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Post by elouda on Oct 6, 2016 8:10:19 GMT
As stated, right now additional stages on a coilgun do not affect the weapons mass or cost. This is probably not as intended.
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Lasers
Oct 5, 2016 17:45:17 GMT
Post by elouda on Oct 5, 2016 17:45:17 GMT
Design is as follows;
LaserModule 300 kW Nd:YAG Green Laser ArcLamp GasComposition Krypton EnvelopeComposition Diamond PowerSupplied_W 3e+005 Radius_m 0.028 CavityWallComposition Silver CavityCoolantComposition Hydrogen CavitySemimajorAxis_m 0.57 CavitySemiminorAxis_m 0.56 GainMedium Nd:YAG OpticalNodes 900000 LasingRodRadius_m 0.041 Mirror Composition Silver OutputCoupler Composition Fused Quartz CoolantTurbopump Composition Amorphous Carbon PumpRadius_m 0.063 RotationalSpeed_RPM 400 CoolantInletTemperature_K 1200 FrequencyDoubler NonlinearOptic Composition Silver Gallium Selenide OpticLength_m 0.02 OpticRadius_m 0.00055 ApertureRadius_m 0.31 FocusingMirror Composition Silver Turret InnerRadius_m 0.67 ArmorComposition Basalt Fiber Composite ArmorThickness_m 0.021 ReactionWheels Composition UHMWPE RotationalSpeed_RPM 620 EngagementRange_km 20 TargetsShips true TargetsShots true
I could have put a more powerful one on the big drone, but big drone is mainly just more fuel and not much else, and I want to keep cross section down as there are already at risk from 11mm railguns at closer ranges. Generally I will want to scatter once I get to 7-8km to flow around the target, looking for engines or other non-laser resistant target. A group of 10 of these will cut into the side of most stock designs armour to get at the engines at ranges under 10 km. You can also manually order them to fire beyond that, they can still knock out weak components like the 286mm guns after a while.
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Lasers
Oct 5, 2016 13:21:41 GMT
Post by elouda on Oct 5, 2016 13:21:41 GMT
My own attempt at the 'mini laser drone concept'. They work alright defensively, but don't really have the dV to stay on target offensively: RDL StarlightThis, of course, let to a larger version: RDL PolarisThese are actually really useful for stripping weapons like the 286mms and engines from craft before contact. A 4kt 'minicarrier' holds 20 plus a solid kinetic loadout, along with refuelling capability.
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Post by elouda on Oct 5, 2016 3:04:52 GMT
One simple addition that would be nice is the ability to right-click on the increment/decrement arrows to move 1/10th of the left click step. So if left clicking increases a variable by 1, right clicking would increase it by 0.1. This would allow for finer control over designs.
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Post by elouda on Oct 4, 2016 12:02:29 GMT
The problem with high efficiency is that it requires lower operating temperature, which mean that anything you gain in terms of reactor power-to-weight efficiency you loose once you add the radiators. Maybe if you use massive ultra-light radiators you can still come out ahead, but at that point your ship wont last in combat.
I find that going for around 2500k operating temperature results in a small radiator profile, even if I have to use 2 or 3 reactors instead of one.
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Post by elouda on Oct 4, 2016 7:15:42 GMT
So, I did some calculations for the kinetic energy output of some of the stock kinetic weapons, and I think there's something seriously wrong with the energy conversions in most of them.
39 MW 8mm Turreted Railgun 15g round at 6.37km/s = 304.3 kJ 66.67 rounds per second = 20.3 MW
So this ones actually physically possible, though an efficiency of 50% is pretty good
200 kW 3mm Railgun 2.5g round at 5.06km/s = 32 kJ 18.7 rounds per second = 599 kW
Hmmmm. 300% efficiency seems like a problem.
13 MW 286mm Turreted Coilgun 10kg round at 5.14km/s = 132 MJ (ohoh) 8 rounds per second = 1.05 GW
Seems like there's something going wrong in the modelling for the rail/coilgun energy conversions, because as it stands the original stock designs are violating the first law of thermodynamics. This is to say nothing of even slightly tweaked custom designs, much less the 'calculation breaking' superguns.
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Post by elouda on Oct 4, 2016 5:43:39 GMT
Note that the weapons will also need power for the reaction wheels. On the 286mm, thats another 13MW per gun. For the lasers its less, but probably still a few MW.
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Post by elouda on Oct 3, 2016 7:57:28 GMT
Interestingly I just finished my own first monster ship, a 111kt fleet carrier. My previously largest design was a 40kt missile cruiser, so this was interesting to play with. Shown here alongside the Fleet Carrier for size. It carries a wing of 30 'drones', along with 400 RIM-12 Dagger ( details) anti-missile/drone missiles. A backup kinetic battery of 150mm and 20mm coilgun provides close in defence (for practically no mass cost), with the 20mms also pulling adequate double duty as point defence. This is supplemented by a ring of 8 lasers. Protection is somewhat light, with a 2m deep (1m-50cm-50cm) stuffed whipple shield over an inner shell. I standardized on the following Decane NTR for most of my larger designs, and this vessel has 19 of them. Their high thrust allows for most of my larger ships to pull 1.5-2g, with dV reserves between 5k and 12k depending on configuration. Details: linkThe carrier was conceived as a platform to carry the 'Sphinx' class remote attack craft, a 371t variant of an earlier manned design (which proved unsuccessful due to the added weight of the crew spaces for 30-odd men). This RAC is armed with a single 860kw 40mm coil gun firing 20 25g slugs per second at 8.57km/s (effective range vs 1000m2 is 61.5km). Its main weapons however, are the 100 RGM-13 Falchion ( details) missiles it carries. Interestingly the Falchion was originally intended to be a flak missile with a 30kg frag warhead that would detonate a few hundred meters before the target and shower it in kilogram chunks of DU, but this didn't work due to the fact that frag missiles try to get too close before detonating. So instead it got a small nuke.
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Post by elouda on Oct 2, 2016 12:07:59 GMT
More variety for launchers would be nice.
Boxes in general, both as you describe above along with just simple side or front mounted one shot containers would be great. Likewise external 'hardpoints' for larger missiles or drones would be great. Another nice addition might be the option to make the current 'launcher' bow mounted lengthwise (think torpedo tubes on a sub).
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Post by elouda on Oct 2, 2016 3:40:54 GMT
Of curiosity, why carbon-carbon? Despite its low density, it has poor shear and tensile strength (and is not all that cheap). In this case its because nothing else in the array is effective against lasers. The alternative might be something like 3-5cm of Graphite with a stronger backing, but so far this has worked out ok. C-C also seems adequate against nukes, though I try not to get hit with those.
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Post by elouda on Oct 2, 2016 0:02:59 GMT
Interestingly I ended up with a very similar coilgun to yours Joker, its a 1.9MW 150mm firing a 1kg slug at 9kms. It absolutely obliterates all of the stock designs armour.
I've been trying to design a whipple shield to handle it, so far the most effective seems to be 5mm AlZnMg, 40cm space, 5mm of Aramid fibre, 20cm space, 5mm of AlZnMg, 20cm space, main armour (in my case, 5cm CarbonCarbon with a 2cm Aramid fibre backing.
Still seems to get through when it hits close to side on.
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