Approved Vehicle Sal Kar Walker

[Haon Hafey]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION

• Intent: To create a defense vehicle for major command centers on Metal Lords of the Voids planets.
• New Intent: Designed to keep Outer Rim Coalition Planets from hostile invasion forces.
• Image Source: (x)
• Video Link: (x) (To help show what it is supposed to do and full image. It is hard to find one that works) (Side Missile Launchers are NOT included in this submission)
• Canon Link: N/A
• Restricted Missions: N/A
• Primary Source: N/A

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

• Manufacturer: Have Gun Will Travel (x)
• Affiliation: Closed Market
• Modularity: No
• Production: Semi-Unique
• Material:
  Duralloy (x)
  Transparisteel (x)

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Classification:: Heavy Missile Walker
• Role: Multi-Purpose Missile Defense and Assault Walker
• Size: Extremely Large
• Weight: Extremely Heavy
• Minimum Crew: 8 people (Target Verification and Firing Only)
• Optimal Crew: 40 people
• Propulsion: Quadrupedal
• Speed: Very Slow (5km)
• Maneuverability: Very Slow
• Armaments: Extreme
  144 M-G-2 General Purpose Warhead Launcher (x) (They are separated on four raisable missile pads of 36 a piece.)
  Eight Repeating Blaster (Anti-Infantry/Air)
• Defenses: High
  Duralloy (x)
  Two Deflector Shields
  Eight Warhead Countermeasures (x)
• Passenger Capacity: 120
• Cargo Capacity: Extreme
  Holds 1,440 Concussion Missiles OR 720 Photon Torpedoes OR 360 Heavy Rockets. (Concussion missiles equal one cargo slot, Photon Rockets equal two cargo slots, and Heavy Rockets equal four cargo slots.) Total room for cargo is 1,440 cargo slots.

SPECIAL FEATURES

840.z Holo-Targeting Suite: In conjunction with the targeting computer, the 840.z Holo-Targeting Suite allowed improved accuracy for firing at the selected targets. This was needed to balance out the amount of missile targets it acquires and so much so, it required two of these to be installed. (x)
Life Support


Strengths:

• Overwhelming Firepower: Being able to fire 144 missiles at once, all guided to their targets makes the Sal Kar Walker a very dangerous machine. Land or Air, it can target and fire missiles at the targets with ease.
• Multi-Missile Loading System: If different missiles are used, it catalogs them and makes sure to load them by the order of the user interface. This makes it extremely useful when firing a certain section of missiles at a select target.
• Multi-Targeting System: It can target up to 144 individual target from sight alone though requires verification from various crew operators on the Sal Kar Walker.
• Multi-Layered Deflector Shield: Due to the nature of its payload, it has been layered with four deflector shields to protect the central torso and its surrounding body. If one goes down, the other takes it place while it recharges though it takes up to ten minutes to recharge one deflector shield.

Weaknesses:

• Extremely Slow: It barely moves far as it takes an hour to get any considerable distance. It is designed to stay stationary and to only move to reposition itself.
• Target the Extenders!: When the Sal Kar Walker either exposes the bottom part for retrieving a payload OR extend the top when extended for firing, it exposes the shield generators, making them valuable targets for destruction. Furthermore, destroying just one can reduce the shields to be bombarded by regular starfighters and destroyed.
• Deploy before Firing: Due to the overwelming recoil, the Sal Kar Walker MUST deploy before being used, making it immobile while firing. This takes up to a minute to latch onto the surface and extend the extra struts to secure itself.
• Explosive Payload: If the armor is pierced at any time in the center shell, it can produce a very dangerous explosive effect, effectively destroying the entire Sal Kar Walker in one go.
• Long Reload Time: It takes over five minutes to reload the payload four all four missile trays. Thirty seconds to descend and lock in, a four minutes to reload the trays and then thirty seconds to extend them back into position.
• Near Impossible to Transport: It takes a very large cargo ship to transport something of this size. Due to this, all models are produced on the planet they are assigned on. If moved, it requires a large ship and can take over three hours to load.
• Long Resupply Time: If it runs out of missiles, it will require a reload team to release the lower section of the Sal Kar Walker to receive more missiles. This makes it extremely vulnerable and can take up to five-ten minutes to bring one firing payload on board.
• Exposed Bridge: The head of the machine is easily found and if the shields go down, a direct blast can take down the entire Sal Kar Walker in one go as there is no back up bridge.
• One Model per Planet Only: Only one can exist on each planet. Moons are excluded. If one is taken for a dominion assault in another system, they must name which planet it comes from. If destroyed, it cannot be rebuilt for that planet. If they lose the planet and retake it, it cannot be rebuilt.
• Defense Grid Issues: Having on to defend a planet requires a lot of upkeep, restocking and training. Not including electrical power, it costs a lot to keep one maintained and training a several crews to cycle out and be ready on a moments notice is not cheap which also include the planets different forms of weather, gravity and conditions. This means only one can be on planet at all times and only the native walker can function properly in its environment.
• Vulnerable to Heavy Bombardment: The Sal Kar Walker cannot withstand more than two seconds of sustained bombardment from planetary bombardment. Without space superiority, it can become a glass cannon rather quickly as the two Shield Generators only factor in vehicular assault and minor starfighter bombardment, not overwhelming bombardment.

