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Second Imperium SuperBattleship

To me, the rounded sections in the neck look a lot like fuel tanks. They probably total more volume than the required fuel so some of them could be cargo (food and water) storage areas. The rail along the bottom could be a larger cargo elevator.
Also, if they opened at the top they would make really nice shuttle or marine dropship bays.
 
Greetings and salutations,

*throws in .02 credits*

From Mickazoid:
Command Section:

* Spinal Weapon aperture at the front of the section? Would that mean a noisy bridge, with all the 'KAFWOOOM!'s?
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Actually, the Bridge would not be noisy if Sound Compensators are installed and automatically activated when the Spinal Weapon is fired. I personally would have the barrel of the Spinal Weapon extend slightly further than the Command Sections to avoid any unfortunate mishaps.

From Mickazoid:
* Same question I always have for Traveller ships - in a milieu without replicators, where do they store the food and water???
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Good question. Personally, I would have at least four galleys (2 for crew, 1 for officers, 1 for dignitaries. Or 3-crew, 1-officer & dignitaries). The crew galleys would be spaced evenly in the starship. If two are used, their would be one for the front half and one for the back half. If three are used, then divide the ship in thirds and place a galley in each section. Same principle as having two galleys.
 
Agreed Micki, I'm a fan of lifeboats as well. Generally I've used a lifepod style system (similar to those seen in SW epIV) in MTU. In CT/MT they are 1ton and fit in/require a turret hardpoint mounting. Each is capable of holding 2-4 sophonts and serves as an emergency lowberth if needed. They include limited life support and planetary landing capability from orbit or a bit further. Of course there are the proposed cutters as well for officers and dignitaries to evac on. And lots of room for proper lifeboats too I think.

Also agreed on the lots of small turret pimples all over the thing.

All the interior space ideas are good too, but in CT/MT I usually pull that out of quarters (stateroom) volume. Sometimes a specific function warrants extra volume. Same place I pull the basic (2 weeks) of life support storage (food, water and such) from as well. Additional stores (life support recharges) require cargo volume.

Oh yeah, gotta have the 'KAFWOOOM!' for the big gun
How else do you know it's working? That's only half sarcastic, I'm a big believer in obvious feedback systems. Sure the weapon will be practically silent in operation (it's in vacuum for one) but even with any real sound/light/shake/whatever reduced there should be enough left as a feedback system to let the crew know they aren't just firing empty.

Hmm, flipping the spinal and putting a 90 onit to fire down from the mid section, interesting. Very interesting. Could work for some weapons. It wouldn't be my first choice, aiming that big belly to fire at the ememy rather than presenting the smaller cross section of the face might be bad. As well the thrust would be off axis, which come to think might be better in many cases. Now I'm torn


Love the idea of the external craft on large carrier decks open to space ;)

And you are correct in recalling that irregular configurations can carry craft externally at no extra tonnage, same holds true for MT design.

In fact the only reason to carry the cruisers (or other craft) in an internal hanger (imo) is to afford armor protection for them until deployed and allow repairs. And of course the hanger may be put to other uses as well.

Yep, the fuel tanks/feeds ideas are a nice touch too.

Yeah, drop the detachable dish, it has too many problems. So she's unsinkable now is she ;) Guess we don't need all those lifepods and boats afterall :D


"An inset observation/control dome emerging from the ceiling of the hangar bay, to permit airspace control and management of landing/disembarking vessels."

Or how about some towers? Maybe at the corner(s) of the top and bottom of the section?

EDIT: Make that retractable towers, can't have them sticking up while skimming fuel


Yep, I'm seeing the hanger as a huge multi-level open affair too. With all kinds of sunken bays, overhead recesses, and side hangers. And small balconies and sealed observation areas looking out over it of course. And gantries to the cruisers. Yep very Death-Star like
 
Dan - I wasn't thinking 90°, more like 10-20° downwards or upwards. Might offset the horizontality of the 'guitar neck' vibe.

And re: the observation towers: Right on! For inside the hangar itself, I'm thinking a single large cupola or 'blister', descending from the roof of the hangar and situated a bit towards the entrance and descending only about 2-3 meters, ringed with observation windows. Minimal aspect, maximum vista.

And other functions for the hangar would include large staged troop demonstrations for those dignitaries who express a bit too much independent thought or belligerence...

Last, of course the best 'we work INSIDE the gun' scene is SWIV's Destruction of Alderaan. When they fired that thing, the whole place lit up bright green!
 
Originally posted by mickazoid:
Dan - I wasn't thinking 90°, more like 10-20° downwards or upwards. Might offset the horizontality of the 'guitar neck' vibe.
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Ah, I see. That could work quite nicely. I did a cruiser kinda like that once. Had the whole spinal about 15deg down with the head and back sticking out below and above the plane of the decks. I think the Darrian Barekdoldin(sic?) class cruiser was similar too (or my interpretation of it anyway) so I can go for it. And like you say it may distance the guitar vibe.
 
