Gravtank Idea

[Graham Kennedy]

I can see that... although I wonder if you could do that as accurately as you could crank a cannon up and down.

[Lighthawk]

Guess it depends on just how good your grav units are. Even if they aren't up to aiming, you can still raise up enough to that the turret has free range of motion to engage the target, and let it take care of the aiming, as is its job.

Question: Is this thing going to be like a modern tank and stuck to the ground, or more like a helicopter and be able to bounce up from behind cover, fire, and drop back out of sight again?

[Mikey]

I can see that... although I wonder if you could do that as accurately as you could crank a cannon up and down.

Didn't the Swedish make a turretless tank that aimed by altering the suspension?

[Tyyr]

S Tank

Actually I sized it so that it could depress quite comfortably; that's why the central turret box is so high. It will do a 10 degree down angle like so :

It depends on how much of the cannon is in the turret.

[Graham Kennedy]

About that much

[Teaos]

Are the side panels volitile? If the get hit would they go boom? If not I dont think it is as important to protect them to such an extent. Especially if it can run off 3 or 2 rather than 4.

[Graham Kennedy]

Latest pass with a thinned down hull and an angled prow. I've also slimmed down the side antigrav units a little.



Re the volatility; there's not going to be a lot of flammable or boomable stuff on this, I would think. Fusion powerplant, some sort of energy weapon cannon. I am contemplating putting an antimatter cannon on it, that would definitely qualify as a big boom potential if you take a hit! But AMP cannon are a bit big and nasty for surface warfare.

As to how high it can go, I'm mulling that over. My instinct is that is this kind of thing can fly up into the sky like a helicopter, then why aren't the helicopter analogues like the Mule and Aazat class armoured like tanks, too?

So I'm thinking that this thing belongs down on the ground, up to say no more than three or four metres above ground level at absolute maximum.

[Mikey]

I like this look. I think the little mounted sensor unit makes sense for a remotely-operated turret, and the spine gives the impression of some logically-needed room for the main gun's innards. As to the removal of the coaxial small arm: that works for me too, if only because you've never let us in on the state of small-arms tech for the Coalition universe (IIRC.) Especially if it's strictly an AP weapon, it would make more sense pintle-mounted than coaxial with the main gun.

[Lighthawk]

Latest pass with a thinned down hull and an angled prow. I've also slimmed down the side antigrav units a little.


Re the volatility; there's not going to be a lot of flammable or boomable stuff on this, I would think. Fusion powerplant, some sort of energy weapon cannon. I am contemplating putting an antimatter cannon on it, that would definitely qualify as a big boom potential if you take a hit! But AMP cannon are a bit big and nasty for surface warfare.

As to how high it can go, I'm mulling that over. My instinct is that is this kind of thing can fly up into the sky like a helicopter, then why aren't the helicopter analogues like the Mule and Aazat class armoured like tanks, too?

So I'm thinking that this thing belongs down on the ground, up to say no more than three or four metres above ground level at absolute maximum.

Well does it actually 'float' on the planet's gravity field, or is gravtank less literal a description? Cause if it gets lift by pushing off the planet's gravity than it's flight ceiling has nothing to do with the ground at.

[Coalition]

I wonder how much room for innards is there in the thin turret section behind the main gun.

For grav tank ideas, look up Renegade Legion. The main body is almost a solid chunk, very little sticking out (anything sticking out serves as shot traps), and armor is slightly angled together at the front (to provide better protection against shots from the front).

[Graham Kennedy]

In no order...

I missed the co-ax off on the last view, but it will still fit - just about - in there. I'm not sure whether to have hatches on the turret roof; if I do then I'm thinking some sort of remote weapons station/s for machine-gun equivalents; one each side for the commander and gunner, perhaps.

In terms of the height, if we want it altitude limited then the way to go would be to say the AG units push against matter, with an effectiveness proportional to the distance from the matter; basically how a hovercraft works.

The thing on the back, by the way, is a defence pod; detects any incoming physical rounds and shoots a little interceptor missile at them. I may need to reorganise the sights a little to get the defence pod and any secondary weapons to have nicer fields of fire, though.

[Griffin]

Can we have some idea of the scaling of this.

[Graham Kennedy]

Sure :

[Mikey]

Hmmm, not much room. What's your idea of the crew complement, GK? Obviously you mentioned that it wouldn't need the layer/gunner team of a modern RL tank, but I don't see it having room for more than two folks in it.

[Graham Kennedy]

I'm thinking three. There's plenty of room up front for one guy, and two more should fit side by side behind him.