Minor musing on TEC ship sizes...

...and experience, deception, and the like

from Sins Forums

If memory serves, the manual suggests that the TEC warships, including all the capital ships but the Marza, are primarily reconfigured civilian designs.

In-game, the icons for these ships tend to be far larger than the freighters zipping between refineries, extractors, and trade ports.  This suggests that either

(1) the redesign process involves massive inflation,

(2) the ships *are* larger and the backstory is fluff that wasn't written to imply anything about the game, or

(3) the /icons/ might be large, but they bear no relationship to the actual size of the ships but instead reflect their relative importance; and that the warships may in fact be very similar to civvie ships (with the possible exception fo the completely new designs).

 

Case (3) would be intriguing, in so far as there are certain sorts of missions you might give to the more experienced crews regarding camoflague -- having actual warships somewhat modified and probably with temporarily powered-down scanning / weapons systems (or some other way to bring heat/radiation signatures to look 'normal'), in order to be considered lower-priority targets and perhaps better able to ambush.   You wouldn't expect a novice crew to pull it off, 'tho -- novices not have the full breadth of experience that tells 'im how to distinguish between a warship and something else (consider that in the Ubiquituous Laser Age, relying on approaching to easy visual confirmation range would might easily you killed), and also might lose their nerve and either not trigger at all or reveal themselves too early. 

That does touch on the concept that if there ever were to be a decent fog-of-war or a revised experience model, it would probably be more realistic for experienced crews to be better at identifying / spotting contacts, at coordinating fleets (more sensors better coordinated => better tracking of contacts, for better targeting or avoidance), more efficient at damage control, more competent /confident at knowing what safety margins can be exceeded when (e.g. overloading propulsion systems, or zooming a bit closer to a star than 'textbook recommendation' -- express as percentage bonuses).

13,468 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

as for figuring ship sizes, don't go by icons.  zoom in.  you can see the ships themselves if you get close enough.  And yes, i think that the freighters should be a bit bigger (and not just one exclusive type!  make some variety!)

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

First of all, it's the Kol, and not the Marza, which is the only dedicated warship design in the TEC fleet.  Everything else is, supposedly, converted from civilian use.  Now, that doesn't mean they're all direct conversions of ordinary trade and refinery ships.  The Marza, for instance, states it's converted from a "small planetoid destruction and recovery workhorse"; which indicates it's the space-age equivalent of an icebreaker.  The Dunov is similarly a modified cargo freighter.  Obviously it's not your average inter-planetary trade ship, but rather something designed to carry absolutely massive shipments over large distances.

 

I don't think there's an actual issue here; the peace-time versions of these ships are no longer in operation, because they've all been converted for war-time use.  The civilian ships still in service are the ones that are either too small or unfit for military conversion.

Fences - Organize your desktop icons today!
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Correct.  Just because they were upgraded civilian ships doesn't mean the only civilian ships in the lore were trade and refinery vessels.  In fact, the manual lists the Dunov's origins as once being just a very large cargo hauler.