Planetary Defenses

Anything concerning the ongoing creation of Futurecraft.
Error
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Planetary Defenses

Post by Error » Mon Dec 17, 2012 8:48 am

I think these were given merely a quick once-over, so I'm starting a thread for these.
Weapons
Mass Driver
Fires simple, ferrous shells. Easy(ish) to make, it merely required metals and magnetic coils. Has a limited range- MDs can only fire into low orbit- but a cheap and easy solution to defense. Mounted on the ground or on ships or orbital stations.

Ion Cannon
Significantly more dangerous is the Ion Cannon. These beasts fire energy blasts all the way up to geostationary orbit. However, they have a high material cost- control circuits and energy projectors. They also suck power like mad. But if you can build these, they're a very good way to defend yourself.

SAMs and SSMs
Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAMs) are atmospheric answers to enemy fighters and dropships. While limited in range, they are relatively easy to produce and require nothing more than a targeting radar to attack. Surface-to-Space Missiles (SSMs) are upgraded SAMs, capable of atacking ships and craft in orbit.

Drone Pad
IN Mack's original FC description. A swarm of glowing squids that flies up to destroy enemies. Ridiculously expensive, but really fricking dangerous at the same time.

High-Energy Laser Systems (HELS)
A high-powered chemical laser capable of firing into low orbit. Advanced versions have longer range and higher power. Useful against ships, pods, ICBMs, and other associated *stuff*.

Shields
Energy Shield
Will ablate almost all energy-based projectiles. Does ****-all against ballistics. Cheap, though.

Particle Shield
Defends against ballistics, but only marginally effective against energy. Balance FTW. Low cost.

Reflector Shields
Has a decent chance to deflect anything, but with a high power and material cost. You pay for what you get.

Feel free to post changes or additions to this list below.
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Chairman_Tiel
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Re: Planetary Defenses

Post by Chairman_Tiel » Mon Dec 17, 2012 8:58 am

So how will this work?
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Re: Planetary Defenses

Post by Error » Mon Dec 17, 2012 9:01 am

Code-wise, No clue. I cannae do Java to save my life.

Game-wise, park them on a planet and supply them with power, then use a tracking/targeting radar to feed data to them and say "shoot this".
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cats
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Re: Planetary Defenses

Post by cats » Mon Dec 17, 2012 9:04 pm

My two cents.

-Orbital MAC station: Large, stationary magnetic accelerators. Requires a huge amount of energy and punches big, glowing holes through attacking ships.

-Grounded MAC: Basically the same as the Orbital MACs, but has to work against gravity and air friction.

-Ion Cannon/Plasma Beam station: Shoots a bolt of highly energized atoms toward an enemy ship. Works well against many kinds of shields.

-Any other turret: ALL the turrets can be wired to a station's AI or manual controls, so you could have a few railguns, lasers, missile launchers, or plasma torpedo launchers along with your big gunz.

-Mines: Lay a mine in the void, an enemy ship approaches and is quickly enveloped in nuclear fire.

-City shields: VERY powerful shields. Energy used to run these are taken from the city's generator. Can take a few nukes or MAC rounds.

-Garages and Elevators: The enemy doesn't have enough firepower to take out your city shields, so it plants marines on the ground to kill the generator. Luckily, you had the foresight to install some underground bases and elevators. The elevators puncture the nuclear glass and release lances of heavy mechs to deal with the threat.
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blockman42
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Re: Planetary Defenses

Post by blockman42 » Mon Dec 17, 2012 9:06 pm

I think enough of my quads in space will be able to fend off *most* attacks

cats
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Re: Planetary Defenses

Post by cats » Mon Dec 17, 2012 9:47 pm

blockman42 wrote:I think enough of my quads in space will be able to fend off *most* attacks
Told you they were stubby reapers.
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Professor Fenway
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Re: Planetary Defenses

Post by Professor Fenway » Tue Dec 18, 2012 12:15 am

You forgot Lasers.

Infrared Ballistic Missile Interception System (IBMIS). Uses high-density lasers to literally melt any incoming missile system. Effective at it's job, but it's **** against ships and other projectiles. Not too expensive, but you need Fission Coils, the predecessor to the ultra-expensive Fusion Coils.

Photonic Oscillating Phase Array System (POPAS). Uses highly oscillating waves to create an intense electromagnetic diffusion field. It is a constant firing cycle; the longer the system stays locked onto a target, the higher energy output the weapon has. Very effective against everything solid; it is fast enough to kill most rounds, and it won't expend much energy killing them. Rather expensive, requiring Fusion Coils, Phase Crystals, and a lot of hardware and targeting AI. It will consume some energy if on standby, which will allow for quick response to threats. If not on standby, however, it takes quite a while to get the Fusion Coil's oscillation to acceptable speeds.

