Difference between revisions of "System Key"
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===Drone Racks=== | ===Drone Racks=== | ||
| + | The main weapons of Expanse ships in combat, drone racks carry an array of anti shipping drones launched as a salvo. Once launched the salvo can either operate independently or under control of the firing ship, and can shift back and forth between these two modes at will. Modern drones are fitted with small FTL drives called flicker drives which are good for two score of short FTL jumps. It is also possible for a firing ship to recover drones once launched, though this is not often possible. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Drones can mount several different types of payload: <br> | ||
| + | |||
| + | '''Energy Drones'''<br> | ||
| + | Armed with particle beams and powered by power links from the firing vessel and by onboard power packs, energy drones are perhaps the most generally useful type of drone, capable of both attacks against enemy ships, fighters and even point defense against other drones. They are fairly expensive however, and their versatility comes at the price of mastery in any single mode of operations. | ||
| + | |||
| + | '''Gun Drones'''<br> | ||
| + | Armed with an array of small missiles and hybrid mass drivers, gun drones are primarily used for point defense, engaging enemy drones and missiles. Their weapons tend to be light and their ammunition limited, so they are less useful against enemy ships larger than a fighter or an AKV. | ||
| + | |||
| + | '''Kinetic Drones'''<br> | ||
| + | The cheapest type of drone is a kinetic, armed only with its own mass and a load of high density (usually liquid) precision launched shrapnel, they attack other targets by the simple expedient of ramming them at high speed. While fairly effective at attacking ships, fighters tend to be agile enough to get out of their way, and a drones drive is not really capable of powering them to the speeds necessary to kill very heavily armoured ships. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Kinetic drones are relatively precise weapons and are often used by pirates or law enforcement agencies who wish to cripple rather than kill other vessels. | ||
| + | |||
| + | '''Missile Drones'''<br> | ||
| + | Missile drones describes any drone carrying warheads, be the fusion, antimatter, exotic or even enhanced conventional explosive loads. Missile drones come in a variety of shapes and styles, ranging from relatively simple warhead buses with drives and guidance systems to advanced systems carrying multiple independently tracking sub-munitions which are almost small drones in their own right. Most missile drones also carry several decoys and penetration aids to enhance their warheads effectiveness. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Missile drones are the primary ship killers in the Expanse, with military vessels usually carrying antimatter or exotic warheads, while civilian warships and poorer militaries use laser fusion bombs. Enhanced conventional explosives are rarely used in the modern expanse, as kinetics have replaced them in the role of precision strike and they lack the power to kill most modern Expanse vessels. | ||
| + | |||
| + | '''ECM Drones''' <br> | ||
| + | An ECM drone carries no weapons but is rather filled with sophisticated jammer and decoy equipment, capable of blocking or spoofing enemy sensors. ECM drones tend to produce more general jamming than that produced by an active decoy, and are often deployed to cover a drone salvo and enhance it's ability to penetrate enemy defenses. | ||
| + | |||
| + | A drone rack takes up 2 spaces and holds 40 drones <br> | ||
===Hybrid Guns=== | ===Hybrid Guns=== | ||
| + | Operating on the same principle as an infantry mass driver, hybrid guns launch a shell at great speed by a combination of electromagnetic and plasma propellant. These weapons tend to be extremely fast firing, and capable of point defense against drones as well as engaging enemy ships and fighters. Ship mounted hybrid guns tend to have a bore between eighty and two hundred millimeters wide and can fire a variety of kinetic or explosive shells with a rate of fire of ten to forty rounds per second. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Some military vessels carry larger hybrid guns, either turreted or down the ships spine, which fire large shells at a far greater speed than a normal hybrid gun can offer. | ||
| + | |||
| + | A standard hybrid gun mount takes up 2 spaces | ||
===Particle Beams=== | ===Particle Beams=== | ||
| + | The standard expanse ship to ship energy weapon, a particle beam fires a stream of neutral particles at extremely high velocity. Many expanse particle weapons include the option of launching a kinetic weapon, often fitted with a shield breacher to be propelled by the beam, adding to the destructive effects, use exotic particles to gain the same shield disrupting effect or to use anti-matter rather than regular matter (though this becomes largely irrelevant with truly high speed particles). | ||
| + | |||
| + | Particle beams are also able to engage enemy drones, missiles and fighters, and can be spread to fire in a cone pattern. | ||
| + | |||
| + | A standard particle beam takes up 2 spaces | ||
==Support Systems== | ==Support Systems== | ||
Revision as of 13:33, 7 January 2010
Ship Systems
Surface Features
Armour
Armour is a vital component of any space vehicle, even a civilian one, armour in the Expanse comes in a variety of styles and materials, ranging from simple composite to the exotic, self repairing materials used in military vessels. Despite this, armour is still basically they same as it always has been, hard material you put between vital systems and hostile fire.
Advanced armour is usually used by combat vessels, and includes self repair abilities, a thermal super conductor grid, and the ability to move plates to reinforce areas who's structural integrity is threatened.
Composite Armour
Simple armour made from a composite of alloy and ceramic, usually used only on light civilian space craft.
Hyper Diamond Armour
Made from altered carbon,hyper diamond is as strong as normal diamond and far less brittle, giving it extensive resistance to impact and energy strikes.
