Approved Starship Tegaanalir-class Patrol Craft

[Captain Larraq]

Image Credit: Star Wars: The Old Republic

Spoiler

Intent: Create a very light support ship for the Mandalorian Navy, based heavily on a Bounty Hunter's ship from the Old Republic erra.
Development Thread: NA
Manufacturer: Mandal Hypernautics
Model: Tegaanalir-class Patrol Craft
Affiliation: Mandalorian Navy, Hyperion Security, Open Market,
Modularity: None
Production: Minor
Material:

Durasteel Joints and Bracings (weapon/thruster pylons)
Glasteel Viewports
Alusteel Hull and Frame

Description:

Requiring a new line of ships for Hyperion Security operations and recognizing the similar needs of the Ori'ramikade for a specialized ship, Mandal Hypernautics engineers began researching designs that had proven successful in the past. After aquiring numerous blueprints, including those of the ancient Firespray and Mantis Patrol Craft, Mandal Hypernautics engineers went to work pulling the most successful elements of each design into their new ship.

The resulting ship is has been heralded as a masterpiece by special forces and bounty hunters across the galaxy for its capability to get troops safely aboard hostile warships with minimal casualties from Flak. It has similarly been praised by representatives of the Mandalorian Navy for its ability to escort Corvettes and Bombers on attack runs against much larger ships and effectively reduce the accuracy of hostile defensive weaponry. A few commanders have even reported success at disrupting the effectiveness of enemy extended range weaponry during bombing runs of opposing fleets.

While originally intended as a specialized transport for special forces to utilize during hit and run operations, the Tegaanalir has proven to also be a valuable asset in Naval actions. The relatively long range of the Jamming Beam Projector enables the ship to target a hostile ship at 'medium' ranges as it and the fighters or bombers it escorts approach the craft with relative safety from point defense weaponry. Once at close ranges, the ship and her escorts engage their target with their primary armaments as the Tegaanalir continues to suppress the sensors and targeting systems of the target.

The ship is not without its limitations though. At best, an individual Tegaanalir could jam out a couple of weapon batteries aboard a large ship such as a Star Destroyer. It would take several Tegaanalir's working in tandem to effectively jam an entire Star Destroyer, though only a few would be needed to jam the weapons and sensors of cruisers, frigates, or smaller. Similarly, the jamming system of the Tegaanalir is not strong enough to completely neutralize the tracking and sensors of a large ship. They simply cause enough interference to the target vessel to make it incredibly difficult to detect, target, track, or effectively fire upon targets the size of Light Freighters or smaller.

OOC:
Disruptor Torpedoes cause all electronics within 20m of the point of detonation to overload and shut down for several minutes or until repaired.

Classification: Patrol Craft / Light Freighter
Role: Balanced, Electronic Warfare
Height: 28 (38 w/ foils deployed)
Width: 34 (44 w/ foils deployed)
Length: 50
Power Core Generator/Reactor: Ionization Reactor
Hyperdrive Rating: 2 (backup 15)
Minimum Crew: 4
Optimal Crew: 8

Armaments:
(1x) Nose Mounted Jamming Beam Projector
(1x) Ventral Foil Mounted Warhead Launcher (6x Disruptor Torpedos)
(2x) Port and Starboard Foil Mounted Repeating Laser Cannons

Hangar:
2 Speeders

Non-Combative Attachments:
Encrypted HoloNet Transceiver
Standard Communications Array
Deflector Shielding
Enhanced Combat Sensors

Passenger Capacity: 16
Cargo Capacity: 50 tons
Consumables: 1 year
Sublight Speed and Maneuverability: 4

 

[Domino]

You've got quite a bit going on here and I think you started with one idea and then shifted onto another. You list this as a patrol craft/light freighter but then write about it as an assault/EW platform for escorting ships on attack runs. I'd like to get this sorted before going into anything else as this will effect the direction we take this in.
[member="Captain Larraq"]

 

[Captain Larraq]

The ship is a multi-role craft. It can be used by police to disable and board criminal ships like smugglers and pirates about as well as it can be used by mercenaries or special forces to disrupt a large target long enough for them to successfully board/dock with the ship and lead a guerrilla strike from the inside. Likewise, it can also be used as a very light escort by private contractors, and small shipping businesses. It would also end up being a nice escort for a wing of bombers approaching a target.

