2084 Campaign Part 1: The Race to the Stars

[rmcrowe]

The WW II fleet train was the basis for my original suggestion.  One option for rationale for a "yard" "ship" being able to maintain more than any other would be a limit that it can do nothing else.  Being towed in sections by tugs was how the AFDLs all got around (SLOWLY).  Then an AR provided shops, and assorted AF brought parts and subsystems.  Crew (both ship in overhaul and "yard" stayed ashore, or in a nearby AP or special barge converted to house 300+, with kitchen.

I note that in the last few edtions of Starfire, yard required NO maintenance (though the hull spaces mounting them did).

robert

[Kurt]

<snip>

Oceania?s military power increased considerably on May 12th with the completion of the Ark Royal class carriers Illustrious and Yorktown. Both ships left orbit almost as soon as they cleared the slipways. Although Titan Base could still not handle ships greater than 4000 tons, Vice Admiral Ryan did not want any of their technology being scanned by Eastasian or Eurasian ships and was prepared to handle the eventual overhaul costs to maintain security. The two Sao Paulo class jump tenders were launched ten days later. Both ships also headed for Titan from where they would move to investigate the closest two jumps points to Earth, located either side of Saturn?s orbit. A direct course to the jump points was avoided in case it raised suspicion among the other powers that Oceania might have completed a gravitational survey.  The eventful month of May concluded with Apache, Zulu and the Melbourne class gravitational survey ships Port Phillip, Sullivan Bay and Dandedong arriving at the alien jump gate.

Steve

Interesting idea for a campaign, Steve.  I apologize for just getting around to reading it now, I've been struggling with a serious addiction to Hearts of Iron II - Doomsday/Armageddon, which has affected my own campaign for the worse.  All I can say is that I think I've gotten past it, and I'll be posting more write-ups in the near future.  

Now - I've got so say that given my recent experience with active sensor's ability to gather tech data I understand your government's desire to get their ships away from Earth, but doesn't that invalidate their very reason for existence?  Once posted away from Earth, they can no longer affect events there, except after the fact.  This is a catch 22, in a way.  

This is an interesting situation.  I look forward to more write-ups.  

Kurt

[Steve Walmsley]

The WW II fleet train was the basis for my original suggestion.  One option for rationale for a "yard" "ship" being able to maintain more than any other would be a limit that it can do nothing else.  Being towed in sections by tugs was how the AFDLs all got around (SLOWLY).  Then an AR provided shops, and assorted AF brought parts and subsystems.  Crew (both ship in overhaul and "yard" stayed ashore, or in a nearby AP or special barge converted to house 300+, with kitchen.

I note that in the last few edtions of Starfire, yard required NO maintenance (though the hull spaces mounting them did).

That sounds like a good way to handle it. If the maintenance facilities themselves don't require maintenance, then it would be possible to build a ship that could maintain itself. Or perhaps I simply say that any ship which has a certain percentage (50%?) of its mass as maintenance facilities, doesn't require maintenance. That would be a severe enough requirement that only specialised ships or bases would use it.

Steve

[Steve Walmsley]

Interesting idea for a campaign, Steve.  I apologize for just getting around to reading it now, I've been struggling with a serious addiction to Hearts of Iron II - Doomsday/Armageddon, which has affected my own campaign for the worse.  All I can say is that I think I've gotten past it, and I'll be posting more write-ups in the near future.  

Now - I've got so say that given my recent experience with active sensor's ability to gather tech data I understand your government's desire to get their ships away from Earth, but doesn't that invalidate their very reason for existence?  Once posted away from Earth, they can no longer affect events there, except after the fact.  This is a catch 22, in a way.  

If a war breaks out in Earth orbit, all three sides have enough ICBMs in PDCs to severely damage each other's economies. Oceania for example has 200 Titan ICBMs with twenty point warheads, all in box launchers. There are also some large anti-ship missiles in the PDCs too. Therefore all three powers want to avoid any chance of a major war close to Earth, at least until they can get a large chunk of their population and industry off-world. The Pueblo sensor outpost can still gather data on opposing ships in orbit though. The warships are really needed to influence events away from Earth.

Tech data gathering get even more interesting in v2.6. Most of the time you successfully scan a ship in v2.5, you get nothing because its tehcnology you already have. However that information is still useful so in v2.6, any tech you scan gets added to the Tactical Intelligence window for the ship class scanned. This helps you eventually determine the purpose of new ship classes.

Steve

[vergeraiders]

Could you keep your ships parked in orbit on the far side of the moon and acheive the same result - out of line of site scanner detection.

Of course with 2.6 missile targeting I guess they could still be missile targets if anything can track them.

[Steve Walmsley]

Could you keep your ships parked in orbit on the far side of the moon and acheive the same result - out of line of site scanner detection.

Of course with 2.6 missile targeting I guess they could still be missile targets if anything can track them.

There is currently no scope in Aurora for using planets to block fire. Because its a more strategic game, I have assumed planets sit below the field of battle, which is why orbiting ships are directly in the middle of planets. I could change that so that planets did block fire and add actual orbits for ships but it would get cluttered because the fleet names would not stack neatly if they were in slightly different locations.

Steve

[vergeraiders]

yep 99.9% of the time it would not matter. Its those pesky .1% that drive programmers mad