Oh, don't worry, this thing isn't skimping on armor or shields. The pod would definitely be heavily armored. The turret cover was never a problem in an in-game sense, and realistically, it would only take a short roll to broadside incoming fighters with your turrets. And as a bomber, it would be well escorted.
Conceptual Design: Broadsword Mk. II
- Thread starter Fatcat
- Start date
Oh, don't worry, this thing isn't skimping on armor or shields. The pod would definitely be heavily armored. The turret cover was never a problem in an in-game sense, and realistically, it would only take a short roll to broadside incoming fighters with your turrets. And as a bomber, it would be well escorted.
BenoitBrunet2
Captain
A short roll yes, and a good pilot could certainly do a bit to cover. On the other hand, a good fighter is going to strafe and roll wit ya, so to speak. I was merely pointing out the craft does have a bit of a glass jaw.
Honestly, I kind of like the idea. A minor, but significant flaw would explain why Confed wound up with Longbows in WC3 as opposed to a newer variant of the old 'Sword. It reminds me, conceptually, of the Sabre's classic drawback "The armor, unfortunately, does not regenerate." The Confed wouldn't really have been fighting a losing effort if their craft were perfect eh?
I do agree that, if this is supposed to be an improvement over the Broadsword, there should be a greater defensive payload. You might actually be able to explain the relatively sparse missile loadout with another turret (at the risk of making an almost-corvette).
Or get strangely creative, what about a weapon's officer/co-pilot with a classic Dauntless-style rear-facing gun? The novels certainly support the idea of a second person in the cockpit, why not have that person sitting backwards, with a particle cannon in their lap? You could add that without breaching the almighty 'practicality.'
Honestly, I kind of like the idea. A minor, but significant flaw would explain why Confed wound up with Longbows in WC3 as opposed to a newer variant of the old 'Sword. It reminds me, conceptually, of the Sabre's classic drawback "The armor, unfortunately, does not regenerate." The Confed wouldn't really have been fighting a losing effort if their craft were perfect eh?
I do agree that, if this is supposed to be an improvement over the Broadsword, there should be a greater defensive payload. You might actually be able to explain the relatively sparse missile loadout with another turret (at the risk of making an almost-corvette).
Or get strangely creative, what about a weapon's officer/co-pilot with a classic Dauntless-style rear-facing gun? The novels certainly support the idea of a second person in the cockpit, why not have that person sitting backwards, with a particle cannon in their lap? You could add that without breaching the almighty 'practicality.'
SonOfStorm
Spaceman
No offense frosty but this design is not at all good, the only saving grace IMHO are the turret windows. The whole concept also suffers in numerous arenas. Realistically unless it is going atmospheric or you plan to hang external ordnance off of them then wings are pointless. If you really want to make a super broadsword then do what the game designers did first, study planes, in particular bombers, see what makes them good and expand on it. As was stated you have no upper hemisphere protection save a handful of missiles, and then you have your torps up there in the least protected area. Remember bombers do not manuever well, so here you have a definite problem. I say scrap it, make it more linear with the broadsword head, numerous turrets and either and internal bombbay, recessed carriage torpedoes, or torpedo launchers inboard of your turrets. Basically instead of widening the broadsword lengthen in, makes a lot more sense. I'm trying to give constructive criticism here, I know I had a heck of a time redesigning my bomber to its current configuration and like any real design there were a lot of trade offs but in the end it came out as a much better craft. BTW what package are you building this in?
Dude, give it a break. I think he is trying to build a cool looking ship. The suggestions I made would solve some of the problems, but still retain much of the artist's original vision.
So what if it's not all that practical. It's fun! We're not fighting a real-life war in this thing. Give him some credit.
So what if it's not all that practical. It's fun! We're not fighting a real-life war in this thing. Give him some credit.
ChrisReid
Super Soaker Collector / Administrator
Fatcat said:
Torpedoes come in all shapes, sizes and strengths. A capship missile is in a completely different class. What you have here is a ship with a number of torpedo hardpoints, and that's pretty much it. Type of torpedo depends on a number of factors separate from the structural design you're making.
Dundradal
Frog Blast the Vent Core!
Looks to brittle and flimsy. Add some more structure as it seems like if you launched even a Mk III torp off this thing the force would rip the hardpoint out. The broadsword is the B-52 of WC and if this is a conceptual Mk II then you might want to continue on the B-52/B-1 path and not try to make it a super stealthly B-2.
Fatcat,
The design looks pretty decent, although judging from the profile (shape) of the ship it looks more like a heavy recon ship or something, it does look pretty sleek and fast.
Out of curiostity have you done a 2d sketch outlining what you are trying to achicive. or just doing this on the fly. a 2d sketch of what the finnished article should look like would help limit confusion methinks.
keep working on it. looks like a decent starship design
The design looks pretty decent, although judging from the profile (shape) of the ship it looks more like a heavy recon ship or something, it does look pretty sleek and fast.
Out of curiostity have you done a 2d sketch outlining what you are trying to achicive. or just doing this on the fly. a 2d sketch of what the finnished article should look like would help limit confusion methinks.
keep working on it. looks like a decent starship design
BenoitBrunet2
Captain
A better sense of the ship's capabilities would help as well. Size, speed, burners?, armor, shielding. I know I've already asked before, but it's really hard to talk about the quality of your design without all of the information. Also, how does this craft relate to the Broadsword? What purpose did the redesign serve? What exactly were they trying to improve? Besides, if this thing gets much larger than the Broadsword, won't it be hard to store on carriers?
What about a committed superheavy bomber. The Broadsword's big brother, so to speak, but designed to fly from Orbital bases and ground stations? Something with awesome shipkilling capabilities but something a bit too large to be a mainstay in the Confed carriergroups? Upsize the thing, then the wings would make a bit more sense, you could add a turret to cover the blindspot, the capship missile might fight better and you could increase the general loadout. A jump drive allows the craft to support attacks launched in neighboring systems, S&R capabilities are obvious, maybe make it an early version of an SWACS type craft, which we see in Prophecy but not before.
What about a committed superheavy bomber. The Broadsword's big brother, so to speak, but designed to fly from Orbital bases and ground stations? Something with awesome shipkilling capabilities but something a bit too large to be a mainstay in the Confed carriergroups? Upsize the thing, then the wings would make a bit more sense, you could add a turret to cover the blindspot, the capship missile might fight better and you could increase the general loadout. A jump drive allows the craft to support attacks launched in neighboring systems, S&R capabilities are obvious, maybe make it an early version of an SWACS type craft, which we see in Prophecy but not before.