Newtonian Aurora

[waresky]

@Steve : any idea when ur Newtonian can come into playable situation? (zzz..my english...)

December? January 2012?..more later?

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

Isn't it pretty pointless for a missile to turn and try again?
It'll take days before it reaches the required speed if the target just runs past it.

Depends on the relative speeds of ship and missile. Bear in mind the ship may not be going that fast either. I think speeds in Aurora FTL are likely to be lower overall.

And how will active ECM impact a missiles accuracy?
Will it just give out false targets?

ECM is probably going to become a lot more important. I may revisit the mechanics for Aurora FTL

Steve

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

This sounds like Laser warheads will be a lot more useful since they wouldn't require a direct hit against a target that might be accelerating wildly.    Will there be any additions to this technology? 

Also, if a missile reaches it's chosen terminal velocity and shuts down its engines, will that lower its thermal reading?  Seems like keeping active sensors going might be more important if a wave of powered down missiles might smash into your fleet without warning.

I will be working on laser warheads before release as they will be very useful. I will probably allow them at lower tech as well. I also may have some form of shrapnel warhead for use against other missiles.

If a missile has its engines off it will have a minimal thermal reading.

Steve

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

So will we get missile launchers that base on Railgun or Massdriver technology? I would favor a massdriver for missiles. Willit be possible to have purely kinetic missiles?

Over the last few days I have been reading online regarding railguns and their potential for launching missiles. There 'kinetic missiles' will be railgun shots, although the lines between some of the weapons may blur. I may revisit weapon designs to make kinetic weapons more reality-based.

Steve

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

@Steve : any idea when ur Newtonian can come into playable situation? (zzz..my english...)

December? January 2012?..more later?

Difficult to judge at this stage. This is so much to do . I am particularly not looking forward to working my way through the AI code.

Steve

[waresky]

Over the last few days I have been reading online regarding railguns and their potential for launching missiles. There 'kinetic missiles' will be railgun shots, although the lines between some of the weapons may blur. I may revisit weapon designs to make kinetic weapons more reality-based.

Steve

NewA (Newtonian Aurora) seem a very nice project..a thoughest one.

[UnLimiTeD]

I'm looking forward to launching long range missiles from stealth ships and not activating their engines until it's too late.
Nice to see you found new borders to fuel your coding creativity. And yeah, AI's gonna be a bitch.
While at it, will we see tech lines like "Light weight Armor" that increases the TCS, but reduces mass?

[Napoleon XIX]

Project Rho has some very interesting things that could be relevant to Newtonian Aurora (for menu see top right).

[Echo35]

Over the last few days I have been reading online regarding railguns and their potential for launching missiles. There 'kinetic missiles' will be railgun shots, although the lines between some of the weapons may blur. I may revisit weapon designs to make kinetic weapons more reality-based.

Steve

The Missiles in Attack Vector are actually rocket propelled rail gun shells. It's basically just a missile that rather than having an explosive, deploys several shells at a certain distance from the enemy ship, so you get the benefit of the increased crossing vector and momentum that a separate thruster can provide, over simply moving the ship fast enough and hoping it works out as well.

[UnLimiTeD]

This puts up another interesting point. Kinetic Impact missiles could be devastating at these speeds.
Will be be able to choose between Nuclear warheads (higher "cross section(hit chance)" and damage independent of impact velocity) and Kinetic Impact (high damage and armor penetration dependent on speed)?

[Rastaman]

This is totally and utterly groundshakingly worldscollidingly awsome! NewA looks like the game I always wanted to play. DeltaV, omfg! Rocket equations! More logistics! FTL Drives! Real kinetic weapons! The integration of the design system is also a great step into the right direction. This is not niche, it's the only way!

Just include the option of a sublight universe where no FTL exists (FTL factor 1) ... and with relativistic effects: Engine thrust decreases with speed!

[jseah]

Engine thrust decreases with speed!

You mean mass increases with speed but thrust stays the same.  =P

[Rastaman]

You mean mass increases with speed but thrust stays the same.  =P

Actually no because that way you could create relativistic weapons, and I guess we want to avoid that. If not we should also decrease the sensor signature of relatistic objects since they are close behind their signal front. Planet busters without warning.

[jseah]

Well, non-FTL sensors will be problematic to code. 

In any case, if this is going to remain newtonian, I forsee a particular kind of megaproject:

Build a ship and speed it up to lightspeed. 

[Teiwaz]

I also may have some form of shrapnel warhead for use against other missiles.

If shrapnel warheads mean larger, slower anti-missile missiles become viable, does that mean we're going to want anti anti missile missile missiles to escort our salvos of regular missiles?