Freespace (Was FT-Battleship designs) (Long)

I may be a bit behind, but then I have just caught up on some 1500 messages
for a period of around a month and a half (lack of time to read til now)
-
and still have the 130 odd United States in FT thread and its spin offs to
read through on top of the 1500.  I must say that is the longest/most
prolific thread I've ever seen, but I guess there is a lot of proud yanks out
there. Anyway...

These Battleship Turret ideas are a bit like a Freespace conversion I fiddled
with for a little while around a year ago. A brief summary of what I can
remember of it is:

Huge capital ships (very big and strong, kilometres long), with multiple large
escort craft (corvettes, frigates, escort cruiser's, etc) whose masses are
actually considerably bumped up compared to normal FT. The
capital ships were primarily carrier/SDN combined into 1.

The main hull of ships contained Drive Systems, Main Bridge, sensors, etc,
then all weapons were in turrets. Turrets were dedicated to one bank of
weapons with a FCS - eg a single large class 5 or 6 battery ( we are
talking about HUGE ships), multiple class 3 batteries ( kind of a multi
shot/gattling style turret), or an AA turret - a variant on an ADFC and
multiple PDSs on each. The ADFC variant simply allows targeting of ANY
fighter/missile/Freespace Torpedo within 6mu, without the screening
allowance it has normally (i.e. hitting any fighter attacking a friendly ship
within 6").

The turrets had their own armour and hull points and (I think) a MD type
system representing reactor and other needed systems. An option that could be
used was that bridge core box was control computers, normal bridge
effects.  Turrets could then be destroyed/stripped from the Hull
separately.

Fighters would play a BIG role. They could target any turret on the same side
of the ship they were attacking from, or could 'tag' a turret. The ships could
only target the ship (not the turrets), unless a fighter 'tagged' the turret.
If the turret is in the arc facing the ship, it could be targeted with the
ship's weapons.

The main Hulls contained multiple fighter bays (a fair few), or these could be
in a turret like module (can't remember which). The argument for the separate
modules is that given the number of fighters, they would no doubt be
centralized, and be very clearly visible as a turret would.

If the ship died, all turrets of course died, and I had come up with some
system for damage to flow onto turrets with each threshold but I can't find
the rules, and can't remember them. I had also considered the option of having
sensors, drives, bridge, etc as separate modules like turrets, like in the
game, except I think it would be getting a little out of hand for each ship.

As for fighters, the carrier/SDNs would carry many squadrons.  They
would have a few standard and heavy groups, multiple interceptors for
screening ships and for defending the all important bomber fighters. The
bomber
fighters had beams like anti-ship fighters (eg more effective against
ships,
but less effective against fighters - except PSB is that they are too
big, slow firing and hard to aim against fighters compared with kilometre long
ships). The bombers also carried torpedoes (1 to 3 of them), which would be
launched at a ship, detonating with a certain range (somewhat small in game
terms) with an area effect of 1 to 3 mu radius, depending on scale. These
would operate like Plasma Bolts lvl5, for PDS and damage. Damage is rolled for
each ship in the radius, and applied in full to the ship and each turret that
can face into the side the torpedo hit from. For fighters, roll 1D6
for each squadron within the radius, rolls of 1-3 the group escapes
unscathed (they see it coming and run), 4 make the equivalent of 1 PDS attack
on the group (with rerolls), 5=2 attacks and 6=3 attacks. If a group was
attacking the torpedo, add 1 to the roll. Bombers are also the more expensive
and (I think) were heavy fighters as far
as having 2DP each - hence the need for a lot of interceptors.

This was to reflect the game, where interceptors tried to fend off deadly
bombers and torps, and defend their own bombers from interceptors. There was
also no shortage of AA turrets. Another system I cant remember details
on is flak turrets which were indiscriminate area effect anti-fighter
turrets.

That's the most of what I can remember of it and is a bit vague, even though
long. I may dig around for the points and details, but they aren't in the
obvious places so I don't hold high hopes of finding them.

It would be great if discussion could formulate some details and points as it
would be fun to have epic battles with these huge ships and masses of fighters
(I dare say fire resolution would take the longest part of each turn).

