Approved Starship Mouse Lander

[Domino]

Image copyright Bandai Entertainment
Development Thread: N/A
Manufacturer: Black Sun Manufacturing and Fabrication
Model: Mouse Lander
Affiliation: Black Sun
Modularity: Lander pod type
Production: Mass-Produced
Material: Durasteel
Description: Seeking an efficient way to land heavy vehicles and large numbers of troops onto planets, the Suns commissioned a new drop ship. Their requirements were simple, it had to be durable, capable of independent operation, long-ranged, able to land large numbers of either vehicles/troops and equipment/or a combination with minimal refit, and a ship loss couldn't result in the deaths of all the ground forces aboard. The result, the Mouse lander. Heavily shielded and rugged to a fault, it can take a beating and still get there, and if it can't the Load Master can drop the landing pods early and somebody would get hurt for it.

Defense wise, the Mouse mounts four turrets for anti star fighter work. Two are below and on either side of the piloting station, a third is in the tail of the ship, and the fourth in the midst of the ship's broad back, between the point defense lining the edges of the ship. All this is to keep the ship safe as it attempts to land and unload its cargo, the troops and vehicles in the pods lining its underbelly. Each is capable of carrying either 24 soldiers and their gear or 1 AT-SJ or a pair of pod joins can be used to house a single Hammer Walker or Tank. During lengthy transits the soldiers and vehicle drivers may stay in rudimentary barracks aboard the ship before transferring into their pods via a ladder. And while the ship will try to land to deploy its troops where designated (thus retaining the pods), if it becomes apparent that landing would be to hazardous or if the Mouse suffers a critical blow, the pods are capable of being purged. After which they act much like escape pods with only basic maneuverability and automatically seek out the closest habitable planet. On its own each pod is quite defenseless and the harsh landing will render it useless for a second drop, though painstaking measures were taken to develop proper crash seats, braking thrusters, and other means to protect the individuals and vehicles inside so that they may come out fighting wherever they may have landed.

Intent: To create a simple way to land large numbers of troops or heavy vehicles without landing capital ships.
Classification: Medium Freighter
Role: Lander
Height: 17m
Width: 40m
Length: 72m
Power Core Generator/Reactor: Solar Ionization Reactor
Hyperdrive Rating: 2
Minimum Crew: 4
Optimal Crew: 18
Armaments: Dual laser turrets x4
Point Defense lasers x6
Hangar: N/A
Non-Combative Attachments: Landing pods x11
Light emergency shields
Ray/partical shielding

Passenger Capacity: Simple barracks-264
Cargo Capacity: 100 tons
Consumables: 1 week
Sublight Speed and Maneuverability: 4.5

 

[Jaxton Ravos]

Dropships are classified as a Starship, and have armament and hanger configurations in the How to Build a Starship Guide. I'd provide a link, but I'm on mobile right now, but it should the fourth stickied link in starship creation. I don't mind that you're using a pod dispersal system instead of just dropping things, but mass produced with a better dispersal system and mapping system and heavy shielding with no dev thread? Not gonna happen. I'd like the shielding dropped to standard and either the mapping system removed or the production dropped to minor.

Additionally, for the record, this is a rather large vessel. You could declare this as a freighter that carries out the role of a dropship, as our ship guide doesn't restrict freighters. However, this would mean you couldn't store them in the hangerbays of larger vessels, and your carrying capacity would still have to drop a ton. I'm not letting you fire and forget drop 22 tanks or 11 walkers or 262 troops or whatever the combination of tanks/tropps may be with one vessel.

@[member="Domino"]

 

[Domino]

Considering the disparity in armaments, I believe the dropships listed were supposed to be more in the <20m range, so I'll switch it over to freighter. Wasn't supposed to be a hanger ship anyways at this size.
I didn't think the mapping would be an issue as I envisioned it just as a building/terrain/road map, not unit positions (unless they are building sized like an AT-AT I guess) I can drop that though. Most people are just fine with orbital imaging.
Like the post says, the pods are unrecoverable for second use and are basically large escape pods they can deploy from and are defenseless. What would you say if they had the limitation of needing to be deployed from the upper atmosphere or lower?
@[member="Jaxton Ravos"]

 

[Jaxton Ravos]

Upper is fine for me, although there is still the issue of carrying capacity. I have little issue with your passenger count per pod, but the vehicles are a bit too much. I'm thinking multiple pods per tank/walker(or one much larger pod rather, but you get my point) and a 1 pod per AT-SJ. Also, a note I should have mentioned earlier. If you wish, you can do a dev thread and either up production or retrofit the Mice with mapping systems and put it in submission modifications as a modernization of the fleet. I can't say I'd be comfortable with heavy shielding on a mass produced ship however. @me when the edits are done.

 

[Domino]

Okay, edited numbers and shield stuff in the non-combative area, as well as adding links. I would like for you to check out the at-sj one as I'm thinking you might be under the impression that it's another walker instead of a 2 man jeep,
Hammer now requires 2 ports to secure which means the most you can land with one of these is 5.
@[member="Jaxton Ravos"]

 

[Jaxton Ravos]

Though I appreciate the links, I looked up the AT-SJ prior to making that decision, and I also asked that the tanks take two pod spaces. Once those edits are done this should be done.

 

[Domino]

whoops, must have missed that, edited.
@[member="Jaxton Ravos"]

 

[Jaxton Ravos]

Everything's square here. Approved.