Alternate Weapons of War thread...

[Hapsburg]

Well, anywho. Here is a rough table of common Central Galactic Naval armaments for starships (I tried to move away from the "old naval guns on spaceships" look, but not too much so as to stay internally consistent with my warship drawings). Scaled at 3 pixels : one meter.

There are plenty other kinds, but these are the most common ones for large, modern (post-6285 Naval Overhaul) warships.
Ships typically have large banks of Orca missiles, in 26 100-cell launch packs, providing capability for up to 26,000 missiles at one time; Orcas are scalable to ballistic missiles, but operate very differently due to physics in space. Using roughly similar fuel supply as ICBM's, the Orca missile possesses at least 10 times the range; it is cold-launched by a magnetic rail from its cell into space, where it performs rapid manoeuvring to orient itself towards its target, and then performs a brief initial burn, accelerating to high velocities and coasting most of its way to the target, correcting its orientation in relation to the target; then, upon close-range, it uses its remaining fuel for a rapid acceleration within strike range, whereupon it releases its between one and eight independently-targeted warheads- variously nuclear, high-explosive, ball-bearing fragmentary, or antimatter.

A much larger missile weapon, mounted only on the most powerful of warships, is the Humpback nuclear missile, scalable to ancient space rockets; with a larger size and much larger fuel supply, the Humpback has much higher range, better acceleration, and larger payload capacity; the trade-off is its truly gigantic size- each launcher can only hold ten missile tubes. There is an experimental variant of the Humpback called the Blue Whale, which mounts a large anti-matter warhead, giving much higher damage potential at the cost of slightly smaller fuel tanks (and range) to utilise the advanced containment systems necessary for antimatter storage.

However, it is a ship's main guns that are its primary combat weapon. In past ages, these were mass driver cannons mounted in quad- or octal-turrets, augmented by neutral-particle cannons in single- or triple-emplacement batteries. In the modern period, due to the aneutronic "solar reactor", power capacity allows for far more powerful weapons, notably the positron blaster. Antimatter weapons are hardly new; however, the power requirements were so massive, only the largest carriers, battestations, or planetary anti-ship emplacements could mount them, making them incredibly infeasible and impractical. With better power technologies came better containment systems, and warships post-6285 mounted a variety of positron blasters, scaled in 767cm, 380cm, 210cm, and 88cm calibres. The numbering is a misnomer- these were the radii of the barrels, but not the actual gunport for the particle beam; much of the barrel thickness was taken up by cooling systems and linear particle accelerator components. Each size allowed for a proportionally larger beam mass to be effectively projected. The massive 767cm weapon could project up to 100 tons of antimatter each, at the cost of an abysmal rate of fire and long cool-down times; 380cm weapons projected streams of 200 kilograms, 210cm weapons approximately 1 kilogram, and 88cm weapons fired beams of ten grams of antimatter. The antimatter beams could be either streamed towards the target in a continuous manner, or compacted into "bolts" and fired like projectiles; either way, contact with a target annihilated its matter and caused explosive annihilation reactions, and released massive amounts of gamma radiation. The combined explosive, thermal, and kinetic effects could destroy most objects with relative ease.
To deter enemy forces and maintain a strong military hold on the Galaxy, the Navy employs these weapons in large batteries of twenty or more twin-, triple- or quad-barrelled turrets; the iconic Dreadnought-class ship utilises 84 of the 380cm guns, two axial 767cm guns, and one hundred 88cm guns; this overwhelming volume of firepower is enough to blot entire planetary systems off the face of the Galaxy, intimidating any would-be insurrectionist.

Last, but not least, are close-in weapons systems; a vital part of any ship, CIWS can take down missiles or other projectile weapons with computer-controlled accuracy. CIWS come in three main types- laser, gun, and missile; the last is provided with the standard Orca missile packs, and the other two are standard on any ship, with a hundred 405mm quad-guns and an array of retractable laser weapons. The 405mm guns, though seemingly outdated for taking down incoming missiles, especially in the 63rd century, are useful for other reasons- they provide the option of safe orbital bombardment, for the all-too-often situation where a besieged world is not just enemy-held, but also valuable and wanted. Collateral damage would be catastrophic with the anti-ship beam weaponry, so the four-barrelled automatic cannons are utilised for this purpose.

[Zor]

Originally Posted by Locke

Why do Marines carry ceremonial swords? Because they're ceremonial. Do you see Marines charging into battle against the Taliban wielding them and their full dress unifrom? Would you expect any modern day marine to put a plate of ballisitc armor over his dress unfirom, and go toe to toe with an enemy?

