kfeltenberger wrote:
Thoughts on crew: Let's look at what will be needed to operate the ship (theoretically) when it's at action stations...
Each gun turret/mount will require from 1-5 people to direct and fire the weapon. This is over and above those needed to manage the ammunition conveyor system, so for that you could easily add 1-3 per mount depending on the bore and rate of fire.
Each small combat craft (fighter, bomber, Raptor class, etc) will need a crew chief. This person "owns" the craft and is responsible for it's maintenance, final arming, everything. The pilot may fly it and be in command, but the crew chief owns the bird.
In addition to the crew chief, figure 2 to 6 additional crew either directly assigned or as part of a general deck "pool" that are specialists: fueling, arming (which includes building up the weapons), deck direction and handling, avionics technicians, airframe technicians, etc.
A Nimitz class CVN essentially has two crews: the ship's crew and the crew of the embarked air wing. Back when the CVNs carried a maxed out air wing (~90+ aircraft - 24 F-14, 24 F/A-18, 10-12 A-6E, ~6 KA-6D, ~4 E-2C, helos, recon birds, and COD birds) the Air Wing was (and this is from memory) about 2500-2600+.
I still think the security force is way too high (for the crew listed). Given the discipline level that's already there, the Marines, and overall military structure, 15-18,000 would be plenty. You're not going to have traditional crime zones that a modern city has and you won't have many of the contributing factors that cause crime. What you'll have are crimes of passion (hey! You're fraking my wife! I'm a-gonna kill you!), crimes resulting from substance abuse or overuse (you know how drunks can be...), domestic issues, petty theft, and so on.
Now were talking!!!!
This is exactly the type of info I was looking for.. unfortunately to actually use this advice.. I'll have to count the number of turrets I have.. thats gonna suck.. but it's something Ive always wanted to do anyway, this gives me a reason..
What about automated turrets, I always thought thats how BG's turrets were? Plus, wouldn't that be better? I will lower the security force, except that as I left allot of room in what you said.. I may have to increase the population (theres alot of turrets dude) let me ask you this..
would you agree that 10,000,000 people could fit without over crowding on this ship? If so.. how would you take those numbers and break them down...
I know that's asking allot, but it truly is important (well to our group anyway lol) break it down as much as you like. Include children (our future pilots and teachers)
Quote:
My internet was down yesterday, but I typed this out and wanted to share it..
ITS FULL OF MISSPELLINGS!!!!
Random Ship Facts:- The largest city spire (at the front) is 1.55 miles long (2.50 Km long)
- The ship is exactly 13.00 Km long for the 13 zodiacs.
- There are 13 city spires on the front of the ship, one named for each Zodiac.
- The armored wings on the front are 187.34 feet (57.1 M) Thick and there top armor plating is 50' thick.
- No turret is directly on top of each another (I listened to Kurt's advice about whats UNDER each turret) and have allotted space under them all for the internal workings. All triple turrets between viper bays are staggered as well.
- No turret is directly behind another turret. You will notice that every time you see a turret behind another, there is a platform under the rear turret(s).. (there is a diagram on the image explaining this) This allows every single turret full rage of fire without fear of hitting the turret directly in front of it. (So in other words every turret can fire straight ahead with no obstructed view)
- I rebuilt the side pods (again.. Kurt's advice) so that they are all clear of the front armored wings.. though theres kind of an optical illusion that makes it hard to tell, they are all well clear of the front wings. The closest point being 258.4 feet away.
- Many pod openings have multiple landing levels, this is to reduce recovery time of launched fighters (yet again based of something Kurt pointed out)
- The only alpha channel parts of the ship are the windows (because I like the look) but even they were redone to be more professional. Also the Agro domes and land masses beneath the clear domes (cause its looks better) This knocked 4 megs off the image size (again, advice from Kurt, thanks)
- As each floor is a minimum of 10' high, all windows are about 6 1/2 feet high (2 pixels) as I have a romantic view of being able to stand in front of a full sized window as tall or taller then you to fully view space.
Most asked question answered in far more detail:Q: Why did you make a ship that (as many say) has everything including the kitchen sink included in it. Why not make it strictly military or civilian?
A: I have always loved the concept of the Robotech SDF-1 ship and is 100% the inspiration for this ship. I wanted to build a single ship that could house millions of people, yet still be so powerfully offensive that it could defend it's population while still being an offensive powerhouse.
The sheer volume of turret fire the ship can lay down would make anyone think twice about an assault (even the turret layout took this into consideration, thus no turret is directly behind another as mentioned above), and for those that dared would have 80,000 fighter craft to deal with not to mention the countless larger (non tube launched) craft this thing houses.. It has base-ship killer turrets placed on all sides of the ship. Its armor on average is 20 feet thick with both an offensive and anti-ballistic missile system that would make the USA envious. (again, all depicted in the image) Another important thing to point out is this ship was not designed to flee, it was constructed to stand and fight. As you continue to read, you will see how.
