Hi.


Now that Omega 5 is out, and we have a better idea of what kind of gunboats exist in the Octant (and Iridani Cluster!) perhaps one could begin to consider what the Omega equivalent of Alpha Octant workboats might look like.


Unlike in Alpha, there is a significant level of distinction between the sizes and specifications of Omega PFs - which would mean that Omega workboats, if any, would be similarly unique.

Plus, unlike in Alpha - where there are relatively few spece-faring species who are distinct enough to require non-'standard' atmospheric types, Omega races are much more varied in this regard.


So, are there any factions which would be likely to see a need, or use, for workboats - and who could they sell them to?

Of the factions which have been published thus far, I'd say that the Maesrons would be among the first to have a market for workboats - with a multi-racial union desperate to rebuild its economy (and with the same kind of need for new materials for X-ships that Alpha Octant empries would have) along with a significant level of damage to their pre-Invasions civilian infrastructure, the Alliance could well do with making the most out of building and selling workboats, both internally and to various allies or trading partners (such as the FRA, Qixa, Probr, remnant Bolosco and others).


Also, the Probr and Qixa could be similarly motivated to open up a civilian market for their home-grown boats - with the likes of the FRA having no home-grown PF design to convert, and renewed trade with their neighbours and each other, they too could benefit.


Further afield, the Iridani would have use for such boats within their Cluster, and could, if they so wished, establish an export trade with certain Omega factions which they would have good relations with (I'm thinking mainly about the FRA - who would have reason to maintain strong links with the Iridani, and the money and motive to pay for Iridani-built craft, again with no home-grown alternative). They could even design a custom set of civilian modules for use with workboats - a means of making their craft more attractive to potential Auroran or Qixa customers, by expanding the range of operations one can undertake.

All available at the nearest Iridani supply dock, of course.


I suppose that other Omega factions which have PFs may or may not have the kind of economic, biological or political conditions requied to make workboat production (for a civilian market, at least) feasible - and even so, they may be less than willing to open the door to inter-species trades.

(The Drex would not sell to, nor buy from, anyone - and boats in Koligahr or Trobrin space would need significant re-engineering to make them suitable for alien use, if they even wanted to offer them for sale in the first place.)


Neverthless, there could be enough to make a start.


Meanwhile, up in the Cloud, the Baduvai have thei own PFs - as well as a desperate need to rebuild their shatered economy, in the post-Unity era.

With more direct exposure to the Alpha Octant, the example of Alpha workboats could be something which the Baduvai could adapt, as a means of filling the gap left by the loss of the bulk of their merchant fleet of Pinnaces - and in making use of the production facilities which the Imperium's remnants would have been using to build military PFs.


However, would they be interested in selling such workboats to the also-recovering Eneen, Maghadim, Chomak and Jumokians - and would an export variant designed to cater for beings which aren't massive 1200kg quadrupeds be configured differently enough to a 'home' workboat to justify a distinct SSD?


Both Omega and the LMC have their work cut out for them, in terms of rebuilding after the Andromedan Invasion (and in the case of Omega, the added heartche caused by the Souldra) - and in this regard, perhaps workboats would be a means of making a virtue of logistical necessity.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, June 06, 2008 - 11:48 am: Edit

Sounds like a good thing for CL38 when you get it finished, Gary. Let me know.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Friday, June 06, 2008 - 05:25 pm: Edit

There's never a good time to be without one's copy of R11, is there?


(I could give it a go for the Baduvai and the Omega factions I mentioned - but since my copy of R11 is not at hand, could someone give a quick run-down of the kind of systems that your typical Alpha workboat has available - or should I say, the kind of loadout they are given in place of the weapons and/or other systems that the Alpha races strip out before putting them up for civilian use? Not that the system loadout would necessarily be identical for these other factions, mind you, but it would be useful to note for comparison's sake...)


