CotV: Discusion Thread

[BugHunter]

Posted by: Dr. Dan Posted on: Feb 21st, 2004, 10:14pm
Oh come on, do you really think me that shallow?

yes

[Deimos]

new info!!! ...again

Ok, this time it considers the roleplaying itself. For those who have read, i’m sure you all know that the main cast (if you want to be ‘protagonist’ anyway) is all stuck in one ship. What complicates things slightly is that the ship: the Solaris is as much the primary weapon of the cast as well as their transport. Thusly- unless you’d like me to enlarge the Solaris to accomodate however many single pilot fighters, some kind of system will need to be set up to actually play through the battles- especially since the cast must act as a unit.

I don’t know...have I made the situation a lot more complicated than it actually was?
...if anyone has a suggestion for a battle system that’d be great, send me PM if necessary...

My own idea was this- we get the battle planned out here, everything from dialogue to movements: then I -or whoever would like (take turns possibly?)- will post the entire battle in one fell swoop.

-once this is settled, next up is alien info (any ideas or whatnot are welcome)-

[BugHunter]

Hmm... sounds risky. I'll get back to you on that

[Tassatul]

I dunno, seems like youre overplanning a bit. What could go wrong with just rleplaying just he way we normally do?

[Deimos]

see, that's my point...am I over-planning this?

cuz' it seems to me that it'd be kind of hard to play set positions that don't move- and must coincide with the previous post

it's almost like...the pilot's posts in battle would be describing dodging manuevers and flying through laser barrages...then at the same time- the weapons master posts would have to match the pilot's in terms of enemy positions and visibility...

did I just solve the problem...?...argh, my head hurts...


I really over-complicated the situation didn't I...ouchies...

[Cobra5]

No no, no biggie.

Here's an interesting idea- there's more crew then weapon ports. That way, some of the crew justr has to 'sit tight' and wait while things go on... plus, if someone dosn't feel up to a battle they have a good reason to sit out.

Anyway, no, you didn't over complicate it. We won't have to worry about any of it, becuase lets say the pilot posts his dodgeing manuvers, the next person to post (lets say a gunner) will be able to read that post before he writes his own... That way, he will be able to synchranize his post easily.

If you don't understand me, then just listen to this: It will work itself out ;D

[BugHunter]

Hey, remember what I said -- "All things will work out in the end" . Just dont screw things up, lol

[Tassatul]

BugHunter said:

Hey, remember what I said -- "All things will work out in the end" . Just dont screw things up, lol

hehe. . . I like it.

[Dr. Dan]

lol of course there is more crew then weapon ports, man look at ships in real life, not NEARLY every crew has a weapon to sit at, they all have places to be, to stand by on maintenence -- seal of non-airtight areas -- take the place of wounded soldigers -- work the computers -- I could go on and on.

[Cobra5]

Not nessicerily. You're thinking big ships, like battleships or aricraft carriers. Smaller ships (or vehicles, rather) usually have a weapon, if not more (one person can fire multiple weapons, like a tank's cannon and Coaxial gun are both fired by the gunner), for every crew member.

For example, Tanks used to have three or four machine guns ... one for each crew member (driver, Gunner, Commander, and sometimes loader) not to mention the cannon itself. (modern day tanks usually only have two machineguns). Small patrol boats or gunships usually have a ton of machine guns on the sides- not designated for any particular crew member, but whoever's not busy with another duty at the time can just grab one and start shooting. Old Bombers would have a whole bunch of guns, although each gun had a specific gunner, and the other crew members didn't have weapons.

It depends on the size of the ship we're talking. A capital ship would have far mroe crew then weapon posts. But a corvette would probably have almost enough to go around.

[Dr. Dan]

good point, I was thinking of massive battle ships, didnt take into consideration the other smaller and medium sized ships...

I think that corvette class ships (I'm talking star-wars size corvette ships, not homeworld, the starwars ones are medium ships) would still have far less than crew, but the guns would be huge, like equivilant to capital class ships, but on a smaller - faster ship.

capital ships would have a LOT of the same guns as a corvette, just be much bigger, much more heavily armored, and much slower.

see what I mean? I dunno...its just my scale I guess.

[Deimos]

Well in terms of weapons- only five require operators: the two rail guns, the two (yes only two- originally it was six, but modified that- see page 7 on the thread for the description) laser turrets, and the charged particle cannon.

And its divided quite simply in this manner: the rail guns are operated by the pilot-since they are immobile and mounted near the nose, the turrets are operated by the two weapons operators. While control of the charged particle cannon is accessible to the pilot or either weapons operator (there is only one cannon, but the pilot panel and weapon operators panels all have access to the cannon command-but the cannon itself can only be fired at set intervals to charge the energy). Everything else: planet defensers and remote(anti-missile) laser pods are activated upon switching the Solaris into combat mode. As for the gravity cannon, that requires the entire core crew to input access codes in a set sequence (each crew member has a station on the bridge a'la Outlaw Star) in their respective access panels explained in the description on pg.7 of this thread. It's fired when the access codes are completed, and everyone SIMULTANEOUSLY presses the large green button that will appear on their access panels.

