2014 STGOD OOC Commentary Thread 1

[TimothyC]

The Kingdom of Fiji operates the Meck Island facility. Monitoring it is easy (launches are known ahead of time with notices to mariners to not be down-range):

[Simon_Jester]

The Umerians used to have a civilian space launch site on the Outer Banks (that very thin peninsula on their north coast), but after it got trashed repeatedly by tropical cyclones during a bad storm season, they relocated to a less exposed location on the northern edge of the larger peninsula further south, several hundred kilometers northeast of the capital.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Arcadia has pretty well always relied on others. We don't have a good launch site of our own after all.

[Beowulf]

Tianguo has it's main space launch facility (Wenchang) on the South Island. The equatorial position eliminates the threat of tropical cyclones (not enough Coriolis to keep them going), and provides for greater free delta-V. It is serviced by a nearby seaport. Typically, the ascending node of space launches will be on the farside of the globe, which is to say, most launches will be equatorial or southerly, rarely northerly.

[Thanas]

Rheinland launches from the north and one of the islands chains to Ostrheinlands left.

February - I have to drop the bombshell from January still. Sorry, I am terribly out of the loop. Currently trying to catch up with all that had happened, the last ten days left no time for the board except the occasional N&P reply.

[Steve]

Rheinland launches from the north and one of the islands chains to Ostrheinlands left.

February - I have to drop the bombshell from January still. Sorry, I am terribly out of the loop. Currently trying to catch up with all that had happened, the last ten days left no time for the board except the occasional N&P reply.

So you'll spend time in N&P but not here?!

[Thanas]

I'm sorry. Have the official song of the armed forces of Rheinland as a consolation prize.

O, who is Rheinland's enemy?
Not Daedala again,
Not Fuso nor Cascadia,
They forged for her no chain,
Nor quenched her hearths,
Nor razed her homes, Nor laid her altars low,
Nor sent her sons to tramp the hills
Amid the winter snow.

Who spiked the heads of Rhenish priests
On Rhenania's golden gate?
Who butchered helpless Rhenish babes,
A lust for blood to sate?
Who outraged Rhenish maidenhood,
And tortured aged sires,
And spread all over Rhenania
The glare of midnight fires?

Who scourged our land in '41,
Spread torment far and wide,
Till Rheinland shrieked in woe and pain,
And Hell seemed fair beside?
Who plied the nerve gas and the mine,
The fire and the bomb?
O Whale that we should ever fail
To bring those bombers down.

Who robbed our land in '68
Of all its stores of food,
While at its gate with tainted breath,
Gaunt famine grimly stood?
Who filled the fields with whitened bones,
And sent under the sea
The proudest ships in all the land,
The ships of you and me?

Not Tsingtao nor Arcadia,
Not Shinra nor Champans
That robbed and reaved this land of ours,
And forged for her her chains;
But Britonia with the wily words --
A crafty, treacherous foe --
'Twas Britons scourged our Motherland,
'Twas Britons laid her low!

Rise up, o dead of Rheineland!
And rouse her living men,
The chance will come to us at last
To win our own again,
To sweep the hated enemy
From hill and burg and bay,
And in your name, O Holy Dead,
there will be blood to pay
And in your name, O Holy Dead,
Britonia will pay.
And in your name, O Holy Dead,
BRITONIA WILL PAY.

Those familiar with Irish history will know the melody.



(Good news: Bombshell post almost ready. Now all that remains is proofreading, finding pictures and catching up on IC stuff. Oh, and formalizing the Orbat. Should be done tomorrow or Sunday at last. After that one can easily go to February unless there is something waiting in IC (have not read the IC thread)).

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

Fuso's primary launch facilities are located at the southern tip of Palawan.

I wonder, would anyone be interested in investing in something similar to Sea Launch?

[Thanas]

If it would help allaying some concerns Fuso might have after my next post, sure, Rheinland might be persuaded to pitch in as a gesture of good will. But we don't need it from a capability point.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Fuso's primary launch facilities are located at the southern tip of Palawan.

I wonder, would anyone be interested in investing in something similar to Sea Launch?

I think the UOCSR might be interested in supplying rockets for such a venture.

[madd0ct0r]

Steve - given you mentioned San Doradan corps pursuing chmapa for damages, would it make sense the reactor was insured with a san doradan corp too?

[Siege]

Why are you asking Steve?

[madd0ct0r]

becuase I'm a dyslexic idiot. Seige. same question.

[Siege]

Okay, you had me wondering for a moment there .

In that case, yes it does make sense. AxumFinans has a massive insurance branch. We'd just have to decide how to settle it and if we spin a story out of it (depending on the exact cause of the incident for example Axum might argue that operator negligence triggers an exclusion clause, or it might argue the incident is an 'act of god' that is not covered, or the contract might exclusively cover damage to the plant itself and not damage to third parties... Or all of the above!)

