Re: What makes a Carrier? (ftfb)

Mikko wrote:

> > Not really... not as long as you don't allow the carrier to maneuver
on
> > the turn of launch, to give the fighters time enough to clear the
ship so
> > they aren't overrun by it :-/
> 
> Unless you completely ignore the velocity vector the carrier gives the

> launching fighters (which I think is the way FB handles it, hohum...), 

Nope. Fighters don't have velocity vectors in either FT, MT or FTFB.

Answering the rest as if fighters had movement vectors in FTFB (it's not
very difficult to add, of course):

> you want to launch so that the carrier's velocity helps the fighters 
> reach their target.

Sure. But unless the launch catapults are very powerful (a lot more than
the fighter engines, too), the direction the launch catapult is facing
out from the carrier is not important - only the direction of travel of
the carrier is. The launch bays can still cover most of the available
surface area and spit the fighters out like a cloud surrounding the
carrier, before the fighters light up their own engines and start
maneuvering on their own.

Hm, I don't have the post I replied to above any longer... Not sure if
you were talking about carriers being able to launch fighters in more
than one direction (as aircraft carriers generally are not, while space
fighter carriers could be) or how a carrier should maneuver just prior
to
launch :-/ I'm talking about the former :-/

> Oh well... if you take real physics far enough, space fighters turn
out

> to be a pretty stupid weapon anyway...

<g>

Oerjan Ohlson
oerjan.ohlson@nacka.mail.telia.com

"Life is like a sewer.
  What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
- Hen3ry