Bungie Universe
This topic has moved here: Subject: Two things I noticed with the Orbital Defense at Reach.
  • Subject: Two things I noticed with the Orbital Defense at Reach.
  • Pages:
  • 1
  • 2
  • of 2
Subject: Two things I noticed with the Orbital Defense at Reach.

At the end of the first battle of ONI:Sword Base, I noticed two things about the MAC round that takes out the Corvette.

1. The Round merely put a hole through the ship, when in reality it should of vaporized it. It was seen at Reach when a ODP literally vaporized a unshielded Covenant Destroyer. In this case, a weaker and small ship was hit, as well as being un-shielded, yet it only holed the ship in its midsection.

2. The Round then immediately exits its target and hits a lake. There is no following explosion however. It was said that "the kinetic energy of a single shell from an orbital defense platform would be equivalent to almost 51.6 gigatons of TNT, 1031.08 times the yield of the current world's largest nuclear weapon ever tested."

I'm sure that the round, hitting bare land, would destroy Sword Base and the underground facilities, and a huge portion of the Viery territory.

Why are the MAC explosions and results so weak at Reach?!?!? And why is any sign of any UNSC Orbital assets almost non-existent?

[Edited on 02.03.2011 8:23 PM PST]

  • 01.30.2011 6:53 PM PDT

I like turtles

If this was true, there would be no point in having Nukes at all, yet the UNSC still uses them in a last resort. I favor the HAVOC Tac Nuke.

  • 01.30.2011 6:55 PM PDT

The philosophy in Halo is "two people enter a room, the better one leaves." This means that instead of a reliance on skills or how long you practice nailing every shot with the dmr the quickest possible, you must rely on other things then simply outshooting all your enemies.
Nothing in combat is ever meant to be fair.

A mac round has alot of 'kinetic energy' not necessarily light energy or thermal energy, meaning no explosion when the round hit the ground, also meant the round went pretty far into the ground below what we could see and to fast for the covenant corvette to absorb the kinetic energy and crumble. It is also why they waited to attack the ship for it to retreat after you neutralize the banshees and starts to retreat for them to hit it, waiting it to move away from dr. halseys dig site.

A MAC round needs the magnetic coils necessary to accelerate it, making large ones that killed the corvette a giant satellite in space and the small one on pillar of Autumn that could only kill the cruise when shields around plasma turrets were down, about 50 feet long, making them pretty big targets and key targets for troop infantry.

A nuclear device could be made smaller and fit into a backpack, or at least something small enough to sneak into a ship and detonate. The area around the target though would have radiation fallout for the next century though so they were a back up plan to mac rounds in combat next to major civilian or military centers, where most combat takes place.

[Edited on 01.30.2011 7:24 PM PST]

  • 01.30.2011 7:20 PM PDT

I was fired on low power. Said by Frank O'Connor himself.

  • 01.30.2011 7:44 PM PDT
  • gamertag: [none]
  • user homepage:

First, I think the 51GT is a bit excessive... And I also think the atmosphere took quite a bit of velocity off. Maybe it was a low angle shot- more across the face of the planet rather than straight down.

  • 01.30.2011 7:44 PM PDT

Have you seen my mind anywhere? I seem to have lost it...

0x0 x0x 0x0 000 000 x0x 000
x0x 0x0 0x0 0xx 000 0x0 000
x0x x0x x00 0xx 0x0 x0x 0x0

I have seen you future

1) Since the ship was smaller, the round must have had the kinetic energy required to simply pass through the ship. If the ship was larger like, say, a destroyer, the round would not have had the energy required to pass through and all of the round's energy would have been transferred to the ship, with much more devastating results.

The same thing happens when a modern day soldier fires a high velocity rifle, like an M-16. Against a target wearing body armor (what the rifle was designed to kill) the round will punch through the body armor and slow down, leaving a larger hole and more damage. If the soldier shoots an unarmored target the bullet will simply pass through the target causing significantly less damage.

2) A round entering the atmosphere will be slowed down by air resistance, and at velocities as high as would be required for a 600 ton round to have that much energy, the drag would be massive. This, as well as passing through the ship, would slow the round significantly and lead to a less exciting impact with the ground.

  • 01.30.2011 7:53 PM PDT
  • gamertag: opog
  • user homepage:

2. The Round then immediately exits its target and hits a lake. There is no following explosion however. It was said that "the kinetic energy of a single shell from an orbital defense platform would be equivalent to almost 51.6 gigatons of TNT, 1031.08 times the yield of the current world's largest nuclear weapon ever tested."

That's assuming a 3,000 ton round traveling at ~12,000 km/s. We don't know the mass of the round that was fired. It could have been lighter. The SMAC rounds seen in Halo 2 probably weigh a lot less, based on their size and materials they're supposed to be made out of. It also isn't traveling at 12,000 km/s. I'd guess less than 10, probably less than 5 km/s.


I'm sure that the round, hitting bare land, would destroy Sword Base and the underground facilities.


3,000 tons @ 12,000 km/s would likely destroy everything above and below ground for dozens of kilometers.

  • 01.30.2011 8:00 PM PDT
  •  | 
  • Intrepid Mythic Member
  • gamertag: P3P5I
  • user homepage:

Posted by: Achronos
It isn't our shiznit anymore.

