Author Topic: Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport  (Read 9815 times)

gyedid

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Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport
« on: 28 April 2016, 10:17:32 »
Originally posted Dec. 10, 2006 (!!)



The Sylvester is another one of those ships that has its origins in a throwaway line from another ship's fluff--in this case, the TR:2750 Bug-Eye.  The fluff states something to the effect that the Bug-Eye (successor to the Tracker and Nightwing) was built to resemble common civilian ships of the era, such as the Buccaneer and Sylvester.  The latter ship probably refers to the still undescribed "baby Sylvester" Dropship that was built after the compact-core transport ceased production. One must wonder why the PsTB chose instead to contrive this beast rather than create stats and background for a Dropship that at one time would have been one of the most common sights in Lyran space.

The Sylvester (or "Sly", as I will refer to it from this point forth) falls in something of a fluff void in BT naval history.  It seems to date from the tail-end of that mythical era in which most jump-capable vessels (both military and civilian) had compact K-F cores and their own transit drives.  The first canon "heavy core" Jumpship, the Merchant, has an introduction date of 2503 (only four years after the first Sly), though that's not to say there weren't others at the time.  The Sly's fluff seems to imply it was the largest civilian vessel ever built, so existing models had to be smaller (no larger than 200 kilotons?  pulling no more than 1.5Gs?).

The Sly takes its name from one Graf Hans Sylvester, a Lyran merchant-nobleman who had the idea to build the biggest, best-armed civilian transport the still-expanding Inner Sphere had yet seen.  The aims, ostensibly, were to assure dominance of Lyran traders in an increasingly competitive environment and to produce a transport that would be nearly impregnable to piracy.  Once the Graf managed to convince a Lyran trade committee of the merits of the concept, Ioto Galactic Enterprises of Alarion had the first Sly plying the spaceways in 2499, a scant three years after its approval.

Despite the Lyran "bigger is better" philosophy (manifest even at this time, and in the civilian sector as well), the Sly proved to be economically inviable.  The most expensive freighter built for civilian service, only four were produced in 15 years. Most merchant concerns probably balked at its astronomical (for them) price tag.  The Commonwealth government cancelled the program, and Graf Sylvester later had to content himself with developing a Dropship-sized transport, dubbed the "baby Sylvester".  This vessel proved far more successful, produced in considerable numbers by Bolson Shipyards of New Kyoto (who would later produce the Mako) until their yards were destroyed early in the First Succession War.  While the idea of a huge compact-core transport didn't fly in the civilian sector, the Terran Hegemony was quick to apply the concept to their own military.  They were probably keen on the notion of a transport that could tool around with, and support, their Warship fleet--also secure in the knowledge that Hegemony taxpayers, rather than fickle private concerns, would be footing the bill.  The result was the Carrack-class transport, the descendent of which still serves the Clans.  The SLDF would later push the concept to its logical extreme when it had the Potemkin built.


Weighing in at 280 kilotons, the "big Sly" is the only canon example we have of a civilian compact-core space vessel in the pre-Clan BT universe.  As a transport, it should have lots of room to store and haul stuff around, and over 72 kilotons--about 25.7% of the Sly's design mass--is devoted to that purpose.  The Sly carries only four small craft, seemingly insufficient for transferring all that cargo--until one notices that the craft also carries a pair of docking collars.  Since "modern" Dropships were introduced in 2470, this isn't a problem as it is on other retconned early ships (more about that in another article though).  Cargo can presumably be loaded through the collars directly onto docked Dropships, which then transfer it to its intended destination.  If other small craft, aside from the Sly's own complement, can be recruited, a total of nine cargo doors should make for expeditious cargo transfer.  Since the Sly has its own transit drive, it's perfectly capable of entering planetary orbit.  Speaking of that transit drive, it enables the Sly to pull a respectable 2.5Gs of thrust.  It's questionable whether such an acceleration curve is necessary on a civilian vessel, since it's hard to picture the Sly being in many situations that would require evasive manuevers of the kind most combat ships need to pull off (aside, perhaps, from dodging asteroids).

Other notable features of the Sly include its complement of 60 marines (for repelling boarding attempts), two 98-metre grav decks to keep its crew of 262 healthy, and far too few escape craft to let them all get away (a total of 20) should it become necessary to abandon ship.  Of further note, the Sly's heat-dissipation system is double-strength, interesting for a non-Terran craft circa 2500, and completely out of step with its lack of durability.

