Ships as 'Cargo'

[Ur Lord Tedric]

Here's a thought for the week.....

 

With the advent of the mega-expensive Transwarp Drives (G$ 13,250,000) it has seen the possible ending of smaller, but still very useful ships.

 

It would be quite nice to be able to carry non-TWD equipped ships out to their operating areas (or even back to be upgraded).

 

What is the support, or not, to be allowed to 'load' ships as Cargo and unload them to a new fleet?

 

At a minimum this would require a 'Load Ships (LS)' command with would be from Fleet to Fleet, but the existing RN could be used (and thus in convoy routes, or both of them) with the proviso that it checked the cargo holds as well.

 

Such ships could be carried in Cargo Bays, or they could be carried like big fighters in Fighter Bays, but wouldn't launch if attacked (the Bays aren't built for that).

 

This is also a way to get, perhaps small, Orbitals though Warp Points, which may not be intended, or even Surface Forts - but either could be restricted by class.

 

Chief Planner to Ur-Lord Tedric

[Krelnett_of_Kraan]

We like this. The ability to get orbital science stations into other systems has been occupying quite a lot of our thought this cycle. So far the best we've come up with is to ship out the requisite materials for the orbital, a power station, and a shipyard to some planet and then hoping it gets finished before attrition eats the colony.

We'd rather build a huge cargo vessel and transport them that way, if it were possible.

[ShadowKitsune]

What about just making Jump-capable 'Tug' components (e.g. Tractor Beams)? Then you can just 'tow' ships through Warp points.

[General Miles Avatar]

This idea of towing non-warp cabable ships through a warp point is not unique.

I remember way back in the day a game called Traveller in which

ships called 'Battle Tenders' would carry other ships called Battle Riders

through jump points. The Battle Riders not having the need to jump

themselves would use this extra space for weapons engines shields etc...

and have a distinct advantage over other ships of equal tonnage.

The only problem would be that the destruction of the Tender would strand the

Battle Riders.

[Ur Lord Tedric]

And after posting yesterday, there could also be another way of achieving the same thing and also answer a couple of other related threads too......

 

How about a mobile shipyard? Indeed it could be a mobile pop gp for game purposes.....

 

Then these ships/orbitals could be actually constructed on-site rather than taken complete.

 

This would also provide places where ships could be 'repaired'.

 

The items for the ships would instead be carried as cargo, which is just like it is now. The SHIP command would then check the 'pop gp' and take the items from cargo, rather than from the 'pop gp' area..

 

Or there could be a new order just like the SHIP one, which acted only on the fleets - which would be easier to code, and a corresponding REP order to repair when that was required.....

 

The more I think about it, I suspect a Mobile Shipyard (10,000 tons) 50,000 Improved/Advanced Steel actually exists - it's just there's no order to use it yet.......

 

Chief Planner to Ur-Lord Tedric

 

PS Now that would be something our Chief Trader would love to bid for....... :lol:

[Krelnett_of_Kraan]

It would have to weigh a lot more than 10k tons in order to hold the parts for most of our ships. Checking our records, it looks like our smallest ship ever was 10.2 ktons, and it's obsolete and been replaced by a 21.2 kton model.

[MadMartinB]

Are you assuming there are not mobile shipyards?

[PhaseDragon]

Sounds like the Flying MegaCity from StarMaster (the precursor to SuperNova). Makes it extremely hard to track and eliminate your enemies if they are constantly on the move. In a fast paced game this would not hurt too much, but in a slow game such as this there would be virtually no way to destroy someone completely.

 

Of course not everyone thinks of war terms so my opinion may not make sense to those people.

[Centhen]

If I remember correctly this is getting back to the concept of the Seekers, the migratory lifeform in Supernova 2. In the UK regions of SN2 Seekers were never actually allowed, presumably either because they were considered too unbalanced (read non-existant ground combat stats) or because the game mechanics made it far too difficult to incorporate mobile pop groups.

 

I know the first point is valid, but I have a sneaking feeling that the second played a good part. As an ex GM in the UK for SN2 I always had a feeling that they were still to be added.

 

Centhen.

[Ur Lord Tedric]

It would have to weigh a lot more than 10k tons in order to hold the parts for most of our ships. Checking our records, it looks like our smallest ship ever was 10.2 ktons, and it's obsolete and been replaced by a 21.2 kton model.

 

No...

 

The Mobile Shipyard is 10,000 tons - like the other 'bays' - and just like each planet-based shipyard can produce 10,000 tons.

 

All the parts for ships are carried in the 1,000,000+ cargo bays in the rest of the ship/fleet.

 

And the only reason I'm currently thinking that there's not a 'Mobile Shipyard' is that there's no order to use one........

 

Chief Planner to Ur-Lord Tedric

[hobknob]

Sounds to me like you wnat to be an Andromedan and carry satelite ships.

 

You do tend to get spoiled with transwarp drives, but a good convoy route will still relieve much of the heavy order consumption that makes smaller ships less attractive.

 

[Ur Lord Tedric]

You do tend to get spoiled with transwarp drives, but a good convoy route will still relieve much of the heavy order consumption that makes smaller ships less attractive.

 

Nope, don't get that one - too cryptic for me.....

 

Whether I want to move a ship with a TWD, or one without, the total number of orders are the same - it's just that the TWD equipped ships will arrive anywhere between twice and 10 times faster.

 

What I'd like to be able to do is reinforce my Survey Flotillas out there on the fringe with non-TWD equipped ships, but it takes so long to get there. It would be much nicer to be able to either carry smaller ships out there, or get the 'shipyards' out there faster and build the ships on the spot. Now I can do this with colonies, but that puts a dent in my other colonization plans as I have to re-direct the colony ships and find somewhere suitable. In the short term I'll just have to accept the delay before the new ships reach the front.

 

Having done many calculations, I just don't see the point of putting TWDs on anything smaller than 500k tons, as they are just so 'expensive'. But my Survey Flotillas can make do with much smaller ships......

 

OTOH - I'd also like to be able to build Orbitals in Nexus systems......need a mobile shipyard for that (just like in my favorite literature... )

 

Chief Planner to Ur-Lord Tedric