Commando Battlesuits vs. SM+4 space fighters - WTF?

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Langy

Humans have barely any open space at all - just what's in our lungs, pretty much, and even that's not much. A fighter airplane has a lot more open space - seed the big cockpit, the fuel tanks, the bomb bay (if internal), etc.

Cockpit I grant, but fuel tanks? Is aviation fuel that low density? Loaded internal weapons bays might be less dense than a human.

Spaceships never accounts for the possibility that a bay, tank, or magazine might not be full, aside from the delta-V correction. They might have a bunch of waste volume thrown in for some reason, but I'm not sure why.

[Langy]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Cockpit I grant, but fuel tanks? Is aviation fuel that low density? Loaded internal weapons bays might be less dense than a human.

Spaceships never accounts for the possibility that a bay, tank, or magazine might not be full, aside from the delta-V correction. They might have a bunch of waste volume thrown in for some reason, but I'm not sure why.

Jet fuel is about 45 pounds per cubic foot, so less than a human body (as seen by the fact it floats).

Also, remember that Spaceships assumes that density (along with everything else) is constant as mass changes, so a fighter in the Spaceships system has the same density as a cargo ship.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Cockpit I grant, but fuel tanks? Is aviation fuel that low density? Loaded internal weapons bays might be less dense than a human.

Aviation fuel is (accordign to Ve2) 6.5 lbs per gallon while water (and therefore human flesh) is around 8. Liquid hydrogen is _much_ less dense.

Spaceships is hinky on density anyway. It nearly ignores it while concentrating on mass.

[Anthony]

Also, the ignored factor is range. Generally speaking, spaceships are fast enough and have long enough range that they can shoot at the battlesuit without the battlesuit being able to shoot back at all.

[weby]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Also, the ignored factor is range. Generally speaking, spaceships are fast enough and have long enough range that they can shoot at the battlesuit without the battlesuit being able to shoot back at all.

Given the possible ranges of manportable missiles and the extra range a battlesuit portable missile could have a space fighter would likely not want to get too close to battlesuits and at longer ranges detecting a stealthied SM 0 object is far from trivial unless you are in space and detecting heat.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by weby

Given the possible ranges of manportable missiles and the extra range a battlesuit portable missile could have a space fighter would likely not want to get too close to battlesuits and at longer ranges detecting a stealthied SM 0 object is far from trivial unless you are in space and detecting heat.

A space fighter will be in space and detecting heat. And almost certainly can engage from at least 150 miles with some guns.

[Langy]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

A space fighter will be in space and detecting heat. And almost certainly can engage from at least 150 miles with some guns.

True, but the battlesuit isn't likely to be in space along with the fighter.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Langy

True, but the battlesuit isn't likely to be in space along with the fighter.

It is in the situation that the OP is complaining about.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Langy

True, but the battlesuit isn't likely to be in space along with the fighter.

In the context of being used by a space marine boarding team, it is, though launching marines while hostile fighters are around is probably a bad idea. And it certainly would be in the context of being strapped to a large thruster pack and used as a fighter substitute.

An aerospace fighter against a powersuit on the ground is, of course, an entirely different exercise.