Reservist-class Field Repair Ship

[Jame]

Book 2 design. 5000 tons, Jump-1 1G. 510 tons fuel. Model/3. 40 staterooms. 20 hardpoints. 12 single turrets (12 beam lasers). Unstreamlined. 80 crew, 4000 tons cargo. 1519.4 MCr, 36 months.

The Reservist-clas field repair ship is generally kept at the back of an occupation fleet, where it can repair damaged ships of up to 4000 tons. The 40 tons cargo space is usually taken up by repair facilities.

 

[mike wightman]

Good idea for a ship Jame.

Do you picture her with a huge enclosed repair bay, or with an open frame repair dock (dare I say like in ST Enterprise)?

Have you done a hospital ship as well?

 

[kaladorn]

If the ship can jump out-system with the ship it is trying to repair aboard, it would be quite useful. I can see 1-G as viable for a back line repair ship, but I can't see J-1 as militarily useful. Most military ships would tend to need J-2 or J-3 at a minimum, I'd think. Yes, it means sacrificing some tonnage (a lot) to jump drives and fuel, but it makes the overall concept much more viable. If a fleet can J-n, then the fleet support elements better be able to as well. And a J-1 fleet? You'd get rings run around you on a strategic map by J-2 and J-3 fleets... not to mention those of higher jump numbers.

 

[Jame]

Well, like I said, it is only a back-line ship, so it's brought in after everything's safe.

As for how it looks, well, it's streamlined, so it's probably enclosed.

 

[Tekrat04]

Nice ideal. Now try to think it through properly.

Is a crew of 60 enough to run the ship and repair another ship? The answer is no. You need a much larger crew to acomplish the task in a timely manner. Remember that speed is of the essence. Repairs will a 24/7 affair.

Where are all the spare part and matirial to make the repairs stored? You need hundreds if not thousand of dT worth of material to be able to cope with all the possible repairs that would arise from battle damage.

Is 40 dT of workshop enough? Again I would say no. It may be necessary to bring in large components to be fixed. The tools to fix those components would take most if not all or more of that 40 dT

Can a 4000 dT ship fit in a 4000 dT hold? NO! Is your garage the exact same size as your car? Of course not. Use a little common sence here. If you want to store something in a box you need a bigger box then the item you want to store. A good rule of thumb is to double the size hold compaired to the ship. If you want to do some heavy repairs you double it again. And if the ship to be repaired is streamlined you double it once more.

The ship need to be able to travel at the same speed as the fleet it's supporting. Arrival in system should be a question of timming the jump not how fast the ship can travel.

The ideal of a repair ship is very useful. The ship you came up with is not. No disrespect is intended here. Just some honest feedback.

 

[Spud]

It seems to me that what you want to build might be something like the vessel Esmay is assigned to in "Once A Hero" by Elizabeth Moon (Baen books) whom, BTW I recommend unreservedly for an excellent feel for space-navy life. If you have not read it, you may be lukewarm about it. THe vessel is a travelling drydock, assigned one per 'sector' (scarce, that would be) and representing repair facilities to rival a shipyard. This is not an exact match, but I think it has a lot of stuff you could use. IMHO, of course. YMMV. Caveat Emptor.

 

[RainOfSteel]

Originally posted by Jame:
Well, like I said, it is only a back-line ship, so it's brought in after everything's safe.

Except that at J-1, there will be a lot of places it cannot get to.

IMHO, a ship need not "enclose" another vessel in order to perform repair work on it.

But to go far beyond that, I can easily visuallize a self-powerered framework that can collapse into a shape compact enough to fit into a cargo bay that can serve as the temporary "yard". The repair ship arrives, slides out the compact rectangular solid, it unfolds into a big framework followed by attaching it to the repair ship, and voila, instant repair-dockyard. The repair ship may now upgrade to J-3 or even J-4, and actually can carry a cargo of significant repair parts (like spare armor tonnage, etc.). It might even have room for a few repair-related small craft.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Although I like your idea, Jame, I think Chris' bit makes your idea even more powerful. And, it could look cool, as well. Somebody gets to do twice the artwork on this one! (Extended and closed up.)

 

[Jame]

Allright, I went back, made it unstreamlined and increased the crew a little.

As for RainOfSteel's plan, yeah, it looks good, but I'm getting inflexible about my original plan... Chris, write it up for Book 2, if you please!

