Approved Starship FI-1S "Blood Hound" Sensor Corvette

[The Monster]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: To create a smaller combat corvette to support combat operations and patrol friendly space
• Image Source: Gallery
• Canon Link: None
• Permissions: Roble Manufacturing
• Primary Source: None

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

• Manufacturer: Freebirds Industries
• Affiliation: Closed-Market
• Model: FI-1
• Production: Semi-Unique
• Material: Phrik-A based hull, Duranium-Alusteel alloy supports and mounts for key pieces of technology, FM-001 laminate for armor plating, Phrik-A light skin class armor, standard life support systems, Light Turbolasers, Deimos Laser Cannons, MLMS Zeus launchers, Eagle Eye FCS, Hawk Eye FCS, Zeus Isotope-5A reactor system, FIE-2 Thruster Repulsor Engine combos, Spectrum CWEW suite, JBC2P Command and Control System, Wind-Talker Class Communications Array technologies, Saja Sensor array, Meili hyperdrive, Crystal Grav-Field Traps, Gemcutter Sensors, various necessary parts and pieces for living quarters, spare parts, SIM series missiles (listed below).

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Classification: Gunship, Patrol Craft
• Length: 120 meters long, engines are 55 meters long
• Width: Engines are 39 meters wide, main body of the ship is 8 meters wide
• Height: 27.25 meters tall, 28.5 meters tall with landing gear
• Armament: Low
  • 3 Light Double Turbolaser turrets
  • 10 Deimos RFPDLCs
    • 8 emplaced on the engine deck (4 top, 4 bottom)
    • 2 placed on the main body of the ship (1 top, 1 bottom)
  • 4 MLMS Single Tube Launchers-
    • SIM-01
    • SIM-02
    • SIM-03
    • SIM-04
    • SIM-05
    • SIM-06
  • Eagle Eye Fire Control System
  • Hawk Eye Fire Control System
• Defenses: Average
• Hangar Space:
  • Base: 0
• Hangar Allocations:
  • Starfighters: 0 squadrons
  • Support Craft: 0 squadrons
• Maneuverability Rating: Very High
• Speed Rating: Very High
• Hyperdrive: Yes
• Hyperdrive Class: 0.5

Spoiler: Balance Sheet

STANDARD FEATURES

• Life Support Systems on board are able to support a variety of life forms or even completely storing all of the air aboard the vessel during combat to ensure that explosive decompression doesn't damage the ship. This includes tie ins to each combat and possible passenger station to a combat air supply that will reduce the chances of personnel unnecessarily being killed due to lack of air or a piece of the ship being vented into space.
• Extensive Navigation computer with large amounts of charts, navigational data, and known hyperspace routes from a large area of the sectors the ship is present in to assist with calculations of where enemy ships might have jumped to and possible locations of note in the sector.
• Standard Light Turbolaser Turrets intended to only fend off other capital ships long enough to allow it to escape.
• Crew Quarters and consumable storage capacity for the vessel to make extremely long runs of operation for the fleet.

ADVANCED SYSTEMS

• FIE-2 Engines in the rear of the ship provide massive power output for the entirety of the vessel, giving it a huge thrust to weight ratio compared to other ships of its class.
• Wind Talker Class Communications Array Technology to ensure the most effective and secure communications technology available on the market today. This allows for the ship to be able to share information gathered all along its various sensor packages almost instantaneously with extreme levels of quality. And with an extreme encryption level, this makes it particularly difficult to break into.
• Remainder of weapons package gives commanders of this vessel many options when defending themselves, the Deimos Laser Cannons, MLMS Zeus launchers, and the Eagle Eye/Hawk Eye targeting systems gives this ship unprecedented accuracy alongside being able to generate volumes of fire conducive to defeating many enemy fighter craft and munitions.
• JBC2P System allows for this ship to take the raw data coming in through various sensor systems and relay this information to even give other ships firing solutions on targets they can't even properly see, let alone engage. This allows this ship to become a massive threat to enemy stealth ships because of the fact that it can direct allied ship weapon systems to accurately engage a stealth enemy target.
• Spectrum CWEW System allows for the full utilization of Saja Class Sensor Arrays alongside more sensor sub systems including the directional wavelength communications detection systems that come with the Spectrum System. And another system added on top of this is additional Crystal Grav-field traps and Gemcutters, making detection of stealth capable ships (even with Stygium crystal based technology) not only possible but effective enough that the ship can not only get a distance, direction, vector and size of the ship, but can also form a shooting solution for allied vessels with this information.
• Meili Hyperdrive system gives this ship an extremely low sensor profile for radiation, allowing for the sensors aboard the vessel to be extremely accurate in their detection, tracking and identifying other vessels in system.
• Zeus Isotope-5A Reactor System also gives the ship extreme levels of power generation and efficiency, making it possible for this ship to make long extended runs and comparatively sip fuel when put side by side with a ship that uses a standard hypermatter reactor with either similar power generation or fuel duration.
• Phrik-A Hull structure with FM-001 lined Alusteel/Phrik-A armor plating gives the ship a really light and extremely strong frame and hull for the vessel, further enabling its power to weight ratio to be that high.

