The Thread net

[Shaddi]

Intent: To make an easy to understand and use point defense system that make coming near starships a very unattractive thought to starfighter sized ship pilots
Development Thread: Will add if needed
Manufacturer: Zuguruk Tyûk Industries
Model: Thread net
Affiliation: To those affiliated with Zuguruk Tyûk Industries
Production: Minor
Material: Flexisteel, ejector components

Production variants: only the largest of Frigates (280m+) and bigger ships can have this installed.
Standard net: Ejects a net around the starship reaching to a radius of 40 m around the ship it's installed in.
Medium net: Ejects a net around the starship reaching to a radius of 70 m around the ship it's installed in.
Long net: Ejects a net around the starship reaching to a radius of 100 m around the ship it's installed in.
Thin net: Ejects a net around the starship reaching to a radius of 20 m around the ship it's installed in, is made of Monofilament wire.
Razor net: Adds sharp spikes to the threads designed to hook into starships of corvette size or smaller, can more easily destroy small starfighters.
Electrical net: The net ecjected is capable of being charged up, sending arcs of electricity around the ship, a heavy drain on power. can be installed on the 40 m and 100 variants and take more power the more cable it has to cover.

Strength
Makes it hard to come near the ship it's installed on, making firing or bombing runs hard against large ships
can catch the occasional bomb, torpedo or missile.
If a ship is enveloped in the threads the emitter pods function as anchors if the ship sin't destroyed.

Weakness
Sometimes they cannot be reeled in again and as such the thread has to be cut off
If a fast ship in enveloped in the threads and isn't destroyed it can rip out the thread emitter pod if it is only a single pod the ship is connected to.
Cannot be put on overly fast ships as the net would sway and hit the ship

Description:
Installed in clusters around the hull of a ship this defense shoots out using the same technology used in ejector seats and pods. As they are made from Flexisteel they can bend and sway as needed but will entangle, trap, damage or even destroy those ships, of starfighter size, foolish enough to come near the ship. Corvettes can be damaged if one of the few variants of this defensive system are used.
The threads can be retracted back but will have to cycle through as the tips of the threads are refueled for the thrust they aquire when shot out from the clusters. The threads form a net around the ship, not unlike hairs billowing in a gentle breeze, it is very hard, almost impossible, to fly through the threads, even for force-sensitive pilots.

 

[Sanya Val Lerium]

Under review

 

[Sanya Val Lerium]

[member="Darth Erebos"]

Could you give a range for this weapon?

 

[Shaddi]

Production variants:
Standard net: Ejects a net around the starship reaching to a radius of 40 m around the ship it's installed in.
Medium net: Ejects a net around the starship reaching to a radius of 70 m around the ship it's installed in.
Long net: Ejects a net around the starship reaching to a radius of 100 m around the ship it's installed in.
Thin net: Ejects a net around the starship reaching to a radius of 20 m around the ship it's installed in, is made of Monofilament wire.
Razor net: Adds sharp spikes to the threads designed to hook into starships of corvette size or smaller, can more easily destroy small starfighters.
Electrical net: The net ecjected is capable of being charged up, sending arcs of electricity around the ship, a heavy drain on power. can be installed on the 40 m and 100 variants and take more power the more cable it has to cover.

It says here as it emanates in a net around the ship and the variations show the range of this weapon. Given it's unorthodox manner I put a low range even on the longest ranging one. [member="Sanya Val Lerium"]

 

[Sanya Val Lerium]

[member="Darth Erebos"]

A range on how far this can travel. What I currently (presume) is that is how much net per type could wrap around a target.

Cannot go to hyperspace when in use.

Could you also replace this with a different weakness due to most weapons (unless special) can't do this anyway. So maybe add that the net sometimes doesn't unravel as an example.

 

[Shaddi]

The net isn't really a net just a series of threads that emanate in every direction from the ship and the range is how long each thread is, [member="Sanya Val Lerium"] made a different weakness and added another strength and weakness to reflect it.

 

[Sanya Val Lerium]

[member="Darth Erebos"]

The net isn't really a net just a series of threads that emanate in every direction from the ship,

Can you explain this then please?

 

[Shaddi]

Something like this [member="Sanya Val Lerium"]

 

[Sanya Val Lerium]

[member="Darth Erebos"]

Okay that's fine but there is one slight thing I feel as this could be easily abused so could you maybe add in ship limit for the size (medium- covet and bigger, large frigate and bigger.) Once this is done I'll set it for approval and trust this won't be abused.

 

[Shaddi]

[member="Sanya Val Lerium"] I put it in as only the largest frigates and bigger ships can have this installed.

 

[Sanya Val Lerium]

Approved pending [="raziel"]'s approval

 

[Raziel]

[member="Darth Erebos"]

Ok, so let's assume I have a ship that's 1km long. For the sake of this, we'll also assume its a sphere.

We have a bunch of these launchers and they fire nets that come together to make a sphere around a ship

to a radius of 100 m around the ship it's installed in.

That's a sphere with a radius of 1100m. That's 1.52×107 m^2 of net. Assuming a reasonable tight metal mesh to catch torpedoes that's around 150,000 metric tonnes of net. This is going to add a very large weight to any vessel.



Next you have to consider ships are not underwater, they're in space. A net will carry on with the initial velocity given to it, continuing on into space indefinitely. So the fundamental question is:

Can you come up with a mechanism whereby the net can hold its shape and stay in position around a vessel?

Hint: perhaps you have "buoys" in the net that are charged, and you put an opposing charge on the hull. That way the net is constantly straining away from the vessel in all directions


If your ship's engines are on and you vessel is accelerating, you net is immediately going to be left behind i.e. you're going to fly your own ship through the net every single time you fire your engines unless you have something to deal with this.

Given the weight and impracticality of this system I'm going to ask for the following weakness to be added:

This system takes place of half the point defences a ship of the class usually has.

When in use, any firing of point defences (anti missile weapons, quad lasers, flak) will destroy the net, rendering it unusable.

 

[Shaddi]

[member="Raziel"] I see your point and I realize I was just at the point of concept when it came to thinking this system through and as I think it thoroughly through I see it as simply impractical and would like to request that this system be deleted.