Tiny transports

S

Shane

Spaceman
Is it me or are the WC transports awfully small? Spending some time recently on the Chesapeake and looking at some of ships hauling cargo, the Drayman and her succesors seem woefully inadequate. Or are there other larger transport craft we haven't seen. The TCS Tarawa and her sister ships were originally transports that got refitted, but there was no way they were ever Drayman, Clydesdale, etc.

In the US Navy, for example the T-AE 26 Class (Ammunition Ship), and the T-AFS 1/8 Class (Combat Stores Ship) spec out at a little over 550 feet; the T-AO 187 Class ship (Oiler) is almost 700 feet, and the AOE 1 Class (Fast Combat Support Ship) is nearly 800 feet. The recently christened USS Ronald Reagan (CVN76) the newest of the Nimitz class measures in at just under 1100 feet.

In the WC universe, the Ranger class, by comparison, comes in at 720 meters, with Confed carriers only getting, for the most part, bigger. It would seem to me then, that Confed transports should start at somewhere around 350 meters (about half the length of an average carrier) Instead they seem to be anywhere from not quite a half (the WC3 transport was 160 meters)down to almost a fifth (the Clydsdale at a mere 73.3 meters) that size.

Any thoughts? Maybe smaller=cheaper=more targets for the cats=better chance some of the cargo gets through?
 
1st The Ranger Class is very old and its not a big carrier fleet like the Nimitz Class but a escort carrier.
2nd the Diligent and Drayman Class transports are pretty damn small but its only the crew module and engines, nothing more, they dont need to be like sea vessel of today that need a hull to keep the cargo in it, and they are fast, unlike today cargo ships, if a ship in WC U requires ammo, parts, fuel, etc.. it just call a transport to deliver those parts, the military cargo ships of today must have all those things abord since a standart cruise takes several mouths.


[Edited by Dragon on 03-16-2001 at 17:24]
 
Originally posted by Dragon
1st The Ranger Class is very old and its not a big carrier fleet like the Nimitz Class but a escort carrier.
2nd the Diligent and Drayman Class transports are pretty damn small but its only the crew module and engines, nothing more, they dont need to be like sea vessel of today that need a hull to keep the cargo in it, and they are fast, unlike today cargo ships, if a ship in WC U requires ammo, parts, fuel, etc.. it just call a transport to deliver those parts, the military cargo ships of today must have all those things abord since a standart cruise takes several mouths.


[Edited by Dragon on 03-16-2001 at 17:24]
Click to expand...

1) Which only furthers my point the ranger is older and smaller, yet the transports are still undersized in comparison to it, let alone the Confederation Class, Vesuvius class, etc.

2) Depending on what they are hauling they may need to keep it inside a hull. Also, I never seen anything to indicate that the transports tow their cargo. I also wouldn't call the WC transports speedy, some of them are slower than the carriers max speed. If the database is correct, and I recall LOAF mentioning this is not always the case, the Ranger Class and Bengal Class are faster than the WCIII era transport and the Confed class has the same top speed. You do make a good point in that the WCIII universe does show much in the way of support ships spending much time with the carriers.
 
The Tarawa was a *heavy* transport -- Drayman and Diligent are tiny little fast transports...

The Pelicans are 490 meters long... and would actually make nice bases for an escort carrier conversion, look-wise.
 
wc3transportthumb.jpg


See the little boxes, that is the cargo containers.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Originally posted by Dragon
See the little boxes, that is the cargo containers.
Click to expand...

But they are still limitied to their length. I can't imagine they extend out from the superstructure of the ship more than one or two conatiners high or wide.

LOAF, thanks for the Pelican's length. I've been debating about trying to find one of the guides for Prophecy since they include stats like that. Any recommendations, since I heard there was the Prima one and perhaps another? Also how much game realted info is in the Confed Handbook?
 
The guides don't have the lengths for the Prophecy lengths -- I've been pulling them from the original design materials. (There's only one Prophecy guide, though, the Official from Prima/IMGS).

The handbook is entirely movie related, for now.
 
Originally posted by Dragon
See the little boxes, that is the cargo containers.
Click to expand...

And funny how you can blow them up with a single laser shot. Guess they don't have much protection after all. :)
 
Well, containers are supposed to be cheap and utilitarian. The last thing you want is to spend thousands of credits on alloys just to give your containers an extra layer of armour. Next thing you know, these crates would be better armoured than the Excal... :D
 
I guess critical goods were transported by frigates perhaps or othe small warships. Or the transports had a proper escort.
 
Yes, one would normally want to *escort* transports through any area where one could encounter hostiles...

TC
 
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