shooting down a blob of plasma with those flashlights.
 


Quote from: Votebox
(1) SparkY 2: Fusion Bogaloo (+ Research Credit) : Kashyyk
(1) S-40 Plasma Caster 'Joiner' : Kashyyk
« Last Edit: January 05, 2021, 10:29:48 am by Kashyyk »
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Carefulrogue

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Re: Interplanetary Arms Race: The Network
« Reply #323 on: January 05, 2021, 02:49:57 am »

Quote from: Votebox
(2) SparkY 2: Fusion Bogaloo (+ Research Credit) : Kashyyk, Carefulrogue
(2) S-40 Plasma Caster 'Joiner' : Kashyyk, Carefulrogue
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I never thought genocide would look so cute. . .
No reason someone can be dorfed only once. An entire army of Carefulrogue! All in one coffin, it seems.
"Guys if you say 'oops sorry' afterwards it's not a war crime, right?"

Rockeater

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Re: Interplanetary Arms Race: The Network
« Reply #324 on: January 05, 2021, 04:45:43 am »


Quote from: Votebox
(3) SparkY 2: Fusion Bogaloo (+ Research Credit) : Kashyyk, Carefulrogue, Rockeater
(3) S-40 Plasma Caster 'Joiner' : Kashyyk, Carefulrogue, Rockeater
Logged
Damnit people, this is why I said to keep the truce. Because now everyone's ganging up on the cats.
Also, don't forget to contact your local Eldritch Being(s), so that they can help with our mission to destroy the universe.

ConscriptFive

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Re: Interplanetary Arms Race: The Network
« Reply #325 on: January 05, 2021, 10:03:42 am »

Now, with more feeling.

Quote from: Votebox
(4) SparkY 2: Fusion Bogaloo (+ Research Credit) : Kashyyk, Carefulrogue, Rockeater, ConscriptFive
(4) S-40 Plasma Caster 'Joiner' : Kashyyk, Carefulrogue, Rockeater, ConscriptFive

Madman198237

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Re: Interplanetary Arms Race: The Network
« Reply #326 on: February 06, 2021, 11:31:52 pm »

Turn 10 Design Phase: The Network

'SparkY' 2: Fusion Bogaloo
Try the "SparkY" Tokamak Fusion Plasma Drive again. I'm sorry, you wanted a more interesting design? Ask again after you've successfully avoided melting down a laboratory for the umpteenth time.

Quote
'SparkY' 2: Fusion Bogaloo
Difficulty: Very Hard
Roll: 2 + 3 + 4 - 2 = 5 Average

After the disaster that was the previous attempt to get a fusion drive right, we got a fusion drive right! Well, I mean, it's functional, anyway. It runs and does engine things and could conceivably propel a relatively light (compared to the size of the drive that the rest of the ship is bolted to) vessel to high speeds. Speed 3, one might say, were we to so naively assign simple single-digit integer values to the speed of our vessels, but who would do that? That would be stupid, a ridiculous oversimplifi---[ERROR: reporting unit terminated; fourth wall endangered]

The new fusion drive siphons plasma off from an ongoing fusion reaction and uses it to propel the ship forwards, but, like, faster. Of course, the size of reactor this requires makes for simple retrofitting to be neither simple nor so much a "retrofit" as a "total rebuild". As such further work will be needed to utilize this drive technology in line ships.

'SparkY' 2: Fusion Bogaloo: A new direct fusion drive capable of extremely high thrust, but requiring a very large fusion reactor (duh) and complex magnetic nozzle assembly. No (additional) laboratories were harmed in the making of this (specific pattern of) advanced fusion drive.



S-40 Plasma Caster 'Joiner'

Now, you fine gentlebots get the fun one, mainly because you've not been at fault during the other plasma fiascos. Whilst expensive in both time, funding and reputation, these failures have shown how destructive a force fusion can be.

Superficially similar to the R- series of ship weapons, the S-40 is a mass driver with an attached power plant. However, instead of launching ferrous slugs, we will be launching superheated plasma in a semi-controlled fashion.

Once the attached fusion reactor has brought the plasma up to to temperature,  a small amount will be siphoned off and launched out of the coilgun, being magnetically neutralised at the end of the barrel to ensure the blob of plasma doesn't immediately repel itself and turn into an ever-expanding mist.

Each 'round' should be lighter, allowing for higher velocities,  and thus a reduced time-to-target. Additionally, we do not need separate slug magazines, instead being able to carry additional tanks of fusion fuel, that will be compatible with the primary reactor and thrusters of a vessel, giving us a reduced volume, higher amount of ammo and tactical flexibility in the case of container failure.

Try shooting down a blob of plasma with those flashlights.

Quote
S-40 Plasma Caster 'Joiner'
Difficulty: Hard
Roll: 2 + 4 - 1 = 5 Average

Mediocrity is our friend, for one step forwards accompanied by no steps backwards gets just as far as those eggheads over in the fusion department who can't take one step forwards without being blown three steps back by an explosion before sprinting back up to where they began in the first place. Wait, wait, wait, the fusion department is reporting some completely average success. Someone needs to assign one of the intern Units to figuring out which other departments are underachieving enough to be comedically valuable.

