Comments on "Ships of the Galaxy"

lastbesthope

Mongoose
Hi all,

Well I finally looked through the copy I picked up yesterday.

Nice to see lots of our facourite ships statted up for 2E, though I still want that conversion document). Can't say for certain if all the 1E ships are in there, but there are a heck of a lot.

I have some comments on the presentation and artwork.

The hand drawn ships, some of them don't look like they belong in the races they have been assigned to. particularly the Brakiri ship on P.106, but maybe they are based on designs I am unfamiliar with.

The Abbai ship pictures seem to be photos of the ACTA minis, which is fine, I think they look better than some of the hand drawn ships elsewhere in the book.

Which brings me onto the ISA section, the WSG and WSC-A pictures don't look enough like Whitestart variants to me, and they look very little like the upcoming B5 ACTA minis for the ships.

Other comments, it's not always obvious which ship the picture is of, the Va'Nial fighter might have been better placed in the ISa section based on it's fluff text and it would have been nice to see some stats for the upcoming ACTA Armageddon ships, I know the ISA gets the jump on that because their Armageddon ships were already in the RPG from the Rangers supplement but still, would have been nice.

ALl in all I'm impressed with the book though, well presented overall, and lots of fluff and crunchy stats to keep gamers happy. The art I haven't commented on above is very nice indeed.

LBH
 
Pictures? Wanna talk SotG pictures? Hookay...

p.5: "Avenger" - Nice new CGI! I just loove the new bow detail...
p.13: "Ministry"... looks like a refugee from some Manga instead of a B5 ship. But that might be the drawing style...
p.14: "Myrmidon" - ditto. Should have looked for the rights on the "Monsoon" mesh...
p.19: a pix under "Orestes Monitor" which shows a completely different ship (and we know how the Orestes look, as Mongoose is selling the mini...)
p.24: "Nemesis" - ditto.
p.26: a pic above "EA Light Shuttle", most likely meant to be the Condor... which it isn`t, as we know how the Condor looks from "GROPOS"
p.26: "Lightning" - acceptable.
p. 51: a pic that might be a new take on the Lias... and actually looks pretty good.
p.60: "Arcimus" drawing... again, an improvement over AoG's design, IMO. Even though it looks only barely Narn-y.
p.79, 80, 81: - all those drawings look strange, not B5-ish at all. But I suppose the miniatures will look better (or I at least hope so, and recent preview pictures seem to support that hope)
p.87: - hey, nice Vorlon Dreadnought!
p.105: what is that thing supposed to be? The Cidikar has a drawing from AoG times, a really good one, as it matches Barkiri shipbuilding style... while this drawing looks like a refugee from StarTrek...
p.107: another StarTrek-looking drawing, pretending to be a Corumai! I mean, the ship would look nice in a Romulan fleet, but no brakiori ship has a raptor-style design. Besides, the AoG drawing made more sense with it's similarity to the Avioki...
p.108: Shakara scout cruiser - good pix.
p.109: two drawings - at least those look Brakiri-like. The "upper left" has some similarities to the Avioki, and might make a good Antoph, while the "lower right" looks a bit like AoG's corumai. Both are bigger ships though, as evidenced by their "windowed hulls", and have no place in the fighter/shuttle section.
p.110: a nice brakiri-looking ship out of place again (note to Mongoose art department - get the Pikitos picture from the CEE B5-RPG), which might make a good Kabrik Police Ship!
p.115&116: hey, nice Drazi CGI-variations! Better then crappy drawings IMO! (even though I would have hoped for more imagination on part of the CGI guy)
p119: ...which we have here. It may not be a good CGI, but IMO it's enough.
p.122,124, 125: Well... you can't mess up badly when drawing saucers. But good is something else...
p.130: Ayl-Wutai - hey a good drawing! Well, it was about time... Callos - acceptable.
p132&133: the two drawings may not be anything special, but at least they look "B5-ish". But what's the Cotton Tender CGI doing here?
p.134&135: The Huntsman drawing is OK, the other two looks a bit manga-ish again - but that's the drawing style, not the ships this time.
p.136: Hey, recycled the Sierra-game Hull CGI! Good thing!
p.138&139: Arbiter - OK, Kestrel doesn't really look Drazi, and Liberator doesn't look B5-ish at all (manga-style both drawing and ship design)
p.140: "Rescue" seems nice (style manga, ship OK), the transport barge...
well, it looks like a spacesick whale.
p.142&143: Mediator is manga-style drawing but acceptable ship design, Noloshan looks really nice, Orinthar is OK, and I just loove the Patrol Boat ("Artemis little brother" - make a miniature!)
p.144: The Penguin STILL looks like the Yellow Submarine (stolen and painted blue this time), while the Protectore is OK.
p.148: Salvager... drawing manga-ish, ship design OK.
p.150: Shyariel... well, it doesn't really look abbai. More like some semi-organic Tal-Kona`sha ship...
p.154: Vindicator... (D-M, S-OK). You might notice that I dislike mixing
styles - so I dislike mixing Manga-style drawings and B5 CGI stuff...
p.155: the Delta-V2 deserves another mention as "prettiest replacement fighter of the year"
p.159: Starfox? What Starfox? The Starfox looks quite different according to published materials - it is closely rerlated to the "Flying Fox" starfury after all. Though this design is really nice, and could make some other B5-universe fighter...
 
