Technology of the Star Fleet Universe
- Thread starter Nerroth
- Start date
Bear in mind that the Andromedans did not start building up the RTN in the Alpha Octant until the Y160s (give or take), and that only DisDev-equipped Andromedan ships are able to make use of it.
That said, there are cases of missing ships - or even missing star systems! - that have puzzled scientists across the Alpha Octant, even before the first intruders from M31 showed up to cause trouble...
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So, did the Darwin make its return?
Before we go back to that topic, it might be timely to take a side step to a different one: the evolution of attrition units in the Alpha Octant.
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Shuttlecraft in the Star Fleet Universe tend to appear in four different sizes, though only two of those are liable to appear in the bays of a given starship.
Size-1 coves the standard administrative shuttle, of the kind portrayed in the pre-1979 Franchise. Size-2 covers heavy transport shuttles, which are approximately twice the size of the standard admin. Size-3 and size-4, as one might guess, are 300% and 400% larger than a standard admin - but, because of this, cannot be carried in a ship's shuttle bay.
In other words, one might see a standard complement of size-1 admin shuttles on the likes of the Federation Constitution-class heavy cruiser; one or more pairs of admins swapped out for HTSs on certain mission variants (such as commando cruisers); and only encounter size-3 or size-4 shuttles in a heavily-populated star system, where they might serve as intra-system cargo transports - or, with the right furnishings, as luxury yachts.
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As demonstrated with the Hydrans, it was possible to streamline a size-1 fighter frame into the basis for an attack shuttle, in the form of the Stinger-1. But it took a few more decades for other empires in the Alpha Octant to consider following suit - and longer still for the first rough designs to make way for more refined (and more powerful) fighter types. In the case of the Federation, a large number of "low-end" fighters, such as the F-18 and F-16, were supported by a smaller number of high--end" F-14s and F-15s. (For the most part, the "Hornets" and "Tomcats" were used by Star Fleet, whereas the "Falcons" and "Eagles" were used by the various National Guards.)
Also, it proved possible to field size-2 heavy fighters - which, as with the "non-combat" heavy transport shuttles, take up two "spaces" in a given shuttle bay at once. For a time, it seemed that the F-101 "Voodoo" would become the standard Federation heavy fighter - a raft of rival size-2 designs notwithstanding - yet, as will be noted later in this post, the universe had other plans.
Further, it was possible to create size-3 medium bombers, as well as size-4 heavy bombers. But, as was the case for their "civilian" counterparts, bombers cannot be deployed from ships, only from ground bases. Thus, the likes of the Federation B-1 and B-2 bombers were purely defensive units only. (Unlike its present-day namesake, this B-2 has no intrinsic "stealth" capacity.)
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However, while some engineering teams saw attrition units as souped-up shuttles, others considered the prospect of a scaled-down starship.
In the Alpha Octant, the Lyrans were the first to develop a new class of unit known as an Interceptor. Yet, while the Lynx was larger than a fighter and had a broader range of capacities, it proved to be merely an interim step towards the Bobcat fast patrol ship (or gunboat).
In game terms, a gunboat has an SSD (or Ship Card) more akin to that of a full-sized starship, as opposed to the greater degree of abstraction used for shuttles and fighters. INTs have pairs of hemispheric shield facings, whereas PFs have six shield facings instead. While "standard" PFs are optimized for combat, it proved possible to deploy leader variants which provided the "missing" systems needed to turn a flotilla of gunboats into more of a "ship equivalent", as well as scout variants to provide a flotilla with electronic warfare support.
Most other Alpha empires seized on the potential provided by this new attrition unit type to deploy Interceptor and gunboat types of their own. Indeed, it even proved possible not only to develop a range of mission variant PFs (cargo, commando, survey, etc.), it proved possible to offer a "demilitarized" workboat for sale on the civilian market, thus bolstering the post-war recovery efforts of the General War belligerent empires.
Initially, INTs and PFs were deployed from bases. However, a means was developed to install repair-capable mechanical linkages to dedicated fast patrol ship tenders, as well as to install "casual" mech-links to the tractor beams of other warships.
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In the Federation, however, the Council was wary of deploying gunboats of their own, or rather saw the increased loss of life inherent in fast patrol ship usage as politically unacceptable.
So, the Feds instead went along the "Third Way": developing the A-20 "Avenger" and the F-111 "Aardvark" fighters, along with the carriers and base modules needed to deploy them. While the A-20 was just able to fit inside a two-space shuttle bay, the F-111 required dedicated semi-external bays with mech-links similar to those used for other empires' fast patrol ships. However, unlike with PFs, it was impossible to deploy "casual" fighter mech-links - something which didn't seem like much of a problem during the General War.
Further, the lack of a "native" Federation PF by the end of the General War meant that, on the civilian market, there was no "local" workboat design for civilian agencies to purchase - unless you count the Buccaneer-W derived from the Orion PF, which the Orion Enclave was all too happy to sell to the rest of the UFP.... Other empires, such as the Kzintis and Gorns - or even the Kingons and Romulans - sought to pitch their own workboat designs to the post-war Federation civilian market.
