[Mars]

...but it could well be nuke too. So for that matter could be the Helios. It's never actually stated they're antimatter or some other exotic quantum doohickey.

Yes it does:
"The GTM-13 Helios is the product of an entire generation of high-energy physics research, based primarily at the GTVA particle accelerator complex near Antares. The most powerful warhead in the fleet's arsenal, the Helios generates a massive shockwave from the cataclysmic annihilation of matter and anti-matter, triggered upon impact with its target. Each bank of Helios warheads can fire only once every 30 seconds. The Helios is prohibitively expensive to produce, thus its deployment is severely restricted."

Not to sound snobbish, or anything, and just as a helpful suggestion, the wiki, and nearly every artical in it is 10 clicks or less away.
Update:
Like I check the Wiki every single time I post
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,39198.0.html

[FireCrack]

The cylcops is also suggested to have evolved from the tsunami, an antimatter bomb.

Also, i highly doubt a missile about 50cm long could contain an explosive equivalent of 2000 tonnes of TNT

Intelligent tracking similar to GTA targeting system - prior to launch, communicates with ship computer, gathering data about enemy target types and whereabouts - slow, low maneuverability - antimatter warhead (500 tonne3 mass-to-energy conversion) - due to instability of antimatter, no more than 10 may be carried on board a GTA bomber at any given time, unless pilot is granted a special permit by an appropriate governing body.

The GTM-12 Cyclops has been in service for over 15 years in the GTVA arsenal. It is the standard ultra-high-delivery Secondary weapon loadout, utilizing the latest in aspect-seeking guidance technologies. The Cyclops has the distinction of being the most consistently upgraded weapon in the fleet. Although its development began shortly after the Great War ended, its excellent performance has kept it firmly entrenched in the role of main assault weapon. Its payload is approximately fifty percent greater than that of the older Tsunami warheads.

That, and the fact that has said that bomb shockwaves dont do damage to sheilds because the antimatter washes over them.

[FireCrack]

Gah, why cant i delete posts anymore?

[NGTM-1R]

The cylcops is also suggested to have evolved from the tsunami, an antimatter bomb.

The suggestion does not exist. There is a comparison of relative damage to the last weapon filling that role in service. That does not imply anything...save that the replacement is 50% more powerful, and hence better and a logical replacement. Why it is more powerful is not explained.

Also, i highly doubt a missile about 50cm long could contain an explosive equivalent of 2000 tonnes of TNT

50cm? Don't make me laugh! Remember, your average FS fighter is about the size of a house. The missile is a wee bit bigger then you're giving it credit for. I'd also point out how far FS is in the future, and that the Interceptor was explictly conventional and had a multi-Kt yield.

That, and the fact that has said that bomb shockwaves dont do damage to sheilds because the antimatter washes over them.

That quote was made in reference to the Tsunami. Which, in any case, doesn't actually hold true in the games; the Tsunami annihilates your shields quite effectively.

[FireCrack]

I merely suggested that that may impy a connection, the GTVA obviously has antimatter technology and has used it in antimatter bombs in the past, so why not continue to do so. By itself this is rather unsubstantiationg, but it is stated to be a non conventianal bomb. The GTVA seems to have few other explosives available to it, and it fufiling the same purpose of the tsunami, and the development starting a short time after the tsunamis deployment causes me to strongly lean towards antimatter.


Alright, 3000 tonnes in a 125cm long tube with a radius of 16cm, a volume of 0.1 cubic metres, still far to much for any chemical explosive. If you still doubt me extract the fury model from the game yourself and measure it.

Standard Issue
Fast Target Lock

All-aspect seeking - laser tracking senses energy reflected off a target from the primary weapon systems of the target, increasing single-pass kill probability - medium payload (18.5 Kt) - missile is designed to pierce reinforced hull, thus
securing itself to the target, prior to detonating (15 ms delay).

This is the standard issue fighter-killer in the GTA.  Designed to take out fighters with minimum hassle, a simple lock is all that is needed to grab the enemies attention.  Short lock time, good speed, and decent payload makes this the best
missile to use against all but the strongest ships.  It's effectiveness against large targets, however, is less than a typical laser run, making this primarily a ship to ship missile.

I fail to see where this states it uses chemical explosives.


I'd hardly call 30 sheild damage decimating, ignoring the fat that at normal distances from the balst this will be much less. Other bomb shockwaves seem to behave similarly implying a connection.

[Nix]

I'd hardly call 30 sheild damage decimating, ....

My GOD don't let Goober see that!!!

[aldo_14]

The ulysses? Dont you mean the apollo?

Perhaps not.  The Ulysses, IIRC, was the first Terran ship made but changed to TV as a result of deciding to go with a different art design.

[FireCrack]

I'd hardly call 30 sheild damage decimating, ....

My GOD don't let Goober see that!!!

Eh?

[Goober5000]

I'd hardly call 30 sheild damage decimating, ....

My GOD don't let Goober see that!!!

Ya rly.

[mathematics inquisition]

Decimating = reducing by one-tenth.  So for a shield strength of 300, a shield damage of 30 is decimating.

[/mathematics inquisition]

[Shade]

Getting back to an earlier point:

As far as railgun goes, it says it acts like a mass driver, but it doesn't say it out right.

Ah, but a mass drives is not necessarily a railgun. Essentially a mass driver is really just something that magnetically accelerates stuff.

