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Capital Ship Conundrum....

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May 03, 2003 slappyknappy link
Just to combine two threads:

What if there was a capital-class reconesaince ship? basically a (relatvely) small, very fast capitol ship with one VL (or XL) weapon, only a few smaller weapons, a BIG engine, low hull (for a capitol ship)... think Mellenium falcon only (a bit) bigger.

It would be the long-range support ship for spy-fighters (yes, rhymes with Ti-Fighter) and cloaked spy-darts.
May 03, 2003 HumpyThePenguin link
wow this is a long a$$ thread o_0
May 03, 2003 Celebrim link
slappyknappy: Could you be thinking a of a Corvette?

Alternately, read 'The Cold Front' (my story in the archives) and the accompaning notes which describes the events in terms of Vendetta. The story features events aboard a 'Valkyrie Class Intermediate Patrol Boat' which has characteristics very similar to what you describe - 1 VL weapon, relatively few other weapons (the are described in 3.1 terms but are equivalent to 8-10 S and 2-4 L), 40k hull, and manueverability somewhere between that of a heavy fighter and a small capital ship. It's something like the Mellenium Falcon in relative size, but without the Falcon's fighter like manueverability.
May 03, 2003 slappyknappy link
I guess i could be thinking of a corvette... I'm very knowledgeable about a lot of things, but the nomenclature of ships (futuristic, historical, or otherwise) is not one them. Call it a pooper-scooper for all I care.

One thing that I've seen in these threads that worries me is an almost obsessive desire to apply current (or historic) templates to the Vendetta universe. While I think it's great to allow what we know of naval ship design to *influence* the Vendetta universe, I think it would be a shame if we allowed it to *dictate* the Vendetta universe. Celebrim: that's not a slam on you, I think you have a lot of great and valuable opions. However if the devs ever say "well, we ***can't*** have a reconnaisance ship that does this and that because a corvette should have such-and-such" than they should take a step back, scrap the corvette and design a pooper-scooper :-)

May 03, 2003 slappyknappy link
I guess i could be thinking of a corvette... I'm very knowledgeable about a lot of things, but the nomenclature of ships (futuristic, historical, or otherwise) is not one them. Call it a pooper-scooper for all I care.

One thing that I've seen in these threads that worries me is an almost obsessive desire to apply current (or historic) templates to the Vendetta universe. While I think it's great to allow what we know of naval ship design to *influence* the Vendetta universe, I think it would be a shame if we allowed it to *dictate* the Vendetta universe. Celebrim: that's not a slam on you, I think you have a lot of great and valuable opions. However if the devs ever say "well, we ***can't*** have a reconnaisance ship that does this and that because a corvette should have such-and-such" than they should take a step back, scrap the corvette and design a pooper-scooper :-)

May 03, 2003 Suicidal Lemming link
We want toapply current templates because we are affraidof change, we are afraid of something that has not been tested before.

This thread is short! cough___look at question___cough
May 03, 2003 Celebrim link
"While I think it's great to allow what we know of naval ship design to *influence* the Vendetta universe, I think it would be a shame if we allowed it to *dictate* the Vendetta universe."

Actually, I would to.

If anything, I don't want as much to see people designing space ships to exaclty emulate the characteristics historical vessels of any era, as much as I'd like to see a robust and interesting array of vessels created and the historical names be coopted to describe those invented classes in as rich of way as possible. Or perhaps I want to see knowledge of the realities of naval combat during some visually evocative era fire the imagination. That is to say, as opposed to now when naval combat occurs over the horizon between ships that never see each other and which cannot really manuever to change the destinies that will be decided by software within the weapon attacking them, or to the probable realities of space combat when among other things combats would occur so far apart it would literally takes hours or even days for the munitions to travel between the firing vessel and the target.