STRENGTHS

• I SEE YOU: This ship is made to be able to detect just about anything you can think of in a system. And with the actual radiation and other types of emissions from the ship being extremely low so as to not interfere with the ship's own sensors, it can do this with an extreme level of accuracy, which brings it to its next strength.
• HEY BUDDY, SHOOT HERE!: This ship is able to formulate targeting solutions based on friendly weapon systems' capabilities and the current enemy ship's size, direction from said vessel, vector of movement, and is able to do this with such a degree that it can relay this information to friendly vessels so they can shoot at the stealth ship in question. Which means it's not what this ship carries that should have you worried. It's what it brought for friends.
• GOTTA GO FAST!: This ship has a stupid power to weight ratio for its class. I mean, look at the size of the engines. And remember that these engines take up just under half of the overall length of the ship (not to mention that volume wise they are over half of the ship). Add into this a 0.5 rated Hyperdrive, and this ship goes really, really, really, REALLY FAST!

WEAKNESSES

• Relatively short range armament: This ship has very few ranged options, being that the MLMS Launchers are able to engage long ranged targets, but otherwise, this ship has no long range engagement options. That means in a fight, this ship will have to get close to actually do damage to enemy vessels, if you want it to do something like that.
• It's a support vessel: This ship is a picket ship, and even then it's one you don't want in your screening forces as this ship is extremely valuable. That means that you are going to want to protect this ship and keep it next to your other high value targets in your fleet. Not to mention this ship can't really take a hit as it's just a Corvette class, so once the shields are down the hull isn't exactly gonna tank some heavy turbolaser fire.
• Reliant on the fleet: This ship's effectiveness relies on other war ships to actually give it options to throw at enemy stealth ships. This means that you are going to need to bring it some significant backup as this ship has a lot of tech on board in place of weapons and armor. So put this ship in a sizable fleet to allow for commanders to use it to give them even more options, because if it gets caught out alone, it can certainly run but not fight.
• Either shields or Sensors: The sensors on this ship are extremely sensitive to all forms of energy/radiation giving them the ability to negate almost any if not all stealth systems aboard an enemy vessel. Because of this sensitivity though you are not able to run the shields on the vessel and the sensor package at the same time as the huge amount of radiation from the shields alone are enough to distort and or lose the emissions from stealthier targets, meaning that if you want the full accuracy of the sensor package, you have to have the shields down.

DESCRIPTION
The Blood Hound Corvette has a particular niche in naval combat that it is intended to fill. This ship is meant to be a fast support vessel that can detect, identify and track any kind of vessel entering the system and/or battlespace. This means that it doesn't matter if your enemy's trying to throw bodies at the problem to overwhelm your sensors, or is trying to utilize stealth tech to avoid your sensors entirely, the Blood Hound will find them, and then tell the rest of the fleet exactly where to fire to ruin that poor sod's day. This allows for your commanders to stop second guessing their moves and wondering if their fleets are being subtly outmaneuvered by some kind of stealth force, and instead focus on simply destroying the enemy. This allows for unparalleled levels of focus from ship commanders now as they don't have to worry about whether or not they aren't seeing something. This is due to the sensor and communications package on board the Blood Hound being able to detect enemy stealth vessels, provide detailed targeting data on them including firing solutions for nearby ships, and then being able to relay this to friendly ships in the area, making them a force multiplier in the field of battle. Add into this their maneuverability and speed and these ships are very hard to corner and pin down, making them a great addition to any fleet commander's tool box.

 

[The Monster]

John Locke I do believe this sub is ready for review thank you much!

 

[Gir Quee]

The Monster , I'll be your factory judge for this submission. Conceptually, this looks pretty solid.This appears to be 3-4 ratings overpowered (depending on how you're compensating for the hyperdrive), but I don't think you were trying to make this overpowered intentionally.

I would guess that this is because of how we balance hangars for corvettes. On larger starships (like star destroyers), moving down to a "base" rating would make this almost balanced (or balanced depending on what weakness we're using for the hyperdrive). However, a "base" rating on a ship this size is "0", which is the exact same practical number as "average", which is also "0". Essentially, we can't give out extra ratings for free, if that makes sense, because then it undermines other potential builds (High speed for low armor, etc)

 

[The Monster]

If this would be acceptable I would like to drop the speed down to very high, and the weapons to average. Reasoning behind speed is that this ship is a Corvette and so even being very high speed makes it stupid level fast and allows for it to fit the current profile I have in mind. As far as the weapons go I would like to rate them as average because most if not all of those weapon systems are very short range and focused on defense, the exception being the missile launchers. That is also the weakness I thought to utilize as the counter point to the fast hyperdrive as those weapons are relatively few compared to other standard vessels and are in most situations the only offensive option for a vessel such as this.

