SDN Worlds 4 Commentary Thread I

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Well, you might still want to consider indigenious technology, so that in case you run afoul of your supplier, you aren't exactly stranded without spares or new guns.

[Grif]

It's only the flagships that are armed with such weaponry. (of which I have 5, and they don't leave core sectors) The rest of my fleet are equipped with our own mass drivers and missiles weaponry. So it's less of a concern that you might expect.

[Lonestar]

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnd...all the players are here!

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

You set them on a millenia long cryostasis?

[Lonestar]

No.

[Siege]

'Twas done through SCIENCE!

[loomer]

Same way Fahad is going to resurface despite being from another continuity entirely - SCIENCE! (We really need SA's SCIENCE! emoticon.)

[loomer]

Goddamn it, I just realized I did need the French around in some capacity - New Louisiana has a shit-ton of Cajun-descended (and other, later French) people as well as regular English/German/Irish-descended Americans and Caribbean-origin folk, and I can't really do the Reunion Movement without a French superpower.

[Simon_Jester]

Well, you might still want to consider indigenious technology, so that in case you run afoul of your supplier, you aren't exactly stranded without spares or new guns.

This is a legitimate concern; many of our customers insist on design modularity that lets them install domestic-produced hardware in place of what comes from the factory.

How well this works depends heavily on the state of their industrial base, of course. Sometimes the results are more like the Brits looking at the Sherman and going "bloody good tank, where do we put the 17-pdr;" sometimes more like what you'd expect if the Iranians decided to try and make spares for their own F-14s...

[Darkevilme]

~ that would mean that Imperium warp guns are still, so far as I know, the heaviest energy weapons on a mobile platform in Known Space, and I have no intent to challenge this supremacy for the foreseeable future.

The Pride of Chamarra begs to differ.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

The Karlacks have a 1000+ ship too, equipped with Omega cannons apparently...

Originally, Shady and I planned to use our huge ships to blast planets or drop moons on planets...

[DarthShady]

The Karlacks have a 1000+ ship too, equipped with Omega cannons apparently...

Yes we do. The Karlack Swarm has 6 World Eater Motherships, a 1000$ each. Although I don't plan on building more anytime soon.

Originally, Shady and I planned to use our huge ships to blast planets or drop moons on planets...

I still have such plans.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

I still have such plans.

Steve will have our hides for this, but it might be totally worth it!

[Simon_Jester]

~ that would mean that Imperium warp guns are still, so far as I know, the heaviest energy weapons on a mobile platform in Known Space, and I have no intent to challenge this supremacy for the foreseeable future.

The Pride of Chamarra begs to differ.

Ah. I apologize; I was operating under the mistaken impression that the Chamarran juggernauts mounted a larger main battery of, say, four to six weapons. In which case it would be possible that a larger single weapon than the guns of a juggernaut's main battery exists. Certainly, I know of no ship which mounts greater aggregate firepower than a Chamarran juggernaut.

You will note that I explicitly referenced Chamarran juggernauts as being among the few weapon systems that could match the capabilities of the one-off prototype ion cannon in the prologue.

In either case, the largest energy weapons (or energy weapon equivalents such as hypervelocity mass drivers) found on a mobile platform are not Umerian in origin, and Umeria has no intention of attempting to set a record any time in the foreseeable future.

[Darkevilme]

~ that would mean that Imperium warp guns are still, so far as I know, the heaviest energy weapons on a mobile platform in Known Space, and I have no intent to challenge this supremacy for the foreseeable future.

The Pride of Chamarra begs to differ.

Ah. I apologize; I was operating under the mistaken impression that the Chamarran juggernauts mounted a larger main battery of, say, four to six weapons. In which case it would be possible that a larger single weapon than the guns of a juggernaut's main battery exists. Certainly, I know of no ship which mounts greater aggregate firepower than a Chamarran juggernaut.

You will note that I explicitly referenced Chamarran juggernauts as being among the few weapon systems that could match the capabilities of the one-off prototype ion cannon in the prologue.

In either case, the largest energy weapons (or energy weapon equivalents such as hypervelocity mass drivers) found on a mobile platform are not Umerian in origin, and Umeria has no intention of attempting to set a record any time in the foreseeable future.

