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Details details details...

Post by Lighthawk »

Federation

Weapons

Phaser Arrays: The low end weapon system, mostly used in point defense against torpedos and fighter/small attack craft, but also used for surgical strikes against unshielded targets. Virtually all SF ships have a series of arrays designed to provide complete or near to 360 degree cover. Ineffective against medium and larger craft.

Pulse Phasers: The main armament of most SF ships, and the source of the majority of damage caused in most battles. Highly damaging to shields. Most ships have at least a pair. Smaller ships tend to have the cannons in a fixed forward facing position, while medium and larger tend to utilize turrets for greater firing arcs.

Photon Torpedos: A multi-purpose weapon carried by most SF ships. PTs use a matter/anti-matter warhead to cause damage, and are powered by a plasma battery that is energized during launch from the ship's power transfer grid. They are lightly shielded weapons; by matching shield frequencies they can pass through the shields of the vessel firing them, and they can survive a shot or two from lower end phaser arrays, though fending off such attacks puts a heavy drain on the battery and severly degrades it's range. Medium and higher arrays can easily overwhelm a PT's shield system. PTs are fast, highly manevurable, and are capable of being programmed to follow a set course.

PT are used to engaged smaller craft outside of phaser range; larger ships tend to have enough point defense to brush aside long ranged PT attacks. They are also used as the "knock out" punch, once an enemy vessel's shields are down, a quick volley of PTs are often used to end the fight. Small and medium ships use rapid fire launchers, while larger ships more commonly field burst launchers for maximum damage in mimimum time. PTs are also the primary orbital bombardment weapon, using arrial bursts to devestate enemy surface structures and/or ground units, or using a delayed blast along with their shields to burrow up to several dozen meters to damage underground and/fortified structures. Their range and speed, along with their ability to follow a pre-set path, sometimes see PTs used to create flanking manevures, where a fleet will launch a considerable volley set to swing around the enemy group and come at their sides or from behind while the fleet engages them head on.

Quantum Torpedos: The PT's big brother, QTs use a zero point energy system to deliever their damage. QTs are slightly larger than PTs, but utilize similar propulsion, defensive, and guidance systems. Performance wise, compared to a PT a QT is more powerful and better shielded, though slightly slower and much less agilie.

Due to their lesser manueverability, QTs are rarely used against smaller ships. Against larger vessels they serve in the same "knock out" roll as PTs in finishing off a ship once it's shields are down. QTs are also used to engage medium and larger ships outside of phaser range, as their more powerful shields allow them greater survivability against point defense systems. They are also used as planet killers on the rare occassion that the total destruction of a world's surface is required. A fleet of roughly 20 ships can blast off a planet's atmosphere and utterly scour it's surface over the course of an hour's steady bombardment of QTs.

Common Ship Equipment

Shields: A defensive energy bubble that surrounds a ship and protects it from damage caused by physical and energy based sources. In order to absorb the immense amount of punishment that they do in battle without monapolizing a ship's power supply, shields are fed from a series of fusion batteries that are replenished from the ship's warp core. In most cases shield failure is caused by these batteries being depleted faster than they can be recharged, though a sufficently powerful drain on the system can cause an overload. A shield overload is a far more sever problem than shield depletion, as the system will require a general restart if lucky, or a complete replacement if unlucky.

Shields also serve to block transporters, though this can be circumvented by matching the transporter beam and sheild frequencies. To prevent this, it is SOP to alternate shield frequencies often and randomly in battle.

Shields are also used to scramble enemy sensors. While an active shield does make a ship detectable at greater range than an unshielded ship, they also make scanning the ship itself much harder.

Warp Drive/Warp Nacelles: Starfleet's FTL drive system, which creates a Warp Bubble around a ship which propells the vessel faster than lightspeed, and without suffering any of the time or space warping effects normally caused by extreme velocities. Warp factor measurements are exponential, thus Warp 3 is 10 times as fast as Warp 2, and 100 times as fast as Warp 1.

A ship traveling under warp power is much easier to detect.

Warp travel is not very percise on any scale as small or smaller than a solar system. While it can accurately and reliably bring a ship to a given star system, traveling at warp within said system is high risky, and generally avoided.

As the nacelles actually generate and form the warp bubble, their size, number, and placement have a ready effect on a vessel's warp performance.

