Re: [GZG] Monster ships

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http://mail.csua.berkeley.edu:8080/mailman/listinfo/gzg-lOn 14/01/2010
10:41 AM, Charles Lee wrote:
> I wish I could meet you in person. I'ld shake your hand. A calm and 
> logical debater. We may not agree but I think both are lookin at the 
> others evidence and thinkin.
>
In a naval context... Sunburns still give me the willies.

They come in so quickly, you can usually distract/seduce them, they just

don't have time to sort out the wheat from the chaff (so to speak). But 
shooting them down is tricky. Too many chances to get it wrong, too many

chances for a bad sea state, or someone being 3 seconds slow on the 
uptake, or..

Hypervelocity kinetic missiles ditto. No point in filling the air full 
of shrapnel in front of them if you do so at a range of 3cm, because it 
takes you 0.5secs to slew and fire.

Victory often goes to the side that gives the other side more 
opportunities to make mistakes. Many of the more successful military 
tactics, doctrines or weapons do just exactly that - give the enemy lots

of opportunities to screw up. Things that are easily dealt with in 
theory may work rather better in practice.Or vice-versa - kit that looks

formidable on paper may be ineffective.

The "pop-up" Emerson turret that allowed a TOW missile to be fired from 
turret-down locations was a really good idea... but with some 40+ 
hydraulic lines in a real birdsnest, maintaining it was a nightmare, and

its serviceability was as close to zero as makes no difference. Move 
1-2km cross-country and the crew would be certain to get a bath of 
hydraulic fluid from one hose or another. Taking hours to fix.

Getting back on topic....

One system I would like to see - an advanced anti-missile fire control. 
Its effects are simple - instead of allocating dice to missile/fighter 
targets then rolling to hit, you roll to hit and then allocate.

As regards time of turns etc - 15 mins works well. You assume that about

every 15 mins you'll get a fleeting targeting solution in the background

ECM environment. Weapons are thus designed not for continuous fire, but 
bursts at high output. After the ether has been filled with incoming and

outgoing salvoes, all solutions are lost, and it takes about 15 mins to 
find them again. Hence the "turns", where you have to pre-plan your 
movement rather than continuously updating every few seconds in 
accordance with enemy moves, and the phenomenon of "overshoot" where 
you're out of range at one firing opportunity, and behind the enemy at 
the next. Weapons would be designed to have about a 10 min recycle time.

It's PSB to justify the game mechanics, but it's plausible.

Zoe (sometime Spaceflight Avionics Designer and Naval Combat System 
Architect)