That was an incredibly unbroken sentence moving from topic to topic , really quite hypnotic, but ahum.

I believe compared to most other sci-fi franchises EVE is around the middle in terms of firepower. We're not as patheticly outgunned by everyone as Mass Effect 'verse but certainly not as overpowered like say, The Empire from Star Wars where even the most basic starship weapons are in several hundred megaton / gigawatt range.

Now if you were asking for mathematical data I can't really give you any, because I don't know and aren't good enough at maths to begin even calculating such things.

If you want to cook up a really rough estimate for how powerful EVE guns are, take a (somewhat) known measure like a 1600mm tech 1 steel plate, compare the HP value it gives to the damage the gun of your choice does in one cycle, and extrapolate from there. Other than that, admire the pretty fireworks when a frigate/dessie blows up a dozen dustbunnies with the smallest guns we can fit in space.

Edit: Did a quick napkin math version to give you a rough idea. A fully skilled but unbonused Tachyon II does just enough damage to completely negate a 200mm tech 1 plate in a single shot. Taking the mass of that steel and looking at energy requirements to melt it, we can come up with ~373.5GJ /minimum/ to defeat the armor. Add a little more since we're going to have losses due to plasma blooming off the plate and other debris getting in the way, and you have your baseline figure for weapon damage.

There were zero resistances factored in, this was a test against the plate itself, not a ship with the plate.

Eve's tech is so far past anything that equates to common science that its probably not worth the exercise. Hard near-current sci-fi like Arthur C Clarke generally minimizes the fantasy as much as possible, but just about everything Eve is based on breaks fundamental laws of physics, even Einstein's laws, so what math you want to apply is arbitrary.

There is a a sci-fi concept called The Kzinti Lesson (http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacegunexotic.php#id--Propulsion_Systems) that states that any ability to provide the propulsion power of immense quantities described would necessarily be able to be create a super destruction weapon. So it would be consistent that all Eve's ships have the ability to create planet destroying power.

yk

Somewhere in the region of 7 gigajoules of energy.

its Energy (J) = 1/2 mass (kg) x acceleration (m/s-¦)

the maths I posted above are a bit out.. I didn't calc it properly (forgive me its way past midnight here..)

2.0222666667 GWh (gigawatthour) to power an Avatar titan at 80/ms at base weight.

Its not the regular drive. Its the warp drives. Theoretically nothing can break the speed of light, so to create drives that can do so easily is impossible to apply any RL math to. If a fiction does have 'faster than light' than you can apply any arbitrary formula you want to as the math doesn't exist.

One can either assume that immense energies are involved, or that there's something more elegant at play. Whichever you want. If immense energy's are involved than a society that can harness those type of energies so easily can probably harness them destructively just a easily. For example, the fission bomb proceeded the more sophisticate nuclear propulsion. And mankind has already mastered fusion detonations far before its learned to control them constructively (ie fusion power plants).

Throw in 'stasis webifiers', 'microwarps' and whal-lah, the 'calculations' are whatever you want them to be.

yk

No, unfortunately.

The other night I used a different method to find weapon output: Starting with a known value (the length of a frigate) and from there going to the length of the launchers, the dimensions of the missile in the launchers, the density of the warhead fuel, and then to energy per gram of fuel consumed.

I used the Nova Light missile in these calculations for a couple of reasons: Its warhead uses a mechanic we understand in real life (nuclear reactions), and the full length of the missile can be seen from looking at the launcher.

Based on the numbers I got, the Nova Light Missile has a maximum theoretical yield of 7.14 megatons of TNT. If we assume that weapon damage is a scientific scale - a loose assumption, at best - then this suggests a Nova Torpedo has a yield of around 38.7 megatons, and a Nova Citadel Torpedo a yield of around 172 megatons. The 'Oblivion' Doomsday thus has a theoretical upper yield of 172 gigatons.

However, these calculations were done with an extreme degree of leniency to find an absolute upper theoretical limit, and included several unfeasible or outright impossible assumptions - for instance, that the missile's entire body consisted of nothing but warhead fuel, that the missile's warhead was fueled by liquid Deuterium, and that every gram of fuel in the missile would react perfectly when it detonates. Actual yield is likely to be considerably lower.