Which would have been an issue if i did not CLEARLY SAY that the armor i designed and posted for the Dress uniform is cerimonial and is not worn into combat. Hell, you have admited precidence for carrying formalized versions of combat equipment as part of military uniforms.

I will give you both a point: at first glance, dress uniforms do tend to incorporate rule of cool and flaire. But, there is one thing I stress, and this is the thing you are contineuing to ignore dress uniforms are NOT BDUs! The battlefield is the place where Rule of Cool and flare are not attributes-they are, in fact, quite the opposite! It's all ergonomics and practicality! Tell me, where does a brightly-lit, poorly armored dress uniform meet any of that criteria? It doesn't.

Once again, THE DRESS ARMOR IS NOT WORN INTO COMBAT. For combat, the Novans have their own non cerimonial camoflauged armor and uniforms designed for practicality.

Therefore, there is no point in putting armor ona dress uniform. Don't shout Rule of Cool to me. Dress uniforms aren't about Rule of Cool-they are about formality and, again, ceremony.

Long story short, looking stylish in the military context of impressiveness and Rule of Cool are in no ways mutually exclusive concepts. Don't give me horse shit that they somehow are. Plus you have conceeded that Swords can be used cerimonially, why not formalized Ballistic Body Armor systems centuries after armor became a common item of military Equipment?

Zor

[Battlestar_Cydonia]

Originally Posted by Locke

<...>Therefore, there is no point in putting armor ona dress uniform. Don't shout Rule of Cool to me. Dress uniforms aren't about Rule of Cool-they are about formality and, again, ceremony.<...>

Armour as part of a dress uniform:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_Cavalry

[Hapsburg]

Fiddling around on the new PMG beta, I cooked this up:

As the Magellanic War dragged on, it became painfully clear that the AR-78 rifles were inadequate in dealing with the heavier enemy infantry fielded by the Zaaroft army. The response was to develop and employ the AC-150C LILAC weapon, a 13mm assault rifle. However, efforts were still made to enhance existing AR-78's for a longer service life, due to their compactness, light weight, and versatile modularity. In 6306, a new version was developed: the AR-78E Enhanced ICARUS. Slight modifications allowed the chamber to accept the new round: the M1199 liquid propellant FMJ cartridge. Utilising a solid primer and a strip of thermal conducting material, the liquid propellant would be heated into a plasma, giving the steel-cored armour-piercing bullet a 60% boost in muzzle velocity. This modification gave the ICARUS a far greater chance of penetration against Zaaroft body armour and their leathery hides, and would extend the rifle's service life into the 6320's, particularly in auxiliary and police forces, as the front-line troops replaced the ICARUS first with the LILAC and later with the Infantry Combat Beam Rifle.

[Krall]

Originally Posted by Hapsburg

Fiddling around on the new PMG beta, I cooked this up:

That's a sexy assault rifle.

[gtrof]

Originally Posted by Krall

That's a sexy assault rifle.

Indeed not bad at all.

[Hapsburg]

Here's a modified version, that's less wonky. Fixed the rear sights, the ejection port, and other features. It looked a bit odd with rails where there shouldn't be, and no rail where it'd be most useful.

[Fenwick]

The French assault rifle in 1941.

[Diogenes]

Here's my next ship. Hopefully it isn't as bad.

Its not that far into production, but I want to see if I'm doing things right this time around. Any suggestions will be welcome. Thanks.

[Mr. BoJangles]

Originally Posted by ErInGoBrAgH

Here's my next ship. Hopefully it isn't as bad.

Its not that far into production, but I want to see if I'm doing things right this time around. Any suggestions will be welcome. Thanks.

god... proportionatly, horrible. concept is good... but you really have to look at the design and make it look good. symmetry is always good. making that symmetry look good is the hard part. Darkaiz... if your still there, is fantastic with his ships.

[Hapsburg]

Originally Posted by ErInGoBrAgH

Here's my next ship. Hopefully it isn't as bad.

Its not that far into production, but I want to see if I'm doing things right this time around. Any suggestions will be welcome. Thanks.

A bit blunted, isn't it? For what you're going for (looks like a destroyer or something with a plane-launching capability). Plus the general lack of sufficient radar and comm accoutrements. Nice concept, but kinda wonky execution.

[Treppe]

Finally caught up with this thread. Some marvelous work in here.

May I ask the ship designers among you for some vessels for the Royal Platinean Navy (Monitor, Ironclad, Protected Cruiser, Pre-Dreadnaught)?

If there are any takers please PM me for further informations (like flags, colors and names).

[Diogenes]

Alright, here's an edited version.

[Highlander]

Originally Posted by Fenwick

The French assault rifle in 1941.

Less future weapons and ships, and more of stuff like this.

[The Kiat]

Originally Posted by Fenwick

The French assault rifle in 1941.

