Engines and guns |
Engine: Pods or big thruster style?Big build in thrusters are usually easier to make because you only have to worry about the looks of the small part showing on the outside, while most of the engine is supposedly located inside the main bulk of the craft - in theory at least: usually it's a much better idea to use the space for structures supporting fancy stuff showing on the outside. Engine pods on the other hand are infinitely more tricky:
Basically, all the difficulties enumerated in the theory above implicate, that if you wish to have engine pods, you better start working with them at once: They're difficult to make, and hard to fit into the design. |
Back to the Longship: In the Longship Project, the first three months went by designing (early versions of) the cabin and stern. A little over two months into the process I designed the large main engines 3/11 2004, followed by the smaller pods three days later, 6/11 2004. Since these were only my third and fourth attempt at movable engine pods, I was really on pretty loose ground. Apparently this wasn't difficult enough, since I decided to try my hand on wheel engines, one of the most loathed concepts in the Spacer world, because it's really hard to make them look good and not tacked on, making the craft "look like it's hauling somebody else's spare wheels" as a spacer aptly put it a while back on CSF. Shape and scaling: Basically I thought the barrel/onion dome/torch shape would fit the Viking design pretty well (a lot of them traveled on the Russian rivers), and I'm particularly satisfied with the smooth shape achieved in the large engine pods. The downscaling of the design to the small wheel diameter didn't live up to expectations though. Distribution: The flat hexagonal distribution of engines with the two big ones on the sides, and a pair of small ones above and below was chosen in order to mirror the cabin section, and fit within the long narrow lines of the craft without sticking out too much. |
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GunsLike with engines, the utility of guns are proportional to the degree of movability: Fixed guns: Usually found on small one man fighters fixed in a
forward position: Think 1st and 2nd world war. Back then, with no
computers or automated targeting systems, this was the only way you could
hit anything. Adjustable guns: Adjustable guns solves the problem with hitting small targets at long ranges, and they can to some degree be used while doing evasive maneuvers while still keeping the guns on the target: This was basically the idea behind the "loose" guns on the 61 Shark2 fighter. But you're still limited by their angle of movement, and you're still basically flying directly toward the enemy, except when you're having him on your tail and are screwed. Gun turrets placed directly on the hull of the craft with two
axis of movement are usually able to cover an area of around 90x360
degrees, or half of the skysphere around the craft. This gives them a big
advantage over fixed and adjustable guns, since you can defend yourself
from every angle with only two turrets on either side of the craft (think:
the Millenium Falcon from Starwars), and have double firepower along the
narrow strip around the horizon where the two hemispheres meet. This is
fine when you're attacking less agile targets or retreating from them
(assuming that the horizon crosses both the front and back). That must be plenty of theory for now, back to the Longship: |
Armament: The armament consist of 8 turrets: The rear gun and wing guns are fast firing gatling type guns, the light rear gun trades the higher calibre for higher ROF. The stern guns are of the same caliber as the wing guns, but without the gatling function has a lower ROF. The main gun is the craft's heavy calibre weapon intended for blowing holes in blast doors, and medium armoured vehicles like tanks or warship. |
Firing angles: The craft is heavily armed and decidedly attack oriented: Front:
7-8 of the 8 guns cover the frontal area, and they have a limited firing
angle of around 45x120 degrees with a small overlap in the front: |
Sides: up to 5 guns can cover the sides down to an angle of between ± 10-90 degrees, giving the craft good abilities to hover around the war zone, sweeping the ground with suppressive fire, taking out armoured walls and vehicles with the main gun: just the kind of surface warfare where you'd expect troopers to be effective in the first place. |
Rear: when the loot has been loaded, and it's time to get away, the angle directly behind the craft is covered by 4 guns: the main, the rear, and the wing guns. However just above and below the rear is only covered by 2 guns because the top- and belly-mounted guns are hardly able to cross down below the horizon. |
Top and below: with the heavy vertically distributed firepower, the craft is relatively weakly defended against attack from above and below with only 2 guns on either side (the wing guns above, and the main and rear gun below). |
Go to: 67 Longship, Engine and guns, Interiour, landing gear & hatch |