2014 STGOD OOC Commentary Thread 1

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

If he has a leopard, Ferramenta should be riding a bear, with a gun in hand.

[Thanas]

If he has a leopard, Ferramenta should be riding a bear, with a gun in hand.

Quick, my character needs an exotic pet too. If your nation has a history of domesticated bears stretching back several hundred years...

Besides, I don't get why people are supposed to be surprised about this, since every single storypost of mine featured Shadow and I wrote about Rheinland's Imperial "pets" several times in OOC or introductory posts.

[Eternal_Freedom]

WEll well well, things are getting interesting for The Service. Good thing those three aren't the only ones in town and aren't carrying anything traceable to Orion.

[Simon_Jester]

If he has a leopard, Ferramenta should be riding a bear, with a gun in hand.

Quick, my character needs an exotic pet too. If your nation has a history of domesticated bears stretching back several hundred years...

Besides, I don't get why people are supposed to be surprised about this, since every single storypost of mine featured Shadow and I wrote about Rheinland's Imperial "pets" several times in OOC or introductory posts.

I'm not surprised by the leopard. I have no problem with the leopard. I already knew about the leopard.

I'm just awestruck by the insane courage required to have a leopard in your lap in a plane while landing on an aircraft carrier.

[Thanas]

Truth be told, this wasn't an attempt at showing how insane or tough Fischer is, it was just the only place the leopard could fit in in a two-seater jet.

Reason for taking the jet is that he had to arrive via ship which would otherwise take far too long. So the jet to the covering force an then Heli to the ship it is. And given that there is only one two-seater Kolibri plane around right now....

[Eternal_Freedom]

Doesn't your Navy have something like the Greyhound COD? It might not be comfortable but I would think it was better, and safer, than flying all that way with a leopard on your nuts.

[Thanas]

Greyhound's got a range of 2400 km, which is much less than required to Orion and it is also not fast enough.

BTW, this is a neat little tool to calculate distances:

http://www.distance.to/

[Eternal_Freedom]

Fair point. I figured you'd just land and refuel somewhere, perhaps Isla Aurum and somewhere on my continent.

[Thanas]

Fair point. I figured you'd just land and refuel somewhere, perhaps Isla Aurum and somewhere on my continent.

The huge question is crossing the ocean. I mean, there's probably about 5 k open ocean (even if refueling in "India" or however it is called). So the only way that would work is if Rheinland would surge a carrier group into the west atlantic (which we usually do not do because we do not want to antagonize anybody there) to serve as refueling station - which would mean that we would have two carrier groups operating in the west already, which would be very taxing and expensive given the other commitments. Also, we try to avoid antagonizing the western powers.

One way it might work is to travel to the former Rhenish colony on your continent and then take a COD to the carrier group...but still not quite as fast as just using your newest jet.

[Simon_Jester]

Hm. My ministers would probably have taken a long-range 'executive' jet to a nearby land-based airport, into a foreign country if necessary, and flown a smaller aircraft out to the carrier from there.

This is particularly true of Illustrious Mahogany, the foreign minister, who among our characters is second only to, er, the San Doradan financier guy, in sheer oldness. While he had a wild and sometimes misspent youth, carrier landings would now disagree with him rather sharply, as would leopards.

[Thanas]

Hm. My ministers would probably have taken a long-range 'executive' jet to a nearby land-based airport, into a foreign country if necessary, and flown a smaller aircraft out to the carrier from there.

This is particularly true of Illustrious Mahogany, the foreign minister, who among our characters is second only to, er, the San Doradan financier guy, in sheer oldness. While he had a wild and sometimes misspent youth, carrier landings would now disagree with him rather sharply, as would leopards.

I must admit I haven't read much about him, has he been introduced yet? With a name like Illustrious, I wonder how he would act.

*************
Anyway, while E_F and I are still working on the treaty signing, there is some agreement on another front, mainly the whaling business with Champa.

[Simon_Jester]

I must admit I haven't read much about him, has he been introduced yet? With a name like Illustrious, I wonder how he would act.

I really haven't had as much time and flexibility and energy as I'd like.