The Sly is pretty well-defended for a civilian craft, but remember that it's not a real Warship.  For what it is, offensive firepower is impressive, if uneven.  Its fore-reaching firepower is strongest, with a mix of naval lasers and NAC/20s yielding 33 capital damage.  The Sly can manage a combined broadside of 31 at long range, but aft firepower is a none-too-impressive 15, falling to 11 dead-aft at extreme range.  This is enough to scare off Dropships and corvettes like the Vigilant, but the Sly is dead meat if it tries to take on anything larger.  Its thin armour coverage and low SI rating (only 20) mean that a Sly should steer clear of any real combat situation (meaning more than a pair of light fighter squadrons).  Fortunately, the Sly isn't meant to face that kind of enemy.

A look at the Sly's secondary weaponry shows one what it *is* meant to fight off.  The most notable feature of the Sly is that it's virtually studded with point-defense weaponry, with a minimum of 15 point-defense weapons in every firing arc--a feature it shares with the somewhat later Rim Worlds-produced Pinto.  These weapons seem guaranteed to defeat any incoming missile salvo and render the Sly practically unhittable by capital missiles.  A major drawback, though, is that they lack the re-firing ability of AMS.  Anti-fighter power is less impressive (and rather schizophrenic), using different weapons systems in every firing arc--autocannon in the nose, long-range missiles in the fore-quarters and broadsides, and lasers in the aft-quarters.  While they'll certainly damage a fighter, these weapon bays will repel only the least determined of attackers.  Thin-skinned birds (like the Lyrans' own Seydlitz...) will have reason to fear, but there are more durable small fighters out there (e.g. Sparrowhawk, Centurion) which can take more of that kind of punishment.       


As with its Carrack derivative, one should not use the Sylvester for anything other than its original purpose:  hauling lots of cargo.  Despite its defenses, the Sly will do best at fighting off an opposing force that is most vulnerable to capital weapons (Dropships and small corvettes), or against pirate forces that can summon at most a trio of marginal light fighter squadrons.  When confronting a Sly, employ weapons against which its small forest of point defenses is useless.  A Sly attacked by a force armed mostly with lasers and autocannon is in for destruction, or at best surrender.

Given when it was first launched, and considering the kind of vessels that succeeded it (e.g. the Merchant), it's tempting to look at the Sly as a giant at the end of an era:  the last (but certainly largest) gasp of the civilian compact-core Jumpship with transit drive.  The Sly probably came out 20 years too late (and even then would probably have been too expensive for most private companies); Merchants and their ilk proved to be the wave of the future in the private sector, having significantly lower construction and operating costs.  The Terran Hegemony's navy, however, owes the Herr Graf a debt of gratitude for his idea.

Code: [Select]
AeroTech 2 Vessel Technical Readout
                                  VALIDATED

Class/Model/Name:  Sylvester Transport (3057R)
Tech:              Inner Sphere / 2499
Vessel Type:       WarShip
Rules:             Level 2, Standard design
Rules Set:         AeroTech2

Mass:              280,000 tons
K-F Drive System:  (Unknown)
Length:            905 meters
Sail Diameter:     1,200 meters
Power Plant:       Standard
Safe Thrust:       3
Maximum Thrust:    5
Armor Type:        Standard
Armament:         
    3 NL55
    8 NL35
   67 Small Laser
  110 Machine Gun
    4 Autocannon/10
    2 Autocannon/20
    2 NAC/20
    8 LRM 15
   10 LRM 10
    4 Large Laser
    8 Medium Laser
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
==Overview:==
The Sylvester-class merchant ship is something of an anomaly in the history of
WarShip designs, though its existence spawned a number of military versions,
including the Carrack-class. Conceived originally by Graf Hans Sylvester, a
merchant-nobleman of the Lyran Commonwealth, the vessel was meant to assure
the dominance of Lyran traders in an Inner Sphere filled with increasingly
powerful rivals, while securing Commonwealth shipping against piracy. Graf
Sylvester eventually sold his idea to a Commonwealth trade committee,
resulting in a contract with Ioto Galactic Enterprises on Alarion. When the
first Sylvester slipped its moorings just three years later, it officially
became the most heavily armed civilian craft ever to sail the void-as well as
the most expensive freighter in existence.

