The Hellbore Cannon, an Overview:

Developed early in the course of the Return by Hydran scientists, the Hellbore cannon is one of the most unusual and technically complex weapon systems fielded by any Galactic race. Its unique ability to pick out a chink in enemy defenses for punishment has served as a cornerstone for Hydran squadron tactics since its inception, even as the Klingons have replaced their originally extremely thin rear screens.

The Hellbore Cannon has been spoken of as a 'fusion bomb in an electromagnetic field'. This is true, so far as it goes, but is not actually an ideal paradigm for examining the weapon. For one thing, the field is actually a tractor-pressor array that serves not only as the containment for, but detonation trigger of, the weapon itself. For a second, rather than a simple, circa Earths 20th century megaton-range Thermonuclear device, the 'delivered charge' is in fact something more in the manner of stellar material. A superdense semi-plasma-state of hydrogen isotopes is built within the tractor-pressor field charge, then accelerated to near c by an array of gravitic manupulators. As the charge leaves the tube, local generators extrude a limited warp bubble, taking the charge to sufficient speed for instantaneous delivery within its operation ranges.

In flight, the tractor-pressor screen degrades quickly. Though delivery times are by all standards low, the degredation of the tractor-pressor field once deprived of a generator is best measured in picoseconds. As the field degrades, the superdense plasma is lost at a paralell rate, thus explaining the degredation that occurs over the flight of the weapon.

Upon impact, rather than exploding on contact, the pressor field and contained plasma 'splash' onto the surface of the target, spreading out and covering the target in a very short time period. Once envelopment is complete, the containment field 'constricts' around the target, forcing itself inwards until the contained plasma reaches its fusion trigger point and detonates. The remnants of the containment field serve to 'contain' the explosion, and the contained detonation thus expends the majority of its energy along the path of least resistance... IE the weakest screen present.

Though not modeled in SFC, the Hellbore cannon also has a secondary fire mode... in 'Direct Fire', the containment field detonates as soon as the weapon charge reaches the enemy vessel, and then dissolves under the force of the detonation. This allows the Hellbore to deal damage directly to the facing screen, but (due to the nature of explosions against flat surfaces) also causes a loss of approximately 50% of warhead strength.

Proposal:
Battle reports have noted difficulties suffered by our Hellbore-armed vessels in engagements of over squadron size. The ability of the Hellbore cannon to ignore screens is of greatly less value in an encounter marked by combined fire crippling or destroying ships every volley, and our disruptor armed opponents higher rate of fire only exacerbates the situation.

The Shaped-Charge Hellbore:
In essence, the Shaped-Charge Hellbore Cannon changes the way the tractor-pressor field is constructed and used. Rather than an equal field surrounding the charge, the field is greatly strengthed along the trailing face of the warhead, and weakened at the leaded edge. Upon reaching the enemy vessel, the trailing edge moves forward, forcing the charge against the single, facing screen. The denser containment field trailing serves to contain and force detonation of the denser charge, using the enemy vessels screens or hull as the second 180 degrees of arc. This directs all of the hellbore charge's energy into the enemy vessel along a single axis, resulting in a tremendous punch that is concentrated on a specific screen.

System:
As a Direct-Fire Hellbore, but inflicting the full Hellbore Cannon damage to the facing screen. As a result of the instability caused by the unblanced containment field, Shaped Charge shots are though still potentially accurate more vulnerable to enemy electronic countermeasures. Double the impact of any EW shift against a Shaped Charge Hellbore Shot.

By Aaron Gimblet (Marcus) on Saturday, June 08, 2002 - 02:29 am: Edit

((As is obvious from the above... I was brought back to SFB by SFC... that bit of fun above started out in a post to my buds on an SFC board, thought id port it here, look for comments.))

By Piotr Orbis Proszynski (Orbis) on Saturday, June 08, 2002 - 03:09 am: Edit

hey, good explanation for HB technobabble! As for the merits of the improved direct mode, I'll leave it to others to howl over, but one problem I foresee is that not everyone plays SFB with EW. There needs to be another penalty, one which can be applied to any game. How about a chance of malfunction of the launcher -- on a roll of 10, 11, or 12, the HB tube jams for 2d6 turns due the stress of creating a strongly asymmetrical alectromagentic envelope?

This might make a nice X-weapon improvement for Hellbores maybe?

By Aaron Gimblet (Marcus) on Saturday, June 08, 2002 - 03:39 am: Edit

Orbis, I really was aiming for something late-war... again, aiming at balancing the DF situation vs a Dissy-armed opponent.

Good point on the EW thing... maybe give it a poorer to-hit chart... like the baseline Dizzy chart? Yould be getting a HB that did more damage to a single screen, but (obviously) wasnt shield-seeking, and didnt operate with that pretty, shiny, EW resistant 'I shoot, I hit' chart.

By John Trauger (Vorlon) on Saturday, June 08, 2002 - 01:01 pm: Edit

My thought is that hellbores are a good enough weapon as-is.

