Phantasm Carrier v. I-B
Craft: Phantasm Class Special Operations Carrier v. I-BCombat Abbreviation: SOC-B, PSCOC-B
Mission Profile: Special Operations and Fleet Support
Designer/Manufacturer: Imperial SS Shipyards at Echtabahn
Retail Price: Not available for sale. Produced exclusively for the New Order.
Consumables: 12 months
Cargo Capacity: N/A
Length Over All: 2000 meters
Shield Rating: 4000 SBD
Hull Rating: 3000 RU
Sublight Speed (Cruise): 18 MGLT
Sublight Speed (Flank): 21 MGLT
Sublight Speed (Emergency Full): 28 MGLT
Hyperdrive Motivator (Main): x.8
Hyperdrive Motivator (Backup): x2.9
Weapons:
12 Tractor Beam Projectors
10 Proton Torpedo Clusters (able to launch a variety of warheads)
Hanger Capacity:
6 Squadrons of TIE Series Starfighters
20 Stealth Dropships
10 Sentinel-Class shuttles
80 Grinder-Class Boarding Pods(R&D Coming Soon)
Troop Capacity:
Up to 20,000 troops in overload, between 12000 and 15000 for longer missions.
Additional Equipment:
Wraith Stealth System
Changeling Hologram System
Doppelganger Ion Drive
Periscopic Tactical Sensor Array
Explanations
Wraith Stealth System
The ISB's attempt at being techno savvy in the area of stealth technology; the Wraith is, while not a perfect stealth system, is an excellent leap in the right direction. It incorporates a number of system dampers to prevent energy emissions from leaving the ship along with a double blind cloaking field that while blinding the vessel, makes it completely invisible to the naked eye as well as scanners. This system's cloaking abilities are highly reliant on a bulky hibridium cloaking device, which is unable to be used during hyperspace since they have been revealed to be very unstable if active during travel through hyperspace. This was inadvertently discovered by Admiral Zaarin who tried escaping on a cloaked CR90 Corvette into hyperspace. The results ended the existence of both Zaarin and that vessel when the device ruptured. It also give reason for no weapons besides the 15 tractor beams and 10 warhead launchers, which require less energy to fire than an actual energy weapon.
All emissions that can't be blocked by the cloaking field are fed into the Doppelganger.
Changeling Hologram System
An innovative system designed by some of the New Order's top civilian scientists, under the direction of COMPNOR and the ISB, this system can render a hologram so realistic that it will register on most sensors as real since the projectors focus the image on enough wavelengths that it will even repel light emissions of varying levels, even to the point of scanners except for the highest scanning bands which are only used at very close proximity or during more specific scans. The system has projectors scattered all over the hull, permitting the vessel to assume the shape of certain pre-programmed designs including asteroids of varying makeup as well as space debris and even other ships. With the adequate programming and information, it can even assume the form of enemy vessels, if that vessel is on record and has been view from all angels, which most have been.
Doppelganger Drive System
A system uniquely designed for use on the Phantasm is the Doppelganger Drive. This drive system is designed to make the Phantasm the only vessel currently in existence that can use top notch engines with absolutely no visible emissions. While most stealth ships use engines that dampen their drive output, this system instead causes its drives to generate outputs in the form of radiations natural to space, masking anything that might seem unnatural. Thus, all emission unable to be dampened are instead flooded by natural radiation emissions, causing both to disperse quickly after being released so as to prevent the vessel from being detected through trying to find severe concentrations of natural radiations.
Periscopic Tactical Sensor Array
The Phantasm carries a least two dozen of these small arrays which are raised when the cloaking field is activated. Since a double blinding field is used to ensure absolute invisibility, it is necessary for the ship to still be able to see. Thus the PTSA is raised, giving the vessel a full view around it. However, the ISB is aware that these small protuberances would be easily spotted and thus had them coated in layers of space black non-reflective paint so as to prevent sensors and most forms of light, especially those used by sensors, from reflecting off of them.
Background Information
The original Phantasm Class Special Operations Carriers was probably the most blatant attempt by the ISB to dig its claws even deeper into the Imperial armed forces. Its was designed for use as a base of operations in long term missions and thus carried the necessary food stores and housing for the three wings worth of fighters aboard it. It also carried 15 Stealth Dropships for insertion of ISB Operatives as well as 40 Grinder-class boarding pods for boarding/raiding operations in space. The Phantasm also carried with it 5 Sentinel-class shuttles for other operations.
