Reapers and Collectors vs. UNSC
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Re: Reapers and Collectors vs. UNSC
That's not even counting the fact that Soverign and known Prothean tech look completely different. Prothean tech is more silver and bright, while Soverign is dark and looks strikingly different.
If Dr. Gatling was a nerd, then his most famous invention is the fucking Revenge of the Nerd, writ large...
"Lawful stupid is the paladin that charges into hell because he knows there's evil there."
—anonymous
"Although you may win the occasional battle against us, Vorrik, the Empire will always strike back."
"Lawful stupid is the paladin that charges into hell because he knows there's evil there."
—anonymous
"Although you may win the occasional battle against us, Vorrik, the Empire will always strike back."
Re: Reapers and Collectors vs. UNSC
There was a dev post to the effect that because of the mass-increasing field on disruptor torps, they can't afford to stick anything else on the torpedo without making it too slow. They need propulsion, and the mass effect field generator both creates the field and acts as the warhead. Also, nukes are a bit too expensive to waste on fighters of which a significant percentage won't even make it to the target ship, and even then the torpedoes might get shot down. Disruptor torpedoes are a less expensive alternative.adam_grif wrote:The Codex waves its hands and mutters something about ablative armor under its breath.
The real question is why don't they use nukes. They use disruptor torps to get through thick barriers, but radiation ignores barriers totally. Yes, PD exists, but clearly fighters can reach enemy craft without interruption, except sometimes being forced to break off for repairs. Build missiles the size of fighters, strap 500 kt bombs to them, and then get them to detonate 10 meters away from enemy hulls.
Nope, someone's smarter than Saren. Or does Palpatine's ignorance of Vader while electrocuting Luke Skywalker make George Lucas dumb, too?Stark wrote:Ooops, someone is smarter than Bioware!
Re: Reapers and Collectors vs. UNSC
Right, but he wasn't in the decades prior to the events of the game, during which time he was twiddling his thumbs.Slght problem with that. He is now a wanted criminal, so I doubt they would've bought it.
Aren't we discussing what Sovereign should have done instead of what he did? He wouldn't show up with a Geth fleet, nor would he have attacked Eden Prime.An unknown huge ship approaching the centre of government surrounded by Geth that looks just like the magic hand that killed a human colony.
The council is dumb but are they really THAT dumb?
They've never seen a Prothean ship before at all, and the Reapers did build the Mass Relay, so the tech-level would at least match up if anybody bothered to examine it. And of course anybody who took the time to examine it would get indoctrinated, ergo there's no real issue.That's not even counting the fact that Soverign and known Prothean tech look completely different. Prothean tech is more silver and bright, while Soverign is dark and looks strikingly different.
If it can increase it's mass, it can decrease it too by inverting the current running through the Eezo instead. They can decrease the mass while it's boosting towards the ship (and remember that the Kodiak shuttle is capable of genuine FTL flight, so simply getting to high relativistic speed to evade point defense ought to be child's play here) then bung it into reverse just prior to impact. This totally eliminates the need for fighters, and renders PD systems nearly totally obsolete.There was a dev post to the effect that because of the mass-increasing field on disruptor torps, they can't afford to stick anything else on the torpedo without making it too slow. They need propulsion, and the mass effect field generator both creates the field and acts as the warhead. Also, nukes are a bit too expensive to waste on fighters of which a significant percentage won't even make it to the target ship, and even then the torpedoes might get shot down. Disruptor torpedoes are a less expensive alternative.
A scientist once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the Earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the centre of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy.
At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: 'What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.
The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, 'What is the tortoise standing on?'
'You're very clever, young man, very clever,' said the old lady. 'But it's turtles all the way down.'
At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: 'What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.
The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, 'What is the tortoise standing on?'
'You're very clever, young man, very clever,' said the old lady. 'But it's turtles all the way down.'
Re: Reapers and Collectors vs. UNSC
Lucas writes pulp shit for the masses and knows it. Bioware is *convinced* they are the peak, the PINNACLE of videogame plotting. Look at their pathetic attempts to make ME appear serious scifi with dev statements that flatly contradict the game while retconning shit people don't like.Stargazer wrote:Nope, someone's smarter than Saren. Or does Palpatine's ignorance of Vader while electrocuting Luke Skywalker make George Lucas dumb, too?
