Star Trek: Death of the Federation

[rhoenix]

We should expect the colony to be able to supply at best replicator mass, low grade electronics(if Havoc is feeling merciful), water or fresh food stuffs. Replicator mass is more important then fresh food. Water should be taken on to cover various engineering or medical needs as opposed for hygiene or mass consummation. Your characters are all supposely at least partly trained so my advice is to make your answers straightforward and to the point.

I'll let most of my post stand as-is, assuming there was an amount of Feddie rations my ship still has a supply of. If this is less feasible or efficient than replicator mass, I can edit my post.

[frigidmagi]

Your post is fine Sweepy, told me everything I need to know.

[Hadrianvs]

Jesus Christ, one of these days I'm going to learn to never provide an ETA related to something I'm writing. Fortunately the incomlete parts are just backstory and fluff. This time I made sure to get the important bits done first. So I'll post this now for criticism and the rest will come tomorrow:


Ship: Exultant, Kzin Battlecruiser
Named by Commodore Saibel Aelia upon taking command. Formerly KHS Blackheart Ravager





Main Body Dimensions:
Length: 600m
Width: 150m
Height: 50m


Crew: 1250 officers and crew. 45% Kzin, 40% Federation, 10% Romulan, 5% Klingon.

Commanding Officer: Commodore Saibel Aelia (Rihansu, Federation)
Special Equipment: Phase sword picked off a wreck of unknown design or origin. Cuts through damn near anything when removed from its scabbard. The sword is really only useful for dealing with Borg drones in the bridge, but the scabbard seems to somehow protect whoever wears it. Maybe the Commodore is just lucky.

Executive Officer: Captain Krall-Tsao (Kzin)
Formerly the commanding officer of the Blackheart Ravager.

Chief Engineer: Akar-Engineer (Kzin)

Security Chief: Lieutenant Commander Nguyen Van Thieu (Human)
Killed the previous Security Chief during the mutinity, and maintains that this makes him the most qualified person for the job. So far no one has been willing to challenge him on that.
Special Equipment: Anti-Matter Grenades. Nobody knows who was crazy enough to make something so absurdly suicidal, but everybody is painfully aware of who is crazy enough to use them.

Chief Medial Officer: Gregory Multak (Klingon)
The man is either suffereing from severe PTSD or is a paranoid schizophrenic. Either way, the best medical advice anyone aboard the ship can give you is to avoid non-fatal injuries.

Other notable crew memebers TBA


Weapon Systems:

2 Disruptor Cannons - Located on the bow and pointed toward the forward quadrant.

10 Phaser Arrays - Standard anti-shipping phasers with 135 degree firing arcs.

12 Missile Racks - Four ventral, four dorsal, two each port and starboard. A rack has 2 ready missiles and 20 reloads in the magazines, for a total missile capacity of 480+24 missiles. The exterior part of the rack is arranged like a cold launch VLS cell. Low missile velocity upon engine ignition makes it possible to direct volleys in any direction, but decreases system effectiveness at less than medium range. Missiles carry fusion warheads in two varieties: standard with a 42 MT warhead, and scatterpack with six 6 MT warheads. Six racks are loaded with each type.

2 Anti-Missile Defense Batteries - Clusters of computer controlled chatter cannon intended to shoot down incoming ordance and light strike craft. They fire sprays of magnetically accelerated slugs.

Ship's Weakness:

No Tractor/Repulsor Beams - All emitters have been destroyed in combat or broken down for parts. Without repulsor capability the ship is helpless should it fall in range of the larger enemy tractors.

Damaged Warp Nacelle - Exultant took heavy damage to its dorsal warp nacelle during the Battle of Nova Terra. While it has been possible to restore power output back to 100%, the patchwork nature of the repairs have compromised its structral integrity. Any direct hit to it will have a high chance of causing catastrophic damage.


Service history:
The Exultant was built in a Federation shipyard as part of a contract issued by the Kzin Hegemony for two squadrons of advanced battlecruisers.

Launched in 2387 and commissioned in 2389 as the KHS Blackheart Ravager under the command of Krall-Captain.

Until the Borg Invasion service consisted mostly of patrolling the Lyran border.

First saw combat in 2391 against a Borg squadron conducting recon-in-force near Kzin space.

Joined Kzin Hegemony Expeditionary Force late 2391

Saw heavy combat in a fire support role in Klingon space and aquitted itself well. Suffered little damage.

Was put under the unified Starfleet Command, along with the rest of the Hegemony Space Force, in early 2393.