That said, there are cases of missing ships - or even missing star systems! - that have puzzled scientists across the Alpha Octant, even before the first intruders from M31 showed up to cause trouble...
-----
So, did the Darwin make its return?
Before we go back to that topic, it might be timely to take a side step to a different one: the evolution of attrition units in the Alpha Octant.
----
Shuttlecraft in the Star Fleet Universe tend to appear in four different sizes, though only two of those are liable to appear in the bays of a given starship.
Size-1 coves the standard administrative shuttle, of the kind portrayed in the pre-1979 Franchise. Size-2 covers heavy transport shuttles, which are approximately twice the size of the standard admin. Size-3 and size-4, as one might guess, are 300% and 400% larger than a standard admin - but, because of this, cannot be carried in a ship's shuttle bay.
In other words, one might see a standard complement of size-1 admin shuttles on the likes of the Federation Constitution-class heavy cruiser; one or more pairs of admins swapped out for HTSs on certain mission variants (such as commando cruisers); and only encounter size-3 or size-4 shuttles in a heavily-populated star system, where they might serve as intra-system cargo transports - or, with the right furnishings, as luxury yachts.
-----
As demonstrated with the Hydrans, it was possible to streamline a size-1 fighter frame into the basis for an attack shuttle, in the form of the Stinger-1. But it took a few more decades for other empires in the Alpha Octant to consider following suit - and longer still for the first rough designs to make way for more refined (and more powerful) fighter types. In the case of the Federation, a large number of "low-end" fighters, such as the F-18 and F-16, were supported by a smaller number of high--end" F-14s and F-15s. (For the most part, the "Hornets" and "Tomcats" were used by Star Fleet, whereas the "Falcons" and "Eagles" were used by the various National Guards.)
Also, it proved possible to field size-2 heavy fighters - which, as with the "non-combat" heavy transport shuttles, take up two "spaces" in a given shuttle bay at once. For a time, it seemed that the F-101 "Voodoo" would become the standard Federation heavy fighter - a raft of rival size-2 designs notwithstanding - yet, as will be noted later in this post, the universe had other plans.
Further, it was possible to create size-3 medium bombers, as well as size-4 heavy bombers. But, as was the case for their "civilian" counterparts, bombers cannot be deployed from ships, only from ground bases. Thus, the likes of the Federation B-1 and B-2 bombers were purely defensive units only. (Unlike its present-day namesake, this B-2 has no intrinsic "stealth" capacity.)
-----
However, while some engineering teams saw attrition units as souped-up shuttles, others considered the prospect of a scaled-down starship.
In the Alpha Octant, the Lyrans were the first to develop a new class of unit known as an Interceptor. Yet, while the Lynx was larger than a fighter and had a broader range of capacities, it proved to be merely an interim step towards the Bobcat fast patrol ship (or gunboat).
In game terms, a gunboat has an SSD (or Ship Card) more akin to that of a full-sized starship, as opposed to the greater degree of abstraction used for shuttles and fighters. INTs have pairs of hemispheric shield facings, whereas PFs have six shield facings instead. While "standard" PFs are optimized for combat, it proved possible to deploy leader variants which provided the "missing" systems needed to turn a flotilla of gunboats into more of a "ship equivalent", as well as scout variants to provide a flotilla with electronic warfare support.
Most other Alpha empires seized on the potential provided by this new attrition unit type to deploy Interceptor and gunboat types of their own. Indeed, it even proved possible not only to develop a range of mission variant PFs (cargo, commando, survey, etc.), it proved possible to offer a "demilitarized" workboat for sale on the civilian market, thus bolstering the post-war recovery efforts of the General War belligerent empires.
Initially, INTs and PFs were deployed from bases. However, a means was developed to install repair-capable mechanical linkages to dedicated fast patrol ship tenders, as well as to install "casual" mech-links to the tractor beams of other warships.
-----
In the Federation, however, the Council was wary of deploying gunboats of their own, or rather saw the increased loss of life inherent in fast patrol ship usage as politically unacceptable.
So, the Feds instead went along the "Third Way": developing the A-20 "Avenger" and the F-111 "Aardvark" fighters, along with the carriers and base modules needed to deploy them. While the A-20 was just able to fit inside a two-space shuttle bay, the F-111 required dedicated semi-external bays with mech-links similar to those used for other empires' fast patrol ships. However, unlike with PFs, it was impossible to deploy "casual" fighter mech-links - something which didn't seem like much of a problem during the General War.
Further, the lack of a "native" Federation PF by the end of the General War meant that, on the civilian market, there was no "local" workboat design for civilian agencies to purchase - unless you count the Buccaneer-W derived from the Orion PF, which the Orion Enclave was all too happy to sell to the rest of the UFP.... Other empires, such as the Kzintis and Gorns - or even the Kingons and Romulans - sought to pitch their own workboat designs to the post-war Federation civilian market.
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A note about the size of the Admin Shuttle. In the Franz Joseph Tech Manual, the shuttle is 25-foot by 15-foot-6, or 7.62 x 4.72 meters. In official ADB publications (deck plans and clip-arts), the Admin shuttle measures 6.25 x 4.00 meters. When I drafted my set of deck plans, I gave it the larger FJ-shuttles for the early version of the ship (Y127-Y147) and ADB-shuttles for the later version (Y147+). I also had to adjust the shuttle bay doors to allow the double-wide Heavy Shuttle to land.