It's a great book but, and I know that this is going to sound bad, in the interest of accuracy I just have to say that every B5 ship mongoose has printed in 1ed is NOT in SoG. The ENTIRE Gaim fleet is missing.

I just thought it should be pointed out, since MSprange claimed in the Announcements forum that every previously published ship would be in the book.
 
Problem with the Gaim - they are undergoing something of a re-design. We didn't want to put them in this 'definitive' book, simply to out mode them a little later.

The Gaim are a race that have been crying out for something special (in terms of culture, as well as technology), and so we have held them back for a short while. Don't worry though, the Gaim Invasion is coming!
 
Sauron,

MAtthew has aid the 1E-> 2E conversion doc should be up soon so you'll have that as a stop gap till a book with the Gaim stats comes out.

I hope soon Matthew.

LBH
 
I've given mine a little look over and I still see the same problem as before, which I'll not rehash. Although I'm disappointed a little because the EAS Titan was not included. Is anyone going to create stats for it? I'd be very interested if someone already had it. If you could PM me with those stats I'd appreciate it. EAS Titan is an official ship too! I'm not making it up. JMS approved an all. :D It'd be the best Armageddon level Warlock Heavy Destroyer!
 
From this thread:

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=259781#259781

sigma957 said:
actually having just got ships of the galaxy i now find a starfury with offence 12 vs a delta v with armour 7 and internal spaces 4 will now instantly kill the raider, the raider and transport are still somewhat standoff but at least the fury can do its job

So are the stats in SotG different from the one sin the corebook, I'm guessing the usual rule of the most recent supplement takes precedence applies if so?

LBH
 
Sorry no just checked i must have misread the fury main gun, a starfury will always instakill a raider in one hit, however it cannot hurt another fury (the Tbolt can hurt a fury, cant hurt another tbolt though) but the raider and transport are still in deadlock,......

ahh well moving on
 
There are too many inconsistencies to list. I'm going to be mixing 1st and 2ed starships for the sake of my players. 1st was better in too many ways in "my opinion."

I will list one problem I had............... In the listing of the crew, the pilots were almost never equal to the fighters/ shuttles carried. And I know some of you will say that they are the pilots for the ship itself. But the navies of our world list their pilots seperately in Janes guide. The pilots for modern naval ships are drawn from the crew. The pilots are the specialized part of the crew who always fly the craft carried by the naval vessel.

I'm sorry to all, but I had to list my gripe with the Ships of the Galaxy.
 
Aramanthus said:
The pilots for modern naval ships are drawn from the crew. The pilots are the specialized part of the crew who always fly the craft carried by the naval vessel.

There is a difference in this setting though, this isn't wet navy. The pilots are those with the Pilot skill, which is required to both fly the fighters and pilot the ship. This is patently not the case in modern naval practice.
 
I beg to differ! The pilots of the ships would be drawn from the crew, not the pilots! Naval practices would still be enforced even then. The pilots listed as such would be for the fighters/shuttles/auxiallry craft. No matter what you think, they would be drawn from the same sources as the modern naval equivalents.
 
lastbesthope said:
Ok, but has anyone noticed differences in stats between core and SotG?
Just curious now.