Nacelle size: The larger the nacelle, the more stable a warp bubble it produces, and the harder it is for the ship to be knocked out of warp.

Nacelle number: The more nacelles a ship has, the faster it can go, and the longer it can maintian it's top end speed.

Nacelle placement: The closer to the center line of the ship the necelles are, the more effiecent they are, and the faster they can form a warp bubble. Also in regards to ships with three or more nacelles, the more equal-distant the nacelles, the sturdier the warp bubble and the faster the bubble can form.

These are all of course relative statements. It is possible for example for a ship with two nacelles to go as fast as a ship with three, but it will be less energy effiencent, more prone to failure, and generate more stress on the system requiring more upkeep.

Cloaking Device: Stealth system designed to render a ship invisible to sight and sensors, cloaking devices provide a means for a ship to move about undetected. However such devices are far from perfect, and suffer several drawbacks. Cloaks are power intensive, forcing a vessel actively using one to operate at a reduced level of performance. The cloaking field itself is also sensitive and incapible of quickly adapting to changing needs. Thus damage to the ship's exterior or the firing of weapons can disrupt the field, requiring a system reset. Finally, while moderately capable of defeating most Alpha Quadrent species's sensor systems, Borg sensor's are more advanced, rending the device useful only at a distance. The Borg's adaptive nature is constantly improving their ability to defeat Federation cloaks, which currently are ineffective at distances of 3.4 lightyears or closer.

Ships

Chariot Class

Type: Light Troop Transport

Length: 350m
Beam: 130m
Height: 70m
Mass: 900,000 metric tons

Crew: 100
Transport Ability: 500 troops and 6 light/medium ground/air craft.

Armament: 10 type VI phaser arrays, 2 rapid fire photon torpedo launchers with 50 rounds
Defence Systems: Heavy shield system, light hull armor, enhanced Structural Integrity Field, Standard Cloaking Device

Warp Speeds (Cloaked)
Normal cruise: 8 (4.8)
Max cruise: 9.5 (5.7)
Max rated: 9.95 (5.97)

Design Details
Quad Nacelle
Twin Warp Cores
Rapid Deployment Transporter System
High Output Impulse Drive

The Chariot class starships are rapid deployment vessels designed to move small numbers of troops quickly. Due to their limited carrying capasity, most Chariots are assigned to specialty and elite battle groups in order to maximize their effectiveness.

Small, fast, and highly manueverable, Chariots are also sturdy and well shielded for their size. However they are only lightly armed, and not intended to engage in ship to ship combat. The phaser arrays are far too underpowered to serve outside the point defense role, and the twin torpedo launchers are primarily used to clear a landing zone for the ground troops.

In a battle setting, Chariots tend to hang back in the rear of the engagement and wait for an oppertunity to deploy their troops. Their high speed and relatively strong defenses allow them to slip through even small gaps in the enemy lines, and their rapid deployment transporter system is capable of beaming down a full compliment of troops and their support craft in just under 30 seconds.

Occassionally they will be used in a hunter/killer role against fighters, their speed and agility allowing them to chase down the small craft, and even the Chariot's light armament is suffiencent against one or two man fighters in small groups.

Despite their twin warp cores, Chariots suffer from power supply issues due to the high energy needs of many of their systems. Their warp drives, impulse drives, shields, SIF, cloak, and transporter system are all power hungry machines which often put a considerable strain on the ships' power distribution system. As a result, Chariot's are maintaince heavy ships, and thus costly to field.

While they excell at their role of ferrying small groups of troops rapidly between star systems and on the battlefield, their limited carrying capasity and high cost have seen that few of these vessels have been built to date, comprising a mere 4% of the total fleet.
Last edited by Lighthawk on Sat Dec 12, 2009 10:33 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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Re: Details details details...

Post by Lighthawk »

Alright, I'm looking for some general help in bringing together some elements of a story I've been thinking about writing. I want to write an alternate universe trek fic involving a full scale borg invasion of the Alpha Quadrent.

Key difference I want to make in this story as opposed to all other borg story arcs is presenting it as much more of a war. It's not going to just be the cubes swarming for the home worlds and either they take them and win or they get stopped in one big battle and it's all over. This is going to be an actual war, with terrtiory gains and lose and concerns about supplies, ect...

