Re:The aesthetics of science fiction spaceship design
by TeMPOraL on Monday September 03, 2018 @03:39AM
(#17901078)
Most combat would be relatively long-range, and for that you'd like to have:
- Guided, smart missiles for punching your opponent.
- Lasers/point-defense guns for shooting enemy smart missiles.
- Lasers for putting pressure on enemy radiators.
- Some way of protecting your own radiators; be it clever ship design, large frontal shield, or mist generators.
If, somehow, you'd end up in a short-range battle (short-range meaning your enemy can't move to evade much further than 1-10x ship size without pulping the crew in time it takes your round to fly to them), you might want to add a machine gun, or possibly a howitzer shooting nuclear-tipped shells on time fuse.
A battle would be expected to last until one party manages to get a missile through (likely nuclear-tipped), or one party surrenders/disengages due to their radiators no longer being able to cope with the heat load.
- Guided, smart missiles for punching your opponent.
- Lasers/point-defense guns for shooting enemy smart missiles.
- Lasers for putting pressure on enemy radiators.
- Some way of protecting your own radiators; be it clever ship design, large frontal shield, or mist generators.
If, somehow, you'd end up in a short-range battle (short-range meaning your enemy can't move to evade much further than 1-10x ship size without pulping the crew in time it takes your round to fly to them), you might want to add a machine gun, or possibly a howitzer shooting nuclear-tipped shells on time fuse.
A battle would be expected to last until one party manages to get a missile through (likely nuclear-tipped), or one party surrenders/disengages due to their radiators no longer being able to cope with the heat load.