Lost contact with Kzin Hegemony about half-way down 2396.

Participated in the Battle of Eridani and fought in its first close range melee. Suffered moderate damage.

Ravager was conducting repairs in the docks over Jupiter at the start of the Battle of Earth. It left its berth weapons firing when the defences around Io collapsed.

In the closing stages of the battle the battlecruiser fell in with a group of supply transports, providing them an escort as they evacuated the system.

Assigned to Task Force Nu under Commodore Aelia at Nova Terra.

Survived Battle of Nova Terra with critical damage, repaired with parts from the crippled USS Indefatigable.

Command of KHS Blackheart Ravager transferred from Krall-Tsao to Commodore Aelia, ship renamed Exultant.

Rest of 2397 spent skirmishing Borg forces whilst continuing to protected the surviving supply vessels.

Transports lost to enemy action or scuttled in 2398. Crews and remaining stores transfered to Exultant.

[General Havoc]

Alright, Hadri, we have some problems to work out with this provisional character, that I need addressed:

1: Though it has been used as such occasionally in the past, Commodore is normally not a rank, but a title. It refers to a Captain who is in a position of greater authority than most ship captains, but who is not a Rear Admiral. While there have been occasions within certain navies where Commodore represented an actual rank, I do not know of any such cases in Star Trek. Given that an actual Commodore rank would put you in the position of outranking every other player of the game, this is something I need to have some support for if we are to treat it as a rank.

Moreover, if it is a rank, then for the reasons I just mentioned, I need very much to know what your character has done to merit its appointment, as it is a very unusual rank at best, as well as a very senior one.

Update: Apparently there are canonical references to Commodore as a rank in TOS, but the speculation is that the rank was phased out between TOS and TNG, and replaced with Rear Admiral. Given that, for the purposes of this game, Commodore is an unofficial title given to Captains with greater responsibilities than just their one ship. You may call yourself a Commodore if you wish, but it will not reflect a higher rank than Captain.

2: I have no idea what a "Phase Sword" is, and am relatively certain that it is not Star Trek canon. Given that, I am not prepared to accept it, as I have no idea what it is supposed to do, nor how effective it is at doing so. If it is some form of energy sword, then I would suggest you bear in mind that the Borg are known to employ personal energy shields capable of adapting to and repel heavy infantry phaser weapons.

There are all manner of real weapons that can screw up the Borg, including melee weapons. Phase swords are not among them. Please select something canonical or semi-canonical.

3: Your ship has a full slew of features, missiles, enormous amounts of firepower, and a crew exceeding twelve hundred, all in a ship smaller in raw size than any sort of equivalent ship. I normally do not care how big a given ship is, but in this case, it worries me that the ship is this size, in that it may have implications for its maneuverability and speed. I cannot allow a destroyer-class ship to be this heavily armed.

4: I should not need to explain why Anti-matter grenades are not merely a bad idea, but a very bad idea. Please understand my full meaning when the Game Master warns you that something is a very bad idea.

5: We are still measuring our missiles in the form of Megatonnage. This is not acceptable. I require some idea of the relative power of these missiles versus a photon torpedo. I require this overtly, and not by implication. I then can determine whether or not these missiles are acceptable.

6: Whether or not they are acceptable, I am very concerned about the level of firepower on this ship. The missiles are one thing, but the phasers are still enormous for a ship that is supposed to be cored around missile weapons. I need some form of breakdown as to where these phasers are located, in terms of forward and aft firing arcs.

Obviously this ship requires more work and fleshing out. I do however require that these concerns at least be addressed before I can resolve this ship.

[Hadrianvs]

Though it has been used as such occasionally in the past, Commodore is normally not a rank, but a title. It refers to a Captain who is in a position of greater authority than most ship captains, but who is not a Rear Admiral. While there have been occasions within certain navies where Commodore represented an actual rank, I do not know of any such cases in Star Trek. Given that an actual Commodore rank would put you in the position of outranking every other player of the game, this is something I need to have some support for if we are to treat it as a rank.

Moreover, if it is a rank, then for the reasons I just mentioned, I need very much to know what your character has done to merit its appointment, as it is a very unusual rank at best, as well as a very senior one.

Apparently there are canonical references to Commodore as a rank in TOS, but the speculation is that the rank was phased out between TOS and TNG, and replaced with Rear Admiral. Given that, for the purposes of this game, Commodore is an unofficial title given to Captains with greater responsibilities than just their one ship. You may call yourself a Commodore if you wish, but it will not reflect a higher rank than Captain.

