UCS Kororra

Post by **Captain Seafort** » Mon May 19, 2008 11:01 pm

Sounds like these Tain have a fair bit of Starship Troopers inspired thinking behind them.

Post by **Graham Kennedy** » Mon May 19, 2008 11:10 pm

That's one reason I don't want them to be insects.

I'm thinking perhaps aquatic, or possibly avians. That hasn't been done so much.

Post by **Graham Kennedy** » Mon May 19, 2008 11:40 pm

I'm also trying to think of a method of communication that would be utterly alien, and virtually impossible to translate into anything intelligible. I am thinking that what the Tain use as language might consist of a mix of speech, an element of touch and gestures, and a complex mix of scent molecules that are released. Building up any kind of dictionary might easily be a practical impossibility when a word can mean something completely different depending on the exact combination of scents the speaker is emitting.

Or I might have them talk a language that is easily translateable... but just have their method of thinking be completely different so that what comes out sounds like gibberish.

None of the above is original, of course. And true originality is not really required, but I would like to at least put a bit of an original spin on it at least.

Post by **Mikey** » Tue May 20, 2008 1:09 am

Wow. Normally I have some pithy comment about WHY I like your designs, but in this case, just... wow. Not only do you have a 2km-long gun, but you have a gun with an explanation of why it's 2km long.

And I really like (although appreciate might be a better word than "like") the idea of an enemy whose thought processes are so different to humanity's that any hope of coexistence - or even negotiating a truce or surrender - is out of the question.

Post by **Teaos** » Tue May 20, 2008 1:29 am

The big gun looks like it would need extra support holding it on. If it is really that big it would have rather large force apon it.

Post by **Graham Kennedy** » Tue May 20, 2008 6:32 am

There isn't that much force on it, actually. The drive systems are non-newtonian for the most part, so there's not a lot of acceleration on the ship when it moves around. The darker lumps you see top and bottom are recoil compensation devices that come into play when it fires. The ships also suffer from considerably reduced manouverability and speed when they have these things attached, which is another reason why they aren't carried that often.

stitch626 · Post by **stitch626** » Tue May 20, 2008 8:10 pm

Makes sense. Now if only you were a Trek writer...

Post by **Graham Kennedy** » Tue May 20, 2008 10:24 pm

Quick impression of a PBC firing.

Post by **Captain Seafort** » Tue May 20, 2008 10:32 pm

Out of curiousity, do you envisage the weapons discharges from your ships being in the visible spectrum? Given their nature of most of them as M/AM "packets", and the fact that they travel at several thousand times lightspeed, I assumed that an observer would merely see their effects, rather than the shots themselves.

Post by **Graham Kennedy** » Tue May 20, 2008 10:42 pm

For the AMP cannon, I was thinking that the jacketing energies around the AMP rounds might be visible. But I would hate the "beam moving slowly" that so much sci-fi does. I was watching The Terminator the other day and they did beam weapons that took no visible time at all to travel; they simply appeared, then faded out. That's the kind of thing I envisage.

The PBC beams are slightly different since they are not M/AM rounds but an energy beam. I am figuring that they would be something like standard EM... gamma rays maybe since they would convert to heat nicely when they hit a planet. I'm undecided on whether to have them jacketed or not, though. I kind of like the idea of it being a fairly short range weapon...

Still a few issues to think through here.

Post by **Captain Seafort** » Tue May 20, 2008 10:47 pm

When you say "short range" do you mean they actually have to be in the same solar system as the planet they're blowing up.

Post by **Graham Kennedy** » Tue May 20, 2008 10:53 pm

Captain Seafort wrote:When you say "short range" do you mean they actually have to be in the same solar system as the planet they're blowing up.

Yes indeed. That's practically point blank range by Coalition standards.

I have a conversion ratio I use for speeds and ranges....

2000 light hours = 1 nautical mile.

So 1 light year = 4.38 nautical miles.

A Kororra has a speed of 45,000 x c, which is equivalent to 22.5 knotts.

On that scale, firing from one light hour away is like a ship sailing up to within about a yard to fire at you!

Post by **Captain Seafort** » Tue May 20, 2008 11:05 pm

GrahamKennedy wrote:2000 light hours = 1 nautical mile.

So 1 light year = 4.38 nautical miles.

So most battles would take place at ranges around 2-3 ly? Very impressive.

On that scale, firing from one light hour away is like a ship sailing up to within about a yard to fire at you!

Which would really ruin your day.

Post by **Graham Kennedy** » Tue May 20, 2008 11:10 pm

Since I envisage this being in a print medium, I don't really go for the fast, dogfighting battle style that dominates movies and TV. Fighter combat would be like that, but in terms of ships slugging it out we are talking more like a WWII deal... battles that spread over a day or more, ships taking anything from minutes to hours to sail into range and maneuver for position.

Post by **Teaos** » Wed May 21, 2008 1:47 am

But once one of these ships got a single hit on them wouldnt it pretty much be party over since these guns are so powerful?