I'm leaning towards focused. That 50% damage increase over the gimballed option is quite attractive despite the cost and 75 degree firing arc isn't terrible. Also, the text hints at the focused design being less maintenance intensive which is a plus.
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High manoeuvrability works for smaller ships but on bigger ships you kinda still want coverage regardless.
And we just finished making our smaller warship so I expect if the war doesn't end our next wartime design will be a bigger ship.
Are we upgrading the small ship we just designed with those though? I'm not sure it can handle them.
The direct punch of our phasors is minimal compared to the power of photon torpedoes. Alpha strike is largely covered by that. I personally think the gimballed phasor is the better choice. We then design torpedo forward, high coverage ship design for the majority of our vessels and we can ease off the maneuverability a bit without worry.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Starfleet converts to Phaser Strips eventually which are pretty much "Anything within a very large arc of the dorsal or ventral surfaces is a viable target for the full power of the phaser array", but we're not there yet.
As a counterpoint, Photon torps are not all that great at hitting smaller high agility targets as we were just told in the previous update. Needing fewer passes/salvos to down such targets over the gimballed design while the torp launchers are cycling isn't something to lightly ignore imo.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Yeah, the way I see it. Focused Emitters are fine if the firing arcs are the same as the Type-1s, we can probably make do. That being said, Gimballed Emitters are insanely good for lighter ships as a defense armament.
But alas, the Military Industrial Complex will have its due.
But alas, the Military Industrial Complex will have its due.
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I... keep seeing the advantages of gimballed, despite wanting us to have more reasons to go for excellent maneuverability.
Assuming a large ship against smaller ones, gimballed will allow for more zones where two phasers can focus on one target, and be firing more of the time, and more emitters placed on a ship will allow the ship to continue to fire as emitters are disabled or the ship accrues damages in one area.
And this is only about phaser damage. Against big enemy ships we still do have torps.
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If it's a small ship, it can be manoeuvrable enough to not need the gimballing. If it's a large ship, it can afford to add enough phasers to cover all directions.
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With the actual numbers being shown, I'm liking the gimballed cannon. Yes, the focused phaser has 50% more damage, but it's also 50% more expensive and it has a 44.4% smaller firing arc. We're not matching the Kzinti's maneuverability because you just can't match insanity, but the gimballed phaser pretty thoroughly obviates any advantages said maneuverability might grant.
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Gimballed looks awkward and ungainly. Who wants literal guns waving around on stalks from your ship? I prefer the sleek focused emitters that barely look like weapons until an arc of destructive energy comes out.
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Canon Starfleet seems to have picked the focused emitters and not worried about coverage at all.
If you look at Kirk's early constitution class, they chose two focused emitters on the ventral part of the saucer and said, "what coverage lol." And that's for a heavy cruiser.
We can make a different choice here, which would be a large departure. Or stick with canon. I'm excited for either direction.
If you look at Kirk's early constitution class, they chose two focused emitters on the ventral part of the saucer and said, "what coverage lol." And that's for a heavy cruiser.
We can make a different choice here, which would be a large departure. Or stick with canon. I'm excited for either direction.
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You can tell what's canon from the physical descriptions of the things. On the Enterprise studio model, the phaser emitters were flashing lights (i.e., focused lenses) and not gimballed assemblies because duh, 1960s tech and TV production budget. And Starfleet at the time was relatively frank about fighting a cold war with the Klingons rather than attempting to pass itself off as demilitarized.
Kelvin-timeline Starfleet used gimballed cannons because 2000s movie production budget and access to CGI modeling.
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I have a gut feeling that these phasers won't be ready in time by the end of the Kzinti war.
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I think gimballed is the better choice as it will allow even non combat craft that will undoubtably have fewer phasers to have good coveradge. Because I would rather not spend too much on armaments on a new light freighter while it undoubtebly needs good coverage
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Not at all. We're arming the fleet for T'Kuvma's war and the subsequent cold war. Y'like fighting Klingons?
Yes, but this nessicitates we build more smaller ships and fewer larger ships. We would be forced to keep ships small to maintain maneuverability and then get hit a second time with the small ship stick as we need more and more expensive phasors for large ships.
Meanwhile if we go with gimballed phasors we can get away from small ships entirely and build cruisers and battlecruisers.
And basically ALL of our future enemies are likely to employ cloaks. Being able to shoot backwards seems really useful.
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Actually, I was wrong, the focused phaser isn't just worse, it's actively awful. Space is 3 dimensional, so firing arcs are two dimensional, meaning that 44.4% smaller firing arc needs to be squared, so it actually translates to a roughly 70% smaller area it can be fired in. That's bad. Even compared to the type 1 it loses 50% of the possible firing solutions.
The focused phaser cannot do a phaser's job, and for the job it can do, torpedoes are just better.
Plus side, the shipyard workers will be less likely to harbor seething hatred and homicidal tendencies for future SDB.
Yes, but we can actually start making our warships with some utility outside of war. Right now we ether build HUGE and expensive and get almost none or tiny and full of teeth with little utility.Plus side, the shipyard workers will be less likely to harbor seething hatred and homicidal tendencies for future SDB.
I want to change to design a solid utility cruiser with at or close to 100% coverage and enough utility slots to be useful.
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FTFY. There were four Kzinti wars in Niven's work. The cats just do not learn.
Unfortunately, I consider gimballed cannons outdated, ugly and fragile. *shrug* I'm set on the focused design.
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If the trade-off was two focused for one gimballed for the same coverage, I would consider it. It's actually closer to four to one though, due to the square cube law.
That's not a phaser, that's a direct-fire torpedo.
If the focused phasers were cheaper or even as expensive as the gimbaled mounts, they might have been interesting... But with that massive cost increase? And we'll need far more on anything that isn't a zippy ship or accept that we risk getting kited to death by highly maneuverable combattants? When our current and the likely next opponent heavily invest in maneuverable ships?
Yeah, no. A phaser that could do a torpedo's job is cool, but a torpedo can also do a torpedo's job. We ain't got anything else that can provide a high threat coverage.
The lower damage is disappointing, but it's still a significant improvement over the old phasers.
Yeah, no. A phaser that could do a torpedo's job is cool, but a torpedo can also do a torpedo's job. We ain't got anything else that can provide a high threat coverage.
The lower damage is disappointing, but it's still a significant improvement over the old phasers.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
I mean, they genetically and socially engineered themselves to be incapable of feelings other than hate and pride, and if something goes wrong it's because they didn't want it enough not that the other side had a say. They're the Heroes after all, how could their focused effort produce anything but wonders?
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And this is why they were functionally still under occupation a century and a half later. Bad kitties.