Adam, if you want to talk about what Sov should have done, he should have just sent in Saren with a gun months earlier. He could have blown everyone in the council chamber away and shut down the mass relays.
Re: Reapers and Collectors vs. UNSC
Decades earlier bro. As if any real soldier could take his fucking monsterous cyborg form. The thing swallows lead like it's going out of fashion and fires fucking magic rockets all over the place. And he probably could have gotten into the Citadel room without transforming into a cyborg in the first place and uploaded the data file subtly.Adam, if you want to talk about what Sov should have done, he should have just sent in Saren with a gun months earlier.
But Sovereign still needs to physically be there.
Also, I forgot to add earlier that while Eezo is the most expensive substance in the known universe gram for gram, they're throwing around anti-matter like it's nothing and every military craft is filled to the brim with it as fuel. I imagine that can easily be used as a source of ignition for a fusion bomb, and if all you need is the antimatter they already crank out en masse with some deuterium/tritium, then building fusion bombs is going to be similarly priced to disruptor torps to build. And they spam disruptor torps at ships to blow them up.
Even without this, the physics package is not the most expensive part of a nuclear missile anyway (in response to the "nuke are too expensive to be used to blow up things). Even if they were heinously expensive, one nuke that goes off will destroy a dreadnought, so it just has to be cheaper to build a couple of nukes than it does to build the ships themselves.
A scientist once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the Earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the centre of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy.
At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: 'What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.
The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, 'What is the tortoise standing on?'
'You're very clever, young man, very clever,' said the old lady. 'But it's turtles all the way down.'
At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: 'What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.
The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, 'What is the tortoise standing on?'
'You're very clever, young man, very clever,' said the old lady. 'But it's turtles all the way down.'
Re: Reapers and Collectors vs. UNSC
The Kodiak is also called the "three-million credit coffin" if its ME field is disabled. Maybe the the eezo required to get the missile up to relativistic speeds is too expensive as well. They can only afford just enough to increase the mass and get it through the kinetic barriers.adam_grif wrote:If it can increase it's mass, it can decrease it too by inverting the current running through the Eezo instead. They can decrease the mass while it's boosting towards the ship (and remember that the Kodiak shuttle is capable of genuine FTL flight, so simply getting to high relativistic speed to evade point defense ought to be child's play here) then bung it into reverse just prior to impact. This totally eliminates the need for fighters, and renders PD systems nearly totally obsolete.
Nukes don't have very great destructive advantage over disruptor torps. In ME2 batarian extremists were going to destroy a human colony and its spaceport with only two Javelin torpedoes (with different target zones).
Sounds like someone is butthurt about a game he doesn't like being so successful and critically acclaimed.Stark wrote:Lucas writes pulp shit for the masses and knows it. Bioware is *convinced* they are the peak, the PINNACLE of videogame plotting. Look at their pathetic attempts to make ME appear serious scifi with dev statements that flatly contradict the game while retconning shit people don't like.
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Re: Reapers and Collectors vs. UNSC
Given half the "plots" of games out there, they actually *are* near the top ...Stark wrote:Lucas writes pulp shit for the masses and knows it. Bioware is *convinced* they are the peak, the PINNACLE of videogame plotting.
That's why we build bigger nukes .Stargazer wrote:Nukes don't have very great destructive advantage over disruptor torps.
Anyway, thought I'd have a look at the various Codex entries on weapons & such. All quotes are from the Mass Effect Wiki.
Yay for more of those stupid brain bugs :headbang: .Ablative Armour wrote:A warship's kinetic barriers reduce the damage from solid objects, but can do nothing to block GARDIAN lasers, particle beams, and other forms of Directed Energy Weapon (DEW). The inner layer of warship protection consists of ablative armor plate designed to "boil away" when heated. The vaporized armor material scatters a DEW beam, rendering it ineffectual.
