FASA SRM Conversion - Alamo-class defense outpost

[PGoodman13]

I'm discovering that this whole FASA-to-Coda thing ain't that hard at all, which is a real blessing, since I'm kind of out of it lately. Trying to be a good kid and cut down on the Dr Pepper; withdrawal is a bitch.

A few notes before I get to the meat of this. The FASA SRM features to versions of this station, but both of them were built well within the confines of TOS, or shortly before TOS. I have, therefore, built a conjectured refit from the 2290s to bring them more in line with how I see them in the film era. The first two variants (2265 and 2269) are reasonably close to the versions in the FASA's SRM. The 2292 refit has better shields and torpedos. Any version of this station is a right bitch in combat.

I made it a size 10 because I think stations should be big. OTOH, not a single one of this things dimensions is in the same size category as any of its other dimensions. Since the height of 510m puts it somewhere in size 16, IIRC, I decided to average things out a smidge.

I also felt silly putting a warp drive and impulse engines on a non-mobile station, but I'm just writing them off as the equivalent kind of generators until the Starships book hits the shelves.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. Please let me know what you think, but please keep it civil.

[PGoodman13]

Alamo-class Defense Outpost

Production Data
Origin: United Federation of Planets
Class and Type: Alamo-class Defense Outpost
Year Launched: 2265 {2269} {{2292}}

Hull Data
Structure: 60 {55} {{50}}
Size/Decks: 10/102 decks
Length/Height/Beam: 560/510/195 meters
Complement: 460

Operational Data
Transporters: 10 standard, 10 emergency, 10 cargo
Cargo Units: 100
Shuttlebay: Yes (2 upper dome F/A, 2 central platforms F/A, 2 lower dome F/A) {{2 upper dome F/A, 2 central platforms F/A}}
Shuttlecraft: 60 size worth {{40 size worth}}
Tractor Beams: 3, upper dome ventral
Sensor System: Class 2 (+2/C)
Operations System: Class 3 (D)
Life Support: Class 3 (D)

Propulsion Data
Impulse System: Type V (equivalent fusion generator) (D)
Warp System: Type VI (equivalent antimatter generator) (D)

Tactical Data
Phaser Banks: Type VII (x9/E)
Penetration: 7/7/6/0/0
Photon Torpedoes: Type I (x6/E) {Type II (x6/E)} {{Type III (x6/E)
Penetration: 5/5/5/5/5 {6/6/6/6/6} {{7/7/7/7/7}}
Deflector Shield: Class 2a (B) {{Class 4 (C)}}
Protection/Threshold: 13/3 {{14/3}}

Miscellaneous Data
Maneuver Modifers: +6 C, -10 H, +5 T

“Always remember why we’re here, ladies and gentlemen. We are the first line of defense for the Federation. Billions depend upon us for their very survival, and they don’t know it...nor should they. We are their sword and their shield, standing watch so that they can sleep peacefully at night. We are Horatio against the Etruscans: We stand on the bridge, and none shall pass.” -- Commodore Jeremy Wilford, closing his first staff meeting aboard the first Alamo-class outpost station, 21 February 2265

Description/History: The Alamo-class defense outpost is one of the most massive structures built by the Federation. Conceived in light of growing Klingon aggression shortly before the famous five-year mission of the U.S.S. Enterprise, the first of the stations went online in 2265. In 2269, shortly before the return of the Enterprise, the stations began receiving upgrades to their torpedo systems, taking advantage of a more powerful design to give it more of a long-range punch. Hundreds of the stations were deployed along the border and in orbit around strategically important planets.

The Alamo-class stations would not see another major refit for over 20 years. In 2292, during the height of the “cold war” with the Klingons after the Genesis incident, the stations began receiving upgrades to both their torpedo launchers and their shield generators. With most of their systems at state-of-the-art levels now, and with their high-durability spaceframes, the Alamo-class stations are expected to be the line in the sand for the Federation well into the 24th century.

[AslanC]

OUCH!

Dang that is one tought biatch! I love it!

Great work dude!

[Sea Tyger]

Nice work, although I would have only performed one refit (2292), personally. (Nothing against what you did, I just simply didn't think the FASA improvements were significant enough, individually, for most ships.)

How many points did you have left over, out of curiosity? Did you follow the apparent TOS example and purposefully build it short?

[Imagus]

Aha! I've been waiting for the first station... And I need an Alamo for my Starbase defences!

Looks good.

Basing size on dimensions is IMO a bit irrelevant - I've been looking at general impression of size and just going with gut instinct. But size 9 or 10 would be about right.

One criticism: why do you need drive systems at all? Impulse might make sense, as it may need to move under its own power, but warp drive is completely irrelevant. Unlike the FASA system, you do not to provide explicit power to your weapon systems.

I think you can just assume the relevant power generators are part of the general structure. Use the spare space to upgrade your structure or harden key systems or enhance shielding - a battlestation is TOUGH! I might upgrade the various secondary systems too.

Kudos on being the first station designer though

[PGoodman13]

Aslan: Yeah, she's scary.

Sea Tyger: I wanted to include the minor upgrade in 2269 to better suit Eric's apparent desire for a straight-across conversion for his proposed FASA-to-Coda netbook. I'm always willing to please.

Oh, and there's no wasted space. I don't believe in it if I can avoid it. I wish there was some left over; I'd love to reinforce the structure.

Imagus: I'm not inclined to put something out there without a power source; I don't think it's a fair assumption to believe that "the power is included in the structure." I don't buy that. If Don walks in here and says I don't need warp drives to make this sucker work, I'll cheerfully take them out and put the space to structure. I'm considering extrapolating everything out to size 11 and putting all the extra space to structure.

I gotta go to work or I'd go into more detail with all these answers.

[PGoodman13]

Originally posted by AslanC
OUCH!

Dang that is one tought biatch! I love it!

Great work dude!

You like it now, wait until you see the version as I would have done it had I not been trying to replicate the FASA version. That's gonna be a monster.

[PGoodman13]

Originally posted by Sea Tyger
Nice work, although I would have only performed one refit (2292), personally. (Nothing against what you did, I just simply didn't think the FASA improvements were significant enough, individually, for most ships.)

I tended to agree; however, as I said, I wanted to be fairly true to the original for purposes of Eric's netbook. The 2292 refit was my own invention, mostly for purposes of my game.

I am, however, going to do the "Patrick's way" version sometime tonight. This version will abandon the FASA concept of keeping things in multiples of three, since Coda doesn't use firing arcs in its current form (though the Engage! supplement that gets talked about might). I'm also not going to give nearly the room for shuttles and such; I don't know what a defense outpost station would need with 30 shuttlecraft.

I also address what I consider FASA's biggest error with the station: The crew. They had this massive, half-kilometer long, half-kilometer high structure with easily 100 decks populated with 460 people tops. I can more easily see a couple of thousand. Anyway, I'll get that up this evening sometime.

How many points did you have left over, out of curiosity? Did you follow the apparent TOS example and purposefully build it short?

I didn't have anything left over. Well, the 2265 version might have had a couple of points left over, but I know I was scratching for space by the 2292 version. If you'd like, I'll email you the Excel 2K spreadsheets where I did my math.

I didn't take advantage of any size reductions for any system, since there wasn't any guidance of that type for space stations. You can expect me to revisit this design, and most of the rest of the things I've done, once Starships hits the shelves.

[PGoodman13]

Just a bump to remind me to work on some of the other starship projects.