Grav Lance Questions

SWM wrote:

SharkHunter wrote:CaN I PlaY?

I have an idea that is guaranteed to work, plus these things can jump across the hyper wall before executing their final attack manuevers. Manned Stealthed Grav Lance Mines. You can use a smaller crew than a DD, and call it a.... hmmmm.

How about a frigate? yeah, that'll work. Get'em up to 1/4 graser range undetected and I can guarantee... something.*

Oh, never mind.

*My inner smart-arse just got loose for a moment (ducking a further bazooka shot...)

You forgot to have it manned by Medusans, with treecats providing targeting locks based on long-range empathy to avoid active sensors.

Sounds like Star Wars.

"Use the force Luke. Trusssssst the forrrrrrce!"

SharkHunter wrote:CaN I PlaY?

I have an idea that is guaranteed to work, plus these things can jump across the hyper wall before executing their final attack manuevers. Manned Stealthed Grav Lance Mines. You can use a smaller crew than a DD, and call it a.... hmmmm.

How about a frigate? yeah, that'll work. Get'em up to 1/4 graser range undetected and I can guarantee... something.*

Oh, never mind.

*My inner smart-arse just got loose for a moment (ducking a further bazooka shot...)

SWM wrote:You forgot to have it manned by Medusans, with treecats providing targeting locks based on long-range empathy to avoid active sensors.

Sounds like Star Wars.

"Use the force Luke. Trusssssst the forrrrrrce!"[/quote][quote="cthia"]
Can Hutch use the force for aiming the wet noodle bazooka?

The only good use for a grav lance is to use it as a tooth-pick for a Budong.

Duckk wrote:

I was still thinking that this new modern tech if applied to the GL might decrease it's size Beta Squared nodes increase it's power and the old four x four barrel carb idea to mini fusion power a grav Lance torpedo might work.

Sigh.

What part of "No, end of story" was David unclear on?

The Weapon That Shall Not Be Named once again rears it's ugly head. Maybe we should use a wooden stake through the heart, decapitation, followed by further dismemberment, run it through the wood chipper and lastly feed what remains into a plasma powered incinerator. LOL

jgnfld wrote:I know! I know! WHAT ABOUT GRAV LANCE STEALTHED MINES!!!!!

They would work now that we have all that power in the minifusion plants!!! All you'd have to do is lay them in the path of the enemy and wait for them to pass by. The enemy'd NEVER SEE THEM COMING and THEY WOULD WORK ONE HUNDRED PERCENT OF THE TIME!!!

How does grav lance range compare with the junction volume? If they put some GL mines there, and something causes them to fire when they are not supposed to, replacing sidewall generators would be less expensive than replacing a ship. They would need to be kept charged up, tho, and likely that can't be done, also there might be some bad interactions between the GL and the junction. At least an enemy couldn't see them accurately before exiting the junction.

DDHvi wrote:

jgnfld wrote:I know! I know! WHAT ABOUT GRAV LANCE STEALTHED MINES!!!!!

They would work now that we have all that power in the minifusion plants!!! All you'd have to do is lay them in the path of the enemy and wait for them to pass by. The enemy'd NEVER SEE THEM COMING and THEY WOULD WORK ONE HUNDRED PERCENT OF THE TIME!!!

How does grav lance range compare with the junction volume? If they put some GL mines there, and something causes them to fire when they are not supposed to, replacing sidewall generators would be less expensive than replacing a ship. They would need to be kept charged up, tho, and likely that can't be done, also there might be some bad interactions between the GL and the junction. At least an enemy couldn't see them accurately before exiting the junction.

1) A ship coming out of the junction already has to have it's sidewalls down. There is an "extension" of the grav wave from the terminus into real space that would destroy an impeller as soon as it is fired up if it happens to close to the terminus. IIRC, Mr. Weber has said that it takes a couple of (3?) minutes to clear the danger zone for the Manticore Junction.

2) As I mentioned uptread, a GL mine would have to be around the size of a first war destroyer. The Fearless was just about the smallest ship it could have been mounted on, but even taking out all of the fiddly bits not necessary for a GL, it would still have to be HUGE!

jthoma8318 wrote:

I was still thinking that this new modern tech if applied to the GL might decrease it's size Beta Squared nodes increase it's power and the old four x four barrel carb idea to mini fusion power a grav Lance torpedo might work.

Duckk wrote:
Sigh.

What part of "No, end of story" was David unclear on?

The Weapon That Shall Not Be Named once again rears it's ugly head. Maybe we should use a wooden stake through the heart, decapitation, followed by further dismemberment, run it through the wood chipper and lastly feed what remains into a plasma powered incinerator. LOL

It appears that not even that treatment is sufficient to kill this beast.
People, what does it take to convince you that this one is a non-starter

Plus, lest we forget the gravity lance does zero ship damage mby itself, zero zip, nada: it removes a defense, Offensively even a mine is more dangerous by itself, or drop a single missile pod out the back a la Ajax at Solon, those at least have a theoretical chancee of getting into range. So the GL is a dead weapons system, yep, David himself says so, right here...

http://infodump.thefifthimperium.com/en ... gton/146/1

...except that our friendly neighborhood MWW ALSO stuck a "tum tee tum tum" in that same Pearl, all the way back in '98. Maybe this quote is what keeps it alive as an item for curiosity, if he hasn't retconned that idea later himself:

Pearls of Weber wrote:Having said all of that, however, I will also add that I didn't toss the grav lance out there in the very first book without the intention of doing A Little Something with it further down the line. Of course, just exactly what I do with it is for me to know and for you to... well, you get the picture. (Snerk!)

SharkHunter wrote:Plus, lest we forget the gravity lance does zero ship damage mby itself, zero zip, nada: it removes a defense, Offensively even a mine is more dangerous by itself, or drop a single missile pod out the back a la Ajax at Solon, those at least have a theoretical chancee of getting into range. So the GL is a dead weapons system, yep, David himself says so, right here...

http://infodump.thefifthimperium.com/en ... gton/146/1

...except that our friendly neighborhood MWW ALSO stuck a "tum tee tum tum" in that same Pearl, all the way back in '98. Maybe this quote is what keeps it alive as an item for curiosity, if he hasn't retconned that idea later himself:

Pearls of Weber wrote:Having said all of that, however, I will also add that I didn't toss the grav lance out there in the very first book without the intention of doing A Little Something with it further down the line. Of course, just exactly what I do with it is for me to know and for you to... well, you get the picture. (Snerk!)

Well spoke, Sharkhunter. I believe David mentioned about 10 years ago that he was so tired of the repeated Amazing new uses for the Grav Lance as a can opener or automatic dog walker that he has decided to throw as much dirt on the topic as possible and pray the zombie appocalypse never comes.

It's dead. If we ever see it again, the end of the world is neigh. It will never be retrofitted into a '91 VW Jetta. It will never become man portable.

It has Ceased to be - it is an Ex-Parrot..... errr - weapons system....

Theemile wrote:... I believe David mentioned about 10 years ago that he was so tired of the repeated Amazing new uses for the Grav Lance as a can opener or automatic dog walker that he has decided to throw as much dirt on the topic as possible and pray the zombie appocalypse never comes.

It's dead. If we ever see it again, the end of the world is neigh. It will never be retrofitted into a '91 VW Jetta. It will never become man portable.

It has Ceased to be - it is an Ex-Parrot..... errr - weapons system....

Snipping, I on the other hand do have a use for a '91 Jetta, the diesel engine anyway. Finally being of sufficient age, boredom, and garage space to play weekend mechanic.