60 réponses à ce sujet

[Malanek]

Non-detection is the best case scenario, but they need to be prepared for things not going their way.  If they establish a colony and are then discovered by hostile aliens, they need some ability to defend themselves, or atleast buy time for an evacuation.  Or if the ship's FTL capability is hampered somehow, they may need to buy time to fix the issue.  Even if they want to run away, it may not always be an immediate option.  There's compelling reason to have some degree of armament, and not much downside.

The downside is the key, and while it is somewhat hypothetical, I believe you are underestimating it significantly.

 

In modern jet fighters the armament component is a significant part of the overall cost. Whilst the arkship is much, much more than a jetfighter, and the cost ratio for weapons compared to the rest of the ship would be significantly different, it still puts in perspective how expensive weaponry is. And this is only for targetting things moving at a relatively pedestrian pace all in an atmosphere.

 

Everything still has to be integrated with the rest of the ship. The real cost is in the design and testing and you are not going to recover on this throughout having a long production life. Adding significant weaponry would conservatively cost trillions and trillions of credits and hundreds of thousands of hours spent in design, construction, and testing.

 

When undertaking massively complex engineering challenges under time constraints, which this project almost undoubtedly is, you want to simplify everything as much as possible. Anything not project critical should be cut. Every hour you spend designing weapons into the ship, is an hour not spent on improving the life support, propulsion, hull integrity or all the thousands different technologies you want to have available when you get to Andromeda to help you establish.

 

I would suggest having basic armaments on your scout ships. These (hopefully) do not need to be redesigned, you would simply use existing ships, and you would need these ships in Andromeda anyway. The weapons on them are not going to be all that much use though.

[Heimdall]

The downside is the key, and while it is somewhat hypothetical, I believe you are underestimating it significantly.

 

In modern jet fighters the armament component is a significant part of the overall cost. Whilst the arkship is much, much more than a jetfighter, and the cost ratio for weapons compared to the rest of the ship would be significantly different, it still puts in perspective how expensive weaponry is. And this is only for targetting things moving at a relatively pedestrian pace all in an atmosphere.

 

Everything still has to be integrated with the rest of the ship. The real cost is in the design and testing and you are not going to recover on this throughout having a long production life. Adding significant weaponry would conservatively cost trillions and trillions of credits and hundreds of thousands of hours spent in design, construction, and testing.

 

When undertaking massively complex engineering challenges under time constraints, which this project almost undoubtedly is, you want to simplify everything as much as possible. Anything not project critical should be cut. Every hour you spend designing weapons into the ship, is an hour not spent on improving the life support, propulsion, hull integrity or all the thousands different technologies you want to have available when you get to Andromeda to help you establish.

 

I would suggest having basic armaments on your scout ships. These (hopefully) do not need to be redesigned, you would simply use existing ships, and you would need these ships in Andromeda anyway. The weapons on them are not going to be all that much use though.

I would suggest that having weapons are pretty critical for this endeavor.

 

Yes, its an additional cost, but its also something that could mean the life or death of everyone onboard if they encounter something dangerous.  It isn't reasonable to hope for the best and they encounter nothing their escorts can't handle, not when so much is at stake.  We're not talking about equipping it like a dreadnought here, considering the scope of the project, the cost probably wouldn't be nearly as disparate as you're jet fighter example.

[themikefest]

For me, having a weapon defense system for the ship is the most important thing. 

 

Sure the ship might be able to jump to ftl to avoid any damage, but what happens if its caught in a surprise attack and gets damaged enough not to be able to jump to ftl? Having a good weapon defense system might make the difference between the ship being destroyed or not. That might be a worse case scenario, but it still has to be considered since no one has any idea what they may encounter on their journey. Heck they might not encounter anything until they find a planet to settle in Andromeda.

 

Having fighters on the ship would help. But in a surprised attack they might not be able to be deployed. So having a weapon defense system would at least fire at the enemy causing them to avoid being damaged that would give time to deploy those fighters

[Ahglock]

Multiple thanix cannons scaled to citadel size.

[Kabooooom]

Arming the ship would be smart, but assuming Andromeda was never reaped, I would wonder just how super advanced any species they come across will be. Their weapons might be worthless.

[SporkFu]

With no reapers to reap them, an Andromedan civilization may have evolved for hundreds of thousands of years, maybe longer, and they may scoff at our weapons and/or defenses as well

[themikefest]

With no reapers to reap them, an Andromedan civilization may have evolved for hundreds of thousands of years, maybe longer, and they may scoff at our weapons and/or defenses as well

That's possible, but I still like to have something instead of nothing

[Hanako Ikezawa]

Even not accounting for alien threats, having a ship equipped with a means to defend itself is still a logical thing. There are plenty of asteroids, meteors, comets, etc that would pose a threat to the ship, thus having weaponry to break those apart or redirect would be wise.

