Something else about In Excelsis is that it's specifically been changed so that Excelsiors no longer "count as a cruiser" and still count as Explorers for Lone Ranger's combat cap reduction. So that's worth a bit on its own. Anyway, it's far enough down the tree that we'd be transferring all our EC crew to Ambassadors anyway.
To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest)
- Thread starter OneirosTheWriter
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- Sci-Fi
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Something else about In Excelsis is that it's specifically been changed so that Excelsiors no longer "count as a cruiser" and still count as Explorers for Lone Ranger's combat cap reduction. So that's worth a bit on its own. Anyway, it's far enough down the tree that we'd be transferring all our EC crew to Ambassadors anyway.
I assume that the Cardassians have kept their logistics and auxiliary hulls in the two sectors where they have built a strong presence. Until they claim something outside of that, there is no need for the non-combat hulls to venture any closer to us.
The Apitia have a proven record of destroying cargo conveys after all - I doubt Oneiros will ever tell us, but I sometimes wonder how much of a hit losing 3 Cardassian and 3 Syndraxian Cargo ships did to their respective logistics systems.
As for stealing the ships - they are slow (Warp 5), very unstealthy, and would you trust a Cardassian computer system to not have booby traps in it?
- Location
- Australia
Part of why I'm putting this in right after the research phase is to allow for some feedback/modifications before the next EAS vote.
So if people can point out inconsistencies or non-thematic blindspots, or even just propose some interesting ideas, then I'm happy to consider them.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
I dunno, I bet they get amazing bonuses to Science checks to avoid detection and avoid battle, thanks to their cloaking devices. And I wouldn't be surprised if the Klingons have a unique tech tree that makes Birds of Prey tactically more effective on things like interceptions.
That's what Wolfpack Doctrine favors for us, and it's awkward, precisely because the rest of our fleet composition and doctrine is ideally suited for NOT taking Wolfpack Doctrine. Conceptually it's a terrible fit.
I'm pretty sure that shipboard phasers on stun wouldn't work against shielded starships and maybe even not against well-protected buildings or metallic ship hulls. There are a fair number of things that can block phasers on stun setting, after all.
That said, there ARE weapons that can utterly disable a ship without directly harming the crew, including a variety of one-off weapons and the "Breen energy drain" weapon from Deep Space Nine. The problem is that such weapons are almost invariably some kind of exotic weaponized technobabble, that can in turn be countered by other weaponized technobabble.
I made a 'Leslie' comment on this a while ago; what it comes down to is that most of these things aren't nearly reliable enough to be used as a substitute for phasers and torpedoes, which in narrative terms are surprisingly good at disabling ships without killing the crew. The combat engine usually doesn't allow for something like that, of course, in To Boldly Go.
Thing is, a pair of Cardassian cruisers (or even a pair of Cardassian frigates) can overpower any ship we have in the Gabriel Expanse.
Remember, when they tried lone-wolf raiding on us, the results were... kind of mixed. And it could have gone much worse for them than it did if we'd had our fleet concentrated in such a way to maximize its chances of catching and killing a raider. Which the Cardassians probably do, right now, as illustrated by the fact that we're not seeing their ships raiding out in our space.
The nomads live on those ships; we'd be depriving them of their homes. I'd very much rather not do that.
- Location
- Australia
Yeah, I made that change for that specific reason, really.
Yeah, even the aggressive Admirals on each side would rather not throw themselves into a meat grinder for the sheer hell of it. Not when there's still unclaimed space, and so much consolidation to be done for all sides.
- Location
- Australia
Holographics
- holodeck - crew moral bonus
- civilian morale bonus
- ship camo/disguise
- hard light avatar/defenders
- obligatory EC encounters in the holodeck
- lower crew reqs combined with better computers
Transporter technology
- increase range/volume, which means better saving throws and logistics.
Replicator technology
- increase sophistication - lower luxury goods freight
- increase civilian morale
- industrial - decrease construction time
- breakthroughs - less SR reqs
- bio replicators - increased save rolls for medical.