Since you very casually used "Vulcan Admiral" as an example of the sort of character you can play, so I didn't think we were treating ranks very seriously. I picked Commodore due to a combination of my liking the word, having played Ace Combat 5 recently, and as the set-up for a joke or two. In the back story character picked up the rank when given command of a Task Force a year after the Battle of Earth. If it's bothersome I can downgrade to Captain and scratch the jokes off. Nobody but me thinks I'm funny anyway.

2: I have no idea what a "Phase Sword" is, and am relatively certain that it is not Star Trek canon. Given that, I am not prepared to accept it, as I have no idea what it is supposed to do, nor how effective it is at doing so. If it is some form of energy sword, then I would suggest you bear in mind that the Borg are known to employ personal energy shields capable of adapting to and repel heavy infantry phaser weapons.

Sorry, got my sci-fi settings confused. That's a Necron weapon. I could sworn I saw something like it in Star Trek once, but maybe it was fanfic. It goes.

3: Your ship has a full slew of features, missiles, enormous amounts of firepower, and a crew exceeding twelve hundred, all in a ship smaller in raw size than any sort of equivalent ship. I normally do not care how big a given ship is, but in this case, it worries me that the ship is this size, in that it may have implications for its maneuverability and speed. I cannot allow a destroyer-class ship to be this heavily armed.

Destroyer class ship? It's bigger than a Sovereign. Well, I had to eyeball diagrams to determine relative sizes, so there is room for error. The point is, I'm going for a battlecruiser. That's what I've always called it, and that's the size range I always imagined for it.

4: I should not need to explain why Anti-matter grenades are not merely a bad idea, but a very bad idea. Please understand my full meaning when the Game Master warns you that something is a very bad idea.

Usually when the Game Master says something is a "bad idea" with that much emphasis it indicates I'm going to wind up with a large and unsightly hole in my ship. I was figuring Van Thieu, while crazy, wasn't quite stupid enough to blow a hole in the warship he's stationed in. Which means that the things would never be used as anything other than a punchline unless I ever needed to demolish something with an away team.

5: We are still measuring our missiles in the form of Megatonnage. This is not acceptable. I require some idea of the relative power of these missiles versus a photon torpedo. I require this overtly, and not by implication. I then can determine whether or not these missiles are acceptable.

Ooooh, I get it now. I mentioned what their firepower was relative photon torpedoes in two different posts. You want it right there in my character sheet for easy reference.

6: Whether or not they are acceptable, I am very concerned about the level of firepower on this ship. The missiles are one thing, but the phasers are still enormous for a ship that is supposed to be cored around missile weapons. I need some form of breakdown as to where these phasers are located, in terms of forward and aft firing arcs.

It has as many weapon bays as a Sovereign, and two of those are defensive.


No comment on the weaknesses? I don't know if it's clear from the picture, but the dorsal warp nacelle is basically the most exposed part of the ship. Any enemy above, in front, behind, and to either side could have a shot at it, as would some enemies below. Provided that the shields facing that enemy are down, of course.

[General Havoc]

Since you very casually used "Vulcan Admiral" as an example of the sort of character you can play, so I didn't think we were treating ranks very seriously. I picked Commodore due to a combination of my liking the word, having played Ace Combat 5 recently, and as the set-up for a joke or two. In the back story character picked up the rank when given command of a Task Force a year after the Battle of Earth. If it's bothersome I can downgrade to Captain and scratch the jokes off. Nobody but me thinks I'm funny anyway.

You can call yourself the Caliph of Baghdad if you want, that's not the issue. The issue is that Commodore is not a Star Trek rank, at least not in the modern period. I just wanted to be clear that your official rank would be Captain, as that will be an issue for some other players.

Destroyer class ship? It's bigger than a Sovereign. Well, I had to eyeball diagrams to determine relative sizes, so there is room for error. The point is, I'm going for a battlecruiser. That's what I've always called it, and that's the size range I always imagined for it.

According to the figures I have, Sovereign-class ships are larger than yours in every single dimension (length, width, height). Of course I'm not terribly concerned with precise dimensions, but it struck me as a bit cramped in there, given the crew complement and weapons you have applied to the thing. So long as you are after a Battlecruiser role, I will be treating it as one.

Usually when the Game Master says something is a "bad idea" with that much emphasis it indicates I'm going to wind up with a large and unsightly hole in my ship. I was figuring Van Thieu, while crazy, wasn't quite stupid enough to blow a hole in the warship he's stationed in. Which means that the things would never be used as anything other than a punchline unless I ever needed to demolish something with an away team.

