Remove ads

First Command - Torchship Captain Quest

Reader mode
Remove ads
Character Sheet
  • Informational
    • Vehicle Commander Smith​
    Dakota "Kodi" Smith
    Kodi is fascinated with space travel, other cultures, and stories her mama told her about the war. She sees fighting as an unfortunate burden she is taking on to spare others. More of a cat person.
    Drives
    Investigate Everything, Pursue Truth Relentlessly, Be Merciful, Avoid Social Awkwardness
    Relationships
    Friend -
    Crush -
    Rival - Selena Green​
    Montana "Monty" Smith
    Monty has always wanted to be an explorer, to tell his mom stories about far-away places. Though not inclined to violence, he never backs down. Loves dogs.
    Drives
    Make New Friends, Be Forward and Direct, Try New Things, Be A Show Off
    Relationships
    Friend -
    Crush -
    Rival -​

    Traits
    Void-Born: You never take complications from 0g or space suits, but take -2d6 to feats of strength and double complications from high gravity.
    Shifting Gears: You can spend 1 Determination to switch profiles. Costs +1 Determination each time per episode.
    Well-Connected: You can spend 1 Determination to create an old friend, comrade, instructor, etc on any appropriate ship, facility, station, etc you might visit. They are always willing to help if you help in turn.
    Certifications
    Wild Animal 5+, Physical Instrument 5+, Social Being 5+, Cosmonaut 4+
    English 3+, Russian 5+, OSL 4+
    Artillery Officer 4+, Drone Pilot 3+, Missile Plotter 4+, Space Marshal 4+
    Diplomat +4, Leader +4, Bureaucrat +4, Social Scientist +4
    Modern Small Arms 4+, Damage Control 4+
    Hobbies: Animal Handling,

    Star Patrol Vessel Yeager-1
    Statline will be linked above when ready.

    Features
    Corvette Dock, Transmaterializer

    Weapons
    x1 Sandblaster, x2 250MW Laser, x2 Probe Bay

    Crew
    7/42 Crew Assigned!​
    PersonDepartment 1Department 2ExpertiseOther Certs & NotesTraits
    VC SmithTacticalAdminDemolitionModern Small Arms, Working With Working AnimalsSpacer, Plural, Well-Connected
    XO Evelyn Rosa Paz-Admin-SlugthrowersVeteran, Cyborg
    SPC Nyiko Shilubana-BolonkinEngineering-Jury-Rigging, FlashfabSpacer
    SPC Kroshtnyr SatkolResearch-SensorsAugment (Mental/Medical), Heavyworlder
    SPC Selena GreenSecurity--YOUR RIVALHeavyworlder
    SPC Kerman Ó CaolaidheAstrogationOrbits-
    SPC Ariadna StrunaTacticalDrones-
     
    Last edited:
  • Informational
    • Eater said:
    Mmm. Fair enough I suppose? I'll be honest, I have a maybe irrational dislike of corvettes/shuttles in combat. Having an entire extra craft with ftl, artificial gravity, etc just to launch torpedoes seems a little backwards. I'd rather have a fixed number of torpedoes clamped to the side, which won't have to worry about squishy vulnerable crewfolk.

    I can see how in action economy and having more than one target to divide an opponent's attention it could be a good thing but I'd rather do that with drones than risk lives, I guess.

    Edit: I don't want to come off as overly critical, and it's a bit unreasonable to just write off corvettes as 'risking lives' when they could save the ship and all. Combat is inherently risky and there's not a safe place in it and i should just accept that. Changing my vote

    [x] Balance of Judgement
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I share your misgivings! But I bet Erika hasn't written the rules for corvettes so I picked it to be mean to her! :V

    Also because I want to see if the corvette is optionally manned and can be used as a big remote controlled drone when not shuttling science teams into dangerous environments.
     