I may be a bit behind, but then I have just caught up on some 1500 messages
for a period of around a month and a half (lack of time to read til now)
-
and still have the 130 odd United States in FT thread and its spin offs to
read through on top of the 1500.  I must say that is the longest/most
prolific thread I've ever seen, but I guess there is a lot of proud yanks out
there. Anyway...

These Battleship Turret ideas are a bit like a Freespace conversion I fiddled
with for a little while around a year ago. A brief summary of what I can
remember of it is:

Huge capital ships (very big and strong, kilometres long), with multiple large
escort craft (corvettes, frigates, escort cruiser's, etc) whose masses are
actually considerably bumped up compared to normal FT. The
capital ships were primarily carrier/SDN combined into 1.

The main hull of ships contained Drive Systems, Main Bridge, sensors, etc,
then all weapons were in turrets. Turrets were dedicated to one bank of
weapons with a FCS - eg a single large class 5 or 6 battery ( we are
talking about HUGE ships), multiple class 3 batteries ( kind of a multi
shot/gattling style turret), or an AA turret - a variant on an ADFC and
multiple PDSs on each. The ADFC variant simply allows targeting of ANY
fighter/missile/Freespace Torpedo within 6mu, without the screening
allowance it has normally (i.e. hitting any fighter attacking a friendly ship
within 6").

The turrets had their own armour and hull points and (I think) a MD type
system representing reactor and other needed systems. An option that could be
used was that bridge core box was control computers, normal bridge
effects.  Turrets could then be destroyed/stripped from the Hull
separately.

Fighters would play a BIG role. They could target any turret on the same side
of the ship they were attacking from, or could 'tag' a turret. The ships could
only target the ship (not the turrets), unless a fighter 'tagged' the turret.
If the turret is in the arc facing the ship, it could be targeted with the
ship's weapons.

The main Hulls contained multiple fighter bays (a fair few), or these could be
in a turret like module (can't remember which). The argument for the separate
modules is that given the number of fighters, they would no doubt be
centralized, and be very clearly visible as a turret would.

If the ship died, all turrets of course died, and I had come up with some
system for damage to flow onto turrets with each threshold but I can't find
the rules, and can't remember them. I had also considered the option of having
sensors, drives, bridge, etc as separate modules like turrets, like in the
game, except I think it would be getting a little out of hand for each ship.

As for fighters, the carrier/SDNs would carry many squadrons.  They
would have a few standard and heavy groups, multiple interceptors for
screening ships and for defending the all important bomber fighters. The
bomber
fighters had beams like anti-ship fighters (eg more effective against
ships,
but less effective against fighters - except PSB is that they are too
big, slow firing and hard to aim against fighters compared with kilometre long
ships). The bombers also carried torpedoes (1 to 3 of them), which would be
launched at a ship, detonating with a certain range (somewhat small in game
terms) with an area effect of 1 to 3 mu radius, depending on scale. These
would operate like Plasma Bolts lvl5, for PDS and damage. Damage is rolled for
each ship in the radius, and applied in full to the ship and each turret that
can face into the side the torpedo hit from. For fighters, roll 1D6
for each squadron within the radius, rolls of 1-3 the group escapes
unscathed (they see it coming and run), 4 make the equivalent of 1 PDS attack
on the group (with rerolls), 5=2 attacks and 6=3 attacks. If a group was
attacking the torpedo, add 1 to the roll. Bombers are also the more expensive
and (I think) were heavy fighters as far
as having 2DP each - hence the need for a lot of interceptors.

This was to reflect the game, where interceptors tried to fend off deadly
bombers and torps, and defend their own bombers from interceptors. There was
also no shortage of AA turrets. Another system I cant remember details
on is flak turrets which were indiscriminate area effect anti-fighter
turrets.

That's the most of what I can remember of it and is a bit vague, even though
long. I may dig around for the points and details, but they aren't in the
obvious places so I don't hold high hopes of finding them.

It would be great if discussion could formulate some details and points as it
would be fun to have epic battles with these huge ships and masses of fighters
(I dare say fire resolution would take the longest part of each turn).