Well it's up to you, but bear in mind that one milligram of antimatter explodes with the approximate force several tons of high explosive. Not the sort of thing I would be eager to stuff into a hand grenade, but then that's me. If you really want antimatter grenades, you can have them. Just don't expect to be allowed to bring them aboard most other ships.

Ooooh, I get it now. I mentioned what their firepower was relative photon torpedoes in two different posts. You want it right there in my character sheet for easy reference.

I want to stress in the strongest possible language that measurements of power levels in this game are relative to one another, not to the real world. We can say a photon torpedo is 64 megatons, but that is hardly an agreed-upon figure. I've seen estimates thirty times greater than that, and I will not get into arguments down the road about actual explosive yields being used to justify something game-breaking. All munitions, particularly ones that are not canon, must absolutely be presented in relative terms with other in-game weapons. Only then can they be properly evaluated.

It has as many weapon bays as a Sovereign, and two of those are defensive.

There is no such thing as a defensive weapon bay. I'm guessing that you're referring to the disruptors in this case, but what you mean by defensive is not clear to me.

I asked in my comment for breakdowns insofar as frontal and rear facing weapons are concerned. This is not an idle request. Your weapons cannot face all directions at once. As to the concern of your total firepower, quantities of weapons bays are not the issue. Your ship is equipped with omnidirectional missiles of still indeterminate power. I am very concerned that it also has enough energy firepower to outgun most if not all of the other ships in the fleet. This is a concern that quite a few players have shared.

I need to evaluate this thing in totality, which means I need a full outline of the FULL firepower capacities of this thing, delineated with missile warhead yields (in relative terms, not megatonnage), the full capacities of the warhead systems in terms of firing capacity, arcs, and other special features, as WELL as the positioning and quantity of the energy weapons. I need the whole picture for this ship, and I need it in some detail, as this entire thing is semi-canonical and I otherwise don't know what to expect.

No comment on the weaknesses? I don't know if it's clear from the picture, but the dorsal warp nacelle is basically the most exposed part of the ship. Any enemy above, in front, behind, and to either side could have a shot at it, as would some enemies below. Provided that the shields facing that enemy are down, of course.

At this time, no, I do not have any comment on the weaknesses. I need a fuller picture of the ship before I can evaluate the weaknesses in terms of everyone else in the game.

[Hadrianvs]

You can call yourself the Caliph of Baghdad if you want, that's not the issue. The issue is that Commodore is not a Star Trek rank, at least not in the modern period. I just wanted to be clear that your official rank would be Captain, as that will be an issue for some other players.

Let's just keep it simple and I'll downgrade my character to Captain.

According to the figures I have, Sovereign-class ships are larger than yours in every single dimension (length, width, height). Of course I'm not terribly concerned with precise dimensions, but it struck me as a bit cramped in there, given the crew complement and weapons you have applied to the thing. So long as you are after a Battlecruiser role, I will be treating it as one.

It's because the Sovereign has an irregular shape. A significant portion of the length is just the nacelles stretching back. The width is the saucer, which drops to a third or less that much for the engineering hull. The height is from the lowest point of the engineering hull to either the top of the nacelles or the bridge. Either way it does not indicate actual hull thickness.

Also I specified main body dimensions for my ship. It does not count the parts that stick out behind, on top, or to the sides. Off-handedly if I were to count the two parts that stick up height would double, but most of it is just empty space. The half of the nacelles that aren't flush with the hull increase the stated length by about an eighth.

I think it's more useful to use the main body for sizing, but if you differ I can restate it as overall length.

I want to stress in the strongest possible language that measurements of power levels in this game are relative to one another, not to the real world. We can say a photon torpedo is 64 megatons, but that is hardly an agreed-upon figure. I've seen estimates thirty times greater than that, and I will not get into arguments down the road about actual explosive yields being used to justify something game-breaking. All munitions, particularly ones that are not canon, must absolutely be presented in relative terms with other in-game weapons. Only then can they be properly evaluated.

Okay, so you want me to put relative values in the character sheet and drop any mention of real world values that are not in degrees of arc.

There is no such thing as a defensive weapon bay. I'm guessing that you're referring to the disruptors in this case, but what you mean by defensive is not clear to me.

No, the AMD. It shoots down missiles and fighters. It might annoy a frigate if it gets close enough. Hence defensive weapons.