I hope it works better than that Machine Gun they tried to pawn off on us during the Great War.

[Mr. BoJangles]

Originally Posted by ErInGoBrAgH

Alright, here's an edited version.

vastly surperior. In fact, I can see it as a decent Riverboat. it would be perfect for use on many major rivers, would be able to provide a naval fire support further inland than most Ocean going vessals... of course excluding the KMS Blitz Hailfisch. And would also be able to provide aerial support further than many carrier groups at the time of Korea/French Vietnam.

[Hapsburg]

Originally Posted by Highlander

Less future weapons and ships, and more of stuff like this.

Well, it's not like there's a "Future Weapons" thread to dump all my concept art in.
Besides, FH is just a subset of AH.

[Diogenes]

Originally Posted by 010camaro

vastly surperior. In fact, I can see it as a decent Riverboat. it would be perfect for use on many major rivers, would be able to provide a naval fire support further inland than most Ocean going vessals... of course excluding the KMS Blitz Hailfisch. And would also be able to provide aerial support further than many carrier groups at the time of Korea/French Vietnam.

Alright. This ship would've seen action from mabye late 40's to mid 50's, then? I'll just put in the finishing touches, and put up the final version tonight.

I think I'll go for either a Frigate or a Destroyer next, if that isn't that big of a leap. What d'you think?

[Diogenes]

Alright, here's the final version of my Riverboat. Now, for a little bio, if you don't mind.

The HMS Revelry was first built in 1937, on the eve of the Second Great War. Although it was delayed from reaching its destination, it patrolled the Rivers and Coastline of Panama until the Battle of the P. Canal in 1939. In a famous and oft-repeated story, the Revelry was defending a medical station when the pride of the German Imperial Navy, the Kaiser Wilhelm II, stumbled on it. The two ships faced each other for several minutes before the Revelry opened fire. Although its shots did little, if any, harm to the Kaiser, the vast Dreadnaught pulled back, inadvertantly shifting the balance of power in favour of the Entente. Two facts that were conveniently forgot were the two Spanish destroyers that had been chasing the Kaiser, and the fact that the Germans never once in the war purposly attacked a medical facility.

After the end of the war in 1944, the Revelry was coasting up the Brazilian coast when in hit a mine from the war. Limping into Rio de Janerio, it was repaired and refitted, but stayed there until the Indo-China Crisis in 1951 and subsequent Vietnamese Conflict in 1954, where it racked up the biggest mission count of its career. The Revelry managed to stay in the Royal American Navy until 1977, when it was finally de-commishioned as the longest serving vessel of the RAN. It currently serves as a museum piece in the Naval Base Point Loma, San Diego.

Here it is shown in its heyday, during the Vietnamese Conflict. On the launching catapult is the famous F4U Corsair of Capt. James F. MacMillan, with its question mark insignia. Captain MacMillan would serve on the Revelry for the entireity of the Conflict, and even until the Revelry's retirement in 1977.

[Mr. BoJangles]

Originally Posted by ErInGoBrAgH

Alright, here's the final version of my Riverboat. Now, for a little bio, if you don't mind.

The HMS Revelry was first built in 1937, on the eve of the Second Great War. Although it was delayed from reaching its destination, it patrolled the Rivers and Coastline of Panama until the Battle of the P. Canal in 1939. In a famous and oft-repeated story, the Revelry was defending a medical station when the pride of the German Imperial Navy, the Kaiser Wilhelm II, stumbled on it. The two ships faced each other for several minutes before the Revelry opened fire. Although its shots did little, if any, harm to the Kaiser, the vast Dreadnaught pulled back, inadvertantly shifting the balance of power in favour of the Entente. Two facts that were conveniently forgot were the two Spanish destroyers that had been chasing the Kaiser, and the fact that the Germans never once in the war purposly attacked a medical facility.

After the end of the war in 1944, the Revelry was coasting up the Brazilian coast when in hit a mine from the war. Limping into Rio de Janerio, it was repaired and refitted, but stayed there until the Indo-China Crisis in 1951 and subsequent Vietnamese Conflict in 1954, where it racked up the biggest mission count of its career. The Revelry managed to stay in the Royal American Navy until 1977, when it was finally de-commishioned as the longest serving vessel of the RAN. It currently serves as a museum piece in the Naval Base Point Loma, San Diego.

Here it is shown in its heyday, during the Vietnamese Conflict. On the launching catapult is the famous F4U Corsair of Capt. James F. MacMillan, with its question mark insignia. Captain MacMillan would serve on the Revelry for the entireity of the Conflict, and even until the Revelry's retirement in 1977.

Fantastic. absolutely fantastic. both in story and art