I also want to present the trek technology in a sensible and consistant manner. This is going to be very much an alt universe, more so even than XI is from TOS. I'm keeping the general ideas of the technology, and might be using some of the ships, but a lot will be different, especially starfleet.

Some big changes I plan on making: Giving Starfleet a dedicated ground force, utilizing specialized starships (fighter craft, gunboats, transports, missile cruisers, ect...), having the borg be less like space zombies and more of a quick adapting cyborg race with less of the "You're so insignificant we'll let you walk around our ships unopposed until you actually break something" mindset. They'll also use personal firearms and tactics other than the zombie shuffle swarm.

So to get started, some ideas I've had for the nature and use of some of Starfleet's tech.

Weapons

Phaser Arrays: The low end weapon system, mostly used in point defense against torpedos and fighter/small attack craft, but also used for surgical strikes against unshielded targets. Virtually all SF ships have a series of arrays designed to provide complete or near to 360 degree cover. Ineffective against medium and larger craft.

Pulse Phasers: The main armament of most SF ships, and the source of the majority of damage caused in most battles. Highly damaging to shields. Most ships have at least a pair. Smaller ships tend to have the cannons in a fixed forward facing position, while medium and larger tend to utilize turrets for greater firing arcs.

Photon Torpedos: A multi-purpose weapon carried by most SF ships. PTs use a matter/anti-matter warhead to cause damage, and are powered by a plasma battery that is energized during launch from the ship's power transfer grid. They are lightly shielded weapons; by matching shield frequencies they can pass through the shields of the vessel firing them, and they can survive a shot or two from lower end phaser arrays, though fending off such attacks puts a heavy drain on the battery and severly degrades it's range. Medium and higher arrays can easily overwhelm a PT's shield system. PTs are fast, highly manevurable, and are capable of being programmed to follow a set course.

PT are used to engaged smaller craft outside of phaser range; larger ships tend to have enough point defense to brush aside long ranged PT attacks. They are also used as the "knock out" punch, once an enemy vessel's shields are down, a quick volley of PTs are often used to end the fight. Small and medium ships use rapid fire launchers, while larger ships more commonly field burst launchers for maximum damage in mimimum time. PTs are also the primary orbital bombardment weapon, using arrial bursts to devestate enemy surface structures and/or ground units, or using a delayed blast along with their shields to burrow up to several dozen meters to damage underground and/fortified structures. Their range and speed, along with their ability to follow a pre-set path, sometimes see PTs used to create flanking manevures, where a fleet will launch a considerable volley set to swing around the enemy group and come at their sides or from behind while the fleet engages them head on.

Quantum Torpedos: The PT's big brother, QTs use a zero point energy system to deliever their damage. QTs are slightly larger than PTs, but utilize similar propulsion, defensive, and guidance systems. Performance wise, compared to a PT a QT is more powerful and better shielded, though slightly slower and much less agilie.

Due to their lesser manueverability, QTs are rarely used against smaller ships. Against larger vessels they serve in the same "knock out" roll as PTs in finishing off a ship once it's shields are down. QTs are also used to engage medium and larger ships outside of phaser range, as their more powerful shields allow them greater survivability against point defense systems. They are also used as planet killers on the rare occassion that the total destruction of a world's surface is required. A fleet of roughly 20 ships can blast off a planet's atmosphere and utterly scour it's surface over the course of an hour's steady bombardment of QTs.

Common Ship Equipment

Shields: A defensive energy bubble that surrounds a ship and protects it from damage caused by physical and energy based sources. In order to absorb the immense amount of punishment that they do in battle without monapolizing a ship's power supply, shields are fed from a series of fusion batteries that are replenished from the ship's warp core. In most cases shield failure is caused by these batteries being depleted faster than they can be recharged, though a sufficently powerful drain on the system can cause an overload. A shield overload is a far more sever problem than shield depletion, as the system will require a general restart if lucky, or a complete replacement if unlucky.

Shields also serve to block transporters, though this can be circumvented by matching the transporter beam and sheild frequencies. To prevent this, it is SOP to alternate shield frequencies often and randomly in battle.

Shields are also used to scramble enemy sensors. While an active shield does make a ship detectable at greater range than an unshielded ship, they also make scanning the ship itself much harder.

