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[Sheb]

Well, they make sense... I just wonder how many launchers Ill need to bypass the planet AMM and PD...

[Puzzlemaker]

Mass Effects normandy was stealthed; they said it had giant heat sinks that stored energy, so they could only stealth for a short amount of time before the heat built up too much.

But yeah, maxwells demon could actually be a thing now, and they turn heat into energy.

[Cthulhu]

Well yeah, if you make up a special macguffin then you solve the problem.  That's my favorite kind of sci-fi actually.  "Hard" sci-fi has to make concessions cause in real life space is the most boring shit ever and there's no way to make it interesting without taking away realism.  The best sci-fi invents one huge bullshit thing (element zero, trans-newtonian elements, etc.) and builds a coherent world out of that one big lie.

"Realism" is always a sham, internal consistency is what makes fiction good.

[Rince Wind]

Well, they make sense... I just wonder how many launchers Ill need to bypass the planet AMM and PD...

I like to make size 1 sub munitions for that. No points in agility, just fast and a small warhead. If they are shot down I don't care, as they probably cost the enemy quite some AMMs. If they hit, even better, they cost AMMs and got to do a little damage.

[Flying Dice]

One thing you can do to cheese that sort of thick AMM defense is to build a ship that's basically nothing but armor (and shields, if you have decent ones), then pop it in and out of their maximum range. Other than that you're basically down to a decision between blowing a lot of ordinance in a single alpha strike and hoping enough missiles get through versus sending in heavily armored meson-armed ships to squash the PDCs.

[MarcAFK]

The AI were recently changed to not blow all their AMM's at the first missile contact they come up against. But they still fall for kiting like you described. And will still waste all their missiles on ground troops at a contested planet.

[Zeebie]

Is there any way to train PDC-based fighter squadrons?

[Akhier the Dragon hearted]

Well that took a bit of time. I just finished reading a hundred sum pages that have happened since my last time here.

First off, we argue about the missile power thing a lot. No really, we argue about it so much. My opinion which I will refer back too as I need to is that its like deciding how much food you bring at embark for Dwarf Fortress. No you don't have to have a multiple of 10 plus 1 but that one extra means you get what is basically a free barrel. So yes you could have any amount of missile power but why have 3 when for 4 you can pierce one more layer of armor?

Second is the stealth thing. The first thing about it is that from my understanding of it your not trying to be invisible. Your just trying to make your ship seem smaller to the enemies sensor. Yes this could end up with you just melding in to the background but I would see that more of a your just small space debris to them or what not. The other thing is that as far as heat goes you don't even need to stretch technology too far. The peltier effect could be used to keep your radiant heat at background levels for a time if you pump enough power into it and have an effective metal combination.

Finally something for you all. I found this linked in the Traveller subreddit. I present to you "On The Taxonmy of Spaceships". It goes over what the various ship names (ex: frigate) meant historically and how it has been applied to science fiction space ships.

[Flying Dice]

Yep, pretty much aligns with my own knowledge. Shame he didn't cover stuff like escort carriers or Q-ships, though.

[Girlinhat]

The idea of stealth is the same as modern stealth tech, where we take a full wing bomber and give it the radar ping the size of a sparrow.  You take a large object and make it harder to detect, either by reducing the signature entirely or by making yourself look like a glitch and letting the enemy's sensor say that there's nothing there.

Sensors in Aurora are gravity based, so the stealth must simply reduce the gravity of objects.  They still have the same mass, and take the same fuel to move, so the ship itself is the same, but the way the ship interacts with things outside the ship is changed.  Since gravity is often compared to a trampoline, with an object causing a dip/crater in the fabric which draws in other objects, an Aurora stealth device would leave a ball sitting atop the trampoline without causing any dip in the fabric.  In other words, if this was stretched over the Earth, it would cause the moon to fly away because Earth's gravity sphere had disappeared, but the Earth itself would still be a massive object.

So stealth is antigravity, basically.

[miauw62]

Wouldn't that permit alcubierre drives?

[forsaken1111]

Sensors in Aurora are gravity based, so the stealth must simply reduce the gravity of objects.  They still have the same mass, and take the same fuel to move, so the ship itself is the same, but the way the ship interacts with things outside the ship is changed.  Since gravity is often compared to a trampoline, with an object causing a dip/crater in the fabric which draws in other objects, an Aurora stealth device would leave a ball sitting atop the trampoline without causing any dip in the fabric.  In other words, if this was stretched over the Earth, it would cause the moon to fly away because Earth's gravity sphere had disappeared, but the Earth itself would still be a massive object.

Literally the premise behind Mass Effect.

[Girlinhat]

Almost.  Mass Effect, as far as I can tell, works in two ways.  They kind of hand-wave a bit of it so it's hard to say for certain, and the Mystery Material seems to be omni-purpose as well, but...  1: It causes mass in an area to be less massive, thus making ships lighter and allowing smaller engines to move them faster.  2: It can create 'phantom mass' in an area, such as the relays, which causes things to be pulled by gravity, or something.  It's also apparently a heatsink???  Either way, many scifi tricks in several settings reduce the mass of a ship, as if the ship itself were made of styrofoam and super lightweight.  In Aurora, the mass of the vessel is the same, but the gravity of that mass is lowered.

