A Halo mod for the critically acclaimed Sins of a Solar Empire, that aims to capture the fast paced intensity of the Halo series.
Oppenheimer's Legacy
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Description
Once a weapon that threatened to destroy the fragile world that we shared, nuclear devices have become significantly more common in the face of the genocidal Covenant. The Shiva nuclear warhead in particular is the ship-to-ship weapon of choice when humanity is clearly outnumbered or for special tactical situations.Mad props to Zero for the Shiva model as well.
And if only they would just pack nuclear warheads into MAC rounds, the Covenant would be way less of a threat.
Indeed, if they're going to send and explosive shell at such high velocities that it practically impacts with the force of a nuke you'd think they would add an appropriate warhead for such an occasion... Think of the amount of power that thing would expel upon impact, the UNSC would probably be able to punch through the covy shielding with a single MAC round
Thats not how nuclear warheads work...
Force x Mass x Velocity
The faster an explosive shell is travelling the more power it exerts
Physic's Rant Follows:
Assuming that we're talking at sea level, yes: the nuclear warhead should drastically increase the effectiveness.
Unfortunately, if the nuke detonates on impact, then it will detonate against the covenant shield. It'll increase the damage, but not as much as you are likely imagining.
Because an explosion's damage comes from the rapidly expanding mass (the shock-wave) created by heating of the surrounding mass, the denser the mass, the more powerful the explosion. That's why a depth charge detonated in atmosphere has less effect than when detonated in water.
Since space is mostly empty, the damage from an explosion has to come in the form of shrapnel or radiation, so, using nuclear shells could actually decrease the MAC's effectiveness.
HOWVER, there is still a way to make the MAC more effective using Nuclear warheads. Use a delay fuse. The MAC round penetrates the shield, punches a hole in the exterior armor, and then detonates INSIDE the ship. The ship has an atmosphere and solid superstructure that would be torn asunder from within.
So, WHY haven't the Weapons Engineers of the 26th century realized something that a college Theater major figured out?
Based on how nuclear weapons work, at 30,000 M/S, the nuclear material is likely to prematurely detonate, possibly inside the barrel of the MAC. Do you want a shiva going off in your ship?
Besides, a MAC round has more than enough energy on its own to thoroughly damage the shielding on a covenant ship.
Uh... Delay fuse? How much of a MAC do you think makes it into a ship? It's practically all atmoized upon contact... the nuclear material and fuse wouldn't survive long enough to go off...
Would this explain why the atomic bombs don't have as long of a lasting affect compared to Chernobyl? At least radiation wise?
do you thing that the electronics used to set it off would be able to go 1/3 of the speed of light and survive the impact to set it off,
Electronics? Doubtful. On the other hand a simple mechanical system like the ones in the original Hiroshima and Nagasaki devices could be used: it simply slammed two hemispheres of uranium or plutonium together to create the explosion. In such a scenario, you simply design the mechanical lock or safety to break on sudden deceleration (impact). The impact breaks the locking mechanism and the time it takes for the halves of the reactive core to come together would be less than 2 milliseconds, but by the time they come together, the round is already throught the shields and either embedded or past the armor.
It's worth noting that the maximum velocity of a Mk V SMAC or Super MAC Gun like those stationed above Reach and Earth had a maximum velocity of about 4% the speed of light (0.04C). So, it wouldn't be 1/3rd light speed. Light travels at aproximately 186,000 miles per second.
Nuclear warheads are intricate devices. I hate nit-picking as its sci fi and practically anything goes, but launching a device like that at such high velocities would likely cause a premature detonation. Smash the components together through that kind of acceleration and you will reach critical mass before it leaves the barrel. Very bad for whoever fires it.
Why would you need a nuclear warhead in a MAC round again? I'm pretty sure a MAC round is essentially just a giant slug of various types of alloys and whatnot and etc etc blah blah
Why are we arguing about something that doesn't exist in real life again?
You shoot stuff and it explodes for reasons that's why.
Mac's do exist
They range anywhere from D.I.Y recreational coilguns to massive military installation sized
Unfortunately I think the latter was scrapped
Railguns are being studied by the Navy. Just because you don't hear about it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. And not hearing about it is better
The Navy has been working on them form for while. Coilguns are what they have been working on. They have to replace the parts every shot or every few though. Navy just recently got a "lazer" weapons for ballistic defense and for against small boats.