Warp Drive/Warp Nacelles: Starfleet's FTL drive system, which creates a Warp Bubble around a ship which propells the vessel faster than lightspeed, and without suffering any of the time or space warping effects normally caused by extreme velocities. Warp factor measurements are exponential, thus Warp 3 is 10 times as fast as Warp 2, and 100 times as fast as Warp 1.

A ship traveling under warp power is much easier to detect.

Warp travel is not very percise on any scale as small or smaller than a solar system. While it can accurately and reliably bring a ship to a given star system, traveling at warp within said system is high risky, and generally avoided.

As the nacelles actually generate and form the warp bubble, their size, number, and placement have a ready effect on a vessel's warp performance.

Nacelle size: The larger the nacelle, the more stable a warp bubble it produces, and the harder it is for the ship to be knocked out of warp.

Nacelle number: The more nacelles a ship has, the faster it can go, and the longer it can maintian it's top end speed.

Nacelle placement: The closer to the center line of the ship the necelles are, the more effiecent they are, and the faster they can form a warp bubble. Also in regards to ships with three or more nacelles, the more equal-distant the nacelles, the sturdier the warp bubble and the faster the bubble can form.

These are all of course relative statements. It is possible for example for a ship with two nacelles to go as fast as a ship with three, but it will be less energy effiencent, more prone to failure, and generate more stress on the system requiring more upkeep.

And I think that is a good start. I'm looking for general feed back, what people like, what they hate, what does or does not make sense, what could be improved. I'll be getting around to more tech, as well as orginizational concepts, ship design, over all war stradegy and more as I try to get an over all feel for just how this alternate universe is. Any and all help is and will be greatly appreciated.
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Re: Details details details...

Post by Lighthawk »

Common Ship Equipment

Cloaking Device: Stealth system designed to render a ship invisible to sight and sensors, cloaking devices provide a means for a ship to move about undetected. However such devices are far from perfect, and suffer several drawbacks. Cloaks are power intensive, forcing a vessel actively using one to operate at a reduced level of performance. The cloaking field itself is also sensitive and incapible of quickly adapting to changing needs. Thus damage to the ship's exterior or the firing of weapons can disrupt the field, requiring a system reset. Finally, while moderately capable of defeating most Alpha Quadrent species's sensor systems, Borg sensor's are more advanced, rending the device useful only at a distance. The Borg's adaptive nature is constantly improving their ability to defeat Federation cloaks, which currently are ineffective at distances of 3.4 lightyears or closer.



Ships

Chariot Class

Type: Light Troop Transport

Length: 350m
Beam: 130m
Height: 70m
Mass: 900,000 metric tons

Crew: 100
Transport Ability: 500 troops and 6 light/medium ground/air craft.

Armament: 10 type VI phaser arrays, 2 rapid fire photon torpedo launchers with 50 rounds
Defence Systems: Heavy shield system, light hull armor, enhanced Structural Integrity Field, Standard Cloaking Device

Warp Speeds (Cloaked)
Normal cruise: 8 (4.8)
Max cruise: 9.5 (5.7)
Max rated: 9.95 (5.97)

Design Details
Quad Nacelle
Twin Warp Cores
Rapid Deployment Transporter System
High Output Impulse Drive

The Chariot class starships are rapid deployment vessels designed to move small numbers of troops quickly. Due to their limited carrying capasity, most Chariots are assigned to specialty and elite battle groups in order to maximize their effectiveness.

Small, fast, and highly manueverable, Chariots are also sturdy and well shielded for their size. However they are only lightly armed, and not intended to engage in ship to ship combat. The phaser arrays are far too underpowered to serve outside the point defense role, and the twin torpedo launchers are primarily used to clear a landing zone for the ground troops.

In a battle setting, Chariots tend to hang back in the rear of the engagement and wait for an oppertunity to deploy their troops. Their high speed and relatively strong defenses allow them to slip through even small gaps in the enemy lines, and their rapid deployment transporter system is capable of beaming down a full compliment of troops and their support craft in just under 30 seconds.

Occassionally they will be used in a hunter/killer role against fighters, their speed and agility allowing them to chase down the small craft, and even the Chariot's light armament is suffiencent against one or two man fighters in small groups.