Oh, wait, we were talking about a gun, weren't we? Right, we've basically invented the weaponized fusion drive. A "particle cannon", you might call it, since it doesn't really fire a plasma since plasma is by its nature disassociated into charged particles that would disperse quite badly. By firing a (relatively) small number of particles per "shot" we can neutralize them sufficiently to prevent the weapon from becoming useless at any range other than "boarding action". However, the requirement to provide extra electricity to neutralize the (necessarily positively charged) ions as they exit the spacecraft does slow the firerate somewhat, and the extremely low mass of the projectiles limits raw damage. However, the ions are moving at considerable velocity and "a small number of particles" is still quite a large number of individually-not-dangerous particles. In addition, the heat of each particle prevents the added electrons from binding to the ions in each shot, meaning that a set of rapidly-cooling positively charged ions ends up scattered across the surface of the enemy ship, first burning its way in and then stealing electrons from the materials around them. The electrons in the shot are similarly added to the enemy ship, causing some electrical discharges in components near the impact site.

Between the speed of the actual shot and the ancillary effects, the S-40 is an effective entry into a new field of weaponry that fills a hybrid role between direct damage and electronic warfare. While in raw physical damage terms it will probably never be the equal of just slinging a heavy lump of metal at high velocity, it will most certainly make life hard for anyone able to dodge, shoot down, or otherwise deal with the heavier weapons. And, besides, even if each shot does physical damage merely on par with the enemy's older, low-end lasers, well, that's still damage, isn't it? Oh, and no, it doesn't come with its own fusion reactor. That would've been ridiculous considering the low draw it has and the extremely high mass and size of even the smallest of our fusion reactors.

S-40 Plasma Caster 'Joiner': A new breed of shipboard weapon that weaponizes the plasma from our starships' main fusion reactors. It fires a beam of ions and electrons towards targets, that does minor physical damage on impact almost equal to the original Oculus laser's damage, but arrives much faster than a standard kinetic round and can scramble electronic components or blind nearby sensor nodes even without a direct hit.


----
Revision away! Also have a reminder that you *do* have a credit.
----

Spoiler: The Network Control (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: The Network Logistics (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Map (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: The Network Tech (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Credits (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: February 07, 2021, 12:35:04 pm by Madman198237 »
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We shall make the highest quality of quality quantities of soldiers with quantities of quality.

ConscriptFive

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Re: Interplanetary Arms Race: The Network
« Reply #327 on: February 07, 2021, 10:06:40 am »

Here's the way to give our ground forces some love...

Revision: Zeus Strategic Orbital Bombardment, "Zeus SOB"

Quote from: Zeus Strategic Orbital Bombardment, "Zeus SOB"
Our large caliber rail cannon, the R-5, is a great weapon system.  Except when it has nothing to shoot at.  Too often our fleet is parked idle in orbit, as our ground forces face mortal combat planetside.  If only our superior naval gunnery could be put to use...

The Zeus Strategic Orbital Bombardment, "Zeus SOB" enables kinetic bombardment against strategic targets easily identified from orbit (such as aviation fuel farms and airfield runways) and far from frontline friendlies (such as aviation fuel farms and airfield runways).  While relatively inaccurate, it's meteoric strikes should disrupt operations at unhardened facilities (such as aviation fuel farms and airfield runways).  Furthermore, bombardment will crater and rupture vessels and surfaces in the bombardment area (such as aviation fuel farms and airfield runways.)

Hardware-wise, the Zeus shell itself is a R-5 round modified with a heat ablative coating to survive atmospheric entry relatively intact.  Software-wise, new gunnery computations will be made to account for aerodynamics and sub-orbital ballistics.

Kashyyk

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Re: Interplanetary Arms Race: The Network
« Reply #328 on: February 11, 2021, 03:57:15 am »

Yeah, let's not forget this thing brain.

Quote from: Modular, Reconfigurable Reactor Formation; or SparkY Tetris
So, the SparkY is a good piece of kit, but we've literally just designed a bunch of ships we wanted to put it in, and apparently that's gonna take a whole load of work. Thus, this particular project is focused solely on making the SparkY more retrofit friendly.

The various components of the drive will be split out and modularised into a variety of equally effective but differing shapes so that they can conform to whatever space restrictions are available on the target ship. The Magnetic Nozzle Assembly will be streamlined, to reduce wastage and thus space requirements. Finally, the requirement for a large supreme of power will be looked at. Does it really need that much, can we crib spare power from the weapon reactors as well as the main reactor?

In short, this will make a SparkY system that is smaller in size and more fluid in requirements,,  allowing us to fit it in all our ships more easily.
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ConscriptFive

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Re: Interplanetary Arms Race: The Network
« Reply #329 on: February 11, 2021, 04:17:34 am »

So here's another option to put out there...

Revision: "Monachikó Astéri" Ionic Chaff Canister Round

Quote
"Monachikó Astéri" Ionic Chaff Canister Round

The newly developed S-40 Plasma Caster 'Joiner' is a unique weapon system, weaponizing charged particle byproducts of our fusion drives to generate EW effects.  If only it didn't require a complete overhaul of our weaponry to field...

The "Monachikó Astéri" Ionic Chaff Canister Round is an attempt to bring this capability to the ubiquitous R-5 cannon.  Bitform nanomachines inside a modified R-5 shrapnel canister maintain highly reactive ionic particles in stasis.  When the fuze detonates the shell, the bitforms 'end mission,' allowing the ionic particles to chemically react.  The end result is a cloud of Ionic Chaff, intended to mislead, disrupt, or even 'jam' OPFOR sensors and guidance systems.

As you might imagine, adding an ionic charge to an electromagnetically propelled slug will significantly alter the ballistics of the R-5 cannon.  However, as the Monachikó Astéri round is not intended as a precision direct fire system, this should not prove an issue.  Artemis-linked railgun precision is not required to deploy an area of effect weapon system.

To assist gunnery crews in handling the new ordinance (with a unique mission set and ballistic profile compared to the other R-5 rounds), the Monachikó Astéri round will be marked with raspberry color-coded stripes.
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