DESCRIPTION

Inspired from some of the oldest designs in history, Haon Hafey spearheaded a plan that was so expensive, some people questioned his sanity. The idea was to create a unique vehicle to protect their planets, one that would make even a simple army be demolished if not reinforced properly. Created primarily for defense, it was produced on Ord Mantell first to test its capabilities first hand. A prototype was created and then destroyed once it showed what it was capable of, some of the Metal Lords agreeing for a massive need for defense in case any of the other large factions or empires knock on their doors.

In production, the main legs are produced in a single factory whom is only used to create the legs. It identifies the planet it will be situated in and in doing so, strengthens it for the conditions to have optimal operating conditions. The body and its extendable top half are made in another factory to set all the electronics in the bridge, set up the Life Support and 840.z Holo-Targeting Suite which was integrated throughout the entire body. When the first model was finished on Vo, it was given another trial run against a series of starfighters, vehicles that included airspeeders and walkers. The result was a success though it was noted to tune up the for any heavier walkers which got the systems being updated for choosing which rocket to fire at which target if required.

Since then, several of these have started in production on numerous planets owned by the Metal Lords of the Void. Some are still being created due to the current conditions on the other planet, others are being considered to be fitted for their unique Metal Lord owner, adding more firepower by lowering defenses or by simply making them unique to the owners themselves by taking off the missile pads and replacing them with something that fits their needs. Regardless, the Sal Kar Walker will slowly become a staple and symbol of the Metal Lords of the Void might though the cost may outweigh its good.

Time had passed with the design having changed hands from The Metal Lords of the Void, to the First Order, to now the Outer Rim Coalition on the condition to keep the design well used and alive. Several examples on former worlds of the Metal Lords of the Void and the First Order still exist but in very small quantities of less than half a dozen. Furthermore, the costs are extreme requiring them to be deployed only on certain worlds instead of all, requiring new inventions and new ideas.

After a long time and the fall of the Outer Planetary Alliance, it had been decided to take down all remaining installations. They can now only be produced and built on site for customers that request it, primarily due to the Brynadul threat.

Spoiler: Mod (07/05/18)

Changed manufacturer and affiliation from non-existent Major Faction (Metal Lords) to First Order

Spoiler: Mod (11/14/20)

Changed Manufacturer to being just purely Have Gun Will Travel, added in Closed Market, refreshed for new look for new rules.

 

[The Major]

Hello. I'll be reviewing this submission. Please use this thread for any questions or comments as we get underway.

 

[Haon Hafey]

Only three questions I currently have when you are reviewing:


1: I have set up special rules for the Sal Kar Walker and I intend to keep them there to avoid potential abuse with submission and to limit currently the amount of Sal Kar Walkers at any given time. Is that ok to have this in the submission or should that be separate on another page?

2: Is there any rules you can think of while you read the submission that would need to be added to keep the submission from being abused? I tried to be EXTREMELY thoughtful of what could happen and open for any thoughts.

3: I know this Walker is LARGE compared to most submissions. If you know any, is there anything close to this size? Should it have a different classification all together instead of Walker just by the size?

[member="The Major"]

 

[The Major]

Okay. This has been quite the doozy. I realize it is been an extensive period of time while reviewing this submission. Thank you for your patience. I've conferred with my compatriots in the meantime.

In addition, this is a meticulously thought out submission and the level of detail and foresight you put into this idea is nothing short of amazing. I have to congratulate you for being proactive and trying to foresee how this walker might be used or abused. It's a cool concept and monstrous to imagine one of these ambling up to a position.

