What's new
  • If you were supposed to get an email from the forum but didn't (e.g. to verify your account for registration), email Wes at [email protected] or talk to me on Discord for help. Sometimes the server hits our limit of emails we can send per hour.
  • Get in our Discord chat! Discord.gg/stararmy
  • 📅 May and June 2024 are YE 46.4 in the RP.

Klinge-Unterbrecher Main Battle Tank

How long does life support last?
 
LIDAR article removed; it was stolen from Wikipedia.
 
Wes, please try to be careful how you word things. Stolen is an offensive term that implies he is a thief, when in fact he is not. Wikipedia is under the GFD License, meaning all it's images, text, and excerpts have to be 100% copyright free. So long as he cites Wikipedia as the source, he can use anything he wants.

* * * * *

Back on topic:
  • I know that cosmetics usually isn't an issue when it comes to approval, but I thought I'd point this out anyways. The 60mm laser cannons appear highly limited by line-of-sight and angle of depression (they can't see below 0 degrees on targets in front or behind the tank, and likely not much more than -5 degrees on the sides before the turret box is physically stopped by the hull ); they can't fire if they're facing targets on a ridge, and will be useless against any infantry that are smart enough to crawl instead or standing up.
  • Another minor cosmetic issue. The turret is too small to accommodate crew. In fact, there should be zero space at all given the three weapon systems it has to fit. ^_^; Note how on either side of the gun there is no room for crew due to its "T" shape, and the rear "wings" are taken up by ammunition feed systems for the gauss cannons.
  • Okay, just one more cosmetic issue; could you clip the surrounding blue emptiness to help lower the images dimension/size a bit in paint or something? That way it'll load faster and won't waste bandwidth.
  • You might want to clarify the laser gain medium; I know the Abwehran sometimes use chemical lasers, which would give it a limited number of shots.
  • I'm not sure using debris in a railgun would work -- unless you cripple its performance. If fired normally, random materials might melt or warp from the sheer heat, thus damaging or clogging the barrel, not to mention that the irregular shape of scrap will reduce their accuracy to near-useless ranges (if they don't fall apart en route anyways). Also, the object has to be of perfect size otherwise it won't touch both rails and complete the circuit, and thus won't fire properly. However, a neat idea may be to make a sort of can-shaped shell (to complete the circuit) and then putting rocks in front of that; this will effectively make a point-blank scatter cannon shot you can use to clear out the floor of an entire building. Of course, this means you still have to carry extra ammo to make jury rigged rounds...
  • If this is going to be used by PCs (i.e., a landing party), you might want to add a at least basic interior detail. Where the ammo is stored (Removable flooring storage compartments? Side ammo cans? Wall racks?), minimal interior detail (streamlined sci-fi interfaces like starships? complex like a modern tank with lots of dials, knobs, and systems?)
  • Some detail on the ammunition types would be nice, especially what the "standard" shot is made out of.
  • You might want to add a cooling system to the railgun system since it generates a lot of heat at high speeds.
  • Railguns commonly degrade their rails after so many shots -- modern-era ones need to have rails replaced after a single use. You might want to specify how often the barrel needs replacement, especially under the refit/lifespan stats. Tanks in general are very demanding in maintenance and logistics, so I'm uncertain if it would effectively last 10 years "under constant use".
  • How long the power supply lasts would be good as well. Railguns use massive amounts of power, so you may want to add mention of it to your Solid Oxide fuel cell system (or give it a separate generator?)
  • Do the gauss cannons use autoloaders, or are they belt/box fed like machine guns?
  • A mass or tonnage stat would be good too, to help classify the role this tank is designed for. If it uses material with the same weight class as modern ones, you can expect it to weigh somewhere in the 140-200 tonne range. Unfortunately, if this weight range is true you can expect roads to buckle under it, small bridges to collapse, and persistent stalling on any soft ground. You'll need to lower its dimensions quite a bit, or mention its made out of (relatively) very light composites.
 
Ah...many good points Jess, many good points. And I'll try to answer/counter them all.

1) Yes, it would be stopped around -5 degrees if the 60mm cannons were facing either forwards or backwards. If the barrels were facing the sides however, they could probably hit an angle of at least -15 I would estimate. But let's put it this way, most tank platoons are escorted by other vehicles such as APCs and Recon Vehicles were more adept anti-infantry weaponry and even other infantry are used. Just a basic military fact I wanted to point out.

2) Now when we look at turret size, it may seem small. But we also have to remember that is only the top part of the turret structure since tank turrets normally extend into the chassis so that it can swivel as needed. And if I look at my DOGA representation and calculate out the space of the turret compartment using a scale of each square equaling 0.714 meters, then the dimensions of the turret compartment would have to be 5 meters in length x 4.2 meters in width x 2.14 meters in height. Now, you could say that is a bit small, but that is only if you believe the drums of the Gatling Gauss Cannons are placed inside the turret itself. Now, if you look at the style of turret used for said weaponry, you can see they are a bit bulbous. This was meant to show the ammunition is built into those smaller turrets rather than the main gun turret, thus making more room available for the individuals inside. The main gun is also a railgun, meaning the loading hatch and wiring to power the magnet inside the barrel only takes up maybe .5 meters of the front turret or so and leaves most of the space taken up by computers and interfaces. Thinking of it this way, there would be enough room for three individuals inside the turret compartment. Besides, the Klinge-Unterbrecher is actually larger than a M1 Abrams tank, which also has a crew of four.

3) I'd rather not put that much work into the images, since I resize all my images to begin with.

4) I have to correct that a bit. Abwehrans mostly use Chemical Lasers and yes...that would limit the ammunition. I'll change that bit as soon as possible.

5) That's a great idea...I'll change that last bit to fit your idea.

6) I'll work on the interior descriptions a bit more.

7) I was planning on making a separate page of Abwehran Ammunition (much like what the Lorath did) so I won't have to repeat said process over and over again.

8) I would have thought a cooling system was a common sense thing, but I should probably add it.

9) I'll decrease the maintenance to every year of constant use.

10) I'll mention more on the power systems.

11) It's using the old Tri-Armor System, which can be found as a link on the page. How much would you think it weighs using that? If so, I can always change it.
 
Wes, please try to be careful how you word things. Stolen is an offensive term that implies he is a thief, when in fact he is not. Wikipedia is under the GFD License, meaning all it's images, text, and excerpts have to be 100% copyright free. So long as he cites Wikipedia as the source, he can use anything he wants.
Click to expand...
Moderator Note:
Jess-While you statement is valid in terms of Wikipedia's policies. We here at Star Army are trying to preserve the unique flavor of our site by limiting the amount of off-site linking in our Star Wiki. We appreciate the creativity of our players to put things into their own words to assist us with this goal.

I would also prefer if you have any further issues with the "word choice" of staff and administration that you pursue it in private quaters. Doing so here in this thread is not appropriate and may give somone the misconception that you have authority in terms of policy making on the site.

Further posts in this thread must be related to the technical matter of its topic.

Thank you. :)
 
Perhaps you could make the central turret a mass driver as opposed to a straight railgun? That would still allow you to fire debris, but without carrying extra ammo. I'm not sure how that would affect performance of the weapon, however.
 
Note on Abwehran classification of magnetic-propellant weaponry:

Mass-driver = infantry weaponry

Gauss = anti-armor / anti-infantry weaponry

Railgun = Anti-Fortification / Anti-Ship Weaponry.

or

Just look here.
 
Approved for IC usage
 
RPG-D RPGfix
Back
Top