    @CyberEnby

    I can think of a few quibbles with your design:
    1) Not sure if we can double up, but I presume Sketch would have said something otherwise

    2) ACERS are more likely to let us bounce a graviton particle beam off the main deflector dish or otherwise SCIENCE our way out of problems. Now you may say that captain Smith doesn't have science. To which I reply that captain Smith has Admin and an able crew, Captain Smith does not do a science, he or she points and says "Martinez, do a science!"

    Replacing one of the lasers with an ACER array will give us much more flexibility.

    3) If you really want overwhelming parasite salvos, find a way to get the magazine deck with the six-tube bays. Yes, the Tychos have that, so what, with 6 tube plus magazine deck plus those massive stores, we'd be approaching the Honorverse in terms of missiles/drones-as-percentage-of-volume
     
    Adhoc vote count started by GAWR on Jun 13, 2022 at 1:17 AM, finished with 40 posts and 14 votes.
    • [X] Balance of Judgement
      [X] Plan Space Purdey Over-and-Under
      -[X] Standard antimatter engines with water as reaction mass.
      -[X] Experimental pulsed particle cannon array (1 point)
      -[X] A precision railgun turret, for very long range probing attacks.
      -[X] ACER particle cannons, with multiple firing modes, for disabling enemy ships.
      -[X] A heavy, two-tube torpedo and heavy drone bay (1 point)
      -[X] None. The ship doesn't need the extra weight.
      -[X] Space for two Corvettes (1 Point)
      -[X] An armoured vault in the centre of the craft to safeguard crew or contain threats (1 Point)
      -[X] A set of robotic repair drones to assist damage control (1 Point)
      [X] Plan Just Bail At First Sign of Trouble
      -[X] Flammable, but high thrust liquid oxygen reaction mass.
      -[X] Experimental pulsed particle cannon array (1 point)
      -[X] ACER particle cannons, with multiple firing modes, for disabling enemy ships.
      -[X] An array of light railguns with excellent long range.
      -[X] None. The ship doesn't need the extra weight.
      -[X] A standard light probe bay with three tubes, with drones and missiles.
      -[X] Additional protective plates and whipple shields over vital areas (1 Point)
      -[X] Upgraded shield capacitors (1 Point)
      -[X] An accompanying Corvette with modular slots.
      -[X] Enhanced FTL capabilities (1 Point)
      -[X] Expanded remass tanks for longer range (1 Point)
      [X] Plan Defense + Probe Dakka
      -[X] Flammable, but high thrust liquid oxygen reaction mass.
      -[x] Flexible "sandblaster" mini-railguns.
      -[x] 250MW main laser arrays. Short ranged but powerful, and useful for point defense.
      -[X] ACER particle cannons, with multiple firing modes, for disabling enemy ships.
      -[X] A heavy, two-tube torpedo and heavy drone bay (1 point)
      -[X] None. The ship doesn't need the extra weight.
      -[X] Additional protective plates and whipple shields over vital areas (1 Point)
      -[X] Upgraded shield capacitors (1 Point)
      -[X] An accompanying Corvette with modular slots.
      -[X] A rotary probe magazine for higher rates of fire of missiles and drones (1 Point)
      -[x] Expanded internal stores (1 Point)
      [x] Plan Torp
      -[X] Flammable, but high thrust liquid oxygen reaction mass.
      -[x] Flexible "sandblaster" mini-railguns.
      -[x] 250MW main laser arrays. Short ranged but powerful, and useful for point defense.
      -[X] A precision railgun turret, for very long range probing attacks.
      -[X] A heavy, two-tube torpedo and heavy drone bay (1 point)
      -[X] Additional protective plates and whipple shields over vital areas (1 Point)
      -[x] Standard shield capacitors.
      -[x] A tractor beam. (1 Point)
      -[x] A shuttle printing bay and external docks
      -[x] Expanded internal stores (1 Point)
      [x] Plan Unknown Threat
      -[X] Standard antimatter engines with water as reaction mass.
      -[X] Experimental pulsed particle cannon array (1 point)
      -[X] ACER particle cannons, with multiple firing modes, for disabling enemy ships.
      -[X] A precision railgun turret, for very long range probing attacks.
      -[X] A heavy, two-tube torpedo and heavy drone bay (1 point)
      -[X] None. The ship doesn't need the extra weight.
      -[x] The standard Star Patrol layered hull of dense metals and silica foam, protected by an artificial magneosphere and a screen.
      -[x] Standard shield capacitors.
      -[x] Both of the above. (1 Point)
      -[X] Expanded remass tanks for longer range (1 Point)
      -[x] Experimental sensor array and computers for long-range scans and targeting (1 point)
      [X] Spatial Sheer Cannon : This does the same trick as the stealth systems, where it uses the FTL system to manipulate space. However, instead of bending space around a craft, this thing instead stretches the space between the target and the vessel. When the time comes to fire the sheer cannon, all weapons on the vessel will fire through this area of space, just as the FTL field is deliberatly collapsed. The result of the collapsing field means a strong spatial compression, meaning that any energy beams inside the field experience an extreme blueshift while also being compressed in time and distance. In essence, the enemy is hit by an incredibly potent dose of extremely high energy, low wavelength radiation. If done properly , the beam can sheer away parts of the enemy ship, penetrating shields before the need for reconfiguration is seen, and also giving the rest of the crew a serious case of radiation poisoning. And it better be done properly. because the weapon has to be fired at short range, sends the ship spinning, and temporally disables the FTL system until they can be reconfigured.
      [X] Sapper: Inertial Warhead : A special kind of shell for a very special railgun, these weapons would be seen as outrageously expensive, were it not for the fact that anti-matter warheads are in routine, if reluctant use. The Inertial warhead consists out of a heavily armored warhead, containing within it a small quantity of folded hydrogen, and a simple heating element. The weapon itself is simple. While, to the dissappointment of some, the quantities of folded hydrogen needed to crush a spaceship or sweep a deck are prohibitively large, a ship's sensors are far smaller and far more easily fooled. The Inertial warhead, once it has hit and embedded itself in a target vessel, introduces random gravitational changes, disrupting the vessels gravimetric systems and rendering accurate response to sudden changes in acceleration a very frought affair. Until the device can be removed, an enemy vessel is limited to low acceleration or risk hurting it's crew
    Click to expand...


