Something big

[fractalsponge1]

Kontos as in lance. Thought I'd go Greek this time.

The wavy profile certainly works better from some angles than others. I think from the side it's best, and then ventral bow 3/4 view gets really weird, then it settles again. All in all, pretty happy with it as a more photogenic Strike-sized ship.

Carriage I think 2 medium fighter squadron, 1 mechanized battalion of troops. Swap battalion for leg infantry only (boarding and security, minimal vehicles) and get 3rd squadron.

General purpose ship, much like the Strike, which is a bit smaller length and volume wise. Patrol, escort, pirate hunter, first line unit for brushfire surface intervention. More expensive for sure, but sturdier because it dumps the modular shtick and more powerful to boot.

[Raesene]

Would be a nice vessel for the Star Wars Armada game.

[Abacus]

Great work there Ansel! I like the sleekness of the new design.

[fractalsponge1]

So here's a new one (sort of):






Escort shuttle. In theory a lambda variant. I've tried to get the proportions close to existing (almost all game engine) references for this ship, with as many lambda shuttle parts as is consistent with that. There will be a new engine assembly that fits over this basic shape, to make room for the aft turbolaser turret.

So, what's it for, and what does it offer than something else in its size range, the Skipray for example, can't? It's not supposed to be particularly agile or fast, but it does have a turreted (must be short range) turbolaser aft, and the fixed guns are likely towards the top-range for fighter weapons (I've used guns from my StarWing here). Skipray seems optimized for strike, with fixed axis ion cannon and the lasers seemingly for self-defense and better straight-line performance. Escort shuttles aren't even really supposed to have warhead load. Habitability is likely to be better than the Skipray, since the potential compartment for crew is larger. So they can operate without tenders for longer too. So - courier, more defensible VIP transport, long-range escort. The shuttles can deal with attacking fighters by pointing on with their fixed guns, and have their turrets cover a convoy or engage any leakers.

[Lord Revan]

IIRC Escort shuttles are not considered military craft in the game fluff but heavily armed civilian ships so it could that they're used as light transport/escort for convoys that cannot use dedicated military ships like the skipray or Assault Gunboats (or TIE variants)

[fractalsponge1]

Update:

[fractalsponge1]

Meh - this may or may not work. Bare minimums of detail right now just to get a feel for things.

[Raesene]

An assault transport ?

very compact, but a lot of nose-mounted stuff with a thin connection.
Like the wings as additional protection. I'd add a side mounted gun for suppression fire while the troops deploy.

[fractalsponge1]

I've been messing about with the idea of doing a proper assault ship that isn't an Acclamator. Part of the question is exactly how big it would have to be. A modern division may have about 1000 AFVs, but then thousands of trucks, other logistics and support vehicles. In Star Wars terms, what would this look like?

I started with the Imperial Sourcebook for rough numbers of vehicles per subformation, and took measurements of a bunch of my and EU/canon vehicles. Then I adjusted dropship complements a bit and worked out a hypothetical average Corps level formation:

24 AT-SP
40 HAVw A6
48 AT-SE
72 SPHA
80 AT-AT
576 scout walkers
4674 repulsorlift (all classes, mix AFV and support)

12 Titan drop barge
48 company drop barge
160 Theta drop barge
72 sentinel/ATR landers
400 infantry dropships

It would divide into:
Battlegroup/legion (x2): 3x regiment (2x repulsorlift, 1x light armor, 1x heavy armor battalion); 1x artillery regiment; 1x HAVw A6 regiment; 80x infantry dropship
Battlegroup/legion (x2): 3x regiment (2x repulsorlift, 1x scout walker, 1x heavy armor battalion); 1x artillery regiment; 1x AT-AT regiment; 80x infantry dropship
Corps HQ: 2x AT-SP regiment, 1x AT-SE regiment, 2x SPHA regiment, 40 dropships, 1 regiment equivalent vehicles

