Prancer
Junior Member
Jousting in space. We're all Knights of the Stars.
Posts: 57
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Post by Prancer on Jul 16, 2018 4:08:40 GMT
My standard armor is:
spall liner of spider silk graphite aerogel stuffing amorphous carbon bulk graphite aerogel stuffing aluminum whipple shield PTFE
It's a very basic all-purpose format that can be modified for different threats and cost/mass levels. This will get the job done. I use aluminum whipple shileds because its cheap and light, and I'm not sure if the material makes much of a difference.
You could add more whipple shield layers with additional graphite aerogel/aluminum layers. If I want to build on the amorphous carbon it's always a composite armor, usually amorphous carbon, steels, diamond, nitrile rubber, and fibers (para-aramid, UHMWPE, spidersilk) stacked in thin layers for a total thick layer. Basically just repeat "stop, catch" layers over and over again for anti-KE. Sometimes I'll add in an osmium cap for nosecones or an osmium skirt to protect the engines for broadsiders.
PTFE is also replaceable with aramid fiber, nitrile rubber, silica aerogel and such to take care of lasers and nukes.
UHMWPE or para-aramid can replace spider silk for a spall liner.
Just for fun I build a nose cone with stupid amounts of armor and rammed an enemy ship in half.
Usually I end up sticking with spider silk, graphite aerogel, amorphous carbon & VC steel, aluminum, and PTFE. I think it's just what I've grown used to, and it works.
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Prancer
Junior Member
Jousting in space. We're all Knights of the Stars.
Posts: 57
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Post by Prancer on Jul 4, 2018 0:32:34 GMT
Maybe The Lost Fleet by Jack Campbell. I mentioned it in the other thread.
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Prancer
Junior Member
Jousting in space. We're all Knights of the Stars.
Posts: 57
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Post by Prancer on Jul 3, 2018 20:52:04 GMT
But there is no one optical interferometer based on separated spacecrafts. Spektr-R communicates with ground-based radio telescopes to make a large synthetic aperture, using very-long-baseline interferometry. HALCA did the same. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very-long-baseline_interferometryThere will soon be a telescope for detection of gravitational waves, separated into 3 spacecraft, that use laser interferometry to determine their relative positions to an accuracy of picometers (despite being 2.5 Gm apart). It's called LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna), and scheduled for 2034. The 3 spacecraft together will make one absolutely giant aperture:
Using a combination of these techniques, a multi-spacecraft telescope at optical or even ultraviolet frequencies can be made.
Wow I gotta look into this.
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Prancer
Junior Member
Jousting in space. We're all Knights of the Stars.
Posts: 57
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Post by Prancer on Jul 3, 2018 20:33:23 GMT
I wonder what kind of a feed system the conventional cannons are supposed to be using? Magazine, clip, belt, single? I would assume that it is something akin to a rotary drum, like that of a later model thompson turned inside out, with a feed directly in the middle and some naval cannon style feed to work with the three degrees of movement of the turret itself. Considering you can stack the ammo storage, it's pertinent to assume it's got multiple decks, further complicating the loading and logistics. It'd look a lot like the main cannons of a major naval battleship, except fully automated. This complexity kind of makes me wish for an onboard malfunction submodule, or even the ability to walk around the storage bays (since quite a few of these guns would actually be big enough for active maintenance.) I'd imagine you could get higher (and more energy efficient) loading speeds if you restricted the degrees of freedom and added a belt loader. A hull mounted turret with just pitch and a few degrees of yaw and a straight belt-loading mechanism. You could theoretically do a double belt loading mechanism for even more dakka. Exactly my thoughts. If we were able to customize feed systems for projectile weapons, even if the different types were abstracted a little, it'd still allow us to play with the different trade-offs each system provides.
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Prancer
Junior Member
Jousting in space. We're all Knights of the Stars.
Posts: 57
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Post by Prancer on Jul 3, 2018 18:42:05 GMT
Kinda wish the update came with other reload system for the conventional cannon so it can achieve even higher level of dakka... I wonder what kind of a feed system the conventional cannons are supposed to be using? Magazine, clip, belt, single?
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Prancer
Junior Member
Jousting in space. We're all Knights of the Stars.
Posts: 57
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Post by Prancer on Jul 3, 2018 18:38:16 GMT
The Lost Fleet series is a great series revolving around fleet combat. I'd call it medium-hard SF as it features fully newtonian physics, realistic weaponry and time scales, non-FTL communications (they communicate by laser) and the accompanying command and control issues that arise as a result. But it does feature FTL travel, artificial gravity, and whatnot.
