EAS Monolith

[locarno24]

Has anyone here played firstone.com's rather superb B5 fighter combat computer game?

(If not, go here http://ifh.firstones.com/ now. Trust me.)

I've just completed it, and thought it was excellent.

I particularly like the idea of the INTELDIV special ops warshp, the Monolith..I thought I'd have a go at doing some stats for it..

Here's the game's database image

and some background on it

The main gun may be a bit harsh, but it did take out the G'vak (a G'quon class) with one shot about 3 seconds after it jumped in....

Opinions?

 

[alien027]

Sounds great! Are you gonna make a conversion for a special scenario?

 

[Calistan]

Rail guns are Gauss Cannons by a different name. The gun is an oversized railgun. The problem is that you would need a ship frame specifically designed for the weapon.

 

[Silvereye]

Certaily will make an interesting one off model.

Battle priority might be a bit low for it. That 'gauss cannon' is a whole lot more powerful than the centauri mass drivers it is supposed to be based on. There are still a load of LPA batteries statted on the ship, despite the fluff saying that many have been removed. And those two special fighter flights it carries are quite powerful in their own right.

 

[locarno24]

Hmm....shall drop the attack dice of the weapons (probably by about 1/4 to 1/3 each).

Since the gauss cannon is supposed to have been obtained from the Narn, I was trying to make it somewhere between a mass driver and mag gun. (but not a beam weapon, as it only fires once.)

ok; a reduced stat version

Will have a think about the scenario...

 

[Calistan]

Should super massive ammunition be immune to interceptors?

 

[Silvereye]

That certainly seems a more reasonable stat-line, though I would still drop the fleet carrier trait and reduce the AJP to a regular JP depending ont eh in-service date.

 

[locarno24]

The AJP was more due to watching it in-game.

The Monolith fires almost instantly on exiting hyperspace (it's still slowing from the jump point), it may be more due to the crew's skill and the targeting systems locking on really fast, but the effect is the same.....



Shall do a version sans fleet carrier.

 

[alien027]

Rail guns are Gauss Cannons by a different name. The gun is an oversized railgun. The problem is that you would need a ship frame specifically designed for the weapon.

I will give you some subjections for the hull

 

[Calistan]

The essex comes close, but I would give it more engines.

 

[Silvereye]

The AJP was more due to watching it in-game.

The Monolith fires almost instantly on exiting hyperspace (it's still slowing from the jump point), it may be more due to the crew's skill and the targeting systems locking on really fast, but the effect is the same.....

Shall do a version sans fleet carrier.

There is also a lot of that seen in the TV series. Omega's firing on exiting a jump point. The prior arguments on the forum have been that it was a 'AJP refit'.

Fleet carrier represents dedicated fighter support and control facilities. I doubt that they would expend the resources for those facilites onto a testbed ship for a new weapons system.

As a 'production ship', I probably would have designed it as a 're-fit' of a Nova/Omega hull. Basically replace out the centre hanger and fighter facilities with the 'gauss cannon'. The hanger exit could easily be converted to show the barrel of the weapon. The exterior hull hard-points could also be maintained for light/medium defensive weapons loadouts. (eg. Pulse cannons and particle beams)

@alien027, are the ship graphics components available for download somewhere?

 

[locarno24]

Thanks for the suggestions; I put in the images in mine, though (the nova refit with a spinal mount), because that's actually what the Monolith looks like in the game.
Similarly, it's not a class of vessel, it's a unique rebuild.
If it has an AJP refit, it has an AJP refit...

 

[alien027]

The AJP was more due to watching it in-game.

The Monolith fires almost instantly on exiting hyperspace (it's still slowing from the jump point), it may be more due to the crew's skill and the targeting systems locking on really fast, but the effect is the same.....

Shall do a version sans fleet carrier.

There is also a lot of that seen in the TV series. Omega's firing on exiting a jump point. The prior arguments on the forum have been that it was a 'AJP refit'.

Fleet carrier represents dedicated fighter support and control facilities. I doubt that they would expend the resources for those facilites onto a testbed ship for a new weapons system.

As a 'production ship', I probably would have designed it as a 're-fit' of a Nova/Omega hull. Basically replace out the centre hanger and fighter facilities with the 'gauss cannon'. The hanger exit could easily be converted to show the barrel of the weapon. The exterior hull hard-points could also be maintained for light/medium defensive weapons loadouts. (eg. Pulse cannons and particle beams)

@alien027, are the ship graphics components available for download somewhere?

I found those at this sites...

http://efni.org/

http://www.wolfsshipyard.mystarship.com/

http://hyperion.mystarship.com/b5w/ea/ea.htm

 

[Silvereye]

Thanks for the links.

 

[alien027]

But if you want to see what people could dream about B5 you have to see this...
http://www.wolfsshipyard.mystarship.com/SizeComp.html

But for just give to you a taste of what you will see. I show to you the Sharlock, this is the Minbary Version of the Warlock.

 

[Reborn]

I would give the gauss gun precise, as at the moment as it stands I don't think it could destroy a G'Quan in one hit without causing a lot of criticals. Seeing as Intelligence was pretty sure it could destroy the Narn in one hit, they must have had some reasoning for this.

It's like a small Mass Driver, really, isn't it?

 

[Silvereye]

That is probably a more elegant suggestion than the original heap of AD. However this weapon is supposed to be a poor man's mass-driver, rather then an improvement to it, which precise would be. As the device stands, it is only 2AD less and has an extra 10" range. If you add precise, I'd say that this is no longer a poor man's Mass Driver.

The thing is, did the Dilgar have gravatic technology (AoG's Ships of the Fleet 2 said no)? As they had fully functional mass drivers in their fleet. Unless the graimetric drive was fundamental to the Centauri designs, this raises questions as to why the Narn plans did not work, and have the Earth Alliance stumbled across something better?

 

[locarno24]

The Railgun, Mag Gun, etc, are all basically small mass drivers when you think about it.....

 

[Reborn]

But the Monolith's gun is more so because it literally snatches asteroids from space and converts them to ammo IIRC.

I hear ya Silvereye but I always thought the mass driver should be insta death to all ships really. But I don't think it should be able to hit ships either. If they could accurately hit ships then surely the Monolith would just have had a mass driver?

 

[Silvereye]

locarno24's original post had thye fluff that the EA (and the Narns) were unable to get the Centauri mass driver designs to work. So the EA eventually cobbled this device together.

8 AD of Super AP, Triple Damage on a standard Mass Driver is bound to put a crimp in anyones day if they are on the receiving end of it. There is a lot of damage potential in it if it hits well.

The in game cinematics of chewing through a G'Quan with one shot can easily be explained a couple of the good criticals e.g. the 6-6 vital systems critical (once you have tripled it at least) at the right moment. Kind of like the shadow vessel cutting the G'Quan in half at Zha'ha'dum.

The Mag Gun throws a small nuclear charge at its target, by magnetic induction of the plasma. Kind of like tossing really tiny stars at the enemy...