Planetary Phaser Batteries

[redwood973]

Stats, floor plan, and a pic.

[redwood973]

Did you know if you edit a message to remove an attachment, it will not let you attach another attachment after the first had been removed?

Edit to remove file. See new and improved datasheet below.

[Tobian]

Hmm I'm thinking that place sure has alot of toilets, untill I caught on they were desks with chairs

it's a little hard to work out what's going on in that plan without a legend. It also doesn't seem to relate to the nice illustration either.

I would suspect something like this would have to have a HUGE reactor which would probably have an engineering like facility / operations - with basic accomodation on a seperate level and the mechanism it's self above that all..

either way it's interesting but a description would be good

[redwood973]

It's a little hard to work out what's going on in that plan without a legend. It also doesn't seem to relate to the nice illustration either.

--Tobian

Sorry, I just assumed it would be easy to figure out without a legend. As for relating to the illustration. . .it shouldn't relate. The subsurface layout has nothing to do with the above ground structure. The surface structure is just the emitter and its housing. . .all the goodies are in the subsurface structure.

I would suspect something like this would have to have a HUGE reactor which would probably have an engineering like facility / operations - with basic accomodation on a seperate level and the mechanism it's self above that all. . .

--Tobian

I have no idea. I could find very little reference to planetary defense batteries. . .from any source. I don't know about huge reactors, it's just a small planetary bldg., it only needs about 55 pwr/round to operate. I was thinging of the old nuke silo of the cold war. . .small, small crew.

Either way it's interesting, but a description would be good.

--Tobian

Description and Notes
The planetary defense batteries shoot stuff out of high atmosphere and low to mid-planetary orbit.

I have been working on this for about a week. . .I have some notes written up, but the lack of information I got feed up. I was not sure where I was going with this, and unsure it would ever been used anyway.

I figure it has a small crew assigned for a four month tour with provisions for four to six months. A crew of six may be used in times of alert.

Since you seem interested. . .I will see what I can do with my notes and write something up. And I will see what I can do for a legend for the floor plan.

[Tobian]

Well at the end of the day it's one of those things which you might run into on your travels. For example a plot might have been in place to hijack it (and others) as a means to blockade an area or take over a planet, so your officers have to beam down and take it (Gives me a good idea for a mission now ) - or you might be required to oversee repairs or even building one before an invasion!

Ok I realise that it may 'only' require XYZ power which might be a pocket battery or a trilinear warp core - but the point is it has a Type XI phaser array so to me that implies, within the context of it's design that it's a BIG power source - I would say something on the order of one of the Enteprise D's fusion reactors - so a 6m sphere. It also probably needs shielding too, so again - plenty of power. It's amazing what you can fit in a shuttle - a tiny warp core and shield emmitters and phasers.. but none of those are a Type XI phaser !

As a possible idea, what might be good would be an external (above ground) layout of the site - with a nearby landing pad for shuttles (for transfer and hauling in and out spares) because you aren't going to beam in a 14 tonne phase coil then climb up the ladder with it Plus again for the above reasons; so that you can use it as a stage piece...

As a suggestion I would say that the ladder should come into some kind of a loby - something with a door in it (I'm thinking reinforced bulkhead ! )

In the write up you might also want to suggest that the station (underground part) has a physical shield above it - dense alloy composite or natural ore, which disperses transporter beams - meaning the only way to beam in is via their transporter pad (with a small emmitter concealed on the surface) - that way even if shields fail it's still a small fortress to outsiders (I.e. that dense barrier will also impede phaser cutting tools to get in! )

[redwood973]

The new and improved datasheet. It's two pages long. Stats, pic and floor plan still included plus description notes. The floor plan has been blown up so it is easier to see (and use) and has been labled.

Still a work in progress. Second update may be in a few weeks.

[redwood973]

Hmm I'm thinking that place sure has alot of toilets, untill I caught on they were desks with chairs.

--Tobian

Ya know, I had not even noticed that. The ultimate in crew comfort. . .relief around every corner!

[Owen E Oulton]

Redwood, since you're using low-res cap of my deckplan symbols, how 'bout I redraw your deckplan in .DXF format for you so it'll be scalable? I can also supply it as a .EPS file, which is also scalable. I can also tweak the plans a bit to eliminate a few little awkward bits.