EDIT: I may not have R11 handy, but I DO have GURPS Klingons - maybe the G1/U1 info there might help, also.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Friday, June 06, 2008 - 06:50 pm: Edit

Okay - v1 of a Baduvai workboat:


(MP2.PF3) BADUVAI WORKBOAT (BWB)

v1 design

With the success of Operation Unity, the Baduvai remnants faced a daunting set of challenges, when it came to even beginning to recover from the decades-long winter of the Andromedan War.

Worlds needed to be liberated and revitalised, resources needed to be harvested, infrastructures re-established and alliances re-evaluated - and all with a limited production base, a shattered economy, a severe lack of civilian craft and the arrival of new and powerful forces from the giant galaxy which dominated the Magellanic celestial starscape.

However, having been inspired by certain records gathered through exchanges of information with certain envoys from the Operation Unity task forces, the Baduvai were able to turn to their Outrider gunboat design, and the various asteroid yards and hidden bases which had been used to construct them (along with hastily-built shipyards in orbit of H'gar) in order to make a virtue of necessity.

The re-formed Imperium set aside a certain number of yards for the production of a new series of civilan workboats, while retaining others for dedicated Outrider production. These new boats replaced the weapons systems seen on naval Outriders with the kind of cargo space and systems needed to allow them to be used in a civilian role, while retaining a pair of light lasers for defensive purposes.

The craft were sold and operated by the Baduvai themselves - many boats owned and operated by the government itself - while others were exported to the also-recovering Eneen, Jumokians, Jindarians, Chomak and Maghadim (it is unclear as to what, if any, market may have existed within the Yrol Nebula for such craft) as well as to a selection of enterprising Alpha Octant citizens and corporations which were beginning to make the long journey out to the Cloud, and were looking for local assets to make use of when they got there.


YIS would be Y203.


How is this, for a start?

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Saturday, June 07, 2008 - 08:57 pm: Edit

Time for Omega:


OMEGA WORKBOATS
The development of gunboats for military use was quite distinct for the Omega powers, both in relation to the norm in Alpha, and to the routes taken by the various factions in question. Thus, it stood to reason that the issue of civilian usage of such craft would vary widely, also.

With the vast devastated zones left by the Invaders, the severe curtailing of the available merchant fleets of the powers in question, as well as the cotinued prevalence of Zosman Maurauders in the Omega Octant, civilian workboats were seen to need more detailed means by which they could scout out new resources - not least, the materials which had hitherto been marginalised, but were essential for X-ship production - as well as try to defend themselves well enough to allow for a higher rate of success at evading raiding craft. This usually translated into the inclusion of a probe launcher and a slightly higher number of on-board phasers than might have been expected for such craft - but which was seen as necessary within the turbulent Omega Octant.

Relatively few empires even considered opening any route by which civilian contractors may have use for the craft - and in these cases, the level of openness offered to home-built workboats, and/or to those produced by other factions' yards, varied also.

However, for the first batch of empires which made the decision to crate civilian variants of their gunboats, the addition of workboats made a significant economic impact, and helped them recover from the devastating losses incurred by the Invasions - and better prepare themselves for the events of the Seventh and Eighth Cycles.


(OR2.PF12) MAESRON WORKBOAT (MWB)

v1 design

The Maesrons were the first to introduce PFs into military service, and they were also among the first within the Octant to see the benefits of establishing a production line for workboats.

Whether the recipients were Wallimi or Tazol operators, planetary governments of minor Alliance members, Auroran civilian firms, Bolosco settler colonies or Qixa corporations, the Maesron model of workboat found many uses for the various powers who acquired them.

Interestingly, while the Maesrons allowed exports to Probr space, relatively few Probr organisations made the effort to export Maesron workboats - tending to prefer their home-based model in most, but not all, cases.


(OR6.PF12) PROBR WORKBOAT (PWB)

v1 design

For a Probr government suffering significant losses to its civilian fleet infrastructure, and looking to make the most of the surviving fleet yards in the era of reconstruction, the workboat concept was seen as a reasonably efficient means of providing for such reconstruction without having to re-tool more yards to create decidated civilian designs.

