New dimensions to space warfare?

Originally posted by Dragon
No, the T-Bolt in SO does not have a plasma guns, if you dont know this go see the CIC page in there you will find that the T-Bolt does have 4 Ion Guns and 2 Tachyon Cannons, the WC IV T-Bolt does have 4 Plasma Guns and 2 Photon Cannons and finally the WC III T-Bolt have 2 Plasma Guns, 2 Photon Cannons and 2 Meson Guns.
Click to expand...
Thank you Dragon for pointing out that I was terribly, horribly right... Just like Weasel said, I didn't mention which game, therefore assuming that I was talking about SO was illogical...
And since the Plasma guns is the only figther mounted that can damage CapShips in WC P....and the T-Bolt does not have one.....
Click to expand...
And what oh mighty Dragon, would stop Confed from puting some Plasma guns on fighter? If Confed so desires, the'll start making Shrikes with Plasma guns...
 
Well, yes. The WC4 T-bolt (and the WC3 T-bolt for that matter) both carry Plasma Guns.

The Devastator on the other hand carries a Heavy Plasma Cannon. Similar, I would suggest, in the way that a 16" Battleship cannon is similar to 44 Magnum. Same concept, way different scale.

Interestingly, the damage potential of the Heavy Plasma Cannon is only 9 times greater (600CM cf 67 CM), while the energy drain is over 5x10^18 (that's 5 with 18 0's after it) times greater (220GJ cf 44nJ). That's a humungous difference.

(Note : that's the WCP Heavy Plasma. The Special Op's has lower damage & energy drain, higher rate of fire.)

Clearly the Heavy Plasma gun does something a little 'special' to make it more damaging to Capship shielding systems, otherwise you could take out a capship with a pair of standard Plasma Guns in roughly the same time for a fraction of the energy.

And clearly the reason you won't find a Heavy Plasma gun in a Shrike is that only something like a Devastator can haul around the power plant for it. It's gotta be something reminicent of the Thunderbolt (that is, the current US Tank-killing aircraft) - a bomber built around a capship gun.
 
Originally posted by WildWeasel
That's almost defeating the purpose of a bomber. It is supposed to take out the big ships and let the escorts worry about the fighter cover. This is known as air defense suppression (or wild weasel). :)
Click to expand...
Hmmm...taking out the defensive fighter cover is NOT the Wild Weasel mission. WW is the supression of ground (or shipboard) defenses, such as missile and gun turrets, particularly when using weapons designed to home in on the active radar of those defenses. Such an example would be in the Gulf War, when Phatoms, Intruders, and Hornets used AGM-88 HARMs.

Taking out defensive fighter cover is merely ESCORT.
 
Originally posted by AzraeL
(Note : that's the WCP Heavy Plasma. The Special Op's has lower damage & energy drain, higher rate of fire.)
You have it reversed... The SO Plasma has the higher damage (600), with the same energy drain, range two times as long, the same velocity, and longer refire delay.

Clearly the Heavy Plasma gun does something a little 'special' to make it more damaging to Capship shielding systems, otherwise you could take out a capship with a pair of standard Plasma Guns in roughly the same time for a fraction of the energy.
Click to expand...
If you use WCPedit, and try out the Nephilim light Plasma guns you'll notice that they can damage capship components... so no, a heavy Plasma cannon is not required.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Like I said, that was just my interpretation of what was written in the manual. (Not much was there to begin with.) I somehow forgot all about turrets and missiles. Thanks for reminding me about that, Phoenix. :)
 
Since Plasma guns can damnage a capship while the ones we see on Thunderbolts/Dragons (dragons have 2 plasma and 2 tacheons) can damnage cap ships that adds new killing potential against cap ships in addition to their light torpedos while allowing for anticap ship fighting as well. This lends credance to my Fighter-Bomber concept for WCP/SO. If in WC only nano joules are required to fire the guns then a AAA batter would be able to carry enough energy to power a gun for like well over 100,000,000,000 shots since a NANOjoule is one billionth of a joule and a joule is one forth of a calorie which is the amount of energy necessary to heat one gram of water 1 degree centigrade, we are talking about a minute amount of energy thus our guns should never have to be recharged. And a Heavy Plasma cannon requires 220 nanojoules to fire compared to the 44 for a plasma gun from WC3/4 that is 5 times as much energy per shot at 9 times the fire power so a HPC is more energy efficient, but has such a lower refire rate that I still would perfer a normal plasma gun
 
Originally posted by Earthworm
If you use WCPedit, and try out the Nephilim light Plasma guns you'll notice that they can damage capship components... so no, a heavy Plasma cannon is not required.
Click to expand...