[JOKER_G]

A new idea of ship series, focus on total war, alpha strike, stable production and easily replacement.

Ship Core:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Central class Core    10,000 tons     242 Crew     2065.5 BP      TCS 200  TH 800  EM 0
4000 km/s    JR 6-50     Armour 11-41     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 4     PPV 15
Maint Life 1.14 Years     MSP 516    AFR 200%    IFR 2.8%    1YR 404    5YR 6061    Max Repair 400 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Spare Berths 0   
Magazine 475   

J10000(6-50) Military Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 10000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 6
800 EP Magneto-plasma Drive (1)    Power 800    Fuel Use 20%    Signature 800    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 500,000 Litres    Range 45.0 billion km   (130 days at full power)

RIM tube (15)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 5
Missile Fire Control FC52-R1 (1)     Range 52.9m km    Resolution 1
RIM-7 Sea Sparrow (475)  Speed: 67,200 km/s   End: 1.3m    Range: 5.3m km   WH: 1    Size: 1    TH: 627/376/188

Active Search Sensor MR221-R200 (1)     GPS 22400     Range 221.7m km    Resolution 200
Active Search Sensor MR50-R1 (1)     GPS 364     Range 51.0m km    MCR 5.5m km    Resolution 1

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Missile Pod:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Port class Missile Pod    10,000 tons     247 Crew     1858.5 BP      TCS 200  TH 800  EM 0
4000 km/s     Armour 3-41     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 4     PPV 102
Maint Life 1.68 Years     MSP 465    AFR 200%    IFR 2.8%    1YR 197    5YR 2962    Max Repair 400 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Spare Berths 1   
Magazine 408   

800 EP Magneto-plasma Drive (1)    Power 800    Fuel Use 20%    Signature 800    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 500,000 Litres    Range 45.0 billion km   (130 days at full power)

VLS Unit (68)    Missile Size 6    Rate of Fire 3000
Missile Fire Control FC199-R200 (3)     Range 199.6m km    Resolution 200

ECCM-3 (3)         This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

AMM Pod:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Starboard class Defence Pod    10,000 tons     252 Crew     1697.5 BP      TCS 200  TH 800  EM 0
4000 km/s     Armour 3-41     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 4     PPV 40
Maint Life 1.16 Years     MSP 424    AFR 200%    IFR 2.8%    1YR 320    5YR 4797    Max Repair 400 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Spare Berths 1   
Magazine 1236   

800 EP Magneto-plasma Drive (1)    Power 800    Fuel Use 20%    Signature 800    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 550,000 Litres    Range 49.5 billion km   (143 days at full power)

RIM tube (40)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 5
Missile Fire Control FC52-R1 (2)     Range 52.9m km    Resolution 1
RIM-7 Sea Sparrow (1236)  Speed: 67,200 km/s   End: 1.3m    Range: 5.3m km   WH: 1    Size: 1    TH: 627/376/188

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

Cannon Pod:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Broadside class Strike Pod    10,000 tons     460 Crew     1986.5 BP      TCS 200  TH 800  EM 0
4000 km/s     Armour 12-41     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 5     PPV 72
Maint Life 1.82 Years     MSP 621    AFR 160%    IFR 2.2%    1YR 236    5YR 3534    Max Repair 400 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Spare Berths 0   

800 EP Magneto-plasma Drive (1)    Power 800    Fuel Use 20%    Signature 800    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 510,000 Litres    Range 45.9 billion km   (132 days at full power)

R30/C5 Meson Cannon (12)    Range 300,000km     TS: 15000 km/s     Power 10-5     RM 30    ROF 10        1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Fire Control S02 240-8000 (1)    Max Range: 480,000 km   TS: 8000 km/s     98 96 94 92 90 88 85 83 81 79
Magnetic Confinement Fusion Reactor Technology PB-1.25 (12)     Total Power Output 60    Armour 0    Exp 20%

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

[iceball3]

The idea of stealth is the same as modern stealth tech, where we take a full wing bomber and give it the radar ping the size of a sparrow.  You take a large object and make it harder to detect, either by reducing the signature entirely or by making yourself look like a glitch and letting the enemy's sensor say that there's nothing there.

Sensors in Aurora are gravity based, so the stealth must simply reduce the gravity of objects.  They still have the same mass, and take the same fuel to move, so the ship itself is the same, but the way the ship interacts with things outside the ship is changed.  Since gravity is often compared to a trampoline, with an object causing a dip/crater in the fabric which draws in other objects, an Aurora stealth device would leave a ball sitting atop the trampoline without causing any dip in the fabric.  In other words, if this was stretched over the Earth, it would cause the moon to fly away because Earth's gravity sphere had disappeared, but the Earth itself would still be a massive object.

So stealth is antigravity, basically.

Actually, they will take more fuel to move assuming your retain all other components as the stealth drive tends to be really heavy in of itself.