I'm surprised no-one at SFB thought to use a Planet of the Titans/Ariel type design for a shuttlecarrier with a huge aft landing bay. The triangular secondary hull alone could have all kinds of mounting options.
A little O/T. The DART asteroid mission...give that one point of damage or 2?
A little O/T. The DART asteroid mission...give that one point of damage or 2?
If it's a post-1979 Franchise ship type - or, for that matter, a pre-1979 design which has not already appeared in the SFU - then it would be off the table for ADB to consider.
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So, did the Darwin make its return?
The answer... is classified.
Rather, the Darwin's discovery of the Andromedan Rapid Transit Network was made public, or at least was passed on to the other surviving Alpha Octant empires, in Y195. Anything that might have happened before the Darwin reported back in was heavily redacted - though any data brought back from the other timeline was pored over by those few granted access to this information.
Which is all well and good. But then, the question remains: now what?
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In order to detect a given RTN node, a ship equipped with special sensors is required. Not only that, but the ship has to run the search without any allied ships in its immediate vicinity, so as not to interfere with the scans being run. And not only that, but once a node is actually detected, the onus is on actually getting to it quickly enough, and with enough firepower on hand, to destroy the base before the Andromedans simply pack it up and move it somewhere else.
And there's still the matter of all of those raids and other attacks being launched by the Andromedans from the rest of the network - to include the risk of targeting the very scout ships being used to search for the RTN nodes.
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For those empires with access to gunboats, the answer was to turn to the X-raiders: advanced technology fast patrol ship tenders, as published in Star Fleet Battles Module X1R. The base firepower and operational speed of the X-ship hull, plus the added combat power provided by the assigned flotilla of gunboats, gave these X-raiders a crucial advantage in being able to destroy RTN nodes - or, at least, to hold them up long enough for supporting forces to reach the site and finish the task.
A good example of this was the Romulan FireHawk-EX Admiral Centius, which packed the full plasma firepower of the standard "Fire-Axe" X-cruiser, plus a flotilla of six Centurion or StarHawk PFs, plus the four special sensors provided by the E-modules used to support this assigned gunboat flotilla.
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For Star Fleet, who (in the standard timeline) never deployed gunboats, other answers had to be found.
Fortunately, the Second Fleet happened to have the superlative Einstein-class advanced Galactic Survey Cruiser to call upon: five of these ships (Einstein, Sakharov, Fermi, Tellar, and Feynman) would be in service by the end of the Andromedan War, plus their half-sibling, the advanced medium carrier NCC-1783 USS Colin Powell:
But the Federation is a big place. Relying on these X-survey cruisers alone might be a tall order.
Fortunately, there is a backup option.
This is the non-advanced version of the Federation heavy war destroyer:
The secondary hull on this ship type is designed to be modular. It has two aft-facing weapon mounts; four non-weapon option slots; plus a block of four auxiliary warp reactors which can be swapped out as a set and replaced with a quad-sized module. The advanced technology version has a similar layout, but has more restrictions on where their configurations can be changed compared to the non-X HDWs.
While other empires can convert their heavy war destroyers (and advanced technology heavy war destroyers) into fast patrol ship tenders, this typically involves installing gunboat mechanical linkages to two of the base hull's tractor beam emitters, with the other four mech links needed for a full flotilla placed into the non-weapon mounts (and with special sensors in the aft weapon mounts).
However, while the Federation F-111 has its own type of mech link, you might recall that there is no such thing as a "casual" fighter mech link refit. The best they could manage (while keeping the special sensors) was to install a "short" squadron of four F-111s, as opposed to the full squadron of six carried by the GVX Powell.
Even so, with six X-phaser-1s, three X-photons, and two type-GX drone racks to call upon, this scout/F-111 carrier configuration advanced heavy war destroyer makes for a workable option, at least as a backstop to the X-survey cruisers leading the charge against the RTN.
-----
So, did the Darwin make its return?
The answer... is classified.
Rather, the Darwin's discovery of the Andromedan Rapid Transit Network was made public, or at least was passed on to the other surviving Alpha Octant empires, in Y195. Anything that might have happened before the Darwin reported back in was heavily redacted - though any data brought back from the other timeline was pored over by those few granted access to this information.
Which is all well and good. But then, the question remains: now what?
-----
In order to detect a given RTN node, a ship equipped with special sensors is required. Not only that, but the ship has to run the search without any allied ships in its immediate vicinity, so as not to interfere with the scans being run. And not only that, but once a node is actually detected, the onus is on actually getting to it quickly enough, and with enough firepower on hand, to destroy the base before the Andromedans simply pack it up and move it somewhere else.
And there's still the matter of all of those raids and other attacks being launched by the Andromedans from the rest of the network - to include the risk of targeting the very scout ships being used to search for the RTN nodes.
-----
For those empires with access to gunboats, the answer was to turn to the X-raiders: advanced technology fast patrol ship tenders, as published in Star Fleet Battles Module X1R. The base firepower and operational speed of the X-ship hull, plus the added combat power provided by the assigned flotilla of gunboats, gave these X-raiders a crucial advantage in being able to destroy RTN nodes - or, at least, to hold them up long enough for supporting forces to reach the site and finish the task.