Note that the defensers also have a THIRD function outside of 1) shield generation 2) redirecting the turrets' fire to compensate for lack of movement- and to make up for the lack of guns- the defensers can lock on to a set amount of targets (about 10 a defenser) and when necessary, the turret operator can set a defenser for 'spread shot'. With the quick press on their weapon panel (which by the way are all holographic), a laser can be fired to the desired turret and once it's received (the defensers have ports that will move to receive the laser)- the defenser will shoot however many targets were locked simultaneously.

-another note- just in case anyone hasn't figured it out, only the lasers from the Solaris will be redirected, or spread out- all other fire will simply bounce off the smaller shields around the defensers

everyone get all that?
as for the power of the lasers...well...i'm not too sure of that at the moment...but as it stands heres the power comparison of the Solaris' weapons from most powerful to least:
-Gravity Cannon
-Charged Particle Cannon
-Rail Guns
-Laser Turrets
-Remote/Anti-Missile Laser Pods

[Dr. Dan]

coool

[Cobra5]

Did you look in to these weapons at all, out of curiosity? most of them are real. Here's info on what these weapons are like in real life, but this is just for fun. I'm not sugesting it as actualy RPG info.

Lasers don't fire in bursts, like they do in starwars. Also, they're invisable in real life. They fire a single, concentrated beam of light (usually created by chemical reactions, which severly limit a laser's ammo compacity. Real-life lasers, larger then a house, carry only enough chemicals for two shots). The beam of light is so focused, it is invisable (There is no scatter of protons for our eyes to pick up), and cuases intense heat to whatever it hits. This intense heat is acompanied by a massive shower of sparks, at least when it is striking metal.

Railguns use quickly reversing electro magnets to fire a spike at hypersonic speeds. Real Railguns (Or Gauss Rifles, Or mass drivers... different names for the same thing) fire a single spike so fast it can penetrate a hill and continue on course. The spike, however, is very small... so it cuases little damage, other then the fact it's moving at about mach 5. The spike that comes out of the gun isn't actually propelled by the magnets- it has a box around it, which the magnets propel, and when the box leaves the barrel, the air friction cuases it to bust in to peices, but the spike continues. As the box breaks apart, it makes the spike spin, giving it even more accuracy and range. Real life railguns, the way we work them now, can't work in the vacuum of space, although it is cirtainly possable.

Charges Partical Cannons are perhaps one of the most devastating weapons created yet- they were panned to be mounted on sattalites and fired from space, to shoot down missiles (and perhaps strike at ground targets, as well), but the UN put a ban on all space-mounted weapons. Charged partical cannons work by firing a condensed beam of either excited electron, or even more deadly, excited Hydrogen atoms. Normally, if an excited electron hits another atom, it transfers it's energy, and the atom moves and a small amount of light is given off. However, when such a large amount of charged electrons (or Hydrogen atoms, which contain even more energy) comes in contact with a group of atoms, the energy is so great it cascades from atom to atom, and the atoms spread apart in a massive explosion. In more literal terms, the weapon fires an invisable ray, and whatever the ray comes in contact with explodes instantly. The weapon requires a large amount of electricity, but other then that, it requitrd

Gravity rays are, as far as I know, not real, or even possable. But who knows. I suppose that an intense ray of gravity would cuase anything it passes through to implode upon itself. The ray would probably be able to pass straight through matter, as if it weren't even there. It'd also probably be invisable.... but who knows.

Like I said, this is just the way it is in real life. How it works in the RPG could be totally diferent.

[Deimos]

I did do some research, limited- but some research nonetheless-

lasers: the lasers as I have them, aren't really lasers per say- they're more or less like the beam weapons of Gundam. Thusly- they fire streams of energy that super-charge particles within a given radius creating a blazing path of hot plasma; also to make sure that they don't just destroy everything in the area- convergence rings are built into the barrels allowing for pin-point accuracy. And of course taking all sorts of liberties...a reflective alloy was found in this particular universe that can effective redirect the plasma trails.

rail gun: with the rail gun, I tried to base it off the ones we have now. That in mind- I gave one weapons operator one rail gun command option each. Of course, for these to work in space...they had to be highly modified, but hey- this is the future...700 plus years into the future.

charged particle cannon: this weapon will work as you put it...almost without any change. For energy, Zohar is able empower it directly in the ship...for an unending (and free!) source of power.

gravity cannon: this one I had explained- it doesn't fire beam or ray. It fires a shell comprised of a ultra dense metal (I had named...demitacite, from Final Fantasy's Demi magic spell), that generates a gravitational field of its own so great- its almost comparable to that of a small black hole. The trick being, until it comes in contact with another of itself (the metal is usually found in small pockets, gold nugget small- and never within 200 miles of another pocket) the metal is harmless. Yeah...I took extensive liberties with this one...yep...but what the hey y'know? (for the actual firing process, see pg7 of the thread)