| By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 11:06 am: Edit |
Xander did this picture because he wanted to experiment with planet textures.
I think it's great, but cannot imagine a story to go with it. (early fighter, national guard ship? nothing springs to mind.) If you can create such a story, we may havea future captain's log or some other product.
(third paragraph is part of the Obsolete discussion.)
| By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 11:06 am: Edit |
Here's the art in question.
| By Mike Kenyon (Mikek) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 11:53 am: Edit |
By the registry, it's the GSC Warspite, and it does not look to be having a good day of it.
Reminds me somewhat of the pilot to Firefly with the smoke spree out one engine.
| By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 11:58 am: Edit |
Obsolete discussion.
| By Jon Berry (Laz_Longsmith) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 12:43 pm: Edit |
Plot Tribble; The GSC Warspite (NCC-1002) has suffered catastrophic Engine Damage (SFB, the entire R.Warp is destroyed, maybe even a Warp engine Critical Hit) after defeating a monster. But they discover it was Sabotage!
While in orbit around the now-safe colony, they detect an incoming Pirate raid, hoping to take advantage of the opprotunity their spy/saboteur gave them. It's a race to defend the crippled ship and the colony until Federation (or, if early enough, Klingon!) reinforcements arrive to properly drive off the pirates.
I might be able to do something with this actually, but the idea is open for anyone to take a crack at it.
| By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 01:05 pm: Edit |
Noting the shadow on the cloud of the Romulan ships surrounding the Warspite ('off camera'), the art ultimately ended up being something intended to be a follow-up or predecessor to SH063 - Strike at Rigel.
At the time that scenario was written, we didn't have National Guard ships (these came in Module R8), or much in the way of support ships and infrastructure that would be in-system (these came in Module R11) so the scenario didn't really deal with what happened AFTER the Federation fleet failed to stop the Romulans from getting through.
One would assume that the Romulan fleet in SH063 had some kind of reserves, and after the main body of the Federation fleet failed to stop the Romulans main fleet, these would rejoin them. The actual attack on Rigel IV that devastated the world would, then, would have to deal with some 'last line of defense' - planetary bases, fighters, national guard ships.
| By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 01:05 pm: Edit |
Perspectivewise, for some reason the ship has entered atmosphere of a class M planet.
| By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 01:08 pm: Edit |
Quote:Perspectivewise, for some reason the ship has entered atmosphere of a class M planet
| By Loren Knight (Loren) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 01:17 pm: Edit |
Xander,
A Snipe or BH squadron vs a GSC.
Maybe the GSC entered the atmosphere to cause some trailing plasmas to degrade? If the timing was right it might be able to cause them to travel from one hex side to another. Pretty specific but possible.
| By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 01:18 pm: Edit |
Jon - while your idea varies a bit from what I had originally started with, it's no problem to make some minor tweaks to it.
For reference, the fighters are Federation F-4 Phantoms.
Again, easy to make some changes to this.
| By Loren Knight (Loren) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 01:25 pm: Edit |
Was the Warspite ever a troop variant?
Maybe they were raiding a Romulan outpost (yeah, Feds as agressors!) and found a Snipe squadron on the ground (old Rom hulls can all land and a squadron of Snipes would be a little like a gunboat defense for a new military colony.)
It might be interesting to see the Romulans refining gunboat style planetary defense tactics years beofre there are any gunboats. Crazy?
| By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 01:25 pm: Edit |
Loren - guard cruisers are GCA, not GSC (that's a Galactic Survey Cruiser).
| By Loren Knight (Loren) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 01:33 pm: Edit |
Oh, I see my error. Mike Kenyon I.D.ed it as a GSC by mistake. Guard Cruiser. Got it.
| By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 01:49 pm: Edit |
deleted by author
| By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 02:05 pm: Edit |
Obsolete discussion.
| By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 02:19 pm: Edit |
Obsolete discussion.
| By Mike Kenyon (Mikek) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 02:20 pm: Edit |
Loren,
Sorry, my bad -- quick fingers.
Mike
| By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 02:25 pm: Edit |
I can't see a National Guard ship being used in offensive operations. Tactically and strategically too slow.
| By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 02:30 pm: Edit |
Obsolete discussion.
| By Loren Knight (Loren) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 02:37 pm: Edit |
Previous art by SVC shows various colonies as an arrangement of domes with connecting tubes.
Fiddle with the shading a bit to make them look more dome-ish and add a couple and yer good.
| By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 02:41 pm: Edit |
Observations:
There is no other noticeable damage to the ship, so what is going on with its right warp engine is obviously both specific, and catastrophic. This puts the events leading up to the picture as either a catastrophic failure of some system within the right warp engine, or (as has been noted elsewhere) sabotage.
The presence of the fighters puts whatever is happening the post-Smarba period (no Federation fighters prior to Smarba).
Neither of the above explains what the ship is doing in atmosphere, but it clearly is in atmosphere (too much ground detail and too close to the clouds for it to be in orbit), although clearly at an altitude above the clouds.
I am unable to fashion a scenario in my head, at this junctue, to combine all these elements.
| By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 03:06 pm: Edit |
FWIW, I had done an earlier draft with no fighters and the ship considerably more shot up. Maybe that would work better for a regular 'combat story'?
Didn't seem as artistically interesting as the later version, but it's possible...
Quote:Neither of the above explains what the ship is doing in atmosphere, but it clearly is in atmosphere (too much ground detail and too close to the clouds for it to be in orbit), although clearly at an altitude above the clouds.
| By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 03:07 pm: Edit |
The GCA was performing with the F-4s in the 26th century equivalent of an air show, when something went blooey in the right warp engine. Just replace the colony with a stadium full of horrified spectators. 
| By Jon Berry (Laz_Longsmith) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 03:48 pm: Edit |
What if the Warspite was in a decaying orbit over the colony (away from rules, cannot cite), and only a few SFB turns away from crashing into the planet? The F-4's are either from a FGB, or from a carrier not in-view (then why are they in the Atmosphere as well?)
Part of the story could be the ship's captain ordering an evacuation, and getting ready to ditch his ship somewhere 'safe' away from the colony as his enginering crew desperately try to restart the engines in time to advert catastrophie.
Now that tribble raises the question on why the Left Warp and Impulse were both inoperable as well, but once again, Sabotage becomes viable.
Hrm, let's try this:
GCA showing the flag at a Colony when the right warp engine explodes due to sabotage and the other engines are shut down or rendered inoperable due to the same. (Maybe invoke the "Can't use Warp for Movement" special scenario rule.) The Warspite's captain orders an Abandon ship as the situation deteriorates and the his calls for help will mean relief arrives too late. The F-4s are launched from the planet with orders to shoot down the Warspite over a desolate area if it comes down to that.
The moment the picture happens, the valiant engineering crew has rebooted the Impulse engines, leaving the Warspite with a crippled warp drive and in the atmosphere. That's when the Orions show up to loot the place or to finish the job the sabotage started before the disaster relief arrives. Maybe the FEMA Destroyer or a Police Flagship?
The SFB scenario would start with the Warspite already in the Atmosphere, removing trying to figure out why the player would willingly dive in.
| By Peter A. Kellerhall (Pak) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 03:59 pm: Edit |
***Deleted by author***
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