Dropships are LAAT equivalents, and based on the 80 per division of an Acclamator. The company drop barge is purely hypothetical, designed to move masses of individually not very large repulsorlift vehicles, but in large quantity. Works out to be about light corvette-sized. A purely hypothetical layout follows:



Works out to approximately a 1500mx1000mx80m space, simply for garage storage. Storage across 6 vehicle decks, equivalent to 1 superheavy vehicle/dropship deck, 2x heavy vehicle/dropship decks, 4x dropship rack levels. An actual assault ship would need more volume to have vehicle handling spaces, mostly for the large walkers. This exercise shows how voluminous walkers actually are, especially when you compare to even the largest rack-mounted imperial fights (Scimitar and Defender wings shown for scale). Barrack volume is relatively minimal. I think a ship ~2km in length would be sufficient, if the internal volume were almost completely given up to ground complement space.

[FTeik]

Are you aiming for an Evakmar-trooptransport? http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Corps_Transport

If there is a Corps HQ, wouldn't that also mean, that there is at least one prefabricated garrison-base?

Also wouldn't it save space, if some of the ground-vehicles are already stored aboard the dropships, especially the AT-ATs and AT-STs? Four AT-ATs for a Titan-class?

Otherwise 12 million cubic-meters ... . You could save on lenght and width of your storage-space, if you increase the height, so to speak. Say 1000mx750mx160m. You could have the infantry-dropships take off through hangars on the dorsal side, while the heavy vehicle barges are on the ventral side. A thicker vessel with a blunt bow.

[fractalsponge1]

Yeah in theory it would be an interpretation of an Evakmar. Also it's a planning exercise for how to do the ground-force hangars on my carrier if I ever get back to it.

Prefab bases would probably be in container storage somewhere. I need to read up on what the bases are supposed to look like.

This is just the mockup for total volume. Placed touching-end-to-end would reduce the required volume, but an actual arrangement with enough space to move vehicles on and off dropships for servicing would increase the space requirements. The big killer on space are the dropships, especially for the walkers. I think there probably needs to be a separate drop barge class as well. Titans can take a single AT-SP, 2x AT-SE, or 4x AT-AT but only one SPHA. Probably Titan variant, but wider, so it can handle 4x AT-SE, 6x AT-AT, or 2x SPHA. The Theta barges I imagine can be configured internally to take repulsorlift vehicles, but right now they are one AT-AT or one A6.

[Abacus]

An interesting conundrum for sure. I look forward to seeing how you shape the design. Will you aim towards keeping it while the Acclamator's wheel house in over-all design or going for something more utilitarian?

[fractalsponge1]

Update to LAAT:






As for the Evakmar, dropships are mostly important for the massive vehicles. For smaller ones I imagine that they can self-deploy into atmosphere if they're repulsorlift. I always figured the main difference between a repulsortank and say, a gunship or atmospheric fighter is the maneuverability, not the ability to fly. Still, you'd want dropships able to land an assault echelon or to support detached landings away from the ship. The ship itself would deploy troops from orbit, or "land" (i.e. hover and stabilize with some barely-load-bearing landing gear) if there was a secure site.

Right now it's turning out to be a very obese Acclamator. We're looking at about quadruple Acclamator volume necessary at a minimum. I'm attempting to keep it near ISD length, just more volume. Most of the dropships and barges can deploy from the sheltered trench hangar on the dorsal surface. Why dorsal? Because the ship has to be able to deploy things while landed. Large barges transit from flank bays, and gunships and small craft, and repulsorlift, can deploy from any bay.

[FTeik]

Concerning the new LAAT, the fields of fire for the wing-guns seem to be rather limited, compared to the ball-turrets used by the Republic gunship. There is little ability to fire to the sides or backwards with the current lay-out.

About the transport I would have prefered a (perhaps slender) dagger imposed/pressed into a box-shape (similar to the Modular-Task-Force-Cruiser, but more bulky and without the cube-like stern). The large trench and cavities on the dorsal side take away too much volume.