A couple of nit-pick notes. Command and Control would be abbreviated C&C or C-and-C, not C-in-C, which stands for Commander in Chief. Also, passengers on a cruise ship have staterooms. Starfleet crew have cabins or quarters. Just little fiddly bits..

I'll dash off a few layouts and e-mail you with them, if you're agreeable.

[redwood973]

Sweet! Thanks Owen. My .paint file is really pathetic. Anything you could do would be sweet. If you wanted to you need not use my layout. . .Tobian had some neat ideas about a two story structure, but my limited ability with .paint kept me married to the simple design.

I have no idea what .DFX and .EPS are. I have never seen those before. I guess if I won't be able to use those files you need not bother.

[Owen E Oulton]

.DXF is AutoCad's Drawing Exchange File, used to export CAD drawings to other programmes. .EPS in Encapsulated PostScript, another vector programme.

If you like, I can incorporate the plans into a .PDF for you, and maybe make it look a little more flashy.

[Tobian]

Hmm, well the idea of this design has got me intreagued, and I am almost tempted to have a go at doing it myself if I can find the time !

The design is definatelly improved, but as Owen said it could do with being done in a scaleable vector format. Hmm I think we could definatelly use a library of Startrek consoles and pannels; I would probably draw up more of my various plans properly if that was the case!

Just an observation, but I spotted you used the same seat for the 'head' as on the consoles, but you have the 'back' facing the wrong way

I think perhaps 2 transporters - one cargo and one regular is overkill for the facility, especially because the cargo transporter is larger than the door, or any of the jefries tubes in the facility! You would be better served by a single transporter which can be set to high or low resolution and expanding the cargo facility onto the back of the transporter pad (giving you more consumable storage areas!) You miught also want to ditch the coridoor on that side of the base and just have the computer and engineering sections go right off the cargo bay.

[Owen E Oulton]

With Redwood's permission, I'd like to run a few design ideas up the flagpole...

Why is the battery limited to a 180 degree arc? It would make much more sense to give it a full 360 degree hemisphere of fire.

Rather than the generic, somewhat [i]Star Wars[i]-ey illustration of the surface emplacement, I'd use the illustration of the standard Type XI Planetary Defense Phaser from the STDS9 TM. I'd also make the emplacement two levels - a surface level consisting of a pop-up phaser battery and covered landing pad with a small lift (no need for a turbolift, but why use a ladder for normal access?) down to the control centre. This would be buried metres down to survive return fire, with an escape trunk leading out.

Since the battery can support 6 crew in alert periods, I'd put a fold-out upper bunk over the bed in each crew cabin - no need making the poor saps hot-bunk it

And yes, I'll put an actual toilet in instead of a seat. I hate having to pee on a chair!

[Tobian]

Owen! Shouldn't that be "I'd hate to have to pee on a chair" - or is there something you're not telling us

Seriously thought ... Yes I agree, but then I guess he was working with what he had at the time. With regards to the beds, it wouldn't be hard to put in bunk beds anyway.

I als agree about the lift and it could double for a security lobby in the same way as the turbolift did on the bridge of the eneterprise A (See Mr. Scott's guide to the enterprise)

My inclination, should I have a go at this, would be to make the design round, mostly because I can imagin making a round hole is easier than a square one, and I can visualise there being a small 'bridge' in the centre, with all the rooms off it, sort of elegant

[Owen E Oulton]

I also like doing round outposts - it just seems more "Federation." I tend to use hexagons for Klingon layouts and triangles for Romulan layouts...

As I see it, the central core would more likely be the main reactor and the EPS shaft going up to power the phaser.

[Tobian]

Actually yes I have to agree, I don't know why I even said that as that was actually my initial idea - I just kind of had that deathstar workstation idea in my head

Having a vertical power shaft would also be a really cool location for players to play in - something like the missile Silo in First Contact (with an EPS core instead of a missile or a warp ship of course!) leading up into the centre of the weapon, with the main controll room leading off this (with a transparent aluminium viewport in) - you could also put the 'elevator' in here, which they could also use for inspecting the EPS conduit.

Sorry redwood, getting carried away

I have noticed that allot of aliens use the N-gon bridges - probably because it's an awful lot cheaper for them to build flat sided sets, than smooth one's hehe