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Prancer
Junior Member
Jousting in space. We're all Knights of the Stars.
Posts: 57
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Post by Prancer on Jul 3, 2018 6:03:17 GMT
Ah a new patch. This is a good time to get back into this game.
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Prancer
Junior Member
Jousting in space. We're all Knights of the Stars.
Posts: 57
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Post by Prancer on Jan 11, 2018 1:05:44 GMT
Curious to know if there are past, present, or future efforts at metagaming with CoaDE? If not, would anybody be interested in designing and attempting such a metagame? Since Children of a Dead Earth is such a great past time for many of us, yet the game lacks multiplayer and a strategic aspect. If we could establish a standardized method of interaction between players through the medium of the game, that also expands into system-wide strategy outside of the game (if so desired) that allows for many players to take part, it might provide a rich experience.
I have seen mentions of a tournament in the forums. Would such things continue?
I think that such attempts would be possible especially since we have the steam workshop, which allows different designs by different players to combat each other in-game.
I imagine such a metagame to be designed around approximately real-time month-long campaigns, each a self-contained scenario where players can engage within the narrative provided by the campaign designer(s). During the duration of each campaign, it would be persistent universe, possibly with 24-hour "ticks" which would be a designated GMT time where decisions made by players actually happen, so as to allow players with various time-commitments to take part without strain.
As for the medium in which such a metagame could take place, creating a new "Children of a Dead Earth Metagame Wikia" might be a good start, upon which we can create pages for maps, and player factions, history logs, discussion between campagins, etc. Something apart from the game-and-canon-centered CoaDE wikia.
Thoughts? Comments?
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Prancer
Junior Member
Jousting in space. We're all Knights of the Stars.
Posts: 57
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Post by Prancer on Jan 10, 2018 21:35:37 GMT
I've started work on transferring a lot of the lore onto the wiki. Initially I've just been putting the faction info from the game and some basic summary info in the info boxes. Further along I'll be putting in more detail such as the ship classes that each faction has been known to use during the RFP-USTA war.
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Prancer
Junior Member
Jousting in space. We're all Knights of the Stars.
Posts: 57
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Post by Prancer on Jan 5, 2018 7:00:16 GMT
Wow you can practically trace the history of the early meta in this thread
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Prancer
Junior Member
Jousting in space. We're all Knights of the Stars.
Posts: 57
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Post by Prancer on Jan 2, 2018 23:52:26 GMT
I am currently on my first playthrough of the Children of a Dead Earth campaign, and I've been stuck for a while trying to create my own ship class to win Vesta Overkill with. What I term the Chaser-class Orbital Combat Craft is the culmination of many a trial and error. I can use 4 of these in Vesta Overkill. It's a frontal-engagement boat with 4 stock 13 MW railguns. It only has enough power to fire 3 at once but I added the fourth for redundancy. I found that having multiple small and cheap spacecraft was a better way to go about solving the mission, each with a strong armor scheme to help it stay survivable. The huge disk you see in the middle of a ship is a radiation shield I used to try and protect the radiators. The armor scheme I devised to protect against nukes and kinetics. Since the ship is an OCC I didn't bother giving it much Delta-V, but adding 4 600-t drop tanks boosts its Delta-v, which is the variant I have here. Attachments:
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Prancer
Junior Member
Jousting in space. We're all Knights of the Stars.
Posts: 57
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Post by Prancer on Jan 1, 2018 2:53:19 GMT
You said you had some ideas for a narrative and campaign scenarios, but I can lend a hand with those. I can't help with the technical side of things but I do write stories.
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Prancer
Junior Member
Jousting in space. We're all Knights of the Stars.
Posts: 57
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Post by Prancer on Dec 31, 2017 4:58:43 GMT
Prancer NTRs are for in-combat acceleration (since they don't use electricity), or for orbital maneuvering when you can't afford a reactor for an MPD. Pure siloships/carriers do not need to dodge since they don't enter combat, and they can certainly afford a reactor for an MPD. The only real exception would be a carrier whose drones all have MPDs and interplanetary levels of dV, because this carrier doesn't actually need to leave home. CoaDE abstracts away the issue of staging an attack on another celestial body, but realistically you will need enough dV to get there, and you actually want more if you can get it, because deployment time is a real military concern. In CoaDE, MPDs are the only reasonable option for 40+ km/s dV, so your entire attacking fleet should have MPDs. Note that you can have multiple types of propulsion on the same ship (quite easily when they share the same propellant). It's commonly done on this forum nowadays to have both MPD and NTR. There is no need for a dichotomy. There was an old thread on doctrine you may want to check out: childrenofadeadearth.boards.net/thread/1169/fleet-composition-doctrine-surveyIt's dated, but still interesting and mostly relevant. I will then remove the individual comments on propulsion and instead include a separate section on propulsion. I will add one on weaponry to cover railguns, coilguns, conventional guns, and lasers as well.