The goal here is to make a simple, efficient design that can be used in a number of ways instead of creating numerous niche ships.

What I'm trying to make here is a ship that can be used by the Mandalorian PC's on various missions (something that the older stealth-ships of the Mandalorians were used for), but can also be used by 'fighter pilot' characters and small-scale fleeters.

[member="Domino"]

 

[Domino]

• Bump speed to 4,
• Change the area of effect on the torpedoes to 20m,
• How is it specially protected from flack?
• Why is the Firespray relevant, did you obtain designs in a thread?
• You say it's effective at disrupting extended range weaponry but it's own counter systems are short/mid ranges.

[member="Captain Larraq"]

 

[Captain Larraq]

The Jamming System disrupts the tracking systems and sensor systems of whatever ship it is being used against. These include all point defense and capital weaponry. While Flak will have the easiest time threatening this ship, they will still have a hard time locating the ship on sensors and even more difficulty in targeting the ship once the jamming system is activated.

The Firespray (canonical, not to be confused with what Gil is making), otherwise known as the Slave-1, is a famous ship OOC and is semi-famous IC for the Mandalorians, since Fett was once Mandalore. The Mantis (ooc) was designed based on the Firespray as a similar ship that could be used in the Old Republic timeline. Since both designs are perfect ships for a single or a small group of mercenaries to operate from, they would likely be fairly well known IC for the Mandalorians (not quire as well known as a Model-T or a P-51, but well known all the same). The Mantis and the Firespray are mentioned because they would both be thousands of years old IC and their designs would be (roughly) public domain or equivalent. And if you're planning to design a new ship, it's generally a good idea to look at designs that have worked in the past and study them before designing your own.


The ship can disrupt the tracking effectiveness of Long Range weaponry just as easily as any other weapon system. The Long Range weaponry is just more vulnerable to that sort of interference due to the sensitive calibration needed on the targeting and tracking systems for the guns. When used in such a way, the Tegaanalir would have to get WELL within targeting range of the enemy ship before engaging it with the jamming systems. Which sounds suicide... but most long range weapon systems are designed to target MUCH larger craft, and would have a very hard time targeting the ship even if they wanted to (due to close range and size/trajectory).

Changing the speed and AOE effect as requested.

[member="Domino"]

 

[Domino]

So you're saying that if this put the jamming beam on a SD, guns for the whole ship would become so inaccurate they couldn't target a group of ships effectively?
[member="Captain Larraq"]

 

[Captain Larraq]

[member="Domino"]

Oh no! It would take several of these ships to effectively jam an entire Star Destroyer. At best, one of these things could jam a couple weapon batteries. At least that's how I envision it. Against frigates and cruisers... one or two of these things could effectively jam out the weapons and sensors.

But keep in mind, I don't feel that these things should cancel out tracking and sensors completely. They should just cause enough interference that small ships like Light Freighters and smaller are significantly harder to detect, focus on, and target/track/hit with weapons. And that a small pack of 3-5 of these ships would have to specifically target the long range weapons of a Star Destroyer to effectively 'jam' the ship from targeting friendly ships at long ranges... And the down side to doing that is that they are not jamming the point defense weapons while they are focused on the heavy guns... making them vulnerable. Unless friendly bombers and fighters focus on trying to take out the point defense.

 

[Domino]

I would like for you to write that in, as it is its too easy for someone to take this to mean impunity from defensive fire.
[member="Captain Larraq"]

 

[Captain Larraq]

[member="Domino"]

Added a paragraph at the end. Will that work?

