Shielding question.

I always thought the fusion was either refering to the detonator or was a typo because Fleet Action refers to the mark IV's as antimatter weapons. Also from what I understand the Proton torpedoes were much weaker then the torpedoes in other games so I just thought they were invented before the antimatter warhead and phase discriminator were developed.

Also why can't phase discriminators be fitted to energy weapons?
 
I'd venture a guess that a phase discriminator is a solid, physical piece of equipment consisting of matter- good luck attaching it to a proton bolt.

Even if you could, would you want to wait for your dust cannon/chain ion gun to lock into the targets shield frequency?
 
I think the deal is that the phase frequency of a capship has a steady modulation and the targetting computer onboard a bomber analyzes the shield and determines its phase modulation pattern. the bomber then launches its torpedo configured with the phase modulation pattern of the enemy's shields so that no matter when it penetrates the target's shields it can be sure that it will match the phase of the shields at the instant and pass through.

Although you can maybe adjust the frequency an energy weapon's output I cannot imagine that the bolt could modulate as required and pass through the target's shielding. One would have to have weapon mechanisms that could keep track in realtime of a target's relative velocity and distance and keep adjusting the output of the weapon in prediction to what the target's shielding frequency would be when the bolt were to actually strike the shielding.

That would take far too long and considering you would have to maintain constant lock on the target while the targetting computer is doing its job figuring out the frequency modulation. It is dangerous enough while on torpedo runs in heavily armored and defended bombers. How more dangerous in a fighter craft?
 
I always thought the fusion was either refering to the detonator or was a typo because Fleet Action refers to the mark IV's as antimatter weapons. Also from what I understand the Proton torpedoes were much weaker then the torpedoes in other games so I just thought they were invented before the antimatter warhead and phase discriminator were developed.
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It's like real life - you outfit your projectile with a different warhead depending on your mission outline. (it's also a nice explanation for why the WCIV torpedoes have a much lower yield.)

Also why can't phase discriminators be fitted to energy weapons?
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Ignoring the difficulty inherent in attaching a piece of technology to a bolt of pure energy which doesn't actually exist until the trigger is pulled, do you want to wait twenty seconds locking each laser blast?
 
RogueBanshee said:
I always thought the fusion was either refering to the detonator or was a typo because Fleet Action refers to the mark IV's as antimatter weapons. Also from what I understand the Proton torpedoes were much weaker then the torpedoes in other games so I just thought they were invented before the antimatter warhead and phase discriminator were developed.
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IIRC Mk IVs are 10 meters long. The device used to defeat phase shielding is probably fairly large and would make smaller weapons less efficient in their jobs.

Proton torps are probably (even though this sounds scary) civilian allowed weapons. AM warheads are seen throughout WC and were probably invented before the 27th century. In AS, kilrathi torps are armed with thermonukes instead of AMs, although I'm not sure why.
 
AFAIK, Proton Torps in Priv/RF are nothing more than BIG unguided rockets. They have no guidance systems nor any locking time. I see no similarity between them and the military torps aside from the name.
 
Proton torps aren't related in design or warhead to the military phase-shield penetrating torpedoes - they have no locking mechanism and their yield isn't anything similar.
 
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