The vessel itself was manned entirely by ISB agents of varying specialities from piloting and navigation to fighter coordination and engineering. The fighter pilots themselves had all been under ISB observations for over a year before being permitted to fly in one of the Phantasm's fighter squadrons. They also were required to pass a number of COMPNOR and ISB loyalty tests.
Even though it was designed to also function as a attack support vessel in the sense of just how many fighter squads it is capable of carrying since the bulk of its smooth and yet rectangular form was fighter bays, its primary purpose was to function as a mobile base of operations, thus it had no actual weapons on it besides a fair number of warhead launchers to disable ships for boarding operations. The only other weapon systems aboard it were tractor beams which it used during certain situations to prevent vessels and objects form colliding with it, and to prevent the escape of enemy vessels.
Due to its lack of actual offensive capabilities, the original Phantasm was heavily armored and was equipped with an extremely powerful shield array that is only active when its stealth systems are not on due to the fact of the power being drained for either one to function.
During the Divide and Conquor campaign, the Imperial SS got its hands on two Phantasm-class ships. After the attack on Yuri and Li'eston, and the successful defense of the Echtabahn shipyards, Echtabahnian and Imperial SS engineers went to work on the ships, leaving the outer shell and stealth systems intact but moving pretty much everything else. 10 warhead launchers were removed and replaced with two more tractor beams, permitting the ship to use another ship for movement. The fighter bays were cut down to only house six squadrons rather than 18, and most of these would be TIE Phantom II's, to be used for the disabling of a craft to be boarded. Extra dropships were added, and the boarding torpedo capacity was doubled. Troop capacity increased, as did the speed, but the shielding took a major hit, being cut nearly in half. Still, the v. I-B version of the ship would rely on stealth, not armor, to defend her. Cargo capacity also took a hit, as the ship was not likely to be away from Imperial space for more than a year at a time. Short missions would be its forte.
OOC NOTE: This is not a new R&D, simply the updated SS version of the craft. I don't think an R&D test thread will be required, but let me know if you think it necessary. Remember, this isn't a Mk. II, simply a different version of the same craft. A different intended mission profile. Note also that this ship was originally designed by Drayson and the ISB - I must give credit where credit is due. I made a few changes and added the last paragraph.
Comments
#12 11:10pm 23/11/07
The ability of the ship to do what one expects or what one designs it to do is more or less dependent on how well it's roleplayed. Just because something makes a technical stat in an R&D thread does not necessarily mean it will play out that way in real life (as much as TRF can be real like when applied to characters).
Jan, I did not mean to imply that your ship was the same as Vonta's but was simply saying that since Vonta also got "holographic ships" approved, the fact that yours did not get approved may not have been necessarily due to that particular function.
In any event, Jan both your ship and the TNO Phantasm (it appears) were not approved. Wes is now going about the resubmission of the craft and putting forth the required 500 words. You may do the same. What counts is how the bloody things are roleplayed and if they are roleplayed as invincible pieces of crap flying around, then the submission can be stripped (as well as other submissions as punishment) as the staff deems appropriate.
And just because someone says their craft has a weakness or whatnot does not necessarily make it true. Because such a weakness would also have to be roleplayed as accepted and few (if any) do that.
As for the 500 word rp, it's not the words that are important so much as the descriptive uses of the craft. If you just put a 500 word conversation between the Captain and First Officer aboard the ship but do not describe anything regarding the R&D, then none of the abilities roleplayed will be allowed in a fleet roleplay (because, quite frankly, the only rp'd is that the ship is sealed enough for an oxygen atmosphere that the Captain and First Officer can breath comfortably enough to converse. Naturally, there are givens in an R&D rp such as if the ship has engines, it can move... but if not rp'd moving, we can still reasonably assume it moves. What needs to be rp'd are those things that make this particular craft special. If a craft moves faster than others it's class, that should be rp'd. The more special crap you put in an R&D, the longer than 500 words your R&D rp needs to be.
#11 7:56pm 23/11/07
omgwtf nerds?!
#10 6:39pm 23/11/07
OMFG! You're stealing my tech! [/Gue]
:P
But on a serious note, I am with Jan on this one. GC tried to do more or less the same thing and the idea was shot to shit. There's a whole lot than just visuals. There's matters of mass, reading on shield strength, reading on energy output and signature, etc.
It's easy to make an energy field dampner, but it'll take a lot of work to amplify your power signature AND trick the readings on mass and such beyond pure visuals.
