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Post by wafflestoo on Oct 15, 2016 15:40:13 GMT
I was watching the stock Cutter fighting to defend itself from a flight of missiles yesterday and I had to wonder, "shouldn't the refraction from the resistojet's plumes be playing hell with the green lasers beam as they pass through it?"
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Post by boomertiro on Oct 16, 2016 8:42:55 GMT
...that's a very good question.
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Post by wafflestoo on Oct 17, 2016 16:22:58 GMT
I kind of felt so  |
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Post by ash19256 on Nov 14, 2016 0:31:48 GMT
Yeah, that was something I noticed a few times while playing Vesta Overkill and Solar Ties. I figured that Nippon Prime had kept having trouble with their guidance computers dealing with resistojet RCS, and so the company that made their Cutters and Corsairs marketed that as a feature rather than a bug.
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Post by subunit on Nov 14, 2016 20:18:25 GMT
I was watching the stock Cutter fighting to defend itself from a flight of missiles yesterday and I had to wonder, "shouldn't the refraction from the resistojet's plumes be playing hell with the green lasers beam as they pass through it?" This would be a REALLY nice limit on the 1000km lasboats. Boom and zoom tactics against long-range weaponry often requires the defender to be thrusting throughout the tactical phase of the intercept in order to put sufficient distance between themselves and the B&Z fleet to avoid getting ganked on the merge. If thrusting made lasers less effective, you'd have to think a lot harder about thruster configuration and defensive thrusting. |
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Post by cuddlefish on Nov 14, 2016 20:53:17 GMT
I think that would best be done after touching up the RCS mechanics so ships are more economical with their attitude thrusters - we have enough reasons to always Gimbal as it is.
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Post by wafflestoo on Nov 14, 2016 21:59:26 GMT
I think that would best be done after touching up the RCS mechanics so ships are more economical with their attitude thrusters - we have enough reasons to always Gimbal as it is. I'd agree with that... in fact I can think of a dozen things I'd rather see addressed before this one. |
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Post by cuddlefish on Nov 14, 2016 22:11:37 GMT
Though I have to admit - the idea of using thrusters of something with a WILD refractive index to foul up an inbound laser would be amazingly funny if by some miracle the physics on it actually worked.
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Post by Durandal on Nov 14, 2016 23:16:09 GMT
Though I have to admit - the idea of using thrusters of something with a WILD refractive index to foul up an inbound laser would be amazingly funny if by some miracle the physics on it actually worked. "Capatain, enemy thermal signiture is spiking. Enemy energy weapon!" "Shields up!" *loud through the hull farting noise as methane resistojets activate" |
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Post by subunit on Nov 15, 2016 5:23:31 GMT
Though I have to admit - the idea of using thrusters of something with a WILD refractive index to foul up an inbound laser would be amazingly funny if by some miracle the physics on it actually worked. I remember Traveller having "sandblaster" (basically really fine silica flak to break up a laser beam) countermeasures. I don't know if these things would work but if some kind of effective vapor or very fine flak or something could affect the laser beam that would be pretty cool. |
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Post by dragonkid11 on Nov 15, 2016 10:35:06 GMT
Maybe glass dust missile to spread dust that can refract laser to uselessness?
Or maybe smoke generator that while dissipate almost immediately in vacuum, can give the ship some protection against laser.
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Post by thorneel on Nov 15, 2016 11:46:11 GMT
Though I have to admit - the idea of using thrusters of something with a WILD refractive index to foul up an inbound laser would be amazingly funny if by some miracle the physics on it actually worked. I remember Traveller having "sandblaster" (basically really fine silica flak to break up a laser beam) countermeasures. I don't know if these things would work but if some kind of effective vapor or very fine flak or something could affect the laser beam that would be pretty cool. , unfortunately. I thought about using some refractive material, but apparently materials loose their refractive properties when hit by high-intensity lasers, so it wouldn't work. I also thought about some science-fictional gel cloud: while a sand/smoke cloud would dissipate near-instantly in space, a gel cloud would have some weak links between the elements so it would stop expanding once at maximum size. Ideally, when punching a hole in it, links would reorganise so the cloud contracts, closing the link. So it would pretty much be firing self-expanding aerogel slabs. But if you have expanding aerogel, it may be more effective to deploy it directly as outer armour around your ship as needed - not sandcasters but expandable armour. It would only be expanded as needed to reduce cross-section, and possibly moving it around more easily. Ideally, it would be composed of many tiny aerogel fragments that would reorganise by themselves to fill any hole enemy fire is putting in them. Even if (as I suspect) self-expanding aerogel is impractical if not impossible, this could be helpful in aerogel armour in general. On the other hand, has anyone experimented with "sandcaster" microgram flak to sand off anti-laser aerogel armour? |
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Post by subunit on Nov 15, 2016 19:09:10 GMT
On the other hand, has anyone experimented with "sandcaster" microgram flak to sand off anti-laser aerogel armour? Does the material ablated from armor "hang around" in the simulation? That would be super cool. |
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Post by kjakker on Nov 15, 2016 21:34:37 GMT
What about spraying a magnetized particulate cloud into space around your ship and using an electromagnetic field to hold it in place? The same could be done for drones allowing such a defense to be placed along the line of sight between your ship and Laser armed opponents.
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Post by bigbombr on Nov 15, 2016 22:27:28 GMT
What about spraying a magnetized particulate cloud into space around your ship and using an electromagnetic field to hold it in place? The same could be done for drones allowing such a defense to be placed along the line of sight between your ship and Laser armed opponents. It would be cool if you could use a magnetically contained high-velocity vortex of plasma (unlike magnetized particles it remains suspectable to magnetism when heated by lasers or hypervelocity impacts) around your vessel to disrupt laser beams and hypervelocity projectiles. |
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