@aiderontivianne
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Regarding heat buildup of the shield matrix system: further research/practice is needed to determine specifics, but it was my intuition that the additional heat buildup is low enough to be counteracted by about one or at most two units of coolant.
Practically speaking, even uncooled the time until overheat is long enough for medium-length engagements, and even if one unit of coolant is not technically enough to counteract all heat produced by the matrix, it should still vastly increase the time until overheat (which gives the engineer ample time to either redistribute coolant or inform the CO).
In short, engineers can likely assume practical heat stability with tho units of coolant in total (one for front shields, one for rear), leaving six units for other systems. Since benefits of additional energy that is fed into a system is non-linear and subject to diminishing returns, this should allow ships to still operate at about 75 – 90 % efficiency (compared to boosted baseline without shield matrix), broadly speaking.It should also be noted that the matrix can be switched on intermittently for short amounts of time. This will still redistribute the charge of the shield capacitors, while being very light on heat generation. Ships can thus still aid each other in shield recharge with little impact to their own systems.
In combat, the mental load on comms officers and the sometimes rapid change in shield values makes this approach non-ideal for various reasons; on the other hand, if the battle group is regrouping (perhaps from different parts of the sector) and a number of vessels are at full shield while others are not, even just switching on the system for a second will allow a significant decrease in time spent recharging shields (depending on circumstances).——————————————————————————-
I disagree with some of the tactical implications Tetra mentioned:
I would argue that the biggest benefit of the shield matrix is when the entire battle group is toe-to-toe with the enemy, rather than having all ships but one stay outside beam distance. Since any incoming damage is distributed among all ships anyway, damage dealt to the enemy should be maximized by having all ships fire on the enemy.
Comparative to established focused fire, the damage the lead ship can take (and thus the staying power of the battle group as a whole) is at least multiplied by number of ships in the vicinity; if outgoing damage is reduced by having other ships stay away, this advantage is mostly negated.
On the contrary, the shield matrix can even be exploited by having the lead ship focus on damage mitigation, while the rest of the battlegroup focuses on dealing damage. This leaves each ship in a specific role in the engagement, and thus in a position to optimally use their coolant/energy.
Of course the above is assuming the enemy ships are focused on the lead TSN vessel, but tango can be established before engaging so this assumption should hold most of the time. And even if not, if the battlegroup stays close any enemies would be close enough to shoot at something anyway, so incoming total damage will be the same.
This also does not include ships specifically tasked with e.g. Kappa of course, but that is a situation where said ship would not contribute to damage anyway (by design).An emergency situation (e.g. a tractored ship) is generally one in which “you miss every shot you don’t take” should apply. Thus, both the ship in danger and all others coming for help should make it a priority to also activate their shield matrices as soon as possible (for the latter, perhaps even before being in range). The case in which it is “too complex to get active in time” is the same as not trying at all, i.e. the worst case. So the attempt should always be made.
It will probably be beneficial to practice this so comms officers can act quickly if needed.
A special highlight in this regard is the “Lancer-loop:” even if an incoming ship overshoots and thus needs additional seconds to actually turn about and help (which is not ideal in the first place), an active shield matrix would still engage on first contact, so help the ship in danger immediately. Even if the ship gets out of range again a second later, shields will have averaged intermittently to buy additional time.
If that is not even attempted, there is less chance that the help will be in time to save the ship.“I know,” Tivianne responds to both of Donovan’s spoken and alluded-to statement, keeping his reassuring smile. “But you got this. And you have help, if you want it.”
Shifting his attention to the approaching Tetra, he continues: “Stories? Oh, yes. Have I told you about how we once took down six Torgoth command ships in as many minutes? And by ‘we’, I mean Lancer. The rest of the fleet also took down eight or nine of them in the same time, of course, but that was total, not each ship. And we were slightly faster, to boot.