*insert any arguments from the previous thread I may have forgotten*
#9 5:45pm 23/11/07
Well that's where the whole temporary distraction part comes in. The Concealer was meant to be able to show up as other ships (including an SSD if multiple ones worked together), and it was decided in theory it would work temporarily, before sensors realized that it wasn't what it appeared. By all means, leave the hologram system on, just realize that it is no where near foolproof, and would work probably best as a temporary distraction. This is the sort of ship R&D was meant for, not ISD Mark 25 (and yes I'm guilty of creating multiple main line battleship R&Ds), so sorry for picking on this R&D.
Also, for "its the same way a disguise works for a person", it was said in the Concealer thread that the idea would probably work best for people on the ground because troops and such generally simply rely on their eyesight, rather than on other means of scanning.
#8 4:41am 23/11/07
Yeah, Demos is right about the word count thing.
I'm not sure if the whole infiltrating fleet would work terribly well though, unless it's a group of civilian ships. Mainly because there are a host of different sensor types that this ship doesn't seem to counter, like Full Spectrum Transciever profiles (basically radar cross-section profiles). The one for the Phantasm wouldn't match that of most other ships, unless their physical shape and construction was fairly similar.
#7 4:12am 23/11/07
The idea behind the holograms, I think, is not to show that the ship wasn't there but simply to give the impression that it's a different sort of ship. For example, a ship might read that a ship existed at a certain place, but wouldn't be able to tell what sort of ship it was. That sort of thing is usually discovered by transponder codes, mass, and visual scans. The Phantasm, then, could present itself as a known GC ship and infiltrate a GC fleet or something, assuming transponder codes could be captured. It's the same way a disguise works for a person.
#6 4:10am 23/11/07
I seem to recall hearing that using a planetary takeover thread was fine, as long as the thread was then 5500 words minimum...
#5 2:28am 23/11/07
That plan brings into question the legitimacy of using what I believe is a planetary takeover thread as a "test thread" for a R&D. My understanding was that these were supposed to be seperate threads altogether to show all the aspects of a ship, and not just any old thread. That way easy reference could be made to the RP without the opposing player having to read through a 10,000 word RP.
Simon:
It was a Coalition specific ship, made during the start/boom period of the Onyxian Commonwealth, IIRC, with nothing to do with Vonta. I'll run a few searches and see what I can come up with.
EDIT:
[url="http://therebelfaction.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7201&page=1&pp=21&highlight=Holographic"]http://therebelfaction.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7201&page=1&pp=21&highlight=Holographic[/url]
That is the link. My bad, wasn't just TNO going against the idea. The basic consensus was that it was cool in theory, but that holograms wouldn't work to fool enemy sensors, except as say a temporary measure. So at best the hologram technology would work to fool an up to date fleet for a extremely short time, then it would fail. For GC probably less, due to our super-duper scanners that detect all your cloaked ships cause we are so l33t (no but seriously our scanners have +1 Billion Zillion per each Dice Roll).
Anyway, sorry for picking on your R&D Wes, but just the whole hologram thing annoyed me due to at that time my recollection being that TNO had shot down GC's hologram ship (though I now realize it wasn't just TNO). But since your ship isn't relying on holograms as the main purpose/isn't relying on it to stealth it, would it being just a temporary distraction work?
#4 6:09pm 20/11/07
Hm...I'll use the 500 words from the Divide and Conquor thread and tack an extra 500 onto the planned 10000.
#3 5:22pm 20/11/07
Corise is correct about the approval for the ship. Therefore, it should not have been put on Kach THorton's updated approved ship list. However, since it seems the ship has never been used against anyone else, it's a moot point.
Therefore, the original Phantasm requires at least a 500 word test thread that shows the ship's capabilities for it to be used in any fleet thread.
I am of the opinion that if the changes are not significant enought to change the "class" of a ship, and if the divergent vessels are of a finite/limited number, no new 500 word rp is required since much of the uses of the craft will be covered in the original R&D's rp. However, a notice in the R&D forum (as Wes as done) is much appreciated. As I read this, only 2 ships have this modification.
However, Wes, these ships cannot be used in any fleet thread (opposing faction) until a 500 word rp is done for the original.
Jan, I am not sure what ship you are talking about but I do seem to remember Vonta having his Holographic-toting vessels approved and they were friendly/allies/supporters of Joren Logan..
#2 2:15pm 20/11/07
The original Phantasm was never passed by the R&D staff or had a specific test thread. Dolash did approve it, but it needed a minimum of two mods to approve it back in the day. I do realize, however, that you have used it in your SS threads where that could count as the test thread.
I realize you've only changed the loadout and the engines, but it may need a new R&D thread. I'd check with the staff if I were you.
#1 7:09am 20/11/07
IIRC GC tried a hologram ship before, TNO shot it down. Why should you guys in turn be able to use the same concept?