The important thing in the construction of this ship was not too simply "say" what the ship can do in the above paragraph, but to visually "show" it on the ship. I wanted every single turret, missile launcher and fighter bay to be visible to show its capability rather then simply making a normal sized ship and merely changing the scale. I wanted to visually see its power.
It also contains a metal element (I posted on this long ago) and technology that is more advanced then the basic BG univerce (again explained on this site long ago though lost when the site was transferred to new host, Maybe I'll re post it if anyone cares)
Some of its advanced tech includes: (and I put a lot of thought into all of this)
Force Fields - I tried to think of reasonable uses of this technology of what a advanced, but not that advanced society would have achieved:
1. The ship has force fields. Though not the kind you are thinking of, for example there is no full ship force field (Nope, its not a star trek ship). The force field(s) the ship has are for the bays and pod openings, they can stop basic fighter weapons, but that's about it (they can't stop a missile for example, nor could they stop a cylon ship from flying right on in) but then thats not there purpose, they exist to separate space and atmosphere. They allow the crew to walk around on the flight deck with an atmosphere, or pilots to exit there craft on the fight deck without the need for a space suit and allow ships to land at the same time.. it simply allows an atmosphere to exist on the landing decks and open ship bays.. Though as mentioned they are calibrated to keep out small particles like small meteor rocks, space particles and small fighter craft fire.
2. Point missile defense system - The Ophiuchus has a force field missle point defense system in place. The way it works is similar to force fields described above on a much smaller scale. They can create small areas in space (50' diameter max) with a far more dense area of effect, where as the general force fields mentioned above are ment to run 24/7 and simply contain an atmosphere and keep small craft fire and small space objects out, the missile point defense system is able the project the same type of field, only smaller in diameter for a limited time, yet far more dense, it is used to place a (somewhat) physical barrier in front of an incoming missile. They are not effective vs fighter craft or fighter craft fire, first due the maneuverability of fighters and second due to the sheer speed of a fighters rate of fire. Nor are they affective at stopping large ships in anyway as the limited size and density of the point shields renders them ineffective vs large objects.
Weakness:
Unknown (to enemies) yet notable weaknesses: Each side of the ship can create a total of 25 shields at one time, the top and bottom can create 15 and 12 respectively and the front only 7 and rear a mere 5 shields total. Now once a missle is destroyed, a point shield barrier can intercept a new threat. But as you can see.. it has it's weaknesses, though these are not yet publicly known.. In an attempt to cover up these weaknesses, the ship does have a extensively numerous and powerful anti missile to missile system as well as a turret point defense system in place which it always uses in conjunction with its FFPDMS (Force fields point defense missile system)
On the same subject.. without a doubt, the rear of the ship is its weakest point.. attacking it from the front is actually worse the hitting its sides as the forward firepower the ship has is devastating. The only weak areas are the rear and the bottom (or underside) however they are no picnic either.. simply because of the sheer volume of missiles the ship can instantly launch plus, fighters protect these areas the most as it is a known weakness.
In addition, the ship is not alone.. its fleet also helps to protect these weak areas, and steps are being taken to shore up as much of these vulnerabilities as possible
HOWEVER: though now that this ship is the center of me and my friends RPG (and that is most important), the ship needs weak areas to make the game fun, so I'll probably never fix them, in fact that's the reason for purposely creating the weaknesses it has now in the first place, and as they were created.. thus they are real and really exist (plus they are realistic) as this RPG version is the main version (we spent a ton of time on the details over many a day and cases of beer having fun just working all this sort of thing out. There is nothing funner then getting a group of like minded individuals together that actually care about details like this) It will probably always have these weaknesses, as it give me reasons to base gaming sessions around them.. plus, I think they are realistic weaknesses and should not nor probably ever should be fixed, if they even could be. Anywhoo...
Anti-Matter:
1. Anti-matter missiles - The ship has several particle accelerators that are used to create anti-matter, these are obviously far more advanced then those seen on our earth today (which can actually create anti-matter in tiny amounts.. though the issue is storage) The Ophicans have perfected this science.
The Ophiuchus fleet also has several (12) ships specifically created (and always being manufactured) for solely this purpose as well, though they require a rather close proximity to a star to work and produce AM in a much different way. (long story and researched though its pure syfi) These ship can mass create anti-matter at a terrifying rate.. As in literally..terrifying.. its the highest paying job in the fleet.. :/
Also on a side note, ONLY IN MY OPINION... Anti-Matter missiles (I believe) are not the total devastating missiles that much sci-fi leads you to believe, they are devastating and absolute in what they hit... but are far more of a small scale strategic weapon rather then a mass destruction weapon as say a nuke is. If you need a specific small area 100% guaranteed to be destroyed, use a AM missile, if you need mass destruction.. use a nuke.
To be continued..
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
