Looking forward to the construction of HSWS Big Fella. It will take forever and be primarily built as an exercise in pork-barrel spending and sucking up to the bosses.
Okay, I'm exaggerating. It is funny, though.
The courier boat looks like a slick little ship. I'm a little wary of digging so deeply into our pilot capacity, though. We've hit 59/65 pilots to vessels in committed construction, so we're gonna be hitting our expansion ceiling as a force!
Main problem is probably that I think we're just about at hardpoint cap so at most we're squeezing in two more additional missile turrets; maybe just get of 2x mass drivers and put that into magazine space and common areas?
It's carrying landing troops, providing fire support for landing troops, and doing a bit of post-invasion support. It's pretty hyper-specialized at that role.
There's a difference between the pilots as required for Jump operation, and the pilots as listed on the spreadsheet. I'm not sure if you have that misconception or if you're just offering two different thoughts in the same post, but cutting the fighter complement doesn't help those numbers.
Last time this came up anyway, I think @4WheelSword said the pilot cap is just what our recruiting pool can support. Can we improve that with training, boss?
Has any of the increase to our pilot cap come from regular population growth, or ha it all been from adding Cassalon to our recruiting pool? In the ten years since game start, we should have seen an appreciable increase.
Has any of the increase to our pilot cap come from regular population growth, or ha it all been from adding Cassalon to our recruiting pool? In the ten years since game start, we should have seen an appreciable increase.
It's gone up by about 20% I think? No, none of the growth has come from pop-growth so far because the pilot per pop calc is busted and i'm gonna rethink it.
It's gone up by about 20% I think? No, none of the growth has come from pop-growth so far because the pilot per pop calc is busted and i'm gonna rethink it.
Real as hell. I guess the Home Census Bureau missed a couple million people under a rug somewhere, and we're about to get a bumper crop of pilots once that calculator gets de-janked.
If we can rely on regular population growth (just from Home for now, Cassalon just got beat) we might be in a good place to transition to a regimen of significantly larger ships with longer construction periods.
If we can rely on regular population growth (just from Home for now, Cassalon just got beat) we might be in a good place to transition to a regimen of significantly larger ships with longer construction periods.
I get the Wasp comparison but I'll be honest there's a reason no one has tried to copy the Hind. It's pretty much an example of how you can design a multi-use vehicle to be perfect but it still be less useful trying to do two things at the same time than just fielding two types of equipment.
AIUI from skimming the rules, mass driver projectiles can't be intercepted, but they're also less likely to hit (having a -6 from being spinal weapons, and another -4 against moving targets) and they do damage as if they're nuclear bombs, which means we can't use it for danger close type stuff.
IMO, if we run into something that has point defence lasers, we just hit it with the mass driver, then follow up with missiles once the PD's knocked out.
AIUI from skimming the rules, mass driver projectiles can't be intercepted, but they're also less likely to hit (having a -6 from being spinal weapons, and another -4 against moving targets) and they do damage as if they're nuclear bombs, which means we can't use it for danger close type stuff.
IMO, if we run into something that has point defence lasers, we just hit it with the mass driver, then follow up with missiles once the PD's knocked out.
These are bay weapons, not spinal, so no -6. They are very much hard target crackers though, intended for use against, uhhhh, priority defences. You don't want to be using them in ship-ship warfare basically ever. Unlike your missiles.
[X] Plan: SCR-270
-[X] Reduce the fighter complement to 4, saving nearly 600 tons.
-[X] Other - write in: Reduce the mass drivers to 2
-[X] Other - write in: Increase the number of missile turrets, and correspondingly increase magazine sizes
-[X] Write-in: Assemble a scouting mission only after the Fast Escorts are ready for assignment to these flights as the point ships to guard Scouts and DSS-we know Hermosa to be a hostile power and cannot go in unprepared.
-[X] None
[X] OPLAN Chain Home
-[X] Reduce the fighter complement to 4, saving nearly 600 tons.
-[X] Write-in: Assemble a scouting mission only after the Fast Escorts are ready for assignment to these flights as the point ships to guard Scouts and DSS-we know Hermosa to be a hostile power and cannot go in unprepared.
-[X] None
How would the HSWS like to solve this problem: Reduce the fighter complement to 4, saving nearly 600 tons. How does the HSWS feel about this? Assemble a scouting mission only after the Fast Escorts are ready for assignment to these flights as the point ships to guard Scouts and DSS-we know Hermosa to be a hostile power and cannot go in unprepared. Are there any objections from the HSWS? None
Finalising Designs
The MAT undergoes its final variation, the slimming down of the onboard fighter squadron in order to fit into an 8,000dton volume. This version of the massive ship will be the one laid down, though it will be some time before that can actually be achieved.
Looking at the yard schedules, the MAT will have its first members laid down and the first steel cut somewhere in the middle of the tenth year. It will cost the majority of the budget for that year, but it will also extend capabilities dramatically in the same way that the MMV and the FSS before them did. It will not be named yet - that doesn't come until the keel is laid down.