He's the spiritual ancestor/descendant of Maxim Chernov from SDNW4, a repeated appointee to the post of Foreign Minister and probably the resident elder statesman of the current Council of Ministers.

So far I've had him write one or two diplomatic notes (with, I was aiming for anyway, a gently ironic tone). I have also established that he has a really great desk, for some unknown but world-class criteria of "great." That part was Klavo's idea.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Siege, are Pentax building an AI? That's never good man! Did you learn nothing from Skynet?

[Thanas]

I think they are, I also think Rhenland would love to buy AIs if they manage it.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Well at least Tellus doesn't have nukes for a rogue AI to take over.

[Simon_Jester]

Are my people going to have to figure out how to build an educational system so good it can produce mentats?

[Thanas]

An open question to all:

a) Which nation has experience with modern ASW helicopter carriers (and of what size/design)? Because that is something Rheinland lacks so far (well, we got one old converted wasp class that carriers helis but that is about it).
b) What would experience sharing or the outright sale of such designs cost?

Note that I am purely talking about helicarriers not amphib ships as Rheinland has no interest in those. Don't want to give off the vibe of us planning to invade somebody after all.

[Siege]

Siege, are Pentax building an AI? That's never good man! Did you learn nothing from Skynet?

Skynet was big government's fault, man. The free hand has totally got this!

a) Which nation has experience with modern ASW helicopter carriers (and of what size/design)? Because that is something Rheinland lacks so far (well, we got one old converted wasp class that carriers helis but that is about it).

Nightfall operates pocket carriers with full-length decks for STOVL take-off of Vixen aircraft, multirole trimaran patrol ships with large aft helicopter decks, and compact commerce escorts capable of launching drones and helicopters.

So I'd say we got you covered.

b) What would experience sharing or the outright sale of such designs cost?

I'm sure we can make a deal that's to our mutual satisfaction.

[Thanas]

Indeed, but we don't believe in Trimarans....

[Siege]

Because you're a bunch of hidebound traditionalists, of course. Luckily, trimarans believe in you! So when you decide you want comfort, speed, stability and low hydrodynamic drag in a modern, proven design, you give us a call.

[Simon_Jester]

An open question to all:

a) Which nation has experience with modern ASW helicopter carriers (and of what size/design)? Because that is something Rheinland lacks so far (well, we got one old converted wasp class that carriers helis but that is about it).

Umeria has a helicopter carrier the size of its normal conventional carriers and essentially converted from the same basic hull plan. On the other hand, it has ONE such carrier, and no other helicopter ships of any great force, though it might build a second in the next decade or so.

One of its doctrinal roles is, however, to operate along with an amphibious force, since the Umerian Navy's amphibious landing capability is rather limited and most of it takes the form of aging LST-like ships for dumping swarms of amphibious IFVs.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Orion never bothered with dedicated ASW carriers but it's probably something we could look at providing for sale.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Ah, I was wodnering what became of some of my team. Good luck getting them to talk

[Skywalker_T-65]

I doubt Arcadia ever put thought into dedicated ASW carriers (we don't even have any more than a handful of submarines even), but I would also imagine that we could build one easily enough. Our carriers never got really big, so the shipyards would have more experience with smaller ships that could be easily modified into an ASW design.

Incidentally, apologies for the lack of posts. Busy busy busy lately.

[Beowulf]

An open question to all:

a) Which nation has experience with modern ASW helicopter carriers (and of what size/design)? Because that is something Rheinland lacks so far (well, we got one old converted wasp class that carriers helis but that is about it).

Tianguo operates a couple helicopter destroyers. They're about 20kt displacement, equipped for STOVL operations. Their design capacity is approximately 14 aircraft, operating as a mix of Z-8s and Z-9s. The Z-9s are for medium range ASW, while the Z-8s are short range. The TGHJ is looking at a larger DH design in the near future, for a larger airwing, including a small contigent of fighters. Said DH design was the basis of a bid for Hawai'i.

b) What would experience sharing or the outright sale of such designs cost?

Note that I am purely talking about helicarriers not amphib ships as Rheinland has no interest in those. Don't want to give off the vibe of us planning to invade somebody after all.

Unfortunately, Tianguo is not interested in experience sharing or sale of it's ASW carriers to the Palatinate.