SG1: One ION cannon isn't enough for plane-wide coverage
Kouji_San
Sr. Hινε UÏкεεÏεг - EUPT DeputyThe Netherlands Join Date: 2003-05-13 Member: 16271Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
Sr. Hινε UÏкεεÏεг - EUPT DeputyThe Netherlands Join Date: 2003-05-13 Member: 16271Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
It is a spoiler, sort of... Soooo tread carefully!
Silly Degasi, just sayin'
Comments
I'd mentioned the point in another post. However, I imagine there's more on 4546B (which is a very Stargate-sounding planet name, abbreviated
I did thought that as well but now I know that the answer is way different. Why? Well the scanning the gun's energy core tells you that the cannon can attack any craft no matter where it is in orbit by somehow bending the beam
So it's firing off a ki-blast like the Galick gun or Kamehameha?
Ikr
The sheer amount of plot-device up in here could fuel those 38 ION cannons
A single QEP should be sufficient to cover one hemisphere. A total of eight gun platforms would suffice to engage low-orbit targets. Range is the limiting factor here.
If more firepower is required in a particular arc of sky, Precursor technology is sufficiently advanced to either teleport in additional guns or fabricate them where they're needed.
Not the rest of the planet, but it is possible, that our map is the only "landmass" on this part of 4546B. Then, it would make sense for the pilots to land there, as it gives more chances of survival, which explains both ships landing almost at the same spot.
It is unlikely, but not impossible. There has to be more islands, otherwise surface plants and skyrays wouldn't have evolved. When scanning the big floaters on the floating island they cue that there are other such floating landmasses in the planet.
The planet is also tectonically active, therefore formation and destruction of new landmasses is also probable in a geologic time scale. It is very likely that 4546B has other volcanic islands around it.
Maybe it is not an energy weapon, but a highly exotic kinetic weapon. I think the main questions are, how fast does its ordnance travel? Is it capable of accelerating?
That big bad gun seems like it isn't really easy to build, or move, but couldn't one aim through a portal and use portals to increase the gun coverage? Maybe even to off planet sites?
It took down the aurora pretty quickly. The beam is most likely full of so much power that the beam destroys smaller ships and causes other issues.
By the way, ever realized that the sunbeam is actually bigger than the Degasi (As seen in the Cinematic Trailer) but the Degasi survived and the Sunbeam exploded into a bunch of pieces.
It's not just about size. The Sunbeam is a cargo ship, the Degasi seems to be the personal ship of (or at least the ship being captained by) Paul Torgal, owner of Torgal Corp.
His ship, although not on the technical tier of the Aurora, must have been a very luxurious ship with many resources, much like a luxury yacht or a private jet.
And if the Precursor Cannon fires beams as we know them, they shouldn't bend (on a practical sense) under planets gravity fields.
It is said within data entries that the beam abuses gravity to bend. This means it's possibly more solid matter within the beam.
Going off the idea of solid matter being within the beam...
This would mean Ion Crystal Chunks would be in it, and we know how much power those have.
This would also explain how such a small gun took out the Giant Aurora. If the Ion Crystal Chunks were found within it, that would include a TON of explosive energy.
Basically like this:
- Beam fires.
- Aurora goes boom boom pow
- Ship falls outa da sky
I'm not questioning the gun destructive ability. And excuse-me if I sound condescending, but the "projectile" needs specific speeds, assuming it travels frictionless through the atmosphere, to make proper use of gravity assisted maneuvers. If it is too slow it falls in the water, if it is too fast it quickly escapes the gravity well.
And it is aiming at space faring vessels that should be moving relatively fast to the planet. So I expect it to have some means to alter its velocity midflight.
Unless it's parked in a geostationary orbit
Nice try but that kind of orbit is only attainable on the equator of planets and much closer than a standard orbit. There is no reason for a manned ship like the Aurora to do that.
That said, I don't think the Aurora was orbiting the planet when it was hit.
However TBH, the Aurora doesn't really look like a planetary lander in any case. Does it even have landing gear and more importantly, the ability to take off once more? It looks more like a carrier used as an orbital platform. Launching shuttles to set up an initial base of operation and then, once that's set up, proceed to use phasegates and something similar to the future TSF "infantry portals"
I guess you can say they got hit by the "slingshot" instead
Actually a geostationary orbit is at about 45,000 kilometers, which makes it a high earth orbit. You could also easily accomplish this with a geocentric orbit which can be off the equator. The point is that you don't ever get over that hemisphere of the planet close enough to get shot.
As for bending the "beam" with gravity, while that is highly unlikely I think the problem most are having when thinking about this is thinking of it as a purely energy weapon. It's much more likely that it's a particle beam. In this case there is no pure energy in the beam, it's just a mass of highly charged particles of something. That does leave the theoretical possibility that you could cause it to bend around gravity exactly the way you want it to by controlling it's initial velocity. It's a really interesting idea, honestly.