The Juggernaught probably mounts around 3-4 beams for covering the flanks and redundancy same way the rampant does. But Imperial warp guns seem typically mounted in batteries of 4 or so and mounted on ships that weigh half the tonnage. I think the award for biggest single military beam weapon in known space goes to the Klavostani space fortress though.

So the scale goes probably something like this:
imperial warp guns
Juggernaut mega beamcannons
union of four star's monitor main cannon.
the klavostan space fortress's doomsday ray.
edit: i suspect pezook's monolith guns might go on this list somewhere. All we know is there's 20 of them and that means they could be $2000 each.

[DarthShady]

I still have such plans.

Steve will have our hides for this, but it might be totally worth it!

We aren't hurting anyone, but ourselves that is. So I don't see the problem.

Also, Najrds Cirak is introduced into the game.

[Force Lord]

The Centrality wants big guns, but so far it acquires them through spying. Making them is another matter.

EDIT: How your nation views the Centrality? I believe democratic and communist states will be quite leery of it. With other, less pleasant regimes, it depends if you aren't hostile to my nation in the first place. The Centrality is isolationist, so I doubt I'll achieve initiative in diplomatic matters.

[Simon_Jester]

The Centrality wants big guns, but so far it acquires them through spying. Making them is another matter.

You have chosen a challenging road for your empire; it is difficult to duplicate industrial infrastructure through espionage.

The Juggernaught probably mounts around 3-4 beams for covering the flanks and redundancy same way the rampant does. But Imperial warp guns seem typically mounted in batteries of 4 or so and mounted on ships that weigh half the tonnage. I think the award for biggest single military beam weapon in known space goes to the Klavostani space fortress though.

So the scale goes probably something like this:
imperial warp guns
Juggernaut mega beamcannons
union of four star's monitor main cannon.
the klavostan space fortress's doomsday ray.
edit: i suspect pezook's monolith guns might go on this list somewhere. All we know is there's 20 of them and that means they could be $2000 each.

Thank you, Darkevilme. This has been most informative and helpful.

Ah, just to make sure I understand what you're saying... is that list, from top to bottom, going from small to large or large to small? I infer "small to large."

[Makes note to self to have word with publisher of Jayne's Frightening Ships*, regarding inaccuracies in the contents]

*A rather sensational and poorly edited publication, printed on one of the Umerian border worlds, regarding the superheavy warships of known space.

[Force Lord]

You have chosen a challenging road for your empire; it is difficult to duplicate industrial infrastructure through espionage.

Hey, it's not that my military-industrial complex is lousy. I'm simply trying to work with what I have, and the Centrality wants more. Big ion cannons are something we're only recently starting to design.

[Simon_Jester]

Well, it's not so much "shooting ions" that's difficult. It's making the magnets so they don't quench explosively when something taps the ship from the side, figuring out how to change out pieces of the beam pipe before they get irradiated into junk from random sidescatter inside the beam... that kind of thing. When it comes to copying other people's weapon designs, it's the little technical details that make the difference between a Panzerschreck and a Taepodong-2.

I wish you good luck, sir.

[Darkevilme]

Ah, just to make sure I understand what you're saying... is that list, from top to bottom, going from small to large or large to small? I infer "small to large."

Indeed, small to large. Ascending order of badassery.

[Force Lord]

Well, it's not so much "shooting ions" that's difficult. It's making the magnets so they don't quench explosively when something taps the ship from the side, figuring out how to change out pieces of the beam pipe before they get irradiated into junk from random sidescatter inside the beam... that kind of thing. When it comes to copying other people's weapon designs, it's the little technical details that make the difference between a Panzerschreck and a Taepodong-2.

I wish you good luck, sir.

*Recieves report that the Type-64 Super-Heavy Ion Cannon exploded due to the faulty placement of the magnets.*

*facepalm* D'oh!

Back to the drawing board, it seems.

[Simon_Jester]

And now, (ladies?) and gentlemen, we get a good look at the inner workings, or lack thereof, of the Technocracy of Umeria.

[Force Lord]

EDIT: Nevermind.

[Master_Baerne]

Goddamn it, I just realized I did need the French around in some capacity - New Louisiana has a shit-ton of Cajun-descended (and other, later French) people as well as regular English/German/Irish-descended Americans and Caribbean-origin folk, and I can't really do the Reunion Movement without a French superpower.

Well, you can always use me. The Ascendancy is very French culturally, and loosely based on Napoleonic France for its military and government structures.