    Here's another tally.
     
    samdamandias said:
    @CyberEnby

    I can think of a few quibbles with your design:
    1) Not sure if we can double up, but I presume Sketch would have said something otherwise

    2) ACERS are more likely to let us bounce a graviton particle beam off the main deflector dish or otherwise SCIENCE our way out of problems. Now you may say that captain Smith doesn't have science. To which I reply that captain Smith has Admin and an able crew, Captain Smith does not do a science, he or she points and says "Martinez, do a science!"

    Replacing one of the lasers with an ACER array will give us much more flexibility.

    3) If you really want overwhelming parasite salvos, find a way to get the magazine deck with the six-tube bays. Yes, the Tychos have that, so what, with 6 tube plus magazine deck plus those massive stores, we'd be approaching the Honorverse in terms of missiles/drones-as-percentage-of-volume
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    1) Unless things have changed, both engines and internal stores are in the 'can double up' part of the ship upgrade list in the Google doc, so I've been assuming it's ok!

    2) I didn't pick ACERs because I don't know how they work - I still haven't come across an explanation. :( That and beam weapons are expressly called out as great PD, which is likely to be more useful in combat. I'm open to changing the design, but as it stands I my rationale was that lasers instead of ACERs was one of those design tradeoffs that wouldn't make sense on other Star Patrol craft, but ours is more combat optimized and so accepts a bit less flexibility in exchange for PD effectiveness.

    3) Where can I find a description of the Tychos? But anyhow, unless expanded supply gives us a lot more supply than I think, 12 tubes aren't as useful for a long range ship - it's easier to launch two 6 tube salvoes in a time on target borage.
     
