Re: Fire Control lock-on

>From: Ground Zero Games
>Ah, we're back to the old "does size really matter" debate again..... 

Nobody mention Phalons, please.

What matters is a combination of target size, target acceleration, and
firing system cycle time.  If you have a 2km wide target with .01g
acceleration and the you can acquire, aim and fire ten times every
second,
then you're guaranteed to hit--he can't possibly get out of the way.  If
your target ship is 10m wide, he constantly changes his vector at 500g
is
any direction, and you take a couple of seconds between receiving the
radar
ping and firing (to process target data, slew the weapon and fire), then
you're only going to hit by blind luck.

(Pace JohnA: yes, target aspect ought to matter.  Shooting at a BB's
narrowest target section might be about the same as shooting at a DD's
widest section, for instance.)

Of course, there's a wide variety in backgrounds--"high thrust" might be
3
gee in the Mote universe, 50g in Vorkosigan's milieu, 600g in the
Honorverse.

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