You can propose photon improvements, you should propose Particle Cannon improvements, just as you should propose WRG dis-provements, but there's no call for improving the hellbore.

It's like proposing a "seeking weapon" firing mode for the PPD.

By Mark Kuyper (Mark_K) on Saturday, June 08, 2002 - 01:37 pm: Edit

Aaron,
This would be a good Hydran response to GOD guns...

B-)

By Chad Calder (Hades_Minion) on Saturday, June 08, 2002 - 03:58 pm: Edit

Aaron,

to fit your premise you need to find something that makes Hellbores stronger in Fleet actions but wouldn't be useful in duels. As it is I would always use this mode for my 1st battle pass because it is pretty much a guarentee to get internals AND I don't have to worry about reinforcement tricks.

By Aaron Gimblet (Marcus) on Saturday, June 08, 2002 - 05:56 pm: Edit

Chad... your right... Hmm... no shaped charges at R8 or less, and a seperate loading mode so ya cant wait to decide until you pull trigger? FLEETS dont charge into 8, so not a problem there... but if your loading 'locks' you into firing HBs at 9-15, its not a great choice in a duel.

By Jeremy Gray (Gray) on Saturday, June 08, 2002 - 06:20 pm: Edit

I'm with John. The HB is already possibly the most effective heavy weapon in the game, particularly in large numbers. I don't see any need for an improvement ot the HB.

By Geoff Conn (Talonz) on Saturday, June 08, 2002 - 06:51 pm: Edit

Wow someone wants to IMPROVE HBs?!?

I was always rather impressed with them as is.

By Aaron Gimblet (Marcus) on Saturday, June 08, 2002 - 07:50 pm: Edit

Well... everyones trying to improve Photons, just thought id try to get me some lovin, too.. ~hehe~

Actually, the DF proposal grew out of the PSB technobabble behind how the Hellbore WORKS that I wrote (ive always been drawn to such things) and having put together some worthwhile PSB, the shaped charge thing made a bit of sense.

Then again, maybe ive been playing too much SFC:2, the Place where Hydrans Stink, lately, and need to get back to a nice lil SFB map.. ~G~

By Mike Raper (Raperm) on Saturday, June 08, 2002 - 08:37 pm: Edit

IMHO, the Hellbore is just fine as it is. A DF full power HB is just plain scary. Nicely done post, though, Aaron.

By Glenn Hoepfner (Ikabar) on Sunday, June 09, 2002 - 01:43 am: Edit

I agree Aaron's description of the weapon is impressively thought out. I think it should be printed.
I also agree that at most this should be used as an X improvement.

By Mark Kuyper (Mark_K) on Sunday, June 09, 2002 - 04:06 am: Edit

Glenn,
But its a perfect reason for the Klingons to find GOD!

LOL

By Aaron Gimblet (Marcus) on Sunday, June 09, 2002 - 07:37 pm: Edit

Thanks, Glen... where do I go to submit Technobabble to Steve and Steve? Yes, I AM new around here.

(edit)
/Powergamer mode on
Hmm... sometime in X era, can I have Gatling Hellbores with the Shaped-Charge Warheads?
/Powergamer mode off

By Glenn Hoepfner (Ikabar) on Sunday, June 09, 2002 - 09:56 pm: Edit

Honestly, I'm not sure, Marcus.
Currently he's behind on submission reviews (and for a very good reason), but the sooner you send the proposal to him (via email), the sooner you'll be on the list. Occasionally, he skims through the proposals to search for fillers or something specific for a particular module, but beyond that, you'll just have to be patient.
:-)

By Aaron Gimblet (Marcus) on Sunday, June 09, 2002 - 11:48 pm: Edit

Okies... further newbie idiocy... who exactly do I send it to? SVCs Mailbox? ~shudder~ That must get... harrowing

By Glenn Hoepfner (Ikabar) on Monday, June 10, 2002 - 01:46 am: Edit

Yes, his mail box.
He'll eventually get your email and he'll reply that he received it. however, if you don't hear from him in about 2 weeks, ask him (here or by email) if he received it.
But don't pressure him too much or he'll snap you in two and spit you out . . . um . . . I mean, he's a bit busy but he hasn't failed me.

Just joking, SVC. :-)

By Chad Calder (Hades_Minion) on Monday, June 10, 2002 - 04:40 pm: Edit

Glenn,

You know what is REALLY funny (and true really) about your last post. If you look at the preview of your message (ie what you see when you do a search for new messages.) your post says "Yes, his mailbox. Hell eventually".

Kinda fits when you considered the liklyhood of this being approved.

By Aaron Gimblet (Marcus) on Monday, June 10, 2002 - 06:36 pm: Edit

All I submitted was the fluff bit... ~G~ The rule wont fly, I did a bit of playtesting myself with it.. ~brr~ bad things.

By David A. Cooke (Dcooke) on Saturday, May 24, 2003 - 12:57 am: Edit

Hope the hellbore improvement thread isn't too cold and dead to get some responses...