Posted by: CTN 0452 9
2) A round entering the atmosphere will be slowed down by air resistance, and at velocities as high as would be required for a 600 ton round to have that much energy, the drag would be massive. This, as well as passing through the ship, would slow the round significantly and lead to a less exciting impact with the ground.
Either that or they intentionally toned down the velocity of the slug so it wouldn't destroy the entire continent.

  • 01.30.2011 8:10 PM PDT
  • gamertag: [none]
  • user homepage:

Kinetic energy wouldn't cause an explosion...

  • 01.30.2011 8:19 PM PDT
  • gamertag: [none]
  • user homepage:

I found this while playing around. Not the best fit of parameters, but it kinda works. Google = "asteroid impact simulator" http://www.simulator.down2earth.eu/

  • 01.30.2011 8:30 PM PDT

Error 404:
-Error not found.

Reach has a black hole in it's center which destroys all laws of mechanics.

  • 01.30.2011 8:41 PM PDT

Calculus calms my troubled mind

Maybe they fired it on a lower setting since it was a smaller ship and they didn't want to blow up the continent.

  • 01.30.2011 9:03 PM PDT

Orbital Defense =/= ODP
Orbital Defense is anything in orbit that is there for the purpose of defending the planet.

I would guess it is a Frigate firing the round, on a medium/low power setting.

  • 01.30.2011 9:25 PM PDT

"Shall we let the Flood consume our holy city? Turn High Charity into another of their wretched hives? No enemy has ever withstood our might. The Flood, too, shall fail."

-Prophet of Truth.

ODP?

  • 01.30.2011 10:15 PM PDT


Posted by: TallestSpark
ODP?

Orbital Defense Platform. Like the one on the first level of Halo 2. And to answer the OP the same thing with the Frigate that shot the Spire. It was fired on low power to avoid collateral damage.

  • 01.30.2011 11:46 PM PDT


Posted by: OniLink147

Posted by: TallestSpark
ODP?

Orbital Defense Platform. Like the one on the first level of Halo 2. And to answer the OP the same thing with the Frigate that shot the Spire. It was fired on low power to avoid collateral damage.


Pretty much everything was fired on low power in Reach.

1) The ODP so as not to vaporize Sword Base.

2) The Frigate Grafton so as not to accidently destroy itself from the blowback of a 60 something kiloton explosion.

3) All the Energy Projectors ever fired, but this was likely a game engine limitation if anything.

I'd like a Halo game where the war actually looks like its supposed too, with massive ships shooting massive guns, with just an overall more epic feel to it. Not this underwhelming feel everytime.

And damn it we need to see some real space battles! Not one ship vs one smaller ship!

  • 01.31.2011 5:31 AM PDT

Wake me when the jews are gone.

what i don't understand is why the smacs in earth didn't destroy regret's fleet

  • 01.31.2011 6:35 AM PDT

The whole game would have made more sense if the planet they were on was a small colony with a triplet of frigates protecting it.

  • 01.31.2011 7:04 AM PDT
  • gamertag: Xyzzva
  • user homepage:

Posted by: fsabran
what i don't understand is why the smacs in earth didn't destroy regret's fleet


They did. Although they weren't SMACs, just normal ones.

  • 01.31.2011 7:06 AM PDT

Online ID: GriffGraff15

The round didn't explode on/in the Corvette, it passed through and exploded underground AND below the lake.

  • 01.31.2011 7:12 AM PDT

POMC S117 Owns owns


Posted by: PLAGUEofDEMONS
I found this while playing around. Not the best fit of parameters, but it kinda works. Google = "asteroid impact simulator" http://www.simulator.down2earth.eu/


I done it and it took out most of Scotland with a crater that was 300m deep.

  • 01.31.2011 8:13 AM PDT

Oh hey there

Posted by: petarded2
It's a metaphor for the 07s' lack of identity. too old to be newfa­g, yet too new to be oldfa­g, we wander b.net in search of a home, forever trying to be something we are not.

The power of and lack of orbital defenses in Halo: Reach has been a topic of dissatisfaction since the game came out.

  • 01.31.2011 8:42 AM PDT

lol.


Posted by: Xyzzva
Posted by: fsabran
what i don't understand is why the smacs in earth didn't destroy regret's fleet


They did. Although they weren't SMACs, just normal ones.

Why do you say this? Orbital Defense Platforms are said to use SMACs, and Johnson says "That MAC gun can punch a hole clean through a Covenant capital ship," which normal ship-borne MACs cannot do.

The reason they missed the two carriers was because the Athens and the Malta were destroyed by Covenant boarding parties, severely weakening that particular defense cluster.

  • 01.31.2011 9:40 PM PDT

Vengeance only leads to an ongoing cycle of hatred.

Bungie s*it all over its own canon. It's not suprising how incorrect things are compared to the books. It's very disappointing. Reach is, without a doubt, the worst Halo.

  • 02.01.2011 6:05 AM PDT

Don't worry, you're still your mom's favorite Bnet member.

Two things I noticed with the Orbital Defense at Reach.That it was oddly non-existent?

It would have been cool to have finally witnessed the true power of the MAC canon. I guess Bungie didn't want to scare us. It's a shame really.

  • 02.01.2011 8:16 AM PDT

  • Pages:
  • 1
  • 2
  • of 2