Good Monday, Wingnuts. It's Monday and time for the weekly WCRPG update.
This last week saw the beginning of new material specifically for WCRPG, and as I mentioned in my last update, that effort began with the creation of the first three race profiles, specifically the Terrans, Kilrathi and Firekkans (Chapters 2.2.1, 2.2.2, and 2.2.3, respectively). After building a "generic race" image (a stick figure that says, in admittedly improper English, "I be sapient"), I moved on to the Terran profile. I was able to save a fair amount from the SFRPG Human profile on that one, so the Terran profile only took a day or so. The Terran image is one from WC3 of the bridge of
Victory, shortly before Thrakhath issues challenge to Blair (and triggers Hobbes personality overlay). The Kilrathi profile proved a little trickier, taking two days and finally seeing completion Wednesday morning. I had originally picked an image of Prince Thrakhath from WC3 for the Kilrathi image, but later decided to go with one from WC2 (no offense to the folks that brought us WC3, but the Kilrathi in WC2 just look more like cats, IMHO). The Firekkan profile was done as a bit of double-duty work; see, when I was building the rules for creature creation in Chapter 10.2.7, I chose the Firekkans as the example for how to build a sapient race. So by building the Firekkans, I was also able to fill in those examples. The Firekkan profile was finished on Thursday, and I'm happy to report that Chapter 10.2.7 is now 100% complete. I also made some adjustments to the remaining blank profile pages to get them more in line with the format of the three completed profile pages this week.
If you're keeping track, that's four sub-Chapters completed just this week.
I would like a peer review of the three race profiles written so far, just to see what y'all think, to answer any questions and to see if there's anything particularly important that has been left out. The Terran profile is
here, the Kilrathi profile is
here, and the Firekkan profile is
here.
Friday saw work re-commence on Chapters 6.2.3 and 7.2.2, which is where I still am at the moment. Those of you who have been following this thread have seen the work that's been done on trying to build starfox1701's battleship, which is going on while I'm still trying to reconcile changes between the Starflight and Wing Commander universe (haven't forgotten about you, starfox1701, just had a busy Sunday). The discussion so far is leading me towards a reworking of the rack/turret system from SFRPG. We do have more than one problem there (insert Jay-Z quote here if you wish), but that's the one I'm focusing on at the moment. We probably won't get his ship 100% done until I've had more of a chance to rework the accessories and weapons lists; I'm hoping that work will be finished by the end of the week. Meantime, some of the outstanding changes have been made to the accessories list in Chapter 6.2.3.
The grand master plan is still proceeding on track. 6.2.3 and 7.2.2 are up in the chute, followed by the completion of Chapter Five.
WCRPG sits at 71.82% complete as of this morning.
Looks very intersting. I'll tak a look later and get back to you on these.
So, here's how I envision it working. Each weapon station would use a set of descriptors that would lay out its general function. The descriptors would be listed out as <qualifiers> <weapon type> <arc coverage>, <magazine>. At the moment, I have the following sets of descriptors.
QUALIFIERS
1. ARMORED (military user only) - induces one point of DR to weapon type when systems damage indicated. May change this effect; "called shots" are enabled through the Targeting action in combat right now, which could supercede the existing damage engine.
2. GATLING (military user only) - allows rapid fire.
3. MULTI-FIRE - weapon station may have more than one gun/launcher attached. Number of weapons referred to by Latin adjective, may be shortened (dual, triple, quad, quint, dodec, etc.). Causes an attendent increase in price of the accessory.