Sure! Here's how I got my original numbers.

I started with a known number, the length of the Kestrel frigate (78 meters). Note that the length on the ingame display window is not accurate; it appears to display the game's collision detection radius rather than the actual ship length. Instead I used the Apocrypha ship chart.

Working from there, I grabbed a screenshot of a Kestrel fitted with Light Missile Launchers and imported it into a CAD program. The image was scaled until the Kestrel fit a line 78m long (from rear thrusters to the tip of the longer 'arm' protruding forward). A second line was then drawn over the length of one of the missile launchers.

Next I imported a screenshot of a light missile launcher in the ingame item viewer. It was scaled until it fit the line I had found in the previous step, at which point I drew lines measuring the diameter and length of an individual light missile. Note that while rear of the missiles cannot be actually seen, the launcher 'cuts off' on the bottom after a certain distance back - meaning they have to fit within that forward area.

The numbers I found for a single light missile were:
Diameter: 0.2393m
Length: 4.0496m

From there I used the volume of a cylinder, (Pi) x(Radius squared)x(Length) and found a volume of 0.1821 m3. This might seem small, but is relatively close to modern mid-size missiles such as the AGM-65 Maverick (0.1760 m3).

Now, the fuel. As I said above, we know the Nova Light Missile carries a 'nuclear' warhead; I assumed this meant fusion rather than the far-less-powerful fission - again, trying to find an upper limit here.

At this point, I made a mistake in my initial calculations: I used a straight D-D fusion reaction for simplicity's sake, as it is much easier to calculate than using the (more potent) Lithium Deuteride fuel that almost all fusion warheads actually use. I will now attempt to rectify this, although it will involve some complicated calculations.

Lithium Deuteride has a density of 820 kg/m3. Working from the above volume, this suggests we will have 149.32 kilograms of warhead fuel. Lithium Deuteride has a molar mass of 8.95 grams/mol, giving us 16,684 moles of fuel to react. Each mole contains 6.02x10^23 molecules to fuse, so altogether we have 1.0x10^28 molecules to react.

According to this site, each lithium atom converted is going to yield around 20 MeV of energy; working from our above number of molecules above, this gives us 2.0x10^29 MeV, equivalent to about 32 petajoules or 7.66 megatons TNT.

Based on the Nova's 83 HP base damage, if we assume damage HP to be a scientific scale than this suggests around 92 kilotons per HP. A Nova torpedo would thus have a yield of around 41.4 megatons, a Nova Citadel torpedo a yield of 166 megatons, and the Doomsday Device a yield of 166 gigatons.

However, there are still three highly unrealistic expectations involved at this point:

1, the entire missile body is nothing but warhead fuel. No space for the rocket motor's fuel, guidance, or electronics is included. In reality, the warhead typically occupies less than 20%, sometimes as low as 10% of a missile body.

2, every molecule of fuel in the warhead reacts completely. I could not find an exact number for percent efficiency of modern nuclear weapons, but older devices were pegged at 25% fuel burned with modern devices being noted as "significantly" more efficient.

3, the entire yield of the weapon is directed solely at the target. Most practical designs for space-based weaponry include some form of shaped charge to direct the bulk of the explosive energy at the target. Sometimes called a "Casaba Howtizer", they can direct up to 50% of the explosive energy in a relatively narrow arc (compared to less than 10% for an unfocused device); see this page.

So! For a more relealistic, but still high-end estimate we will make the following assumptions:
- 40% of the missile body is warhead fuel; the need for a space-consuming trigger explosive has been removed through nanites and spacemagic.
- 70% of the fuel will undergo fusion, trapped inside the body by advanced materials (AKA, more spacemagic).
- 80% of the energy will be directed at a target by some sort of shaped-charge device, again held together by spacemagic.

Under these assumptions, a Nova Light missile will hit its target with around 1.72 megatons (7.15 petajoules) of energy.

Operating under these assumptions, we find a single damage point is equal to around 20.7 kT of energy. A Nova Torpedo can thus be expected to deliver 9.3 megatons of energy, a Nova Citadel torpedo 41.4 megatons, and the doomsday device 41.4 gigatons.