A good example of this was the Romulan FireHawk-EX Admiral Centius, which packed the full plasma firepower of the standard "Fire-Axe" X-cruiser, plus a flotilla of six Centurion or StarHawk PFs, plus the four special sensors provided by the E-modules used to support this assigned gunboat flotilla.
-----
For Star Fleet, who (in the standard timeline) never deployed gunboats, other answers had to be found.
Fortunately, the Second Fleet happened to have the superlative Einstein-class advanced Galactic Survey Cruiser to call upon: five of these ships (Einstein, Sakharov, Fermi, Tellar, and Feynman) would be in service by the end of the Andromedan War, plus their half-sibling, the advanced medium carrier NCC-1783 USS Colin Powell:
But the Federation is a big place. Relying on these X-survey cruisers alone might be a tall order.
Fortunately, there is a backup option.
This is the non-advanced version of the Federation heavy war destroyer:
The secondary hull on this ship type is designed to be modular. It has two aft-facing weapon mounts; four non-weapon option slots; plus a block of four auxiliary warp reactors which can be swapped out as a set and replaced with a quad-sized module. The advanced technology version has a similar layout, but has more restrictions on where their configurations can be changed compared to the non-X HDWs.
While other empires can convert their heavy war destroyers (and advanced technology heavy war destroyers) into fast patrol ship tenders, this typically involves installing gunboat mechanical linkages to two of the base hull's tractor beam emitters, with the other four mech links needed for a full flotilla placed into the non-weapon mounts (and with special sensors in the aft weapon mounts).
However, while the Federation F-111 has its own type of mech link, you might recall that there is no such thing as a "casual" fighter mech link refit. The best they could manage (while keeping the special sensors) was to install a "short" squadron of four F-111s, as opposed to the full squadron of six carried by the GVX Powell.
Even so, with six X-phaser-1s, three X-photons, and two type-GX drone racks to call upon, this scout/F-111 carrier configuration advanced heavy war destroyer makes for a workable option, at least as a backstop to the X-survey cruisers leading the charge against the RTN.
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Cole's explanation for things which are extremely creative but would break the rules was always something like "the handwavium technology won't allow it."
The Federation, Klingons, and Kzintis do have battle pods equipped with drone racks. But there is a difference between the number of drones one can keep in storage on the one hand, and the amount which can be loaded into a ship's (or base's or battle pod's) drone racks during the course of a given scenario on the other.
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Actually, I should probably take this opportunity to go into more detail on how the SFU handles the concept of tugs and transports.
Another of the legacies of the Star Fleet Technical Manual embraced by the Star Fleet Universe is the Ptolemy-class tug.
As shown of the cover of Federation Commander: Transports Attacked, the Klingons have fleet tugs of their own:
However, while the Federation TG and the Klingon T7 might be among the most prominent of Alpha Octant fleet transport designs, not every empire was able to go about things the same way - be it in terms of the hulls used to do the transporting, or in the type of missions said transports were to be sent on.
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In engineering terms, the key to a tug is the "bracing" needed to carry one or more pods. Pods can be either "single-weight" or "double-weight" types; the Move Cost and Turn Mode of the tug are reduced depending on the number of "pod-weights" being carried.
Back in the Early Years, the forerunner of the "Franz Joseph" tug was a Y-era tug - one of the first generation of Federation ships designed from the keel up to serve the needs of a unified Star Fleet.
At the time, tugs were mainly used to transport either bulk cargo (for civilian and/or military use) or passengers (in "starliner" pods). In peacetime, these ships were used to help found new colonies and to support the construction of new deep-range bases. In wartime, they could be used to ferry supplies to the front, and to rotate officers and crewbeings into and out of service.
Notably, over in the Inter-Stellar Concordium (which had yet to make First Contact with the other Alpha empires in this time period), their "two-prong" early tug was designed to carry either two pods or none; they were unable to carry only a single pod. As for the Early Years Paravians, who (mostly) refused to establish bases or colonies outside of heir home system, their tugs were used mainly to support long-range raids into Gorn space. And while the M81 Pirates used ships that were de facto tugs (ones intended to cart off entire freighters!), the Tholians themselves had not built fleet tugs back in the home galaxy; the best the early Holdfast could manage was a cargo variant of the patrol corvette.
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In the Middle Years, the first "modern" tugs began to emerge, such as the Ptolemy-class itself. This era also saw changes in how these tugs were being used.
On the one hand, new pod types started to emerge. This included battle pods (which turned a "battle tug" into a powerful, if slow, warship) and self-defence pods (which offered an increased measure of protection but with a reduced cargo capacity). As fighters became more prevalent across the Alpha Octant, carrier pods started to emerge also, as did gunboat tender pods later in the General War.
On the other hand, the development of the mobile base greatly changed the manner by which a given empire could build new bases (or replace lost ones) - not least since tugs could be assigned to aid in the transporting, unpacking, and later upgrading of these bases into larger and more powerful base types.
