From: Glenn M Wilson <triphibious@j...>
Date: Thu, 03 May 2001 15:58:39 EDT
Subject: Alien Starship Design
First apologies to the Starguard Group since this starts on topic but wanders
Off topic almost immediately.
I am migrating elements of my SF campaign over the region around the Planets
of the Cotu System (except for the skirmish fights) to FT for Space Combat.
Nektons (of course!), the old Klackons, Whistlers, and Mertun races from Space
Marines days, the People's Holy Republic, Two (2)
dissident/Rebellious elements (supported by Rep-Com and Fabians
respectively,) and (nearby) Ralnai make up the main constituents along with my
own troublemaker Native Peoples' Circle (a confederation of 'groups') to add
spice.
Right now I am (re-)designing the design parameters of the Alien fleets
in light of More Thrust and Fleet Book 1.
I have the armament prejudices of the aliens and am working on (using leftover
beads) the ship miniatures themselves. I have some 'first cut'
ships glued together using small dowelling (from the hobby/craft shop in
the model airplane section) and wooden beads.
I have not created one and two bead ships in numbers since those would
represent the Scouts/Corvettes and will be pretty basic for most human
and alien races/groups. I do have a series of designs put together
using three of the four size beads I have in bulk excess. These fit on the
dowels, the smallest having too small an opening to run the dowel through. I
will use symbols for the various beads:
* = smallest (not used yet) o = small Q = medium @ = large
Basing my designations on the figures Beth Fulton of Tasmania gave me I will
show the possible classes, the bead configuration, and an approximate (to
nearest half cm) size in cm's.
FF ooo <3.0 but > 2.5
DD oQo circa 3.0
DDE QoQ >3.0 but < 3.5
DH1 oQo <3.5
DH2 o@o < 3.5
DH3 QQQ circa 3.5
CL @o@ circa 4.0
CM @Q@ > 4.0 but <4.5
CE @@@ <5.0
CH o@@@o circa 6.5
BC @Q@Q@ < 7.0
Q
BC(H) @@Q@@ < 7.5 long but >7.0; stacked 'second' medium bead.
The round shape might make the mass more pronounced but I am hesitant to
adjust class down a 'length' per class because that may be overkill.
The 'major' problem I am having is deciding if these should be Whistlers
(Avian stock) representing their desire for 'open space' in their ships,
Nektons (think Frogs with a bit of barracuda in them - representing the
oceans their race lives in), Mertuns (octopods, like the 'Martians' in War of
the World), or Klackons (crustaceans) all of which share ocean imagery
(Mertuns a stretch as 'land octopods').
My other bead shapes will be 'Spaghetti' or Tube shaped (as used in so
called "Native American crafts") - a second possibility for the Nektons,
plastic "Berry" beads (Nektons possible again - images of egg sacks),
rectangular/square beads, and faceted 'crystal' plastic teardrops.
There are tons of possibilities but these are either the most common
'leftovers' in my bead boxes or are inexpensive wood, plastic or bone beads I
have available for my use. Any ideas on who should use these round bead ships
will be appreciated.
A second issue is should I mount them with the long axis 'horizontal' [ 00000]
or should I mount then vertically? The last would almost be perfect if the
Whistlers were the race for the round bead ships.
Each race has a predilection towards weaponry ( designs prior modified by
MT/FB ideas) --- Basically it's weak to standard Hulls, Needle Beams
galore, one 'big' beam very few/bland fighters, and selected PT's/MTM's
for the Nektons; Hulls from weak through super, Armor and/or Screens,
Paired Beam weapons and some PT's for the Klackons; Weak, standard and
even a few fragile Hulls (small ships) using fighters, SMR/SML's and MTM
with Beam 'fill-ins' for the Whistlers, and 'multiple' (sets of 6 to 8
where mass allows) beams plus screens on many (even smaller ships) for
the Mertuns. The basic humans (Cotu are Beams, numbers and screens on
larger ships). I have a spreadsheet for Nektons I will try and load to
those lists having files sections from the local library/work if time
allows. Things are somewhat busy at work and time is at a minimum for personal
stuff (like this post.)