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Prancer
Junior Member
Jousting in space. We're all Knights of the Stars.
Posts: 57
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Post by Prancer on Dec 28, 2017 20:42:36 GMT
Thanks for the replies guys!
I've added another category of ship, termed Orbital Combat Craft (OCC) in response to the need for classification of very small warships.
Lasterstar is a term I adopted from the CoaDE wiki. I thought it was a cool term and I wanted to keep continuity with everybody else's work.
I've also added the Drone Bus type to the Drone category, since it is a type.
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Prancer
Junior Member
Jousting in space. We're all Knights of the Stars.
Posts: 57
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Post by Prancer on Dec 28, 2017 4:55:59 GMT
So I've been messing around in-game a bit and I've read through a lot of the threads in the forum as well as the wiki, and I've noticed that a sort of common doctrine has formed out of CoaDE warfare much like we might in modern warfare. For example, modern naval warfare has established warship classes such as the aircraft carrier, guided missile destroyer, and nuclear attack submarine. I've begun to formulate our very own Children of a Dead Earth warfare doctrine based off of the meta and various guides that I've read, as well as some YouTube videos. I'm only a beginner to the game, however, so suggestions are welcome.
There are four classes of capital ships:
Laserstar: A ship that mounts an extremely powerful laser, usually spinal-mounted. Armor and acceleration are traded off in this type. The laserstar posses almost no armor, if any. Due to the extreme waste heat of the laser, this type carries very large and numerous radiator arrays, which are vulnerable to damage. The laserstar is essentially the sniper of space warfare. It must imperatively stay out of direct-combat, and preferably be escorted by other warships. Much like the artillery of old-Earth armies, the laserstar is considered the "King" of the modern space battlefield, and forms the backbone of a space force's power.
Siloship: A dedicated missile carrier. Armor is not a priority for this class, as it will most likely stay well out of range of the enemy. The massive salvos of missiles that siloships can launch are one of the greatest threats an enemy will come across. Along with the laserstar, siloships form the power duo of modern space capital ships. While it will not often see direct combat, the siloship is still equipped with point defense lasers, railgun CIWSs, and basic armor for self-protection. Some classes of this type might even be equipped with weapons and armor nearer to that of gunships for decent direct-combat ability. As a general rule, however, siloships should always be escorted by other warships.
Carrier: A dedicated drone carrier. Armor is not a priority for this class, as it will usually stay well out of range of the enemy. Acceleration and tactical maneuverability, on the other hand, are taken care of by the carrier's complement of drones. Drones are fearsome weapons of space warfare which are able to deliver an astonishing volume of kinetic munitions, laser firepower, and even missiles to a target at a stand-off range from the fleet. The carrier is equipped with some point defense lasers, railgun CIWSs, and basic armor for self-protection. Carriers should avoid direct engagements and always be escorted by other warships. Supercarrier: a drone carrier that carries drones of the sub-capital or capital classification. These drones are significantly larger and more powerful than standard disposable single-role drones. Since they are essentially unmanned full-sized warships, they are not disposable, and the carrier that carries them is its own special class of warship. These are the most valuable assets in a space force.
Gunship: A heavily armed and armored capital ship for direct combat. In a direct encounter, the gunship is the most dangerous ship among the stars. With a full complement of weapons, including powerful lasers and railguns, and a comprehensive armor scheme, the gunship has no obvious weaknesses. The vast amount of resources packed into this ship means that its also one of the most expensive capital ship types.
Frigates and Corvettes, to protect capital ships These are small ships that have minimal cost to help protect the larger and more expensive capital ships, such as laserstars and siloships. They tend to focus on point defense with point-defense lasers and railgun CIWSs to defense against enemy missile and drone strikes. They may also carry a small salvo of anti-ship missiles for emergency firepower against enemy capital ships. These are cheap and expendable ships, that might even be sub-capital drones carried by a carrier. The terms frigate and corvette are adopted from in-game stock ships, and would be used to refer to two differing sizes of escort ships. Frigate would be used to refer to larger vessels, and corvette to smaller vessels.
