Traveller: Warships of Babylon 5

[lastbesthope]

Sharlin being there is good, but no Victory or WS is bad, and worrisome enough to overcome the lack of worry from the Sharlin situation.

LBH

 

[MongooseMatt]

Hi guys,

Apologies for the ISA, but they could just not be squeezed in (this is one of those books that ballooned quickly during development).

However, despair not! All B5-Traveller players will be getting the ISA ships for free over the next couple of months!

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

That works for me!

THANX MATT

 

[AndrewW]

Today, for example, it was all hands to the pumps to take in a delivery of new books (including Warships of Babylon 5, so if you are waiting for your mail orders, you should see them early next week!). They should have arrived earlier in the week, but the entire pallet was lost by the shipping company (seriously). As well as Warships and a few restocks for us, there were also 300-odd books for something very special that, I believe, will be announced this Monday. . .

I think it was the Shadows wanting to keep the new ships away from those fighting them...

 

[Traveller-61]

Phew!!!!!!!

Thank you Matt, faith in Mongoose Restored :lol:

DW

 

[tneva82]

You know this might not be such a bad thing in the end afterall? Sure not having them in there is slight annoyance but think of this. If you are in doubt whether to get them and don't have FLGS nearby for sneakpeek you get in effect free good preview in form of free ship plans

 

[lastbesthope]

Hi guys,

Apologies for the ISA, but they could just not be squeezed in (this is one of those books that ballooned quickly during development).

However, despair not! All B5-Traveller players will be getting the ISA ships for free over the next couple of months!

OK, we'll let you out of the cell with the Narn Opera now :lol:

Just picked up my copy today along with Psion, haven't had a chance to look at them yet as I'm going away for the weekend. Are the EA shuttle plans in Warships?

LBH

 

[Traveller-61]

Are the EA shuttle plans in Warships?

LBH

Sorry to disappoint you ... no
The Hermes is the smallest EF ship in the book.

To be honest I'd rather have had shuttle plans (both standard and atmospheric) than the fighters.

DW

 

[saundby]

I use a modified version of the standard 95 ton Shuttle deckplan from TMB for the EA Shuttle (Kestral). I use the general outline of the inhabited area, align the two control stations at the bow end, then insert the appropriate bits aft.

The first time I used an EA Shuttle I was caught a bit off guard, so I employed the 90-ton Business Shuttle/Yacht deckplan from Traders and Gunboats, sans solar sail equipment and with minor changes (removed wall between control stations and the open area behind, put seats in that area as shown on TV.)

A Serpent will work, too. Remove the launch and its bay, and the turret. Makes a pretty good base version STG-19.

 

[tneva82]

Are the EA shuttle plans in Warships?

LBH

Sorry to disappoint you ... no
The Hermes is the smallest EF ship in the book.

To be honest I'd rather have had shuttle plans (both standard and atmospheric) than the fighters.

DW

Well. Not sure how WARship shuttle is. And shuttles are pretty simple + there's already pretty generic shuttle to work from. I can see why they would swap shuttle for less-generic fighters.

 

[lastbesthope]

Well the main thing about the EA Shuttle plans is we have the stats in the plans section of the B5 U book, but no plans anywhere, maybe they fell through a time rift somewhere

Comments after a quick look through Warships:

More of the ships could do with having an overview plan like the Primus does
Also lining up the adjacent decks can be tricky.
Obviously different plans were done by different people, the lacko f consistent style gives the book a slightly disjointed feel.

Omega Plans:

P.26 missing deck number labels
P.29, the left hand deck is missing a label, the stuff at the bottom right, it is unclear which deck it belongs to and how it lines up on that deck

Xill

Level 1 plans missing, though there are some level 1 notes on the Level 2 plan????
How do the deks line up in the hull, are they radial or what?

Overall quite good though, apart from the problems abbove and the missing ISA plans, the latter of which Matt has promised to give us. Time to get to work on answering the former I thinnk Matt :lol:

LBH

 

[saundby]

Well the main thing about the EA Shuttle plans is we have the stats in the plans section of the B5 U book, but no plans anywhere, maybe they fell through a time rift somewhere

Yes, I'm guessing Zathras took them for "The One". :lol:

 

[saundby]

Well the main thing about the EA Shuttle plans is we have the stats in the plans section of the B5 U book, but no plans anywhere, maybe they fell through a time rift somewhere

Comments after a quick look through Warships:

More of the ships could do with having an overview plan like the Primus does
Also lining up the adjacent decks can be tricky.
Obviously different plans were done by different people, the lacko f consistent style gives the book a slightly disjointed feel.

Omega Plans:

P.26 missing deck number labels
P.29, the left hand deck is missing a label, the stuff at the bottom right, it is unclear which deck it belongs to and how it lines up on that deck

Xill

Level 1 plans missing, though there are some level 1 notes on the Level 2 plan????
How do the deks line up in the hull, are they radial or what?

Overall quite good though, apart from the problems abbove and the missing ISA plans, the latter of which Matt has promised to give us. Time to get to work on answering the former I thinnk Matt :lol:

LBH

I finally got my copy today.

Looking at the Xill, it appears that the points marked as "Level 1 and Level 2" are at the hub of the ship. The deckplans are unrolled layers from a slice of onion, it would appear.

And yeah, the isometric view would be helpful for more of the ships. Especially next to the rendered view, at the start of the deckplans rather than at the end. Give the overview, then the detail.

Honestly, though, the larger the ship the less value the deckplans have. They start becoming a sea of repeated sections created to fill some amount of given space. General, non-detailed overviews with breakouts of specific sections would have more value. Particularly with respect to all that space given over to staterooms. And staterooms with little corridors in between like the Warlock are downright weird.

Or perhaps those are cages? :lol:

The smaller the ship in this book, the more value I'm getting from the deckplans. Though all that cargo space on all those warships, both small and large, bothers me.

Has anyone used these ship designs in combat to see how they behave compared to the ships from the show? I'm curious how good that side of the design is. How do they play (particularly with respect to B5 ships vs. B5 ships, though B5 versus 3I types would be of interest, too, particularly since those ships may well be used in fleshing out even a B5 campaign.)

 

[Morden]

Hi guys,

Apologies for the ISA, but they could just not be squeezed in (this is one of those books that ballooned quickly during development).

However, despair not! All B5-Traveller players will be getting the ISA ships for free over the next couple of months!

Good deal. My copy just showed up today and I was a little surprised.

For the product I'm working on, I'm afraid that I'm in the camp that thinks that the larger ships only need the important sections mapped out. I have a ship that stretches on for close to a mile and has multiple decks, and there's no way I'm putting the guy mapping it out through that!

 

[AndrewW]

For the product I'm working on, I'm afraid that I'm in the camp that thinks that the larger ships only need the important sections mapped out. I have a ship that stretches on for close to a mile and has multiple decks, and there's no way I'm putting the guy mapping it out through that!

Could be done, just would take time. And lots of space when printed.