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It would still have the spinal mount problem and the relative low mobility of Earth engine and acceleration dampening field issues inherent in Earth ship design at the moment.

Also how can one be sure the beam would defuse over the distances to be less useful than expected?

At 650,000 km (over two light-seconds) they will have to lead by a bit. Not only it their targeting visual data more that two seconds out of date, but it will take more than two seconds for the beam to reach where you might expect the target to be. While that is less time than naval artillery fire calculations from ship to ship combat between cruisers or battleships, the spacecraft are moving a lot faster. With the more advanced species out accelerating the Terrain ship by multiple times.

But the spinal mounting and likely the size such a weapon would need to be are probably the reasons such a weapon is not implemented on Terran ships. It might also generate too much waste heat to be practical for 22nd century Earth.

Ithekro wrote:It would still have the spinal mount problem and the relative low mobility of Earth engine and acceleration dampening field issues inherent in Earth ship design at the moment.

Also how can one be sure the beam would defuse over the distances to be less useful than expected?

At 650,000 km (over two light-seconds) they will have to lead by a bit. Not only it their targeting visual data more that two seconds out of date, but it will take more than two seconds for the beam to reach where you might expect the target to be. While that is less time than naval artillery fire calculations from ship to ship combat between cruisers or battleships, the spacecraft are moving a lot faster. With the more advanced species out accelerating the Terrain ship by multiple times.

But the spinal mounting and likely the size such a weapon would need to be are probably the reasons such a weapon is not implemented on Terran ships. It might also generate too much waste heat to be practical for 22nd century Earth.

We're aware that there are still a lot of issues with Terran warships. This is about turning them from "completely useless" to "glass cannon".

I don't think a spinal mount of comparable power to the combined laser mounts of a normal Terran battlecruiser would generate much more heat. It'll be more concentrated, so that might overwhelm a cooling system, but I don't think overall heat output is the issue.

Its using the same exact power but over a wider area meaning the lower peak energy density through the lens and perhaps even power cables. No reason it should produce more heat and i would even argue it should produce less waste heat and be easier to manage.

Terran BattleCruiser already has a spinal mounted Particle Cannon.(thats utterly crap compared to a single heavy laser)
An laser array as I suggested before doesn't need to be pointed directly at the target depending on how its made it could have almost 180 angle of fire but suffer divergence problems as greater angle equates to an effectively smaller lens. Normal 20 degrees in single beam mode seems acceptable for both to not reduce the lasers performance and allow the ship a good targeting cone without having to refocus the ship against multiple targets.

Tempest main engines can burn at 30g, its thrusters only provide 0.1g, with mains it takes 4.7 seconds to turn 90 degrees, this is from information provided by Arioch.
If its facing directly on its hit, if its turned to the side and providing random thrust hits/misses will be up to luck of the targeting/evasion computers.

Heavy Lasers have a ROF of 2/3 so every 90 seconds.
If a fleet is moving towards a Terran ship at 500km/s it can fire 5 times before normal particle weapons are in range.
This is 35 mins full thrust at 24g so I think that a a reasonable closing rate.
Need to ask Arioch how space battles play out, but I don't think fleets are going to close so fast they can't break contact besides running through each other.

Terran ships have poor armour, no shields and far less total firepower.
If you swapped out the Lasers onto Umiak/Loroi ships over their own weapons they would lose against the normally equipped mirror fleet.
As RedDwarfIV said its not about winning its having the capability of fighting back, in this case its completely within the technical confines of the outsider universe tech base.

Ithekro wrote:It would still have the spinal mount problem and the relative low mobility of Earth engine and acceleration dampening field issues inherent in Earth ship design at the moment.

Also how can one be sure the beam would defuse over the distances to be less useful than expected?

At 650,000 km (over two light-seconds) they will have to lead by a bit. Not only it their targeting visual data more that two seconds out of date, but it will take more than two seconds for the beam to reach where you might expect the target to be. While that is less time than naval artillery fire calculations from ship to ship combat between cruisers or battleships, the spacecraft are moving a lot faster. With the more advanced species out accelerating the Terrain ship by multiple times.

But the spinal mounting and likely the size such a weapon would need to be are probably the reasons such a weapon is not implemented on Terran ships. It might also generate too much waste heat to be practical for 22nd century Earth.