Once again, the "modern" ISC tug was obliged to carry two pods at a time, or none at all. For their part, the Lyrans designed their survey cruiser to double as a fleet tug (or perhaps as a carrier tug), so as to better support operations in the "off-map" Far Stars region. The Lyrans, like a number of other Klingon-allied (or at least Klingon-adjacent) empires, designed their tugs to be able to carry Klingon-type pods as well as their own pod or pallet types.
Also, the "lost empire" Paravians (would have) built dreadnought-sized Raid Motherships; unlike heavy cruiser-sized fleet tugs, these ships were (or would have been) able to carry as many as three pod-weights' worth with no reduction in Move Cost or Turn Mode. There is even a conjectural Battleship Raid Mothership in SFB Module C6 which can carry as many as four pod-weights, again with no Move Cost or Turn Mode penalties!
On the other end of the scale, several empires were able to develop transport variants of their frigate and/or destroyer hulls, though they were much more limited in terms of how many pods they could carry (basically one) and what variant pods they could operate (no "battle frigate transports", for example).
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As the General War loomed, the onset of "wartime construction" hulls such as the Federation NCL and the Klingon D5 led to the emergence of the light tactical transport: a war cruiser variant with some, but not quite all, of the capabilities of a full-sized fleet tug.
Notably, the Klingons designed both their D5H transport and D5G commando ship to operate as LTTs, so that the latter could leverage the use of commando pods to further support planetary invasions.
As for the Romulans, who were otherwise obliged to built less capable Freight Eagles, or to import a Klingon tug to convert into a Romulan KRT, the SparrowHawk-T provided the Empire with a "home-grown" transport option - but only after they conceded that the SparrowHawk-H (which could not carry pods) was not going to suffice for the task at hand.
As for the ISC, their battle pods were designed to be used in pairs by the fleet tug. So they had to develop a separate light battle pod which could be used by itself on their LTT.
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Combined with a series of logistical advances which made supply lines longer and mobile bases quicker to install, the new range of tugs, LTTs, and other transports made the rapid advances of the General War possible.
The ISC went one further, refining the pre-fabricated pacification bases and rapid deployment procedures that make their post-war intervention possible.
Later on, as the surviving Alpha empires steadily turned the tide against the Andromedan invaders, the combination of tug (or LTT) and mobile base would enable the launch of a campaign which would change the course of Star Fleet Universe history:
Operation Unity.
-----
Actually, I should probably take this opportunity to go into more detail on how the SFU handles the concept of tugs and transports.
Another of the legacies of the Star Fleet Technical Manual embraced by the Star Fleet Universe is the Ptolemy-class tug.
As shown of the cover of Federation Commander: Transports Attacked, the Klingons have fleet tugs of their own:
However, while the Federation TG and the Klingon T7 might be among the most prominent of Alpha Octant fleet transport designs, not every empire was able to go about things the same way - be it in terms of the hulls used to do the transporting, or in the type of missions said transports were to be sent on.
-----
In engineering terms, the key to a tug is the "bracing" needed to carry one or more pods. Pods can be either "single-weight" or "double-weight" types; the Move Cost and Turn Mode of the tug are reduced depending on the number of "pod-weights" being carried.
Back in the Early Years, the forerunner of the "Franz Joseph" tug was a Y-era tug - one of the first generation of Federation ships designed from the keel up to serve the needs of a unified Star Fleet.
At the time, tugs were mainly used to transport either bulk cargo (for civilian and/or military use) or passengers (in "starliner" pods). In peacetime, these ships were used to help found new colonies and to support the construction of new deep-range bases. In wartime, they could be used to ferry supplies to the front, and to rotate officers and crewbeings into and out of service.
Notably, over in the Inter-Stellar Concordium (which had yet to make First Contact with the other Alpha empires in this time period), their "two-prong" early tug was designed to carry either two pods or none; they were unable to carry only a single pod. As for the Early Years Paravians, who (mostly) refused to establish bases or colonies outside of heir home system, their tugs were used mainly to support long-range raids into Gorn space. And while the M81 Pirates used ships that were de facto tugs (ones intended to cart off entire freighters!), the Tholians themselves had not built fleet tugs back in the home galaxy; the best the early Holdfast could manage was a cargo variant of the patrol corvette.
-----
In the Middle Years, the first "modern" tugs began to emerge, such as the Ptolemy-class itself. This era also saw changes in how these tugs were being used.
On the one hand, new pod types started to emerge. This included battle pods (which turned a "battle tug" into a powerful, if slow, warship) and self-defence pods (which offered an increased measure of protection but with a reduced cargo capacity). As fighters became more prevalent across the Alpha Octant, carrier pods started to emerge also, as did gunboat tender pods later in the General War.
On the other hand, the development of the mobile base greatly changed the manner by which a given empire could build new bases (or replace lost ones) - not least since tugs could be assigned to aid in the transporting, unpacking, and later upgrading of these bases into larger and more powerful base types.
Once again, the "modern" ISC tug was obliged to carry two pods at a time, or none at all. For their part, the Lyrans designed their survey cruiser to double as a fleet tug (or perhaps as a carrier tug), so as to better support operations in the "off-map" Far Stars region. The Lyrans, like a number of other Klingon-allied (or at least Klingon-adjacent) empires, designed their tugs to be able to carry Klingon-type pods as well as their own pod or pallet types.