I need to evaluate this thing in totality, which means I need a full outline of the FULL firepower capacities of this thing, delineated with missile warhead yields (in relative terms, not megatonnage), the full capacities of the warhead systems in terms of firing capacity, arcs, and other special features, as WELL as the positioning and quantity of the energy weapons. I need the whole picture for this ship, and I need it in some detail, as this entire thing is semi-canonical and I otherwise don't know what to expect.

Right, you need more detail because you are not familiar with the design. Unlike if I had just said, "It's an Exelsior" or something. You told me this ahead of time, but I guess I didn't quite get it.

[rhoenix]

Ok Hadrianvs, here's my list of suggestions to make this simple.

- Drop the disruptors altogether.
- Drop the number of phaser emitters to four, and design them to more or less cover 360 degrees around your ship.
- The Kintzi could call their captains "commadores" I suppose, but to avoid confusion, just make it "captain." Or, even "fearless leader."

With those changes, having those missile tubes as you put them, and your anti-torpedo defense is fine.

Basically, your ship would have about average shields, low maneuverability, average speed, enough phasers for basic use and point defense, your scattershot to supplement the phasers, and enough missile tubes to make most other ships blink.

As for your Captain's Protoss Dark Templar Phase Blade... honestly, I'm okay with that. You can use a black hole as a sword if you want, it's still a sword, used for melee combat. Melee combat with the Borg is generally not a winning solution. If anything, you can use it as a Mighty Loknar to wow and humble the crew, and have that be the reason they follow a female, I suppose.

[Hadrianvs]

Four phaser and twelve missile racks is less armament than the considerably smaller Akira, and the Akira has fighters.

[rhoenix]

Four phaser and twelve missile racks is less armament than the considerably smaller Akira, and the Akira has fighters.

In that case, I'd cautiously add back the two disruptor cannons at Havoc's discretion.

Besides, the Akira doesn't have flak guns.

[LadyTevar]

Look, Hadri... we have spent 4 pages just on your ship. You've ignored all the advice we've tried to give you. You continue in spite of the GM telling you what will and won't work.

I think you've wasted enough of our time.

[General Havoc]

Hadri, I don't think you're understanding me.

I want you to tell me what the ship does. Tell me what the weapons do. Tell me what the ship is designed to do. Tell me about the ship, not in terms of megatonnage and arc-seconds, but in what the thing can do.

You say you have 10 phaser arrays. I need to know if they are mounted for firing forward or aft. Telling me the arc-degrees that they can cover is perhaps interesting, but in the end is secondary to knowing which way the guns are pointed. Are they all front-loaded to fire foreward? Are they split half and half? Are any mounted to cover the flanks, or dorsal/ventral fire? This is critical information. Without it, I cannot adjudicate the viability of this ship.

Similarly, you have a bunch of missiles is somewhat indeterminate power level. You say that they put out 42 Megatons of firepower on detonation. Again, interesting perhaps if you should wind up in a situation where we need to know the explosive yield of your weapons (assuming that your Megatonnage value stands up), but what we most need to know is what they can do relative to a standard photon torpedo. Is it half as powerful? Two thirds? As potent? What are the characteristics of these missiles relative to photon torpedoes? Are they faster? Do they track targets better? At what rate are your launchers able to deploy them? Can your launchers fire them in any direction you wish? Do they have the same range as a standard torpedo? Are they capable of mounting any other type of warhead? These are the sorts of questions I need answers for. You've answered some of them already, but haphazardly and in passing. I need discrete, accessible answers concerning these weapons located in your character sheet.

When I'm not GMing, I love to play non-standard, non-canon characters. I do it all the time. I drive my GMs mad with them. I made a child-bot in a Transformers game. I played a War Mech and a mound of animate water in two different superhero games. I'm the guy who brings robots to a fantasy setting, and wizards into Stargate. I'm the guy who pesters the GM to see if he can play a character of a race that he just invented that nobody's ever heard of. Take it from me, if you want to play characters that are not standard for the setting you are in, you must explain yourself to a higher degree and standard of detail than the other players. It is not sufficient to simply say that Akiras have this or Sovereigns that. Akiras are not Battlecruisers, nor are they armed with omnidirectional missiles, nor are you playing a ship that I am able to relate in any way to the Akira, as I still don't know where your guns are mounted or what your missiles can really do. We can have the debate on how many guns, missiles, and other toys you are allowed to have once we have established just what it is you are packing, and what these things are capable of doing.

Only after we have established this can we discuss what is too much.

[Hadrianvs]

EDIT - This is a reply to Lady Tevar

But I have followed your advice and the GMs instructions, at least as I am able to understand them.

