Tow & Warp

[Locklyn]

I remeber this concept from an old game called Traveller

Wow, General you are dating yourself. I have not played that game is over 20 years....Oops.

 

There is no AP limit for towing an orbital around a system. If your ship is 4AP you can lug that orbital all four movent orders in-system.

So, using all the systems already provided in the game, I have a smaller 2AP ship and a Larger 4AP ship in a fleet, both ships TWD equiped. I plan on moving thru four systems. The smaller ships AP is exhausted after moving to the second warp point, warping costs zero AP so it can execute a warp. On the other end the larger ship tows the smaller to the next warp point. Cuts it loose and the fleet warps. TWDs allow ships to make multiple warp. Repeat for the next system. Nothing fancy.

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Hmmm...Haven't tried this but doesn't the system stop a fleet when one of the ships in a fleet are reduced to zero AP whether you have TWD and towing capacity left or not?

 

Cheers

/Locklyn

[Mechanica]

Yes it does. You get a nice little message that says one ship in the fleet has exhausted its action points.

[cestvel]

There is one good reason why.

 

 

AP = (Total Engine Output/Total Tonnage)

 

I designed a quick tug using the best grapple/tractors I have anzed to date.  This is the medium magnetic grapple with a 7,000 ton rating.  The best engine I have anzed to date is Mk V Nuclear Engine at 4,000 ton thrust.

 

Ship to be towed is 701,168 ton Colonial Liner with 50 colonial berthings; 100,000 cargo; 1 NucEng, 1 NucJD  Calculated AP 0, Effective AP 2

 

Towing ship is 111,799 ton tug with 101 Medium Magnetic Grapples and 112 Mk V Nuclear Engines. NTWD equipped. Can tow 707,000 tons Calcuated AP 4.01 Effective AP 4

 

Fuel tankage was provided for both ships assuming worst case of 4 jumps thru class G warps, the worst I have found to date.

 

Now once you activate the tractors you are in effect creating one giant ship where the formula is still AP = (Total Engine Output/Total Tonnage)

 

Combined Tonnage = 812,967

Combined Engine Output = 448,300

Calculated AP = 0.55

Effective AP = 2

 

The problem lies not in the towing capability, the tug can tow the ship in question, but in the number of engines required to maintain 4 AP rating when actually towing the Ship.

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Hi Mechanica,

 

this make a lot of sense to me.

 

Should be interessting to see if this works with a smaller tow.

 

Cestvel

[Krelnett_of_Kraan]

I was refering to the Andromedans of SFB which were able to carry satellite ships.  Fighters and drones don't come close to doing anything for you as they are weapons sytems and not ships.  I was thjinking about refueling skimmers and ships that could be dumped out to picket a WP or do planet scans.  It hardly matter what, it is just inconvenient to get ships 10-12 away from a production base without a TWD.  The next best solution is to build a small colony and just build them at a forward location.  The biggest problem there is the pesky problem of power to run the shipyards.  I see a need for a power plant that is between a hydro plant and a coal fired plant.  Sadly, nothing has been found to fill that void.

 

 

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The Andro still have that ability. What's worse are the Andro mauler designs that can dump enegy straight from the PA panels into the weapon without having to go through the batteries. But that's more properly a discussion for www.starfleetgames.com/discus

[Hughestrog]

The Andro still have that ability.  What's worse are the Andro mauler designs that can dump enegy straight from the PA panels into the weapon without having to go through the batteries.  But that's more properly a discussion for www.starfleetgames.com/discus

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Krelnett- so many feelers, so many pies!

[Krelnett_of_Kraan]

Krelnett- so many feelers, so many pies! 

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[Lord Xaar]

I can see it now.  Pete allows towing, but the effect of towing is to reduce your "high" AP fleet ratings down to 2 since they are towing after all and towing fast is likely very dangerous as well as time consuming.

 

I am looking for an andromedan solution so I can build mother ships that can spit out a bunch of small ships upon arrival in the desired system. 

 

 

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This type on thing would be on my wish list -- but it would change game mechanics a lot. (Maybe too much?)

 

It seems to me that it would be easier to just build some more engines -- rather than tow a TWD-equipped ship -- to give that ship more AP. It's being able to "tow" non-TWD-equipped ships that would really provide a benefit.

 

 

-LX

[ShadowKitsune]

No one can tow anything through a warp point (yet)

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True.

 

I'm still waiting to be able to tow Orbitals to strategic warp points. One day, perhaps ...

[Virmilyn]

I see some empires are for this and some aren't.

 

According to the laws of physics in the SuperNova universe:

There is no lose of AP for towing an object.

TWDs allow multi warps per turn phase.

 

The only change would be allowing the towing of starships.

 

If you are towing a ship with a non-TWD that has already warped. You could only tow it around the system it is in. Like an orbital.

 

If you are towing a ship with a TWD it could warp as many times as the towing ship(s).

 

This would be a nice bonus.

[T'Lariss]

Acually i do not think it would work that way. An orbital (because it can have no engines) will only have 2 AP's so the fleet would only have 2 ap's even if the rest of the fleet was all TWD capable. As for the towing of Starships, that would be a major change in the movement/battle system and shift the advantage from being strongly for the defender towords the attacker. something I think RTG would be reluctant to do. Further many folk would compain bitterly (and rightl) as it would strongly effect their defensive stratagies.

T'Lariss

 

 

I see some empires are for this and some aren't.

 

According to the laws of physics in the SuperNova universe:

There is no lose of AP for towing an object.

TWDs allow multi warps per turn phase.

 

The only change would be allowing the towing of starships.

 

If you are towing a ship with a non-TWD that has already warped. You could only tow it around the system it is in. Like an orbital.

 

If you are towing a ship with a TWD it could warp as many times as the towing ship(s).

 

This would be a nice bonus.

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