Details details details...
Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 7:37 am
Federation
Weapons
Phaser Arrays: The low end weapon system, mostly used in point defense against torpedos and fighter/small attack craft, but also used for surgical strikes against unshielded targets. Virtually all SF ships have a series of arrays designed to provide complete or near to 360 degree cover. Ineffective against medium and larger craft.
Pulse Phasers: The main armament of most SF ships, and the source of the majority of damage caused in most battles. Highly damaging to shields. Most ships have at least a pair. Smaller ships tend to have the cannons in a fixed forward facing position, while medium and larger tend to utilize turrets for greater firing arcs.
Photon Torpedos: A multi-purpose weapon carried by most SF ships. PTs use a matter/anti-matter warhead to cause damage, and are powered by a plasma battery that is energized during launch from the ship's power transfer grid. They are lightly shielded weapons; by matching shield frequencies they can pass through the shields of the vessel firing them, and they can survive a shot or two from lower end phaser arrays, though fending off such attacks puts a heavy drain on the battery and severly degrades it's range. Medium and higher arrays can easily overwhelm a PT's shield system. PTs are fast, highly manevurable, and are capable of being programmed to follow a set course.
PT are used to engaged smaller craft outside of phaser range; larger ships tend to have enough point defense to brush aside long ranged PT attacks. They are also used as the "knock out" punch, once an enemy vessel's shields are down, a quick volley of PTs are often used to end the fight. Small and medium ships use rapid fire launchers, while larger ships more commonly field burst launchers for maximum damage in mimimum time. PTs are also the primary orbital bombardment weapon, using arrial bursts to devestate enemy surface structures and/or ground units, or using a delayed blast along with their shields to burrow up to several dozen meters to damage underground and/fortified structures. Their range and speed, along with their ability to follow a pre-set path, sometimes see PTs used to create flanking manevures, where a fleet will launch a considerable volley set to swing around the enemy group and come at their sides or from behind while the fleet engages them head on.
Quantum Torpedos: The PT's big brother, QTs use a zero point energy system to deliever their damage. QTs are slightly larger than PTs, but utilize similar propulsion, defensive, and guidance systems. Performance wise, compared to a PT a QT is more powerful and better shielded, though slightly slower and much less agilie.
Due to their lesser manueverability, QTs are rarely used against smaller ships. Against larger vessels they serve in the same "knock out" roll as PTs in finishing off a ship once it's shields are down. QTs are also used to engage medium and larger ships outside of phaser range, as their more powerful shields allow them greater survivability against point defense systems. They are also used as planet killers on the rare occassion that the total destruction of a world's surface is required. A fleet of roughly 20 ships can blast off a planet's atmosphere and utterly scour it's surface over the course of an hour's steady bombardment of QTs.
Common Ship Equipment
Shields: A defensive energy bubble that surrounds a ship and protects it from damage caused by physical and energy based sources. In order to absorb the immense amount of punishment that they do in battle without monapolizing a ship's power supply, shields are fed from a series of fusion batteries that are replenished from the ship's warp core. In most cases shield failure is caused by these batteries being depleted faster than they can be recharged, though a sufficently powerful drain on the system can cause an overload. A shield overload is a far more sever problem than shield depletion, as the system will require a general restart if lucky, or a complete replacement if unlucky.
Shields also serve to block transporters, though this can be circumvented by matching the transporter beam and sheild frequencies. To prevent this, it is SOP to alternate shield frequencies often and randomly in battle.
Shields are also used to scramble enemy sensors. While an active shield does make a ship detectable at greater range than an unshielded ship, they also make scanning the ship itself much harder.
Warp Drive/Warp Nacelles: Starfleet's FTL drive system, which creates a Warp Bubble around a ship which propells the vessel faster than lightspeed, and without suffering any of the time or space warping effects normally caused by extreme velocities. Warp factor measurements are exponential, thus Warp 3 is 10 times as fast as Warp 2, and 100 times as fast as Warp 1.
