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And we accomplished it with a hull with respectable combat capabilities. B+ Tactical is no joke, even if the Attenborough class is a little too fragile for fleet battles.
Endorfinator
Awkwardly Social
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Now I call that an unmitigated success. A century of service life is just insane, and the number of worlds surveyed and lives saved as a result. Also, I think this is the first time we've had a sub-class for one of our designs!!!
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
It's a good benchmark for what to aim for in the future, yeah.
In other words, reinforcing the landing gear and/or lower hull and getting a bigger engine-to-weight capacity will take a usable landing craft and make it an excellent one.
That's quite simple, as engineering projects go. Might be a thing to incorporate into smaller ships of other designs later.
And hell, preventing time, people, and resources from being wasted on dozens of planets is great. Doubly so since I think this is the first time we've had a ship that was so well-regarded that they deliberately modified it for other duties instead of getting a new one.
That's quite simple, as engineering projects go. Might be a thing to incorporate into smaller ships of other designs later.
And hell, preventing time, people, and resources from being wasted on dozens of planets is great. Doubly so since I think this is the first time we've had a ship that was so well-regarded that they deliberately modified it for other duties instead of getting a new one.
105,000 tons.
Thats a small-ass ship. I can see how this didnt catch on in general service, since post war cruisers are probably trending well north of 200,000 tons.
Still, a 6-ship class, with a 4-ship class spinoff to do geophysics.
An almost 100-year service history, and in all that time none was lost to hostile action. And only one ship was lost to a negative space wedgie, and even then she managed to keep her crew alive.
That'll do, pig. That'll do.
Thats a small-ass ship. I can see how this didnt catch on in general service, since post war cruisers are probably trending well north of 200,000 tons.
Still, a 6-ship class, with a 4-ship class spinoff to do geophysics.
An almost 100-year service history, and in all that time none was lost to hostile action. And only one ship was lost to a negative space wedgie, and even then she managed to keep her crew alive.
That'll do, pig. That'll do.
The Cygnus also ended up serving for some 85 years, so maybe smaller ships with significant non-tactical utility are just cheap enough to maintain that it's worth keeping them in service.
I wonder if it means that we won't be building any dedicated science ships for a while, though? The Curiosity was decommissioned instead of refit around the time the Saladin and Kea entered service, and we already have a geophysics subclass.
I wonder if it means that we won't be building any dedicated science ships for a while, though? The Curiosity was decommissioned instead of refit around the time the Saladin and Kea entered service, and we already have a geophysics subclass.
That's the kind of ship I like building, the ones that surprise you. 🥹
It had a tiny run, but it'll save us so much on logistical support for barely viable colonies that It was totally worth it.
It had a tiny run, but it'll save us so much on logistical support for barely viable colonies that It was totally worth it.
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. That is one hell of an anomaly.
Aw, no late-life cargo refit.
Still, this ship turned out incredible. One of the best we've ever made, perfectly suited to its task.
Though, between this and the Archer, I'm starting to wonder if meme ships (Orb, Lander) have some sort of design advantage? Like, they get the whole thread pulling in the same direction, and so reduce the risk of the efficiency-loss that comes from people working at cross-purposes.
Still, this ship turned out incredible. One of the best we've ever made, perfectly suited to its task.
Though, between this and the Archer, I'm starting to wonder if meme ships (Orb, Lander) have some sort of design advantage? Like, they get the whole thread pulling in the same direction, and so reduce the risk of the efficiency-loss that comes from people working at cross-purposes.
LunaMoth
Wings of Kynareth is my comfort song...
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Something like that, though I wouldn't call them memes, this thread constantly pulls at least slightly in the direction of giant warship- so when we do something other than that it feels much more successful.
I don't think we've actually built anything like a giant warship since the Thunderchild or perhaps the Sagarmatha, and those turned out fine. In a way, giant warship is a meme too.
darkstarling
Brilliantly Crazed
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Science and light anti-piracy, I can dig it. Good hero ship. Able to do interesting things without being overwhelmingly powerful.
The landing capability worked exactly as I imagined. This is exactly the kind of ship I'd want to serve on, except I'm not a botanist. But a more general science ship doing the same thing, yes please!
I LOVED the story of the colony twenty thousand lightyears out built around the old hull.
What I'm hoping is that, if we get orders for ships with planetary survey in the mission profile in the future, we can build on the lessons learned here.
I also STILL want a lander with cargo, and/or packed up science labs. Basically, if you're doing things on a planet you want to actually be able to land on that planet. Not needed for space of course.
The landing capability worked exactly as I imagined. This is exactly the kind of ship I'd want to serve on, except I'm not a botanist. But a more general science ship doing the same thing, yes please!
I LOVED the story of the colony twenty thousand lightyears out built around the old hull.
I hope so, I'm a sucker for a good lander.
Lander wasn't a meme, at least for me. It was 'this is what I'd want if I was doing a serious planetary survey.' And it worked exactly as I imagined! I'm really happy about this.
What I'm hoping is that, if we get orders for ships with planetary survey in the mission profile in the future, we can build on the lessons learned here.
I also STILL want a lander with cargo, and/or packed up science labs. Basically, if you're doing things on a planet you want to actually be able to land on that planet. Not needed for space of course.
So, we have a superior engineering ship in the Archer, a quite serviceable biological sciences ship with the Attenborough and we had a mineral survey ship with Kea though we might need to make a new one now that the new engines are getting rolled out. What else do we need to have the Federation expand rapidly, getting new colonies and helping to make them well-developed?
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Likely because it isnt as well armored for actual combat being a science vessel so it has structural weaknesses it wouldn't have had if it was a dedicated war vessel.
It could also be there were too few to be pulled for those sort of duties and they had a mini-settlement deployed around them on a planet at the time.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
A reminder that B+ doesn't mean "It can beat peer powers", it just means "It can reliably sink small, independent raiders in a 1v1 throwdown." Tactical is such that any score less than A is functionally a speedbump in any genuine fleet action. C just means "Probably doesn't get contemptuously soloed by a space speedboat with a 50-cal, but still can't expect to beat a commerce raider in a 1v1 unless it has ideal circumstances going for it"
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That's classy as fuck.
NSMS
Probably evil, unfortunately.
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I think that's underselling; my read of the scale is that a B is about an 'average' combat ship- something small but dedicated, or a larger generalist. So not something you put on the front lines if you have a choice, but at the same time perfectly competent in an actual military engagement.