When I wrote the Deains for PDFeds, I meant them to be non-warp capable...they were on the verge of FTL when the Magellan arrived in Y150, but hadn't quite gotten it done yet.

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Monday, February 14, 2011 - 07:46 pm: Edit

Xander,

Have you actually read any of the Y-modules? Look at the size of Romulan space. That is all done with sublight ships. If the Romulans can travel that far (and actually defend it against warp-capable ships), then I fail to see the problem with Vudar sub-light ships fighting Hydrans and Klingons.

But I didn't say that had to be the case. I simply stated that it was a viable option and it is up to Petrick to decide how major a player the Vudar were prior to Klingon "conquest". Considering how thoroughly any possibility for Y-ships was eliminated, it would not surprise me if Petrick didn't want W-ships, either.

(Personally, I would like to see some pre-conquest Vudar ships. That said, they are in no way "shoe-ins".)

As for Federation National Fleets, there were multiple people begging for the Federation fleet to have different weapons, instead of just photons and Andorian drones. The Steves decided that it was not the case. While it is perfectly possible they would change their minds for the Tellerites, I am not optimistic. Particularly for some kind of plasma weapons.

And considering that the Orions had completely free access to plasma technology for decades, yet never actually used it until well after the Early Years, I would be very surprised if the Tellerites suddenly did.

By John Sickels (Johnsickels) on Monday, February 14, 2011 - 08:59 pm: Edit

Just to be clear, the Deians didn't have ANY FTL...they were close to non-tactical warp, but hadn't done it just yet.

By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Wednesday, July 13, 2011 - 09:33 pm: Edit

Updated thoughts:

Fralli

Of all things! GURPS Federation notes (pg 102) that the Fralli were contacted in Y102 by a Federation Early Command Cruiser while they had a warp ship zipping around their system doing test runs. So the Fralli definitely had non-tactical warp by Y102, which makes them a reasonable candidate for having sublight ships to apply tactical-warp refits to.

They were not accepted into the Federation until LONG after the Early Years ended, though, so I can't even begin to guess what their W-era ships would be armed with, if they had any (the Federation certainly wouldn't give them tactical warp before they were admitted...but maybe the Orions or Tellarites would? Or, heck, they could develop it on their own...)

Martians

In another thread, Gary asked a question that kicked off this line of thought. The 'Terran' ships we have in Module Y2 and Y3 are conversions of sublight ships starting in Y62. According to 'GURPS: Federation', Mars had rebelled against Earth in Y36, and was independently joining the Federation by Y44. Additionally, it is noted that the Martian economy is (by the time of GPD, true) "agressively capitalist..with a very strong manufacturing base devoted to military equipment and starship construction".

This makes them a good candidate for either their own version of W-era ships (from the same original sublight platforms that Earth converted into their W-ships...but maybe taken in a different direction during conversion. Perhaps no photons?), or entirely new W-era ships of their own design, converted from their own sublight ships (possibly built from Y36 to Y38 in anticipation of a conflict with Earth that never materialized into a full-scale war).

Peladine

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For the Peladine, they had one Early Years ship (or something like that). They would have to be either completely conjectural, or their published history would have to change. So, while I think it would be cool to include a Peladine Y-fleet, I just don't see it happening. I would love to be wrong.

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