A ship traveling under warp power is much easier to detect.
Warp travel is not very percise on any scale as small or smaller than a solar system. While it can accurately and reliably bring a ship to a given star system, traveling at warp within said system is high risky, and generally avoided.
As the nacelles actually generate and form the warp bubble, their size, number, and placement have a ready effect on a vessel's warp performance.
Nacelle size: The larger the nacelle, the more stable a warp bubble it produces, and the harder it is for the ship to be knocked out of warp.
Nacelle number: The more nacelles a ship has, the faster it can go, and the longer it can maintian it's top end speed.
Nacelle placement: The closer to the center line of the ship the necelles are, the more effiecent they are, and the faster they can form a warp bubble. Also in regards to ships with three or more nacelles, the more equal-distant the nacelles, the sturdier the warp bubble and the faster the bubble can form.
These are all of course relative statements. It is possible for example for a ship with two nacelles to go as fast as a ship with three, but it will be less energy effiencent, more prone to failure, and generate more stress on the system requiring more upkeep.
Cloaking Device: Stealth system designed to render a ship invisible to sight and sensors, cloaking devices provide a means for a ship to move about undetected. However such devices are far from perfect, and suffer several drawbacks. Cloaks are power intensive, forcing a vessel actively using one to operate at a reduced level of performance. The cloaking field itself is also sensitive and incapible of quickly adapting to changing needs. Thus damage to the ship's exterior or the firing of weapons can disrupt the field, requiring a system reset. Finally, while moderately capable of defeating most Alpha Quadrent species's sensor systems, Borg sensor's are more advanced, rending the device useful only at a distance. The Borg's adaptive nature is constantly improving their ability to defeat Federation cloaks, which currently are ineffective at distances of 3.4 lightyears or closer.
Ships
Chariot Class
Type: Light Troop Transport
Length: 350m
Beam: 130m
Height: 70m
Mass: 900,000 metric tons
Crew: 100
Transport Ability: 500 troops and 6 light/medium ground/air craft.
Armament: 10 type VI phaser arrays, 2 rapid fire photon torpedo launchers with 50 rounds
Defence Systems: Heavy shield system, light hull armor, enhanced Structural Integrity Field, Standard Cloaking Device
Warp Speeds (Cloaked)
Normal cruise: 8 (4.8)
Max cruise: 9.5 (5.7)
Max rated: 9.95 (5.97)
Design Details
Quad Nacelle
Twin Warp Cores
Rapid Deployment Transporter System
High Output Impulse Drive
The Chariot class starships are rapid deployment vessels designed to move small numbers of troops quickly. Due to their limited carrying capasity, most Chariots are assigned to specialty and elite battle groups in order to maximize their effectiveness.
Small, fast, and highly manueverable, Chariots are also sturdy and well shielded for their size. However they are only lightly armed, and not intended to engage in ship to ship combat. The phaser arrays are far too underpowered to serve outside the point defense role, and the twin torpedo launchers are primarily used to clear a landing zone for the ground troops.
In a battle setting, Chariots tend to hang back in the rear of the engagement and wait for an oppertunity to deploy their troops. Their high speed and relatively strong defenses allow them to slip through even small gaps in the enemy lines, and their rapid deployment transporter system is capable of beaming down a full compliment of troops and their support craft in just under 30 seconds.
Occassionally they will be used in a hunter/killer role against fighters, their speed and agility allowing them to chase down the small craft, and even the Chariot's light armament is suffiencent against one or two man fighters in small groups.
Despite their twin warp cores, Chariots suffer from power supply issues due to the high energy needs of many of their systems. Their warp drives, impulse drives, shields, SIF, cloak, and transporter system are all power hungry machines which often put a considerable strain on the ships' power distribution system. As a result, Chariot's are maintaince heavy ships, and thus costly to field.
While they excell at their role of ferrying small groups of troops rapidly between star systems and on the battlefield, their limited carrying capasity and high cost have seen that few of these vessels have been built to date, comprising a mere 4% of the total fleet.
