Carronade: new launcher package

I dusted off my hardcopy of Spacedock the other day and got inspired to stat up a small ship. I wanted it to have a torpedo/probe launcher, but the fluff text says a launcher is usually a 30m tube, and that's longer than the ship I was designing. So I came up with this package:

CARRONADE

This is a downgrade package to use with torpedo tubes. Build your launcher with normal SU costs, then reduce the SUs by 1/3 and torpedo range by 1/2.

Since most torpedoes are fired at far less than maximum range, Starfleet R&D came up with a shorter and lighter torpedo tube that takes up less of the limited space available on small vessels. The shorter launch tube means the missile leaves with a lower muzzle velocity, so maximimum range is reduced considerably. A historic-minded weapons developer named it for a light, short-range cannon common in Admiral Nelson's Royal Navy of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The carronade will add some respectable firepower to runabouts and shuttles, and is also an easy add-on to give more short-range punch to larger vessels.

What are your thoughts of High-Yield Torpedoes with this launcher? I would be disinclined to allow said munitions with this launcher.

I was always under the impression that torpedos and probes were self-propelled and under that impression there seems little point in a smallewr launcher having any effect whatso-ever? Surely?

Hell, in my games it has even been the case that under extremis Torpedos/Probes have been launched by Transporter (Because the Anti-matter warhean makes it difficvult for a standard occurance its quite dangerous, at least that was my ruling)...

There was a thread posted here before, about how a launcher worked, and how they aren't fired by a gauss system or anything like that, but more like a thruster out a tube, then once clear, using its own internal warp capability. However, if it's momentum is based on the firing speed of the launcher, than the launcher's capability becomes that much more important.

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Originally Posted by JALU3

However, if it's momentum is based on the firing speed of the launcher, than the launcher's capability becomes that much more important.

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If it were Real Physics™ instead of Treknology, spaceship-launched projectiles would already have lots of momentum...

According to the DS9 book, runabouts can be fitted with standard photon torpedoes, but without launch tubes their range is very limited. (Max 5000 km, IIRC) I didn't want that much of a handicap to range, so I came up with the carronade compromise.

It seems to me that the short-range-without-a-launcher limitation implies that the tube boosts the torpedo range by kicking it out with lots of relative velocity. But that is contradicted by the rule that torpedoes are self-guided and can attack any target in any direction at max range. If the torpedo launches straight forward to attack a target behind it, it will have to use a lot of energy to cancel forward velocity and reverse course, so its range in the opposite direction should be a lot shorter. Anybody want to shed some light on the relevant conundrum? Personally, I think it's just a simplification made for the sake of playability.

As for high-yield torpedoes, I wasn't intending to use them with the carronade. If you want to go that route, I can't think of any good reason not to. And if you don't want that, I'm sure we could easily invent a technobabble reason not to allow it.

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Originally Posted by Sarge

If the torpedo launches straight forward to attack a target behind it, it will have to use a lot of energy to cancel forward velocity and reverse course, so its range in the opposite direction should be a lot shorter. Anybody want to shed some light on the relevant conundrum? Personally, I think it's just a simplification made for the sake of playability.

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I'd imagine it would require enough range to arc around, and is probably a question of maneuverability, not thrust...

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Originally Posted by The Tatterdemalion King

I'd imagine it would require enough range to arc around, and is probably a question of maneuverability, not thrust...

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In space, thrust is maneuverability. Well, it is in real space; ST space doesn't work according to Newtonian physics. Therein lies the problem. :(

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Originally Posted by Sarge

In space, thrust is maneuverability. Well, it is in real space; ST space doesn't work according to Newtonian physics. Therein lies the problem. :(

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Theoretically, the Federation should have technology that can redirect momentum without adding opposing thrust...

This giving vessels in a vacuum the ability to bank and turn, and manuever as if in one, if said system (insert techno-bable here) was activated ... but then at the same time can pull a B5, newtonian manuever of pivoting while still keeping momentum, and firing in the direction of attack, while maintaining original direction of movement, when said system is off.

It was my understanding, that a Photon Torpedo had an internal warp capability, thus that in and of itself accounted for much of its speed of attack. And since we are dealing with an anti-matter warhead, that even though more energy/force would be included if shot out like a gauss weapon towards a target, that additional energy/force/destructuve power is negligable when it comes to the anti-matter explosion created by said warhead.

Here is the Memory Alpha article, Wiki subartilce, and Ex Astris.


Of course don't listen to this source, they are stupid SW is superior fanatics there.