Re: Planet Conquest]]

ThatOtherGuy wrote:
> Actually it is true.  the slightest calculation at those speeds and distances
> will cause you to lose ships constantly.  Off by .1 degrees?  Bye-bye ship.
> Interior ships will drop out clusters of ships on either side with them and no
> one will ever match course exactly again with other ships they can't even see.
>  Even with waypoints being used you'd never manage it.
Sorry, but you clearly haven't thought through the simple ways to avoid
this, and have simply decided it's impossible. All you have to do is
give each ship a strict schedule to drop out of spelljamming speeds
every few hours. For larger fleets the intervals would be smaller, while
relatively small fleets would mostly get by with dropping out only when
they would need to change spelljammers anyway. Course corrections would
only be made at tactical speeds, and never at spelljamming speeds. By
dropping to tactical every so often you increase the chances that
everyone is on the same course, so you'll lose fewer ships. It's still
almost impossible to make sure that every ship in a large fleet will
make it, but that was expected in fleet movements in the real world as
well. All you do is set up a number of rendevous points in advance (in
addition to dropping to tactical speeds every few hours). If any ship
loses the rest of the fleet they are to make their own way to the next
rendevous point. Since a lone ship won't have to worry about dropping to
tactical all the time any stray ships will almost certainly make it to
the rendevous point before the main fleet. When the main fleet arrives
at the rendevous they collect any ships that have gathered there, and
immediately leave on their merry way to the next rendevous point (any
stray ships that haven't made it to the rendevous already are most
likely gone for good). It's time consuming, a logistical headache, and
it'll make the fleet travel much more slowly than a lone ship, but it's
very possible.
> The scro have been hiding in their sphere trying to avoid
> notice while rebuilding their fleet and numbers so they don't have a whole lot
> of skill at this.
Riiiiggghht... So despite the facts that scro are extremely good
military planners, and that phlogiston navigation is absolutely
essential to all of their plans you're saying that they won't have
considered this, and their navigators won't know how to do it? I can't
imagine that any scro ship would be without a competant flow navigator.
These aren't merchant ships, or sphere-bound military ships we're
talking about here.
> In the end the scro fleet will disintegrate enroute and
> maybe (being generous) 1 in 10 ships will make it to the sphere.
No offense, but you really like to exaggerate don't you? This is as
ridiculous as your statement that all it takes to destroy a spelljamming
ship is a single fireball.

--
does the sun renounce it's kingdom as the shadows fall
does a fool rejoice in wisdom when the raven calls
do you embrace the dancing clayman as he tears your flesh
do you hear the souls screaming in the serpent's mesh