 

[Domino]

Well now we're on one freighter jamming out 114 weapons on a cruiser or just a few batteries on a SD. How would you feel if it was worded as 'just a few' instead of 'only one or two'? After all most weapons are independently targeted for accuracy reasons.
[member="Captain Larraq"]

 

[Captain Larraq]

[member="Domino"]

Well... I can see the concern, but that's kinda the appeal of EWAR in general. Don't get me wrong, for once I'm not trying to argue. I'm hoping to find the nice balance between 'a useful design' and 'not broken' and 'nerfed to uselessness'.

I've glanced around at some of the other ships that are designed around the concept of jamming and disruption and haven't really seen anyone specify a huge number of drawbacks. At least not from what I've been able to see from other submissions. Nobody else has really bothered to include range limitations on their jamming equipment or a limit to the number of targets/ships they can effect. Most of the time people (as I've seen them do it) just bring a ship and say "I'm jamming now" and operate under the assumption that their one ship has jammed out communications for the entire battlespace. Or they specify that their jamming ships are also jamming sensors, but don't really specify how, what sensors, or at what ranges.

The Tegaanalir are (as I see them) small and physically vulnerable ships that have to dodge through enemy starfighters and point defense to get a solid 'lock' on a ship to begin with. Even if a few of these things manage to successfully jam an entire star destroyer, in a roleplay setting, they will only last for a few minutes before they start getting prioritized by enemy starfighters. I just don't understand how further limitations to the capabilities of the starship could allow it to continue to function in its intended role, or how such limitations would be considered balanced when compared to the existing EWAR ships and the flaws already built into this design. I understand that this ship is a fair bit smaller than the corvettes and frigates that perform as EWAR ships in other fleets... I fully understand and agree that this ship should be significantly more limited than the larger and more powerful EWAR ships... But if you compare this design to existing ones, I hope you'd see that it's already drastically weaker. As I said above... most of the other EWAR ships don't really include... any limitations on what they can do.

Anyway... Maybe I'm just not getting where you're coming from with this. Could you please clarify your concerns a bit more with regard to play-balance and electronic warfare in general.

 

[Domino]

I can understand what you're saying and from my personal opinion I can even agree with your assessment on a lot of it, but from a writing and balancing perspective the vagueness is good as it leaves writers open to adapt to situations and allows them to work the plot. Just for the sake of an example with no bearing on how these will actually play, lets say that the set number to lock down a cruiser is 3. Well what if that cruiser has advanced sensors or anti EWAR fluff, without the hard 3 to lockdown they can write in sensor degradation or other less-than optimal conditions that aren't 'ships karked, smoke your last one boys.' It allows people to adapt to situations and yes, while that does leave it open to people claiming that they have just enough to ignore it, having that number leaves the other side open to counting out the enemies fleet and bringing 150% of what's needed to shut it down. You can get quite a few ships under minor production by claiming that nearly all of them were called up for that one operation.

So really I'm trying to limit even unintentional abuse by doing away with a hard number as well as leaving plot wiggle room for reasonable or communicating writers. This ship is also using two very short wooki articles for unusual tech that isn't from the best of source material. In fact if this was mass-produced I wouldn't allow either of them without a separate tech sub and tech dev threads like with what just happened to the cap drain over on the Peregrine.

Is that a sufficient answer or do you still have doubts about why I'm asking for this? [member="Captain Larraq"]

 

[Captain Larraq]

[member="Domino"]

Actually, that's great. It's good to know where you're coming from on this one. Tell me the specifically what you want it to say in regard to number of ships required to jam a target and I'll put that in.

 

[Domino]

I hate telling people exactly how to word their stuff. As it is when you're mentioning what's required for the beam to jam what, make these instances more vague. 'A few' 'some' 'a couple' ect....
[member="Captain Larraq"]

 

[Captain Larraq]

[member="Domino"]

Ok, I think I got them all! Let me know if I missed something.

 

[Domino]

Alright, I've put a lot of thought into this and decided to give it a pending approval stamp, BUT if this or those missiles looks like they're being abused then this can always be denied again. Other than that thank you for your patience and for working with me on the asked for edits.

[member="Captain Larraq"]

 

[Lief]

Appoved with the understanding that this can be retroactively denied if any issues arise, as stated above.