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Thread: Starship Components

  1. #1

    Question Starship Components

    And a hello to all of you out there from a first-time poster on this board (though certainly not a first-time reader...).

    Just want to start off with saying I love wargaming. I've gotten quite a few role-playing systems just to see what their capabilities are, and then later on decided that it would be kind of cool to play them. The LUG ST stuff I have I wouldn't sell for anything. Love it. And when I first discovered Spacedock, well...I haven't stopped designing ships yet.

    When the ICON system closure was announced, it was a dark day. However, this new CODA system is pretty good, and I've got other RPGs to work on as well.

    I love writing, and more than once I've written out one of the 'episodes' that was played in story form. Lots of fun there.

    But I digress from the main subject. With regard to Starships...has anybody tried to come up with their own components? I'm trying to run an Enterprise era series for writing purposes, and some of the troubles I've come up with have been:

    a) Lack of Starfleet vessels. While one possible solution is an officer exchange with the Vulcans, it could get too complex, and the CO of the vessel wouldn't be a human (so I'm prejudiced...but hey, I've played aliens before...)

    b) Travel distances and trying not to interfere/tangent with the Enterprise plotline. Talk about tough.

    So, to try to solve both at once, I've come up with the following, and it's got some nice benefits.

    Solution: I've got to design a new starship, maybe an interim class while the NX-class ships are still getting spun up. With the rest of the human vessels in Sol System being capable of (I think) around warp 1.8, it's a LONG trip for any vessel except Big E to venture beyond one or two light years, at least until NX-02 (which I believe is to be named Columbia) is commissioned. So I'm designing a new ship, smaller than the NX class, with basically the mission being to follow up on some of the first contacts that Archer and his crew have made, and to help safeguard some of those Earth Cargo Ships out there. I'm looking for a maximum warp speed of about 3.5 to warp 3.8, but because the Warp 5 engines take so long to construct, I've got to come up with an alternate engine. The WE-2c components are to slow, even with engine upgrades such as prototype and enhanced system. So what I was thinking was, due to the time gap between the production of the WE-2c component (2133) and the WE-5 (2151), maybe there's an interim design, or enhancements that can be made to the WE-2c component using data gathered by Enterprise. Kind of like a retrofitting for a modern-day warship. I was thinking the following:

    System: WE-2c Mod II
    Space: Size x 2.5
    Standard/Sustainable/Maximum Speed: 1.5/2.2/3.5 (OCU)
    Reliability: A
    Maximum Size: 5
    Availability: 2151

    Okay. That's the first one. Here's the second one:

    System: WE-2c Mod III
    Space: Size x 2.75
    Standard/Sustainable/Maximum Speed: 1.5/2.2/3.8 (OCU)
    Reliability: A
    Maximum Size: 5
    Availability: 2152

    I figured that with Archer's data from NX-01 coming in, Starfleet would be refining its warp drives, both in the production stages, and those out in the field, using the information and available resources, especially in light of the fact that it's not a happy universe out there. Now, the reason for the additional space when compared to a WE-5 is that, remember, this is based on an older system, using modern data to upgrade its capabilities. I'm thinking that Starfleet would probably drop the Mod III, due to the fact that it takes up too much space to be viable, but it could work on probably the test-bed ship for the modifications.

    Any ideas?

    Oh, one more question for Don (if it's been addressed before, sorry...) In the Starships book, it says that photon torpedo launchers don't become available until...2161. Is it just a slip due to the constantly-changing nature of canon Trek? Because Enterprise is packing photon torpedoes and it's only 2153 (or is it '54?)

    Thanks for listening, and I look forward to your comments.
    "...For I intend to sail in harm's way!"

    -John Paul Jones

  2. #2
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    I've already home brewed a WE-3 and WE-4 for my Intrepid type ships and other Starfleet ships I'm coming up with. They a like a WE-2 but take a space or two more, the WE-5 is just more powerful and space efficient.
    "Retreat?! Hell, we just got here!", annonymous American Marine, WWI

    "Gravity is a harsh mistress....", The Tick

  3. #3

    Lightbulb

    Any chance you could throw those specs my way?

    I figured WE-3 and WE-4 would be around somewhere...but I've bent my head looking for them.
    "...For I intend to sail in harm's way!"

    -John Paul Jones

  4. #4
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    These are my home-made warp drives, I figure that there should be a more gradual advance in warp drive technology, or that these are stop gaps until the WE-5 was perfected. These take up more space than a WE-5, the WE-3 is the more reliable of these new engines, but the WE-4 pushes the envelope and might have been the standard engine for Starfleet if the WE-5 had taken more development time. The WE-3 and WE-4 are almost mechanically identical, but the WE-4 has an upgraded computer system and software attached that more efficiently handles the plasma flow and matter/anti-matter mix.

    System: WE-3
    Space: (Size X2)+5
    Standard/Sustainable/Maximum Speed: 1/2/3 (OCU)
    Reliability: B
    Maximum Size: 5
    Availability: 2140

    System: WE-4
    Space: (Size X2)+5
    Standard/Sustainable/Maximum Speed: 2/3/4 (OCU)
    Reliability: A
    Maximum Size: 5
    Availability: 2147

    As for the availability of photonic torpedoes, I would assume that they are still rare and expensive in the 22nd century and only the NX or the "Intrepid" type of starships will mount them, the rest of the fleet will have to make do with Spatial Torpedoes and Atomics. If the Romulan War starts on schedule, the less expensive designs and gear will be used more often than the expensive stuff, so the smaller Daedalus-class, lasers, and atomic weapons instead of NX-class, phase cannon, and photonic and spatial torpedoes.
    Last edited by Antonsb214; 05-17-2004 at 11:35 AM.
    "Retreat?! Hell, we just got here!", annonymous American Marine, WWI

    "Gravity is a harsh mistress....", The Tick

  5. #5
    Sweet. Personnally, I'm not sure that we're going to see much of the Romulan Wars. Remember, at latest, this series is in 2154, and nobody determined how long the war went on, just the date of the ending, ~2160, IIRC. I think you're right about the scarcity of technology...but I do think we're going to see phase cannons rather than lasers.