    GAWR said:
    It's explained in the Onward - To New Frontiers, Acers are basically electro lasers that can stun people (or emp ships with the ship scale versions) that can also disintegrate matter on the higher power setting.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Mmmm, I think it's going to depend on whether we can use them for PD? @open_sketch?

    If not then I'd really prefer to stick to the lasers. By the time the BoJ gets close enough to use an ACER, our opponents should already be disabled via knocking out their engines and radiators, and picking off their weapons.
     
    Last edited:
    The benefit of ACER is it's a particle cannon that can deal radiation damage to enemy ship on impact which is very bad for them.

    Having laser is also an additional PD over our existing PD, but bear in mind that a lot of power would also be needed for pure energy weapon so double laser bay is going to be very straining on our power source.

    If we need even more PD anyway, laser drone can do that job too.
     
    Last edited:
    CyberEnby said:
    In theory. :p

    But only the lasers are explicitly called out to double as PD, so I assumed that the ACER isn't as capable in that respect?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Well there's nothing to suggest the contary.

    And besides I feel the current build is a mite over specialised. Like what if we are up against an enemy that decides to pelt us with kinetic projectiles out of lasering range? We couldn't just shoot down the projectiles since our targeting system isn't controlled by a supercomputer like the voxites so I doubt it can target relatively small railgun projectiles travelling at minimum supersonic speeds and ammo probably won't be a concern for our opponents since they most space capable civs have 3d printers.
     
    Last edited:
    GAWR said:
    Like what if we are up against an enemy that decides to pelt us with kinetic projectiles out of lasering range?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    The main selling point of the design is less the lasers and more the extra supply and drone/missile launch capacity. In the case of excessive kinetics, the idea would be to use the extra engines to maintain distance so dodging is possible and deal damage with those. The extra pd is to take down enemy drones/missiles, with everything else hopefully being kept outside of effective range. Of course, in close range the lasers will be very effective, so mid range is probably the weakest place for the design to be.

    The lack of torpedoes/bubble poppers might be an issue as I've said before, and heavy pd on an opponent is also a concern.

    Sabot missiles might be a possibility in that case?

    Edit: it might be possible to put acers on drones?
     
    Last edited:
    Eater said:
    The main selling point of the design is less the lasers and more the extra supply and drone/missile launch capacity. In the case of excessive kinetics, the idea would be to use the extra engines to maintain distance so dodging is possible and deal damage with those. The extra pd is to take down enemy drones/missiles, with everything else hopefully being kept outside of effective range. Of course, in close range the lasers will be very effective, so mid range is probably the weakest place for the design to be.

    The lack of torpedoes/bubble poppers might be an issue as I've said before, and heavy pd on an opponent is also a concern.

    Sabot missiles might be a possibility in that case?

    Edit: it might be possible to put acers on drones?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    This would be a good time to expand the default list of drones and warheads, since this is a parasite heavy design!

    -Grapeshot warheads for Swiss cheesing radiators.
    -EMP warheads for disabling ships with electronic computers.
    -ECM drones that make it harder for the enemy to shoot down our drones/missiles.
    -Hedgehog warheads made of a bundle of long rod penetrators, meant to defeat Whipple shields.
    -Gremlin pods that are like tiny boarding shuttles that deliver drones that mess up a ship's internals.
    -Shaped charge warheads for piercing armor to do damage to underlying systems.
     
    CyberEnby said:
    3) Where can I find a description of the Tychos? But anyhow, unless expanded supply gives us a lot more supply than I think, 12 tubes aren't as useful for a long range ship - it's easier to launch two 6 tube salvoes in a time on target borage
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    That's on me, I don't think the Tychos are in the public docs yet.

    And unless the magazine deck changed when I wasn't looking, it'd be ten tubes instead of twelve
    dragonkid11 said:
    The benefit of ACER is it's a particle cannon that can deal radiation damage to enemy ship on impact which is very bad for them.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    To echo this, RAD damage is good at two things: Fucking up crew, and fucking up electronics.

