Just a small little blurb on how various things work in the 'ol OMW Universe.
Yes I use the term Turbolaser, but it isn't quite your Star Wars Turbolaser. Also explains why almost every ship in SWATS, The DHO, the GDA, the 53rd MCOH, 753rd IBAS, and the BioAndronian Navy has optical weapons (chemical/matter lasers) AND physical weapons. (shell-based explosive cannons, Close-In Weapon Systems (CIWS) and the like.)
Shields are also radicially different. 'Shields at 40%!' is just so much bull.
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One Man War Universe
Explanation on Systems and Weapons
In the OMW Universe, shields, unlike their theatrical counterparts, do not take ‘damage’ as they are hit. Rather, shields will remain at full, except when taking fire, in which case they will loose strength, but the reactors or engines (or both, depending on the projector’s specs) will quickly devote extra power to bring them back up to full almost instantly (if even that- usually as they weaken, they are brought back up on modern systems instantly.) The only time shields will remain at a lower strength is when there is no more extra energy to feed and the Bridge Commander does not devote from other systems, or when the engines are disabled or their transfer system is destroyed. (For engine-fed systems- usually weaker overall, and prone to collapse if enough fire is directed at it in a sustained manner. Engine-fed shields also largely fail, in that they are not running when the engines are not running, making them very bad for stealth operations. Engine-fed transfer system hubs also require different superconductor traits, and thus cannot be used in an atmosphere, meaning that they must be outside the ship, assuming it is one that does not use the exo-atmosphere present on ships such as the SwarmCarrier.) Shields do not ‘overload’ reactors, as the energy from them is used to support the shield rather then the shield being based off the reactor itself. That is purely fictional and theatrical. (Although it is entirely possible to use a shield system that does that, however that would be largely obsolete, and never mind being highly stupid.) The only system that will ‘overload’ when the shields take excessive instant fire, if even at all, would be the projectors themselves. The only way there is a chance of that is if the shields are on a hardened and fixed altitude and they take an instant and forceful hit that would push them back several meters, although usually fail-safes would shift the shield projector down for that instant instead of trying to maintain that altitude. (A problem widely abused, although most ships nowadays have an altitude range-type shield that will blunt the force of a hit by holding the shield up within the altitude range, where it will move inward with the hit to slow it down and render it powerless by reducing its kinetic energy.)
Although as in movies, engines must be on almost constantly. This is because of a factor present in propulsion and shielding, solar winds, act as an atmosphere on the ship, inducing intense drag. Most ships that use current technology in their shields and propulsion systems require nearly constant engine running during flight, a necessary step-down from the old ways of aerospace flight.
As for weapons. The three weapons classes in the Laser class (aside from Turbolaser) are capable of all firing at the same power, however, due to weapon sizes and other assorted design differences, they have been optimized for their respective roles. Turbolasers actually come in two flavours- your standard ‘stock’ Turbolaser, which is high powered with a low ROF, and your ‘Death Star’ kind, which retains about half the power, with the ROF of a Laser Battery. (So it is thereby 1.5 times the power of Laser Cannon.) Plasmic weapons operate by creating a varying shell of energy that sways from being semisolid to fully solid due to inconsistencies in the creation phase. It uses any excess energy from the reactor or energy from the engines (or it can take from other systems optionally, when there is a lack of excess energy) to fill the shell with a radiating energized center that will explode on contact. Because of the flaw in the creation phase, it is difficult to defend against these deadly shots as it is impossible, except during wild variations, to detect if it is semisolid or fully solid, which means raising the proper shield in time is also almost impossible. Although it is easily discerned as to the condition at the time by using a simple Geodar, (Geo Radar) the speed at which these balls of death travel at render it difficult to keep a steady lock on it, and even if you could, you would only have a few fleeting seconds before it hit.
For the power weapons such as Impact Cannons and Hypercannons, these work by charging up an incredible amount of firing solution to the point where it is extremely volatile, and the particles are moving at an incredible speed, while remaining in a viscous form. This is then injected into a set of Plasmic charge canisters, which fill in for the firing solution, which is now more prone to spontaneous detonation then nitroglycerin. This new solution can be kept within optimal charge rates for up to a month, before needing to be recharged or disposed of. When firing, these huge guns puncture the canister array and detonate a charge that forces a superheated wave of energy at the canisters. When this wave passes over the canisters, the special alloy they are made of instantly heats up to temperatures unimaginable, which sets off the charged solution. The solution’s subsequent detonation forces the projectile in front of it out the first stage bore evacuator (if it has one, some weapons just have a single-stage system, like the E-Baby and E-Beam, which, although they have more mass because all the charge has to be stored at the rear rather then dispersed throughout the evacuators, can fire at higher speeds depending on the amount used, and with much more accuracy (each subsequent stage makes the projectile rotate just a tad more, which kills the straight-shot properties, and rifling is not possible in an aerospace weapon such as this, as if the speed were off by a fraction of a second, it would either rip the rifling out, destroying the weapon, or when it struck the rifling, would detonate inside the weapon.) This is repeated as many times as the weapon has evacuator stations, until optimal velocity is achieved, at which point, the muzzle usually ends and the projectile exits confined flight and streaks toward the target. Although modern technology has resulted in shorter muzzles, many ships still use the older, several dozen times longer muzzles, which put less of a strain on the superstructure, and allow for much faster shots as modern tech can be inserted inside, allowing the number of evacuator stations to double or in some cases triple. (The downside is that because the projectile is traveling much faster, the charges must be detonated almost at the same time as the last one, putting much more heat stress on the gun. (Although it was designed to protect the ship from damage should the projectile blow up in the gun, it was only designed to he able to withstand a regular three-shot magazine blowing up in it, and not repeated heat stress, repeated day after day.)
In these huge weapons, the Plasmic solution in the canisters act as a coolant, to minimize the heat stress on the gun, and so any unwanted backwash of heat does not cook off the previous charges. (Or any explosive projectile with more then 30% explosive material in or any on it.) This creates the beautiful and familiar pale blue cloud present after each shot, as the Plasmic coolant is disposed of by ejecting it out the rear exhaust ports. (All coolant is thrown out the back of the canister, along with whatever bits of canister that escaped being completely vaporized in the heat wave, into a vacuum tube that brings everything to the back of the weapon to the exhaust ports.)
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