- Location
- Australia
I meant with the doctrines being added. I'm not actually considering expanding the regular techs.
- Location
- Australia
If it's non-critical enough to go raiding, they can also do without it for housing.
(I am not suggesting we just go take out random sept ships)
A reminder to every one on size the GBZ.
Going by the map, there are 16 sectors in the area.
The Dylarrians have taken one that we know of, if they are expanding into a second we haven't caught wind of it with our listening posts yet.
The Cardassains have locked down two sectors - I'm quite sure they have/are mapped more, but we have not yet caught any evidence of the auxiliary ships moving out of those two.
The Syndraxians did have a one sector, but we kind of stole it of them and killed a big chunk of their navy.
We, Starfleet plus members, have so far locked down three sectors and have started/about to start mapping two more. This process has taken years on game time and the Apitia will be building up the Dorsata sector for years to come (that sector is so rich in mines ...)
The ICS is close enough that they could potentially move into the GBZ, but we have not seen any evidence of such expansion yet.
So there are 6/16 sectors with known claimants, leaving potentially 10 more be divided up. Maybe it is less and our Listening Posts just haven't caught it yet, only Oneiros knows for sure.
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Chimeraguard
We do deserve to exist.
I think we're offering the Sydraxians their lost Sector back in exchange for them leaving the Ashalla Pact.
- Location
- Actually pretty lost
I think the main reason people aren't a fan of In Excelcis is that we're worried about being locked into Excelciors long after they've stopped being an effective build choice. Maybe if you added a mechanic where the designated In Excelcis ship choice could be changed by Snakepit? Otherwise, 10-20 ingame years from now it's pretty much a dead tech which seems espcially odd since it's a doctrine tech, rather than a materials/parts tech that could feasibly be made obsolete.
Forgothrax
Not Going Gently
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Still waiting to hear about Starbase Repair...
- Location
- Australia
I'll give it another look when I get home tonight.
Well, a couple of worlds. The entire Sector, maybe not.
- Location
- Central Standard Time
*sees hundreds of posts*
So... What happened?
Anything interesting (and hopefully nontoxic) to discuss?
So... What happened?
Anything interesting (and hopefully nontoxic) to discuss?
Night
Widow Null
- Location
- Hoff
It's mostly offensive doctrine analysis. You'll probably want to check out the abuse of science ships part, at least.
- Location
- USA
Research results are up along with most of the offensive doctrines. There is some neat stuff in there.
- Location
- Central Standard Time
- Location
- USA
Nope, using the Kepler as a wolf pack raider since it seems to key off S and D for both detecting and avoiding detection.
Night
Widow Null
- Location
- Hoff
Wolfpack Doctrine favors High-S High-D ships, and you only need a little tiny bit of C to kill a freighter. Thus, mechanically, the Kepler is actually a well-designed raider. As ridiculous as that image of dozens of Keplers crossing the border under sensor-dampening and raiding Cardassian shipping lanes is.
- Location
- Actually pretty lost
Thinking about this a bit more just before I go to bed, if you wanted to preserve the "flavour" (because it's actually a pretty cool idea, even if it's not viable as-is) you could make it so that only ship classes that have been used as Explorers can be chosen? So when we eventually move onto a new EC vessel, we can "upgrade" In Excelcis to use Ambassadors instead.
I mean, 10 years from now the Ambassador might be just as nonviable as the Excelsior, but it might not?
Godwinson
"Well, I've got nothing."
A large part of that is clearly chosen to reflect just how ubiquitous the Excelsior class was in the TNG-era, despite being an 80 year old design at that point, even seeing extensive use in the Dominion War. (Most of the Base Strike Doctrine tech names are references to DS9 episodes and battles, in fact.)
- Location
- Actually pretty lost
Fair enough, but either something about the tech changes or it's probably not going to see any use.
There seems to be some hopes pinned on the Excelsior having an extremely high refit potential. The basic frames can't change, but an awful lot of other tech can.
Thebigpieman
I've got this, I think.
- Location
- United States
We could probably do something akin to the Connie B refit, strip out science capability and turn it into a heavy cruiser design.