Star Trek: The Quadratic War

[Josh]

I love working with Klingon engine spaces. I imagine them as being like actual engines, with pipes and gauges and levers and shit, none of this sterile-ass carpeted bullshit with isolinear chips and everything done by LCARS interface.

[Lys]

*looks at Agent Fisher's ship*

"The destroyer escort that fought like a battleship"

*looks at her own ship*

"The Bird of Prey that fought like a Negh'var"

God fucking dammit. i'm even in the middle of writing a Battle off Masar, part of the larger Battle of Yetel, anagrams of Samar and Leyte, respectively. i write too slow. ;_;

Though, i appreciate Fisher making his CO a woman. We don't have enough of those. In fact unless i finish my character and ship sometime this year, there's only Eiofe Kirk.

[Agent Fisher]

Would it make it better or worse that I banged that out in two hours last night after a night of drinking?

Also, I just finished Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, a great book about the Battle off Samar. So, it was a debate for either the Samuel B. Roberts, or the USS Johnston, the Destroyer that broke formation, charged in alone, rippled off their torpedoes and blew the bow of a heavy cruiser.

[Josh]

Gotta go with the Sammy B.

Read Neptune's Inferno next.

[Lys]

Heh, makes it better, shows you have good judgement even when drunk.

i've not read the book, but i have read accounts of the battle elsewhere, and it was a damn impressive military action. The Khanjar's Bird of Prey incarnation was a combination of Hoel and Samuel B. Roberts, with its CO taking the role of William Dow Thomas in commanding the other Birds of Prey in defending the carrier escorts. It's okay though, it wasn't a large part of the overall story, i can use the submarines Harder and Barb as inspirations instead, since both their COs won the Medal of Honour and four Navy Crosses.

[White Haven]

If it makes you feel any better, Lys, the ranking officer aboard Scylla is an Andorian female-analogue. She's not in command, but hey, them's the breaks.

[General Havoc]

I love working with Klingon engine spaces. I imagine them as being like actual engines, with pipes and gauges and levers and shit, none of this sterile-ass carpeted bullshit with isolinear chips and everything done by LCARS interface.

I approve of this concept. There should be also be random and extraneous pipes which occasionally leak steam for no reason anyone can possibly fathom.

Though, i appreciate Fisher making his CO a woman. We don't have enough of those. In fact unless i finish my character and ship sometime this year, there's only Eiofe Kirk.

I agree. But then it's up to the players to play what they wish.

Would it make it better or worse that I banged that out in two hours last night after a night of drinking?

Also, I just finished Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, a great book about the Battle off Samar. So, it was a debate for either the Samuel B. Roberts, or the USS Johnston, the Destroyer that broke formation, charged in alone, rippled off their torpedoes and blew the bow of a heavy cruiser.

Gotta go with the Samuel Roberts on this one. Nothing against the USS Johnson, but the former sounds far more destroyer-y as a name.

[Josh]

I approve of this concept. There should be also be random and extraneous pipes which occasionally leak steam for no reason anyone can possibly fathom.

This would be the Klingon equivalent of Federation control consoles exploding any time passerby give a Federation starship a funny look.

[General Havoc]

I approve of this concept. There should be also be random and extraneous pipes which occasionally leak steam for no reason anyone can possibly fathom.

This would be the Klingon equivalent of Federation control consoles exploding any time passerby give a Federation starship a funny look.

I was thinking that this was actually a design decision.

"Why do we have a poorly fitting steam pipe? Nothing in this ship runs on steam!"

"You are insulting my honor!" *Beheads*

[Josh]

I'd trade a steamy-pipe scene for the removal of Timberlake, but I have plans for Mr. Timberlake, so I'll do some steamy pipes anyway.

[rhoenix]

I'd trade a steamy-pipe scene for the removal of Timberlake, but I have plans for Mr. Timberlake, so I'll do some steamy pipes anyway.

