Oolite Bulletins

Switeck wrote:

Military Jammer is remotely possible, but needs a plot purpose rather than "Hey that's cool, let's add it too!"

A good plot-line for using that kit would be no problem at all! But it ain't gonna be in HIMSN anyway.

Gimi wrote:

cim wrote:

2 hours * 0.35LM * 32 ~= 8*10⁷ oometres. That's far enough out from the witchpoint that the fabric of space-time is beginning to break down. You probably shouldn't put anything there.

How far can I go?

The standard game engine doesn't place anything further out than around 10⁶ (in systems with large planetary radius) and that's certainly okay. At 10⁷, things might get a little strange.

Since the only things visible at that sort of range are the sun and the planet, you'll appear to be a lot further out if you set it in a system with an ~2000km (i.e. 20kOometre) planet than a ~6000km planet, of course.

Disembodied wrote:

Which is not to say that the Navy might not get involved in rooting out a nest of particularly troublesome pirates,

Indeed - or even get involved in covertly encouraging a particularly troublesome pirate - plenty of precedent for that.

El Viejo wrote:

Disembodied wrote:

Which is not to say that the Navy might not get involved in rooting out a nest of particularly troublesome pirates,

Indeed - or even get involved in covertly encouraging a particularly troublesome pirate - plenty of precedent for that.

Yes, good point! They might regard an active pirate clan as a potential ally against the Thargoids, especially if (as is likely in an Anarchy system) the pirates represent a better source of force and local control than GalCop.

Thinking about carrier design (yes, I design capital ships in my head) - a carrier needs to be nothing more than a flight-deck and hangar space, and a conning tower/control centre plus crew quarters. Presuming a high level of automation and a small complement, they need not be massive ships at all.

El Viejo wrote:

Thinking about carrier design (yes, I design capital ships in my head) - a carrier needs to be nothing more than a flight-deck and hangar space, and a conning tower/control centre plus crew quarters. Presuming a high level of automation and a small complement, they need not be massive ships at all.

Well, most of them will need some sort of C2 facilities to function efficiently. With interstellar distances, C2 has to go where the fighting is.

Gimi wrote:

Switeck wrote:

If you're opening fire on nearby ships, I'd expect navy ships to to be more likely to defend them than to just toss a fine your way.

I want there to be a distinct diffrence between the Navy and the Police, so I'm not going to yield on this one if I have a say in it.

Navy ships aren't guarding or patrolling the space-lanes in a system. Even near their few bases they won't attack npc ships with a fugitive status, but they might respond to a nearby SOS. But since their base probably shouldn't be along the space-lanes of a system anyway, the only way navy and pirates are likely to mix-it-up is if the player's ship or a shuttle "pulls" pirates to the Navy base.

Gimi wrote:

I don't fully agree with you regarding the illusion of galactic hyperspace misjumps etc... Where battles take place is still unknown,

"Off-screen" Navy battles barely even rate mentioning in terms of difficulty in mission creation. A wall-of-text as part of a mission briefing is perhaps all you'll see of those, unless you want to show damaged ships and missing escorts arriving as the remains of a once-mighty strike force. So do you mean "unknown" battle locations in terms of "to be announced" rather than "unreachable"?

Gimi wrote:

2 hours on torus out from Diso

I've done that from a system. If you're doing it with a fast ship, exact ship placement starts breaking down -- makes scooping cargo progressively more difficult as is shooting other ships. I recommend strongly against using very large x,y,z coordinates for a mission.

Gimi wrote:

The Navy, in my view, is very careful to stay out of GALCOP buisness and try to avoid using GALCOP facilities as much as possible. (Clear distinction between Navy and Police/GALCOP again). As for locations of Navy stations, they will be far and few between, but at least one facility pr Galaxy, hidden or visible. Navy logistics and replenishment during deployment and operations is a diffrent matter, and I have some ideas, but nothing substantial. (Do a picture search "Navy RAS" for a clue.)
I fully agree with your point on remote navy outposts though.

Logistics ships docking with the main station would likely consist of shuttle types, not the Navy ships themselves. The shuttles could/should even be civilian contractors rather than Navy types. The shuttles could likewise bypass the main stations entirely and go straight from nearby planet(s) or moon(s) to Navy stations. That would further insulate them from "political entanglements" in either direction.

Come to think of it, a base on the surface of a moon would be cool. I don't recall seeing one of those yet.

cim wrote:

Gimi wrote:

could just as easily be 2 hours on torus out from Diso as in interstellar or intergalactic space.

2 hours * 0.35LM * 32 ~= 8*10⁷ oometres. That's far enough out from the witchpoint that the fabric of space-time is beginning to break down. You probably shouldn't put anything there.

I once did half an hour or more at full TAF to reach an extra planet added by Orbits OXP. 0.5 * 0.365 * 32 * 16 = ??? The result was ships jerking about, a nearly unusable docking computer, and a CTD at the moment of docking - apparently the docking tunnel animation was the final straw.

Another possible version for a Komodo-Class Fleet Carrier:



This design is about 1055m in length - if you discount the sensor antennaes at the prow, 885m.

Also, a thought regarding Asp Mk II's. From the original Elite Jane's Guide, 'Integument has chameleon properties enabling the ship to assume effective camouflage in any type of environment.' This suggests that Cloaking Devices are standard, though my thinking would be that they need specialized maintenance and/or regularly changed encrypted command codes to function properly. Wings of cloaked Navy Asp Mk II's would certainly be able to hold their own against a much larger Thargoid force, perhaps giving HISMN a much needed edge.

Storm wrote:

Another possible version for a Komodo-Class Fleet Carrier:
This design is about 1055m in length - if you discount the sensor antennaes at the prow, 885m.

YES!
Thank you Storm. I really like that, and it fits nicely with what I had in mind. It's still big, but I would like to use that as the larger of the two designs I have in mind.
Would it be possible to give it two types of textures, one that fits in with Griff ships using shaders and one where Smivs has a say for his ship-set.

If you want to have a go at the smaller design as well, I think EV might have some design ideas.

Gimi wrote:

Storm wrote:

Another possible version for a Komodo-Class Fleet Carrier:
This design is about 1055m in length - if you discount the sensor antennaes at the prow, 885m.

YES!

That looks very carrier-like - cool.

Gimi wrote:

If you want to have a go at the smaller design as well, I think EV might have some design ideas.

Hmm... you thinking of including that class of ship, Gimi? Or you thinking a variant of it?

Storm, that is very good indeed...really looks the part.

Which ship would carry the flag in a carrier battle group - the carrier? Or a hard-ass escort ship?

El Viejo wrote:

Which ship would carry the flag in a carrier battle group - the carrier? Or a hard-ass escort ship?

Unless there is a dedicated Flagship / C2 platform, the carrier will be the flag ship. In most cases, if anything reaches the carrier all is lost anyway.

Edit: Needs a bit more.
This depends on the type of operation and what units are available. In most cases escorts are expendable, so you don't want your Flag Officers there. If you have more than one high value unit (e.g. amphibious assault and a carrier) it boils down to available facilities and what you can protect. But almost all carriers are fitted to embark the Flag and his staff, and they normally have the space, so they are the logical choice. The US have dedicated C2 ships designed (or refitted as is the case) to carry the Commander and his staff. Most other navies (UK, NL SP) have added command facilities to their amphibious assault ships allowing them to act as command platforms. But I would suspect that most commanders would be reluctant to put those ships in the line of fire during an amphibious operation while also being the Flag ship.

Storm - congratulations on a great looking carrier model.