Barbarian "Raider" Hulls
Star Fleet Universe Discussion Board: Star Fleet Battles: SFB Proposals Board: New Ships: MISCELLANEOUS Ship Proposals: Barbarian "Raider" Hulls
By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Sunday, November 19, 2023 - 09:13 pm: Edit

This is an idea which popped up over in the "Module C4R" discussion thread, but which I felt warranted a topic of its own. I leave it to others to decide on whether or not they agree...

-----

The Barbarian "empire" was first created in the simulators of the Early Years Inter-Stellar Concordium. Historically, once contact with the Romulans and Gorns was established, this simulator empire was updated to account for the new weapons and new technologies which were found to exist across the Alpha Octant (and no doubt beyond, for those residents of the PX 123 system who found themselves in the midst of the Federal Republic of Aurora from Y178 onwards).

Yet, while the current crop of Barbarian SSDs have weapon, power, and/or non-weapon option boxes which enable them to take on may guises, the base hulls themselves - by my understanding - each have one thing in common: they, like the ships of the unified ISC Navy and Police (and of the five pre-ISC planetary fleets that preceded them), are each designed to operate solely in open space.

Which is fine if they are intended to mimic an Alpha (or Omega) empire which itself operates as such - be it the likes of the Gorns or the Hawk-series Romulans on the one side of the Void, or the likes of the Mæsrons and Trobrin on the other side.

However, for the ISC of the "Mapsheet P" timelines, in which a traumatic First Contact in Y110 sears a very different enemy starship design philosophy firmly onto the collective minds of the ISC public, such "open space" designs might not quite encapsulate the threats being faced.

While for the Academy instructors of the FRA post-Y178, in a galactic octant with a range of factions (to include both the Zosman Marauders and the Paravians of Omega), they in turn would be motivated to account for a type of enemy warship that shares a key element from the "lost empire" Paravians: the ability to land and take off from planetary surfaces.

-----

So, I propose a series of "raider" Barbarian hulls, designed from the keel up to follow a Paravian-esque design profile: to be more agile than their "standard" Barbarian equivalents; to be able to land safely from planets; and, as a drawback, to have certain engineering restrictions (in terms of size, in how many weapon option mounts they can install, etc.) to consider.

One thing I would want these designs to be is "full-sized"; as in, to not have the kind of cutbacks seen with Orion Pirate ships. Of curse, they still might end up being a bit small for their size class.

In the Alpha Octant, no doubt some of these ships might appear with cloaking devices, though they would have the same cloak costs as other hulls not designed to operate cloaks (such as Romulan Kestrels). In the Omega Octant, they would not be designed to operate the Stealth field, as the Zosmans themselves have to make certain engineering trade-offs which these Barbarian "raiders" would not go as far to match.

In terms of design profile, I was thinking that they would have a somewhat different hull outline to "open space" Barbarian ships: something more aerodynamic, and perhaps with a three-engine layout. (Yes, that does sound quite Paravian-esque, doesn't it?)

-----

As for when (and where) this range of simulator hulls would be historically invented: this, in my view, would depend on which timeline is involved.

In the "standard" timeline, these designs might well be invented by the Federal Republic, and later be introduced to the empires of the Alpha Octant upon the return of the GSX Sakharov in Y219.

Over in the "Mapsheet P" timelines, however, it would be invented in the ISC proper, in light of the onset of war with the "lost empire" Paravians. Which means that when the PX 123 of those timelines is brought over to the Omega Octant in Y178, these designs would be part of the set of Barbarian blueprints ready to go in the simulators of the FRA - and of other Omega empires - more or less as-is.

-----

So, does such a set of "raider" hulls sound like it might bring "something different" to the Barbarians as a simulator empire? Or would it be better to sieve such a concept off into an entirely separate faction entirely?

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Monday, November 20, 2023 - 12:16 pm: Edit

First of all, Gary, please excuse me for sounding like I'm disparaging this idea; I'm not and am curious about where you're going with it, but maybe it's just my illness addled brain, but I'm not seeing anything but repackaged Orions with this; "Raider ships with who-knows-what-from-around-the-sector in their Optional Weapons Mounts, gunning for our freighters."