 

[Piper]

I'm adding my two bits to the minority side.

Big ships in Book 2 have short legs. The best possible jump for a 5kdt hull is 2 and J-Drive hits are a lot easier to achieve in Book 2 combat.
Tankers would seem to be almost a necessity for strategic mobility.

Book 2 also has no limits on carried size. A ship simply needs to allocate sufficient tonnage. The problem there comes in conceptualizing the design and in making deckplans.
If you want to carry the craft internally, then every craft you plan on carrying has to have the ability to fit in the designed space.
Example: the 4000 ton cargo area is designed to accommodate a wedge-shaped hull. Every other vessel you intend to carry will need to be able to mate to that same interface with multiple smaller vessels locking in like puzzle pieces.
If you choose to carry externally no special provisions are needed; simply designate the tonnage and clamp it on.

Under Book 2 repair rules, most damage can either be repaired by the crew from stock parts or requires a total system replacement. You might want to consider teaming this ship with either a large freighter or a few smaller ones to carry the spares and replacement systems you're likely to need. Book 2 is actually a blessing here because the drives are standardized; power plant T is the same in a barge or a cruiser.

The number of techs carried does seem a bit low depending on how many of these support a given number of ships. The only rules I've seen that cover detailed repair are those in Striker and they're not keyed to ship repair as such.
One rule of thumb they use that you might find useful is a single repair shop can support 20 mechanics and 20 mechanics can do a lot of work.
Are you allowing for mechanical, electronic and engineering repair crew? Each discipline will need their own shops.
Also, the crew of the ship under repair can assist so you pick up a few extra hands there.

Personally, I could easily see this as a large (and quite ugly) space-going drydock garnished with all kinds of girders, gantries, lighting arrays and whatnot.

Good luck with her. It sounds like an interesting ship.

 

[mike wightman]

If strategic mobility is a concern for a LBB2 navy then ships up to 3kt displacement offer the greatest flexibilty.
I build most capital ships in 1000t (frigate) or 2000t (cruiser) sized hulls. 3kt is for battleship/carriers.

So as long as this ship of Jame's will cope with those sizes I'll buy some to include in the support fleet.

 

[RainOfSteel]

Originally posted by Jame:
Allright, I went back, made it unstreamlined and increased the crew a little.

As for RainOfSteel's plan, yeah, it looks good, but I'm getting inflexible about my original plan... Chris, write it up for Book 2, if you please!

I'd already begun for HG2. I'll have to spend some time staring at Book 2, I have only the vaguest memories of designing starships for it, right when I first bought the deluxe boxed set, but hadn't yet bought Book 5.

 

[Tekrat04]

Originally posted by Jame:
I'm getting inflexible about my original plan.

I think your are making a big mistake. But since it's your design, it's your right to make mistakes.

What parts of what I had to say about your design are incorect?

Maybe there is a leasson I can learn here.

 

[RainOfSteel]

HG2 Design Sequence Option:

Framework Structures: See HG2: Design Option: Framework Structures.

EDIT--03/27/2005--1321 MST

I move the rules proposal itself to its own topic in The Fleet forum.

Specifics related to this topic can be discussed here.

The rules can be discussed over in the topic for the rule itself.

 

[RainOfSteel]

Jame,

The lead post of the topic does not mention the ship's TL. May I ask what the intended TL is?

 

[mike wightman]

If it's a 5kt hull then it has to be TL15 by CT rules.

 

[RainOfSteel]

Sigg Oddra,

Help me out here, point me at the Book 2 page, please?

<says he, plowing along through the alien Book 2 rules />

 

[Piper]

Originally posted by RainOfSteel:
Sigg Oddra,

Help me out here, point me at the Book 2 page, please?

<says he, plowing along through the alien Book 2 rules />

Book 3, Technological Levels tables, pp 10-11 in my edition.
(sorry, I was passing through and had the data handy)

 

[RainOfSteel]

It occures to me these ideas for "repair" ships are hindered by the lack of rules governing repairs for starships or the requirements to repair starships.

I mean, if we think about the above example vessel or my framework idea, what can these ships actually do?

If we take the Reservist class vessel as-is, and stick a 1000 dTon frigate inside that has been shot up X badly, how many man-hours and dTons of repair components does it take to fix it?

 

[mike wightman]

It's not in Book 2. You need to look at the TL chart in Book 3.
Drive types W and above, which are require for a 5kt ship, are only available at TL15