Orbital Strike Weapons

[The Red of Sinner]

Hows it going guys? As I do more, and more canon tech research, I find myself in search of a starship railgun purposed for orbital strikes. I cant find any really, and thus have come to the GODS of the factory in search of help.

So.

Can anyone point me at canon railguns for sad purpose, or can someone point me at railguns for said purpose that I may purchase from the factory. I looked them up and found on railguns for ship to ship warfare..

 

[Ellie Mors]

[member="The Shadow King"]
What sort of railgun? A regular ship-mounted one, a mass driver, or what? (There's literally 4 to 5 different kinds of railgun-esque weapons, not counting actual models.)

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

Turbolasers are perfectly capable of leveling things from orbit.

 

[The Red of Sinner]

[member="Darth Vitium"]

MMM I didnt know Mass Drives were considered railguns.

[member="Sarge Potteiger"]


And yet I have found better weapons for this goal Sarge. WAY BETTER

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

Matter of opinion, really.

But at least you're enthusiastic about it.

 

[Ellie Mors]

[member="The Shadow King"]
Depends on if you mean a true rail gun or something that uses what is essentially the same or similar technology to reach the same result.

 

[The Red of Sinner]

[member="Sarge Potteiger"]

I am proud of myself with what I have found.

[member="Darth Vitium"]

I am willing to compromise if there are no true Railguns for Orbital Strikes.

 

[Ellie Mors]

[member="The Shadow King"]
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Mass-driver_cannon

For a rail gun (where the slug is accelerated by Lorentz forces and electromagnetism between two parallel rails) there was no real limit (except the speed of light), only a practical one based on rail erosion and, when in atmosphere, ablation of the projectile. Typically this speed was 6 km/s.

 

[The Red of Sinner]

[member="Darth Vitium"]

So I have read this wiki page before, and I found myself a little puzzle, but understanding of most of it, it was a single shot cannon with a high velocity , and some nice power behind it.
NOW
Lets put this in perspective.
Im pointing this at a city, and I want that city gone. What would you say if I fired single shot into the city, what do you reckon would be the damage done?

 

[Qae Shena]

[member="The Shadow King"]

Not what you'd hope for. If you want to level a city, most orbital strike weapons short of a superlaser will not glass an entire city in one shot.

 

[Ellie Mors]

[member="The Shadow King"]
It depends on the size of the projectile, the cannon used in question (and obviously its own size), and the power source used. Generally speaking there are various conflicting sources for what it takes to level a city - in KOTOR it took hundreds of ships to level Taris' capital portion, and some other areas it took an orbital cannon that acted like a satellite.

 

[The Red of Sinner]

[member="Darth Vitium"]

Kotor took ONE ship to do that, the Leviathan.

Then what would you say is a suitable Mass Cannon Drive size to help level a city?

[member="Qae Shena"]

Well...that is reassuring

 

[Ellie Mors]

Kotor took ONE ship to do that, the Leviathan.

No, actually that was their entire fleet. The Leviathan was merely at the front of the blockade.

 

[Qae Shena]

[member="The Shadow King"] - tbh you want a superweapon. In all fairness, most orbital strike weapons are designed to be surgical - insert over target location, destroy something specific such as an underground bunker, power generator or other critical target, and then either be discarded or moved then fired again (depending on your weapon; a kinetic rod launcher would be a re-use weapon, a beam satellite might be a single shot before it burns up in the atmosphere).

But, realistically, you're looking at the wrong method of warfare to engage an entire city.

Tell me this. What's your goal?

 

[The Red of Sinner]

[member="Qae Shena"]

Seriously my goal is level a city, thats it, nothing more. I dont want to destroy the planet, or its atmosphere, I dont want to one hit the planet, i want it to be a few posts before I even come close to it being gone...seriously lol thats it, I wanna destroy a city. I want a ship that was meant just for that, thats what i am building and Orbital Strike ship. So far I have it loaded with Orbital Strike Cannons, I have thought of adding Proton Beam Cannons.

 

[Qae Shena]

[member="The Shadow King"] - yeah, no. Use turbolasers. Not even going to lie when I say they're more effective.

Also, you won't get a proton beam cannon on a ship without about a 400-post dev thread. That I promise you.

 

[Ellie Mors]

The above is true.

 

[Qae Shena]

[member="Darth Vitium"] - I got your back, bby.

 

[The Red of Sinner]

[member="Qae Shena"] [member="Darth Vitium"]

For the sake of making the factory easier on both of us Silara..I did not try to go with the Proton Beams, instead have opted for basic weapons on all the loudouts, and now feel confident that this is exactly what I want it to be.

Thanks for all the help, slowly I am learning how to build a proper ship. XD

 

[Hessai Venscythe]

Was about to say in seeing, a railgun's fairly effective for launching for piercing damage with a sizable but not massive blast radius on impact. You could try launching several dozen shots if you are say aiming for government sectors of sizable parts of the city, but WMD range yes probably better to think on a different weapon system. I am rather doubting we're allowed ships that launch asteroids at planets.