-The ship has too many weapons, the weapons were cut to be equal in number to a Sovereign.
-Havoc said he wanted relative effectiveness of missiles, I posted them in two posts so far.
-He clarified that he wanted it in the character sheet and the removal of any real world measurements, and I will do that.
-Ship needs a weakeness, but I can't think of anything. Cynicat gave me some guidelines that I used, now there's a weakness.
-Ship size unclear, I clarified.
-Crew overlarge, I'll remove 200 people.
-The main character's rank doesn't work, she becames a Captain like everyone else.

I feel like I'm trying to find my way in the dark, but I don't know where the walls are until I bump into them.

If the players don't want me around, I'll leave. I don't want to force my presence on anyone, even if the GM is still willing to let me play.

Also, if General Havoc decides that the ship is too much trouble, I can take a stock ship. My character spent most of the Borg Invasion commanding a Sovereign, I can just have her never switch to a different ship. If nobody wants the newb in charge of a battlecruiser I'll even take a boring old ship like an Excelsior.

[General Havoc]

I think, Hadri, given everything, it might be best if you shifted to a stock ship. I'm not against weird non-canonical ships in principle, but we're clearly not connecting in terms of what I need and you're providing for this one. I'm available to help with any design you wish to go with, be it Excelsior or anything else.

[Hadrianvs]

I think I see the fundamental point of misunderstanding with the GM. I was expecting that I would provide a general concept and General Havoc, as GM, would fill in most of the details. From my end it works out like that even picking a stock ship. I only have a vague idea about the capabilities of Star Trek vessels, anchored by disconnected data points I've found on the the internet (a few of which have turned out to be bullshit). Most of the questions Havoc asked me in his last post are questions I cannot answer for any Star Trek ship, unless we were playing Starfleet Command II.

Basically, I figured I could pick a ship and find out what it could do as the game progressed, or outline one and also find out what it could do as the game progressed. On examination I see that this is unrealistic and unfair to the GM, especially in the second case where there are simply no references available to him.

I'm sorry I've been wasting people's time because I failed to understand what was required of me.


So, what I would like to do is attempt one more time to submit a starship that gives Havoc all the data he needs to properly GM it. If it is still unnaceptable, I will desist and submit a modernized Ambassador-class heavy cruiser with warp nacelle damage.

If Havoc doesn't feel like allowing me one more shot, then he need only say so and I will skip straight to submitting the Ambassador.

[rhoenix]

So, what I would like to do is attempt one more time to submit a starship that gives Havoc all the data he needs to properly GM it. If it is still unnaceptable, I will desist and submit a modernized Ambassador-class heavy cruiser with warp nacelle damage.

If Havoc doesn't feel like allowing me one more shot, then he need only say so and I will skip straight to submitting the Ambassador.

Okay. I am certainly not Havoc, but without seeing a response, I'll give mine.

If Havoc lets you try one more time, please answer these questions:

Phaser mountings - where each one is mounted, and roughly what their coverage is. e.g., "mounted on left prow of ship, covers an arc from forward left to forward of the ship, overlapping with the mount on the right prow." If they're more or less powerful than your average phasers, that would be good to know.

Torpedoes - you have all your tubes listed. Wonderful. Now we need to know how many more you have remaining, and what type they all are. For this purpose, measure all torpedo's efficacy in terms of "photon torpedo units." For instance, a quantum torps would be worth 1.5ptu - 3ptu in terms of power.

Shielding - Just how good is it? I'm expecting an answer of "stock" here.

Armor - Do you have any? I'm guessing not.


Now, all of this is assuming Havoc is willing to let you have another try. If not, I would remind you that Havoc's NPC is already flying an Ambassador. Given what you wanted, I'd suggest an Akira. Yes, Tev already has one, but I daresay hers will be used very differently from yours.

[General Havoc]

I would far prefer that Hadri duplicate my NPC ship than Tev's.

I'm still coming to a decision on this one. Please stand by.

[rhoenix]

I'm still coming to a decision on this one. Please stand by.

Of course. My intention was not to force the issue.

[Hotfoot]

I have adjusted my ship to better illustrate the capabilities of my ship, particularly in combat. Included in this is weapon facings, specifics of the Empyrean's sensors, ECM, and Matrix Incursion Systems. Some of this is pending Havoc's review, but there it is.