WEAPON TYPE
1. GUN - specifically for guns.
2. MISSILE - specifically for light ordnance.
3. TORPEDO - specifically for heavy ordnance or specialized equipment.
4. SPECIAL - specifically for anything that's not a gun, missile or torpedo.
ARC COVERAGE
1. HARDPOINT (only type available in the Metal Age) - single weapon gun/missile only. Guns can only fire directly ahead.
2. SPONSON - Weapon covers a single combat arc.
3. BARBETTE - Weapon covers two arcs.
4. LIMITED TURRET - Weapon covers three arcs.
5. TURRET - Weapon covers all four arcs.
MAGAZINE (multiple missiles and torpedoes only; can also be qualified)
1. TUBE - magazine of up to ten weapons.
2. BANK - magazine of up to 25 weapons. Limited to DFs/Rockets on Fightercraft/Capsules/Shuttles.
3. BAY - magazine of up to 100 weapons. Limited to capships only.
This would give the weapons station tremendous flexibility - you could have something as simple as a Gun Hardpoint (for a single gun that can only shoot straight ahead), or something as complex as, say, an Armored Gatling Novem Torpedo Limited Turret, Double Bay (for a system that can rapidly fire up to nine torpedoes at one time, with the ability to absorb some damage and fire into three different arcs, containing up to 200 torpedoes in its magazine). Of course, this flexibility comes at the cost of simplicity; this would make the weapons station accessory by far the most complex accessory to deal with in the game. I wouldn't be able to explicitly list out each and every combination of weapon station that would be available in the game like I have now; that'd add a lot of text for not a lot of effect.
I think you may be on to somthing but is see a few problems.
first
3. TORPEDO - specifically for heavy ordnance or specialized equipment.
ok this is a bit to ambigous. There is the problem that these weapons can very widly in size and that will effect the number of rounds that fit in a given volume of space alot. How about this
3. TORPEDO - Heavy antiship/antistation missiles
4. CAPITAL SHIP MISSILES - Massive weapons with standoff range and onboard target aquisition gear. (TAG) Theas can attack the surface of planets too.
5. MINES - Stand alone ordinace with limited movement capabilities and sofisticated TAG. These are normaly used as area denial weapons or as part of fixed fortifactions.
6. SPECIAL - specifically for anything that's not a gun, missile, mine, or torpedo.
The second problem is here
ARC COVERAGE
1. HARDPOINT (
only type available in the Metal Age) - single weapon gun/missile only. Guns can only fire directly ahead.
2. SPONSON - Weapon covers a single combat arc.
3. BARBETTE - Weapon covers two arcs.
4. LIMITED TURRET - Weapon covers three arcs.
5. TURRET - Weapon covers all four arcs.
None of these trems have anything to do with arc coverage. Most are literally all types of gun mounts. That said mount type is also important info important and needed information. Limited turrets should be droped because this is a kind of open armored vehical turret and thay arn't used anymore because they compromise crew protection. Barbette should be droped from the list because it means the same thing as sponson in old termanology and in for modern naval weapons means this
In warships from the age of the
dreadnought forward, the barbette is the non-rotating drum beneath the rotating gun turret (properly known as the "gunhouse") and above the armoured
deck on a warship. It forms the protection for the upper ends of the hoists that lift
shells and their propelling charges (
e.g. cordite) from the magazines below
So it should read somthing more like this
MOUNT TYPE
1. HARDPOINT - single weapon gun/ missile only. Used primarily by fighters and small craft. Ground assult guns and coaxial weapons also use this type of mount. Guns can only fire directly ahead. Missiles only track targets in the forward arc.
2. SPONSON - Hull mounted single/dual gun or lunch tube. Naval gun mount capable of using up to a full hemephearical fireing arc. Advantages include reasonable fields of fire and the inclution of the mount inside the ships own hull armor protection which saves tonage and therfore costs less overall to equip on the ship. Disadvantages include limites to the number of guns in each mount and an inablity to mount all of the larger classes of guns. Sponsons are also far more harder to repair or upgrade because it usally involve major hull work too.
3. TURRET - Fully inclosed weapons comprised of 1 or more indvidual guns mounted on the surface of a vehicle. Turrets can be independently armored and have excelent fields of fire that are only limited by the parts of the parent vehicle that they can't travers or that block LOS.