    I'm going to jot down these components. Feel free to do the same to mine. I think Starfleet would've gone both ways, with regards to these components, so I'll have to think about using both of them.

    When I'm done, I'll post the stats for the Aldebaran-class destroyer (that's the name I came up with).

    -Mustang
    "...For I intend to sail in harm's way!"

    -John Paul Jones

  6. #6
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    I've started working on working up component lists based upon stuff I saw at the ASDB websight. They have a lot of stuff from the old Tech plans and blueprints-including some stuff from the ENTERPRISE era.

    Ideally, I hope to be able to write up practially any Trek ship just by looking at the listed components, such as RIM-12C phasers, "Lancelot" defelctor shield, or LN-64B warp engines.

    Neat in theory. Not quite so neat in practice.

    If nothing else, it gives me some appreciation on what Don and the others went through writing up STARSHIPS.

  7. #7
    Any chance you could post a link to that site for me? It sounds like some place I'd like to check out...
    "...For I intend to sail in harm's way!"

    -John Paul Jones

  8. #8
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    Originally posted by Mustang
    Any chance you could post a link to that site for me? It sounds like some place I'd like to check out...
    Sure, it is http://www.asdb.net/asdb/index.htm

    THe site has quie a few pdf files that are in a format similar to the Ships of the Star Fleet book.

    Watch out though, as with most TREK sites, some of thier info is a bit suspect. I am still reverse engineering some of thier designs to figure out a few of the basic assumptions they made.

    I think they use the old wf^4 scale for the TNG era ships. This is since they list stats for the EXCELSIOR, and although the Warp ENgines are the same LN-74 for the 2284 and 24th century version, but the 2284 version would be faster if we used the 10/3 asomythic scale for TNG. IF we use a ~3.95 factor the speeds seem to match with the OCU speeds, so I am assuming that the TNG version is at least as fast as the orginal.


    One other mystery that I think I have cleared up are the six 14B phaser emplacements on the Enterprise (the 2270 Constitutuion refit). After watching STII:TWOK the 14Bs appear to be pulse phasers, since they have the same visual effect as the Reliant'S pulse phaser-cannons. It looks like the 14Bs were for close in use, and the 12Cs for use at range.

  9. #9
    I haven't figured out the exact conversion (been on really good pain meds the past few weeks, makes the brain fuzzy) but the LN-64 Mod 3 and LN-72 seem to give reasonable "new scale" speeds... equal to the Ambasador, anyway.

    In my game, using a Constellation, they will keep their original engines.

    Target on the mover!

  10. #10
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    Originally posted by tanksoldier
    I haven't figured out the exact conversion (been on really good pain meds the past few weeks, makes the brain fuzzy) but the LN-64 Mod 3 and LN-72 seem to give reasonable "new scale" speeds... equal to the Ambasador, anyway.

    In my game, using a Constellation, they will keep their original engines.

    Which speeds? The ones from STARSHIPS or the ones from the ASDB?

    The ASDB versions of the ships do seem to keep the same engines since thier wf are a bit higher that STARSHIPS, and so rate right up there in TNG.

    STARSHIPS engine write ups aren't quite as fast as ASDB writeups, but still quite acceptable in MCU terms, with the Constitution (refit) at wf 5.76/7.22/9.3 and the Excelsior at wf 6.5/7.95/9.7 (not much worse than the wf 6/9.2/9.8 of the refitted version).


    It probably a reasonable assumption that future mods on the LN-72 (Mod 2) and other earlier engines could imrpove thier performance.

    A lot of speculation goes into where or not Movie-era ships that appear in the TNG era are signficantly refitte with new equipment or if the older stuff is just tweaked.

    All depends on how much more powerful you think TNG era ships should be compared to Movie-era ships, and thus how much the Movie-era hold overs have been upgraded.

    Considering that none of the older Starfleet ships seem to win any of the starship battles, perhaps they haven't been upgraded that much at all.

  11. #11
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    tanksoldier,

    I'm curious. What write did you use for the Constellation-class? Something from the boards or a custom write up?

  12. #12
    For the Constellation I'm using Sea Tyger's version, slightly modified to suit my own vision of the ST universe and "the way things work".

    Target on the mover!

  13. #13
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    Originally posted by tanksoldier
    For the Constellation I'm using Sea Tyger's version, slightly modified to suit my own vision of the ST universe and "the way things work".

    Cool, Sea Tyger's write ups are pretty decent in CODA SS terms. And SS makes it very easy to tweak designs. You could even have both versions in a campaign with little problem.

    Probably the most documented ship in TREK (The orignal Enterprise) has so many conflicting bits of information practcally any reasonably close write up makes a decent variant in CODA. Heck, even the CODA write ups don't match up with each other.

    I've been toying with starting my next campaign in the 2260s, just before TOS I can imagine the look of glee on some players faces when theier laser armed Constitution-class goes to resupply and gets 6 Type III phasers added to the armament.

    And the surprise when they open up the cargo containers containing the old TOS-style phaser rifles.

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