    If you want to disable ships, ACERS. And again, ACERS give us more options for bouncing a graviton particle beam off the main deflector dish. :V
    Eater said:
    The lack of torpedoes/bubble poppers might be an issue as I've said before, and heavy pd on an opponent is also a concern.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Unless things changed since I last looked, we can fit bubble poppers on standard drones/missiles. We just can't do that double-warhead trick the Zinovians did.

    CyberEnby said:
    Grapeshot warheads for Swiss cheesing radiators.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    This just sounds like the flak warhead though
     
    Last edited:
    GAWR said:
    Assuming that we have the facilities to produce those drones.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    That's... what a probe bay is?

    samdamandias said:
    That's on me, I don't think the Tychos are in the public docs yet.

    And unless the magazine deck changed when I wasn't looking, it'd be ten tubes instead of twelve

    To echo this, RAD damage is good at two things: Fucking up crew, and fucking up electronics.

    If you want to disable ships, ACERS. And again, ACERS give us more options for bouncing a graviton particle beam off the main deflector dish. :V

    Unless things changed since I last looked, we can fit bubble poppers on standard drones/missiles. We just can't do that double-warhead trick the Zinovians did.


    This just sounds like the flak warhead though
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I don't know, electronics and crew tend to inhabit the same spaces, and I'm... uncomfortable using radiation weapons on people. Maybe it's just because we don't have anti-rad wonder drugs IRL and radiation poisoning us such an awful way to die. And there was that scene with the Aquillans using rad weapons on those Interkosmos ships...

    What do people in universe think of radiation weapons, and ACERs in particular? Because I was under the impression that electronics are more radiation resistant than people IRL, so disabling a ship's electronics means also irradiating part of the crew...
     
    CyberEnby said:
    That's... what a probe bay is?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    It's mentioned in the lore doc in the other Torchship quest by open sketch, but basically, don't worry, 3D printer, 3D printer for almost anything.

    CyberEnby said:
    What do people in universe think of radiation weapons, and ACERs in particular? Because I was under the impression that electronics are more radiation resistant than people IRL, so disabling a ship's electronics means also irradiating part of the crew...
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    That it's an unfortunate part of space warfare, nuke is bloody common in space warfare, and it doesn't matter if electronic are more radiation resistant than people when there's so much rad anyway.
     
    Last edited:
    GAWR said:
    I don't think a standard probe bay is able to manufacture advanced payloads without a heavy reworking of the assembly lines since this universe 3d printers isn't a make anything machine like the star trek replicators.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I'm hearing conflicting info on this, but my impression was that that scarcity is abstracted by Supply, not 3D printer capability.

    Hmmm... The corvette is modular. Can the corvette take an ACER weapon?

    Edit: Mostly I just want to hear from Sketch on whether ACERs and lasers have comparable PD potential. I'd be very open to switching one or both main guns to ACERs for the greater flexibility if that's that case.
     
    Last edited:
    Any kind of missile or drone that doesn't have antimatter is just abstracted by supply because that way lies spreadsheet madness, anything that require antimatter will need it, because antimatter is that special as a resource.
     
    CyberEnby said:
    I don't know, electronics and crew tend to inhabit the same spaces, and I'm... uncomfortable using radiation weapons on people.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    There are three kinds of damage in this system, Radiation, Photon, and Kinetic.

    Each of them is better at certain stuff. Don't have the doc to hand, but it's things like it taking one point of Kinetic to decompress a compartment, while taking something like ten points of Radiation to do the same. This means on a good hit a heavy railgun can vent multiple decks.

    Conversely, radiation can cheaply get things like "computers temporarily out" while it takes much more kinetic to do that, because the slug has to physically rip through the processesor.

    Right now, our only options for RAD-type damage are nukes. I'm not saying we should swap all the lasers to ACERS, I'm saying that swapping one set to ACERS offers us much, much more flexibility.

