Once Upon The Stars (Updated 08-22-04)

[Siegebreaker]

Hey, that was a nice surprise.
I was not expecting another update for another month or so.

The question now its, can a tactical nuke really destroy a colonizer?
I don't remember exactly if in the game one single CSM level 1 can blow out of the sky a colony ship.
I will run a test later.

Oh, but also, this story its pre-2400, the starting game date, right?
So that nuke maybe its less capable than a CSM1, and it was a Tactical Nuke, not an ICBM, so it should be even smaller.
Can we assume that a CSM1 its comparable to a current ICBM?

Sorry for picking on this part of the story. Its just that I'm into Sci-fi "realism".
(Like if such a thing as "sci-fi realism" can really exist )

[Atrocities]

The story pre-dates 2400.0 yes.

The game is based off of the Conquest mod, not yet released. Weapons work differntly in this mod. CSM's are not tactical nukes, they are conventional explosives so a tactical nuke is far more explosive than any level of CSM.

[Siegebreaker]

The description for CSM says "Heavy duty missile with a nuclear warhead", if I recall correctly.

I always thought it was nuclear because conventional explosives should do little damage to a year 2400 ship of any kind, since they would suppossely be shielded against meteorites, radiation, and so on.
Even today great advances are being done in low weight tubular materials. Both the US and China have developed materials that suppossely are stronger than steel, though we will not know for sure until the so-called FCVs become operational in the near future, partially replacing the current Abram tanks.

What I mean its that I always thought that any ship in SE4 was armored in comparison to our standards today, and the armor components were armored to the year 2400 standards, thus explaining why a corvette/escort class ship without armored components could take a couple direct hits from CSMs with nuclear warheads, as the in-game description says the are.

[Atrocities]

Again, the story pre-dates 2400.0 and the story is based off of the Conquest mod, not yet released. Physics of that mod work differntly and given the fact that they have not yet discovered, or re-discovered space travel, neucler weapons are all they have at the moment. Crude and effective.

CSM my have neucler war heads, but they could be low yeild or even neucler waste by products like depleted urianium. Just a thought.

[Siegebreaker]

Originally posted by Atrocities:


CSM my have neucler war heads, but they could be low yeild or even neucler waste by products like depleted urianium. Just a thought.

Well, I guess every player will think diferently of the strenght of SE4 weapons in comparisson with todays arsenal.

I think the CSMs are really nuclear, and even more powerful than todays nukes, because a few of them can glass a colony with several millions colonists.

Heck, an undefended colony of any size its history when a single lowly frigate shows up packing a couple CSM components.

Still, within the frame of Once Upon the Stars, you can argue that the Colony ship was not up to the standards of the 2400 start date, and thus weaker when struck by a TacNuke.

Or you may say that the TacNuke was an smart bunker-buster with a nuclear warhead.
That one could definitively penetrate a pre-2400 colony ship that its a seating duck on the ground.

Oh yeah, I like the bunker-buster theory.

[Atrocities]

You might have a point there. Thanks.

The thing is a nuke is a very devistating weapon. The fact that CSm's have nuclear cores or war heads probibly makes them lower yeild or something. I will say that that the Tacticle nuke used in the Last chapter is significantly much higher yeild than a standard CSM. (Which will be used in later chapters if I ever get around to writing them.)

Thanks for the help on figuring this out.

[Atrocities]

I wonder why no one has read this latest installment. This was so far buried that one needed to pipe air into it to keep it alive.