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Old 04-18-2018, 10:27 AM   #71
Michael Thayne
 
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Default Re: [Spaceships] Missile shield vs. ramming: two questions

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The problem with missiles is mostly that they don't scale the same way as beams, for reasons that are not entirely obvious. In general 7-10mm should be considered SM+0 for projectiles.
Is 11-15mm then SM+1? And <does some extrapolating> the 16cm missiles from Spaceships are SM+7? Does that mean the wounding multiplier is x1/3?
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Old 04-18-2018, 10:44 AM   #72
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Default Re: [Spaceships] Missile shield vs. ramming: two questions

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Is 11-15mm then SM+1? And <does some extrapolating> the 16cm missiles from Spaceships are SM+7? Does that mean the wounding multiplier is x1/3?
Well, that's for piercing damage. I don't recall what damage type missiles in Spaceships are.
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Old 04-18-2018, 11:58 AM   #73
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Default Re: [Spaceships] Missile shield vs. ramming: two questions

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Well, that's for piercing damage. I don't recall what damage type missiles in Spaceships are.
Strangely, kinetic attacks in Spaceships don't seem to have any damage type listed. I guess I would treat it as crushing, since crushing is the type that normally has no special effects.

ETA: In this thread it was previously noted that this is unclear, but also that pi++ and cr both have a x1 wounding multiplier vs. unliving.
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Old 04-18-2018, 01:47 PM   #74
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Default Re: [Spaceships] Missile shield vs. ramming: two questions

Well, pi++ is 15-20mm in that scheme, so 16 cm winds up as a 1/7.
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Old 04-18-2018, 03:17 PM   #75
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Default Re: [Spaceships] Missile shield vs. ramming: two questions

It's probably worth looking into the physics of damage, because at collison speeds above a mile per second most warheads are going to act like explosives or shaped charges, not like penetrators. They'll punch a small, slightly over-calibre hole in the face of the armour (or in the first layer of standoff armour (Whipple plating) and then spread out as they go in.

As for beams, producing widers spots for more damage is not a strategy that I've heard discussed. Rather, talk always seems to be of producing the minimum possible spot size to get the highest beam intensity and most violent interactions possible (drilling, explsive spalling) withou having beam intensities on the objective mirror that cause damamge there. I guess that once you reach a spot intensity high enough to achieve the most desireable effects you could increase spot size in line with objective size. I'm just not sure that that's fruitful if the mechanism of damage is to induce explosive evaporation of the target.
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Old 04-18-2018, 03:26 PM   #76
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Default Re: [Spaceships] Missile shield vs. ramming: two questions

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As for beams, producing widers spots for more damage is not a strategy that I've heard discussed.
It's not really a strategy, it's a somewhat unwanted side effect (there tends to be a limit on practical aspect ratio for drilled holes). Also, the way Spaceships scales beam damage (cube root of beam energy) means it must be generating wider holes at higher beam energies.
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Old 04-18-2018, 04:17 PM   #77
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Default Re: [Spaceships] Missile shield vs. ramming: two questions

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Well, pi++ is 15-20mm in that scheme, so 16 cm winds up as a 1/7.
Ahah, I forgot to factor in Unliving, which is a flat -2 to piercing type, right? 16cm = pi+8, so that's -2 from relative size with an additional -2 from Unliving, so effectively pi-4? I think I understand the system now.

Would an SM+4 ramming ship–if you treated it as a piercing attack–have a relative size of pi+6 vs. an SM+10 ship? Reasoning: size of a projectile is WM-12, so reversing that, WM is SM plus 12. So the absolute WM of an SM+4 drone is pi+16, and the relative size is pi+6?

EDIT: For the ramming drone, I guess that would be pi+4 once you factored in Unliving.
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Old 04-18-2018, 04:22 PM   #78
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Default Re: [Spaceships] Missile shield vs. ramming: two questions

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It's not really a strategy, it's a somewhat unwanted side effect (there tends to be a limit on practical aspect ratio for drilled holes).
Just so. Beam spreading is an unwanted side effect, not a fast route to increased damage.

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Also, the way Spaceships scales beam damage (cube root of beam energy) means it must be generating wider holes at higher beam energies.
Right, so be careful about applying a "hole width" multiplier to a base damage that already reflects hole width.
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Old 04-18-2018, 04:30 PM   #79
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Default Re: [Spaceships] Missile shield vs. ramming: two questions

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Right, so be careful about applying a "hole width" multiplier to a base damage that already reflects hole width.
Damage types other than piercing do not have hole width modifiers, and should. At the same penetration, a wider hole is certainly more destructive.
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Old 04-18-2018, 04:30 PM   #80
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Default Re: [Spaceships] Missile shield vs. ramming: two questions

Testing my understanding of this system by applying it to the ASATs vs. Gibraltar scenario:

At a relative velocity of 80 mps, the 16cm missiles inflict 6dx320 damage, largely trivializing the Gibraltar's 45 dDR. But, the Gibraltar gets a x1/30 wounding multiplier, so the missiles only inflict an average of 224 points of damage. That's enough to disable a system, but not destroy the Gibraltar in one hit. Rolling damage for each hit individually, you'd need 12-13 hits on average. And with the "Multiple Hits" rule from Anthony's article, you'd need 30+ hits from one salvo.

Did I do that right?
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