However, in its current form it's not something I can approve. You clearly have worked hard on this and I'm loathe to dictate edits to your work off of the bat. Some things of particular concern are the size. This walker is bigger than skyscrapers like the Chrysler Building. It offfers firepower on the scale of a modern artillery regiment and it can fire another volley in two minutes. On top of this all, it can move. This kind of firepower and scale is suitable for a defensive structure. One so massive it would require a codex location sub.

I cannot stress enough that I do not want to come off as hostile or dismissive. Please do not take this as some death bell. I only ask that you reexamine this sub, look up walkers or mobile siege vehicles in the canon, and find ways to scale this back. If you need help I am more than willing to assist, but again, I wanted to offer you to start out as this is your baby.

May this find you in good spirits ---M

[member="Haon Hafey"]

 

[Haon Hafey]

It is no problem, I have quite a bit of patience. When you spoke on size, I actually agreed as the closest thing I found to possibly its size was the Empire State Building. After you spoke your concern, I dug around for anything closer to earth on its size. Sad to say...not really. AT-ATs are close and the ones that COULD range close to its size are World Devastators and those do not even even much measurement. In short, I reduced it to a third of its original size. This also reduced the cargohold of the missile compartment by half, making those who wish to take shots take more careful though beforehand. I will note that I allowed the loading timer to go from six hours onto a ship to three hours. It got shorter, that should be as well.

In addition, I read up on how it is a Artillery regiment which was of course the purpose of this submission. A mobile walking missile platform that swats things out of the sky and on land. It was made to be dangerous, firing often though I had to even agree that in two minutes time to fire again, was dumb and probably would get me yelled at for hours. A rule was added in for that regardless to fire only ONCE per post before this though it helps to make it understand how. Regardless, I have increased the reload time from two minutes to five. The weapons wont be reduced currently, they are based on actually the amount of missile hardpoints that are in the actual pad which are 36 and kept it that way. This also coupled in that it requires a post to receive ONE payload after running out of ammo makes it rather difficult to constantly fire the Sal Kar. It also makes the characters using this become more aware of that one of their volleys can be used against a certain target or to wait as they have a limited amount to use before becoming almost entirely defenseless.

Also I understand something of this size lumbering around is a bit scary and head scratching. I like to bear in mind that an AT-AT moves at 60 KM/H and it is a tenth of its size. This thing moves at 5 KM/H which makes it very slow and lumbering...it be faster to transport it than to keep it moving. In my terms, it moves three miles an hour so if a city is preparing defenses in an assault, well it has plenty of time to wait for that thing to arrive.



Regardless, here is the changes without all the text.


-Size Reduced to 100 meters tall, 130 meters extended, 40 meters long wide.
-Reduced cargo hold for missiles. Can hold now 10 payloads of concussion missiles, 5 payloads of Photon Rockets, 2.5 payloads of Heavy Rockets. Cargo Hold size now 1,440 Cargo Slots.
-Increased reload time to five minutes
+Increased starship loading time from six hours to three hours.



If you have any suggestions or edits, I am all ears to listen to them.


Regards,
Haon Hafey

[member="The Major"]


EDIT: Reduced weight as well to 110,000 tons.

 

[The Major]

1: These can only be constructed on planets that the Metal Lords of the Void own. There is no exception and the design will not be given out to others for production. If the Sal Kar Walker from that particular planet is destroyed, there will NOT be another one built for that planet, no exception even if the planet is recaptured or renamed.

2: Only ONE character can use ONE Sal Kar Walker at any given time.

12: If used during combat, a character MUST be commanding the unit inside it at all times

This section of RP rules for the sub, while thoughtful, should be removed from the finalized submission. Once the object is in play you wouldn't be the person in charge of dealing with reports of abuse, nor would you have the authority of an RP judge to make calls on the object in use and that responsibility would fall upon a third party. Moreover, production limits and affiliation are all covered in the submission fields proper. For example, affiliation says the Metal Lords (etc) and so it is redundant to make a special note in a later section as part of pitch. Semi-unique already notes that few are to be used.

That being said, your RP guidelines show me a excellent opportunity to add more tangible weaknesses and limitations to round out your sub. Let's look more closely, shall we?

12: If used during combat, a character MUST be commanding the unit inside it at all times.

Put a weakness that specifically states the walker must be piloted by an exceptional user (e.g general or captain). I've no idea how the Metal Lords operate. Come up with something that would make sense. Say a neural interface, or that your leader has to approve the pilot personally AND maintain an uplink in order to work. You can then put something how that if that link is terminated or the pilot leaves then the walker will fail to operate.

