1-3a. Ok, stop stop stop.
I'm not a physicist. I've never taken a physics class. Lets stop for a moment. What is the point of what you're trying to do? Is it just to make an powerful x-ray laser for ships? Is that what we're going with here?
It'd help to skim through it a little... >_>
In principle yes, one part of it is that. I basically tossed in the tech language to provide some manner of description, as usual. I want to check if using giant FELs is going to be an improvement over standard ship lasers, because for all I know standard ship lasers use automanips to overcharge their performance or already use non-UV frequencies.
Then, I want to see if I can make a Gamma-ray laser, specifically for a ship that's built around it. It is kind of like a souped-up FEL without a charge looparound, just straight emitter->wiggler->focusing array in one line. The power requirements for the Graser are huge, because it can sink all that power and actually deliver it - overall it's going to be more powerful than an equivalently powered laser, and will defeat armor easier if it can be made.
IF it can be made - I want to roll Int to see if Anton can actually manage to design this monstrosity by himself in VR, because unlike XRay FELs this is beyond modern-day tech by quite a bit. If he fails, he'll try to give the project to a science team later.
Then I'd like to design either one or two battlecruiser-size ships - one equipped with the Graser as its main weapon if it's designed successfully, and one equipped with two scaled-up FELs capable of firing in all directions, as per the description paragraphs. With some luck we'll actually come to a consensus on the design of the new ships sometime in the near future.
Apologies, walls of text and the slow onset of sickness were not meshing for me. In general, when I see walls of of text and technobabble, my eyes tend to glaze over a bit. Best way to get the Piecewise Brand Computer (Now with more vibrating skull action) to function is as follows:
1. Very general idea (Yo dog, I wanna make like, a big laser what I gonna use to blow up shit. Zap zap zap, frying nasty xenos ASAP!)
2. Then, some minor explanations about it's design and intended purpose. (alright so dig. You got the big fucking power source back here right? And the emitter diode up here, and these focusing lenses here and here, and then you take the whole thing and you slap it in a metal box and stick a trigger on that shit. Maybe some gold plating. Classy.)
3. Then, if Piecewise brand computer has questions, you answer those as you need to.
That way you have to write less, and I don't have to sift through a wall of text, much of which is greek to me, and attempt to decipher what you want through the haze of my own ignorance.
Anyways.
I dunno. I mean, unless FEL's get like, significantly more powerful or better results then standard lasers (piecewise is piecedumb when it comes to lasers) then it probably won't matter much. Unless you could just hit them with gamma rays powerful enough to kill the crew but not the ship. Well, you'd fry it something awful I'm sure, but the physical ship. But nah, automanip use on lasers is rare. They don't handle them well.
So Graser: more energy, but better use of energy so more powerful? Any differences between it and standard ones, besides better use of power? Is it still an invisible beam of making things crispy?
Is it beyond modern day tech simply because of the size and power needed or are there physics weirdnesses which make it hard to do? If it's just size and power then you should be able to do it.
((Just for clarification, in case my descriptions are confusing, for the FEL cruiser I intend a design a little like this:
))
Das interesting mang.
So, is the idea that you have the big central laser generating things (cyclers, whatever you wanna call'em) and then various ports you can open, which direct down "Barrels" which then let out on outputs that direct the laser in a certain cone of fire using lenses or some such shit.
An interesting way to get around the limitations of a spinal mounted weapon. Looks like it should work, HOWEVER, there are still blind spots on it and those outputs are gonna be fragile. What happens if one of the "Barrels" or outputs gets damaged?
Armor, mostly thickness:
1.How thick does a layer of hexbug armor need to be to resist a PSL shard without shattering?
2.How many seconds does the above layer of hexbug resist, say, a standard laser rifle?
3.How thick does a layer of hexsand need to be to 'eat' plasma? Is there a minimum thickness?
4.How thick does the backing of sharkplate need to be to reliably keep the hexsand mostly in place?
5.How thick is a plate of battlesuit plate? IIRC, there's five layers, with the last two being focused on ballistic resistance. If those are different, could I have their thickness too?
6.Test replacing the top two armor layers of a battlesuit with hexbug on top, and hexsand below. If the hexbug takes a strong kinetic hit, is the hexsand below damaged?
7.If the above is true, would putting a layer of sharkplate below protect the hexsand? Is there a different material that does it cheaper?
8.Would a plate of sharkplate the same cost as a plate of battlesuit plate resist small arms to a similar extent? Since neither hexsand nor hexbug seems to resist both kinetic and energy weapons well, a layer on the outside meant to resist ALL small arms seems like a good idea.
((Heph update coming later, but there's nothing very important to be updated. Only important thing is that the idle crew is actually building a hammer cannon.))
Oh dear, I feel like we're getting into that extremely specific realm where I'm gonna give out numbers because they feel right in my head but they're gonna be too big or too small or contradictory with others and then someone is gonna end up with something super op and feel really annoyed when me and the council tell them to fuck off, because they did everything using the numbers I told them. Why do you do this to me Sy?
Alright, the thing is that I'm not entirely sure I can give you good numbers because when it comes to in game, I'm not sure I'll remember how it should behave and it will depend on rolls and...ugh. I'll give you what I can.
1. Pretty thin. It's a physical impact, even if it's sharp.
2. uh...well, directed I'd say 2, 3 seconds.
3. Well, depends on how much plasma. They sand can only eat so much so fast. But something like the plasma weapon we have could be stopped by like a half inch or something.
4.Inch or two maybe.
5. In all they're like...two feet thick or so. Divide by five, make the anti-ballistic ones a bit thicker.
6. Depends on how well secured it is and how, but assuming it doesn't transfer the force directly into the lower plate, should be fine.
8. Well thats a bit of a false equivalency. It would totally resist as well, but it would also be like 5 feet thick. It's much cheaper. Like, make some body suits out of it asap cheaper.