[Desert Tyrant]

I was thinking, "Maybe some Cruiser's and Capships could mount Torps to Supplement their Beam Cannons
So, what do you people think?

[Commander Zane]

I'd say so, because looking at two destroyers duking it out in a fly-by like manner with torpedoes launching would not only look cooler, but it would give fighter escort something to do other than destroy whatever fighter / bomber pops out of the hanger.

[Mobius]

In Inferno ships are equipped with torpedoes. Just look at the Tanen or the Alcyone.

[Turey]

* Turey thinks that all ships size Cruiser and up should be resricted to two types of weapons: Beams and Flak. LOTS of Flak.

[Commander Zane]

* Turey thinks that all ships size Cruiser and up should be resricted to two types of weapons: Beams and Flak. LOTS of Flak.

Considering that almost every modern naval vessel in the world has some sort of missile launcher?

[Turey]

Considering that almost every modern naval vessel in the world has some sort of missile launcher?

Which is obviously made obsolete by beams.

You can't shoot down a beam.

[Commander Zane]

Can't shoot down the projectiles the "blob" turrets fire, which are slow and useless.

[Polpolion]

* Turey thinks that all ships size Cruiser and up should be resricted to two types of weapons: Beams and Flak. LOTS of Flak.

Considering that almost every modern naval vessel in the world has some sort of missile launcher?

modern by todays standards. Say that again in 250 years.

[Desert Tyrant]

Thanks for the feedback
I think that ships like Hades (kinda weak beam placement), Aelous( May need better anticap fire), Mentu(needs beams and maybe torps)
Fenathans(replace the fusion mortor, kind of weak damage, though I might be wrong) and Hecate (Er... probley needs torps to really help the beams), etc.
So, what do you think? 
EDIT: The Hatshepsut might benifit from CapTorps, what with the number of Fusion Morters(4. I think<_<>_>)

[Commander Zane]

* Turey thinks that all ships size Cruiser and up should be resricted to two types of weapons: Beams and Flak. LOTS of Flak.

Considering that almost every modern naval vessel in the world has some sort of missile launcher?

modern by todays standards. Say that again in 250 years.

They would still need them, research, prototype testing, and actual development would probably take a hell of a lot longer than that if you look at the fact that everything is held back and left to rot. The perfecting of them would take too long and the actual USE of them would be too complicated because you would have to worry about power consumpion (Blacking out the ship), thermal emissions, (Overheating the reactor cores), and keeping the damn thing from exploding after the first shot.

[Herra Tohtori]

Whole lot of turrets launching swarms of Trebuchet-esque missiles would work way better than torpedo launchers. Torpedoes (or heavy missiles like Helios and Cyclops) need to be delivered by bombers to have any effect against a capital ship protected with blob and flak turrets. Even then, if they are released too early, they will be wasted before doing any real damage.

So, I would guess that they've tried that and noticed that launching torpedoes from capital ship to capital ship was not only complete waste of money in munitions, but also waste of space for some other type of turret.

Obviously, if they develop an armoured torpedo ( @concept) they can use it to penetrate flak and blob barrage and to get it to hit the enemy ship's hull...


Realistically, I would rely on projectile weapons, though. And of course any spaceship's engines could always function as weapons too. I have always thought that the engine wash should really cause massive damage to systems of any poor bugger who decides to fly behind engines that can move several kilometres long ships. And it should effect longer behind the ships. I'm not talking about mild rumbling that slowly washes shields away and disrupts targeting. I'm talking about being vaporized, annihilated and blown to kingdom come in seconds for fighter-sized objects.

[General Battuta]

Armored torpedoes?

Wasn't that the Anubis? 

[Turey]

And of course any spaceship's engines could always function as weapons too. I have always thought that the engine wash should really cause massive damage to systems of any poor bugger who decides to fly behind engines that can move several kilometres long ships. And it should effect longer behind the ships. I'm not talking about mild rumbling that slowly washes shields away and disrupts targeting. I'm talking about being vaporized, annihilated and blown to kingdom come in seconds for fighter-sized objects.

Ever read Larry Niven's "Man-Kzin Wars"?

[NGTM-1R]

Basically, yes. Among my off-the-wall ideas for dealing with the Sathanas is a corvette designed to launch a single broadside of 120 Helios bombs. (If I could teach the FS AI to do an axial role, it could launch a second too.) I also have a torpedo-armed corvette planned. (The torps don't need to be armored, just faster. Try it sometime with ITDoH's Trinity and Sprint bombs.)

Unfortunately the inability to make either model convert properly renders them useless.

[Desert Tyrant]

I always thought that the torpedos, to essetially 'cheat' the capship defenses, should have had chaff charges, or counter measures, to trick the defenses.
( Hey, it worked well in Wing Commander: End Run, the countermeasure thingy on the torps almost destroys the Tarawa(CVE-8) at least twice in the entire Novel)
No, I havent read the Man-Knizy wars books, are they anygood ?
Edit:  at General battula
Hmm, the anubis could be a decent large torp.... Runs of to ask Taristan what explosive were in them anubises in tenderizer

[IceFire]

In BWO the ships from Earth, lacking the advanced technology that the GTVA developed using Shivan and Vasudan sources, use torpedo based offensive armament.  Its pretty nifty to see streams of torps coming from a modified Orion.  Its still just not as cool as beam cannons I think.  But its neat anyways.

[Herra Tohtori]

Ever read Larry Niven's "Man-Kzin Wars"?

Sadly, no, but I know the general plotline and that the idea is used there.

And considering Anubis "armored" in any context is dubious at best... I think the Anubii used in Tenderizer would have way harder time against flak cannons, which the FS1 era ships didn't have. I doubt even half of them would reach the target.


Using faster torpedoes on the other hand feels like cheating. Why not simply use high explosive or sabot projectiles instead of propelled, guided torpedoes? They are way faster and would probably have about the same armour piercing affect as a gigantic surface explosion. Since they are fast they don't need guidance system in themselves, just somewhat better aim than Emperor Pirk had with his light ball.

Better still, they have theoretically infinite range, although as range increases the chance of hit gets smaller as the enemy has time to commence evasive maneuvers...

[General Battuta]

If you mount torpedoes or missiles on a capital ship, you need magazines.

Beams penetrate shields and armor and make stuff explode.

Magazines explode.

I think we have a good case for the lack of torpedoes.  Think about what a measly support ship does when it blows. 

[NGTM-1R]

Using faster torpedoes on the other hand feels like cheating. Why not simply use high explosive or sabot projectiles instead of propelled, guided torpedoes? They are way faster and would probably have about the same armour piercing affect as a gigantic surface explosion. Since they are fast they don't need guidance system in themselves, just somewhat better aim than Emperor Pirk had with his light ball.

Better still, they have theoretically infinite range, although as range increases the chance of hit gets smaller as the enemy has time to commence evasive maneuvers...

Let's face facts: FS bombs are slow. Really, stupidly slow. You could double or triple their speed and not stretch credulity at all. Besides, they can be armor-piercing too. HEAT or shaped-charge warheads. (The Interceptor and/or Harpoon specifically mention they were designed for armor-piercing capablities. No reason it can't be applied to a larger warhead.)

Regarding magazines, recall that flak is an ammunition-based weapon and requires them as well.

[Mars]

The GTC Fenris carries torpedoes that do more damage a second than it's beam.