Exotic Armour
Used exclusively by military craft, exotic armour is incredibly strong and reflective, and has a molecular structure which hardens its self against impacts, providing excellent protection at minimal weight.
Chameleonware
A development of earlier RAM, Infra-Red cloaking and thermoptic camouflage, Chameleonware acts to block scans, and render a ship invisible to the naked eye, radar, thermal imagining and minimizing it's gravitic and exotic signatures.
Advanced Chameleonware is usually found only on specialized military stealth vehicles, and provides much greater resistance to scans at a much higher cost.
Defense Aura
Also known as a shield, a defense aura is a plane altered space time and virtual matter which serves to scatter or block incoming fire. Most fast cycle arrays general only operate for a short time, blocking incoming strikes then turning off again to save power, however they can operate for a substantial amount of time if needs be, for instance while operating in a high radiation environment or shower of meteors.
Distributed Arrays
Distributed Arrays are a catch all term for the various electronic systems mounted across a ships hull (for instance sensors and communications) this distributed and holographic arrangement protects the array from damage and allows for much greater fidelity in scanning. Passive scanners, communications and defense aura generators can be mounted in distributed arrays.
Weapons Systems
Drone Racks
The main weapons of Expanse ships in combat, drone racks carry an array of anti shipping drones launched as a salvo. Once launched the salvo can either operate independently or under control of the firing ship, and can shift back and forth between these two modes at will. Modern drones are fitted with small FTL drives called flicker drives which are good for two score of short FTL jumps. It is also possible for a firing ship to recover drones once launched, though this is not often possible.
Drones can mount several different types of payload:
Energy Drones
Armed with particle beams and powered by power links from the firing vessel and by onboard power packs, energy drones are perhaps the most generally useful type of drone, capable of both attacks against enemy ships, fighters and even point defense against other drones. They are fairly expensive however, and their versatility comes at the price of mastery in any single mode of operations.
Gun Drones
Armed with an array of small missiles and hybrid mass drivers, gun drones are primarily used for point defense, engaging enemy drones and missiles. Their weapons tend to be light and their ammunition limited, so they are less useful against enemy ships larger than a fighter or an AKV.
Kinetic Drones
The cheapest type of drone is a kinetic, armed only with its own mass and a load of high density (usually liquid) precision launched shrapnel, they attack other targets by the simple expedient of ramming them at high speed. While fairly effective at attacking ships, fighters tend to be agile enough to get out of their way, and a drones drive is not really capable of powering them to the speeds necessary to kill very heavily armoured ships.
Kinetic drones are relatively precise weapons and are often used by pirates or law enforcement agencies who wish to cripple rather than kill other vessels.
Missile Drones
Missile drones describes any drone carrying warheads, be the fusion, antimatter, exotic or even enhanced conventional explosive loads. Missile drones come in a variety of shapes and styles, ranging from relatively simple warhead buses with drives and guidance systems to advanced systems carrying multiple independently tracking sub-munitions which are almost small drones in their own right. Most missile drones also carry several decoys and penetration aids to enhance their warheads effectiveness.
Missile drones are the primary ship killers in the Expanse, with military vessels usually carrying antimatter or exotic warheads, while civilian warships and poorer militaries use laser fusion bombs. Enhanced conventional explosives are rarely used in the modern expanse, as kinetics have replaced them in the role of precision strike and they lack the power to kill most modern Expanse vessels.
ECM Drones
An ECM drone carries no weapons but is rather filled with sophisticated jammer and decoy equipment, capable of blocking or spoofing enemy sensors. ECM drones tend to produce more general jamming than that produced by an active decoy, and are often deployed to cover a drone salvo and enhance it's ability to penetrate enemy defenses.
A drone rack takes up 2 spaces and holds 40 drones
Hybrid Guns
Operating on the same principle as an infantry mass driver, hybrid guns launch a shell at great speed by a combination of electromagnetic and plasma propellant. These weapons tend to be extremely fast firing, and capable of point defense against drones as well as engaging enemy ships and fighters. Ship mounted hybrid guns tend to have a bore between eighty and two hundred millimeters wide and can fire a variety of kinetic or explosive shells with a rate of fire of ten to forty rounds per second.
Some military vessels carry larger hybrid guns, either turreted or down the ships spine, which fire large shells at a far greater speed than a normal hybrid gun can offer.
A standard hybrid gun mount takes up 2 spaces
Particle Beams
The standard expanse ship to ship energy weapon, a particle beam fires a stream of neutral particles at extremely high velocity. Many expanse particle weapons include the option of launching a kinetic weapon, often fitted with a shield breacher to be propelled by the beam, adding to the destructive effects, use exotic particles to gain the same shield disrupting effect or to use anti-matter rather than regular matter (though this becomes largely irrelevant with truly high speed particles).
Particle beams are also able to engage enemy drones, missiles and fighters, and can be spread to fire in a cone pattern.
A standard particle beam takes up 2 spaces
Support Systems
Active Decoy Launcher
ECM System
Point Defence System
Sensor Array
Sensor Arrays are those types of sensors that cannot be mounted in a distributed network on a ships hull, including very powerful and precise active sensor arrays and exotic sensors: those that pick up FTL particles, space time events and the like. Each sensor array takes up 1 equipment slot.