Pre-hyperspace ship

[Fallon Kell]

I'm working on coming up with a small destroyer built by a pre-hyperspace Deep-aquatic species. I am thinking of something like what we could build in maybe 50 years. I'm thinking a ship of less than 100 meters, mounting what would in SW terms be a very rudimentary ion drive. I know I want it to be radar-stealthy, armed with simple lasers (not laser cannons or other blaster-type weapons) and be re-usable like a space shuttle.

I plan to make stats, an external drawing, and maybe deckplans.

I'd like any input and suggestions you have.
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Or that excessively long "Noooooooooo" was the Whining Side of the Force leaving him. - Dustflier

Complete Starship Construction System

[Esoomian]

So if it's a deep water species would the ship itself be filled with water (or whatever liquid they lived in?)

If it was constructed at high pressures I'd expect them to either have very advanced sheild technology or massively reinforced hulls.
_________________
Don't waste money on expensive binoculars.

Simply stand closer to the object you wish to view.

[Fallon Kell]

[Bren]

If you haven't read it, you might look at Startide Rising by David Brin. It is set in the year 2489 C.E. with a Terran spaceship Streaker — crewed by 150 uplifted dolphins, seven humans, and one uplifted chimpanzee. IIR parts of the Streaker were filled with water.

[Fallon Kell]

Never heard of it. Thanks for the advice!
_________________
Or that excessively long "Noooooooooo" was the Whining Side of the Force leaving him. - Dustflier

Complete Starship Construction System

[atgxtg]

Filling the ship with water would have some interesting ramifications.

As water compresses very slightly, it has beeen postulated as wa way to compesate for high accleration. Very useful for cultures lacking anti-grav technology.

Also, water is a better conductor of heat than air so the ship would be better abble to get rid of excess heat (another real world problem).


But, a water filled ship would be massive (water is something like 800 times denser than air) so the ship would not only be about 800 times heavier, but would require about 800 times the fuel to get off planet. Where or not that is feasible will depend on how advanced the aliens are. For "Earth" level TTech, they would need a fleet of tankers to put the ship into orbit.

[Esoomian]

Thinking about this I'm not so sure laser weapons is the way to go for a ship like this, it should probably have missile/torpedo weapons as it's primary armament as these can be adapted for combat in a vacuum but are also suited to fluid combat.

It might even have some wort of shockwave based weapon that doesn't work at all in space but when in an atmosphere (or better yet underwater) is a fairly potent wall of force type attack.
_________________
Don't waste money on expensive binoculars.

Simply stand closer to the object you wish to view.

[vanir]

electrically based, ie. ion weapons would be natural. Those and concussion missiles.

Whilst a liquid atmosphere increases the overall damage resistance of the combined mass, it reduces the structural integrity of whatever you're housing it in, so I'd suggest the hull/shield ratio to favour shielding over hull.

Acceleration should be immense, so sublight speed should be comparatively high. Inertial stresses are very high, so manoeuvrability should be low.

Due to overall mass density I'd say we're talking about a much smaller vessel than one might prefer for its role, particularly if it's a hybrid atmospheric craft. It's simply going to cost too much fuel and too many atomic tech level engines to launch it into orbit every five minutes if it's big.

Also, you're talking about Atomic tech level (scouts galaxy guide), which means energy weapons are extremely rudimentary, they don't exist in character scale at all, you use slugthrowers and the like, energy weapons are only ship mounted and they're massive, hopelessly underpowered and have huge power requirements.
You'd get best effect from projectile cannon and missiles.
Shielding systems are barely invented, the most expensive flaship might have a little energy shielding but most craft you'll be lucky to have any particle shields to resist missile attacks with.

For weapons systems look over the Tales of the Jedi old republic period sourcebooks and don't forget to downgrade them. They're a higher tech than you.

[Fallon Kell]

[vanir]

I mean in terms of inertial forces within cabin spaces. Assuming you can put as many engines of as much thrust as you like, using liquid atmosphere would handle tons of linear acceleration without danger to the crew, the mass-velocity vector (not sure if that string of words makes sense) just wouldn't like changing direction very much.

[Esoomian]

Wouldn't lasers work poorly in a dense fluid-like atmosphere?
_________________
Don't waste money on expensive binoculars.

Simply stand closer to the object you wish to view.

[Fallon Kell]

[vanir]

Some types of lasers work fairly well for a short distance through water. The US nuclear sub fleet uses them for satellite uplinks.

[Bren]