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Post by concretedonkey on Nov 7, 2016 18:38:58 GMT
I have a slightly different take on it: they'll be pushed into niche roles as "sniper rifles". Coil/railguns will sacrifice rate of fire to maximize muzzle velocity, since that's the one thing that sets them apart from cannons: they can hit 10+km/s muzzle velocity, cannons are very nearly hard-capped at around 2.5km/s. ... I'm already moving in that direction, although for the moment in small steps.
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Post by redmars on Nov 7, 2016 20:13:29 GMT
Railguns will always have a niche, I think, but not as penetrators so much as high-velocity sandpaper projectors. Railgun drones firing low-mass projectiles can seriously degrade a captital ship's radiators and other vulnerable systems, which lets other weapons finish the job.
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Post by randomletters on Nov 7, 2016 20:21:43 GMT
Aaand we've just came to the point where there is nothing that can beat coilgun drones. Also, your coilgun is pumping out 549 MW of kinetic energy. Can't beat dem drones. Ship is a piece of trash, but it carries 80 drones.
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Post by goduranus on Nov 8, 2016 2:11:53 GMT
Small laser drones and micro missiles can still beat them.
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Post by dragonkid11 on Nov 8, 2016 5:28:50 GMT
The only thing I could wonder is how in the world does the drone weight 1 kiloton and still costs only 1 million credit.
And...neon as fuel source?
That's...out of the place.
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Post by someusername6 on Nov 8, 2016 5:46:55 GMT
Ooh. Is the exhaust colorful?
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Post by goduranus on Nov 8, 2016 7:19:04 GMT
Neon is the cheapest propellant per unit mass. It's very good for low density MPD ships. Those drone are cheap, I suspect due to the lack of armor. Aerogel costs can get quite hefty for small ships.
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Post by targetx on Nov 8, 2016 10:22:25 GMT
Aaand we've just came to the point where there is nothing that can beat coilgun drones. Also, your coilgun is pumping out 549 MW of kinetic energy. Can't beat dem drones. Ship is a piece of trash, but it carries 80 drones. AWesome, post your neon engines!
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Post by randomletters on Nov 8, 2016 21:46:19 GMT
The only thing I could wonder is how in the world does the drone weight 1 kiloton and still costs only 1 million credit. And...neon as fuel source? That's...out of the place. With a boron shell and the highest aspect ratio it's only about 500 kc for a 1 kt fuel tank. Here's the enigne as requested, I haven't had much success getting any more exhaust velocity out of it but it might be somehow possible now with the manual input on sliders.
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Post by goduranus on Nov 9, 2016 7:58:30 GMT
I made it more Cheapo for you, lost some exhaust velocity, but you should gain deltaV as well because of reduced weight and bulk of armor needed to cover it. I use a separate Polyethylene radiation shield right before the thruster, as opposed to putting neutron reflectors on the thruster itself, because polyethylene is much more effective in blocking radiation, but will melt if put on the thruster. The shield only needs to be tiny because it only needs to cover the reactor core not the whole thruster, so try a 50cm rad shield for about 300kgs.
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Post by randomletters on Nov 16, 2016 0:20:17 GMT
Damn that's cheap. I've been experimenting with your Hydrogen Deuteride thrusters for ultra low displacement ships. I came up with some very small drones that have remarkably good delta V and accel. Then I mounted them on a modified Attack Laser Light (12 drones per ship) and I think this would have to be horribly annoying to defeat.
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Post by lawson on Nov 17, 2016 16:08:15 GMT
The race for a 100 km/s 100 kc gun continues. Thanks for posting that gun! Slapped 19 on a cheap ship and it's a real capital-ship killer due to the shear volume of fire just melting the opponents armor . Also works pretty well without the turret when mounted on a drone. I get about 25% duty-cycle on the turret free drones.
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Post by redparadize on Nov 17, 2016 16:10:26 GMT
Turning speed on that gun will be a liability when facing multiple target.
Edit: I have a new challenge coming soon. Stay tuned!
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