These guys are just to land, look around, tell me whats there and then probably die - hoping they last long enough
UD4 Cheyenne Assault class Assault TransportDue to the use of overboosted engines, the Cheyenne class is counted as a military ship with an associated failure rate, and without appreciable engineering/MSP spaces that 0.03 years maintenance life may prove to be an optimistic overestimate. Your troops are going to end up uselessly floating around in Mars' orbital radius rather than reaching the AO and mowing down alien scum.
Maint Life 0.03 Years MSP 76 AFR 1190% IFR 16.5% 1YR 2,684 5YR 40,257 Max Repair 480 MSP
Macrinus Aeromarine Magneto-plasma Drive EP960.00 (2) Power 1920 Fuel Use 82.67% Signature 960 Explosion 15%
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
I see, so there is no situation akin to the Normandy D-Day where, after a while, the bridgehead is safe, and you can switch from amphibious crafts to standard transports. It's as if, in this regard, the Allies take Paris or even the Siegfried Line, and yet the Germans are still bombarding the heck out of all harbors along the coast of France.
I see, so there is no situation akin to the Normandy D-Day where, after a while, the bridgehead is safe, and you can switch from amphibious crafts to standard transports. It's as if, in this regard, the Allies take Paris or even the Siegfried Line, and yet the Germans are still bombarding the heck out of all harbors along the coast of France.Yes, there's not really anywhere 'inland' from space on a planet.
I see, so there is no situation akin to the Normandy D-Day where, after a while, the bridgehead is safe, and you can switch from amphibious crafts to standard transports. It's as if, in this regard, the Allies take Paris or even the Siegfried Line, and yet the Germans are still bombarding the heck out of all harbors along the coast of France.Yes, there's not really anywhere 'inland' from space on a planet.
In Aurora's technology, there isn't really such a thing as being stealthy at close range. A sneaky ship is one you see fewer millions of kilometers out...
Would it be possible to cross-deck troops from a non-military transport to a specialized assault ship reasonably quickly in space? That seems like it might let you use cheap transports for the bulk but also use high-performance craft for the under-fire step.
You need to get all the ships involved into the area, but if you can use a far smaller number of expensive militarized dropships to land the army, how is that not advantageous? (The idea of course being that the non-militarized transports will stay outside STO range, while the dropships with all the trimmings shuttle between the 'offshore' group and the drop zone.)In Aurora's technology, there isn't really such a thing as being stealthy at close range. A sneaky ship is one you see fewer millions of kilometers out...
Would it be possible to cross-deck troops from a non-military transport to a specialized assault ship reasonably quickly in space? That seems like it might let you use cheap transports for the bulk but also use high-performance craft for the under-fire step.
I think it's possible, though I'm not sure how it's done mechanically, but there's not really an advantage to doing this. Either way, you still have to get all of the ships involved into the area of operations - so you might as well just transport the troops with the assault ships anyways.
In VB6, drop-capable ships used to work this way since ground units which stayed inside them for more than a few days suffered morale losses, so transferring troops from bulk transports to specialized dropships was more or less a requirement. This feature did not make it into C# and I imagine that was because the extra micro involved did not translate to any interesting gameplay decisions, so it was just needless busy-work and added costs in practice.
You need to get all the ships involved into the area, but if you can use a far smaller number of expensive militarized dropships to land the army, how is that not advantageous? (The idea of course being that the non-militarized transports will stay outside STO range, while the dropships with all the trimmings shuttle between the 'offshore' group and the drop zone.)In Aurora's technology, there isn't really such a thing as being stealthy at close range. A sneaky ship is one you see fewer millions of kilometers out...
Would it be possible to cross-deck troops from a non-military transport to a specialized assault ship reasonably quickly in space? That seems like it might let you use cheap transports for the bulk but also use high-performance craft for the under-fire step.
I think it's possible, though I'm not sure how it's done mechanically, but there's not really an advantage to doing this. Either way, you still have to get all of the ships involved into the area of operations - so you might as well just transport the troops with the assault ships anyways.
In VB6, drop-capable ships used to work this way since ground units which stayed inside them for more than a few days suffered morale losses, so transferring troops from bulk transports to specialized dropships was more or less a requirement. This feature did not make it into C# and I imagine that was because the extra micro involved did not translate to any interesting gameplay decisions, so it was just needless busy-work and added costs in practice.
It might not be an improvement on using an entire flotilla of technically-commercial heavily armored assault ships, but if one wants higher-performance military assault ships, being able to use much less tonnage of those than you would need to transport the entire force seems helpful?