Also, the "lost empire" Paravians (would have) built dreadnought-sized Raid Motherships; unlike heavy cruiser-sized fleet tugs, these ships were (or would have been) able to carry as many as three pod-weights' worth with no reduction in Move Cost or Turn Mode. There is even a conjectural Battleship Raid Mothership in SFB Module C6 which can carry as many as four pod-weights, again with no Move Cost or Turn Mode penalties!
On the other end of the scale, several empires were able to develop transport variants of their frigate and/or destroyer hulls, though they were much more limited in terms of how many pods they could carry (basically one) and what variant pods they could operate (no "battle frigate transports", for example).
-----
As the General War loomed, the onset of "wartime construction" hulls such as the Federation NCL and the Klingon D5 led to the emergence of the light tactical transport: a war cruiser variant with some, but not quite all, of the capabilities of a full-sized fleet tug.
Notably, the Klingons designed both their D5H transport and D5G commando ship to operate as LTTs, so that the latter could leverage the use of commando pods to further support planetary invasions.
As for the Romulans, who were otherwise obliged to built less capable Freight Eagles, or to import a Klingon tug to convert into a Romulan KRT, the SparrowHawk-T provided the Empire with a "home-grown" transport option - but only after they conceded that the SparrowHawk-H (which could not carry pods) was not going to suffice for the task at hand.
As for the ISC, their battle pods were designed to be used in pairs by the fleet tug. So they had to develop a separate light battle pod which could be used by itself on their LTT.
-----
Combined with a series of logistical advances which made supply lines longer and mobile bases quicker to install, the new range of tugs, LTTs, and other transports made the rapid advances of the General War possible.
The ISC went one further, refining the pre-fabricated pacification bases and rapid deployment procedures that make their post-war intervention possible.
Later on, as the surviving Alpha empires steadily turned the tide against the Andromedan invaders, the combination of tug (or LTT) and mobile base would enable the launch of a campaign which would change the course of Star Fleet Universe history:
Operation Unity.
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Also, I went back to the opening post to try and re-organize the various topic links. Hopefully this helps make each section more manageable to choose from.
As and when I get around to other SFU settings, such as Omega and the LMC, adding new sub-categories for those should help present those areas in a somewhat less cluttered manner. Or so I hope...
As and when I get around to other SFU settings, such as Omega and the LMC, adding new sub-categories for those should help present those areas in a somewhat less cluttered manner. Or so I hope...
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And most importantly, how many can be controlled at a time during battle. You could theoretically have something like a dozen racks in each battle pod, and more in the tug itself, but without the ability to use them all at once they.re just spares to soak up damage.
Sidebar comment: @Jim Botaitis might be interested in some of the designs on display in this game system.
I'm curious. To what end?
Check this out:
http://www.jbot.ca/blueprints.shtml
http://www.jbot.ca/blueprints.shtml
I've seen his work, and I think it's outstanding. I just don't see Cole saying "Take my designs and make money with them." In fact, I've never seen him say anything like that, but I've frequently seen him do the opposite. Jim seems to be of mixed minds when it comes to making money with his work, but I'd hate to see him hand stuff over to Cole to be printed and sold with little or no profit for Jim himself.
Once again, I don't claim to speak for ADB. Of course, I'm not a moderator of these boards either. But I would kindly ask that the focus on this thread remain on the technology of the SFU as a topic in and of itself, without being side-railed by comments aimed at the company that produces and maintains it.
As had been discovered - perhaps too late - over in the "dark future" timeline, the Andromedans had used the Lesser Magellanic Cloud as a jump-off point for their invasion of the Alpha Octant. However, since the task forces sent in that timeline's Operation Codominion had failed to make it as far as the LMC, even those few analysts in the "standard" timeline which had been "read in" to the data brought back by the Darwin had no actionable intelligence as regards what conditions to expect in the Cloud proper.
Thus, when the time came for the various surviving Alpha Octant governments to negotiate, prepare for, and finally execute Operation Unity - a three-pronged campaign to reach the Cloud and (hopefully) bring an end to the Andromedan War - this represented a major leap into the unknown for all concerned.
-----
It was discovered that the Andromedans had set up three routes "up" from the LMC to various entry points along the Galactic Rim into the Alpha Octant proper. Why these exact entry points were chosen is unknown, but it might have something to do with the Galactic Energy Barrier. As in, perhaps there are only so many points along the Barrier where any sort of "safe" crossing - let alone the major traffic going in both directions to and from the three invasion routes - is possible.
On a side note, it's not clear exactly what qualifies a galaxy to get its own Barrier, or (if it has one) how strong the Barrier ends up being. It's known that the M81 Galaxy has its own Barrier, though it is reportedly much weaker than the one surrounding the Milky Way. It's not (yet) known if other "full-size" galaxies, such as Andromeda or Triangulum, have Barriers (of whatever strength) of their own.
