Re: Sensor Range Question [Evasion]

>Laserlight wrote:
>>I don't know about you, but I don't call my enemy's ship ahead of time
and
>>say "Look here, old chap, I'm going to be shooting at you right after
my
>>gunners finish tea, frightfully sorry and all that."	Speed-of-light
>weapons
>>mean you need to be dodging _before_ you know someone is shooting.
>
>Not if your ranges are in Light-Seconds. A beam will be visible coming
if
>you are at more than one lightsecond.
>Although if the range is great enough a ship may have the time to avoid
an
>entire salvo of batteries.
 
Um....a beam of light won't be visible until it gets there.
If that takes a full second, it *still* won't be visible
before it gets there.
 
However, it makes perfect sense to me that a potential
target's sensors would detect a lock-on *before* the
beam fires, giving the battle computers the opportunity
to jink the ship (unless, of course, some hot-dog pilot
has it on manual--his funeral).
 
...targetting lock detected
...evasive action taken
..targetting lock evaded
...structural integrity failure, decks 4-8
...hull breach on decks 5 and 6
...secondary combat control offline
...damage control notified
 
- Sam
________________________________________
Samuel Reynolds
Spinward Stars: http://www.spinwardstars.com/
Reynolds Virtual Workshop: http://www.primenet.com/~reynol
reynol@primenet.com
samuel_reynolds@csgsystems.com