[General Havoc]

All right Hadri, this is not something I normally do for my players, but I'm making an exception in this case. I am prepared to create a ship for you, one that meets all of the basic parameters we've been discussing, that is a Kzinti cruiser based around large-scale omnidirectional fusion missile armament. If you wish for me to do this, I will build you a ship that meets these criteria, that is balanced with the rest of the fleet, and that fits into a niche.

However, if I create this ship, it will pretty much be a take it or leave it scenario. Baring minor changes, the ship will represent my notion of how these things work. You are not required to take it, but if you do not, you will have to take a stock ship of some kind.

Let me know if you'd like to give my rendition of a Kzinti missile cruiser a consideration, and I'll create one.

[LadyTevar]

While a part of me thinks that these people need to hear the words "Captain Kirk", I think Frigid's Capt. Anderson and Cyncat's Captain Kaden make the best spokesmen for this very large mob of people.

Eoife will stand up as Captain Kirk only if ordered.

[rhoenix]

Though it was not well-stated, I did have my ship send the Barbarossa a standard hail, directing them to Nivoch traffic control.

[Hotfoot]

For the record, the codes on board the Empyrean are not some sort of standard Federation system, but rather a private code for the ship.

You know, as part of Starfleet Regulations about all unsecured transmissions.

[SirNitram]

Big ass transporter beam resolving in atmosphere, then nothing. Yea, that's noticable.

[General Havoc]

As per Hadrianvs' request, I have prepared the following ship, persuant to the discussions of what her preferences are, specifically a heavy missile cruiser from the Kzinti. I understand that this might not be what you initially wanted, but it is, I believe, a good rendition for a ship that will fit into this thread, in that is is balanced with the other players, and occupies a distinct role that is not quite duplicated by any other ship.

USS Exultant, formerly KHS Blackheart Ravager

Ihtarlik-class Heavy Missile Cruiser

Design: Following the Earth-Kzin war, the Federation imposed weapons restrictions on the Kzinti, forbidding them to construct warships armed with the heaviest and most advanced grades of weapons available to the other Alpha Quadrant powers. Bound by the restrictions of this treaty, the Kzinti were, for several centuries, forced to depend upon the Federation to defend themselves from major military threats. It was not until the middle of the 24th century that engineers on the Kzin homeworld began looking at the restrictions they had been placed under in a new light. Rather than attempting to violate the Earth-Kzin accords, as they had in the past, the Kzinti engineers worked with the letter of the restrictions, to attempt to produce a ship that could provide a credible defense and space superiority threat, even with the restricted and inferior weapons technology permitted them by the treaty.

Prohibited antimatter or disruptor technology by the accords, the Ihtarlik-class was designed around a level of technology thought-superceded by the major powers: Nuclear Fusion. Though devastating to unshielded planets or unarmored civilian ships, nuclear weapons were, by the 24th century, an archaic weapons system, considered obsolete with the advent of advanced Sturctural Integrity Fields and Starship shields. The clever Kzinti engineers however recast these weapons in a new light, bringing numbers and flexibility to bear where raw warhead yield would not suffice. Though the Federation protested, the Ihtarlik-class of Missile Cruiser that the Kzinti devised was technically and strictly within the limits of the Kzin-Earth accords, and so Starfleet was unable to prevent the Kzinti from constructing a dozen such units, the last of which were undergoing field tests when the Borg attacked. Though the Kzinti were swept aside, along with all the other Alpha Quadrant powers, one or two Ihtarlik Cruisers were rumored to have escaped, making their way into the galaxy at large, no longer fettered by the Federation, but hunted now by an enemy a thousand times worse... the Borg.


Weapons systems: The Exultant, like all Ihtarlik-class ships, is classified a Missile Cruiser, primarily due to the enormous firepower contained within its batteries of Thermonuclear fusion missiles. Unlike torpedoes, these missiles are agile, omnidirectional weapons, launched from one of the six enormous salvo-firing turreted launchers that line the ventral and dorsal sides of the ship. Each battery can fire as many as four missiles at once, though more commonly they launch in pairs from each battery, for a normal salvo of twelve missiles, and a maximal salvo of twenty four.

Kzinti missiles are models of speed and agility, their lighter warheads permitting a larger proportion of the missile casing to be devoted to maneuvering capacity. The turrets are swivel-mounted, and can spin round to fire towards both rear, front, and flank arcs, and the missiles themselves are targeted with great precision, aimed at specific portions of larger ships, or precise pre-arranged detonation points. While no faster than most heavy torpedoes, the additional agility of Kzinti missiles presents their firing coordinators with options that their compatriots only dream of.