You should consider that in Outsider weapon ranges are given at which the combatants can expect to score a damaging hit.
That means that a slow moving ship with equally poor defenses should be in danger of hits from further away.

Don't believe thats correct, how do you account all the light speed particle weapons having different effective ranges if its only accuracy?

Werra wrote:You should consider that in Outsider weapon ranges are given at which the combatants can expect to score a damaging hit.
That means that a slow moving ship with equally poor defenses should be in danger of hits from further away.

Insider on weapons wrote:The Loroi heavy beam weapons such as the pulse cannon and superheavy blaster can cause damage out to this distance; Umiak heavy beam weapons can score a hit at this distance, but need to be closer to do significant damage.

If damage falls off with distance, then a softer target needs to be further away to survive a hit.
And since their targeting is good enough to hit targets at higher speeds, lower speed should mean more hits, or same number of hits at greater range.

That quote proves my point...
at 400000km none of the ships in outsider over 350m can really dodge a light speed weapon.
also

I'm skeptical about the feasibility of accurately focusing a beam from turret aboard an accelerating, maneuvering ship against a target 300,000 km away. I would think you'd have to use a fixed spinal mount, and point the whole ship at the target.

Even today's mechanical telescope tracking mechanisms are more accurate than what would be required to successfully paint a target at the distances we're talking about. A large turret on a half-million ton starship seems like a pretty stable platform. But in any case, if that accuracy seems hard to achieve for a turret mounted weapon, I don't think pointing the whole half-million tons of starship to that same accuracy is going to be any easier.

Weapon ranges as given appear to be range before dispersion causes ineffectiveness.
Terran battlecruiser(375m) has 80 armour a Loroi Light cruiser(380m) has 140 armour.
Inside effective ranges shields will render low damage hits ignoreable but I don't think their is any data on how they actually work, also in this case Lasers are 50% shield penetrating, so assuming you do 2 damage at target they will take at least 1 damage.

Werra wrote:

Insider on weapons wrote:The Loroi heavy beam weapons such as the pulse cannon and superheavy blaster can cause damage out to this distance; Umiak heavy beam weapons can score a hit at this distance, but need to be closer to do significant damage.

If damage falls off with distance, then a softer target needs to be further away to survive a hit.
And since their targeting is good enough to hit targets at higher speeds, lower speed should mean more hits, or same number of hits at greater range.

What acceleration would Terran ships be capable of if they had more effective inertial compensators?

I would imagine it would be the same, wouldn't it? There's no point in overbuilding the engines of a ship for acceleration the ship or its crew can't handle; the volume, mass and reactor fuel used up by larger engines is best used elsewhere.

I'm assuming you mean "better inertial compensators, all other variables unchanged" in your post. Otherwise, I think the answer would be 'as fast as the new compensators can handle'.

Incinerator wrote:I would imagine it would be the same, wouldn't it? There's no point in overbuilding the engines of a ship for acceleration the ship or its crew can't handle; the volume, mass and reactor fuel used up by larger engines is best used elsewhere.

I'm assuming you mean "better inertial compensators, all other variables unchanged" in your post. Otherwise, I think the answer would be 'as fast as the new compensators can handle'.

I was thinking the latter, based on Arioch once saying that Terran vessels' acceleration was more limited by their compensators than by fusion drives. Implying that if they had better compensators, they could build faster vessels without developing better engine technology.

RedDwarfIV wrote: I was thinking the latter, based on Arioch once saying that Terran vessels' acceleration was more limited by their compensators than by fusion drives. Implying that if they had better compensators, they could build faster vessels without developing better engine technology.

Incorrect:

Arioch wrote:

Mr.Tucker wrote:This question may have been asked before, but : what is the chief limitation for Terran ships achieving higher acceleration? Is is the drive technology or the inertial dampener technology? Or a combination of both?

Drive technology.

Mr.Tucker wrote:

RedDwarfIV wrote: I was thinking the latter, based on Arioch once saying that Terran vessels' acceleration was more limited by their compensators than by fusion drives. Implying that if they had better compensators, they could build faster vessels without developing better engine technology.

Incorrect:

Arioch wrote:

Mr.Tucker wrote:This question may have been asked before, but : what is the chief limitation for Terran ships achieving higher acceleration? Is is the drive technology or the inertial dampener technology? Or a combination of both?

Drive technology.

I stand corrected.