redesigning the sl navy

[Vition2]

I've done a significant amount of research regarding the HPG question, and it seems there is no definite answer.  My comment regarding the standard operating procedure simply makes logical sense.  We have a couple canon warships/jumpships which have HPGs included on them, and having such a glaring vulnerability without a way to circumvent it is foolish.  (though they do explicitly say they cannot be used offensively - but this seems more fluff than what follows via the actual rules)

Regarding warship to warship transmission, it is possible that the level of accuracy built into the system reduces the tracking rate to such a degree that actual targeting of an opposing warship is near impossible.  Starting with a spinal-type mount (mass driver) and then adding another dimension on top of that has the potential to increase the difficulty of the "shot" to inoperable levels - and that's not to mention that the sender receives almost identical penalties the target does, iirc.

[Hellraiser]

I don't know where I got this idea........ but......... I thought HPGs just aimed at the Star System & fired off the "pulse" that then traveled there like a KF drive does in a Jump.

So your saying you have to exactly target the HPG center on the planet in that solar system?

Like some sort of long range sniper shot?   I never thought about it that way.

Seems like the time of year & orbit & such would really cause problems getting the message to hit that exact spot on the planet.

I mean, that makes HPG messages harder to plot that Pirate Point Jumps.

Seems like if it "jumped in" & then spread out like a regular radio message but can only be picked up by another HPG receiver

The way your describing it, if there was a fleet at a jump point & several of them had Mobile HPGs & a message was sent then only 1 of the warships could receive the message, the exact one that was aimed for.

[Cryhavok101]

They are probably plotting the HPG pulse hours ahead of the scheduled transmissions. In fact, since they know where they will be, and they know where the other ground location ill be, they might even be plotting the burst's transmission coordinates days, weeks, or even months ahead of time.

Also when they say 'exactly targeting on the ship' it's not precisely true as far as I can tell. It just has to get to the exact hex the ship is in. The target is about 18 km wide. Still tiny when you are talking about interstellar distances, but much bigger than a ship's HPG dish.

[Vition2]

So, going down the rabbit hole further.  The sniper shot is a pretty decent equivalent but is both more and less surprising with the additional information Null Set provides.  The transmission must be sent to a location somewhere within 4 AU of the target HPG, this is the equivalent of a bullet being fired from a kilometer away with 100% accuracy to within 1 millimeter - or worse (I calculated this at a distance of 10 light years, not 30 or 50).

As for combat operations, it appears my tracking issue was fairly accurate.  It takes an HPG 1d6 minutes to move from one target to another, and can only be fired at a target "stationary in orbit" or "at the horizon."

That said, I fall back on my "glaring vulnerability" defense.

[marauder648]

Lets assume though that HPGs are turned off during an engagement, and if a HPG transmission was to be recived, the ship waiting for the message would have its HPG powered up and waiting for the message to arrive as well as being at the reception point etc. 

I assume they are turned off because they are very power/maintenance intensive devices and i'd assume they would probably light up an EW board like a christmas trees lights.

[Wrangler]

I hadn't thought of that.  I don't think anything has ever mentioned the SL Navy even employing a portal HPG system.  We know the FedSuns used them between their Defender-Class Battlecruisers.

[Maelwys]

But does the ship need its HPG powered up to receive a transmission? Doesn't a HPG just open a hole in the universe and shoot radio waves through? According to TacOps, the transmission arrives with a EMP, which, depending on the HPG that sent it, will disable all units withing 250-1000 meters from the arrival point.

There is a small line that says "If no HPG is available to receive the pulse, no effect occurs" but I can't tell if that's talkign about overall, or just the planetary surface targeting...

[Wrangler]

I don't think it works unless you got HPG equipment receiving the transmissions.  It's not like radio, it's interstellar communicator.

In First Succession (Sourcebook)  the Golden Lion contacted the second FedSuns Battle Groupl flag ship and fellow Defender-Class Battlecruiser, the Black Bear.

Here.

Fortunately, the Golden Lion was equipped with a mobile hyperpulse generator,
as was her counterpart in the second combat group, the FSS Black Bear. This feature,
limited to only a few of the Federated Suns’ WarShips, was the primary reason for their
assignment to this campaign, and had been used extensively to coordinate between
them for the previous two months of operations. Jones now used that HPG to advise the
Black Bear of the situation at Cholame, ordering the second group to send its transports
to the system’s nadir jump point

[Vition2]

One thing I've been considering as the discussion over the HPG has continued, is that the EM Burst may only occur close to a large gravitational body.  Most of the references to the burst specify either being on or near a planet, with references away from a planet omitting effects.

As the HPG technology is based on K-F technology this makes particular sense to me.  The EM Burst is the equivalent damage that a K-F drive sustains when it misjumps outside a jump point.  This also suggests why a weaponized vessel-borne weapon based on this technology has not been created.

Really, this is one of those areas where there is massive amounts of supposition, it's an extremely often used technology but the information about it is especially incomplete.