I think the area where the hellbore needs improvement is not damage. I think its problem is its huge power consumption, and the inability to be held (at least until X1). While these may not be huge limitations for the smaller hellbore ships with one or two of them, this becomes much more apparent when the number of weapons increases.

What really drove this home for me was a recent game in which I ended up going head to head against a Fed BB with my Monarch BB. With 8 hellbores, I needed to feed them 24 points of power each turn, just to keep them on rolling delay as standard loads. Even with a BB, this is a lot of power! By contrast, my opponent was able to keep his 10 fully overloaded photons held for 20 points of power. Needless to say, I got trashed, even though my ship ostensibly out-BPV'd his substantially, since he could heavily reinforce his shields while firing overloads, and I couldn't even afford to overload most of my hellbores.

Even with smaller ships, the issue persists. Take a Fed CA vs. a Hydran Dragoon. The Fed can hold full overloads for all four photons for 8 points per turn; the Hydran spends 12 for standard loads.

Now, I will grant you that part of the issue here is that the Feds and Hydrans aren't historical opponents, and these kinds of matchups can create problems. Still, I think it's still present even with more historical opponents. Take a Klingon D7 vs. a Hydran Dragoon again. The Klingon will spend 8 points per turn for standard disruptor loads, versus 12 for the hellbores standard loads (and firing every other round, at that). True, standard hellbores do more damage than standard disruptors, but it still comes to 16 points of power for 8 disruptor shots over two rounds, versus 24 for 4 hellbore firings.

Given this kind of power differential, I propose a "late war upgrade" that allows hellbores to be held. I think the X1 holding cost is a bit high (1.5 would be more reasonable), but since it's already on the books, non-x ships should be ableo to hold standard hellbores for the same 2 pts per turn.

I also think the Hydrans are crippled relative to other races by the 4 hellbores per ship limit, and the lack of a Hydran ECM drone equivalent, but that's a whole other rant...

By Andrew Harding (Warlock) on Saturday, May 24, 2003 - 01:16 am: Edit

Yeah, Hydran weaponry sucks. This is most obvious on Orions, which never, ever equip themselves with Hellbores or Gatlings...

By David A. Cooke (Dcooke) on Saturday, May 24, 2003 - 01:24 am: Edit

Yes, but how many Orions equip themselves with 4 hellbores? The power issue isn't much of a problem when you only have one or two of them.

I always kind of liked Gatlings, but to each his own...

By Andrew Harding (Warlock) on Saturday, May 24, 2003 - 02:00 am: Edit

Hellbores are reasonably efficient as is. For instance, at range-15 it does 10 damage for 6 power with a decent hit chance - roughly as efficent as the disruptor at one of the disruptor's best ranges. Counting only facing shield damage, it's roughly as efficient as the photon at that range. The first figure overstates their efficiency because shield damage isn't as good as a concentrated strike, the second understates it because shield damage is by no means useless. So it's more efficent than the photon, less efficient than the disruptor, but with a higher throughput than either.

Throw in the incredible mizia potential, resistance to EW, ability to hit non-facing shields and the massive power supplies of most hellbore ships... why does it need improvement again?

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica) on Saturday, May 24, 2003 - 08:15 am: Edit

Whence last I checked, Hydran hellbore ships had a plethora of APRs in comparison to non-hellbore (and non-Hydran) ships. The Hydran Monarch is something of an anomaly in this regard, as it sticks to the standard BB power curve of Impulse/APR/AWR totaling 18.

By Andy Palmer (Andypalmer) on Saturday, May 24, 2003 - 09:07 am: Edit

Besides, in a BB duel, the MON doesn't need to arm all those HBs. It arms, at most, 4 of them and charges. It takes that big BB Alpha like a man, then blows his opponent up with R0-1 Fusions, Ph-Gs and OL HBs.

By Alex Chobot (Alendrel) on Saturday, May 24, 2003 - 11:02 am: Edit

The thing I always wondered is why the Hydrans never did their scouts based off the hellbore ships instead of the fusion ships.

By Steven E. Ehrbar (See) on Saturday, May 24, 2003 - 10:25 pm: Edit

To emphasize Jessica Orsini's point:

The Fed-BB, KCN, Kzn-BB, Gorn-BB, MNR, Lyr-BB, and ISC-BB all have 78 power, the B10 and the K10R have 79, and the Tho-NBB has 77. So the ones with higher power requirements for weapons are always going to hurt comparatively.

Comparing the Hydran DG+ (43 power, 148 BPV) to the Federation CAR+ (36 power, 145 BPV) gives a different perspective -- the Fed has 16% less power, offsetting the ability to borrow power from earlier turns (which is what being able to hold effectively allows). So the hellbores use more power -- but the Hydran has extra power.

Similarly, the difference between standard disruptors and standard hellbores is four points a turn -- and the DG+ has four more points of power a turn than a D7.