Concordia FAQ

[Delance]

Yeah in the games we don't get the impressions that carriers are that rare. At least not in the proportion just a few amongst thousands of other ships.

On the other hand, we rarely encounter another carrier in the games. There's the TCS Kyoto on WC1, and TCS Eisein on WC1 and the Midway on WCSO, when the player was in a cruiser. Which brings another point. Lots of those cruiser and destroyers can deploy fighters. So the lack of carriers on a task force won't imply in the lack of fighters, which are a very important component of space combat on WC.

 

[Dundradal]

Carriers being more complex than other ships were always going to be in a somewhat short supply. Smaller capships that we encounter multiple times through out the games are the main portion of both fleets through out the war. They are also a main target in every engagement and as such are often destroyed or damaged.

TCS Eisen is in WCP not WC1.

 

[Sylvester]

Question: Could the 'TCS Coral Sea' seen in Action Stations be a battleship that was converted to a carrier like the USS Saratoga and Lexington were taken off cruiser hulls?

 

[Bandit LOAF]

That's not really a frequently asked question about the Concordia.

It's also not a question that it's possible to answer in any reasonable way, since the Coral Sea only appears in a brief reference in Action Stations (which you clearly already know about). Is it *possible* for it to have {any backstory}? Sure. Is it possible to *not* have {any backstory}? Also yes.

 

[Chevieblazer]

it's funny that the lexington survived the entire war , given confed had such few carriers at the outbreak of the war, and later designs were all lost(bengals, confederations, wake islands etc)

 

[Haesslich]

it's funny that the lexington survived the entire war , given confed had such few carriers at the outbreak of the war, and later designs were all lost(bengals, confederations, wake islands etc)

Well, the outer hull survived the internal explosions which gutted it and killed off her crew at the end of Fleet Action, but I don't recall the Lexington in Fleet Action and later WC4 as being a ship that appeared in Action Stations when the war began. She didn't quite survive the WHOLE war, but she was a Concordia-class. The Concordia class was a workhorse and so it was manufactured for decades. Those other classes you named were specialist classes or experiments which soon were outmoded or replaced by later designs, but Confed really didn't have any heavy carrier classes but the Concordia design.

 

[Chevieblazer]

what about the jutland?

 

[LeHah]

And what about the black people, Mr Lantern?

 

[Haesslich]

what about the jutland?

From what I recall, the only real source for the Jutland-class attack carriers was the writer's bible, and we never see it actually mentioned in any of the games or novels Also, it was a newer design than the Bengal, which means that even the first ship of that design would not have survived the 'whole' war. The description in the writer's bible stated that the Jutland design came into its present form after the Tiger's Claw was destroyed, which would put its first deployment some 20+ years after the start of the Kilrathi War.

As noted earlier, the Concordia DESIGN itself persisted for decades as Confed didn't have any real alternatives as far as heavy carriers went - the Confederation-class dreadnought, like the Bengals and the first-run escort carriers were ships that fulfilled special roles, and weren't heavy carriers themselves. The Confederation was built expressly to house the Phase Transit Cannon, the Bengals were designed as a platform for fast strikes without heavy fleet support, and the escort carriers' first run designs were converted transports designed to supply more fighter support than a cruiser could provide while still being more disposable than a conventional light or heavy carrier. All three designs were eventually retired (like the Confederation-class) or replaced with 'upgraded' designs, such as the next generation of dedicated escort carriers.

 

[d3r3k]

Hey, Concordia!

I'm sitting in Harms hall right now.

 

[ChrisReid]

it's funny that the lexington survived the entire war , given confed had such few carriers at the outbreak of the war, and later designs were all lost(bengals, confederations, wake islands etc)

Bengals were a very old class.. and other newer designs were sometimes produced in small numbers. It's no more odd that the Lexington survived than the Victory, and the Lex was pretty much gutted towards the end of the war and put down for a few years.

 

[Crowley]

Where exactly does the information about the PTC's firing time come from? Paladin says in Secret Missions that according to the boys as tactical they'd be out of range by the time they've done priming it, but that's all I've found out. Is the Tiger's Claw fast enough to get out of range in mere minutes from a weapon that can be fired at a planet from a distance well beyond orbit?

 

[Haesslich]

Where exactly does the information about the PTC's firing time come from? Paladin says in Secret Missions that according to the boys as tactical they'd be out of range by the time they've done priming it, but that's all I've found out. Is the Tiger's Claw fast enough to get out of range in mere minutes from a weapon that can be fired at a planet from a distance well beyond orbit?

The Phase Transit Cannon and the Sivar's graviton gun are two different beasts - yes, the PTC came from an analysis of the technology found in the wreckage of the Sivar, but it's not the same as the Sivar's gun - that gun wasn't made to shoot at anything a lot faster than a planet, which is why in SM1 they said that the Sivar's cannon couldn't be used on ship-sized targets.

The Phase Transit Cannon, on the other hand, was designed specifically to go after capital ships, which is why it was mounted on the bow of the Confederation-class dreadnoughts. The data in the Kilrathi Saga manual indicates a 1.5s refire time for the PTC, but the problems with it being temperamental and having a habit of blowing itself up was why the PTCs were taken out of service in 2665.

 

[psych]

From what I recall, the only real source for the Jutland-class attack carriers was the writer's bible, and we never see it actually mentioned in any of the games or novels

The CVA Trafalgar from End Run, bro.

 

[Haesslich]

The CVA Trafalgar from End Run, bro.

Grabbing copy of End Run now. Hold on.

Crap - that's the reference I was missing. Still, that particular ship would not have been around the whole war, and if one does believe the Jutland concept's description in the WC Writer's Bible, it was designed and built after the Claw got blown up, which means the first ship of the class is deployed 20 years into the war proper.

 

[McGruff]

The Phase Transit Cannon, on the other hand, was designed specifically to go after capital ships, which is why it was mounted on the bow of the Confederation-class dreadnoughts. The data in the Kilrathi Saga manual indicates a 1.5s refire time for the PTC, but the problems with it being temperamental and having a habit of blowing itself up was why the PTCs were taken out of service in 2665.

Even with its potential for self destruction, the PTC was such a marvelously effective anti-capship weapon that one would think it would have seen more widespread use despite the risks. If not mounted on a carrier or battleship, at least as part of some minimally crewed mobile platform to defend valuable bases and worlds. Even if it wasn't jump capable, a PTC would have come in very handy during the battle of earth and would have made short work of the Kat dreadnaughts.

 

[Halman]

Indeed. The best defense platforms are the ones with a high chance of exploding before they fire a shot. The PTC is a neat concept, but they make it obvious that it isn't effective as an actual weapon.

It would just make more sense to mine jump points with passive mines that launch torpedoes, or something similar to that.

 

[Haesslich]

Even with its potential for self destruction, the PTC was such a marvelously effective anti-capship weapon that one would think it would have seen more widespread use despite the risks. If not mounted on a carrier or battleship, at least as part of some minimally crewed mobile platform to defend valuable bases and worlds. Even if it wasn't jump capable, a PTC would have come in very handy during the battle of earth and would have made short work of the Kat dreadnaughts.

We don't have any proof that it would've made 'short work' of Kat supercarriers or dreadnoughts, nor do we know if they had improved the shielding over the years to block the PTC itself. Remember that shielding technology has been upgraded several times over the course of the games... and if they'd made those ships proof against PTCs, then having a weapon prone to exploding and killing its crew along with destroying the expensive weapon itself would serve no real purpose, not when you could probably deploy a bunch of carriers with equivalent ship-killing potential for cheaper, and get more use out of them.