Energetic Projection Nullifier (EPN). This essentially kills energy projectiles by sapping their energy. Very effective in clusters, and their fields lose strength with distance. These absorbed bolts can either be routed into the power grid, or even thrown back at the enemy! Expensive, requiring Fusion Coils and Energy Projectors and Phase Crystals and Field Multipliers.

A few notes:

1.) POPAS is very sensitive to energy weaponry. Seriously. Any spike in energy activity can overload the inertial compensators and cause it to fly apart. Do NOT put EPN fields in proximity to the POPAS.
2.)EPN fields tend to conflict with any energy based weaponry, unless certain frequencies are matched. Each field or field cluster has an unique frequency signature; Energy Weaponry with a similar Resonance Frequence will not be affected by the field. Even with this, expect weaponry to be disrupted.

cats
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Re: Planetary Defenses

Post by cats » Tue Dec 18, 2012 5:54 am

Professor Fenway wrote:You forgot Lasers.
The EPN is no, and that's all there is to say about that.

LAZORS: lasers.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a completely ad-hoc plot device"
— David Langford
Spoiler:
cannonfodder wrote:it's funny because sonic's face looks like a * and faces aren't supposed to look like a *

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Re: Planetary Defenses

Post by taz93 » Tue Dec 18, 2012 5:57 am

How about this

A cloaking shield:
Invisible to all but the highest grade sensors but at a cost of small range, very high power consumption,no other shields can be online at the same time, turrets\vehicles can not shoot at targets when in side (or the cloak will fluctuate)and any one observed entering\exiting the shield causes the cloak to fluctuate at that point.

So why defend it when you can hide it.

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Re: Planetary Defenses

Post by Error » Tue Dec 18, 2012 7:36 am

Lasers, yes. Oscillating whatsit, no. Cloak, no (how does one cloak a planet?).
Cats, MAC is a Halo-y name for a mass driver. Magnetically accelerating a semi-ferrous metallic mass to hypersonic velocities.
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Re: Planetary Defenses

Post by Prototype » Tue Dec 18, 2012 10:22 am

Isnt mass driver just a fancy name for a railgun?

What about interplanetary warfare, I mean this would be the highest tier but what about stuff that you can fire from onw planet which will go an hit another planet, perhaps something like a warp missile?
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Re: Planetary Defenses

Post by Error » Tue Dec 18, 2012 1:35 pm

Note the thread title. And 'mass driver' is the generic term for magnetic linear accelerator.
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Re: Planetary Defenses

Post by CaptainSporatic » Tue Dec 18, 2012 1:46 pm

Commander Error wrote:Lasers, yes. Oscillating whatsit, no. Cloak, no (how does one cloak a planet?).
Cats, MAC is a Halo-y name for a mass driver. Magnetically accelerating a semi-ferrous metallic mass to hypersonic velocities.
I disagree on disregarding the cloaking, as I think the cloaking would be more for a building, so that a high-priority military research facility could be cloaked instead of have multiple obvious defensive weapons. Cloaking could also be used to cloak weapons, so when the weapons are fired, incoming ships don't know where the shot came from.
I agree on the Lasers and the Oscillating whatsit.
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Re: Planetary Defenses

Post by Error » Tue Dec 18, 2012 1:50 pm

CaptainSporatic wrote:
Commander Error wrote:Lasers, yes. Oscillating whatsit, no. Cloak, no (how does one cloak a planet?).
Cats, MAC is a Halo-y name for a mass driver. Magnetically accelerating a semi-ferrous metallic mass to hypersonic velocities.
I disagree on disregarding the cloaking, as I think the cloaking would be more for a building, so that a high-priority military research facility could be cloaked instead of have multiple obvious defensive weapons. Cloaking could also be used to cloak weapons, so when the weapons are fired, incoming ships don't know where the shot came from.
I agree on the Lasers and the Oscillating whatsit.
Why not just build it underground?
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Re: Planetary Defenses

Post by CaptainSporatic » Tue Dec 18, 2012 1:53 pm

Commander Error wrote:
CaptainSporatic wrote:
Commander Error wrote:Lasers, yes. Oscillating whatsit, no. Cloak, no (how does one cloak a planet?).
Cats, MAC is a Halo-y name for a mass driver. Magnetically accelerating a semi-ferrous metallic mass to hypersonic velocities.
I disagree on disregarding the cloaking, as I think the cloaking would be more for a building, so that a high-priority military research facility could be cloaked instead of have multiple obvious defensive weapons. Cloaking could also be used to cloak weapons, so when the weapons are fired, incoming ships don't know where the shot came from.
I agree on the Lasers and the Oscillating whatsit.
Why not just build it underground?
What if it's a green facility and needs sunlight? What if it begins above-ground then continues underground? What if it needs satellite dishes for communication, satellite dishes which need to be above ground?
Either way, I think that the cloaking shields would be a good addition, and shouldn't be discarded so readily.
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