SIDENOTE: I've personally wondered if the terms destroyer and cruiser might be adopted into the terminology. I don't think its practical or necessary. Regardless of their traditional roles, destroyers and cruisers are the primary and largest surface-combatants in today's navies, making them roughly analogous to our CoaDE capital ships. The terms frigate and corvette are much better descriptors for the escort ships here, as they are in real-world navies.
Orbital Combat Craft (OCCs) A small, fast, agile warship, usually of limited delta-v that remains in close proximity to celestial bodies. Weapon classification: Missile boats, gun boats, laser boats Role classification: Patrol boats, fast attack craft The exact classification of an OCC tends to be arbitrary and interchangeable, and depends on the specific vessel and space force in question.
Missiles Four classifications of payloads: Frag warheads, nuke warheads, KKVs, and nuke-frag warheads. Four classifications of protection: Laser-armored, KE-armored, Laser and KE-armored, unarmored. Delta-v classifications: single-staged, and multi-staged.
Drones Weapon classifications: gun drones, laser drones, missile buses, and multi-role. Tonnage classifications: micro drones, small (standard) drones, sub-capital drones (multi-role), capital drones (basically unmanned capital ships).
NOTE: Like in the real-world, missiles and drones are more likely to be classified by role rather than payload or performance. As a result the following classification scheme was devised:
Missiles Interceptor: Anti-Missile/Drone missile. Missiles designed to take out other missiles and drones. Might use nukes, frags, or anything else, as long as it gets the job done. Anti-ship HE: Anti-ship missiles designed to deal exterior module damage. Most likely by nuclear warheads. Anti-ship AP: Anti-ship missiles designed to penetrate armor and deal interior module damage. Most likely by frag warheads or as KKVs. Nuke-frag warheads are likely to fit into one of the last two roles, depending on what its primary role is. A nuclear warhead with fragmentation capabilities is probably an Anti-ship HE. A fragmentation warhead using a nuclear bomb is probably an Anti-ship AP. NEFPs (if they work in-game) are probably Anti-ship AP missiles. All three of these classifications are likely to have single-stage medium delta-v, and multi-stage high delta-v variants. Or maybe just straight up medium and high delta-v missiles with no staging. Low delta-v missiles fired out of guns for knife-fights or last-ditch point defense might also be a thing. Regardless, this classification scheme holds.
Drones Interceptor: Single-role Anti-Missile/Drone drone. Like the interceptor missiles, these are drones designed to take out other missiles and drones. Most likely to be armed with lasers. Anti-ship: Single-role drone designed primarily to kill capital ships. Most likely to be armed with a gun. Missile bus: A single-role drone designed primarily to be the de facto first stage for its payload of missile(s), which it delivers from a stand-off range from the target. Drone bus: A single-role, larger drone designed primarily to be the de facto first stage for its payload of smaller drones (usually of the above three types), which it delivers from a stand-off range from the target.
NOTE: larger drones that are of the sub-capital or capital classification are likely to be a type of their own. Since they are essentially unmanned corvettes, frigates, gunships, siloships, or laserstars, they would likely follow this classification scheme, but with an added "drone" modifier to their type classification. The carriers for these larger drones are a classification of their own, known as supercarriers.
Propulsion and Fuel For rocket engines, there are three primary types in use. These are Magnetoplasmadynamic Thrusters (MPDs), Nuclear Thermal Rockets (NTRs), and Chemical Rockets. Most ships use both MPDs and NTRs with a common propellant for a mixed delta-v/thrust performance. Chemical Rockets are usually reserved for missiles and drones. Magnetoplasmadynamic Thrusters: MPDs are characterized by high exhaust velocity and therefore high delta-v. This makes them the ideal engine conducting orbital and deployment maneuvers. Nuclear Thermal Rockets: NTRs are characterized by high thrust compared to MPDs, and are thus used for in-combat acceleration. Their good delta-v performance also makes them a strong alternative to MPDs for ships that cannot afford a reactor. Chemical Rockets: Chemical rockets are a cheap propulsion system with a small footprint and high thrust, making them ideal for disposable missiles and drones. However, they tend to lack in delta-v. All engines must use propellant, regardless of their type. There are two propellants which are the most widely used. Methane: Methane is most commonly used for MPDs and NTRs, due to its balanced performance and cheap cost. Due to a desire to maintain commonality across the fleet and within a single ship, MPDs and NTRs usually share this propellant. Hydrogen-Fluoride: This is the propellant/fuel of choice for chemical rockets, as it provides the best overall performance.
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