By 09y06m00w, a bevy of new ships join the Service. The first of the block IIa Interstellar Cruisers, with their comfortable quarters and their advanced sensors, enter service as the HSWS Neto and the HSWS Ullr. The Alaz, Ogun, Wadjet and Zhurong, the first of the Frigate, Fleet Escorts, come into fleet hands and spend a month in rigorous shakedowns in preparation for their deployment on scouting operations to the 'South'.
There are around 700MCr. left in the budget for financial year 09y, and a desire to ensure that in a years time there will be 8,000 dtons of yard space clear for the MAT. Please select up to 4k dtons of construction to begin 09y06m:
[ ] Frigate, Fleet Escort (500 dtons, 189.26MCr.)
[ ] Interstellar Cruiser (1,000 dtons, 391.59MCr.)
[ ] Diplomatic Cruiser (1,000 dtons, 420.43MCr.)
[ ] Refitting an SDD into a carrier (4,000 dtons, ?MCr.)
[ ] Something else - write-in
Scouting South
A fleet comprising of nine ships leaves Home on 09y06m00w, heading all the way to Heimdall station for fuelling and to prepare for the next leg of their mission. It takes them a month to reach the empty system with the fat gas giants and the tiny station that harvests thousands of tons of fuel from it. A pair of Interstellar Cruisers - the Apolake and the Tlaloc - welcome the scouting flotilla warmly, the eleven ships assembling around the mining station in a grand display of the modern capabilities of the HSWS.
Of course, no-one is there to see it, and once the various ships have tanked off the station, they begin splitting off on their various missions.
- Tasking One is a force of one Interstellar Surveyor, one Deep Space Surveyor and two Frigate, Fleet Escorts, charged with chumping into sectors -03,02 and -03,01 in order to assess the systems 'North' of Hermosa. The intention is to return to Heimdall and the safety of the cruisers between missions in order to refuel.
- Tasking Two is an identical force which will operate out of Shambala, using the FFS as a fuelling depot and scouting into sectors '-01,03' and '00,03'. While a less well protected deployment, it's considered less risky due to the additional distance between Shambala and Hermosa.
- Tasking Three is the FFS, which is going to spend most of its time floating around Shambala and not really worrying about anything at all. The HSWS Ikapati is quite used to this type of mission by now.
Arriving in Heimdall on 09y07m00w, it is another week before the mission proper begins due to the time needed for the station to process enough fuel for the entire task force. Once that is done, however, they scatter and begin their jumps.
-03, 01 - Equus
Survey Index: 10 System Code: D977589-7 Star(s): Type G (Yellow Star) Orbitals: -0301-1 (Small Gas Giant),-0301-2 (Large Gas Giant), -0301-3 (Rocky planet), -0301-4 (Rocky planet), -0301-5 (Rocky planet), -0301-6 (Rocky planet), -0301-7 (Rocky planet), -0301-8 (Planetoid Belt), -0301-9 (Rocky planet) Comments: Entry was made in the system with a force of four ships. Contact was made with local inhabitants, a small enclave of workers who demonstrate a remarkably xenophobic position. They maintain an orbital fuelling depot in orbit around the inner most gas giant which we are invited to pay for the use of. No other contact is allowed, according to local doctrine.
-03, 02 - Sinone
Survey Index: 8 System Code: ?300???-? Star(s): Type M (Red Star) Orbitals: -0302-1 (Large Gas Giant),-0302-2 (Rocky planet), -0302-3 (Rocky planet), -0302-4 (Small Gas Giant), -0302-5 (Small Gas Giant), -0302-6 (Rocky planet) Comments: Contact made with governor of a local colony. Advised not to approach any worlds or the inner system and that any approach will be considered a hostile act. A large ship, circa 3k dtons, begins transit into outer system after task forces arrival. Task force departs, but not before learning this is a colony from Hermosa.
-01, 03 - Hexos
Survey Index: 10 System Code: C42048C-9 Star(s): Type M (Red Star) with distant Binary companion Orbitals: -0103-1 (Rocky Planet),-0103-2 (Rocky planet) Comments: First contact established with local government. Tidally locked main world on brink of political collapse, major disasters have caused die-off of majority of population. Aid sought for the remaining few thousand.
00, 03 - Garda-Villis
Survey Index: 10 System Code: B978868-A Star(s): Type M (Red Star) Orbitals: 0003-1 (Planetoid Belt), 0003-2 (Rocky planet), 0003-3 (Planetoid Belt), 0003-4 (Planetoid Belt), 0003-5 (Rocky Planet), 0003-5-1 (Trojan Planet) Comments: First contact made, tasking invited to visit the main world or to accept an escort back to origin point. Both refused. Advanced ships meet our scouts, accompany them around a tour of the system. Non-standard jump point is selected for return journey due to one captains 'gut feeling'. It must be noted that the locals did not seem hostile.
The scouts begin their return journey to Home and finally arrive back in their usual station on 09y10m00w.
Once the Diplomatic Ship returns from the Aslan, we should consider dispatching it to one of these locales. We should send it to:
[ ] Sinone, to begin contacting the Hermosans
[ ] Hexos, to establish what aid is needed by local population
[ ] Garda-Villis to find out exactly what is going on there Any other business in the wake of this mission?
[ ] Write-in.
Please present any votes as a plan. Voting opens at