Still sounds stupid. Build a fast missile, strap a nuke onto it, fire it. Have the nuke detonate outside the kinetic barriers. Unless the kinetic barriers on a warship are 100s of metres (if not kms) from the hull, a nuke that close will do lotsa damage.Disruptor Torpedoes wrote:Disruptor torpedoes are powered projectiles with warheads that create random and unstable mass effect fields when triggered. These fields warp space-time in a localized area. The rapid asymmetrical mass changes cause the target to rip itself apart.
In flight, torpedoes use a mass-increasing field, making them too massive for enemy kinetic barriers to repulse. The extra mass gives the torpedoes a very sluggish acceleration, making them easy prey for defensive GARDIAN weapons. So, torpedoes have to be launched at very close range.
Torpedoes are the main anti-ship weapon used by fighters. They are launched from point-blank range in "ripple-fire" waves reminiscent of the ancient Calliope rocket artillery launchers (thus their popular nickname "Callies"). By saturating defensive GARDIAN systems with multiple targets, at least a few will get through.
1. Amusingly, more extreme UV frequencies are absorbed by Earth-like atmospheres. I also did some calcs based on Atomic Rockets' figures for wavelengths & the formula for diffraction. All examples assume a 0.5m radius focusing lens and a distance of 10km to the target. For 1km / 100km etc, just adjust the numbers by an order of magnitude or so.GARDIAN wrote:1. Lasers are limited by diffraction. The beams "spread out", decreasing the energy density (watts per m2) the weapon can place on a target. Any high-powered laser is a short-ranged weapon... GARDIAN lasers typically operate in infrared frequencies. Shorter frequencies would offer superior stopping power and range, but degradation of focal arrays and mirrors would make them expensive to maintain, and most prefer mechanical reliability over leading-edge performance where lives are concerned. Salarians, however, use near-ultraviolet frequency lasers with six times the range, believing that having additional time to shoot down incoming missiles is more important... Lasers are not blocked by the kinetic barriers of capital ships. However, the range of lasers limits their use to rare "knife fight"-range ship-to-ship combat.
2. GARDIAN networks have another limitation: heat. Weapons-grade lasers require "cool-down" time, during which heat is transferred to sinks or radiators. As lasers fire, heat builds within them, reducing damage, range, and accuracy.
a. Far IR (1e-3m) = 12.2m radius beam (!).
b. Near IR (7e-7m) = 0.854cm radius beam
c. Ultraviolet A (4e-7m) = 0.488cm radius beam.
d. Extreme Ultraviolet (1e-8m) = 0.0122cm radius beam.
I deliberately picked the figures at the extreme ends of the IR and UV spectrums so you can get an idea of the options available to IR or UV lasers. I have no idea whether or not mechanical reliability is or would be a realistic issue though, but still... you can get some pretty focused beams even from the IR end of the spectrum.
2. Okay this I limitation can understand somewhat... but it still sounds contrived to reduce beam spam. Especially as we have ships that most definitely do NOT look remotely like hard sci-fi ones. They must have obscene figures for energy efficiency.
Nothing special here, just a clever use of Disruptor Torpedo tech.Javelin wrote:The Javelin is an experimental close-assault weapon fitted on a handful of newer Alliance warships. It consists of a "rack" of two or more disposable disruptor torpedo tubes bolted or magnetically "slung" on to a ship’s exterior armored hull. The torpedoes are fired on converging trajectories, and detonate in a precisely timed sequence that allows the dark energy emitted by their warheads to resonate. This magnifies the resulting space-time warp effects.
Javelin mounts are most often fitted on swift frigates, which expect to enter "knife fight" torpedo ranges as a matter of course. Javelins may also be fitted on heavier ships during short range engagements, such as trans-relay assaults. They are particularly useful in this role for dreadnoughts, which are unable to lay their main guns on targets at close range.
Basically firecrackers compared to half the relativistic weapons we see in sci-fi - I doubt when they say "tactical nuclear weapon" they mean anything more powerful than about 100kt, and this indicates only double-digit kt firepower for the main gun.Mass Accelerators wrote:Mass accelerators propel solid metal slugs via electromagnetic attraction and repulsion. A slug lightened by a mass effect field can be accelerated to extremely high speeds, permitting previously unattainable projectile velocities.