Weighing over a quarter of a million tons with almost 70,000 devoted to cargo
space in three cavernous bays, the Sylvester's size and transport capacity
easily overwhelmed every merchant vessel produced at the time. Further
augmenting this were two DropShip docking hardports and four small craft bays,
which ideally accommodated additional merchant vessels and personnel
transport-both for in-system deliveries and additional freight.

For defense, the Sylvester carried a mix of capital-class weapons and
anti-fighter defense, making any attempt to attack this vessel extremely
costly. Its relatively fragile armor encourages captains to steer clear of
danger, however, rather than meet it head on. Unfortunately, the Sylvester's
biggest flaw ultimately was not its lack of armor or defenses against
WarShips, but its extremely high price tag. After only 15 years of production
with just four such vessels underway across the Lyran realm, the Commonwealth
officially cancelled the Sylvester program. Ironically, The Terran Hegemony
would later produce its own version for military use, which became known as
the Carrack-class. It was the basis for the vessel of the same name employed
by the Clans.

As a footnote, some ten years after the last Sylvester capital transport
entered service and the line's production was cancelled, Graf Hans Sylvester
personally commissioned a more economically viable, DropShip-sized version of
this ill-fated vessel. Often dubbed the "baby Sylvester" to distinguish it
from its massive progenitor, this aerodynamic craft first emerged from the
Bolson Shipyards over New Kyoto and saw a much wider production until the
factory was destroyed in the early days of the First Succession War.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Class/Model/Name:  Sylvester Transport (3057R)
Mass:              280,000 tons

Equipment:                                                            Mass
Power Plant, Drive & Control:                                       50,400.00
Thrust:  Safe Thrust: 3
      Maximum Thrust: 5
Kearny-Fuchida Hyperdrive:  Compact (Integrity = 7)                126,700.00
Jump Sail: (Integrity = 3)                                              44.00
Structural Integrity: 20                                             5,600.00
Total Heat Sinks:    767 Double                                        405.00
Fuel & Fuel Pumps:                                                   2,040.00
Bridge, Controls, Radar, Computer & Attitude Thrusters:                700.00
Fire Control Computers:                                              1,425.00
Armor Type:  Standard  (54 total armor pts)                            104.00
                           Capital Scale Armor Pts
   Location:                            L / R
   Fore:                                 10
   Fore-Left/Right:                    9/9
   Aft-Left/Right:                     9/9
   Aft:                                   8

Cargo:
   Bay 1:  Small Craft (2) with 2 doors                                400.00
   Bay 2:  Small Craft (2) with 2 doors                                400.00
   Bay 3:  Cargo (1) with 3 doors                                   24,452.50
   Bay 4:  Cargo (1) with 3 doors                                   24,452.50
   Bay 5:  Cargo (1) with 3 doors                                   24,452.50

DropShip Capacity:  2 Docking Hardpoints                             2,000.00
Grav Decks #1 - 2:  (98-meter diameter)                                100.00
Life Boats:  10 (7 tons each)                                           70.00
Escape Pods:  10 (7 tons each)                                          70.00

Crew and Passengers:
     52 Officers (30 minimum)                                          520.00
     90 Crew (49 minimum)                                              630.00
     60 Gunners (49 minimum)                                           420.00
     60 Marines                                                        300.00
     20 Bay Personnel                                                     .00
Weapons and Equipment      Loc        SRV    MRV    LRV    ERV  Heat    Mass
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 NL55                     Nose        13     13     13      6   85  1,100.00
  2 NL35                                                        104  1,400.00
5 Small Laser              Nose     4(35)     --     --     --    5      2.50
  10 Machine Gun(1000 rounds)                                     0     10.00
4 Autocannon/10(80 rounds) Nose     8(80)  4(40)     --     --   24     56.00
  2 Autocannon/20(20 rounds)                                     28     32.00
1 NAC/20(15 rounds)        FL/R        20     20     20     --  120  5,012.00
10 Small Laser             FL/R     6(60)     --     --     --   20     10.00
  15 Machine Gun(1200 rounds)                                     0     27.00
4 LRM 15(120 rounds)       FL/R     4(36)  4(36)  4(36)     --   40     86.00
2 NL35                     L/RBS        7      7      7     --  208  2,800.00
10 Small Laser             L/RBS    6(60)     --     --     --   20     10.00
  15 Machine Gun(1200 rounds)                                     0     27.00
5 LRM 10(108 rounds)       L/RBS    3(30)  3(30)  3(30)     --   20     68.00
1 NL35                     AL/R         4      4      4     --  104  1,400.00
2 Large Laser              AL/R     4(36)  2(16)     --     --   32     20.00
  4 Medium Laser                                                 24      8.00
6 Small Laser              AL/R     4(38)     --     --     --   12      6.00
  10 Machine Gun(1000 rounds)                                     0     20.00
2 NL55                     Aft         11     11     11     11  170  2,200.00
10 Small Laser             Aft      7(70)     --     --     --   10      5.00
  20 Machine Gun(1000 rounds)                                     0     15.00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS:                                            Heat: 1,020     280,000.00
Tons Left:                                                                .00

