[General Battuta]

blue planet on blue planet

<@toolttuta> are you saying our campaign isn't freespacey enough!?
[20:55] <@The_E> Too much character drama
[20:55] <@Axem> not enough fighter centric missions
[20:55] <@Darius> alpha 1 speaks too much

[NGTM-1R]

Well, they're right.

It's definitely not that freespacey.

[General Battuta]

don't explain the joke you KILL the joke

[NGTM-1R]

don't explain the joke you KILL the joke

Should I explain that too.

[Arcalane]

Here, have a pretty picture of a gliding Katana nuking the Thalassa.

[Dilmah G]

Seems like you got fair use out of Beta Wing there.

[Renegade Paladin]

So, I noticed something while recording VA lines.  When the Toreador responds to Steele, the captain orders gunnery to load sabot.  Now... why would you do that?  In space?  I fail to see the advantage of a sabot round in vacuum, especially in a mass driver; if you're going to fling a mass at the enemy in order to damage him, why would you want some of that mass to flake off and not hit the enemy?  Or more to the point, it's going to hit the enemy, since this is space, and after separating from the round it's going to keep moving just as fast as it did before separation and in the same direction (barring some sort of violent propulsion involved in the separation of the sabot from the round it encases) and is therefore going to hit the enemy anyway, so you're adding a complicated mechanism for no practical effect. 

[Arcalane]

So, I noticed something while recording VA lines.  When the Toreador responds to Steele, the captain orders gunnery to load sabot.  Now... why would you do that?  In space?  I fail to see the advantage of a sabot round in vacuum, especially in a mass driver; if you're going to fling a mass at the enemy in order to damage him, why would you want some of that mass to flake off and not hit the enemy?  Or more to the point, it's going to hit the enemy, since this is space, and after separating from the round it's going to keep moving just as fast as it did before separation and in the same direction (barring some sort of violent propulsion involved in the separation of the sabot from the round it encases) and is therefore going to hit the enemy anyway, so you're adding a complicated mechanism for no practical effect.  

Raw mass impact is not always the key to breaking through the enemy's armour, especially when all sorts of fancy technobabble armour technologies are in play. Let's say you're engaging a lightly armoured target. If you hit them with a dense projectile (such as a saboted armour penetrator made of, say, tungsten) it'll overpenetrate, so you switch to a round that'll punch through their soft armour and then explode before it rips out the other side.

On the other hand if they have heavy armour then a round the size of a dustbin that just flattens on their fancy armour is no use - you want a shaped, armour penetrating projectile, that may or may not include a discarding sabot part.

~~

Seems like you got fair use out of Beta Wing there.

I don't tend to keep track of the wingmates, I must admit. Strikecraft get splattered so easily compared to frigates.  

[Dilmah G]

Yeah. Although Beta Wing can almost win the mission for you in some parts; in my recollection. I digress. I too was a little surprised upon hearing SABOT rounds being used; last time I'd heard the word SABOT was when I was playing that old M1A2 Abrams tank game as a young 'un.

[NGTM-1R]

Part of the reason why sabot is used is that a heavy, dense penetrator round can cause problems for the barrel it's fired from if it's in direct contact. (Seriously, don't try to fire something made of tungsten or DU out of a barrel without a sabot, it'll really **** up a metal as light as steel.) The other is that a subcalibur round with a lighter sabot can develop higher velocities than a full-scale round.

[General Battuta]

UEF armor-piercing rounds are smaller than the (often enormous) muzzle diameters of the gauss cannons and mass drivers, for all the reasons explained above. Thus they need sabots.

[SomeGuyWithAName]

Hm, so yeah, why sabots are used in space, I can understand. But I just thought, and I might be wrong there: Aren't sabot's usually discarded with help of air drag? Wouldn't you need somthing like high explosives to blow them off the projectile, potentially destabilising...

...

wait, I just realised: Why would you even want the sabot discarded, it's basically completely arbitrary if it hits the target together with the projectile...

Still, space sabots do sound kind of strange - but I didn't even notice it the first time around, so even if it didn't make sense, suspension of disbelieve for the win.

[General Battuta]

I don't think it particularly said anywhere that they were discarded. But I'd actually imagine they are, you want clean lines down the length of the projectile for when it does eventually hit.

[-Norbert-]

I don't think explosives will be necessary. Pockets with some gas should do the trick. Unless the gas cools off and turns liquid too early, it's expansion should be enough to move the discarded parts away from the actual projectile far enough so they don't get in the way.

[-Sara-]

I expect more interesting exotic weapons technology was salvaged from the Lucifer debris, but I'm probably speaking before my turn, who knows what's involved or used in the secret project or even by the Feyadeen.

[SpardaSon21]

Who knows? Why, the Battman knows, of course.

[crian]

Hi everyone!

This is my first post here. I haven't played SCP for about 2 years then I decided to come back last week and take a look at what's new. Oh boy was I in for a treat!

Finally, this is the closest thing we're probably gonna get to Freespace 3, and it's great! Congratulations to the team for this great achievement!

Age of Aquarius really pumped me up for more, then War in Heaven really got me going. I almost couldn't stop playing it! Granted, there are things here and there that could've been improved but the whole experience is just overwhelmingly positive that I couldn't bother myself to mention them. Except one though... the whole lesbian thing feels a little gimicky but really who cares??  

I like the militaristic vibe you imbued into it without sacrificing fun. Sure there was a lot of text but it was so good that I actually PAUSED the game several times to read the dialogue!  

Definitely a lot of inspiration from the modern BSG (card games and sparring, the chatter, plus a few others), Babylon 5 (those Karunas scream Omega), I even saw a little Homeworld 2 there (those Solaris-Class Destroyers look and fire like the Vaygr Battlecruisers). There are others that I can't think of right now.

Well to end this statement: BRAVO! EN CORE! BRAVO!

Needless to say, I'm waiting eagerly for the next installment. Christmas is around the corne... baah I'm not gonna nag y'all (and get flamed in the process). You'll release it when it's done. You guys are the masters.   

[blowfish]

[Flak]

I think mass driver sabot are simply denser heavier rounds with improved penetrator instead of those in real life for gunpowder based weapons. The sabot covering is not necessary for mass drivers since the slug is fired using electrical charge or magnetic force.

[Killer Whale]

Haven't read any of this topic but I have to say. This was Epic. I'd go into more detail into why it's epic, but you'd already know and I can't be bothered with spoiler tags. Don't you love that shiver you get at awesome moments? This is the way war fiction should be. Freespace 3 would never have had a chance against this, so personally I can stop hoping for it forever because we've already got better. Unfortunately, this also made me realise my new computer isn't as great as I'd thought (4 FPS? I wanted something like 60, or at least a non-gameplay-affecting number. I mean c'mon, there's only a few frigates and fighters in my hud).