Space Combat/Ships

[Captain Brann]

HI
Would I be right in assuming that when a ship leaves Jump it has no speed, it then accelerates at its M number till its half way to its destination, then it turns round and slows down at the same rate.

If this is true then the ship average speed on a long trip at high M can be over million K's per hour.

How do ships shoot at each other at this speed and if you are a stationery ship or point the enemy has flashed past you in an instant so you have no change of catching it.

Am I right?

How do the rest of you deal with space interceptions?

Chris

 

[tneva82]

How do ships shoot at each other at this speed

Computers + speed of light weapons aka lasers comes to mind.

 

[Zowy]

Head on high speed attacks would be "jousting". With only a few combat rounds, Each missiles would only get one attack roll if the speeds where high enough and only while closeing range. Once ships pass each other and range starts to increace missiles would quickly become to slow.

If both ships are moveing in the same direction ( more or less ), then combat will last longer. Allso the higher a ships MDrive rateing the better it's chance to get the type of battle it wants... i.e. stand off and fire missiles, close with energy weapons, fast passing attack, ect. Then you can get fancy and toss in moons and planets to hide behind and slingshot around :shock:

 

[Myrm]

HI
How do ships shoot at each other at this speed and if you are a stationery ship or point the enemy has flashed past you in an instant so you have no change of catching it.
Chris

Very very good computer flightpath prediction models.

THere's quite a good description of how a fight might go, and what the sensors give and the tactics you can use in a space fight described in 'Serrano Legacy' by Elizabeth Moon

 

[Infojunky]

HI
Would I be right in assuming that when a ship leaves Jump it has no speed, it then accelerates at its M number till its half way to its destination, then it turns round and slows down at the same rate.

If this is true then the ship average speed on a long trip at high M can be over million K's per hour.

How do ships shoot at each other at this speed and if you are a stationery ship or point the enemy has flashed past you in an instant so you have no change of catching it.

Am I right?

Check. Mid-flight speeds are quite high.

How do the rest of you deal with space interceptions?

At either end mostly, as the combat system in the book is oriented towards this model.

 

[zozotroll]

"Would I be right in assuming that when a ship leaves Jump it has no speed,"

NO actualy. The accepted rule is that you leave hyper at the same velocity you started the jump at. I am not sure that is written down anywhere, however. On other forums there are long threads about this and why it is a Bad Thing.

zero speed is probably a very good house rule to have as it helps pirates, and cuts down on the possibility of shipbombing a planet.

 

[lastbesthope]

THere's quite a good description of how a fight might go, and what the sensors give and the tactics you can use in a space fight described in 'Serrano Legacy' by Elizabeth Moon

An excellent series of novels, I own all 7 in the 3 Omnibus editions.

LBH

 

[Myrm]

There are more than the 3 I have...excellent. I picked up the 3 novel collection that I have on the airport on the way to Singapore in March and really liked them, so more in the series is gonna be good.

 

[lastbesthope]

Here is a link to the three Omnibus collections on Amazon UK

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_w_h_/202-3329146-1967005?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Serrano+Omnibus

LBH

 

[Myrm]

Cheers - I dashed to Amazon as my first stop when you mentioned more books

 

[lastbesthope]

I was about to cave and buy the individual books when the first Omnibus got released, I then waited for the other two collections.

Happy to help out a fellow fan.

LBH