Weapons
Phaser Arrays: The low end weapon system, mostly used in point defense against torpedos and fighter/small attack craft, but also used for surgical strikes against unshielded targets. Virtually all SF ships have a series of arrays designed to provide complete or near to 360 degree cover. Ineffective against medium and larger craft.
Pulse Phasers: The main armament of most SF ships, and the source of the majority of damage caused in most battles. Highly damaging to shields. Most ships have at least a pair. Smaller ships tend to have the cannons in a fixed forward facing position, while medium and larger tend to utilize turrets for greater firing arcs.
Photon Torpedos: A multi-purpose weapon carried by most SF ships. PTs use a matter/anti-matter warhead to cause damage, and are powered by a plasma battery that is energized during launch from the ship's power transfer grid. They are lightly shielded weapons; by matching shield frequencies they can pass through the shields of the vessel firing them, and they can survive a shot or two from lower end phaser arrays, though fending off such attacks puts a heavy drain on the battery and severly degrades it's range. Medium and higher arrays can easily overwhelm a PT's shield system. PTs are fast, highly manevurable, and are capable of being programmed to follow a set course.
PT are used to engaged smaller craft outside of phaser range; larger ships tend to have enough point defense to brush aside long ranged PT attacks. They are also used as the "knock out" punch, once an enemy vessel's shields are down, a quick volley of PTs are often used to end the fight. Small and medium ships use rapid fire launchers, while larger ships more commonly field burst launchers for maximum damage in mimimum time. PTs are also the primary orbital bombardment weapon, using arrial bursts to devestate enemy surface structures and/or ground units, or using a delayed blast along with their shields to burrow up to several dozen meters to damage underground and/fortified structures. Their range and speed, along with their ability to follow a pre-set path, sometimes see PTs used to create flanking manevures, where a fleet will launch a considerable volley set to swing around the enemy group and come at their sides or from behind while the fleet engages them head on.
Quantum Torpedos: The PT's big brother, QTs use a zero point energy system to deliever their damage. QTs are slightly larger than PTs, but utilize similar propulsion, defensive, and guidance systems. Performance wise, compared to a PT a QT is more powerful and better shielded, though slightly slower and much less agilie.
Due to their lesser manueverability, QTs are rarely used against smaller ships. Against larger vessels they serve in the same "knock out" roll as PTs in finishing off a ship once it's shields are down. QTs are also used to engage medium and larger ships outside of phaser range, as their more powerful shields allow them greater survivability against point defense systems. They are also used as planet killers on the rare occassion that the total destruction of a world's surface is required. A fleet of roughly 20 ships can blast off a planet's atmosphere and utterly scour it's surface over the course of an hour's steady bombardment of QTs.
Common Ship Equipment
Shields: A defensive energy bubble that surrounds a ship and protects it from damage caused by physical and energy based sources. In order to absorb the immense amount of punishment that they do in battle without monapolizing a ship's power supply, shields are fed from a series of fusion batteries that are replenished from the ship's warp core. In most cases shield failure is caused by these batteries being depleted faster than they can be recharged, though a sufficently powerful drain on the system can cause an overload. A shield overload is a far more sever problem than shield depletion, as the system will require a general restart if lucky, or a complete replacement if unlucky.
Shields also serve to block transporters, though this can be circumvented by matching the transporter beam and sheild frequencies. To prevent this, it is SOP to alternate shield frequencies often and randomly in battle.
Shields are also used to scramble enemy sensors. While an active shield does make a ship detectable at greater range than an unshielded ship, they also make scanning the ship itself much harder.
Warp Drive/Warp Nacelles: Starfleet's FTL drive system, which creates a Warp Bubble around a ship which propells the vessel faster than lightspeed, and without suffering any of the time or space warping effects normally caused by extreme velocities. Warp factor measurements are exponential, thus Warp 3 is 10 times as fast as Warp 2, and 100 times as fast as Warp 1.
A ship traveling under warp power is much easier to detect.