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Monday, November 20, 2023 - 01:28 pm: Edit

Gary Carney:
The Orions are one of two empires that have such ships. The Romulans have the ability to land their Eagle ships on planets and take off again. So the ISC would be well aware of this ability and not need to call on the Paravians to duplicate it in their simulators, nor for that matter would the Aurorans.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Wednesday, November 22, 2023 - 02:55 pm: Edit

To quote SVC from the Zosman Marauder discussion thread linked to above:

Quote:

Like the Romulans (and unlike the Orions) they have "full volume ships protected by that stealth field" rather than ships designed to be thin and small and use passive (cost free stealth).



Orion Pirate ship designs make numerous cutbacks - to include cargo boxes with 25 cargo points each - which enable them to possess an innate ECM bonus.

For their part, Eagle-series Romulan ships do not have Orion-esque cutbacks: the cargo boxes on a Pioneer Eagle carry the "standard" number of cargo points apiece. However, even these ships are not quite "full volume" designs for their respective size classes either; at least not when compared to more "modern" ships in the Romulan fleet, such as the KR or the SparrowHawk. That said, this does provide them with an advantage in terms of cloak costs, as the cloaking device was of course designed with the Eagle series hulls in mind.

In contrast to both types of hull design, Paravian ships are "full volume" vessels capable of landing and taking off from planets. And unlike the Zosmans, who also build "full volume" ships, yet which still have certain engineering limitations in place due to the need to account for the use of the all-important Stealth field, Paravian ships are designed to operate "in the open". Which, as an aside, means that if one were to find a reason to install a cloaking device into a Paravian hull, the resulting ship would have as high a cloak cost as other ships not designed with the cloak in mind.

Further, Paravian (and Zosman) ships tend to have much larger boarding party complements than their Orion or Eagle series Romulan counterparts as standard. Although the Zosmans carry more shuttles and transporters with which to deploy them, whereas the Paravians tend to have no more than the "average" Alpha or Omega levels of either system on a class by class basis.

There are a few other Omega factions with "full volume" ships designed to land on planets, such as the Sigvirions (who use this as a means of infecting new host species), the Ryn (who can use their quantum transporters to beam their ships into orbit or back again), and the Branthodons (who can "land" their Dragonships on friendly - or enemy - worlds). Although, each of those have bespoke technologies which make them less directly comparable to the other "land on planets" empires noted above.

-----

To use the Paravian and Zosman heavy cruisers as points of comparison:

Both the "lost empire" Paravian CA in Module C6 and the playtest "Omega's Lost Futures" CAB in Captain's Log #54 have the equivalent of four centerline adjacent heavy weapon option mounts to forward, plus the equivalent of six "P-1" and four "P-3" phaser mounts.

The standard CA uses these mounts to install four quantum wave torpedoes, six phaser-1s, and four phaser-3s. Whereas the CAB has two antiproton beams, an antiproton lance (which in itself takes up two centerline adjacent option mounts), six antiproton phaser-1s, and four antiproton phaser-3s.

In contrast, the playtest Zosman CA in Captain's Log #50 has six phaser option mounts on the base hull, plus room for two weapon and two system modules. A weapon module can be swapped out for a system module, but not vice versa.

If one leaves the two weapon modules in place, each possesses a pair of centerline adjacent weapon mounts. So the most a Zosman CA can possess is four total weapon option mounts on the modules, plus six phaser option mounts on the base hull.

So while both hulls are designed to land on planets, the Paravian ship is more heavily armed than its Zosman counterpart - not least if the latter starts replacing weapon modules with more system modules.

But then, it's one thing to compare like for like when both ships are operating "in the open". It's quite another once the Zosman starts operating its Stealth field...

That said, even while operating "in the open", the large impulse decks on Paravian warships enable them to reduce - or even avoid - the need to dip into their warp engine output in order to pay for erratic maneuvering. Which is something they can make use of when approaching a target colony or convoy, perhaps.

-----

For such reasons, I would propose the Barbarians deploy "raider" hull variants which echo the Paravians more than they do the Orions or Eagle series Romulans - or, indeed, the Zosmans.

They would each be "full volume" hulls for their respective size class (to include having "standard" cargo boxes); they would have no innate ECM bonus; they (in Omega) would have no Stealth field; and (in Alpha) would have no Cloak cost discount either.

But, they would have a high number of boarding parties as standard, and be closer on average to the Paravians (rather than the Zosmans) in terms of phaser and heavy weapon option mounts.

Would this be enough to make such hulls with considering?

Add a Message


This is a private posting area. A valid username and password combination is required to post messages to this discussion.
Username:  
Password:

Administrator's Control Panel -- Board Moderators Only
Administer Page | Delete Conversation | Close Conversation | Move Conversation