Lasers for Starships

[daryen]

Seeing the discussion on GT:Starships reminds me that I would like to ask a favor from any willing GURPS Vehicles gearhead: I would like to see some GT:Starships compatible very heavy laser modules.

Specifically, I want 50-ton bay laser weapons for TL 8-12 and 100-ton bay laser weapons for TL 8-12. If you are ambitious and want to do TL13 lasers and grasers, I will take them too, but I am primarily looking for the standard TLs.

(And by compatible, I mean they include the requisite non-weapon components, like the power slice, just as the published modules do.)

Thanks.

 

[Rindis]

Well, that's annoying. Early on there was a page that backwards-engineered all the GT modules so it could then do new modules that would work exactly the same way.

I can't seem to find it.

I'll see what I can do for you... sigh

 

[Rindis]

Don't have the numbers with me, but I did reconstructions of the two standard Turret lasers last night. I'm close: the mass and cost are *slightly* higher than the listed ones, but I'm not sure why it's off at all. And the total volume for the GTL-12 laser is disturbingly low. I'll probably have to write Onno to figure out what's gone wrong (the person who does Vehicle of the Week - he has probably used Vehicles more than anyone else - even the author).

Anyway it looks like the GTL-10 50 dton XLaser bay should be in the ballpark of 16-17 Gigajoules ( ) With a mass slightly over 600 tons and costing around 50 MCr. Haven't worked out the damage and range yet. But that explains why GT sticks with the particle beams for all the bigger installations. They're significantly cheaper at that size.

 

[TheDS]

Holy crap that's a lot of laser! I don't think I ever even made a deep site meson gun that powerful in FFS!

Edit:

My bad, I use 640 Gj for my deep-site gun, but meson guns don't have any practical limits on capacity. OTOH, a 300 meter long PAW I made for a ship could handle 90 Gj. Don't have my 100-ton laser design handy, but I'm pretty sure the best I could do was about 10-11 Gj.

Of course, GTL is not the same as TTL.

 

[Rindis]

Okay, 16GJ turned out a bit optimistic.

I've got some of my accounting problems taken care of. Mass is consistently working. Cost keeps ending up slightly high. Anyway, I now feel confident enough to start doing new modules and not screw them up too badly.

So here's the 50-dton GTL10 Laser Bay:

</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">TL Item Cost Mass Volume
10 14.9-GJ X-ray Laser 36729900 551300 11026
Full Stabilization 5513000 55130 110.26
Mount 551300 275650 5513
10 40000-MWs Power Cell 224000 2240 22.4
10 670-MW Fusion Reactor 6700000 134000 2680
2 Roomy Crew Stations 200 80 80
Terminal 250 10 0.5
HUDWAC 250
Access Space 5360
Empty Space 207.84
SubTotal 49718900 1018410 25000</pre>[/QUOTE]Or in simpler terms:
49.7 MCr
509.2 Tons
50 Spaces

Weapon stats:</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">Name Type Acc SS Dam 1/2D Max RoF
14.9-GJ Xlaser Imp 37 30 6dx320(2) 131,600 394,800 1/60</pre>[/QUOTE]Overall, it's slightly heavier and much more expensive than the normal particle beam bay. Damage is much less the the particle beam, but the range is better than the Spinal mounts given in GT!

 

[Straybow]

40000-MWs Power Cell 224000 2240 22.4

Is that 40000-MWs in 22.4 m³???

 

[mike wightman]

No, this is GT, so that's 40000MW in 22.4 cubic feet

 

[Rindis]

Per GURPS Space:

Power Cells: The default for GURPS because it is easy and simple: small, very potent power cells exist that can run an electronic gadget for a few months or power an energy weapon for a few dozen shots. In order to do this, the energy densities of power cells must be impossibly high, making them a superscience technology.

Or in other words, the ability to have a laser rifle that doesn't require a large bulky backpack also implies the ability to store the charge for one shot of a large laser cannon in a space under a cubic yard.