Excellent point Nanelite.
Although i was referering more to the fact halo fans (and fans of sci fi universes in general) love to argue about questionable physics and the physical atributes of fictional objects and other such things(the maximum warp velocity of this battle cruiser is ACTUALY 2x as fast as that Supreme Deluxe StarDestroyer with 20" rims because they mounted a dual flux capacitor system which effectively doubles the output of the warp drive system thereby letting it go twice the speed in warp).
Don't me wrong though, I love me some sci fi. And nothing enhances your understanding of something better than a good old fashoined argument, getting someone elses point of view and such, but sometimes people take it a bit to far(NO NO NO!!!! The top speed of a warthog is REALLY 56 1/2 kph NOT 51 3/4 kph you are such a [insert desired insult here]).
Now lets see if some corrects me on the actual speed of the warthog. And yes I know 50kph isn't all that fast( about 30mph).
On a note unrelated to my rather long and pointless rant, I'm loving the new missles and smoke trails they are looking so delicious, hmmm hm, missle trails.
Now lets see if some corrects me on the actual speed of the warthog. And yes I know 50kph isn't all that fast( about 30mph).
I read that it was about 80 kmph (or mph, not sure but they can be quite fast when they want to be) :P
You would come back with that. =P
Hey, what can I say? I love theoretical technology. It's interesting. A lot of people like discussing finer points of science fiction, and many more who aren't sci fi fans look at us and say, "what's the use? It's called science FICTION for a reason! It's fiction!" They blow it all off as entertainment, but look at how many different things in our lives have come from science fiction:
A submersable warship was featured by a man known as "the father of science fiction," Juels Verne in "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" in 1870.
Beam weapons using focused light were featured in H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds" in 1898.
Besides Mechs, Gundam Seed features genetically engineered humans (yes, coordinators are real).
Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek, one of my personal favorites, featured laser-read optical-data-storage-discs, genetic engineering, AI, and cybernetics to name a few.
The most astounding things in my book are the tech that has been so often written off as fiction that now is becoming a reality. H.G. Wells' "Heat Ray" was thought impossible since light is not coherent, but we have lasers today.
Juels Verne's submarine was impossible for several reasons: no one could create an electric motor powerful enough for such a vessel, and even if they had, batters were not advanced enough for such a task. Steam power wasn't feasible because your air supply would be used by a conventional boiler, and no one had yet thought of heating water into steam through nuclear reaction.
Now, European scientists claim to have cracked cold fusion, and if that isn't enough NASA is conducting research with Warp Drive, AND getting real results. Miguel Alcubierre, a Mexican physicist who teaches at a university in Scotland published a paper on how Warp Drive would mathematically work in General Relativity. In the 21 years since, his theories have spawned several others and NASA has begun research.
While it's true that science fiction is still fiction, it's important to remember that science fiction is grounded in science ant that scientific advancement is the result of the human imagination.
@ 212leader & DarkAssault:
Actually, I was under the impression that there is a working railgun on at least one ship (not sure if it's a cruiser or destroyer...) in every carrier battlegroup of the United States Navy. The current prototype is the Blitzer Electromagnetic Railgun or EMRG, and is produced by General Atomics.
If you want to watch their commercial, here it is:
It is true that imagination is the absolute source of creativity and therefore progress. Science fiction often becomes science fact.
Arguing the finer points refines the ideas and makes them more and more feasible until there are only gaps in scientific knowledge left. Then these can possibly be filled by rigorous experimentation and research. It is a highly constructive procedure.
I am scottish, so just out of curiosity, what university is Alcubierre teaching from?
I just double checked, and I made a couple mistakes: it's Wales. The University of Wales. He attended graduate school at University of Wales Cardiff...so he was only a student!? He does teach. He's the Director of the Nuclear Sciences Institute at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Also, his paper was published in 1994, so that was 19 years ago.
Sorry, that's my mistake. It's been a while since I did the research on him. I was fifteen when I stumbled on his paper. That was five years ago...
It is awesome that you guys now switched to rebellion.
What's the plan, now that you guys have switched?
Hi i know this is out of topice but do any of you know how to extract the ship renders in sins of the solar empire trinity and make a picture of it like annilator 102 does i would like to uupdate the sos wiki or do you know anyplace where we can get these render pictures