Suspension of Disbelief.

It's been more than a decade since I've had anything where assembly would be worth bothering with. In the real world when I fire up the profiler I find that very little of the time is being spent in my code, the only optimizations that are worthwhile involve reducing the load elsewhere. (For example, figuring out the SQL server wasn't caching an intermediate result--breaking the query into two queries made it run more than twice as fast as it didn't recalculate a total.)

cthia wrote:I know assembly and still use it. Though the cases where its needed speed over C has dwindled over the years. But sometimes you have to call in the SWAT team.

That's why your programming skills have to be extraordinaire. A less accomplished programmer would deliver the same capabilities of the AGC in twice the number of lines of code or more. And resources just couldn't handle that back then. Tight code or no code, that is your option. 1800 lines of code on a 2 MHZ machine, had to run as fast as possible, or trying to guide something would have been laughable.

It would have been akin to using BASIC to program PAC MAN. Reverse stick to run and seconds pass before your PAC MAN responds - sudden death.

Another thought here: Drop your Mistletoe drones far out, have them accelerate to 10 or 20 percent of lightspeed then go ballistic. Spread them over the area the enemy fleet is likely to occupy, spread them over time. (Yes, you need a fair number of drones for this.)

These are just big bombs, no laser heads. They sweep through the fleet, since they are ballistic and purely passive (the launch platforms figure out where they are by dead reckoning, not a tracker) they'll be incredibly hard to detect.

If a drone passes close enough to enemy pods the detonation command is sent. If not, the drones simply fly on past and are recovered a few weeks later when they are back out in interstellar space.

Since the defender has no way of knowing if a drone is too close they have to be quite cautious about building up any large number of launched pods. (This doesn't work too well against attackers, getting the drones out there and ballistic in time is not going to be easy.)

Loren Pechtel wrote:Another thought here: Drop your Mistletoe drones far out, have them accelerate to 10 or 20 percent of lightspeed then go ballistic. Spread them over the area the enemy fleet is likely to occupy, spread them over time. (Yes, you need a fair number of drones for this.)

These are just big bombs, no laser heads. They sweep through the fleet, since they are ballistic and purely passive (the launch platforms figure out where they are by dead reckoning, not a tracker) they'll be incredibly hard to detect.

If a drone passes close enough to enemy pods the detonation command is sent. If not, the drones simply fly on past and are recovered a few weeks later when they are back out in interstellar space.

Since the defender has no way of knowing if a drone is too close they have to be quite cautious about building up any large number of launched pods. (This doesn't work too well against attackers, getting the drones out there and ballistic in time is not going to be easy.)

Less predictable courses will radically increase the number of places you have to fling ballistic drones - it'll mean more time getting wherever, and more chances for someone to get away if that's their move. Still, in an era of spider drive ships out there, zig-zagging is sound doctrine anyway.

Also, how stealthy you need to be will vary with the enemy's capabilities and your drone's: much of the time, they won't need to go ballistic until they are some (relatively close, on the system scale) range from the target. That should reduce the number required, maybe to something manageable.

Loren Pechtel wrote:Another thought here: Drop your Mistletoe drones far out, have them accelerate to 10 or 20 percent of lightspeed then go ballistic. Spread them over the area the enemy fleet is likely to occupy, spread them over time. (Yes, you need a fair number of drones for this.)

These are just big bombs, no laser heads. They sweep through the fleet, since they are ballistic and purely passive (the launch platforms figure out where they are by dead reckoning, not a tracker) they'll be incredibly hard to detect.

Well, it is the right thread - "Suspension of Disbelief"

So these recon drones, they are powered by what? A little fusion reactor running at tens of millions of degrees, right? A reactor that emits so much radiation that you can't use it to power a manned vessel, right? So much radiation that even absurdly effective honorverse radiation protective systems can't handle it.

Are you seeing where I'm going with this?

kzt wrote:

Loren Pechtel wrote:Another thought here: Drop your Mistletoe drones far out, have them accelerate to 10 or 20 percent of lightspeed then go ballistic. Spread them over the area the enemy fleet is likely to occupy, spread them over time. (Yes, you need a fair number of drones for this.)

