Orbital Fortress "Rubber Ball"

[Condottiere]

Do we have a directional option in the rules?

 

[snrdg121408]

Hello Condottiere,

Do we have a directional option in the rules?

Radar is an active sensor example and is directional since the energy pulse is being pointed in a specific direction and the return comes back on the same bearing. A radio direction finder is omni-directional since the unit's antenna receives the radio wave from any direction.

 

[phavoc]

Without bring in my experience as a submarine sonar technician, which has been dismissed since water is not the vacuum of space I can not provide adequate support to how passive sensing would work. For that matter, my limited knowledge gathered through research would also be dismissed as being a faulty analogy. Unfortunately, we do not have any real space borne experience how they would work.

So I'll hold any further comments on the subject and I hope what I have provided has been helpful.

Well, I hope you didn't think I was dismissing anything you said. That certainly wasn't my intent. My experience in the military is based on FDC, counter-battery radar, and the like. I'm pretty sure none of us on board can talk to our experience with deep-space mil-spec electronics and targeting.

In the ocean it's not much different really as in space (or above the water). Passive sensors have a much longer range than active sensors. And they can tell you that something is out there - and depending on the quality of the signal/observation you can tell even more about what may be there. So you can target and fire a weapon at it. However your target will have far more power in its electronics (typically) than any missile or torpedo and can use that to blind, confuse or simply lure it away from what you wanted to hit. That's why active sensors are still used for guidance and command/control of your in-flight birds. It's much harder to be successful in jamming another ship/aircraft that has just as much power as you do, plus it has the advantage of a human operator. Though since we are talking about such long ranges in space, light-speed delays come into the equation as well. Needless to say it can get complicated fast.

I hope you don't stop contributing to the discussions. That's not what the boards are about. As far as anyone dismissing your experience, well, that's really more on you than them because if you let them get under your skin, they've succeeded in silencing a voice. And who wants to let people be successful in that???

 

[snrdg121408]

Hello phavoc,

Without bring in my experience as a submarine sonar technician, which has been dismissed since water is not the vacuum of space I can not provide adequate support to how passive sensing would work. For that matter, my limited knowledge gathered through research would also be dismissed as being a faulty analogy. Unfortunately, we do not have any real space borne experience how they would work.

So I'll hold any further comments on the subject and I hope what I have provided has been helpful.

Well, I hope you didn't think I was dismissing anything you said. That certainly wasn't my intent. My experience in the military is based on FDC, counter-battery radar, and the like. I'm pretty sure none of us on board can talk to our experience with deep-space mil-spec electronics and targeting.

phavoc I am not under the impression that you or any other member were dismissing my comments. Unfortunately, my use of the closest real examples I can think of coupled with my experience as a Submarine Sonar Technician from 1975 to 1995 and how I went about certain topics has led to irritating forum members with negative results. I want to avoid making the same errors here.

Nice to know there appears to be a ground pounder ;-) in the group.

In the ocean it's not much different really as in space (or above the water). Passive sensors have a much longer range than active sensors. And they can tell you that something is out there - and depending on the quality of the signal/observation you can tell even more about what may be there. So you can target and fire a weapon at it. However your target will have far more power in its electronics (typically) than any missile or torpedo and can use that to blind, confuse or simply lure it away from what you wanted to hit. That's why active sensors are still used for guidance and command/control of your in-flight birds. It's much harder to be successful in jamming another ship/aircraft that has just as much power as you do, plus it has the advantage of a human operator. Though since we are talking about such long ranges in space, light-speed delays come into the equation as well. Needless to say it can get complicated fast.

I am re-reading David Weber's Honor Harrington series which I feel is a good example of space combat and agrees with your comments.

I hope you don't stop contributing to the discussions. That's not what the boards are about. As far as anyone dismissing your experience, well, that's really more on you than them because if you let them get under your skin, they've succeeded in silencing a voice. And who wants to let people be successful in that???

I will continue to contribute to the forum on topics that peak my interest or questions I have. However, based on past experience I'm trying to keep myself from pushing too hard to get my support my point of view beyond reasonable boundaries.

 

[-Daniel-]

I'm pretty sure none of us on board can talk to our experience with deep-space mil-spec electronics and targeting.

I could. Oh wait, you mean in real life and not in game? :lol:


On a more serious note: snrdg121408 we all offer our opinions and in some cases try to draw parallels to what we know from our real world lives. But in the end this is a game and we are all here to have fun. So please continue to offer your ideas and opinions as the more we receive the better chance we will find ideas we each like to take back to our games.

 

[snrdg121408]

Hello Daniel,

I'm pretty sure none of us on board can talk to our experience with deep-space mil-spec electronics and targeting.

I could. Oh wait, you mean in real life and not in game? :lol:


On a more serious note: snrdg121408 we all offer our opinions and in some cases try to draw parallels to what we know from our real world lives. But in the end this is a game and we are all here to have fun. So please continue to offer your ideas and opinions as the more we receive the better chance we will find ideas we each like to take back to our games.

I will continue to offer my odd ball, I volunteered for duty on a ship that sank itself only to resurface, understanding and opinions unfortunately, I have also experienced negative reactions that I did not intend to happen which makes me try not to repeat the events.

Thank you and other members for your comments and help here.

Respectfully,

Tom Rux STS1/SS USN Ret.