The tender's engineers are going to hate you when they pull his corpse out from one of those pipes if they refit your ship. Especially if he's been marinading in there for a while.

[Josh]

Oh no, I have something much better in mind.

[rhoenix]

Oh no, I have something much better in mind.

I'm not sure whether I want or don't want it to involve him getting fired from a cannon.

[Lys]

Good God, i just wrote nearly one thousand words detailing the history of my ship while under the command of a man who is now dead. That's 960 words dedicated to a selling a particular back story element of little long term relevance, hours of effort put into not talking about any of the characters i'm actually going to be roleplaying. Clearly my priority and time management skills are as atrocious as ever. It was a fun ride to write it all out, but i'm wondering if it was worth it. On the plus side, if this doesn't sell it, nothing short of a feature length film will.

Anyway, i'm tired and mildly cranky, so imma nitpick things i decided not to earlier:

Tractor beams... depends on the size of a target, but for little things, on the order of 10-20 thousand km. For big things, much less.

That's terribly unspecific. Using my own judgement and Havoc's handy guide here, my guess is that in combat situations they're only useful at short and point blank range, meaning less than 100 km.

Frigates though they are, these are capital ships, easily as lethal as a Jem'Hadar attack ship or Klingon Bird of Prey if not moreso.

Under the terminology you outlined, which roughly corresponds to WW2 through modern day terminology, capital ships are battleships, battlecruisers, fleet carriers, and heavy cruisers. Anything lighter is not a capital ship, destroyers and frigates are most certainly not.

Borg Tactical Cube (yes, those are coming)

You know, the name always seemed weird. If it was a smaller Cube, uparmoured and upgunned for its size, then the name would make sense. However it's a regular Cube with heavy armour bolted on, which sounds more like "Assault Cube" to me.

After all, if the Exterminators were mere chaff, why would the Borg see fit to deploy them?

More cogently, Alpha Quadrant powers wouldn't have dubbed them Exterminators if they weren't particularly dangerous.


*sigh* i should stop blabbing about a game i haven't even submitted a full character to yet. It's lazy and bad form. v_v

[rhoenix]

Outline, sketch, shade, and expound, Lys. That process helps me keep focused on each stage, anyway.

On another topic, I think it says much that several of us are voluntarily inviting so much drama, both short-term and long term. I am, it looks like Josh definitely is, and I know Marcao is.

Then again, to paraphrase another show, drama makes things interesting.

[Josh]

Oh I have plans.

Beautiful, beautiful plans.

(Assuming that I don't my ship vaporized in the next engagement.)

Also, I would never foul my precious cannons with the Timberlake.

[General Havoc]

Okay, firstly, Fisher, I've thought about your character design, and while the basic idea works fine, the ship needs a little tweak. Simply put, you can't fit two triple-turret torpedo launchers on a Defiant in addition to the other weapons. It's not just the space for the launchers and magazines, though there's that, it's also the power systems required to run them. Defiants are pushing the limits of their own power plant to begin with, and a triple turret belching six torpedoes out at once is going to exceed even what I think is practicable.

I'm prepared to consider a single rotary torpedo turret (along the lines of the ones that DS9 sported) on the ventral and another on the dorsal side of the ship, certainly, as there would be both space and power for them. This would give them full 360 degree coverage below or above respectively, and add considerable weight to your firepower without pushing things. Just my suggestion.

As to the rest...

That's terribly unspecific. Using my own judgement and Havoc's handy guide here, my guess is that in combat situations they're only useful at short and point blank range, meaning less than 100 km.

More or less correct, though I'm prepared to consider range extensions for those whose ships are inclined to violate such strictures (Science vessels etc...)

Under the terminology you outlined, which roughly corresponds to WW2 through modern day terminology, capital ships are battleships, battlecruisers, fleet carriers, and heavy cruisers. Anything lighter is not a capital ship, destroyers and frigates are most certainly not.