On top of that since this is a semi-unique vessel you're not going to be able to utilize swarm tactics to overwhelm the enemy due to the restriction that this ship almost purely relies on other ships in the fleet to project offensive firepower.

If you feel these edits are reasonable or a step in the right direction I'd be happy to implement them, or if you feel as though more needs to be done I'm happy to continue to discuss further measures. I do ask for your patience though as I've recently had an IRL concussion and am still kinda getting myself right.

Gir Quee

 

[Gir Quee]

The Monster , there's no rush here in the Factory. Thanks for letting me know though.

Going down two ratings leaves this one rating over-powered. I personally might consider moving weapons down to low, given the description of the weapons and the numbers listed.

As far as the weapons go I would like to rate them as average because most if not all of those weapon systems are very short range and focused on defense, the exception being the missile launchers. That is also the weakness I thought to utilize as the counter point to the fast hyperdrive as those weapons are relatively few compared to other standard vessels and are in most situations the only offensive option for a vessel such as this.

The specific characteristics of the weapons seem more like design choices within the weapons submissions themselves to get certain tradeoffs (Yes, a weapon might be short-ranged, but it may be balanced within that submission by a high rate of fire or stopping power, etc). Moreover, these weapons don't seem to be particularly short-ranged to me. Turbolasers themselves have an average range (which while they aren't long-ranged weapons per se, aren't especially more short-ranged than the typical starship weapon). The Deimos laser cannon itself has a listed range of "long-range", which could be shorter than the range of a typical capital ship weapon, is actually pretty good for a defensive weapon.

I think that something else should probably used for a weakness to offset the hyperdrive because the short-ranged weapons doesn't really seem to be any worse than the weapons traits of another ship of its size. It should be something a bit more substantial. This weakness doesn't need to make the Blood Hound super vulnerable to other capital ships, but it should be something that the average opponent facing the ship should be able to exploit in a typical encounter. Something like a noticeable weak point in defenses or a noticeable delay in a key system working would be more appropriate, but you can think of other ideas or options that we can explore.

 

[The Monster]

Gir Quee So I did some thinking, and after making the suggested edits to the technical specs, I added this weakness.

[*]It's a Corvette: This ship doesn't have that much armor to speak of or shielding for that matter. The reason it can't have excessive shields is because it needs to not clutter up its extremely sensitive sensor packages with the radiation heavy shields would produce. This is compounded by it having a hull that is made of and reinforced by Phrik-A, Duranium and Alusteel, giving the hull itself a very light weight. This means that once the shields burn out, many if not all capital grade weapon systems will be effective at destroying this vessel. In fact many star fighter based heavy weapons will also be extremely effective at damaging and/or possibly destroying the hull if direct hits are scored.

This would just essentially emphasize what I said earlier on that this is a Corvette and is intended as a support vessel. The shielding and hull aren't heavy enough to tank heavy weapons fire in space meaning that if you were to try and use this as a frontal assault ship of some sort, it would end very, very badly.

Would that work as an added weakness?

 

[Gir Quee]

The Monster , that's not something that's really reflected in its defense rating of "average". Additionally, at this size level, not only is the average corvette going to be vulnerable to almost any capital grade weapon, but the average corvette is going to be vulnerable to many starfighter-grade weapons as well, so this doesn't really differentiate it from the average corvette at this size range. It's also belied by this line:

Phrik-A Hull structure with FM-001 lined Alusteel/Phrik-A armor plating gives the ship a really light and extremely strong frame and hull for the vessel, further enabling its power to weight ratio to be that high.

Something that might work along this same concept line though, would be to say something like "shields cannot recharge" or describe one or two significant weakpoints in the armor.

 

[The Monster]

Gir Quee What if you can't have the shields up while the sensor package is online? Would that be a preferable weakness?

 

[Gir Quee]

The Monster that would work for me.

 

[The Monster]

Gir Quee I have just added this weakness in place of the last one.

• Either shields or Sensors: The sensors on this ship are extremely sensitive to all forms of energy/radiation giving them the ability to negate almost any if not all stealth systems aboard an enemy vessel. Because of this sensitivity though you are not able to run the shields on the vessel and the sensor package at the same time as the huge amount of radiation from the shields alone are enough to distort and or lose the emissions from stealthier targets, meaning that if you want the full accuracy of the sensor package, you have to have the shields down.

Does this work?

 

[Gir Quee]

The Monster , that looks good to me. Approved!