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Old 10-19-2019, 07:54 AM   #2
thrash
 
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: traveller
Default Re: Spaceship Weapons and Gravity Layout

Quote:
Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
The ship will be using artificial gravity. This is generated by grav-disks that apply either an attractive or a repulsive force to each side in a symmetric cylinder centered on the disk. Stacking a disk on each level requires changing the direction of gravity each time you pass a plate, which seems undesirable (likely at least 6 decks, if not more).
Not sure I understand this. Are you saying that each disk generates either a repulsive or an attractive force, but not both (say, attractive on one side and repulsive on the other)? Is the gravity vector oriented perpendicular to the plate (flat side up/down) or parallel to it (with the plate as sort of an end-cap on the cylinder)?

Quote:
I'm thinking the ship should be long and thin so that it can present a minimal profile to opponents. I'm tentatively sticking the engines (super-science boosted reaction engines) on the other side of the minimal profile. I'm unsure if I should orient the gravity down towards the engines, so the ship is built like a rocket or sky scraper, or if I should pick a long side of the ship to be "down", and orient the thing like a naval ship.
Stacking like a skyscraper is the way to go. The only advantage of what you call naval orientation (besides being simpler to draw and cheaper for Earthly special effects budgets) is that it's easy to move the length of the ship -- but that turns into a disadvantage when the gravity is off.

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I'm trying to figure out the layout of the guns. ... The other option is to slope all of the sides towards the front and place the main turrets all the way around the ship.
This. Your ship is a long, thin cone, with the main battery ranked to concentrate fire forward (over each other's shoulders, as it were).

If your reaction engine system allows (e.g., doesn't spew radioactive death), it is helpful to place the main engines closer to amidships and make the hull a double cone. This reduces stress on the hull by reducing the "height" from the drive plane, and makes the ship easier to turn. You would need secondary batteries for the rear arc, but now you have some surface area to mount them. You could also have room for (e.g.) launching and recovering small craft without entering the main battery's firing arc.
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