Indeed, the Probr often rolled these workboats out of the same slipways used to build variants such as the cargo PF - which was kept mainly for use by the Probr military.

Probr workboats were very popular within home space - not least because they were cheaper than the aerage export model, but also due to a sense of racial pride in the indigenous design among most Probr who would have had access to the funds necessary to purchase any sort of workboat at all. However, it was not entirely unknown to see workboats purchased from other empires operating in Probr space.

However, the Probr were quite willing to sell their boats on the export market, finding ready buyers within regions such as the Federal Republic (which had no native workboat design, a relatively strong rapport with Probr interests, and plenty of firms happy to plump for the cost-effective Probr boat) and the Qixavalor Cloud (the weapon systems were less than useful within the Cloud proper, but served well enough when boats were used in open space to keep far-ranging Qixa trading posts supplied) - though markets existed for the Probr boats within the Maesron Alliance, also.


(OR14.PF11) IRIDANI WORKBOAT (IWB)

v1 design

Considered the 'luxury model' on the workboat market, the unequalled size of the Iridani gunboat hull coupled with the additional systems added to the civilian model (including a fourth phaser and a shuttle bay) made this the most expensive workboat on the civilian market for several years - but also among the most highly sought after.

Another example of a ship type which the Iridani claim to have operated before anyone in Omega, but which was restricted to the Cluster until after one or more Omega factions 'followed suit', these were initially sold within the Iridani Cluster to local noble families and merchant guilds. After Y205, the Iridani began to offer them to a select number of Omega powers which the Iridani preferred to trade with - including the FRA, Maesrons, Probr, Qixa and remnant Bolosco, among others. These craft were considered by some as a status symbol, others as a sound long-term investment... and to others still, perhaps not quite worth the extra cost one had to spend over a Probr- or Maesron-built model.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, June 20, 2008 - 07:14 pm: Edit

Seem fairly obvious variants. they're not hard to design.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Saturday, June 21, 2008 - 03:43 am: Edit

Well, you did say before about getting back to you with them for CL38 - and while writing an R-section for the boats is one thing, doing up the SSDs is another, for someone (well, for myself) who has not tried doing one's own SSD before (with the exception of an attempt at a Jumokian NCA, which I wasn't quite sure how to fiish either).


Might there be room for such workboats in the next CL?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, June 21, 2008 - 11:54 am: Edit

Could be.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Saturday, June 21, 2008 - 05:51 pm: Edit

In that case, I would repeat my request for someone who is familiar with Omega and the Magellanics, and who might have the time/inclination to help, to please consider looking over the WIP SSDs before I try and submit them...

...unless you (SVC) would prefer to have someone else do them anyway.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, June 21, 2008 - 06:33 pm: Edit

SVC will do them himself, as I alluded in my earlier post.

"Seem fairly obvious variants. They're not hard to design."

I don't need any help turning a gunboat into a workboat. I'm the guy who invented the whole idea of turning a gunboat into a workboat.

Please delete the ones you uploaded.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Saturday, June 21, 2008 - 06:55 pm: Edit

They are gone.


The reason why I was asking about submissions was not to try and presume that you would need any help in figuring it out - more that I was not sure whether you had the time/inclination to do it yourself, and I wanted to be able to learn how to put together a submission which would pass muster, or at least as much as the kind of SSD submissions you may recieve from others more competent at the craft than I.

However, in saying that, I was not asking you to take time away from the many other things on your busy schedule to do so - thus I was hoping that one of the regulars, who may have felt generous enough with their time/effort, would have considered passing on a few ideas.


In any event, it doesn't matter anymore.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, June 21, 2008 - 07:27 pm: Edit

If it's not about Origins, can it wait?

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Sunday, June 22, 2008 - 05:58 pm: Edit

Indeed it can.