The primary determinant of a mass accelerator's destructive power is length. The longer the barrel, the longer the slug can be accelerated, the higher the slug's final velocity, and therefore the greater its kinetic impact. Slugs are designed to squash or shatter on impact, increasing the energy they transfer to it target. Without collapsibility, slugs would punch through their targets while inflicting only minimal damage.
Rather than being mounted on the exterior, starship guns are housed inside hulls and visible only as gun portholes from outside.
A ship's main gun is a large spinal-mount weapon running 90% of the hull's length. While possessing destructive power equal to that of tactical nuclear weapons, main guns are difficult to aim. Because ships must be able to point their bows almost directly at their targets, main guns are best used for long-range "bombardment" fire.
Approximately 40% of the hull's width, broadside guns inflict less damage and can be mounted with greater numbers and more flexibility. The modern human Kilimanjaro-class dreadnoughts mount three decks with 26 broadside accelerators apiece for a total salvo weight of 78 slugs per side, firing once every two seconds.
However, mass accelerators produce recoil equal to their impact energy. While the mass effect fields suspending the rounds mitigate the recoil, recoil shock can still rattle crews and damage systems.
Clear ether!
Teleros, of Quintessence
Route North-442.116; Altacar Empire, SDNW 4 Nation; Lensman Tech Analysis
Teleros, of Quintessence
Route North-442.116; Altacar Empire, SDNW 4 Nation; Lensman Tech Analysis
Re: Reapers and Collectors vs. UNSC
The Kodiak can go to FTL speeds, which are higher than relativistic speeds. The process by which one gets to FTL isn't some kind of jump drive, it's literally by applying mass reducing fields and kicking on the afterburners. This is to say, if you can go at 5600 C like ships in MEverse can, you can also go at 0.99 C to breeze past PD.The Kodiak is also called the "three-million credit coffin" if its ME field is disabled. Maybe the the eezo required to get the missile up to relativistic speeds is too expensive as well. They can only afford just enough to increase the mass and get it through the kinetic barriers.
I'm glad you brought up the "three million credit coffin" thing too, because a million credits is chump change compared to the 120 billion credits or so that it cost just to build the SR1's drive core. Missiles will be similarly sized, and cost a similar amount to build as a result. The cost might climb to like 3.5 million credits or something depending on how much fissile materials are going for those days, but when you can vaporize a dreadnought, cruiser or even small frigate with one, it's suddenly extremely cost effective.
The silly part about all of this is that Disruptor torps shouldn't be able to damage anything beyond a few dozen meters from it's impact point, because they're only really good for punching through thick armor and barriers. Also, they weren't destroying the colony, they were firing 2 missiles, one at the space port and one at a city block. We also have no idea how destructive either strike was, because the screens cut out as soon as they hitNukes don't have very great destructive advantage over disruptor torps. In ME2 batarian extremists were going to destroy a human colony and its spaceport with only two Javelin torpedoes (with different target zones).
This is compared to the known destructive radius of even low KT yield bombs, aka multiple square km. Not so in space of course, but they'll still vaporize the shit out of spacecraft when detonated fairly close to them.
Exactly. Although strictly speaking the barriers are very long ranged on, say, a Reaper (the Normandy entering their mass effect field from a large distance away), they don't become wall-like and/or stop projectiles until you get quite close, perhaps a few dozen meters away.Still sounds stupid. Build a fast missile, strap a nuke onto it, fire it. Have the nuke detonate outside the kinetic barriers. Unless the kinetic barriers on a warship are 100s of metres (if not kms) from the hull, a nuke that close will do lotsa damage.
What's stupid is that they rag on lasers for being too heat intensive, and their weapon of choice is KT yield railguns, powered by antimatter reactors.2. Okay this I limitation can understand somewhat... but it still sounds contrived to reduce beam spam. Especially as we have ships that most definitely do NOT look remotely like hard sci-fi ones. They must have obscene figures for energy efficiency.