Originally posted by Maladominus:
I see that the significance of the Yamato is not lost on you. ;)

SpaceBattleship Yamato was on television in 1973. It appeared years before Traveller. Years before Star Wars and the Death Star. Years before Battlestar Galactica.
(snip)
For the most part, the Yamato was Science Fiction's "original" Terran space-battleship.
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Though I only got into the show much later on via the ship miniatures game. Musashi Enterprises, Inc. were/are usually at Origins and have a nice miniature display. The books look good, in a Star Trek Technical Manual sort of way, and are great for both fans of the show/scifi ships and for gamers.

Since StarBattleship Yamato is a few years older than Traveller (and Starblazers is 1977?) they form a large part of how I now view OTU ships. Honestly, I don't see Third Imperium ships as looking all that different than ships found during the Rule of Man. The Third Imperium being promoted as a continuation of the Second and First Imperiums, Vilani influence, ship designs kept/rediscovered from finds, and so forth. I do, in contrast, see there being designs looking [radically] different by 1248 (not just new designs) due to new needs for ships, older designs associated with the vile Third Imperium/Black War/Virus, and needing to redesign/rethink ship construction post-Civil War/Virus/Borg K'Kree.

I rooted for Babylon 5: Crusade when it came out, which was what I had wanted Star Trek Voyager to be: a space show with a layered story and complex characters about a ship deep in space, with a purpose, needing to get home ASAP. Just like Star Blazers. :cool: Oh and a BIG GUN.
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MS Mickazoid, Far Trader, Andrew, etc
An Alternate idea on Saucer gun/ missile barbette section without going the Janus mount controversy-road since you have different gravity-planed sections of the ship...

Place the "spinal" mount (N-PAW or C-PAW) on the rotating Saucer for a 360 degree swivel without manuevering the ship, howabouts? Tactically more efficient that swinging the whole ship about to fire isn't it?

More ideas will percolate, I am sure later..
 
Hi !

The PAW idea is pretty cool Liam.
What about a using a circular accelerator ?
But somehow the "spinal" character is being lost here a bit....
Besides, did I miss something or do we still have no design stats/USP ?

Regards,

Mert
 
Here's my latest pass at stats, aligned with far-trader's prior post.

Issues:

* I always screw up turrets and battery totals.
* And I need help with 'agility'... to get it to positive numbers, I need to bump it to a Power Plant of 60, which is larger than the whole vessel! (never mind, had waaaay too many meson screens and nuc dampers)
* I enabled skimming for dispersed structures (against the rules)
* it's not armored. TL too low?

OminousStats13.gif
 
Ms Mickazoid--your welcome! You did <grins> invite my input.

the Engineer--thank you sir. Spinal mount? I saw the two huge cubical booms thrusting out from main hull as 2x small craft launch tubes running out to under the bridge.

More ideas to follow. The spinning disc gun came from an idea from the Tigress & Voroshilef-BB Dreadnaught classes with smaller PAW weapons arrayed within their spherical hulls for less damaging (than either vessel's deathstar meson guns) but 360 arc coverage.

I take a bow
 
Hi !

Thnaks for the stats Ms. M.
Just some minor remarks/questions:
- guess I would not classify the hull shape as "dispersed". Just by how it looks like in the "design studies" it could have some streamlined configuration.
- no armor is really bad for a fighting ship, especially as it is not good in dodging

- perhaps one more launch tube ?

regards,

Mert
 
Thoughts:

1. It's a half-dome, a wedge, a needle AND another wedge. I think that's dispersed, but partially streamlined.
2. Accordingly, a dispersed structure cannot be armored beyond a certain point, as the TL is too low.
3. Where on the ship? Right now the twin spines along the next seem like excellent launch tubes (as has been mentioned above.
 
Originally posted by mickazoid:
Thoughts:

1. It's a half-dome, a wedge, a needle AND another wedge. I think that's dispersed, but partially streamlined.
Click to expand...
In most Traveller ship design systems a dispersed structure is more of an open framework, which can not be streamlined at all.

I'd go with High Guard's Close Structure to describe your design myself.
2. Accordingly, a dispersed structure cannot be armored beyond a certain point, as the TL is too low.
Click to expand...
A dispersed structure can not be armoured at all, another reason to go with Close Structure.
 
As it stands now, the configuration looks like it could be classified either as close or dispersed structure. I'd fall on the side of dispersed structure, myself.

I'm not sure about the spinal mega-turret ... although I suppose the tonnage is there? I just think that they must be called 'spinal mounts' for a reason.
 
If calling it a 'close structure' avoids the scoops fudge and permits armor, i'll give it a whirl. It does seem 'dispersed', but maybe that's more for space stations and other more dispersed structures, and a cohesive ship like this is better described as 'close'.

Thanks guys! That's a two-fer.
 
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