[Space Opera] Boarding Pods ideas

[Phantasm]

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?

[The Colonel]

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.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Phantasm

However, there's the realization that if pods can slip or punch through the force screen, how come missiles can't?

The Boarding Pod is also shielded and considerably larger than a missile. The defensive screen can easily knock aside/slow/stop/destroy a missile, but a shielded boat?

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.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Phantasm

However, there's the realization that if pods can slip or punch through the force screen, how come missiles can't?

You have two basic options: missiles can't make it through, or missiles can make it though but aren't terribly effective.

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.

[Refplace]

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.

[(E)]

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.

[cptbutton]

Neither pods nor missiles can get through shields, so boarding has to wait until shields are knocked out or voluntarily dropped.

[khorboth]

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.

[dcarson]

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.

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by dcarson

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.

I was looking at the tech that'd explain the pods themselves, not motivation. Those are good, but I admit that I have a setting of my own in mind; those explanations for motivation don't wholly fit (particularly the second), though the first is pretty close to why.

I was mostly asking for "why can pods get through when missiles can't?" or "why can't this potentially game-changing technology (the ability to slip through shields) be applied to missiles?"