DS2: Vehicle Design Philosphy

Hello. My apologies if this has already been discussed.

In FB1, there are definite design philosophies for each super-power.
For example, the FSE loves SMLs. Has someone come up with design philosophies
in regards to vehicle designs for DS2?

Thanks.

--Greg

I've come up with a few design philosophies of my OWN, but I don't know
how/where they'd fit into the official timeline..

Here's one I suggest someone apply, perhaps to a colony or lesser power:

I call it the "Universal Chassis" Philosophy. The idea is to base all or

almost all of a force's vehicles on the same chassis. This means the class,
engine type, and mobility type would all be the same, with variations on the
weapons/equipment on each according to it's mission.

While this might be a little limiting for a major power, it's ideal for a
smaller state or colony on a limited budget (the idea is used by the Spartans
in Pournelle's Prince Of Mercenaries series. There are also several
real life examples of vehicles taking on this kind of life - like the
British Scorpion). Uniformity of the chassis makes it easy to accelerate
production, as well as simplifying logistics and repair. you simply pump out a
bunch of chassis, then equip them with the appropriate shell for the necessary
variant. These will, depending on the user, tend to be wheeled or
tracked vehicles, in the class 2-3 range, though you'll occasionally see
a class 1 or 4 vehicle on this theme, perhaps even in a GEV, but I doubt you'd
see anyone who can afford Grav technology or class 5-7 vehicles needing
to
resort to this strategy, except perhaps for second line/reserves units.

Brian B

----Original Message Follows----
From: Greg Wong <gregwong@best.com>
Reply-To: gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
To: gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
Subject: DS2: Vehicle Design Philosphy
Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2000 21:39:35 -0700

Hello. My apologies if this has already been discussed.

In FB1, there are definite design philosophies for each super-power.
For example, the FSE loves SMLs. Has someone come up with design philosophies
in regards to vehicle designs for DS2?

Thanks.

--Greg

> --- Brian Bilderback <bbilderback@hotmail.com> wrote:

> necessary variant. These will, depending on the user, tend to be

Unless that high-tech government has thousands of worlds to defend with
grav vehicles. The Traveller Imperium does this with its APC chassis. They've
got a few AFvs, some minor vehicles (air rafts) and a plethora of APC
variants: APC, Fire Support, Recon, Artillery (various types), command,
logistics, hospital, whatever. I don't think this concept would work too well
for AFVs, but the large amount of space in an APC hull gives the designers a
lot of room to play with for variants.

Actually, this is very close to the idea I was proposing. However, I beg to
differ when you say this won't work for AFV's.... the problem is, that's a
loosely defined term. No, I'm not proposing this for a MBT. But if you take an
APC, eliminated the squad bay, and add a turret, what you have IS an AFV of
sorts. The idea is that though they may have different sized compartments,
turrets, etc., all these vehicles would be built on the same chassis.

Brian B

----Original Message Follows----
From: Michael Llaneza <imperialdispatches@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
To: gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
Subject: Re: DS2: Vehicle Design Philosphy
Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2000 16:40:25 -0700 (PDT)

Unless that high-tech government has thousands of worlds to defend with
grav vehicles. The Traveller Imperium does this with its APC chassis. They've
got a few AFvs, some minor vehicles (air rafts) and a plethora of APC
variants: APC, Fire Support, Recon, Artillery (various types), command,
logistics, hospital, whatever. I don't think this concept would work too well
for AFVs, but the large amount of space in an APC hull gives the designers a
lot of room to play with for variants.

Bingo, that's an IFV. Read "AFV" as "MBT" in my original response and we're on
the same wavelength.

> --- Brian Bilderback <bbilderback@hotmail.com> wrote:

In a message dated 4/5/00 7:04:11 PM Central Daylight Time,
> bbilderback@hotmail.com writes:

<< No, I'm not proposing this for a MBT. But if you take an APC, eliminated
the squad bay, and add a turret, what you have IS an AFV of sorts. The idea is
that though they may have different sized compartments, turrets, etc., all
these vehicles would be built on the same chassis.
> [quoted text omitted]

Kind of like the Cadillac Gage 150 series, the AMX series, the MOWAG Pirahna,
the LAV 25 series, M1 ABrams provides the chassis for the Diana AAA gun
system, lots of precedent for such a series of AFV's

See, that's where we confused each other. To me, an AFV is any armored Vehicle
designed to engage in Military combat, which would encompass MBT's, IFV's,
APC's, MICV's (I usually define an IFV as either an APC or MICV. The vehicle I
proposed would be more of an AFVU(niversal), it could be a light
assault gun, an APC/IFV, a light SPG, a light missile vehicle, etc.

Brian B

----Original Message Follows----
From: Michael Llaneza <imperialdispatches@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
To: gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
Subject: Re: DS2: Vehicle Design Philosphy
Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2000 17:16:23 -0700 (PDT)

Bingo, that's an IFV. Read "AFV" as "MBT" in my original response and we're on
the same wavelength.

Add to that the M113, the M-4 Sherman (Ok, it's variants were limited to

tanks and tank destroyers mostly, but it was still a versatile design, mostly
because it was cheap to build.).... yes, you get the idea.

----Original Message Follows----
From: Popeyesays@aol.com
Reply-To: gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
To: gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
Subject: Re: DS2: Vehicle Design Philosphy
Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2000 22:05:51 EDT

In a message dated 4/5/00 7:04:11 PM Central Daylight Time,
> bbilderback@hotmail.com writes:

<< No, I'm not proposing this for a MBT. But if you take an APC, eliminated
the squad bay, and add a turret, what you have IS an AFV of sorts. The idea is
that though they may have different sized compartments, turrets, etc., all
these vehicles would be built on the same chassis.
> [quoted text omitted]

Kind of like the Cadillac Gage 150 series, the AMX series, the MOWAG Pirahna,
the LAV 25 series, M1 ABrams provides the chassis for the Diana AAA gun
system, lots of precedent for such a series of AFV's

From: Brian (re: common chassis)
> Add to that the M113, the M-4 Sherman (Ok, it's variants were limited

For the M-4:  Well, there was the Kangaroo version (infantry carrier)
and
there were two artillery versions (okay, so that was an M3 chassis--but
close enough).

I actually use this same approach for my FSU and Romanov designs (both
countries that need to count their pennies when equipping ground forces).

As an example, the RH Snow Leopard series has:

Snow Leopard (hover Assualt gun) Snow Leopard A (amphibious version of the
above) Dirt Leopard (AEV) Flak Leopard (ADV) Command Leopard

(Though some of these designs are used only by the Newich Defense Force)

Rob

Cool, thanks, glad to see my idea validated...

Brian B

----Original Message Follows----
From: "Robert W. Hofrichter" <RobHofrich@peoplepc.com>
Reply-To: gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
To: <gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU>
Subject: Re: DS2: Vehicle Design Philosphy
Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2000 20:41:43 -0400

I actually use this same approach for my FSU and Romanov designs (both
countries that need to count their pennies when equipping ground forces).

As an example, the RH Snow Leopard series has:

Snow Leopard (hover Assualt gun) Snow Leopard A (amphibious version of the
above) Dirt Leopard (AEV) Flak Leopard (ADV) Command Leopard

(Though some of these designs are used only by the Newich Defense Force)

Rob