If the player can not drive a battleship, how to compensate it?

[Bobucles]

[Spero]

[THE_TrashMan]

Why do people assume that gamepaly and real scientific priciples/beleviabiltiy/realism/cersimilitude are incompatible?

You saying that respecting science automaticly means bad gameplay?

[Rabiator der II.]

[silentWitness]

Ok… to go back to the original topic (though I know everyone has stopped discussing it in favour of ‘my theoretical futuristic technology is better than yours’…

Ok ‘real life’ scenario…

The reason why ships have been getting smaller is because the means of ‘force projection’ has changed. While back in the day the ship with the biggest and most cannons won the day. Then the air plane came and suddenly ships were vulnerable to attack by torpedoes and bombs severely damaging a ship even sinking it. Then came missiles… even small ships could launch a missile at extreme long range capable of taking out ships and aircraft alike, suddenly it wasn’t size but how many you had (again) to overwhelm anti missile systems. Now we have drones able to project force from a ship on the other side of the planet. (We’ve seen this evolution in the X series actually don’t know if you guys have noticed).

So now for the scenario….

X technology uses ‘gravimetric scanners’ so technically they can identify objects at extreme range, we can assume that this system is backed up by some sort of emission system to identify the difference between an asteroid and enemy objects, which may well be of lesser range. We also know that capital ships would have a flotilla of drones buzzing around it augmenting its scan capability. So the capital ship would enter the system and discover a gravimetric anomaly near the fifth planet and most likely deploy drones to scout the area. Drones confirm enemy capital ship near the planet. Warfare has now begun. Well outside of visual range.
Capital ships close to tactical range and begin to launch missiles hoping that their small profile may allow them to slip through but antimissile defence systems keep them at bay. Both ships launch multirole ‘fighters’ and interceptor escorts a fighter battle begins between the two targets.
The two capital ships are still closing on each other… still not within visual range. This continues for some times… say no clear victor has occurred at this stage (though most naval battles would be over in this segment). Finally the capital ships get within visual range but nothing changes until the ships get into weapon range! Finally come into play!!! This would be the last step of the battle. For both ships to get to this stage would mean that the ships are evenly matched tactically and in resources this would be rare… Both ships inflict huge damage on the other and perhaps a clear victor occurs.
Fun? Ummm… maybe I guess… seeing a capital ship blip off on the scanner readout could be good I guess.

Alternate scenario taking into account tactics:

A frigate masks itself in an asteroid belt… a dreadnaught enters the system deploys scout drones… etc… no obvious targets located, continues patrol. The frigates scout drones are small and have a low power signature able to track the dreadnaught at extreme range while maintaining a stealth profile. Frigate enters tactical range and launches missiles. The missiles enter EM range on scanner, time to impact 60 seconds, dreadnaught hustles to deploy missile defences, it’s interceptors are being shot down as they attempt to engage…. Despite being the bigger more powerful capital ship it finds itself outmatched by a tactically superior opponent. Missile barrage hits home, no target to fire back on places the dreadnaught on the back foot. Where is the enemy? The ship uses its scout drones to attempt to find it’s aggressor. Meanwhile its shields are taking a pounding, its interceptors are fighting enemy interceptors and missile barrages, but defences are under pressure and missiles are getting through. (Facing an unknown enemy the Dreadnaught withdraws from the system but say they don’t) … The captain chooses to press on… shields are low when finally the frigate is identified, enemy interceptors and fighters have the dreadnaught on the back foot still but are beginning to be pushed back. Finally the dreadnaught can begin to assume an aggressive stance… maybe the dreadnaught is able to use its huge force projection capabilities to subdue the frigate, maybe the frigate runs off having inflicted heavy damage to a superior enemy vessel, maybe the dreadnaught is too late and is crippled allowing the frigate to win the day…

The whole point of this...

Detection is the first stage of warfare. (Gravity is the first detection system followed by energy signature… leading to interesting scenarios.)
Then ‘tactical’ weapons… Missiles, fighters (and bombers) and Drones.
Finally once all other resources are committed and there is no clear victor direct fire weaponry could be employed. Most battles would be settled tactically well outside of visual range. Though not necessarily with the destruction of a ship… withdrawal would also be a victory. Capital ships would almost completely be a tactical game. So just like ships at sea a ship is valued by how much force is can project against opponents. Thus Carriers and Drone-Ships are still top dog… as they can project their force the furthest but these ships are not necessarily great at closer ranges or in every tactical situation… smaller cheaper ships for smaller conflicts/needs…

Damn... that became a rant...

[brucewarren]

I'd like battleships to have a few tricks of their own to partially compensate
for this. As a large platform, there ought to be space to mount a few things
that simply wouldn't fit onto a small ship.

Very long ranger scanners. They'd have the power to run these.

Heavy, long range weapons. Something like a particle beam, with a range
of hundreds/thousands of miles. Of course the ship would have to slow to a
stop in order to aim and fire them. Something like this was proposed for the
satelites of the discredited SDI program back in the eighties. With current
technology it can't be done because the beam dissipates over distance, but
this is X after all, so someone would have found a way to keep it focused.

You'd still need drones and a small flotilla to protect it while it was preparing
to fire, else it would be a sitting duck.

[THE_TrashMan]

[THE_TrashMan]

[Bobucles]

[shadowrunner85]

[Spero]

[A5PECT]

Well, "shield" is a relative term.

The Earth's magnetic field shields the planet from certain forms of radiation. It doesn't shield the planet from say, a large asteroid.

This discussion is obviously about some kind of energy shielding capable of protecting a spacecraft from projectiles (be it some kind of mass-based projectile or a packet of highly-focused directed energy) during combat.

[Spero]

[silentWitness]

[THE_TrashMan]