Archives for ships and fleets. 'nuff said. Most of the ships here are very very old and will not work in current versions of BSF or SM. You have been warned!
After a lot of positive feedback on my last thread, I decided to do as people wished, and flesh out the Explorator into a full hard-ish scifi fleet. Don't expect to see her again very soon, though. I had a concept, and I'm going to run with it. This is going to be a sweeping story arc. At the same time, I wanted to try providing history/exposition via first-person narration. Please comment (oh, and feel free to review the ship(s), too XD).
-- Journal of Douglas Peregrine, June 18/2144 --
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I have a strange sense of Deja Vu for every launch, but this one more than most. The "II" on the end of the name doesn't keep me from thinking that I've slipped back forty years to the launch of the first Avenger. Only the registry number, A-571, reminds me that this isn't the first cruiser of her kind - she's the last. I'd only been with the United Aerospace Engineering initiative for a few weeks when the A-001 was launched. She wouldn't have launched at all if it hadn't been for that one pirate strike.
The United Earth bureaucracy would have had us believe that the old Defender-Class would keep the whole system safe. They're tough little ships to be sure; hell, some are still in service. But they don't have the engagement range to really keep the fleets of merchants and passenger ships safe. The poor souls on the Starstrider proved that well enough. A thousand civilians, an unarmed liner, an idiot, triggerhappy raider. The Avenger was commissioned within a week.
But I'm rambling - here she comes!
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Just looking at her, I can see how much the design has changed; I ought to know, I was responsible for much of it. Forty years here, and half of them at the top of the R&D pyramid. The first Avenger didn't have half the armament or technological innovation as this one.
For that matter, most of the fleet is lacking. The Avenger II might be number 571, but there's barely three hundred of them surviving to stay in service, and only half of those are Mark 3-Bs like this one. We've been rotating them out of service for refits, but the fact that the UE higher-ups don't see the need isn't helping.
I've never seen action, or even been enrolled, but I felt as much on the front lines during the Poseidon Wars over Neptune or the ongoing pirate conflict someone dubbed "Captain Morgan's Revenge" as any soldier. Every time we got an action report we tried to fix whatever went wrong, or improve everything we could, to make the next Avenger a better Avenger. Mark 3-B is just a formality; there's upwards of a hundred variants, incremental improvements on the design. But I'm proud to say that I'd feel safe in action aboard this one.
Nice asymmetry. I'm not sure if I like the edges around the ship, but it's not bad.
I also like the print on it. Doodads or miniature sections?
Thanks, it's the first time I've really been happy with asymmetry. I'm not sold on the edging, but ablative armour in real life can be fucking ugly anyway.
The script on the nose are Fade doodads with speed zero, I use them for windows a lot but this is the first time I've tried it as writing.
There are a lot of things here I like. The alternating 17s and 14s near the middle there look really nice. The antenna array on the top is also well done. The asymmetry is nicely done. In a lot of asymmetric ships, it looks like they're made simply for the purpose of being able to say "Look at me! I'm asymmetric!" This one does a nice job of looking very natural, like the asymmetry flowed out the design instead of simply a desire to do something different. I particularly like the Flux with the doodads in front of it. That's well done.
On to the bad. Section 26s are fugly. Those ones on the back of the sip are just...yuck. They completely kill the flow of the ship, like they were just grafted on at the very end as some place to put those blasters. The 26s at the middle of the ship are a bit better, but I think you could do better there. For a ship that looks so nice and is so detailed in some places, those 26s really seem out of place. The other thing that annoys me is that the 24s in the middle aren't flush. Having that little gap there irritates me. It could maybe fly elsewhere, but on the middle of the ship? It just doesn't look right.
Assymetry isn't quite what I'd hope it would be, and your repeating edges are a bit, well, repetetive (much less than other forum members though...) But, I think you've got some pretty dandy ships there.
xphoenix 87: I've fixed the issue with the 24s. With respect to the 26s on the back, take note of the section 16s; the rear engine mounts really are an entirely separate section of the ship, with the 22 and ablatives simply there for protection.
-- Journal of Douglas Peregrine, June 23/2144 --
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There are two upsides of having a title like United Aerospace Engineering Director of Research and Design. The first is that I get asked to speak or just be present at all kinds of upscale lectures and conferences inside the scientific community. The second is that I can delegate ninety percent of it to my minions.
The downside is that I occasionally get really important engagements that I can't pass up. In this case, a lecture for the sharpest young minds in space engineering.
I'll just be giving a lecture on the evolution of the Avenger class, which necessitated digging for one of the unclassified files. I managed to get one for A-568, the Predator. The files on A-570 and later are still in post-launch review and classified, but A-500 and onwards have been identical 3-Bs.
Threw on a few markers so I can cover the basics.
A: Main command deck; the hardened nerve center of the ship. B: Point-defense laser battery; massive energy requirements are offset by the effectiveness at defeating incoming projectiles. C: Attack drone launcher. Included on A-350 onwards for hunting fast-moving raiders or well-concealed fortifications (such as inside canyons). D: Particle cannon turret. Included from A-400 onwards, excepting A-431 (Ironsides) to negate point defenses and "cleanly" sever ship sections. E: Main sensor/communication pod; the outboard location and light armour are necessary evils for the extreme quality of electronic surveillance it provides. Added from A-015 and refitted to previous vessels after radiation made "inboard" sensors on the A-009 (Polaris II) useless during an engagement near Saturn. F: Primary mass driver turrets. G: Light coil-driven "autocannon" turrets. H: Torpedo tubes. Effective at homing on fast-moving targets. Also the heaviest ordinance carried by the Avenger, weighing in at approximately 500 MT. I: Numerical designation. Not sure why it lists A-571, probably a rookie graphic designer forgetting to reset after testing changes. The ship itself is obviously the Predator, note the extended armour plates on the bow. Only ship to ever carry them. J: Flak battery for general point defense. K: Ablative armour layer, standard on all vessels. L: Auxiliary sensor and communications array. M: Electromagnetic field generator, added from A-540 for area defense. We could have saved a number of ships if we'd had the technology earlier, but I digress. N: Main drive engines.
Note also the maneuvering thrusters and large portholes on the forward upper decks, I forgot to include markers for them.
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Last edited by Venator on Sun Jul 20, 2008 6:03 am, edited 1 time in total.
I can kind of see what you're going for, but the 26s are still all kinds of fugly. As a general rule, I think unless you're doing something really cool with them, you should hide 26s as much as possible. It just isn't an attractive piece at all.
xphoenix87 wrote:I can kind of see what you're going for, but the 26s are still all kinds of fugly. As a general rule, I think unless you're doing something really cool with them, you should hide 26s as much as possible. It just isn't an attractive piece at all.
That's a matter of opinion. Personally, I like them.
-- Journal of Douglas Peregrine, August 29/2144--
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What a day! We've got a veritable relic of a Defender in the bays, the Africa herself!
One of the first of her class - D-006 to be exact; I'm amazed that she's still in service. She predates artificial gravity, and I've heard horror stories of the work that went into refitting her. The engine spaces are still nuclear thrusters rather than ion drives, it would have been easier to cut off the rear end and start over than upgrade them.
Alongside the Africa was the Guardian, a late-run Defender in for routine repairs and maintainance.