7: If one of the Sal Kar Walkers is to be gifted, they must specify which planet it is from and the Major Faction to be informed of the rules. No single individual are allowed to own one and those that operate one must be in the Major Faction. The individual operating one from another Major Faction will read these rules before operating one in a roleplay. Failure to follow the rules if gifted will result in the Sal Kar Walker being reclaimed and being BANNED from receiving one for six months. A second break of the rules will result in a permanent ban and will no longer be subjected to being gifted one and that Sal Kar Walker will be destroyed, no exceptions. The Major Faction being gifted can only have ONE, no others can be given out to that Major Faction.

A thing this powerful would not be suitable as a gift item. As stated before, this sub will go up as a semi-unique production and its affiliation has been determined as Metal Lords. If another faction wants to use one, then a metal lords member would have to be the one using the walker. And again, this delves into OOC rules that are not suitable for you to enforce in RP.

5: You may ONLY fire once every post with the missile launchers. This is to prevent being entirely overwhelmed with constant missile fire. In addition, the poster will note if any of them are directed at any players. If one is found to fire it more than once on their turn, the Sal Kar Walker will shut down for the rest of the Dominion and be under review from Haon Hafey. The ammo count will be used in conjunction with post to limit the amount of missiles being fired every turn and to not make it nonstop destruction. In addition, to receive a payload once they run out of missiles, it requires a full post for retrieving them from the ground and the character WILL NOT FIRE on that post. They can use continue this if requiring more payloads though the rule still applies on not being able to fire them though may load the missile launchers to fire for next round.

Another case of rules that are not suitable to be judged upon without the use of RPJ. You can however rework this into a weakness for the sub itself. How? Put in a note that there was a failsafe designed by the Metal Lords leadership which limits how quickly the whole thing can fire. In addition I believe you should simply state that once this thing uses its entire payload that that is ground for redeployment or something like hours of restocking of the missiles.

Look closely at the special notes you've crafted and see how you can turn OOC rules into IC ones like I've just spitballed to you. Use your imagination. Redundant computer programs, cyberwarfare protocols that cause everything to slow down, or whatever you can think up that makes sense to you. Another instance, you mentioned something about only one of these occupying a planet at a time during defense? Instead of some OOC rule you can put in a weakness on how this takes up so much bandwidth or logistical support that only one can be sustained and active at a time when on the planet. In this way the sub will HAVE to work like you envisioned instead of relying on RPJs to monitor it for you. You may think that doing such a thing will unnecessarily make your submission weaker or more unwieldy. Indeed it would. That would be the point. I imagine from the amount of details you've poured into this that you would want it to be well rounded.

Some other things I need to point out:

-In no way will this thing be able to withstand orbital strikes especially if they are sustained. With that in mind I think you can effectively remove the redundant shield generators to go along with the smaller size. Say, maybe, two shields? Enough to maybe really put up a solid defense against ground units but not enough to survive being targeted by a destroyer. While this sub can hold off just fine against fighters or bombers with its AA utility, I simply won't accept that this thing can take on capital ships in space. Perhaps you can even put in a bit of fluff that says something like: "without space coverage this thing loses its utility."

-A walker designed to use four legs is not going to stay up if two legs are taken out. One leg down reducing it to an immobile state? Sure. Anything more than one leg going should mean this thing makes like an AT-AT and falls over.

Extremely High Cost

Please remove this from your weakness list. This is suitable in a lore section. Simply put, expense has no bearing once the sub is shooting and taking hits. In addition, the production limitation of semi unique more or less covers expense.

I think we are moving along the right track here. I hope my suggestions are helpful in nature.

[member="Haon Hafey"]

 

[Haon Hafey]

What a doozy to read. Thank you for posting but I will clarify real quick on two things.


Four Shield Generators does not mean anything in planetary bombardment. It it had a dome like shield generator, that would work but it does not. I have added a weakness in to note without space superiority, it be destroyed in seconds. I am already having enough flashbacks from other space sim games and simulators to just say that your shields mean nothing to a ton of turbolaser fire. The Four was to just give the enemy the "Hey wait, they are all in the legs!" moment, it is based on a much older concept I found in a video game and it worked which can just break the shield generator and move onto the other, not having to entirely destroy the leg. I rather not play the "Where is it" game of where it is hiding on the Sal Kar Walker, the legs make it a simple and easy target for others to have fun with while also making the characters using it constantly having to guard the legs.