A railgun is a very specific form of mass driver, which has the accelerated object sitting on two rails (hence the name) hooked up to a power supply. It's the current passing through one rail, across the object, and into the other rail that generates the magnetic field to move it forward. Supremely simple in this basic form, and actually something that can (almost) be built on your kitchen table. To achieve any great speeds though the ammunition and rails need to be superconducting and the power supply big enough to run half the united states, so don't expect relativistic speeds from home made experiements

Not to be confused with the coilgun (sometimes known as a gauss gun) which is also a mass driver but has nothing to do with a railgun.

[FireCrack]

You dont need superconductors to get very high velocities, though it does help.

I'd hardly call 30 sheild damage decimating, ....

My GOD don't let Goober see that!!!

Ya rly.

[mathematics inquisition]

Decimating = reducing by one-tenth.  So for a shield strength of 300, a shield damage of 30 is decimating.

[/mathematics inquisition]

And your point is??

[freespace inquisition]

All shielded, player flown, freespace ships have over 300 max sheilds.

[/freespace inquisition]

[Shade]

Well, no, many don't actually... don't forget the Vasudans, or even FS1

[road_dancer]

The point is that unless something is being reduced by one tenth, it's not decimated!   
I'm with Goober on this;
"The Rebel fleet has been decimated!" (as in, "we've destroyed a shed load of 'em!")
"What, they've only lost one ship in ten? Whoopy do." 

A correct term in that case might be;
"The Rebel fleet has been devastated!"

It's Latin you see, deci = ten, the rest relies on that!

[FireCrack]

Either way, that's a fairly deprecated use of the word, it can be used to mean what i'm saying.

Awfull means awe inspiring, that word has probably been used thousands of times in this form to mean something bad.

[Goober5000]

And your point is??

I was playing off of Nix's post, but from a different angle.  He expected me to harp on your grammar and spelling.  Instead, I harped on your misuse of the word "decimated".

The meaning probably shifted because of the horrific connotation the word implies.  Originally, it was used on Roman armies that got out of line.  To instill fear and obedience, the commander executed every tenth person.

It's Latin you see, deci = ten, the rest relies on that!

Actually, deci = one-tenth.  Deca = ten.

[FireCrack]

Yes, i looked it up.

I can notice my grammar isn't perfect in the lat sentance, but it's definitley within the restrictions of normal writing, iIm not making a formal report. "shield" is spelled wrong though.

(How do I do the capitalisation on that last sentance?)


Also, I think "Linguistics Inquisition" would have made more sense and had more tact.

[S-99]

YES SHADE.
Accept that you can use either a coil gun/mass accelerator or a rail gun for the same purpose.
Now, a railgun is a form of a specific mass driver, but it's still a mass driver/mass accelerator, sorry to point that out.
As far as i remember the maxim definition, it said it behaved like a mass driver, but no one could conclude it was one, plus it mentioned the fact of conventional explosives once, also the fact that it had a smoothbore barrel on the maxim, you can't conclude it's a railgun.
There was enough of the definition to speculate whether it was a coilgun or not which is a mass driver/mass accelerator just like a railgun is.
But, it's really not even that, the maxim just appears to be a gun that uses conventional explosives to drive bullets(probably uses caseless bullets at that, or you'd see bullet shells after firing the maxim).
The fact that it's a kinetic weapon in fs2, and it said it behaves like a mass driver was why i thought it was worth mentioning(the fact that it may have been in any way similar to a railgun).
I have built a coilgun before.
The reason i went with a coilgun was because i found it easier to  build.
They both use different methods of propelling a slug, but they can achieve the same velocities, and both take advantage of electromagnetic forces for propulsion.
It really wouldn't matter which way you went when building an electromagnetic gun.
Plus i find these two types of guns too related in the fact, that they both do the same thing.
It does not take power from half the US to run these things, it takes usually about the power provided from something the size of about a city block.
Which would like just say, plug a powerplant into it.
The smallest powersource i've read about for a railgun was something the size of a van.
I mean, people are considering putting these things on carriers and stuff, if testing proves the railgun worthy, maintaining the rails on such a gun sounded like ***** though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railgun

[IceFire]

The ulysses? Dont you mean the apollo?

No I mean the Ulysses.  The Ulysses was the first ship that went from concept art to game model.  It was originally a Terran design and a bomber at that.  Then things changed a bit in terms of art direction (the Shivans went from green to red as well) and the Ulysses ended up as a hybrid Terran and Vasudan fighter once the art direction was standardized.

For the record I never worked with Volition.  I very early on started a fan webste covering the game and belonged to a small group that beta tested the demo version for several weeks prior to its release to the public.  We provided some very good feedback to them and they made some great changes prior to the demo going out.  That said...the original demo we beta tested was superb and I knew the game was going to be a whole lot of fun right from the start.

[Shade]

Accept that you can use either a coil gun/mass accelerator or a rail gun for the same purpose.
They both use different methods of propelling a slug, but they can achieve the same velocities.
It really wouldn't matter which way you went when building an electromagnetic gun.

Certainly, no dispute there. But in the context of discussing whether the Maxim is actually a railgun, and specifically when you use the argument I quoted above, it does matter what a railgun actually is. I agree that it is indeed a mass driver since it accelerates uranium slugs, but it is definitely not a railgun. That's what I was arguing. We know for sure it's not a railgun because railguns don't, indeed can't (they'd conduct current and ruin everything), have barrels

At least unless the barrels are significantly larger than the slugs, in which case there's no point in pointing out that they're smoothbore.

[S-99]

Well, try noticing that fact as i mentioned that fact already in my last post shade.
About the barrel thingy.
So that way you can try quoting me a little better.