08-26-2015, 10:04 AM | #31 | ||
Join Date: Oct 2004
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Re: [Spaceships] Heat Signature, Cloaking Device, and Stealth Hull
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But let me note that the Atomic Rockets very limited stealth exceptions are the camel's nose under the tent -- they really are tactics and while the objectors at that site don't like them, they could in fact be useful under the right circumstances. If it helps it helps -- it's up to future spaceship captains to show how it might work. That knocks right out the blanket "NO STEALTH" argument. Now it becomes "well, okay, but that could hardly help in every situation...and how could that be total 100% stealth anyway?" which is a very bad standard, even for interpreting the way real world radar or sonar stealth is working on the battlefield today. It's a strawman argument on the face of it, basically. Quote:
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08-26-2015, 10:06 AM | #32 | |
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Canada
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Re: [Spaceships] Heat Signature, Cloaking Device, and Stealth Hull
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Since the stealth hull is more about optimization than actually outright camouflaging, I don't think it would qualify as camo for the purposes of determining plain sight. |
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08-26-2015, 10:37 AM | #33 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: [Spaceships] Heat Signature, Cloaking Device, and Stealth Hull
From the narrative(I make no claims for the engineering POV) point of view total invisibility is unnecessary and not necessarily desirable. Better is a sort of limited stealth allowing the hunter and the hunted to parse numerous factors in calculating one another's whereabouts. If invisibility is possible fighting is impossible. If however limited stealth is possible we can have the pleasure of multi hour or even multi day fights like Star trek Balence of Terror, or the second episode of Andromeda.
To do this there are several ways that might come to might. One is a sort of thermal damper that is capable of concealing heat up to a certain point; this might require it to be flushed out every few hours to cool it and the flushing will reveal the ship. Far from being a bug, this is a feature; it allows the rival captains a factor to calculate.
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"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison |
08-26-2015, 10:37 AM | #34 | |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: [Spaceships] Heat Signature, Cloaking Device, and Stealth Hull
Quote:
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I don't know any 3e, so there is no chance that I am talking about 3e rules by accident. |
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08-26-2015, 10:40 AM | #35 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: [Spaceships] Heat Signature, Cloaking Device, and Stealth Hull
Most fights will take place outside the range anyway?
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"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison |
08-26-2015, 10:57 AM | #36 |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: [Spaceships] Heat Signature, Cloaking Device, and Stealth Hull
Outside what range?
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I don't know any 3e, so there is no chance that I am talking about 3e rules by accident. |
08-26-2015, 11:08 AM | #37 |
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Canada
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Re: [Spaceships] Heat Signature, Cloaking Device, and Stealth Hull
Yeah, good point! I guess it'd be important to qualify the nature of the detection apparatus when making the call.
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08-26-2015, 11:13 AM | #38 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: [Spaceships] Heat Signature, Cloaking Device, and Stealth Hull
Beam combat, if it exists, will almost certainly occur at ranges vastly shorter than detection range. A 99% black hull has an apparent magnitude of 0 (trivially visible) at about 10,000 diameters, and you can increase that range by a factor of 1,000 with quite modest (TL 8 hobbyist) hardware.
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08-26-2015, 11:31 AM | #39 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: [Spaceships] Heat Signature, Cloaking Device, and Stealth Hull
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"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison |
08-26-2015, 11:33 AM | #40 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: [Spaceships] Heat Signature, Cloaking Device, and Stealth Hull
Quote:
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"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison |
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Tags |
cloaking device, detection, heat signature, spaceships, stealth hull |
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