Alcubierre FTL-Type Capital Ship Concept (Largely for Fun -- Feel Free to Comment)

(...) But if I remember the Ralari carried 23 fighters and had a 250 kps speed! (...)

Those are the stats given for the Ralatha in the WC KS manual. The WC 1 Ralari has a top speed of 150 kps and Claw Marks does not mention any fighter complement.

(But I have not my Confederation Handbook at hand so I don't know for sure if that gives different stats for the Ralari. It mentions AMG as far as I know but I also seem to recall that it calls the Ralari a different design philosophy because it does not carry fighters.)
 
Two Tallahasses also do a number on the KIS Karga and her battlegroup in False Colors and that's with little fighter support.

In fairness to Karga, this is after he and his squadron take a beating during the raid on Landreich. The lack of fighter support is telling, too; it's doubtful whether Juneau and Dover would have been as 'successful' if they'd been facing a fully operable carrier rather than a depleted straggler forced to engage in gunnery combat.

I'm just saying the Fralthra seemed to be a far nastier beast of a capship than then Fralthi II... it had 40-something fighters, and was armored more than the Concordia!

The Joan's statistics and the actual game statistics diverge quite a bit in this regard - I believe that the actual gap between Concordia and the Fralthras is much narrower, and the Gilgamesh has a gun mounting not listed on the Joan's. (There's also the game balance things to take into account - the Broadsword is as heavily shielded as a capital ship in-game.)

Also, one can't measure a carrier's worth based on fighter load alone. The Waterloo carries forty fighters, too, but going on the evidence we see in SO1, those are mostly light ships - Ferret and Epee types (with, of course, perhaps the odd bomber squadron assigned strictly for testing purposes) - scouting and harassment rather than deep strike. Compare Victory and Tarawa, too - both carry an air wing of roughly equal size, but Tarawa's strike wing is weaker - Sabres versus Broadswords.

It mentions AMG as far as I know but I also seem to recall that it calls the Ralari a different design philosophy because it does not carry fighters.)

Yeah, they're listed among the newer ships in the fleet - "a relatively recent innovation[....]" Their engines are also very powerful - it's here that the 250 KPS rating comes from. As far as weaponry, they mount "2 Turreted Lasers" - presumably half of the ships four large turrets - and two AMGs as well as eight torpedo tubes and AAS. It's considered a "remarkably heavy armament" by the standards of the day.
 
Back to the design.

I'm thinking

Length: 320 meters
Notes: Ship other than the ring is actually quite thin

Mass: 8,000 metric tonnes
Notes: About 8/10ths that of the Gilgamesh

Maneuvering Configuration Speeds
-Default Max Velocity: 350 kps
Notes: Figures based on the much larger Hades-Class figures; Ship uses a twin-stage fusion drive fusing helium byproduct into a secondary product for fuel effeciency (Engines are already powerful enough)

-Maximum Wartime Speed: 455 kps
Notes: Not sure if it's necessary, but in the WCP fighters there's a somewhat higher figure than the maximum speed, which if it was to be used would be interpreted as the maximum wartime-velocity

Acceleration: 55 k/s^2
Notes: Figures derived from the Hades-Class

Y/P/R: Yaw: 17/17/25.5 dps
Notes: Y/P results based on the length/width and length/depth are the same resulting in equal yaw and pitch rate. High rates of pitched based on Corvette figures in WC-2 for the Kamekh. It would seem 1/1/1 = 5/5/5 to 8/8/8 dps. So I kind of guessed. Higher-roll rate is based on WCP game-engine figures for fighters, and due to the fact that the design is fairly wide at it's widest, and would result in a high-roll speed. Figures made by comparing Pirhanna fighter's length and width and it's roll rate versus yaw and pitch.

Rotational Acceleration: Between 5.7 deg/s^2 and 8.62 deg/s^2
Notes: Derived from a mathematical equation dividing the Midway's length to that of the Hades, compared to the 320 meter length figure, and using the figure to determine how much to increase the roll rate. I simply put a range since I wasn't comfortable with the higher numbers especially from 7.06 to 8.62, but I put them all in anyway.

That sounds good to me... I'd like to hear opinions though...


This part I'm not sure about -- too much?

Guns: 2 x Dual-Barreled Destroyer-Calibur AMG's, 5 x Dual-Barrelled Particle-Turrets (Heavy-Fighter / Light Corvette type)
Notes: The ship's role is as a quick strike platform and as a result relies on the fact that it can get into an enagement, attack and fight it's way back out -- AMG's are for capship combat, and the five particle turrets are designed to deal with pesky bombers. While these lasers are used in a point-defense role, they actually are the typical size weapon you'd use on a Corvette and have offensive uses as well. Particle turrets are chosen as they provide neutron-turret damage but possess near laser range; Overall gunnery set-up feature the two AMG's up front, one atop and one below the front of the ship, and the 5 particle turrets set up 3 outside of the "warp" ring at the end of each pylon connecting to the ring's structure, with the last two mounted one atop and one below the aft hull.

Turret Strength: 2 x AMG: 800 cm, 5 x Particle: 250 cm
Notes: All the big turrets seem to have an 800 cm armor. Particle-cannon turrts are smaller and thus less armored.


Victoria Kent
 
Since we're using WCP-era comparisons, you might want to consider swapping the AMGs for plasma weapons. I don't know the specific reason, but in WCP the choice anti-ship cannon seems to have reverted back to plasma.
 
I never understood why they selected plasma over anti-matter.

Does the ship come off overly "too armed"?

It makes no difference. They can assign whatever damage values to either gun that they want. It's entirely a naming decision in this case, and they liked the sound of plasma better.
 
Chris,

I was asking if the design sounded realistic within the WC-Atmosphere. Is it's maneuverability too little or too excessive, is it's acceleration excessive, is it's top-speed excessive or not, etc.

Either way, I am totally unfamiliar with the destructive capabilities of the Plasma cannons... I'm far more familiar with the earlier WC-games. Do you have any stats (the WCNews site doesn't have any data available on the plasma cannons) ?

Does five turret-particle cannons (either bomber-type or corvette-calibur type) sound excessive for a ship that's technically a type of quick-strike platform, and fall in the class as a Corvette / Frigate range?


Victoria
 
Which roll-rate would sound more realistic?

YPR: 10/10/15
YPR: 17/17/25.5

And which roll acceleration figures sound the most realistic?

5.70 dps^2
6.20 dps^2
7.06 dps^2
8.62 dps^2


Victoria Kent
 
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