View Single Post
Old 04-15-2018, 09:33 AM   #28
Fred Brackin
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Default Re: [Spaceships] Missile shield vs. ramming: two questions

Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Thayne View Post
I think the issue is how range scales. A 30,000x increase in mass (and more importantly, cost!) only yields a 10x increase in range. So I'm not super-excited about this strategy. It's maybe compelling when you're designing something to assault space stations, which can't close range.
Your theories about this do not match up with my experience of Spaceships battles. My experience is that superior range wins hands down and quickly too.

The only time I have seen drone saturation work was against a space station that could not get out of the way v. a massive number of targets that had a closing velocity of 70 miles per second. This speed also allowed the vessels carrying the drones to stay out of range.

Hardening the drones played no role. If you're going to saturate the target's defenses adding missile launchers instead of armor is a much better deal.
__________________
Fred Brackin
Fred Brackin is online now   Reply With Quote