Calculated Factors:
Total Cost:        3,192,109,500 C-Bills
Battle Value:      25,603
Cost per BV:       124,677.17
Weapon Value:      10,173 (Ratio = .40)
Damage Factors:    SRV = 1,421;  MRV = 922;  LRV = 647;  ERV = 237
Maintenance:       Maintenance Point Value (MPV) = 345,930
                   (37,579 Structure, 278,770 Life Support, 29,581 Weapons)
                   Support Points (SP) = 270,300  (78% of MPV)
BattleForce2:      Not applicable

cheers,

Gabe
So, now I'm imagining people boxing up Overlords for loading as cargo.  "Nope, totally not a DropShip.  Everyone knows you can't fit a DropShip in a WarShip!  It's...a ten thousand ton box of marshmallows!  Yeah.  For the Heavy Guards big annual smores party."
--Arkansas Warrior, on the possibility of carrying Dropships as cargo in Warship cargo bays.

TERRAN SUPREMACY DEFENSE FORCE.  For when you want to send the SLDF, but couldn't afford the whole kit and kaboodle.

marauder648

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Re: Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport
« Reply #1 on: 28 April 2016, 12:33:26 »
I always liked the Sylvester, and the later Carrack and its armed variant, they are interesting ships from a purely fluff point of view and as you said a pointer at the large KF/Transit drive merchants that we've yet to see.  But we know they exist as they are used in the Cameron class battlecruiser's fluff.

The way I see it is that a big ship like the Sylvester is akin to the East Indiamen sailing ships of old.  Very large and expensive armed merchant ships that were armed enough to discourage all but the most bold of pirates and even see off Warships if handled correctly (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Pulo_Aura).

Whilst the Carrack and Sylv simply can't do the latter, seeing as if a Warship wanted to destroy one it simply would, they can scare off dropships and light fighters used by raiders.  And perhaps that big high thrust rating is there in case the Sylvester is able to put her stern to someone and just lift up her skirt and run.  Sure it would be uncomfortable on the crew but it allows her to out pace an Aegis, Baron, Carson and Davion I.  And I presume most other large merchant ships of the time.  This could be useful if she detected an unknown at long range and was unable to jump, just turn, floor it and start yelling for help.

As you said though these big ships were economic failures, they were the Seawise Giant of their time (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seawise_Giant ) perhaps too big and certinally too costly for their role. They were failures, but in that grand Lyran way that makes them interesting.

Game wise, they are poorly protected, lightly built and have just enough firepower to get them in trouble if challenged by anything more than the smallest of Warships or even a determined assault dropship or two.  This makes them more a unit you'd see in a scenario rather than going "C'MON THEN!!!" facing you in an opposing battle line.

A great article and thank you for sharing :)
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Cannonshop

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Re: Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport
« Reply #2 on: 28 April 2016, 13:54:59 »
seems to me the Sly is ideal for a rather different sort of trade.

Piracy.
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Re: Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport
« Reply #3 on: 28 April 2016, 14:06:20 »
It is pretty well-suited to a modified Crazy Jane maneuver...
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glitterboy2098

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Re: Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport
« Reply #4 on: 28 April 2016, 16:55:00 »
Weighing in at 280 kilotons, the "big Sly" is the only canon example we have of a civilian compact-core space vessel in the pre-Clan BT universe.

minor quibble. the Aquilla class transport is another canon example of a compact core civilian ship. though it has a non-standard design and mass ratios due to the early model tech it uses.

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Re: Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport
« Reply #5 on: 28 April 2016, 22:25:37 »
minor quibble. the Aquilla class transport is another canon example of a compact core civilian ship. though it has a non-standard design and mass ratios due to the early model tech it uses.

Strictly speaking, the Aquilla uses a primitive core, which is mechanically different from the compact core.

