Re: Those annoying aliens...

Oerjan Ohlson wrote:

>Having finally recieved my copy of More Thrust, I'll join the debate:
>
>* Armour. Kra'Vak armour doesn't use _any_ mass whatsoever... which I
for one
>  find rather, um, strange.

The Kra'Vak armor could represent a superior alloy or composite that
does
not take any more mass than similarly sized human ships.  Considering
their
offensive technology revolves around kinetic energy weapons, they would
probably be able to design excellent defenses against like devices. 
Whereas
human fleets have excellent defenses against directed energy weapons.

> I would make armour use 7.5% of the total
>  MASS of a ship for each level; thus a size 40 BC would spend 6 MASS
on 
>  armour - just as it would for level-2 shields. OTOH, the armour 
>  wouldn't cost as much... Nothing, I think. All fractional MASS round
up.
>  The effect is that to get as much weapons into an armoured hull as an
un-
>  armoured, you have to pay for bigger engines (and, let's face it:
engines
>  are the biggest part of the cost for a capital ship!).

Extra mass for armor might be interesting to use for lower tech levels,
maybe to represent different timelines.  Armored hull technologies would
improve over time reducing mass and cost.

>* Scatterpacks: Since the projectiles are scattered into a cone-shaped 
>  volume, the further away you are, the lower the density of
projectiles
>  will be.

Interesting point.

Mike Miserendino