Did Someone Order a War?
Intent: Massed Point Defense Batteries, Anti Missile, Torpedo and Shell, Anti infantry, Anti starfighter and Anti Rogue Squadron! Primary Development Thread: Here *Ten Posts Allocated For this Tech
Secondary Dev Thread: Charybdis AI
Manufacturer: Fire For Effect
Model: OS-PDS
Affiliation: Fire For Effect Closed Market, Special Orders Only.
Production: Mass Produced
Material: TD1 Alloy 50% Trimantium | 50% Duravlex
Anti Corr 113 (Coating and Finish)
Classification: Frigate and Heavy Walker Sized Point Defense System, PDS
Size: Starship, Facility or Vehicle. The total size depends on what it's covering.
Length: 5 Meters per gun.
Weight: 500kg per gun. The amount linked via the PDS System AI depends on what they are covering.
Ammunition Type: Power Cells
Ammunition Capacity: Infinite Due to Generators Attached.
Effective Range: Standard Point Defense.
Rate of Fire: Continuous Pulse Fire, Semi Automatic, or Three Round Bursts.
Special Features:
Automated Point Defense System - PDS, Coordinating smaller batteries together to focus fire.
AI Operated, overseen by human operators, this frees up most of the gunners.
Designed to counter Rogue Squadron, analyzing tactics has seen the PDS AI given their previous manoeuvres to use against them.
Own Generators to run the system, requires space inside.
Description:
Using a heavy particle cannon, the PDS system is designed to coordinate the fire of many smaller guns to overwhelm starfighters, infantry, missiles and shells in a blanket fire approach, putting up a protective barrage of laser fire covering whatever they are designed to. Each battery is relatively light and not that powerful on its own, coming with a small blast radius, about the size of a man. The strength comes from the onboard AI being able to coordinate all these guns at once, overwhelming smaller targets such as starfighters by setting up a continuously hit engagement zone to deny them approach or cut them off. At a standard range for a heavy blaster cannon, it is smaller than even a light turbo laser, but larger than a blaster cannon, making it effective against starfighters, exceptionally so against a bomber sized craft.
The Charybdis Project AI:
While AI's are nothing new in starship combat, many ships having them readily in their computers. This particular AI has been learning from Rogue Squadrons Manoeuvres at Dulvoyinn, and during any other skirmishes with one sith forces, by being fed footage and tactics used, to better predict how the notoriously able squadron operates. Though it is smart enough to only use this to guide in its possible choices, it is able to adapt to continuous exposure from an opponent as a battle progresses. Using Friend or Foe signatures to decide when to fire and when not to, unless told otherwise by the few operators monitoring the system, it will not fire if it is uncertain. The operators can override safeties in the case of an emergency, and set the system to use visual recognition, but this is less effective and prone to being fooled. Operators can also manually target directions, ships, anything a normal weapon gunner could do, but given the amount of turrets they are usually tasked with monitoring, they are much less effective than the AI at controlling them.
The Charybdis AI has a few special features of its own.
The Charybdis's turrets work in clusters, like a memory cluster might inside the human mind. It is able to store artificial memory files inside the turrets it uses, so when it accesses the turrets, it is constantly and immediately updating the new reference points for its own use. This gives it ability to focus fire several turrets in unison as a natural way of operating, like accessing a memory cluster in your mind, while allowing it to group other turrets together to hit other individual targets at the same time. However when these turrets are destroyed or disabled individual target information breaks down with them.
What the Charybdis AI has as a fall back, is a simulated subconscious, where general operating procedures are kept, friend or foe, repeated patterns from its opponents, things that work on a fundamental level to its operation. Allowing it to work reasonably well even when only one turret is operational. The AI is also able to efficiently filter out junk data or other projectiles sent to confuse it, having been designed to do exactly that, so it is capable of operating many turrets at once without being overloaded with information from all its sensors.
Turrets
Each turret is fitted with its own power cell fed by a central generator, meaning that it does not draw from the ship's power supplies to operate, such as when turning itself to track an opponent. The PDS generators however are shared between the guns, meaning there is physical conduit between them, which is also vulnerable to attack. They do store some charge in the weapon's powercell of course, but that will run dry after some 50 shots, and thus space within the ship, vehicle or facility needs to be made for these independent generators to sit. As usual for most FFE equipment, Anti Corr 113 is used as a coating, to give the system protection from atmospheric weather, and corrosion resistance.
The system can potentially run up to 300 small guns, at reduced capacity across a large vessel, but not likely perform as well as conventional batteries or flak, for extended fighter cover across a flagship or battlecruiser. It would be optimal at 50-100 guns coordinating together across a cruiser, large frigate or well defended facility, but potent enough at 10-20 for it to be of use denying space and boxing its targets in with collective fire, or to defend for example a large walker in its advance. The total amount of batteries able to be mounted is going to be dictated by the size of the vehicle, vessel or facility this is installed on, as always. The best possible use of this system would be several frigates or cruisers coordinating together, and surrounding their targets in a blanketed kill zone, or to sit as a screen to stop missiles or torpedoes getting through to larger ships and important facilities on the ground.
Strengths:
+ Works Independently without need to tie up gunners.
+ Relatively little power usage, having its own generators, though these need space still.
+ Blanket Sheet Fire, hard to dodge for starfighters, missiles, torpedoes, drones, shells and infantry.
+ Cheap and easy to replace or repair.
+ Continuous Pulse fire makes for hairy moments for any fighter pilot's reflex skills.
+ Able to coordinate its fire into sub groups, and target several small projectiles or targets at once.
Weakness:
- Going to do very little to gunships or bigger, same with medium tanks or bigger on the ground.
- Not hard to disable individually.
- System can easily hit friendlies that stray into its engagement zone by mistake, or those with their Friend or Foe signatures disabled.
- Individually not all that strong, relying on several of the guns working together.
- Vulnerable to Electronic Warfare and Jamming of Friend or Foe signals.
- Power conduits vulnerable to attack.
Chaos Cannon Techs
AV X06
Vulcan Mass Driver Flak
Relevant Links
AI
Heavy Particle Cannon
Particle Beam
Notes, Dev Thread Breakdown for Transparency
15 posts for the Eros Large
15 posts for the HAT-AT Walker
10 posts for the OS-FPHS
10 posts for the OS-PDS