In any case, with a larger number of participating empires, Operation Unity was able to take on all three invasion routs at once, as opposed to the two which Codominion attempted over in the "dark future". What his meant was reaching each Andromedan satellite base along a given route, destroying it, staying on the scene long enough to install an Alpha Octant mobile base, and then moving on to repeat the process - until all three task forces reached the LMC itself.
-----
However, while it was necessary to send enough ships to deal with whatever the Andromedans might have waiting for them, it was also both logistically and politically necessary to keep many of the most powerful ships from each empire from going so far from home.
The main problem in terms of logistics was the use of X-ships. Those X-ship designs which had been based on "peacetime construction" designs, such as the Federation Vincennes-class CX and the Klingon DX, had the required operational range and "station keeping" capacity to go. However, those X-ships which had been built up to "peacetime" standards from "wartime construction" blueprints, such as the Federation NAX or the Klingon D5WX, had much shorter operational ranges. This made them for the most part impractical to take to the LMC, obliging them to remain on duty in the Alpha Octant.
Politically-speaking, the ISC refused to send any of their X-ships to the Cloud. Despite theirs being the X-hulls best suited to going, the Concordium government still felt the lingering trauma left over from the collapse of the Pacification campaign.
Also, while the Lyrans and Kzintis agreed to defer hostilities until after the common enemy had been defeated, it turned out just as well that they were assigned to different counter-invasion routes all the same. Still, one might wonder if the "lost empire" Paravians and Carnivons would have made similar arrangements, had they chosen to take part in their respective timelines' takes on Operation Unity.
-----
After a series of hard-fought battles, the three Unity task forces made it to the Lesser Magellanic Cloud itself:
Surprisingly, they soon encountered a series of scattered bands of exiles, comprised of native Magellanic species whose home worlds had fallen to the Andromedans decades before.
They also learned of the existence of a number of Jindarian Caravans in the region. The Jindarians - a nomadic species which uses a combination of asteroid ships and smaller "metal-hull" starships - were known to wander the Alpha Octant; neither the Alpha-Jindarians nor their LMC counterparts had any idea the others existed prior to Operation Unity.
Once some measure of communication was established, the Magellanic exiles revealed that the Andromedans had built no fewer than three Desecrator starbases, which were used to anchor the "Intergalactic Trunk Line" back to the M31 Galaxy. The locals had destroyed the first one themselves; the second had been crippled, but not destroyed, by the locals; while the third Desecrator, which (so far as was known) was the only one to be fully operational, had yet to be located by them.
One chilling data point from the "dark future" timeline was found at the second Desecrator, which was being used to build the first Devastator battleship. Fortunately, the Unity task forces had arrived in time to forcibly halt construction before the Andromedans could bring this monster ship into service.
Then, once the third Desecrator was found, targeted, and ultimately destroyed, the link back to Andromeda was broken, and the war (seemingly) brought to a decisive end.
-----
But is it that simple?
Direct data on the so-called "Intergalactic Trunk Line" remains scarce, though there are points of speculation in Captain's Log #49.
If it is a different "gauge" relative to the "known" RTN, what kind of bases are used along its course, and how far apart must they be? (Investigations held post-Unity led to a postulated twenty-year interval for each ITL node, but with little in the way of direct evidence to back this up.)
Indeed, as a personal point of speculation: if M31 itself has a Barrier comparable to the one surrounding the Milky Way, might the invaders have used one of Andromeda's own satellite galaxies as the "home" terminus for the ITL?
And, most ominously, who is to say that there is only one ITL? For all we know,, there could be other routes going to other satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, or perhaps even to other galaxies entirely (such as Triangulum).
All told, only the Andromedans know if the war as known in Alpha and the LMC (and, as would be revealed by the GSX NCC-1821 USS Sakharov in the Y210s, in Omega also) is over... or if it is only just beginning.
Thus, when the time came for the various surviving Alpha Octant governments to negotiate, prepare for, and finally execute Operation Unity - a three-pronged campaign to reach the Cloud and (hopefully) bring an end to the Andromedan War - this represented a major leap into the unknown for all concerned.
-----
It was discovered that the Andromedans had set up three routes "up" from the LMC to various entry points along the Galactic Rim into the Alpha Octant proper. Why these exact entry points were chosen is unknown, but it might have something to do with the Galactic Energy Barrier. As in, perhaps there are only so many points along the Barrier where any sort of "safe" crossing - let alone the major traffic going in both directions to and from the three invasion routes - is possible.
On a side note, it's not clear exactly what qualifies a galaxy to get its own Barrier, or (if it has one) how strong the Barrier ends up being. It's known that the M81 Galaxy has its own Barrier, though it is reportedly much weaker than the one surrounding the Milky Way. It's not (yet) known if other "full-size" galaxies, such as Andromeda or Triangulum, have Barriers (of whatever strength) of their own.
In any case, with a larger number of participating empires, Operation Unity was able to take on all three invasion routs at once, as opposed to the two which Codominion attempted over in the "dark future". What his meant was reaching each Andromedan satellite base along a given route, destroying it, staying on the scene long enough to install an Alpha Octant mobile base, and then moving on to repeat the process - until all three task forces reached the LMC itself.
-----
However, while it was necessary to send enough ships to deal with whatever the Andromedans might have waiting for them, it was also both logistically and politically necessary to keep many of the most powerful ships from each empire from going so far from home.