The stupid hits critical mass when you go on the bioware official boards and people say things like "mass accelerators make nuclear weapons obsolete" and shit. People have no idea about comparative yields of weapons, and "three times the city buster dropped on hiroshima" is apparently good enough to make them think that they're the pinnacle of weaponry. Lol, <20 KT is a "city buster" now?Basically firecrackers compared to half the relativistic weapons we see in sci-fi - I doubt when they say "tactical nuclear weapon" they mean anything more powerful than about 100kt, and this indicates only double-digit kt firepower for the main gun.
In another thread here, people calc'd that a Dreadnought slug will totally burn up in the atmosphere without even getting close to the ground, which makes the whole treaty limiting dreadnoughts completely irrelevant and laughably stupid, since they limited them because they're "weapons of mass destruction"
They basically upped railgun tech to an unrealistically high level, then tried their hardest to put limitations on laser weapons, because they wanted ships firing slugs at each other from a huge distance, realism be damned.1. Amusingly, more extreme UV frequencies are absorbed by Earth-like atmospheres. I also did some calcs based on Atomic Rockets' figures for wavelengths & the formula for diffraction. All examples assume a 0.5m radius focusing lens and a distance of 10km to the target. For 1km / 100km etc, just adjust the numbers by an order of magnitude or so.
a. Far IR (1e-3m) = 12.2m radius beam (!).
b. Near IR (7e-7m) = 0.854cm radius beam
c. Ultraviolet A (4e-7m) = 0.488cm radius beam.
d. Extreme Ultraviolet (1e-8m) = 0.0122cm radius beam.
I deliberately picked the figures at the extreme ends of the IR and UV spectrums so you can get an idea of the options available to IR or UV lasers. I have no idea whether or not mechanical reliability is or would be a realistic issue though, but still... you can get some pretty focused beams even from the IR end of the spectrum.
I'm surprised the IR lasers suck so hard, and yeah, the "MECHANICAL RELIABILITY IS KING" excuse was extremely weak for using it. The Salarian ships should fucking massacre fighters if they have 6x the range
A scientist once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the Earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the centre of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy.
At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: 'What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.
The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, 'What is the tortoise standing on?'
'You're very clever, young man, very clever,' said the old lady. 'But it's turtles all the way down.'
At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: 'What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.
The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, 'What is the tortoise standing on?'
'You're very clever, young man, very clever,' said the old lady. 'But it's turtles all the way down.'
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Re: Reapers and Collectors vs. UNSC
Nah, the Salarian lasers probably all break mid-combat from being unreliable UV types .
There's a joke in here somewhere .The stupid hits critical mass
Yeah, I remember reading it. It's not possible that ME-verse dreadnoughts are just banned due to their sheer size & (non-railgun) firepower is it? Or something along those lines? Just strikes me as being similar to concerns over those multi-kW / MW lasers the Americans are developing... because they might blind the enemy .In another thread here, people calc'd that a Dreadnought slug will totally burn up in the atmosphere without even getting close to the ground, which makes the whole treaty limiting dreadnoughts completely irrelevant and laughably stupid, since they limited them because they're "weapons of mass destruction"
Clear ether!
Teleros, of Quintessence
Route North-442.116; Altacar Empire, SDNW 4 Nation; Lensman Tech Analysis
Teleros, of Quintessence
Route North-442.116; Altacar Empire, SDNW 4 Nation; Lensman Tech Analysis
Re: Reapers and Collectors vs. UNSC
Maybe they can't pay to put enough eezo in the missiles to accelerate in time, then.adam_grif wrote:The Kodiak can go to FTL speeds, which are higher than relativistic speeds. The process by which one gets to FTL isn't some kind of jump drive, it's literally by applying mass reducing fields and kicking on the afterburners. This is to say, if you can go at 5600 C like ships in MEverse can, you can also go at 0.99 C to breeze past PD.
I'm glad you brought up the "three million credit coffin" thing too, because a million credits is chump change compared to the 120 billion credits or so that it cost just to build the SR1's drive core. Missiles will be similarly sized, and cost a similar amount to build as a result. The cost might climb to like 3.5 million credits or something depending on how much fissile materials are going for those days, but when you can vaporize a dreadnought, cruiser or even small frigate with one, it's suddenly extremely cost effective.
