Remove ads

To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest)

Linked contents
To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest) Starfleet Ship Design Bureau, Refit ("To Boldly Go...")
Reader mode
Supreme Overlord: My ship is invincible!
Grand Admiral: My ship is invincible!
Captain: My ship is invincible!
Ensign: I'll secure those reactors after lunch.
 
Ah. Yes. That thing. Why the hell does it have internal spaces so big supercaps can have firefights inside of it?
 
Well, VOY certainly has the writing quality of the EU, no bones about it, and the amount of canon within it that I tend to ignore outweighs the canon I don't...
 
Since the EC vote is coming up we might want to talk about it a bit more. We have 3 slots opening up now and another one next year with the new Excelsior. The candidates:

OneirosTheWriter said:
Captain Langa Mbeki
Human Male, 43
Current Assignment: USS Challorn, Captain
A talented communicator and scientist, gain +1 Presence, re-roll non-First Contact Diplomacy.

Captain T'Rinta
Vulcan Female, 54
Current Assignment: Chief, Torpedo Systems Office, Weapon Systems Fabrication, Shipyard Ops Command
After a few years responsible for Starfleet's photon torpedo supply, T'Rinta knows every facet of these tools. Gain +1 Combat in ship battles.

Captain Talan th'Zahliss
Andorian Male, 47
Current Assignment: Assistant Director, Advanced Subspace Theory Office, Yoyodyne Propulsion Division
A keen scientist who who wants to turn to more practical pursuits. Gain +5rp/year.

Captain Samhaya Mrr'shan
Caitian Female, 38
Current Assignment: USS Lightning, Captain
The first ever Caitian to be appointed to the Explorer Corps Panel of Captains, and one of the few Captains from outside the Original Four. Gain +1 C, +1 P.

Captain Demora Sulu
Human Female, 42
Current Assignment: Pending
Feels she was born for the stars, and is looking for the chance to live up to her family name. Gain +1 P, re-roll any diplomacy test in Federation space
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Unless a new choice pops up we'll obviously choose everyone except th'Zahliss, so the question is who to assign to what ship. I'll assume the new ship is going to be named Stargazer to make it easier. Possible connections/arguments:

Mrr'shan -> Enterprise: Previous postings (XO among others).
Sulu -> Enterprise: Captain in beta canon.
Mbeki -> Miracht: Following in the steps of his previous commanding officer.
T'Rinta -> Sarek: Tradition of posting Vulcan captains there.
Mrr'shan/T'Rinta -> Stargazer: Combat bonus would help survivability of a ship with green crew.

Mrr'shan has the best bonus closely followed by Mbeki and Sulu (diplomacy in Federation space is usually going to be a subset of non-First Contact diplomacy), T'Rinta's bonus is significantly weaker.
 
Last edited:
Nix said:
Since the EC vote is coming up we might want to talk about it a bit more. We have 3 slots opening up now and another one next year with the new Excelsior. The candidates:


Unless a new choice pops up we'll obviously choose everyone except th'Zahliss, so the question is who to assign to what ship. I'll assume the new ship is going to be named Stargazer to make it easier. Possible connections/arguments:

Mrr'shan -> Enterprise: Previous postings (XO among others).
Sulu -> Enterprise: Captain in beta canon.
Mbeki -> Miracht: Following in the steps of his previous commanding officer.
T'Rinta -> Sarek: Tradition of posting Vulcan captains there.
Mrr'shan/T'Rinta -> Stargazer: Combat bonus would help survivability of a ship with green crew.

Mrr'shan has the best bonus closely followed by Mbeki and Sulu (diplomacy in Federation space is usually going to be a subset of non-First Contact diplomacy), T'Rinta's bonus is significantly weaker.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Sulu should have time in a non EC ship. I'm okay with th'Zahliss.
 
Nix said:
Since the EC vote is coming up we might want to talk about it a bit more. We have 3 slots opening up now and another one next year with the new Excelsior. The candidates:
.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

When she showed up in the promotions post there was some talk of waiting a year on Sulu since she was just promoted to captain. Let her get some seasoning and then put her on the Stargazer.

I know it doesn't matter mechanically but I like it narratively and it's perfectly viable.

EDIT: And actually, Rosalee's bonus got better when we waited a few years for her, indicating that sometimes 'seasoning' time does matter!
 
Last edited:
AKuz said:
They pretty much exist to provide big showy overwhelming shows of force as part of the Tarkin doctrine and to piss of the Professional Naval Corps. They know that the Executor and her sisters are too big to be useful; but at the high point of the Empire it's either a big impressive Super-class Star Destroyer or more bloody superweapons.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Just about!

UberJJK said:
As you say it's very likely given that is kinda the whole point of a dagger shaped hull.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Well yes, if you can reliably point your bow at the target all the time. Which in turn makes some assumptions about maneuver envelope and so on.

[I'm going to try to bring this back down to things that are relevant to SF in general, by the way, not just Star Wars.]

