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why the player would willingly dive in

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By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 04:14 pm: Edit

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By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 04:29 pm: Edit

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By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 04:31 pm: Edit

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By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 04:53 pm: Edit

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By Jeff Laikind (J_Laikind) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 05:04 pm: Edit

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By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 05:05 pm: Edit

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By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 05:05 pm: Edit

Could this be an opportunity to use one of SPP's various monster special rule articles?

It had been mentioned that, so far, few story ideas had been developed on the back of them; this could be a good example.

(Especially if one wanted to highlight the kind of roles the National Guard ships would take on in the interior, away from the front lines of whatever trouble Star Fleet might be dealing with.)

By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 05:07 pm: Edit

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Especially if one wanted to highlight the kind of roles the National Guard ships would take on in the interior, away from the front lines of whatever trouble Star Fleet might be dealing with

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By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 05:17 pm: Edit

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By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 05:34 pm: Edit

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By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 05:42 pm: Edit

Various comments

I did not notice the shadows of the romulans until they were pointed out, which may mean that the design feature is too subtle for an effective cover.

The cover is very "monochromatic" and might have done better with a class-M planet surface (blue, green).

I just really cannot wrap my head around a guard cruiser, but (1) it's not that far from being a regular CA and (2) it's not impossible that a good story might materialize using a guard cruiser.

Leanna thought it was great technical work but lacked the drama to be a cover, being more an ad for "great engineering disasters" than "cool battles in space".

being a creative guy, I can understand that Xander's artistic spirit took him where it took him, even if I'd rather have had something very different. That said, if a story turns up, we'll see.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 05:44 pm: Edit

Here's an interesting take on the sabotage idea. Maybe the Warspite is fighting a boarding action and to keep the ship from disengaging away someone blew the warp engine. That would explain the minimal damage. The fighters could be from the ground.

Why in the atmosphere? Well, I have a term paper about launching shuttles from within the atmosphere so that they can land troops faster. Maybe the plan was to land the crew faster in preparation for the destruct sequence (which would minimize their exposure to the enemy squadron). The engine is blown because of Romulan sabotage trying to prevent the ship from escaping away (while also trying to prevent self destruct).

Just thoughts.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 06:49 pm: Edit

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By Stacy Brian Bartley (Bartley) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 07:12 pm: Edit

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By Peter A. Kellerhall (Pak) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 07:29 pm: Edit

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By Stacy Brian Bartley (Bartley) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 07:41 pm: Edit

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By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 08:42 pm: Edit

Please proceed with kicking story ideas around using that assumption - it's a domed colony.

I still think the best explanation for the Warspite being that low in orbit is that it was doing 'atmospheric flight' (P2.80) to stay right over the colony at low orbit - to help expedite shuttle and transporter evacuation from the colony due to a biological attack. The terrorist group had evacuated with the colonists, though, and performed the sabotage on the warp engine, too, before they were stopped...all in preparation for an Orion raid on the system.

But, ultimately, it's one of two things:

• The Warspite *started* the battle low in the atmosphere, and was caught there (IE., they are in atmospheric flight trying to get "up")
• The Warspite started the battle in space, and started entering the planet's atmosphere for some reason (IE., they are beginning atmospheric flight trying to get "down")

By Michael C. Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 08:55 pm: Edit

I would say that unless a race has mostly ships that CAN LAND at a "ground base station or starbase" it shouldn't put their base there. But if all their ship can land at a ground base (Roms & Orions for example)...

the pertinent question should be can the base do its job planetside and are there enough corresponding advantages to make up for the disadvantages? For example, IIRC (off the top of my head) the common freighters can't land on planets. Yeah the Free Trader can, but the zillions of regular freighters can't (???)


As I understand it big bases have several functions:

1) They are the local hub for command and control
2) They repair stuff
3) Stuff passes through them (freight and people)
4) They are a pivot point for military forces.
5) They use their special sensors
6) they house "empire" staff functions

IIRC, most of these issues have been seen in the fiction and or rules.

Also, who says a big old thing on the planet is actually a starbase? It might just be an enormous factory, mine head, whatever. You ever seen a the size of some of the commercial mining equipment? Like the shovels they use for strip mining?

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 08:55 pm: Edit

"Why can't you raise or lower a ship into a special cradle on a planet's surface to allow for repair?"

The obvious answer is, "It's easier, safer and cheaper to do it in orbit." You don't have to worry about the tractor beam failing and dropping millions of tons of starship from orbit, with catastrophic results; you don't have to worry about supporting the mass of the ship against gravity while you repair it; you can easily get access to all parts of the ship if it's in microgravity; you don't have to lift it back up into orbit again; most workers in the SFU telecommute and manufacturing is done by telefactor, so there's no need to bring the ship to your workers. From an engineering perspective, it's just a heck of a lot simpler to leave it in orbit. In fact, there does seem to be some limiting factor in lifting things up and down from planets using tractor beams, otherwise you would not really need cargo shuttles, cargo skiffs, cargo PFs or similar things to move cargo to orbit.

(I don't remember a planet moving in MIGE, but Niven did turn the Ringworld into a gigantic starship in one of the novels. Still, he seems to use nanobots and so on which apparently don't exist in the SFU.)

By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 09:07 pm: Edit

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By Stacy Brian Bartley (Bartley) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 09:10 pm: Edit

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By Jean Sexton (Jsexton) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 09:13 pm: Edit

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By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 09:15 pm: Edit

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By Stacy Brian Bartley (Bartley) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 09:22 pm: Edit

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