However this speed and volume of fire comes at a price. Kzinti missiles are armed with nuclear warheads, advanced ones, admittedly, but still based on the principles of nuclear fusion now considered nearly two centuries out of date. The raw payloads of Kzinti missiles vary, usually estimated at between 15 and 30 megatons, but against modern shields, hull alloys, and ablative armor, that yield is relatively meager. An individual Kzinti missile, fired into a modern warship, has approximately one quarter of the yield of one standard Federation Photon torpedo. While normally this would not be as large of an issue, given the large volume of missiles deployed, nuclear weapons, like all mass-explosives, suffer from the principle of sympathetic detonation, wherein one missile's explosion can effectively destroy the others. As fusion missiles require very precise chain reactions to produce the desired effect, sympathetic detonation renders pinpoint-strikes useless with missile volleys, forcing the Kzinti to spread their fire out all over the target ship, and negating all possible advantages of pinpoint fire. In short, Kzinti nuclear missiles cannot punch holes through enemy defenses, but must either sand down the defenses on a broad front, or exploit penetrations made by other weapons.

Though this is a serious limitation, those who dismiss the Ihtarlik-class of Missile Crusiers would be well-advised to consider the advantages of mass-fire. The Ihtarlik is a Heavy cruiser, and its cavernous hull can store as many as nine hundred heavy fusion missiles, automatically fed to the launchers in refresh cycles of as little as six seconds. This enables the ship to release an unending deluge of nuclear fire onto its target, and while the missiles lack the overall punch of torpedo volleys, relentless battering can attrit the defenses of even the mightiest enemy vessel. Enemy light craft, such as fighters or shuttles, are advised to stay well away from a Kzin missile cruiser, as the ship can target its missiles at points in space, creating a curtain of fire that can simply vaporize incoming fighters, shuttles, or even enemy ordinance. What's more, the cruiser can deploy this curtain to cover other nearby ships, negating the effectiveness of torpedo-heavy enemy vessels.

Finally, nuclear weapons are notoriously "dirty" in terms of the aftereffects of radiation and heavy elemental discharges that they leave in their wake, an attribute enhanced in the Kzinti's case through "salting" the warheads with bicobalt, iridium, and other heavy elements. While this radiation is not sufficient to threaten the crew of even a partially-intact starship, it can easily have the effect of interfering with the delicate targeting and short range sensors of enemy vessels. Ships caught in a cascading Kzinti nuclear bombardment often find themselves blinded, unable to determine where the enemy threat is or where the unending hail of missiles is coming from, making it very difficult indeed to retaliate against the otherwise ungainly and lightly-armed Missile Cruiser.

In addition to the missile systems, the Ihtarlik-class sports only very basic close-range defensive systems. Four heavy phaser beam arrays, three in front, one behind, comprise the entirety of the Ihtarlik-class' close defense systems. The ship is slow and hulking, powered not by antimatter, but by enormous fusion reactors that double as production facilities for the fissile material in the missiles. It does however sport heavy shields and armor, comparable to those of a battlecruiser or even a heavy cruiser, though it lacks the firepower or speed to do much beyond simply taking fire should any be directed its way.



Additional Advantages:

Disruptor cannons: A pair of heavy disruptors, scavenged from God-knows-where, have been crudely bolted onto the bow of the ship, drawing power directly from the forward fusion reactor. Though the weapons are inconsistent, often failing altogether at the worst possible moment, as well as locked to the facing of the ship, preventing anything but crude aiming, they do enhance the ship's energy weapon firepower to an extent. Though worse than an intrinsic weapon, they are certainly better than nothing.

Missile Production facility: Placed right in the middle of the ship's armory is an ersatz nuclear weapons production facility, complete with breeder reactors, cyclotrons, and industrial forges and replicators able to generate the casings and guidance systems of Kzin Fusion warheads. This facility, crude as it is, is what has kept the ship in ordinance, and has the capacity, given proper materials, to produce four dozen new missiles daily.


Weakness:

Radiation leak: Awash in highly volatile radioactive materials, the Exultant leaks radiation like a sieve. All efforts to halt the discharge of highly-charged radioactive particles having failed, the ship now leaves a trail of particles, easily detected by any passing ship. Though the crew of the ship have, so far, managed to avoid irradiating the living quarters of the ship, this remains a risk, and regardless of internal leekage, the external release paints a bright red target on the ship itself, rendering it next-to-impossible to disguise its passing, presence, or approach. Needless to say, this can render captains operating in the Exultant's vicinity very nervous indeed...