Honestly on a ship the size of a Star Destroyer power generation shouldn't be a limitation for shield power. As for evasive maneuvers... Star Destroyers are always shown as moving very slowly so that's not really a thing.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
On the one hand, they're shown moving slowly relative to one another. On the other hand, their combat range and interstellar travel abilities should be pretty impressive.

It's always hard to do a good job comparing what it looks like spaceships are doing on TV or in a movie when you've got models moving around on a set, versus what they're capable of doing in plot terms. More on that in a bit.

This in itself is assuming that shields are granular like that. The shields could very well be an all or nothing system.

This is definitely something we should keep in mind since Star Trek ships are relatively small so this is a big deal, especially given Escorts explicitly have better dodge chances, but it's not really relevant to my example. Star Destroyers are almost two kilometers long; you're not going to miss one of those.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yeah, but the main reactor section on one of the SSDs could easily be a kilometer or two long all by itself. Focused fire is a threat... unless of course shields are all-or-nothing. Thing is, in Star Wars that pretty clearly isn't true ("we've lost our bridge deflector shield!"). In Star Trek the evidence is ambiguous- we have repeated references to degradation of the forward shields or aft or starboard or whatever shields.

I wouldn't rule out the possibility of localized burnthroughs, at least narratively, against very large ships in either Trek or Wars, although the combat engine in this particular game doesn't allow for it.

IIRC isn't that exactly what happens when we see a fleet go up against a Cube? The Borg take the fleet about ship by ship.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
At Wolf 359, yes. At Sector 001, the Federation ships seem to attack in groups, inflict heavier damage, and last a bit longer (though obviously still taking major losses).

Personally I think that's mainly the difference between good and bad tactics/doctrine.

Wolf 359 looked like what you'd expect from a large number of ships accustomed to operating alone, having all been given the order "attack that cube," with the chain of command consisting of one admiral and a whole lot of captains.

Sector 001 looked more like what you'd expect with ships having been grouped into squadrons, with a clear chain of command from fleet to squadrons to individual ships. And with the officers being given specific training and doctrine for groups of ships of diverse classes working together, with combined arms and mind.

aeqnai said:
Should note that Star Wars has a very different 'combat scenario' such that I'm unsure if it can be translated to our system in a reasonable way.

Really very critically, their distance of engagement is, well, notoriously small. Like. Really really small. Like, imagine the WWII Pacific Theatre. Now imagine smaller than that.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Trouble is, that conclusion is based on movie visuals where multiple models are placed in the same shot to blaze away at each other. If we apply the same standards to Star Trek we get similar results- ships approach each other to within a few kilometers, so close that you could stand on the hull and hit the other ship with a pistol.

I'd expect combat range to be more or less a wash, since both sides are fighting with beam weapons that are fairly clearly supposed to be energy weapons going at light speed. You can willfully invent reasons to dial either side's combat range down into the ones or tens of kilometers, but you'd be committing similar abuses against common sense either way.

Incidentally, I wouldn't trust conclusions drawn from visuals of ships interacting in Star Trek for anything other than relative ship sizes, for that reason.
 
Briefvoice said:
When she showed up in the promotions post there was some talk of waiting a year on Sulu since she was just promoted to captain. Let her get some seasoning and then put her on the Stargazer.

I know it doesn't matter mechanically but I like it narratively and it's perfectly viable.

EDIT: And actually, Rosalee's bonus got better when we waited a few years for her, indicating that sometimes 'seasoning' time does matter!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Iunno, I'd be quite down with having Sulu as the B's captain now. Especially since with Kahurangi retiring now, it's entirely possible her dad will be in charge of the Fleet the next time she gets a chance at the B, and it'd look better if she were promoted to that position by some other than dear old dad >_>
 
Mhm.

And Mrr'shan's actually younger than Sulu; we'll have a fair amount of time to give her an explorer command.

EDIT: Though I imagine both of them will be around on the captains' list for another 5-10 years.
 
Last edited:
pheonix89 said:
Ah. Yes. That thing. Why the hell does it have internal spaces so big supercaps can have firefights inside of it?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Voth Military: The ship must be huge!

Voth Engineer: But sir 80% of this ship is structurally unsound and with these large empty spaces enemy ships can cause havoc if they get past the hull!

Voth Military: We are DINOSAURS it must be fuck huge!

Voth Engineer: *mutters* Fucking carnivores...*cough* Very well then sir.

[One Alpha quadrant allied assault later]

Voth Ensign: *panicking* Sir the mammal ships have entered the interior and are assaulting our warp core!

Voth Military: *shouting* Impossible!
 
Last edited:
aeqnai said:
Iunno, I'd be quite down with having Sulu as the B's captain now. Especially since with Kahurangi retiring now, it's entirely possible her dad will be in charge of the Fleet the next time she gets a chance at the B, and it'd look better if she were promoted to that position by some other than dear old dad >_>
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I'm not particularly attached to giving Sulu the Enterprise B in particular. I'd give her the next 5YM that opens up, which would not be the Enterprise. And hey, there's something to be said for being the first person to break in a brand new Explorer. Making someone follow Nash ka'Sharren's act isn't doing them any favors.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top