    That and if we need to dump six power/turn into PD we're probably better off if we crash jump to FTL.
    GAWR said:
    I don't think a standard probe bay is able to manufacture advanced payloads without a heavy reworking of the assembly lines since this universe 3d printers isn't a make anything machine like the star trek replicators.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    The standard probe bay functions as build-a-missile workshop, though we have some limited options. Right now seven or eight payload options (railgun, laser, flak, nuke, bubble popper, ALPHA MIKE, sensors/messenger), and three cladding options (Anti-photon, anti-kinetic, FTL)

    Like CyberEnby I do want to see options for decoys/ECM.
    CyberEnby said:
    Hmmm... The corvette is modular. Can the corvette take an ACER weapon?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Almost certainly. If we want, we could kit it out as a gunboat. However, it's not going to be able to mount anywhere near the same size or power as the Yeager-1 herself.
     
    samdamandias said:
    There are three kinds of damage in this system, Radiation, Photon, and Kinetic.

    Each of them is better at certain stuff. Don't have the doc to hand, but it's things like it taking one point of Kinetic to decompress a compartment, while taking something like ten points of Radiation to do the same. This means on a good hit a heavy railgun can vent multiple decks.

    Conversely, radiation can cheaply get things like "computers temporarily out" while it takes much more kinetic to do that, because the slug has to physically rip through the processesor.

    Right now, our only options for RAD-type damage are nukes. I'm not saying we should swap all the lasers to ACERS, I'm saying that swapping one set to ACERS offers us much, much more flexibility.

    That and if we need to dump six power/turn into PD we're probably better off if we crash jump to FTL.

    The standard probe bay functions as build-a-missile workshop, though we have some limited options. Right now seven or eight payload options (railgun, laser, flak, nuke, bubble popper, ALPHA MIKE, sensors/messenger), and three cladding options (Anti-photon, anti-kinetic, FTL)

    Like CyberEnby I do want to see options for decoys/ECM.

    Almost certainly. If we want, we could kit it out as a gunboat. However, it's not going to be able to mount anywhere near the same size or power as the Yeager-1 herself.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Alright, that's a good point on power and flexibility. I will mourn the loss of symmetry, but change out one of the lasers for an ACER.

    This does raise a question: do we not have to spend power to activate PD weapons? I'm wondering if I should switch to PD lasers and a kinetic weapon on the other main weapon.

    What's an ALPHA MIKE?
     
    Last edited:
    I'll be honest, I really liked the symmetry.

    If the main thing is the ACERs doing RAD damage, the 1 point PD option does that also:
    open_sketch said:
    Go for it, and yeah it does!
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I'd wonder if we could gain a point by not choosing a PD option, and then going for the two 250MW arrays and either a boosted reactor or a main kinetic. But I imagine that the PD options are PD due to lower power requirements and gimballing, etc. The 250MW array is likely not able to cover every arc around the ship or some such. Either way would want a verdict before changing the plan too much. If it comes down to needing a kinetic weapon vs relying on missiles I'm a sucker for a really big gun on a small ship, so I'd probably advocate for a spinal mount of some kind.
     
    Eater said:
    I'll be honest, I really liked the symmetry.

    If the main thing is the ACERs doing RAD damage, the 1 point PD option does that also:


    I'd wonder if we could gain a point by not choosing a PD option, and then going for the two 250MW arrays and either a boosted reactor or a main kinetic. But I imagine that the PD options are PD due to lower power requirements and gimballing, etc. The 250MW array is likely not able to cover every arc around the ship or some such. Either way would want a verdict before changing the plan too much. If it comes down to needing a kinetic weapon vs relying on missiles I'm a sucker for a really big gun on a small ship, so I'd probably advocate for a spinal mount of some kind.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Honestly a lot depends on how much extra supply each expansion option gets us - the text says it's 'a small warehouse ', which is a bit vague. If an extra supply option gets us like 20 supply? Then it makes more sense to drop to a three tube probe bay because we'd be limited to just three serious volleys (three volleys of 6 drones each, using time on target to have consecutive ones hit at the name time). Then we can afford the radiation PD.
     
    Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top