I'd argue the third one is almost a certainty though: I doubt even a financial giant like Axum would offer coverage of not just the plant but also damage to dozens or more square miles of irradiated land, clean up, human costs, and so on. And if it did the premiums would have been so insanely high I doubt the plant operator could afford it.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Beowulf, that's a very interesting design. What kind of speed would it be capable of, and how long to build and how much?

[Beowulf]

Speed should be in the high 20kt to low 30kt range. I based the hull dimensions on the Montana, then gave it extra power. Probably should think about
29-30 kts as the design speed. Would take probably around 4 years from order to launch, plus maybe a year for final outfitting and trials, etc before commissioning. Looking at 8G$ for the ship itself, plus non-recurring R&D costs that would jack up the costs for the first ship in the class.

[TimothyC]

Just to be clear, So far the Kapi'loani replacement has a bid from San Dorado (Trimaran), Cascadia (BCGN), Comradestan (Undefined), Umeria (Two KDX-3s!), Jiangnan (CGVN), & Dalian (Super CGBLN+).

[Eternal_Freedom]

Beowulf: Interesting indeed. Kinds terrifying cost per ship though.

[Simon_Jester]

I never actually wrote that bid. Hang on, Timothy...

Also, E_F... Where's the cost of Beo's offer listed? And yes, the cost on ships like that is terrifying, because they mount more expensive systems and less gasoline and hangar spaces per ton than a carrier of equal displacement. Believe me, I ran painfully, brutally up against that with the Guard-the-Norths. On the other hand they have a semi-secret weapon or two.

[Why am I not offering them to you? Because the main battery guns are 6x180mm.]

[Eternal_Freedom]

Yeah I figured I'd be looking at $4 billion a ship, since there are only going to be 5 and i'm asking for a complete new design for a class of ships that haven't been built in decades. But $8 billion? Jeez, I could field two full battlegroup's worth of Type 45's for that.

[Thanas]

Just to be clear, So far the Kapi'loani replacement has a bid from San Dorado (Trimaran), Cascadia (BCGN), Comradestan (Undefined), Umeria (Two KDX-3s!), Jiangnan (CGVN), & Dalian (Super CGBLN+).

Rheinland will offer two bids from competing shipyards and there will be one offer for purchasing an existing ship straight from the Rhenish Navy.
Would you prefer nuclear propulsion or conventional? (existing ship is nuclear).

Großbremen will have a bid for Orion as well. Currently writing the things, should proofread and get them up tomorrow.

Yeah I figured I'd be looking at $4 billion a ship, since there are only going to be 5 and i'm asking for a complete new design for a class of ships that haven't been built in decades. But $8 billion? Jeez, I could field two full battlegroup's worth of Type 45's for that.

Rheinland might offer an updated version of the existing Derfflinger class BCGN, but it is way smaller than your design. About half, if that. Probably 30-36k displacement, though it "only" would cost around 4Billion and would not cost extra development funding as the class is already in service.

Otherwise we'd be happy to build you a monstrosity of that size, but it will cost about 8 billion as well. There isn't a magical formula to make Rhenish stuff cheaper than what Beo is offering, though the design will be a bit different.

[Thanas]

So I made that huge storypost I promised.

One thing I want to make clear - I will not use the reconstruction work to somehow increase my military budget. For the purpose of this STGOD, I will always abide by the limits set by the mod team, which is 8 trillion for Rheinland. The military budget thus will always be counted as 3-5% of those 8 trillion. I figure any gains from the development/reconstruction would be shoveled straight back into the project anyway. So regard the developments and the effects of it (including the coming guest worker program) as a huge fluff piece.

This will be Rhenania's most longterm project and will probably take the whole game to finish, if not longer.

[Eternal_Freedom]

I look forward to your BBN design Thanas, it should prove interesting. And to hell it with, I reckon I can stomach $8 billion per ship, if building is spread over 4 years than it's only $10 billion a year for the five-ship class.

I also look forward to your visiting super-battleships. My Rigel's will form up in best tradition to welcome them. Also, jeez, you weren't kidding when you said it was a bombshell.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Yeah, that's a big one. Arcadia could probably care less about Ostrheinland/Nippon becoming independent (neutral in the Great War(s) and no holdings in the Pacific). But Britonia...if a referendum goes through there, that's a totally different story considering there are some historical ties there, and two of the reigning Monarchs are also members of the Britonian Royal Family, if having renounced their claims.

I think I might end up doing a response to that speech actually, at least from the aforementioned Monarchs.

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As for Orion's ships, Arcadia will also end up with at least one design. We're the only other nation that still uses BBs the same way after all, and the current design is fairly recent, so we have recent experience. Of course, I'll have to figure out how to make a working design first

[Thanas]

As for Orion's ships, Arcadia will also end up with at least one design. We're the only other nation that still uses BBs the same way after all, and the current design is fairly recent, so we have recent experience. Of course, I'll have to figure out how to make a working design first

Rheinland also uses BCs and BBs, though it will be decommissioning the BBs.