Despite their twin warp cores, Chariots suffer from power supply issues due to the high energy needs of many of their systems. Their warp drives, impulse drives, shields, SIF, cloak, and transporter system are all power hungry machines which often put a considerable strain on the ships' power distribution system. As a result, Chariot's are maintaince heavy ships, and thus costly to field.

While they excell at their role of ferrying small groups of troops rapidly between star systems and on the battlefield, their limited carrying capasity and high cost have seen that few of these vessels have been built to date, comprising a mere 4% of the total fleet.
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Re: Details details details...

Post by Lighthawk »

Been thinking on the Borg, particularly their ship building designs. Big and simple seem to be their primary priorities. Other than a cube or a sphere, what other shapes might they employ, if any at all? Cones or pryimids perhaps? And what about fighter craft, would a more tatically minded, less totally convinced of their utter superiority borg find reason to employ small attack ships?
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Re: Details details details...

Post by Tsukiyumi »

Lighthawk wrote:...Other than a cube or a sphere, what other shapes might they employ, if any at all?
I like these, personally:

http://bridgecommander.filefront.com/sc ... le/22962/1

http://bridgecommander.filefront.com/fi ... nder;28804
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Re: Details details details...

Post by Lighthawk »

Tsukiyumi wrote:
Lighthawk wrote:...Other than a cube or a sphere, what other shapes might they employ, if any at all?
I like these, personally:

http://bridgecommander.filefront.com/sc ... le/22962/1

http://bridgecommander.filefront.com/fi ... nder;28804
Interesting...
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Re: Details details details...

Post by Lighthawk »

Debating with myself over the design for a SF tank, mainly in regards to the drive mechanism: Tracks vs some kind of anti-grav hovering.

Tracks
Pros: Relatively simple in design, thus less prone to failure. Less maintaince, and requiring less skill engineers to service. Sturdier, less effect from recoil or impact on the tank's motion. Less expense. Probably more fuel effecient.

Cons: Slower. More exposed to enemy fire. Can be defeated by certain terrain.

Anti-grav
Pros: Faster. Fewer exposed parts. Can handle all but the most extreme terrain, including liquids.

Cons: (see pros of tracks above and flip things)
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Re: Details details details...

Post by Sionnach Glic »

Personally, I'd use anti-grav for light scout vehicles only. The heavier the vehicle, the more power it takes to get it off thr ground, and thus the larger and more tempermental the generator will be. Anti-grav for tanks would really only be useful for getting them over otherwise impassable terrain, such as up cliff faces. But that could be easily accomplished by having an anti-grav "belt" that fits around the hull of the tank, allowing it to crudely float upwards a certain distance.

Floating tanks don't make much sense, anyway. The recoil from the main gun would probably send it flying backwards, perhaps ramming an ally or slamming the vehicle into something. It'd also be more difficult to accurately aim the main gun if the tank is bobbing around, and enemy fire could also cause it to go all over the place. Anti-grav engines would also have the disadvantage of showing up a lot easier on any sort of scanning equipment the enemy may have. Effectively, your tanks would be wearing gigantic neon "I am here!" signs, leading to them quickly being hit by artillery or aircraft and wiped out.
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Re: Details details details...

Post by Vic »

Zip in and set down and, Shoot then take off again and, Scoot. All in all though, I prefer tracks for mobility, call me old fashioned. We need an old geezer smiley. :D
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Re: Details details details...

Post by kostmayer »

If its a SF tank could it not be fitted with a recoiless weapon - a laser based weapon of some sort, or self proppelled projectiles?
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Re: Details details details...

Post by Lighthawk »

I can't imagine recoil (having given it some thought) actually being an issue for a group with the techonology to deal with the g forces generated by the insane accelerations of FTL travel. I'm sure they could build an inertia damperer into the gun to negate it's recoil.

While hopping from place to place between shots does have a certain appeal, it would make for a lot of issues in a mobil battle. That might be more of an artillery idea than main battle tank.

And good call on the sensor point though. I think I'll go for tracks.
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Re: Details details details...

Post by Lighthawk »

Ground Craft

Tornado class

Type: Main battle tank

Length: 15m
Beam: 8m
Height: 3m
Mass: 90 metric tons

Crew: 2

Armament
Mk1: Type IV pulse phaser mounted on main turret, type III phaser array on extendable sub-turret
Mk2: Railgun with transporter barrel mounted on main turret, type III phaser array on extendable sub-turret
Mk3: Micro photon torpedo launcher mounted on main turret, type III phaser array on extendable sub-turret

Defence Systems: Heavy hull armor, reactive armor plates, Standard SIF.