4. LAUNCH TUBES. - Missile/Mine launch system comprised of 1 or more indvidual launch tubes. These systems are most often built into the hull for enhanced protection from enemy fire. Unlike other weapons a launch tube's field of fire is heavily dependent on the type of missile it is intended to fire. AA missiles can make rapid course changes and therefore benefit from a larger platforms better sensor covrage gaining 360 degree arcs of fire. Torpedos and Cap missiles are far less menuverable and normally track only in the arc the launch tube faces. Mines should only be droped out of stern facing tube to prevent the ship from overrunning them and causing an accidental detonation. Launch tubes can be combined with sponsons or turrets to improve the firing arcs of larger missile systems, but this exposes these launchers to more incoming fire and increases the chances of the weapons being knocked out during battle while significantly increasing the cost of the weapon mount.
Now we still need to sort out the firing arcs. Now I agree with the decision to limit th gunfire to 2D. I spent about 2 years back in the 90's trying to make Star Fleet Battles a 3D game and gave up because I concluded that a CGI enviroment was th only place you could do somthing like that and keep the game playable. That said you are still going to need more then 5 arc definitions. The arc of a weapon really shouldn't effect the cost. This is because the mount type determines the mobility of the gun to chase tragets; however it is the physical location of the weapon the determins how much of the sky it can actually see. Fireing arc definitions are tied heavily to the movement system. This is because movement determins where the target ends up in relation to the gun. So How exactly are the ships going to move? Is it a hex based system like most, or somthing more free form? At any rate each gun mount will have to have the arc assigned individualy based on mount loaction. Here are some examples.
ARC COVERAGE
1. F - Front the 60 degree arc defined by the hex in front of the ship.
2. A - Aft the 60 degree arc defined by the hex behind the ship
3. LF - Left Front the 60 degree arc to the front and left of the ship.
4. RF - Right Front the 60 degree arc to the front and right of the ship.
5. LA - Left Aft the 60 degree arc to the back and left of the ship.
6. RA - Right Aft the 60 degree arc to the back and right of the ship.
7. HEM - Hemisphereical 180 degree arc. thes can be centered on 1 of the 6 60 degree (also called primary) arcs or the left or right in which case the edge is along the ships centerline.
8. OTS - Over the Shoulder 300 degree arc centered on 1 of the primary arcs and can fire into all other arcs except the 1 directly opposite the centered arc.
9. C - Center very narrow arc only covering the hex row down the center of 1 of the primary arcs.
10. S - Side 120 degree arc centered on the ships left of right side.
11. 360 - 360 degree arc.
Examples in use.
FHEM - Front hemisphere
LAOTS - Left aft over the shoulder
AC - Aft centerline
RS - Right side
Okay...so here's how I see your ship's weapons with this system:
Weapons Station x 63
- Armored Dual Gun Sponson x 32 ((10 Port, 10 Starboard; Mass Driver), (6 Fore, 6 Aft; Neutron Gun))
- Hex Missile Turret, Double Bank x 2 (12 ImRec, 12 IFF each, standard) Mag size is a guess, and I still haven't been able to figure out just what a "CASE" system is supposed to be.
- Armored Dual Gun Limited Turret x 16 ((8 Fore/Port/Aft; Antimatter Gun), (8 Fore/Starboard/Aft; Antimatter Gun))
- Armored Triple Gun Turret x 9 (<final heavy gun selection>)
Again, let me know if I've got a mistake here. Does this whole thing sound like something that'd work better than what I have now?
Ok so there are a few changes
Weapons Station x 63
1. Armored Dual Gun Turrets x 32 [(10 LHEM, 10 RHEM; Mass Drivers), ( 6 FHEM, 6 AHEM; Neutron Guns)]
2. Hex AA Missile Launchers, Double Bay CASE x 2 (360; 100 ImRec, 100 IFF each, standard) CASE stands for Cellular Amunition Storage Equipment. It is for containing ammo explosions in the magazine. It blows all the explosive force out into space. The army uses it on tanks and the navy on AEGIS ships. The magazine is destroyed but the ship and the weapon system survive.
3. Armored Dual Gun Turret x 16 [(8 LHEM; AMG), (8 RHEM; AMG)]
4. Armored Triple Gun Turret x 9 [( 5 FOTS, TBD), (2 LHEM+A, TBD), (2 RHEM+A, TBD)]
I think we getting closer What do you think of the changes?