“I almost couldn’t believe it when we hit low Energy after the fourth one but Donovan here ordered us to keep going. And then I thought him mad when he again answered my ‘Energy critical’ with ‘Last target!’ But it worked out. Proudest moment in the TSN for me, still. Earned me this bad boy here.” Tivianne points to his chest, forgetting that he’s wearing his slacks which don’t have his badges. “And I’ll never forget the satisfaction in his voice when he reported to the FC that the enemies were dealt with.
“You see, the original order was that we should delay them, not engage. They expected us to play rabbit, not hawk,” Tivianne finishes with a laugh.
Tivianne walks in, shaking his head and mumbling under his breath: “Man, that guy. Bad enough how he always belittles his nephew for no reason, but …” He cuts off, noticing Donovan at his table. Tivianne gets a drink from the bar, glad he doesn’t need to pay, then walks over.
“Hey Cap. Just got done collating all the sensor data you requested. Forwarded it to Das too, but there was nothing interesting, really. No anomalous readings or anything. Ran a diagnostic on sensors just in case, even the internal ones. All fine. So we’ve nothing to fear, I’m sure, so chin up.” He gives Donovan a reassuring smile and takes a seat.
“But I shouldn’t talk about this here, we all probably just want to get away for a bit. Garion, how’s things for you? ONI still making you do overtime?”
We might also investigate the transit logs on Onwia Guard. We already have a backdoor in their systems from back when we made sure they didn’t notice us entering and leaving Onwia, and their gate is the only way in or out of the system.
It might not tell us directly whether the Hegemony found our base, but we could look for suspicious activity. And at the very least it might tell us which Hegemony ships were active in Onwia and may have discovered us. With that information, we could determine where to look next.
Starting further away from Onwia seems prudent. However, if we want to further mask our Base of Operation, we could also consider making it look like we came through the Ibroan gate from Sumri. If the Hegemony should figure out who we are – or even just that they are not hit by someone local – that would be the nearest system not under their control. As flimsy as it is, if they have not figured out that we have access to a slingshot array, that would be the likeliest point of ingress for an aggressor. We might fool or at least confuse them.
While the nebulae make hiding for both sides easier, this still gives us an advantage. After all, as long as the Hegemony does not even know we are her, they would not even try to sneak up on us, while we don’t have that problem. In that sense, the increased operational range of a larger nebula would be preferable, in my opinion.
Also, since the nebula does not contain any enemy stations, we could extend our sensor range via buoys to cover the whole edge of it. That would mean that we’d detect any aggressors before they even enter the nebula itself, thus negating any stealth advantage in the first place.
Those were my thoughts during the shift as well. I noticed a group of pirates ambushing a Hegemony transport, and it’s actions like these that will help mask our presence. On the other hand, the pirates themselves might leak that we are here, for example by intercepted comms chatter, so we have to be careful about that. It would pay off to get as much information about pirate activities in the area as we can, to actively use their operations as a smokescreen. Best case, we even find an easily raid-able base where we can acquire some munitions.
Tivianne winces. “Well, that’s just it. Everyone misses him. Everyone’s doing their best, but you can feel it in the general mood. Even the new cadets, who didn’t even know him. So any feedback would be moot at this point, I guess. We mostly need time to recover, I think.”
He smiles tiredly, a warmth returning to his eyes.
“That said, everyone is doing their best. Cadets, officers and instructors alike. Everyone is working hard, studying for exams and the like. It’s as if they want to pick up the slack to balance it out. So it’s exhausting, but actually very uplifting to see.
“What about you? How’s the leave treating you?”
Tivianne slouches into the room, heading straight towards the bar. He gives a short nod to Donovan and the others, “Sirs. Captain,” and unceremoniously slumps down onto a bar stool besides them, limbs splayed.
“Apologies. Long day at the academy. And that’s not even mentioning the paperwork…” He trails off.
A second later, he grabs the glass Guy has placed beside him and raises it towards the seat in the middle of the room. “As if we needed another reason to miss him,” he says, looking glumly into his drink.
After a long moment, he turns toward Vaj. “Sorry it took a while to get back to you about the tactical data from the Arvonians. There have been… complications. I’m pretty sure we’ll have it soon though.”
