Type 21 Battleship

[Captain Seafort]

Wacky idea. Were they effective?

The splash barrage was fairly effective at distracting pilots from their torpedo run, although not at bringing aicraft down . The Yamatos' oversized shotgun rounds were spectacular, but largely ineffective.

[Graham Kennedy]

Lol, no kidding. "What the hell was THAT! Whups!" <crash>

[MetalHead]

WOW. Seriously your coolest design yet, and I like the idea of older tech scaled up - reminds me of your story - Portal when I think Riker describes the Imperial's technology.

The idea of mediocre quality in large quantity to compensate for lack of technology seems a really interesting idea, and while yeah the Coalition would have more technological edges, I reckon in a straight up gun-fight, it would a real slaughter in a 1v1 with a Korrora. Reminds me slight of a Galaxy Class vs a D'Derix Class Warbird - about equal with a few edges on each side. Oohh...

Only thing I have to say stands out is that joining (looks to be about 500m according to scale on first picture posted) would probablly attract alot of firepower in an attempt to sever the forward sections from the drive sections. Is it more heavily armored/shielded?

[Graham Kennedy]

WOW. Seriously your coolest design yet, and I like the idea of older tech scaled up - reminds me of your story - Portal when I think Riker describes the Imperial's technology.

The idea of mediocre quality in large quantity to compensate for lack of technology seems a really interesting idea, and while yeah the Coalition would have more technological edges, I reckon in a straight up gun-fight, it would a real slaughter in a 1v1 with a Korrora. Reminds me slight of a Galaxy Class vs a D'Derix Class Warbird - about equal with a few edges on each side. Oohh...

Only thing I have to say stands out is that joining (looks to be about 500m according to scale on first picture posted) would probablly attract alot of firepower in an attempt to sever the forward sections from the drive sections. Is it more heavily armored/shielded?

Yeah, one of the things about midspace systems is that the two field lobes are never perfectly synchronised. If you have a hull in each lobe, then there is always, always a big stress on the connecting neck. As you get better at the tech you get better at synchronising the fields, but it's always an issue. You can deal with it by making the neck thicker - the structural beams in that neck would be huge and massively strong - but thicker necks disrupt the field lobes, which reduces the performance of the engines. Like all things, it's a tradeoff. Designers basically decide how much performance they want from the drive, then make the neck as thick as they can while still getting that performance.

And yes, in battle it's a prime target of course. Having your ship cut in half ruins your whole day!

One thing about these ships though; the main power system does NOT power the weapons. The AMP cannon are powered by a fusion reactor in each turret, and could easily keep firing if the ship lost main power. In theory then, if you did cut one of these in half then both halves could keep firing on you at full strength. Then again the shields do use main power, and with no shields and little to no ability to maneuver, the slit sections wouldn't last five minutes in a battle.

[MetalHead]

WOW. Seriously your coolest design yet, and I like the idea of older tech scaled up - reminds me of your story - Portal when I think Riker describes the Imperial's technology.

The idea of mediocre quality in large quantity to compensate for lack of technology seems a really interesting idea, and while yeah the Coalition would have more technological edges, I reckon in a straight up gun-fight, it would a real slaughter in a 1v1 with a Korrora. Reminds me slight of a Galaxy Class vs a D'Derix Class Warbird - about equal with a few edges on each side. Oohh...

Only thing I have to say stands out is that joining (looks to be about 500m according to scale on first picture posted) would probablly attract alot of firepower in an attempt to sever the forward sections from the drive sections. Is it more heavily armored/shielded?

Yeah, one of the things about midspace systems is that the two field lobes are never perfectly synchronised. If you have a hull in each lobe, then there is always, always a big stress on the connecting neck. As you get better at the tech you get better at synchronising the fields, but it's always an issue. You can deal with it by making the neck thicker - the structural beams in that neck would be huge and massively strong - but thicker necks disrupt the field lobes, which reduces the performance of the engines. Like all things, it's a tradeoff. Designers basically decide how much performance they want from the drive, then make the neck as thick as they can while still getting that performance.

And yes, in battle it's a prime target of course. Having your ship cut in half ruins your whole day!

One thing about these ships though; the main power system does NOT power the weapons. The AMP cannon are powered by a fusion reactor in each turret, and could easily keep firing if the ship lost main power. In theory then, if you did cut one of these in half then both halves could keep firing on you at full strength. Then again the shields do use main power, and with no shields and little to no ability to maneuver, the slit sections wouldn't last five minutes in a battle.

Ahhh, interesting. However I suppose if the ship WERE to be cut in half, secondary explosions, explosive decompression, fires, collateral damage, etc would be rampaging throughout the immediate area. Given the size and thickness of that beast, thats a rather large amount. Im going to assume then, that since there's such a large structural weakness there, that the shield system is pretty good, or atleast has overlapping fields around that point?

[Teaos]

Since it has multiple power supplies for differetn parts I presume the ship could take pretty heavy damage and still keep going?

[Graham Kennedy]

Since it has multiple power supplies for differetn parts I presume the ship could take pretty heavy damage and still keep going?

Yes indeed.

The shields on these ships aren't nearly as easy to configure as say a Trek ship. If you wanted to switch shield power forward or aft you would have to reconfigure the shield generator, which is something that would take days. And damage to the shields damages the generators, something that would be weeks or even months to repair. The intent of that is to increase the 'World War II' feel, where rebuilding the armour on a ship was no small feat.

So generally a ship has a shield configuration that is designed with the enemy's known battle tactics in mind. Whereas the enemy designs battle tactics with what they know of your shield configurations in mind, of course. It's all highly secretive, and the actual shield configuration of any given class is highly classified.

[MetalHead]

I like that damage to such advanced technologies isn't repaired so easily and adapted so easily, however - it makes me curious as to how a large campaign would proceed. Say the fleet starts laying seige to a system, and in one of the battles, a large vessels takes an enormous pounding. Is that ship out of the fight as her shield defenses are comprimised or is it jury rigged best as possible...?

[Graham Kennedy]

It would depend on the extent of the damage. Light to moderate damage could be fixed from the ships own resources. On a small ship like a destroyer there will be tenders that could replace the shield generator if needed, but if a ship like a battleship took a heavy pounding that nearly dropped the shields then it's back to the nearest port with repair facilities. And yes, the presence or lack of such facilities - and the logistic chain to support them - is a major issue if you are mounting a campaign.

[Mikey]

Wow - you mean like what really happens?

[Tsukiyumi]

Wow - you mean like what really happens?

[Graham Kennedy]

Wow - you mean like what really happens?

It's a shocker, isn't it?

[Sionnach Glic]

Realism? Pull the other one.

[Reliant121]

You've done it again Graham.

[MetalHead]

someone forgot to send me the pwnd email.

haha. well considering is his own sci-fi universe i thought id see what it was like? Cause ships in Star Trek are actually quite easily repairable by their own crews. Jury riggable as well, I recall Scotty saying "The energizer is bypassed like a christmas tree.."

haha.