LBH

I noticed it too, the first to hit me is how the Omega Destroyer has 2 Fore Beam Weapons and no Aft is SotG (vs. the 1 Fore and 1 Aft of the core). The Command Variant has a Aft Beam, but it still has the 2 Foreward ones.

As for Aramanthus mention. I think the pilots listed are the dedicated pilots, some of the crew are probably pilot trained as well. Consider the show: Sheridan and Lockley, both ship captains are able Starfury pilot (Lockley's skill in one is more hinted at in Crusade). We seen Ivanova do many fighter sortie and she commanded capitol ships many times (and even becomes a Warlock Captain). Sinclair suppose to be a excellent Starfury pilot and becomes a legitimate commander for a space station. And obviously all listed above were at one point commanding B5. Heck even Garibaldi handled a Starfury.

I think that in atleast Earthforce, almost everyone becomes trained in a Starfury. Some might become real pros and stick to it, but overall everyone learnt to pilot one, if not pilot one well. Why does the fighter culture exist... don't know but it is common in other science fiction aswell.
 
Here is another way to think of the way to differentiate the crew who fly the ship and the pilots. Submarines. They basically fly thru the sea in a 3d matrix. The people who steer them are drawn from the crew, they might be considered pilots, but the are listed as crew. So theships in B5 universe are controled by the equilalent to the crew who'd fly the subs. How is that for a way to settle this thing bloodlessly. I'd perfer that to continuing the potential disput.
 
Aramanthus said:
I beg to differ! The pilots of the ships would be drawn from the crew, not the pilots! Naval practices would still be enforced even then. The pilots listed as such would be for the fighters/shuttles/auxiallry craft. No matter what you think, they would be drawn from the same sources as the modern naval equivalents.

Take a look at how you would generate a pilot in the RPG, it's the same process you would use to get yourself a helmsman. Exactly the same.

Helmsmen are trained up on auxillary craft and fighters in this setting - it's a fact of life.
 
As to why command officers have piloting skills also. it is mentioned in a couple of places, particularly Severed Dreams, that a command presence is needed during certain combat scenarios. Whether this is regulation or just preference is not gone into.

ALso, I think it's in the Season 2 episode 'Knives' Sheridan goes out for a spin, or his flight pay will get docked. I know from friends in the Royal Navy that some skillsets are acquired if they can be justified for the secondary purpose of supplementing one's pay, so maybe it's just an equivalent to that, I mean who doesn't want more trained pilots on a ship for the fighter complement on board. And of you get more pay and a little fun into the bargain, who's losing?

LBH
 
frobisher said:
Take a look at how you would generate a pilot in the RPG, it's the same process you would use to get yourself a helmsman. Exactly the same.

Helmsmen are trained up on auxillary craft and fighters in this setting - it's a fact of life.

Um, no. There are two seperate skills and the shi[p combat section makes this clear. Look on p.185 of the 2ed ed B5 RPG book. Pilots of Solo craft have the skill "pilot" whereas a "Chief Pilot" (what one would call a helmsman) has the skill "Operations (piloting)".

I do understand Aramanthus's point though as an Omega Heavy Destroyer is a Gargantuan Spacecraft and only lists 15 Pilots between the ship itself, 2 light shuttles, and 24 Starfuries. Given the ship has 24 Starfuries I wonder why they are spacing untrained crewmen during emergencies :wink:

On the subject of the Omega it lists Hanger at 14 but 26 ships. This should be a big clue that there is some sort of error but this disjointed chapter refers us to p.180 and low and behold on p.182 an answer seems to present itself ... Hangers can hold different sized ships based on the size of the ship containing the hanger. So if we look at that Gargantuan sized Omega we find that each hanger space can hold 2 small or 4 tiny vehicles and since a shuttle is small and a Starfury is tiny those 14 spaces can hold 4 shuttles and 48 Starfuries ... erk! Error again! Either they are severely undercomplementing that ship or about 7 Hanger spaces should be reassigned to other sections.

So yes, I definitely have to agree with Aramanthus that the numbers are definitely off and that helmsmen are part of officers and crew, not pilots, based on the numbers (AND more crew is probably needed).
 
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