Lit Fleet Junkie Flagship- The technical discussions of the GFFA (Capital Ships thread Mk. II)

Actually the introduction of the Dark Empire already did this, when they just blew each other apart fighting over Coruscant.

Blame the movies.

 

I try to block out the second half of Return of the Jedi , The Executor deserved a better fate

 

It is all about finding a good balance between the size of a Federal Navy and the individual needs of each member state. If you make the federal fleets too large and severely restrict the rights of each world to defend it's own interests, you have a recipe for disaster, ala the Second Galactic Civil War. On the other hand, if you allow the various worlds and sectors to build massive navies without any restrictions, you have a situation like the post-Ruusan period in that the government cannot effectively step in when larger worlds exploit or endanger their neighbors.

In my mind, member worlds should have enough forces to defend their own interests and regions, but not be powerful enough to essentially make them independent military powers. Part of the reason they join a galactic government is for principles like "common defense", so presumably when a world joins they are expecting that a portion of their taxes will be used to build and maintain a federal Navy for the common good. It is the government's responsibility to defend their member worlds and keep the space lanes open for trade, so the federal Navy needs to be large enough to do this AND deter possible aggressors.

--Adm. Nick

 

But...A-Wings are awesome!

 

I like it. It also brings to mind how the ancient Sith Imperial Navy might have been organized, with the Harrower-class seeming to be in the lower battlecruiser-range (I still believe it was meant to be synonymous with the kilometers-long Sith battlecruiser hulk Han and Chewie ran across in the Rishi Maze) and the majority of Sith ships either lower Star Destroyer-range or smaller.
Since the Procurator-class was considered the first true battlecruiser design as defined by Anaxes, I assume all former ships in that range weren't meant for long-range independent missions. Which might explain why the Harrower-class seems laden with turbolasers while the similar-sized Allegiance-class has a few scattered batteries.

 

The more I think about it, the lower to mid-range battlecruiser (2km - 4km) seems to be a very ideal warship size. Larger and presumably more heavily armed than an Anaxes scale Star Destroyer, but also large enough than a a handful of them should have no issue taking on a dreadnought.

--Adm. Nick

 

A few years back I did come up with a tiered post-Legacy (well, first post-NJO, then post-Legacy) fleet structure for the GADF. The bulk of the fleet's ships were "corvettes" that were essentially replacements for the Sabertooth and ShaShore vessels and a heavy frigate design to fill the Tri-Scythe role and perhaps some of the Scythe-class's duties. However, those were not Anaxes-scale classifications; the "corvettes" were up there with a Carrack in size and an escort frigate in firepower and the "frigates" were on a similar scale to a VSD with vastly superior firepower. As far as heavier ships, I had a relatively small (4 per sector average) allotment of heavy fleet carriers and about half that number of lower-range 2400-meter battlecruisers that would probably be rated at about 3-4x the firepower of a Pellaeon. The latter would be held in reserve at a regional command level.

 

Oh yeah fair point indeed. My vision of the Republic is that it should have more of a NATO like structure, where some planets would have the forces equivalent to the USA and then some would be like Greece. The larger members, when necessary, would step in with their powerful forces to protect worlds who can not or do not have a large military. Otherwise, the centralized Republic Navy would be there to help with the run of the mill emergencies. Then the more important worlds would balance their forces against each other, like Coruscant, Alsakan, and Corellia did during the Conflicts. I think it would be very important for individual worlds to have the power to act independently militarily speaking. I think of the Star Wars Galaxy as being very diverse in a multitude of ways, and one in which many planets are in direct competition with each other. The cooperation between the members states in terms of trade and a common defense benefits everyone, but I think independence from depending on a central power would be important and probably desired by most. If this was more like the Star Trek universe where everyone in the Federation gets alone a lot better and most planets share the same views and values, then the larger Federal Navy model would work a lot better.

In the end all we can hope for is that we see some ships we haven't seen before, and the Legacy Era is in desperate need of some battle cruisers and dreadnoughts.

 

I hope the Old Republic encycopedia finally gives some stats on the Harrower-class. The sample pages I saw it gave dimensions on the X-70 Phantom. From the game and the tie in's it seems the Sith Navy has more than a few classes of dreadnoughts, so it looks to be a pretty diverse Navy as far as the bigger ships go.

 

I was browsing the Wook and I noticed that someone uploaded an image of the MC80 cruiser Hope:



I never knew that there was a image of the cruiser in the old Action Journal. Looks like it is a confirmed MC80 Liberty-type Star Cruiser. Which makes me happy, because for some reason we don't see alot of them.

--Adm. Nick

 

Fleet Junkies and Imperials, lend me your eyes! For is this not one of the most glorious images ever?

 

Jedi Ben

Oh sure, that is cool. But not as cool as this awesome image!



For the Alliance!

--Adm. Nick

 

There's something wrong with that image Jedi Ben...there's no Vic-Stars!

All joking aside, great pair of images there.

 

Oh where the hell did you get that Nick? I love it!

 

That Imperious now seems oddly appropriate as a development of this:

 

*looks*

Holy Kriff...

 

Gah, why can't he also do Mon Cal models as well? I want to see these types of skill focused not only on known models like MC80's, MC90's, and Viscount-class Star Defenders, but also to she his take on the Mediator-class battle cruiser, Mon Cal heavy carrier, and other Mon Cal ships that lack images.

Does anyone know the Fractalsponge well? We should reach out to him and ask him to take a crack at some other designs. It is the best chance we have for LFL to eventually have canonized images for these vessels.

--Adm. Nick

 

I talk to him on SDN (stardestroyer) and believe me...people have been suggesting Mon Cal models over there just as much as you want them Nick. He says he doesn't like how lumpy they are (much harder to model at that detail level than a 'muder-wedge'). Trust me...I've been begging for a VSD for a while now.

EDIT: At least I think that's what he said...its been a while since I dove head-first into that 60 plus page thread he has over there.

 

Well, I hope he eventually comes around. For starters, his talents could be used on all sorts of vessels, from Mon Calamari to Corellian to Hapan, and every other style in-between.

Not only that, but his Star Destroyer models are practically begging to have some adversaries to engage. And as Star Wars capital ships go, next to ISD's, Mon Cal cruisers are some of the most iconic and unique warships out there.

I can understand his desire to focus on designs without official images, so Mon Cal cruisers are the way to go!

--Adm. Nick

 

The problem with mon cal cruisers is that unlike the nice straight lines of Kuat vessels, they are made up of almost entirely complex curves, which are very hard to render well.

 

THAT'S what he said...that they aren't as easy to render because of all the curves. Kriff...I don't know how I got that mixed up...

 

Which would make the models are the more impressive if we could do them!

--Adm. Nick

 

I think he is tied up putting the finishing touches on the Infinity for Halo 4. I can't wait for him to get back to Star Wars ships. It looked like he was working on making the Imperial Carrier and a Frigate from Giel's fleet, plus another ISD from Byss.

 

Given how the MC80B, MC90, and Republic-class designs move towards a triangular hullform, I wonder if that's a good starting point for the Mediator? Might be a means to lure him into the job, making it sort of a Mon Cal Star Destroyer analogue ...

 

I always pictured Mediator as building on from Home One, but slightly larger, i.e. around 4 KM compared to a 3.2-3.4ish Km Home One.
Something like this concept image:

 

Stupid 30 minute edit limit. Thought it was 90 minutes.
Poking around at images at SWTC, I thought there may be a way to scale Home One to the Wingless/Liberty type ships, based on engine bank width to ship total length. I did a quick mockup based on feel (Wingless is closer to the camera) but a real attempt with proper measurements and geometry could yield some better results.