Actually you don't need WCPEdit, the simulator easter egg is sufficient. ;)

Besides, it takes quite a while hacking away with the bugs' light plasmas. But if several of them for some reason decided to attack a single capship at once...
 
Oh course that goes without saying, that a plasma gun can do damnage with a lot of them together same way the Varni were able to punch a hole through Phase shields with fighter guns
 
Originally posted by Napoleon
And a Heavy Plasma cannon requires 220 nanojoules to fire compared to the 44 for a plasma gun from WC3/4 that is 5 times as much energy per shot at 9 times the fire power so a HPC is more energy efficient, but has such a lower refire rate that I still would perfer a normal plasma gun
Click to expand...

Actually, the Heavy Plasma Cannon consumes 220GJ (Giga Joules), thats 5x10^18 or 5,000,000,000,000,000,000 times more energy, making the HPC sliiiiightly less energy efficient then a Plasma Gun. On the other hand, the Plasma Gun is rated at 67CM damage (compared to 600CM for the HPC) but I'll wager it doesn't do that much damage to a capship.


Personally, I agree that power drain of the standard weapons are way understated. They really aren't delivering enough energy to give the bugs a suntan. And don't even get me started on the concept of a Tachyon, a hypothetical faster than light particle. I guess that's what you get for letting game designers write your design specs instead of a physicist. Oh well.

Oh, and Earthworm, the HPC in the standard Devastator is rated at 600CM damage, 220GJ charge and 2000MS refire, while in the Black Devastator it is 200CM, 100GJ and 500MS. At least, that's according to the CIC Ships Database. I'm too lazy to go look up my own manuals. If someone there has made a typo, I apologise for the confusion.
 
No your wrong look in waypoint it says all charges are in nanojoules then for the HPC it says charge 220 not 220000000000000000000
 
Sorry for double posting, but a Tacheon is a theoretical particle yes but in theory it has a reverse relativity effect meaning the slower it goes the higher the mass it has whereas normally the faster the higher the mass an object has. Since this is true it means that a Tacheon could be an amazingly powerful weapon if it could be slowed down
 
Originally posted by Napoleon
No your wrong look in waypoint it says all charges are in nanojoules then for the HPC it says charge 220 not 220000000000000000000
Click to expand...

Like I said in my post, I'm running with the figures listed in the CIC Ship Database.

Maybe it's a typo there, maybe it's a typo in Waypoint. I don't know. I've been burned by manual typos enough times to never trust them. I still remember the first time I played Armada I built a heap of Phantom 'cos my manual rated them as a Heavy fighter, only to see them promptly get junked.

.
.

Actually, I've just gone back and checked the Database. Seems that all the weapons in WCP are rated in GJ, while those in WC4 and before are in nJ. Too lazy to go check my manuals at the moment. Maybe later. Either way, I'd go with the GJ personally. If you're firing nJ, you're probably better off spitting at them.

Still, there's obviously a significant difference between an HPC and a standard PG. Maybe you have to superheat the plasma to get it to damage the capship, requiring a much larger & bulkier weapon that can only be carried by a Devastator. Again, kinda like the difference between 20mm M61-A1 Vulcan carried by most US Warplanes and the 30mm tank busting GAU-8/A Avenger only carried by the A10 Thunderbolt. Otherwise I'd rip those useless particle cannon out of my Vampire, slot in an HPC and have the best Anti-bomber/Anti-capship platform ever seen.
 
Originally posted by Napoleon
Sorry for double posting, but a Tacheon is a theoretical particle yes but in theory it has a reverse relativity effect meaning the slower it goes the higher the mass it has whereas normally the faster the higher the mass an object has. Since this is true it means that a Tacheon could be an amazingly powerful weapon if it could be slowed down
Click to expand...

oh sure, but if you can figure out a way to slow one down for 40nJ ....
40GJ is probably a bit more realistic.
 
According to my mauals, all guns are in nj throughout wciv, wcIII and wcP/SO so I will trust some continuity otherwise, the guns in P/so guns are more power hungry for the same amount of penetration.
 
Originally posted by Napoleon
Oh course that goes without saying, that a plasma gun can do damnage with a lot of them together same way the Varni were able to punch a hole through Phase shields with fighter guns
Click to expand...
You can always overload the shields in one area of the ship, which is probably what the Varni almost did.
 
Originally posted by AzraeL
Actually, the Heavy Plasma Cannon consumes 220GJ (Giga Joules), thats 5x10^18 or 5,000,000,000,000,000,000 times more energy, making the HPC sliiiiightly less energy efficient then a Plasma Gun. On the other hand, the Plasma Gun is rated at 67CM damage (compared to 600CM for the HPC) but I'll wager it doesn't do that much damage to a capship.
Click to expand...
No... the Plasma Gun does 6.7CM damage.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top