Warp travel is not very percise on any scale as small or smaller than a solar system. While it can accurately and reliably bring a ship to a given star system, traveling at warp within said system is high risky, and generally avoided.
As the nacelles actually generate and form the warp bubble, their size, number, and placement have a ready effect on a vessel's warp performance.
Nacelle size: The larger the nacelle, the more stable a warp bubble it produces, and the harder it is for the ship to be knocked out of warp.
Nacelle number: The more nacelles a ship has, the faster it can go, and the longer it can maintian it's top end speed.
Nacelle placement: The closer to the center line of the ship the necelles are, the more effiecent they are, and the faster they can form a warp bubble. Also in regards to ships with three or more nacelles, the more equal-distant the nacelles, the sturdier the warp bubble and the faster the bubble can form.
These are all of course relative statements. It is possible for example for a ship with two nacelles to go as fast as a ship with three, but it will be less energy effiencent, more prone to failure, and generate more stress on the system requiring more upkeep.
Cloaking Device: Stealth system designed to render a ship invisible to sight and sensors, cloaking devices provide a means for a ship to move about undetected. However such devices are far from perfect, and suffer several drawbacks. Cloaks are power intensive, forcing a vessel actively using one to operate at a reduced level of performance. The cloaking field itself is also sensitive and incapible of quickly adapting to changing needs. Thus damage to the ship's exterior or the firing of weapons can disrupt the field, requiring a system reset. Finally, while moderately capable of defeating most Alpha Quadrent species's sensor systems, Borg sensor's are more advanced, rending the device useful only at a distance. The Borg's adaptive nature is constantly improving their ability to defeat Federation cloaks, which currently are ineffective at distances of 3.4 lightyears or closer.
Ships
Chariot Class
Type: Light Troop Transport
Length: 350m
Beam: 130m
Height: 70m
Mass: 900,000 metric tons
Crew: 100
Transport Ability: 500 troops and 6 light/medium ground/air craft.
Armament: 10 type VI phaser arrays, 2 rapid fire photon torpedo launchers with 50 rounds
Defence Systems: Heavy shield system, light hull armor, enhanced Structural Integrity Field, Standard Cloaking Device
Warp Speeds (Cloaked)
Normal cruise: 8 (4.8)
Max cruise: 9.5 (5.7)
Max rated: 9.95 (5.97)
Design Details
Quad Nacelle
Twin Warp Cores
Rapid Deployment Transporter System
High Output Impulse Drive
The Chariot class starships are rapid deployment vessels designed to move small numbers of troops quickly. Due to their limited carrying capasity, most Chariots are assigned to specialty and elite battle groups in order to maximize their effectiveness.
Small, fast, and highly manueverable, Chariots are also sturdy and well shielded for their size. However they are only lightly armed, and not intended to engage in ship to ship combat. The phaser arrays are far too underpowered to serve outside the point defense role, and the twin torpedo launchers are primarily used to clear a landing zone for the ground troops.
In a battle setting, Chariots tend to hang back in the rear of the engagement and wait for an oppertunity to deploy their troops. Their high speed and relatively strong defenses allow them to slip through even small gaps in the enemy lines, and their rapid deployment transporter system is capable of beaming down a full compliment of troops and their support craft in just under 30 seconds.
Occassionally they will be used in a hunter/killer role against fighters, their speed and agility allowing them to chase down the small craft, and even the Chariot's light armament is suffiencent against one or two man fighters in small groups.
Despite their twin warp cores, Chariots suffer from power supply issues due to the high energy needs of many of their systems. Their warp drives, impulse drives, shields, SIF, cloak, and transporter system are all power hungry machines which often put a considerable strain on the ships' power distribution system. As a result, Chariot's are maintaince heavy ships, and thus costly to field.
While they excell at their role of ferrying small groups of troops rapidly between star systems and on the battlefield, their limited carrying capasity and high cost have seen that few of these vessels have been built to date, comprising a mere 4% of the total fleet.