End Run Cover

C

ChanceKell

Rear Admiral
Quick question: What ship was on the cover of End Run? It doesn't look like any Confederation ship portrayed in-game, and it's definately not the Tarawa. I would assume that it was a ship mentioned in the book that I didn't get a clear grasp on, either that or just some random painting. Any ideas?
 
ER is a Wing Commander novel.

I think we just assume that the ship on the cover is a ship of the same class as the Tarawa.
 
It's supposed to be the Tarawa (as per the direction given to the artist)... it just follows the long and noble lineage of Wing Commander artwork f'ing up the hull numbers on carriers. (See the WC2 box artwork for more :)).
 
Sylvester said:
In my opinion, the Tarawa looks like a smaller Confederation class ship. They share many features.
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Outside of carrying fighters? No.

The Confederation-class dreadnought is a heavily armed platform which moves slow, but has a big gun and a lot of armor. It's meant to launch about a hundred fighters, and fight its way through almost any engagement while possessing the ability to take several torpedo hits.

The Tarawa-style CVE is a transport fitted to carry 40 fighters, armed with only some mass-driver turrets that moves at the speed of a destroyer, with almost no armor. It's designed to be disposable, and would crack apart on two torpedo hits.

They don't share many features, though I think the artist believed that (somehow) a transport which may have once been a Clydesdale was the same size as Concordia, relative to her fighters (look at the cover, and compare the fighter sizes of the attackers to the ship). I think they glanced at the WC2 cover and used that (except by screwing up the radar by making it another normal VDU).
 
Well, they both have a tall centerline bridge, the engines are in tail fins and they share the ame ahape for there front end.
 
With the exception of the really early models (The Victory, for example), all the Confed ships had basicly the same design types you mentioned, Sylvester.
 
I'm pretty sure Kilrathi intelligence mistook the Tarawa at first for a 'modification of the Concordia design' (which I'm not aware of needing to italisize the ship class when talking about a ship type, so I read that statement as meaning the TCS Concordia design) so the Tarawa apparently did resemble the Confederation Dreadnaught, at least in shape.

C-ya
 
I agree that a lot of WC cap ships look similar. It's not a far fetched idea to think that 'survival of the fittest' would apply to details and aspects in ship design. Tall centerline bridge have an advantage over a bridge mounted on the very front? Make 'em all that way.

Or, just design all of your capital ships to look something similar to current boat or sub designs . . .

Here's something you don't think about much: since there's no up or down in space, and these ships aren't meant to enter atmospheres, why worry about top/bottom orientation at all? Bridge on the bottom of the thing? Sure. Flight deck at a damned funny angle? Why not? Actually, I suppose differing directions for artificial gravity would be bothersome, huh?
 
Viper61 said:
I'm pretty sure Kilrathi intelligence mistook the Tarawa at first for a 'modification of the Concordia design' (which I'm not aware of needing to italisize the ship class when talking about a ship type, so I read that statement as meaning the TCS Concordia design) so the Tarawa apparently did resemble the Confederation Dreadnaught, at least in shape.

C-ya
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It's been a long time since I've read End Run, but I seem to remember a passage where Thrakhath sees a recording made by a Sartha of the Tarawa. The recording is somehow disrupted (though whether that was something happening to the Sartha or a nebula the Tarawa was hiding in), and Thrakhath thinks the Tarawa is in fact the Concordia herself.

Of course, it's entirely possible I'm thinking of another book, or I made a scene up in my head with bits and pieces from other WC sources...

*goes to re-read End Run*
 
overmortal said:
Here's something you don't think about much: since there's no up or down in space, and these ships aren't meant to enter atmospheres, why worry about top/bottom orientation at all? Bridge on the bottom of the thing? Sure. Flight deck at a damned funny angle? Why not? Actually, I suppose differing directions for artificial gravity would be bothersome, huh?
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Yeah, you still have to walk around, so it'll have to be organized someway. Might as well stick with what works.
 
You might have been asked this question before, but how do the ships in the WC universe generate gravity?
I mean, in Babylon 5, the station uses centripetal force to generate gravity(rotation of the station=gravity effect) but how do the do it in WC?
 
SabreAce said:
It's been a long time since I've read End Run, but I seem to remember a passage where Thrakhath sees a recording made by a Sartha of the Tarawa. The recording is somehow disrupted (though whether that was something happening to the Sartha or a nebula the Tarawa was hiding in), and Thrakhath thinks the Tarawa is in fact the Concordia herself.

Of course, it's entirely possible I'm thinking of another book, or I made a scene up in my head with bits and pieces from other WC sources...

*goes to re-read End Run*
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No, in End Run, on page 139, he considers and dismisses the idea of a Concordia-based design due to the fact that it has so few fighters, which means it's a light carrier or similar. Remember that we've only got a few shapes, which are pretty alike - rounded ships like Clydesdales, the Concordia-style ships with the classic flattop look and then slimmer ships like the Bengal-class strike carriers, all of which share the same basic characteristics and styles... and which could, at a distance, be mistaken for one another. This was the data from the surviving ground base, which got a chance for decent pictures of the Tarawa till the Sartha in Gmarktu sector ran right up to the ship, before turning back to escape.
 
Poulton said:
You might have been asked this question before, but how do the ships in the WC universe generate gravity?
I mean, in Babylon 5, the station uses centripetal force to generate gravity(rotation of the station=gravity effect) but how do the do it in WC?
Click to expand...

Why, they do it the same way they create artificial gravity in Star Trek, Star Wars, and in just about every other pop sci-fi.

Seriously, though, I don't think they give an exact description of the AG in any of the books. They do give enough info that it's reliant on the ship's power generators and independent from the inertial dampners. I believe it was mentioned in one of the earlier novels that smaller ships (fighters) don't have AG, but I could be wrong.
 
ChanceKell said:
Seriously, though, I don't think they give an exact description of the AG in any of the books. They do give enough info that it's reliant on the ship's power generators and independent from the inertial dampners. I believe it was mentioned in one of the earlier novels that smaller ships (fighters) don't have AG, but I could be wrong.
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uh, what about when you leech a capship? doesnt that drain the power out of the ship until its got nothing left? would that mean that the artificial gravity systems would be down as well as life-support? just a thought...

Iceman16
 
Iceman16 said:
uh, what about when you leech a capship? doesnt that drain the power out of the ship until its got nothing left? would that mean that the artificial gravity systems would be down as well as life-support? just a thought...

Iceman16
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Leech guns drain some energy, but they also scramble systems to keep them offline for some time. When you leech a capship, I suspect the scrambling does more damage than anything - but the artificial gravity systems probably run on their own subsystem, one heavily protected due to the necessity of artigrav. Remember; without it, any maneuvering in a capship's going to paste you all over the far wall, especially if you're moving with any speed.
 
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