The main problem in terms of logistics was the use of X-ships. Those X-ship designs which had been based on "peacetime construction" designs, such as the Federation Vincennes-class CX and the Klingon DX, had the required operational range and "station keeping" capacity to go. However, those X-ships which had been built up to "peacetime" standards from "wartime construction" blueprints, such as the Federation NAX or the Klingon D5WX, had much shorter operational ranges. This made them for the most part impractical to take to the LMC, obliging them to remain on duty in the Alpha Octant.
Politically-speaking, the ISC refused to send any of their X-ships to the Cloud. Despite theirs being the X-hulls best suited to going, the Concordium government still felt the lingering trauma left over from the collapse of the Pacification campaign.
Also, while the Lyrans and Kzintis agreed to defer hostilities until after the common enemy had been defeated, it turned out just as well that they were assigned to different counter-invasion routes all the same. Still, one might wonder if the "lost empire" Paravians and Carnivons would have made similar arrangements, had they chosen to take part in their respective timelines' takes on Operation Unity.
-----
After a series of hard-fought battles, the three Unity task forces made it to the Lesser Magellanic Cloud itself:
Surprisingly, they soon encountered a series of scattered bands of exiles, comprised of native Magellanic species whose home worlds had fallen to the Andromedans decades before.
They also learned of the existence of a number of Jindarian Caravans in the region. The Jindarians - a nomadic species which uses a combination of asteroid ships and smaller "metal-hull" starships - were known to wander the Alpha Octant; neither the Alpha-Jindarians nor their LMC counterparts had any idea the others existed prior to Operation Unity.
Once some measure of communication was established, the Magellanic exiles revealed that the Andromedans had built no fewer than three Desecrator starbases, which were used to anchor the "Intergalactic Trunk Line" back to the M31 Galaxy. The locals had destroyed the first one themselves; the second had been crippled, but not destroyed, by the locals; while the third Desecrator, which (so far as was known) was the only one to be fully operational, had yet to be located by them.
One chilling data point from the "dark future" timeline was found at the second Desecrator, which was being used to build the first Devastator battleship. Fortunately, the Unity task forces had arrived in time to forcibly halt construction before the Andromedans could bring this monster ship into service.
Then, once the third Desecrator was found, targeted, and ultimately destroyed, the link back to Andromeda was broken, and the war (seemingly) brought to a decisive end.
-----
But is it that simple?
Direct data on the so-called "Intergalactic Trunk Line" remains scarce, though there are points of speculation in Captain's Log #49.
If it is a different "gauge" relative to the "known" RTN, what kind of bases are used along its course, and how far apart must they be? (Investigations held post-Unity led to a postulated twenty-year interval for each ITL node, but with little in the way of direct evidence to back this up.)
Indeed, as a personal point of speculation: if M31 itself has a Barrier comparable to the one surrounding the Milky Way, might the invaders have used one of Andromeda's own satellite galaxies as the "home" terminus for the ITL?
And, most ominously, who is to say that there is only one ITL? For all we know,, there could be other routes going to other satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, or perhaps even to other galaxies entirely (such as Triangulum).
All told, only the Andromedans know if the war as known in Alpha and the LMC (and, as would be revealed by the GSX NCC-1821 USS Sakharov in the Y210s, in Omega also) is over... or if it is only just beginning.
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Way back in the days before World-Wide-Web, someone submitted a proposal for breaching pods. The first playtest showed them to be far too powerful, a total game-breaker. They tried to nurf them down, but then they were completely ineffective. After some trail and error, they found the knife-edge balance to make them playable. But once you replace the target from a Heavy Cruiser to a Destroyer, they broke the game again. Giving them a bigger target, or two or three targets, swung the pendulum to the opposite end.
The closest you can come to in SFB is either a Fighter Swarm or a Drone Swarm. Those work within the existing game system without having to kluge a bunch of special rules together.
I just re-watched that scene (on YouTube). From a reality point of view, those pods don't make sense. First, how did they completely ignore the ship's shields?? But more over, as hard as they impact, the boarding crew would be killed instantly, turned to mush. Looks cool on-screen and all, but otherwise, sorry not sorry, I don't buy it.
The closest you can come to in SFB is either a Fighter Swarm or a Drone Swarm. Those work within the existing game system without having to kluge a bunch of special rules together.
I just re-watched that scene (on YouTube). From a reality point of view, those pods don't make sense. First, how did they completely ignore the ship's shields?? But more over, as hard as they impact, the boarding crew would be killed instantly, turned to mush. Looks cool on-screen and all, but otherwise, sorry not sorry, I don't buy it.
It reminds me of how Battletech kind of experimented with monitors (which, in that context, are warship scale craft with lots of weaponry but no mobility), and found that they were either game-breakingly OP or too easily bypassed by a sufficient invasion force. 
Which didn't stop the Word of Blake from refitting a couple of Naga destroyers in a manner that's sort of like a monitor, since those vessels no longer had FTL capability.
Which didn't stop the Word of Blake from refitting a couple of Naga destroyers in a manner that's sort of like a monitor, since those vessels no longer had FTL capability.