These are just big bombs, no laser heads. They sweep through the fleet, since they are ballistic and purely passive (the launch platforms figure out where they are by dead reckoning, not a tracker) they'll be incredibly hard to detect.

Well, it is the right thread - "Suspension of Disbelief"

So these recon drones, they are powered by what? A little fusion reactor running at tens of millions of degrees, right? A reactor that emits so much radiation that you can't use it to power a manned vessel, right? So much radiation that even absurdly effective honorverse radiation protective systems can't handle it.

Are you seeing where I'm going with this?

Well yes - the usual Honorverse stealth complaint. Huh, I wonder how we didn't have that one crop up til this reached 13 pages. (And in this case, it's the even worse "no wedge, no handwaving stealth using it" variety.)

kzt wrote:

Loren Pechtel wrote:Another thought here: Drop your Mistletoe drones far out, have them accelerate to 10 or 20 percent of lightspeed then go ballistic. Spread them over the area the enemy fleet is likely to occupy, spread them over time. (Yes, you need a fair number of drones for this.)

These are just big bombs, no laser heads. They sweep through the fleet, since they are ballistic and purely passive (the launch platforms figure out where they are by dead reckoning, not a tracker) they'll be incredibly hard to detect.

Well, it is the right thread - "Suspension of Disbelief"

So these recon drones, they are powered by what? A little fusion reactor running at tens of millions of degrees, right? A reactor that emits so much radiation that you can't use it to power a manned vessel, right? So much radiation that even absurdly effective honorverse radiation protective systems can't handle it.

Are you seeing where I'm going with this?

Aren't the Honorverse ships, excluding Manticoran LACs, fusion-powered though? Pinnaces and assault shuttles also use pinched, hip-packet fusion reactors, although granted those are too tiny generation for the power of Ghost Rider drones.


And GR drones are larger than typical RD's, aren't they around 10 meters long or something close to that? Almost enough room to put some considerable, high-tech shielding around it. How it manages to have enough shielding to keep that heat, and radiation from being easily detected, in addition to cramming the sensors all inside that stealth-coated, thin-hull though... that's a test of belief.

Loren Pechtel wrote:Another thought here: Drop your Mistletoe drones far out, have them accelerate to 10 or 20 percent of lightspeed then go ballistic. Spread them over the area the enemy fleet is likely to occupy, spread them over time. (Yes, you need a fair number of drones for this.)

These are just big bombs, no laser heads. They sweep through the fleet, since they are ballistic and purely passive (the launch platforms figure out where they are by dead reckoning, not a tracker) they'll be incredibly hard to detect.

Mistletoe drones actually had both standard contact nukes, and laser heads. During the battle in Lovat, the contact-nuke armed Mistletoe platforms took out scores and scores of deployed system-defense pods, while laser-heads took out the Moriarty platforms.

For all intents, the Mistletoe with laser heads, is almost the same as the Solly missile that Saint-Just used to try and assassinate Elizabeth Winton & Benjamin Mayhew. Both are super, ultra stealthy self-propelled tubes with a laser-head for stealthy anti-shipping attacks.

Somtaaw wrote:And GR drones are larger than typical RD's, aren't they around 10 meters long or something close to that? Almost enough room to put some considerable, high-tech shielding around it. How it manages to have enough shielding to keep that heat, and radiation from being easily detected, in addition to cramming the sensors all inside that stealth-coated, thin-hull though... that's a test of belief.

They are launched the same way the older drones are, so they can't be much larger or you couldn't get them out the boat bay or fit in where ever drones are stored inside the hull.

And David has stated that the radiation from the micro reactors is so intense they can't be used to power a >20,000 ton LAC.

From A Cauldron of Ghosts.

The appointment of Queen Berry's boyfriend Hugh Arai to be in charge of the Torch whilst virtually all of the Torch government traipse off to Manticore.

George J. Smith wrote:From A Cauldron of Ghosts.

The appointment of Queen Berry's boyfriend Hugh Arai to be in charge of the Torch whilst virtually all of the Torch government traipse off to Manticore.

Not all but a good chunk of it. The probably have other cabinet posts like Bio-science, Trade, Immigration, and State.