Travel speeds
Paved roads: 150kph
Flat terrain: 90kph
Moderately rough terrain: 50kph
Sever terrain: 30kph

(Entry pending)
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Re: Details details details...

Post by Captain Seafort »

Lighthawk wrote:Tracks
Pros: Relatively simple in design, thus less prone to failure. Less maintaince, and requiring less skill engineers to service. Sturdier
Not necessarily. Tracked vehicles are horrifically maintenance-intensive, and slow for their power-to-weight ratio - their only advantage over wheels is over rough terrain. They're also prone to throwing tracks far more that wheeled vehicles shed wheels or tyres. Depending on the nature of Trek antigrav it could be a lot simpler and less hassle - if, for example, it's simply a matter of running an electrical current (or, more likely given that this is TNG+ Trek we're talking about, plasma) through a magic meterial of some kind.

Having said that, I'd still go with tracks, mainly for the reasons Sionnach raises - antigravs probably have a large and distinctive signature on passive sensors, and tracks provide the traction against recoil that antigravs don't.
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Re: Details details details...

Post by Sionnach Glic »

Lighthawk wrote:I can't imagine recoil (having given it some thought) actually being an issue for a group with the techonology to deal with the g forces generated by the insane accelerations of FTL travel. I'm sure they could build an inertia damperer into the gun to negate it's recoil.
I'm sure they could, but that just makes the tank more expensive, more difficult to manufacture and more maintanence intensive. Idealy, you don't really want to be loading your tank down with every gadget that you can find. Keep it simple.
Lighthawk wrote:While hopping from place to place between shots does have a certain appeal, it would make for a lot of issues in a mobil battle. That might be more of an artillery idea than main battle tank.
That's actually quite a nice idea. Anti-grav would be perfect for mobile artillery units. Float quickly to where you need to be, land, fire, flee.
Though then the problem of being easy to spot on sensors arises.
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Re: Details details details...

Post by Lighthawk »

Captain Seafort wrote:
Lighthawk wrote:Tracks
Pros: Relatively simple in design, thus less prone to failure. Less maintaince, and requiring less skill engineers to service. Sturdier
Not necessarily. Tracked vehicles are horrifically maintenance-intensive, and slow for their power-to-weight ratio - their only advantage over wheels is over rough terrain. They're also prone to throwing tracks far more that wheeled vehicles shed wheels or tyres. Depending on the nature of Trek antigrav it could be a lot simpler and less hassle - if, for example, it's simply a matter of running an electrical current (or, more likely given that this is TNG+ Trek we're talking about, plasma) through a magic meterial of some kind.

Having said that, I'd still go with tracks, mainly for the reasons Sionnach raises - antigravs probably have a large and distinctive signature on passive sensors, and tracks provide the traction against recoil that antigravs don't.
I would imagine with another 300+ years of work, tracks would have reached a point of being fairly easy to work with. While we don't know for certain how Trek anti-grav works, I rather doubt it's a matter of charging up some magic material, we just don't see a lot of that kind of tech. I would say it's much more likely an engine like device, which I can only imagine has to be more complex than tracks and a drive system.
Sionnach Glic wrote:I'm sure they could, but that just makes the tank more expensive, more difficult to manufacture and more maintanence intensive. Idealy, you don't really want to be loading your tank down with every gadget that you can find. Keep it simple.
Point, but interia dampeners don't seem like they'd be that difficult an item in relative terms, as even shuttle craft, which are about the size of this tank or smaller, have them. It's pretty wide spread tech with a lot of years of use, I'd think they'd be fairly common. And the g forces of a gun recoil are pretty small next to FTL travel, I doubt you'd need much of a unit to compensate.
That's actually quite a nice idea. Anti-grav would be perfect for mobile artillery units. Float quickly to where you need to be, land, fire, flee.
Though then the problem of being easy to spot on sensors arises.
True, but your artillery should be positioned so that anyone trying to get at them has to go through your main force first. At least with the anti-grav units, your artillery could keep up with a mobile battle.
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