[CYRAX470]

The Ishimura from Dead Spade had linear launchers to defend from asteroids, and that was a mining ship. Now imagine a ship filled with millions of people from different races, with the express purpose of keeping civilization going. It would need all the weapons it could get.

[goishen]

Maybe it's so big that it'd have to fitted together in space.  Maybe it could be the size of ....    Wait, wait for it....   A small moon.

 

Ba-dumdum-taaaa.

[Ahglock]

Yes.

[SporkFu]

That's possible, but I still like to have something instead of nothing

Agreed. The last hope of the Milky Way galaxy isn't gonna go into uncharted territory with nothing. Honestly, the situation I described likely isn't going to exist either because it wouldn't be much of a game if we got wiped out as soon as we arrived, heh.

[themikefest]

Agreed. The last hope of the Milky Way galaxy isn't gonna go into uncharted territory with nothing. Honestly, the situation I described likely isn't going to exist either because it wouldn't be much of a game if we got wiped out as soon as we arrived, heh.

I would laugh if that did happen.

 

Just before the ship is destroyed, they're able to send a distress message back to the Milky Way. Milky Way says crap. They build another ship and send it to Andromeda. The game starts at that point. hahahaha

[Xerxes52]

Heck, they could even go the Homeworld route and have the Ark capable of manufacturing its own fleet of space fighters, frigates, dreadnoughts, etc. from asteroids mined on site, in addition to its own compliment of weapons.

[wright1978]

Depends on the purpose of the ark. If the ark ship's primary purpose is simply to survive the journey to Andromeda then i don't think offensive armaments would be a priority in terms of design or resource consumption. Every focus would be on propulsion, life support & space for needed for cargo.

 

If they are going to handwaive the journey cheaply(which i hope they don't do) then having a heavily armed ark would be less of an issue.

[Chardonney]

I would laugh if that did happen.

 

Just before the ship is destroyed, they're able to send a distress message back to the Milky Way. Milky Way says crap. They build another ship and send it to Andromeda. The game starts at that point. hahahaha

 

That would be hilarious. No, no... shouldn't be funny... but yeah, it would be.

[Silcron]

Aside from what has already been posted you're forgetting about the meta argument.

Of course it will have weapons. C'mon, what do you think the gameplay will be about? Just running around planets in your mako? It's not like trailers have not showed weaponry at all, at least on the personal level, and if you're bringing guns, would you really not put at least turrets on your ship?

[SporkFu]

I would laugh if that did happen.
 
Just before the ship is destroyed, they're able to send a distress message back to the Milky Way. Milky Way says crap. They build another ship and send it to Andromeda. The game starts at that point. hahahaha

"Alright, the last six don't count. Forget about 'em. You are the last great hope for the Milky Way.... *sigh*"

[themikefest]

"Alright, the last six don't count. Forget about 'em. You are the last great hope for the Milky Way.... *sigh*"

Or they send a whole fleet of ships at once so that at least one gets through without being destroyed.

[SporkFu]

Or they send a whole fleet of ships at once so that at least one gets through without being destroyed.

That's a good idea too Either too many targets to shoot at, or not enough ammo.

[Hanako Ikezawa]

Aside from what has already been posted you're forgetting about the meta argument.

Of course it will have weapons. C'mon, what do you think the gameplay will be about? Just running around planets in your mako? It's not like trailers have not showed weaponry at all, at least on the personal level, and if you're bringing guns, would you really not put at least turrets on your ship?

That big ship almost certainly won't be under our command. Most likely we will be in command of a smaller ship that serves that ship. 

[SporkFu]

That big ship almost certainly won't be under our command. Most likely we will be in command of a smaller ship that serves that ship.

Oh I like this idea a lot.

[Chardonney]

That big ship almost certainly won't be under our command. Most likely we will be in command of a smaller ship that serves that ship. 

 

I agree. Especially if the rumour is true and the protagonist is a 'combat trained but untested'. They wouldn't give a command like that to a rookie.

[Chealec]

 

 

 

I'm not the only one seeing a similarity right?

[Hanako Ikezawa]

Oh I like this idea a lot.

I do too. We would be like a worker bee going out to find and gather things to help the hive that is that large ship.

 

I agree. Especially if the rumour is true and the protagonist is a 'combat trained but untested'. They wouldn't give a command like that to a rookie.

Yeah. If we are an inexperienced Pathfinder, then it makes sense we have a small scouting ship rather than risk anything more substantial. 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm not the only one seeing a similarity right?

I posted the exact same images and said nearly the exact same thing on the Black Ark Theory thread.