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12-09-2016, 03:59 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: On the road again...
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[Space Opera] Boarding Pods ideas
Take your typical Star Wars/Star Trek-inspired space opera setting: Ships have force screens protecting them, artificial gravity is a thing, and ships tend to fire beam weapons or missiles at each other, commonly beams to preserve ammunition. The TL is generally described as 10^ or 11^, with a safetech path, lacking in transhumanist technology. In addition, site-to-site transporters are not a thing in the setting (sorry, Trekkies), so boarding actions are generally described as either docking with the ship via a docking clamp or landing on its hangar bay.
Now, consider that you want to add boarding pods to the setting, as they appear in some of the source material you're trying to emulate. These are pods similar to escape pods in how many people they can carry (generally 1-4), only intended to punch or drill through enemy hulls to deposit the boarders onto the ship in order to sabotage or capture it. (Particularly useful if the power plant or control room is a Core system in Spaceships, not a Hull system.) However, there's the realization that if pods can slip or punch through the force screen, how come missiles can't? How could you add boarding pods without breaking the setting?
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12-09-2016, 05:07 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: [Space Opera] Boarding Pods ideas
You could go Dune style with speed being the issue - the shield keeps out fast objects, not slow ones.
Or the pods carry shield breachers that are too big for a practicable missile. Or the pods only go in once shields are breached. Or the pods use whatever mechanism is used to allow a shielded ship to dock but in reverse. |
12-09-2016, 06:44 PM | #3 | |
Banned
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
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Re: [Space Opera] Boarding Pods ideas
Quote:
Nope. Defense shields aren't buff enough for that. Also keep in mind that in Star Wars, though inconsistent, force screens are meant to deflect incoming attacks, not block or dissipate them. Angled shields aren't going to do much to massive enough object, such as a pod or asteroid. |
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12-09-2016, 06:52 PM | #4 | |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: [Space Opera] Boarding Pods ideas
Quote:
An easy way for missiles to be unable to make it through is to have piloting your way safely through a force screen require a bit of skill; on a safetech path, missile brains may be too dumb to actually do that. Thus, you can have kamikaze pilots carrying bombs, but not missiles. If instead you want to just limit the effect of missiles, if nuclear weapons are removed as a factor, and screens are velocity limited so you have to go through them slowly, missiles aren't that much easier to land, and might not really do that much damage. |
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12-09-2016, 07:12 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Yukon, OK
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Re: [Space Opera] Boarding Pods ideas
Pods capable of carrying a handful of people are pretty big and if replaced with missiles of the same size it means a sip cant carry many of them.
So extra shielding or anti shield tech may require more power and size than a missile can carry. Or maybe shields cant deflect large masses. Anti shield tech such as changing frequencies may require operators tht can do more than a computer or simply require the ship to go slow to bypass a shield. If it has to pause its vulnerable to point defense or fighter craft so it needs to be big enough to have its own shields.
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12-09-2016, 07:23 PM | #6 |
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: New Zealand.
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Re: [Space Opera] Boarding Pods ideas
What about the shields having a two fold effect, deflection/relative kinetic energy dissipation (any dumb rock is deflected or stopped ) and electronics (and the TL 10/11 equivalents) are fried. Any missile hitting is deflected, stopped or programmed to detonate against the shields. Boarding pods on the other hand fly through the shield then get their electronics destroyed so the life forms on board need to pilot the pod manually.
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12-09-2016, 07:26 PM | #7 |
Join Date: Jul 2007
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Re: [Space Opera] Boarding Pods ideas
Neither pods nor missiles can get through shields, so boarding has to wait until shields are knocked out or voluntarily dropped.
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12-09-2016, 07:39 PM | #8 |
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Denver, CO
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Re: [Space Opera] Boarding Pods ideas
The massive power signature of the warhead would be easily detected while the comparatively smaller power signature of a boarding pod usually fails to activate enemy defenses. There's always a tense moment, though, when you're helpless against enemy point defense and are just waiting to see if you got unlucky this time.
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12-09-2016, 08:48 PM | #9 |
Join Date: Mar 2008
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Re: [Space Opera] Boarding Pods ideas
Financial motive. There are only a few places that can make hyperdrives and they usually won't sell them to someplace at war. So capturing a ship is very worthwhile during a war. So expensive boarding pods vs cheaper missiles.
Or hyperdrives are Ancient tech and there are only so many, capturing one is the easiest way to get one. |
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space opera, spaceship battles, spaceships |
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