For the record, a corvette is a frigate type vessel of a size too small to be considered a full frigate and which is generally noted for its manueverability for such a large vessel. In the age of sail it applied to a very lightly built 18 gun ship, usually the smallest boat that was 'ship' rigged, used for coastal patroling and privateering. In some modern navies, the term is applied to the various classes of small 'patrol frigates'. Patrol frigates are the smallest classes of surface naval vessel designed to be a real threat to a capital ship, and are generally built by secondary naval powers as multi-role ships that are designed to make up for thier low durability by being both stealthy and fast. The Swedes in particular are building some very interesting vessels that qaulify as 'corvettes'. The 'Visby' class is one of the most capable designs not in the US Navy, and contains few ideas that the US will probably steal for latter vessels of its own. As a courious fact, the 'Visby' class actually has 'turbo' or at least its real world equivalent, that allows it to obtain very high speeds for short periods.

May 04, 2003 Syntopicon link
I only have one question...why is friction so often taken into account in this game which occurs in space which is for the most part frictionless?
Mass in space would really not change the ability of a ship to move very much, and it would seem that ships would not slow down very fast at all after moving for very long.
I suppose most if this is explained only for gameplay reasons.
And I think it would be cool if you could use gravitational forces for slingshotting and such...
May 04, 2003 slappyknappy link
Gadzooks! Another physics tangents!

/me ducks behind an asteroid and waits for scary monsters to go away...
May 04, 2003 Celebrim link
synopticon: The devs can and have and might again give a better explanation, but as I understand it two basic things are at work.

1) The game universe is finite in size, so speeds have to be kept finite and indeed relatively speaking 'slow'.
2) Limiting the ability to move at turbo speed provides a tactical limitation on manueverability which is otherwise sorely lacking in space combat. Without such limitations space combat is pretty dull compared to atmospheric combat with its turn rates, stalls speeds, angles of ascent, and so forth. If you would compare the design decisions of this game to something like the X-Wing series, I thank you will see they compare favorably. At least in Vendetta you can rotate about your center of mass in all directions, fly backwards, and so forth.
May 04, 2003 HumpyThePenguin link
But a slight slingshot effect around a few massive roids to help fuel efficiency and/or turbo would be nice, mabye not much (5m/s at the most) but enough to temperally speed up your ship providing a SLIGHT tactical advantage. Hence the faster speed would lower maneuverability and make it so you cant do this for an indefinate period of time and gain indefinate speed, but just enough time to get you going a tad bit faster would be nice.

The downside is that it would also attract cargo, bots, unwary players, etc.
May 05, 2003 slappyknappy link
To pull the thread back on topic... any news on when we'll see a capitol ship (other than 'before E3'), or what it's capabilities will be?

Devs...?

/me throws out a line and hopes the devs bite...
May 05, 2003 Arolte link
AI controlled capital ship will be in the game within one of the uncharted sectors. Before E3 I believe. If not before... then obviously after. Soon.
May 05, 2003 HumpyThePenguin link
That still isnt a date, even pipointing within a week would be helpful :D

/me throws out a second line
May 05, 2003 Pyro link
:) :) :)
May 05, 2003 roguelazer link
If what I heard before is still true, it should be approx. five days from today.
May 05, 2003 HumpyThePenguin link
Hrmmm.....from what I heard it was supposed to be this last weekend...and it seems the devs are conspicuously missing....
May 05, 2003 roguelazer link
Thye week before last thursday, the devs told me about two weeks from then. That puts it at this Thursday. :)
May 10, 2003 luther349 link
well who cares abought ai controled ones lol. it would be nice to see larg ships in this game. if they make the abitly to shoot down seekers well you can make one strong captuptial ship at the expensiv off speed and anothing else. bascily one big moving whepon platform with shilds. but being its dirt slow and probly woulden even have a turbo boost smaller ships could take it down. and i wouldent go with auto whepions insted have players bord your ship and control the turets.
May 10, 2003 Osama link
Luther, has anyone ever told you your spelling sucked?