[fractalsponge1]

Concerning the new LAAT, the fields of fire for the wing-guns seem to be rather limited, compared to the ball-turrets used by the Republic gunship. There is little ability to fire to the sides or backwards with the current lay-out.

About the transport I would have prefered a (perhaps slender) dagger imposed/pressed into a box-shape (similar to the Modular-Task-Force-Cruiser, but more bulky and without the cube-like stern). The large trench and cavities on the dorsal side take away too much volume.

The individual gun mounts swivel, so it's pretty much hemispheric coverage on the wings including double coverage aft. The chin turret handles ventral fire and obviously contributes to forward coverage.

As for the transport, well, I never said it'd be pretty. The dorsal cavity is supposed to be there, so that barges can operate while the ship is landed, and the ship can point its more armored belly towards a planet and have covered deployment. The volume of the ship is more than adequate for the expected carriage requirement (probably double-triple estimated minimum garage space).

[fractalsponge1]

Proof it all fits (being generous with the deck clearances here). Reactor will be ~ISD sized and placed immediately in front of the engine array in the aft cutout.





Detailing:


I'm debating keeping the dorsal side hangars - I think I can use the volume there better...

[Abacus]

Yeah, for its intended role I think the dorsal side hangars are superfluous at best.

[Raesene]

While I understand the triangular shape from the aesthetic point of view, I doubt the ship needs the good firing arcs.

As a troop transport I'd just use a box and divide the volume between embarked troop requirements, heavy shield generators for protection against planetary defenses. A few very heavy guns to clear landing zones, some medium ones to deal with enemy positions close to already landed troops and a good point defense system to destroy missiles, torpedoes and pesky fighters going for me.
I'd put the heavy guns and most of the medium ones on the ventral side and keep the hangar bays on the dorsal one, together with the shield bulb.

For fun, I'd put another command module on the ventral side, too. The embarked troop commander shall have a good view of the landing operation.

[fractalsponge1]

Yeah aesthetics are still important Even real life warship designers consider it (the raked versus vertical funnels discussion, for instance). A box also isn't as fun to deal with, so there's that too. There won't be a bridge module ventral side. One: you're landing a Corps, what's visual sighting beyond camera views going to do for you? Two: when the ship lands, there's not going to be much ventral clearance for a module, so bad view anyway.

[Lord Revan]

Is this suppose to be an imperial era design or Clone Wars era (or early imperial) design?

if it's an imperial era design I'd merge the 2 towers into one and remove or cover up the canyon in front of them, it seems to serve no purpose then to allow enemy fighters or small capships to hide there and blast your ship into spacedust.

[fractalsponge1]

Is this suppose to be an imperial era design or Clone Wars era (or early imperial) design?

if it's an imperial era design I'd merge the 2 towers into one and remove or cover up the canyon in front of them, it seems to serve no purpose then to allow enemy fighters or small capships to hide there and blast your ship into spacedust.

Eh? If a small capital ship (small enough to fit in the trench) gets that close to your landing craft, you've probably already lost in a very catastrophic way. But if for some reason it got there, why would you expect it to be able to pierce the shielding on a 2km warship? It could disrupt landing operations, I suppose, but ships like this have no business being in a melee without escorts to deal with that kind of thing.

[InsaneTD]

I'm curious about the kind of spaces you'd think are necessary to move equipment between those various hangers and garages? And how you think they would move it?

I can see them using corridors with either rails in the floor or a crane system. They could possibly use repulsor lift units in place of cranes I suppose.

[fractalsponge1]

I'm curious about the kind of spaces you'd think are necessary to move equipment between those various hangers and garages? And how you think they would move it?

I can see them using corridors with either rails in the floor or a crane system. They could possibly use repulsor lift units in place of cranes I suppose.

Yeah, tracks for repulsor or rack units. I think the repulsorlift units would float on/float off the large barges, but large walkers would need space to load onto dropships. I think the deployment areas wouldn't mix much, but there would be corridors for units to be shuffled (slowly) between them.

[fractalsponge1]

[fractalsponge1]