This is not World War Two nor a modern day navy, but Star Trek, wherein frigates and destroyers, defined though they may be as "escort" vessels, are still often used and regarded as capital ships. I need look no further than Star Trek II, wherein the Miranda-class Frigate, USS Reliant, is indeed employed as a capital vessel, despite its status. We can discuss whether frigate (or destroyer) is the right term to use for these sorts of ships, but it is the one I have drawn from canon and it is the one we are using in this game. And all of them are capital ships in a way that the Danube, Hideki, or Peregrine classes are not.

You know, the name always seemed weird. If it was a smaller Cube, uparmoured and upgunned for its size, then the name would make sense. However it's a regular Cube with heavy armour bolted on, which sounds more like "Assault Cube" to me.

Agreed, but it is however the term that most people seem to recognize. Tactical cubes in this game (spoiler alert) are up-armored cubes with sheets of hyper-dense material laminated over the standard laticework. They are also upgunned. Think about that for a second.

[Josh]

FASA did such a better job with ships and classifications than the later stuff. I would totally groove on some old-school FASA STRPG one of these years.

[White Haven]

Well, at least we're staying in a stable timeline. Otherwise we'd end up with timecubes, and that's not good for anyone.

[rhoenix]

Timecubes are great for everyone! THEY LET YOU HAVE MORE HOURS PER DAY!

[Marcao]

Hey Lys,

Sorry I am getting back to you via this thread so late. While I can sympathize with the pull and appeal of the battle cruiser and ultimately, it is your call as to what you want to play I will point out that kitting our your proposed unique weapon system to deal with smaller threats may be something that you should consider. I am suggesting this solely due to the current break down of forces in the task force so far. The majority of our current forces as I see it seem to lean towards fighting spheres and larger threats. I know the S'harien is designed for this. The Gilgamesh has the mass driver system that likely generally is used on Cubes. The Barbarossa has two large scale cutting lasers that are designed to hit large targets. We do have some missile boats (Kirk's Akira) but your proposed missiles would present some advantages if they end up being faster/more agile than a standard torpedo. This is simply something to consider, at the end of the day, you have to be happy with what you choose to play.


:)

P.S Exterminators are a pain in the ass and if your missile system is agile enough to maybe work like Patriot missiles against some of those dreaded Skippers? I think we would all love you forever.

[frigidmagi]

[quote="rhoenix ]Timecubes are great for everyone! THEY LET YOU HAVE MORE HOURS PER DAY!
[/quote]

I want you know that I am your friend and am very fond of you. That said sir, if you mention those... Things! around here again, I will see you disciplined . I will not have that.. awful filth on my board! No sir! Gotta have standards!

[Cynical Cat]

FASA did such a better job with ships and classifications than the later stuff. I would totally groove on some old-school FASA STRPG one of these years.

If only the game mechanics were better . . .

[Josh]

FASA did such a better job with ships and classifications than the later stuff. I would totally groove on some old-school FASA STRPG one of these years.

If only the game mechanics were better . . .

Bah, I never care about the mechanics. I just pervert those to suit me anyway. But the setting, the setting was beautiful.

Character creation was pretty cool too, even if gameplay wasn't so great.

Did you ever see the Tactical Combat Simulator? Not the Combat Game, which was the watered down, sissy version. The TCS was grognard as fuck, with powering specific shield arcs and weapons banks. Sooooo much better than SFB.

[Cynical Cat]

FASA did such a better job with ships and classifications than the later stuff. I would totally groove on some old-school FASA STRPG one of these years.

If only the game mechanics were better . . .

Bah, I never care about the mechanics. I just pervert those to suit me anyway. But the setting, the setting was beautiful.

Character creation was pretty cool too, even if gameplay wasn't so great.

Did you ever see the Tactical Combat Simulator? Not the Combat Game, which was the watered down, sissy version. The TCS was grognard as fuck, with powering specific shield arcs and weapons banks. Sooooo much better than SFB.

Why yes I did. Romulan Winged Defender bitches!