Re: Fw: Weapons for Newtonian based FTIII

On Mon, 5 May 1997 21:50:59 +0100, you wrote:

>Sandy Goh wrote
>
>>The other alternative is to put some kind of defense on a space
>>station. Perhaps the station is equipped with a "positional
>>stabiliser" that locks it in place and prevents it from moving. This
>>works using "some sort of FTL field" locking the station to a
>>particular "warpspace eddy" or somesuch. This stabiliser keeps your SS
>>in place and prevents the bad guy from towing it away. It also keeps
>>out all projectiles above a certain speed, allowing ships to dock but
>>preventing the LRDS from zapping it.
>
>
>>Sandy Goh (sandy@artica.demon.co.uk)
>
>This of course would also stop submunitions, scatterpacks and railgun
>rounds. I think we want these along the KraVak border! 

Not necessarily since scatterpack munitions and railgun projectiles
have a very narrow cross section so they are able to punch through.
The LRDS fires a big *blunt* rock. Alternatively, the shield could
stop everything moving at a certain velocity so that it excludes
accelerated rocks but not docking ships or mass driver rounds (perhaps
the computer switches it on when it detects something coming, and the
mass driver round is too quick to register on radar in time). The good
thing about SF gaming is that you can actually justify any piece of
gizmo or tech you care to invent. :-) It's no more sci-fi than FTL and
the other capabilities of a full thrust ship.

>and they had better watch out for when we can adapt it to moving
vessels

Well you won't be moving if you switch it on. :-) (Which, by the way,
takes several days. It's also rather big, which is another reason that
only bases have it. And it's "locked" to the planet's gravity well so
the base can still orbit...)

Sandy Goh (sandy@artica.demon.co.uk)