TO MUCH MATH, TL;DR:

Absolute upper limit (pure weapon yield):
Nova Light: 7.66 megatons
Nova Torpedo: 41.4 megatons
Nova Citadel Torpedo: 166 megatons
'Gjallarhorn' Doomsday: 166 gigatons

Feasible, but still high estimate (energy to target):
Nova Light: 1.72 megatons
Nova Torpedo: 9.3 megatons
Nova Citadel Torpedo: 41.4 megatons
'Gjallarhorn' Doomsday: 41.4 gigatons

Note that I do not believe damage HP is actually a reliable method for comparing weapon yields. Actual yield and energy delivered for the larger missiles is likely to be considerably higher; however, it does give us a rough idea of what is considered a useful weapon in New Eden.

GÇ£That sound youGÇÖre hearing,GÇ¥ Omvistus replied, GÇ£is your planetGÇÖs bombardment siren. YouGÇÖve probably never had to pay much attention to it in the past, seeing as your world is safely under the jurisdiction of CONCORD, but that is no longer the case.GÇ¥ As he spoke, the back window of the conference room took on a noticeably red tint, saturating the room in crimson light. GÇ£What youGÇÖre seeing now is the targeting laser used to aim my battleshipGÇÖs six 425 millimeter railgun turrets. At this altitude, the gravity of your planet will augment the standard launch velocity of each solid projectile to speeds well beyond operational specifications, enough to obliterate anything within half a kilometer of the impact site.GÇ¥ OmvistusGÇÖs image grew larger on the screen before he continued.


GÇ£Anything between that location and two kilometers from ground zero will suffer a worse fate, as the antimatter suspended in each shell escapes its containment field and expands in a random dispersion pattern, colliding with the ambient normal matter on the ground GÇô buildings, trees, children, everything. Whatever these particles touch will experience matter disassociation on an atomic level as, piece by piece, they are reduced to unidentifiable residual particles.GÇ¥ He paused briefly, and then concluded.


GÇ£With a single thought, I can reduce your entire city to a smoldering crater; the boiling wind rushing in to replace the void left behind will be laced with dust particles that were once the bodies of everyone you know and love. Do you understand?GÇ¥

There are two reasons why I tend to think this can't be used as a really accurate calculator.

The first - and most important - is that Omvistus is talking out of his rear throughout the entire chronicle. He can't actually bombard the planet; CONCORD doesn't let us. He completely screws up how an antimatter warhead would look. He's bluffing - everything he says and does is meant to intimidate the planetary staff into giving in to him without a fight. So, I take everything he says with a freighter-load of salt.

The second issue is the loose language he uses. Words like "destroyed", "obliterated", "reduced to a crater" are troublesome because they don't actually tell us anything about what really happened. Does that mean things were heated until they vaporized, or merely knocked over by the air pressure shockwave? The difference is highly significant.

With that said, yes - a 4 MT blast would produce a roughly 2 km fireball. Of course, with battleship weapons more likely to be in the 100-400 megaton range, the actual destruction would be considerably higher - the crater itself might reach 2km, while the fireball reaches considerably further.

GÇ£Anything between that location and two kilometers from ground zero will suffer a worse fate, as the antimatter suspended in each shell escapes its containment field and expands in a random dispersion pattern, colliding with the ambient normal matter on the ground GÇô buildings, trees, children, everything. Whatever these particles touch will experience matter disassociation on an atomic level as, piece by piece, they are reduced to unidentifiable residual particles.GÇ¥ He paused briefly, and then concluded.

As seen from the vantage of ships patrolling high above, the swirling cirrus clouds of the planet Eanna still bore long, dark streaks that spanned the width of continents. Speak to me, God. COPYRIGHT -¬ CCP 2006 16 The screen cycled through different views provided by Imperial warships surrounding the former Minmatar world. Approximately twenty-four hours had passed since the last guns stopped, but uncontrollable firestorms still raged all over the planet. The occasional break in the clouds revealed green landmasses pockmarked with wide swaths of blackened scars.

There was a pause. GÇ£At last pass, sixty-three million dead, mostly from orbital bombardment directed at population centers. One million or so killed during the surface landings; another million in subsequent ground combat. At least two million were taken as slaves, but we wonGÇÖt know exact numbers for some time.