Hi.


After reading a few of the recent CL threads - and blatantly deciding to 'borrow' some of the ideas - I figured that where better a place to propose a System Cruiser (akin to the ISC NCA) than in the Federal Republic of Aurora?


The background idea would be as follows:

By the time of the Second Great War, the FRA were, together with the Maesrons, working to develop hot warp engines, which they could then use to build speed-30 war cruisers (by the tail end of the Y180s).

Once the new war cruisers - which have yet to be written into SFB, sadly - were entered into service, the Aurorans suddenly found themselves with a number of their trusty CLs looking to be upgraded or superseded.


Now, since the FRA is perhaps too small to consider scrapping perfectly serviceable ships, the following issue becomes a problem:

Can the CLs be upgraded to the new war cruisers?


If they can, fair enough - most of the existing CL fleet can go through the upgrade as soon as the logistics base at Aurora can support this.

If not, the need to find use for the CLs as they are gradually superseded by the new ship types becomes an issue (not least in the face of upgrades in the fleets of rival powers, and the onset of the Souldra and Andromedan Invasions in the Sixth Cycle, as well as the turbulent era the FRA goes through in the Seventh).


Either way, the home fleet would most likely do with more powerful ships that need not be too fast in terms of strategic speed, but up to heavy cruiser levels in terms of firepower - as was the case for the isolated ISC cantonments that built packs for NCAs, NDDs and NFFs.


Building such packs for FRA FFs might be tricky - but doable, perhaps (they might be better off if the Aurorans find the records for the Federation Police Frigate in the records of one of the new arrivals in the Y170s) - but for the CL, such packs might be more viable.


So, as with the likes of the ISC NCA, one would add a pack including APRs, something like a pared-down version of the pack James Pennington proposed for a Federation System Cruiser...

...but perhaps with the use of SRCs, or tachyon missile launchers, instead of photon torpedoes?

(The CL has no SRCs - they might be worth adding to the pod, not least when the Aurorans are dealing with the Vulpa and want to defend against TM fire.)


I don't think the idea of system cruisers suits most races - even in the case of the ISC it's really only the cantonments which built them - but while the Federation has little need for even more ship types, the Aurorans would do with using such a setup.


Sound reasonable?


Gary

By George M. Ebersole (George) on Sunday, September 23, 2007 - 03:05 pm: Edit

It's interesting, if for no other reason than the the Omegans (specifically the FRA) seem to lack a number of classes compared to some of the other Omegans, and certainly compared to Alpha.

Do you have an SSD drafted up?

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Monday, September 24, 2007 - 03:39 pm: Edit

Nope - I'm not an expert on SSD creation.


But I was guessing that the main hull would be mostly unchanged, with the later weapons systems (SRCs, TMs etc) on the hard-welded module.


Gary