City block? The idea given was that the settlement would be wiped out.The silly part about all of this is that Disruptor torps shouldn't be able to damage anything beyond a few dozen meters from it's impact point, because they're only really good for punching through thick armor and barriers. Also, they weren't destroying the colony, they were firing 2 missiles, one at the space port and one at a city block. We also have no idea how destructive either strike was, because the screens cut out as soon as they hit
ME power plants are fusion, not anitmatter. Their thrusters are antimatter, and heat is an issue for them.What's stupid is that they rag on lasers for being too heat intensive, and their weapon of choice is KT yield railguns, powered by antimatter reactors.
It killed over a hundred thousand people, didn't it?The stupid hits critical mass when you go on the bioware official boards and people say things like "mass accelerators make nuclear weapons obsolete" and shit. People have no idea about comparative yields of weapons, and "three times the city buster dropped on hiroshima" is apparently good enough to make them think that they're the pinnacle of weaponry. Lol, <20 KT is a "city buster" now?
Obviously, then, ME races must use special ground bombardment slugs.In another thread here, people calc'd that a Dreadnought slug will totally burn up in the atmosphere without even getting close to the ground, which makes the whole treaty limiting dreadnoughts completely irrelevant and laughably stupid, since they limited them because they're "weapons of mass destruction"
Then why is the US Navy researching railguns as bombardment weapons, while their only interest in lasers is for point defense- exactly what Mass Effect uses it for?They basically upped railgun tech to an unrealistically high level, then tried their hardest to put limitations on laser weapons, because they wanted ships firing slugs at each other from a huge distance, realism be damned.
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Re: Reapers and Collectors vs. UNSC
Go read the thread (same forum as this, shouldn't be too far down the page) regarding orbital bombardments or somesuch. A 20kg missile at 0.013c will, unless it's made of unobtainium*, burn up in the atmosphere, yet without doing enough damage to be really noticeable from an orbital bombardment point of view. Much bigger objects at much lower velocities have burnt up in the atmosphere before now and will continue to do so - it's not like you can somehow handwave away all that air just by going really really fast .Obviously, then, ME races must use special ground bombardment slugs.
*And if you've got materials that good, why don't we see them elsewhere?
Railguns have efficiency & line of sight advantages over lasers, which is important for a Navy. Meanwhile, the Airforce & Army (wups, forgot those two branches did we ?) are developing lasers as weapons rather than just as point defence.Then why is the US Navy researching railguns as bombardment weapons, while their only interest in lasers is for point defense- exactly what Mass Effect uses it for?
Clear ether!
Teleros, of Quintessence
Route North-442.116; Altacar Empire, SDNW 4 Nation; Lensman Tech Analysis
Teleros, of Quintessence
Route North-442.116; Altacar Empire, SDNW 4 Nation; Lensman Tech Analysis
Re: Reapers and Collectors vs. UNSC
Bigger missiles than?Maybe they can't pay to put enough eezo in the missiles to accelerate in time, then.
Fusion power plants generate heat as well though.ME power plants are fusion, not anitmatter. Their thrusters are antimatter, and heat is an issue for them.
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Re: Reapers and Collectors vs. UNSC
Hence the point adam_grif & I were making - they already have insanely good efficiencies in one tech, but not lasers because... well just because, damnit.
Clear ether!
Teleros, of Quintessence
Route North-442.116; Altacar Empire, SDNW 4 Nation; Lensman Tech Analysis
Teleros, of Quintessence
Route North-442.116; Altacar Empire, SDNW 4 Nation; Lensman Tech Analysis
Re: Reapers and Collectors vs. UNSC
I was refering to the fact that any power plant generates waste heat. Adam got the specific one wrong, but unless they are using batteries that are linked with superconducting cable, they will be making heat.
Re: Reapers and Collectors vs. UNSC
The Kodiak can get to FTL speeds in under a second, as can other things. It doesn't matter if these things cost a fair bit of money, so long as they cost less than the targets they are trying to destroy.Maybe they can't pay to put enough eezo in the missiles to accelerate in time, then.