The Legs while it seems odd...picture this thing walking and the AT-AT. The AT-AT has long legs pointing straight up and can be tied to trip and fall. They can get back up but destroy one leg, good luck moving it. This is different. The legs are bent and can deploy additional struts to keep itself standing up which is why the first leg being destroyed means it no longer can move as removing additional support will make it fall over. Plus the other legs can still bend better than other models, allowing it to position itself better. Regardless, I have to agree on the second leg part and just placed down it will fall from now on.



Rest are tons of weaknesses that you can read. There is now a High Ranking Officer weakness meaning a character is to use it and to link up with a visor to keep in check with it. In addition, a verification code will be sent out to the leading commander with a minute delay before firing.

I also wish to note that the first rule was already implemented into the weakness as One Model per Planet rule. This was also coupled with rule now known as seven which limits it to two a system.


Regardless, floor is yours. What else?

 

[The Major]

Four final points before I can send this up the chain:

Semi-Unique (Only A Handful of Characters), Limited (Only A Select Group Of NPCs/PCs

- 25 separate units does not constitute semi-unique. That would be like providing one walker per writer in the faction. I think that constitutes limited production, and we'd really need to peel this back even further from a numbers persecutive. Reduce the total number of walkers in use to something that reflects the semi-unique rating.

- If we are going to keep four shield generators let's increase the time it takes to reload the entire walker's payload from empty to fire again.

-Remove the special notes/rules section now that you've implemented whatever weaknesses you could.

-Finally

Input High Command Officer Code: To fire the Sal Kar Walker, a High Ranking officer of the Metal Lords is to be present to input the codes before the Sal Kar Walker opens fire. This requires an actual CHARACTER to be using the Sal Kar Walker to fire any form of missiles present. The user will also have to put on a special visor that relays information from the users retina/optical relay so that it confirms it is the correct High Ranking officer on board. When the code is inputted, a delay is put in so it would log who would fire the Sal Kar Walker, making it a full minute before it authorizes a launch of its missile pads. The delay also brings up a notice to the Lead Commander in charge of the battle for the Metal Lords of the Void and can reject the launch at any time. This means it takes a full post to fire one volley of missiles.

Remove the highlighted portion. With "Character" replace it to "pilot." With the final sentence just take it out. Remember, this sub won't be accepted if it makes any mentions of OOC rules.

[member="Haon Hafey"]

 

[Haon Hafey]

Hrmmm...well then, what to do. How about just changing almost everything!




Manufacturing Rating: Semi-Unique to Limited change, below corresponds to changes:


Defense Rating: Very High to High, reduced due to Shield Generator and Warhead Countermeasure Change
Shield Generators: Reduced to two with proper weakness explaining.
Warhead Countermeasures: Changed from Sixteen to Eight to fit with Defense Rating
Weakness Change: Target the Legs! are changed to Target the Extenders!
Sal Kar Walker List: Removed since now Limited AND Special Notes/Rules section deleted. No reason to keep it if it does not explain why anymore in any rule set save for the planetary rule weakness which now constitutes one for each planet.



Special Rules/Notes: Removed and Deleted
Input High Command Officer Code: Changed to reflect what you wish edited on that paticular weakness




I await your input.


[member="The Major"]

 

[The Major]

Hrmmm...well then, what to do. How about just changing almost everything!

Fret not! While the original idea was a great one and very detailed, this iteration of the submission is at least very close to what I feel is an acceptable form. It has been changed, yes, but it's still a powerful walker with offensive capabilities that verge on horrendous (in a good way).

Awesome. Pending Secondary Approval. Thanks! [member="Jamie Pyne"]

[member="Haon Hafey"]

 

[Ellie Mors]

<p>Approved.</p>

 

[Arekk]

Submission moved to the Pre-Factory per the author's request, though done via the Codex submission modification thread.

 

[Haon Hafey]

[member="Gir Quee"]
[member="Srina Talon"]
[member="Laira Darkhold"]


Modifications are done. Changed Manufacturer, Affiliation to Outer Rim Coalition.
In addition, added a final paragraph to tell the changes in history so far along with adding a new intent below the first intent.

 

[Gir Quee]

Approved.

 

[John Locke]

PRE-FACTORY TEMPLATE
Submission Name: Sal Kar Walker
Link to Submission: (x)
Reason for Pre-Factory Request: ORC/OPA dissolving, changing to Closed Market.

Submission moved to pre-factory per OP request.

Please remember to include a list of changes made when you tag a member of factory staff to move the submission back to live judgement.

 

[John Locke]

Haon Hafey

What is the status of this submission?

 

[Haon Hafey]

Gir Quee John Locke

Ready for Judgement 2.0

 

[Gir Quee]

Haon Hafey approved!