[LordPomposity]

with no medium to propogate the shockwave in space, the destructive power of explosives is hugely reduced.

That's absolutely true. However, I doubt it's true to the extent of allowing a warship to shrug off a direct hit from a paired salvo of 5-gigaton antimatter bombs.

Hell, if the destructive power of a helios is reduced a million-fold by virtue of being in space, it's still the equivalent of a fairly sizeable tactical nuke in atmosphere.

[Destiny]

I wonder why they don't just use shaped charges or something...?

Well without it every capitol ship  engagement would have 1 bomber launching one bomb at a capitol ship and killing it. That would simply be no fun at all so you kind of have to ignore reality for the sake of game play.

You can kill a Fenris with dual Helioses, I think that's...fun enough

[Buckshee Rounds]

I wonder why they don't just use shaped charges or something...?

We can already defend against those with 20th century armour (deflection, explosive reactive etc.), I'm sure they'd be perfectly capable of finding something in the 24th century. Can anyone give a number on how fast the redeemer's rounds travel? I'm sure the kinetic energy alone would be huge from such a weapon.

[Liberator]

Probably not appreciable compared to the blast from the warhead.

[Darius]

The speed of the rounds will have been chosen for gameplay reasons (for instance, effectiveness as a dogfight weapon) rather than to satisfy theoretical physical principles. Just a heads up in case they seem to be under/overpowered according to their kinetic energy

[NGTM-1R]

with no medium to propogate the shockwave in space, the destructive power of explosives is hugely reduced.

Doesn't work if it's in skin-skin contact or penetrates. Bombs don't proximity-detonate for the most part.

[Contrition]

Doesn't work if it's in skin-skin contact or penetrates. Bombs don't proximity-detonate for the most part.

I actually hadn't though of that, if the weapon detonated in direct contact then the shock wave would propagate through the hull instead of an atmosphere. No idea what that would do to the hull, but I can't image it would be good.

And a detonation near or inside a hull breach would cause a shock wave to propagate throughout the ship likely destroying it, but at the very least killing most or more likely all the crew.

[-Norbert-]

At least in BP the ships have composit armor, including shock absorbing layers as a protection against kinetic weapons, so at least surface impact will have the shockwave's effects reduced. I guess the same goes for heat and radiation, no matter wether it is realistic to disperse such a huge amount of each.
If it was the Vishnans or Shivans we could simply argue that part of the shockwave and radiaton is somehow diverted into subspace, but I'm pretty sure that is far beyond the GTVA and UEF at the time of BP.

[Contrition]

Well if you could prevent a direct contact detonation, I suppose it would be possible to create a material that would be able to deflect the vast majority of the radiant energy (kind of like a mirror but much more efficient). Under that you could have a small vacuum buffer and a  layer of material capable of absorbing large quantity of thermal heat (such materials do exist today). Then beneath that you'd have to have a thick wall of heavy metal (such as lead) to protect the crew from the harmful radiation that was released and not reflected.

This armor could be compromised by kinetic impacts, but if the materials were efficient enough it would severely reduce the threat of antimatter based weapons and I think the threat of those weapons of these weapons would be significant enough to warrant such precautions.

NOTE: I know little about armor so this is just speculation on my part

[Flak]

Those direct contact bombs are less effective unless it is extremely powerful. Shaped charge is more efficient since with the same amount of warhead it detonates after it pierces the armor plating rather than outside it. Considering spaceships are supposed to be a lot tougher than today's toughest tanks.

[NGTM-1R]

Those direct contact bombs are less effective unless it is extremely powerful. Shaped charge is more efficient since with the same amount of warhead it detonates after it pierces the armor plating rather than outside it. Considering spaceships are supposed to be a lot tougher than today's toughest tanks.

A shaped charge is wasted against a good compartmentalization scheme.

[Luis Dias]

Has anyone seen Sara's video of a missile that breaks itself into a ton of primary shots?

It's so ****ing awesome.

[Buckshee Rounds]

Link?

[crizza]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M69OT1fobj4&NR=1
And it is awesome;)

[Kolgena]

Finally, and infyrno that even noobs can use. It's even directional so you can't kill yourself with it.

[The E]

Finally, and infyrno that even noobs can use. It's even directional so you can't kill yourself with it.

I thought that was the Slammer...

[NGTM-1R]

I thought that was the Slammer...

I recall you guys saying something about giving the player anti-Slammer armor a few times because people got killed by their own/other UEF fighters' Slammers.

[Deadly in a Shadow]

Finally, and infyrno that even noobs can use. It's even directional so you can't kill yourself with it.

I thought that was the Slammer...

The mass driver slammer.

[The E]

I thought that was the Slammer...

I recall you guys saying something about giving the player anti-Slammer armor a few times because people got killed by their own/other UEF fighters' Slammers.

That was more due to the AI firing Slammers into a dogfight you were part of.

[Kolgena]

I felt that the slammer is more of an upgraded piranha, since it uses tracking projectiles.