The settlement would be wiped out if they both struck, perhaps something to do with the silly mass effect resonance things. That said, when you choose between the residential district or the spaceport, it's indicating that either the dense urban population center will be destroyed, or the spaceport will be destroyed. We have no idea whether there are more than one residential districts, whether the entire sum of the colonists was the "thousands of lives" that would be lost if the residential district was struck, and so on. We have no idea of the size of the colony, or anything like that. For all you know it was 1000 people packed into a tiny dome.City block? The idea given was that the settlement would be wiped out.
It's also possible that "the settlement" was one of many on the planet.
Regardless, we can't possibly get any idea about effective yield or destructive power, because all we have is vague adjectives.
My mistake, but fusion power plants aren't exactly cold. Heat management issues are never mentioned for the antiproton thrusters, it just says that the plume is ultra hot and if you get the tailpipe in your face your ship will melt off.ME power plants are fusion, not anitmatter. Their thrusters are antimatter, and heat is an issue for them.
Anywhere from 90-130 thousand people, yes. But that was only ~30% of the population, and many died from fires or from things falling on them instead of the direct effects of the blast. If memory serves me correctly it was also unusually vulnerable because most of the buildings were made of wood (there was a HUGE firestorm), although that might not be true.It killed over a hundred thousand people, didn't it?
So wouldn't the treaty ban the use of dedicated ground bombardment slugs instead of banning the use of dreadnoughts? These ships themselves can act as RKVs on a whim, carry antiproton drives that can melt spacesports if you take off to fast from them and the "Small" infiltration craft the Salarians use can be rigged into being a 20 KT ordinance (hiroshima = 16 KT).Obviously, then, ME races must use special ground bombardment slugs.
Nothing about the treaty makes sense in context.
Already addressed above, but lasers also have a weakness in that the atmosphere scatters the beam quite a bit. In space, you can only hit what you have LoS to with non-guided munitions (lasers, railguns), as opposed to on the ground where you can use gravity to lob things over mountains and strike targets on the other side.Then why is the US Navy researching railguns as bombardment weapons, while their only interest in lasers is for point defense- exactly what Mass Effect uses it for?
They have backup H fuel cells, but the primary power comes from big He3 fusion reactors.I was refering to the fact that any power plant generates waste heat. Adam got the specific one wrong, but unless they are using batteries that are linked with superconducting cable, they will be making heat.
A scientist once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the Earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the centre of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy.
At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: 'What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.
The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, 'What is the tortoise standing on?'
'You're very clever, young man, very clever,' said the old lady. 'But it's turtles all the way down.'
At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: 'What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.
The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, 'What is the tortoise standing on?'
'You're very clever, young man, very clever,' said the old lady. 'But it's turtles all the way down.'
Re: Reapers and Collectors vs. UNSC
Thanks.
To be fair, it is probably easy to make special ammo on the fly compared to spacedreadnaughts.So wouldn't the treaty ban the use of dedicated ground bombardment slugs instead of banning the use of dreadnoughts? These ships themselves can act as RKVs on a whim, carry antiproton drives that can melt spacesports if you take off to fast from them and the "Small" infiltration craft the Salarians use can be rigged into being a 20 KT ordinance (hiroshima = 16 KT).
Re: Reapers and Collectors vs. UNSC
No doubt, but the point is that there's nothing they can do to stop the proliferation of superweapons like that anyway. Dreadnoughts self-limit simply by being prohibitively costly to build, and they aren't even the biggest things to worry about. If mass destruction was what they were aiming for it would be easier and cheaper just to stick with big nukes. But they're stressed out about people getting access to a supply of KT level nukes in energy termsTo be fair, it is probably easy to make special ammo on the fly compared to spacedreadnaughts.
It's just funny that they tried so hard to keep things consistent and think their 'verse out, but they still managed to fail on so many levels.
A scientist once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the Earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the centre of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy.
At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: 'What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.
The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, 'What is the tortoise standing on?'
'You're very clever, young man, very clever,' said the old lady. 'But it's turtles all the way down.'
At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: 'What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.
The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, 'What is the tortoise standing on?'
'You're very clever, young man, very clever,' said the old lady. 'But it's turtles all the way down.'