Photon Torpedoes and Launch Tubes

Photon Torpedo Launch Tubes are used to fire the various types of torpedo and also for launching probes.

When installing a Launch Tube the exit must be protruding through the outer hull.

Each tube has it's own torpedo bay where the torpedoes and probes are stored. Torpedoes and probes can be transported between bays but this takes time.

Depending on the size of the tube/bay each bay may hold up to 200 torpedoes and/or probes.

Each torpedo tube can fire from 1 to 10 torpedoes at a time (depending on the type of tube).

Each torpedo can be fired within a 30 degree angle (left to right and/or vertical). Therefore these weapons have to be brought to bear on an enemy before firing.

Torpedoes have a maximum range of 300,000km, at which point they will detonate if they have not hit anything.

Before firing the torpedoes firing pattern can be configured. This command is made up of three parts – Detonation Type, Spread and Yield.

Detonation Type – usually used against cloaked enemies:
- Contact: The torpedoes will not detonate until they hit something (or run out of range).
- Short range: The torpedoes will detonate at 20km from the ship. This is very close to the ship and would damage any cloaked vessel nearby. Note they might well damage the players ship if the shields are down.
- Medium range: The torpedoes will detonate at 100km from the ship. This is unlikely to damage any cloaked ships, however it might cause them to be detected on scanners.
- Long range: The torpedoes will detonate at 500km from the ship.
- Gravimetric Charge: The torpedoes will explode if a gravimetric disturbance is detected within 10km. i.e. If they come within 10km of anything.

Spread:
- None: All torpedoes follow the same path to a target. Used for normal combat.
- Narrow Spread: The torpedoes will spread out by 10 metres for each km traveled. This may cause more damage against a large opponent.
- Medium Spread: The torpedoes will spread out 100 metres for each km traveled. i.e. At medium range (100km) they would each be 10km apart.
- Wide Spread: The torpedoes will spread out 1km for each km traveled. i.e. at medium range (100km) they would each be 100km apart. If ten torpedoes where launched they would cover a line 900km wide.

Yield:
- Low Yield: The torpedo will have a very large burst radius, inflicting very little damage but covering a large area. Useful against large areas such as an asteroid belt or for potentially illuminating cloaked ships. The burst radius would be about 50km.
- Medium Yield: The torpedo will have a medium sized burst radius inflicting medium damage to any ship within the area. The burst radius is 25km.
- High Yield: The torpedo will have a small burst radius of 1km, but will inflict maximum damage on any ship within this area.

Typically all torpedoes within a tube are set to the same firing pattern, however the capability does exist to set each torpedoes detonation and yield type individually (though not the spread).

Power Requirements

It takes 1000 MW of energy for ten seconds to load/unload each torpedo into the tube – i.e. A spread of ten torpedoes would take 10 GW for ten seconds to load. This energy is used to charge the mass driver ready for firing. Loss of energy during the loading cancels the loading effort and it will need to be restarted once power is available.

Upgrades

Research can be used to upgrade the loading time of each tube or to reduce the power required during loading.

A variety of torpedo and probe types are available and these can be manufactured within the ship. Research can help to increase the yield of the torpedoes and the speed at which they travel.

Dev Notes

The tubes take ten seconds to load regardless of how many torpedoes are loaded. Changing the number of torpedoes in the tube always takes ten seconds, For example: If the tubes are loaded with eight torpedoes and this is changed to only 4 torpedoes, the change out will always take ten seconds. While torpedoes are being loaded/unloaded the tubes are offline and cannot be fired.

If the ship is at sublight speeds, then the torpedo speed will be 0.1c (30,000km/second) faster than the ship is travelling. 

If the ship is at warp, then the torpedo will travel 1c faster than the current speed. So a ship cannot fire upon another vessel at warp if the prey is moving faster.

e.g. The Enterprise is chasing an enemy ship. The Enterprise is travelling at 216 times the speed of light), and it fires a torpedo (at 217 times the speed of light). If the enemy ship has a 2 second start on the Enterprise and is also travelling at 216 times the speed of light, then it will have a 64 million km head start. Even closing this gap at light speed will take the torpedo 432 seconds. So realistically the pursuing ship will have to be travelling faster than the pursued.

Each firing tube can be physically damaged and if their health falls below 75% then they will be inoperable (until repaired). In addition, each torpedo fired will inflict 0.04% damage to the tube.

The tubes themselves each have an array of 12 electromagnetic accelerators which form the mass driver. Each of these has a health rating and if any of them fall below 80% health then torpedoes cannot be fired. Each time a torpedo is fired, each accelerator suffers from 0% to 0.05% damage.

In addition, regular maintenance needs to be carried out on the accelerators to prevent them from deteriorating. Every minute (whether they are being used or not) there is a 0.05% change that the health of an electromagnetic accelerator will drop by 0.1%.