That being said, the release of interstellar operations and the primitive jumpship rules allows us to paint an interesting picture of both the sylvester and the world into which it was born.

Our timeline of jumpship development tells us that conventional jumpships as we know them don't start appearing until 2460, after over two centuries of dominance of more primitive types. This... isn't a long time before the launch of the sylvester, and even when the Sylvester was launched, it'd still be competing primarily against primitive jumpships in most civilian fields (with the first modern jumpships going to the military).

And in that role, the Sylvester is outstanding. What the old writeup doesn't say (probably because it had no way of knowing) is that on primitive jumpships the size of the jump drive scales with mass. The smallest possible drives would take up fifty percent of your mass but still only carry you fifteen lightyears. To reach the thirty lightyear range that we're all comfortable with, you're actually paying modern jumpship amounts of mass (the full 95 percent), except you're doing so more expensively (primitive cores are significantly more expensive than standard cores) and with heavier crew demands.

So that means before the sylvester, every jumpship has to balance jump range (and therefore speed of delivery) and cargo capacity. That means, you either get your cargo slow, or you pay fantastic prices to hire enough "fast ships" with their tiny cargo holds to get it fast. These expenses might be agonizing to a world dependent on outside supplies in any quantity.

So there's the world the Sylvester was born into. Suddenly, you can deliver larger cargos faster than every one of your competitors. Even better, since you have those newfangled docking collars allowing you to haul even the largest dropships, you're beating out your competitors on that front, since almost all of them are still relying on internally carried dropships that can't carry near the load.

It would have changed the industry, at least it might have if it had been built a hundred years earlier. Unfortunately, it was competing against a merchant fleet that was already on the way out. Modern jumpships were painfully cheaper, could reach the same range, and could carry the same load more flexibly using docking collars. Once the merchant fleets started transitioning, the Sylvester couldn't compete anymore. It's kinda sad, really. I wonder if they'd tried operating in the periphery (which was several decades behind the inner sphere in jumpship technology) they might have held on longer.

Good news is the lab boys say the symptoms of asbestos poisoning show an immediate latency of 44.6 years. So if you're thirty or over you're laughing. Worst case scenario you miss out on a few rounds of canasta, plus you've forwarded the cause of science by three centuries. I punch those numbers into my calculator, it makes a happy face.

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gyedid

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Re: Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport
« Reply #6 on: 28 April 2016, 22:34:05 »
minor quibble. the Aquilla class transport is another canon example of a compact core civilian ship. though it has a non-standard design and mass ratios due to the early model tech it uses.

At the time I wrote this, the Aquilla (why those two l's??) had not yet been added to canon.  This article is just a repost, with no modification.

cheers,

Gabe
So, now I'm imagining people boxing up Overlords for loading as cargo.  "Nope, totally not a DropShip.  Everyone knows you can't fit a DropShip in a WarShip!  It's...a ten thousand ton box of marshmallows!  Yeah.  For the Heavy Guards big annual smores party."
--Arkansas Warrior, on the possibility of carrying Dropships as cargo in Warship cargo bays.

TERRAN SUPREMACY DEFENSE FORCE.  For when you want to send the SLDF, but couldn't afford the whole kit and kaboodle.

Giovanni Blasini

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Re: Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport
« Reply #7 on: 28 April 2016, 22:47:10 »
seems to me the Sly is ideal for a rather different sort of trade.

Piracy.

It's the engine that's the clue.  At 2/3, a Sylvester could have carried another 18 kilotons of cargo.  The cargo is well beyond what a merchant ship would need, and leans more towards the corvette/light destroyer of the era level of firepower, eating up mass that could have gone towards valuable cargo.
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marauder648

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Re: Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport
« Reply #8 on: 29 April 2016, 01:18:02 »
It's the engine that's the clue.  At 2/3, a Sylvester could have carried another 18 kilotons of cargo.  The cargo is well beyond what a merchant ship would need, and leans more towards the corvette/light destroyer of the era level of firepower, eating up mass that could have gone towards valuable cargo.

What so you think the Slyvester could have been built as some kind of privateering vessel? She's probably got more than enough firepower to overwhelm a Merchant ship of the time if she came across a target of opportunity.
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Re: Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport
« Reply #9 on: 29 April 2016, 01:35:08 »
The potential is there, but once again pointing to the era she was in, that might very well have been considered necessary for protection. It's a lot easier to arm a primitive jumpship for combat than a modern one, so it's entirely possible that pirates of the time might have been significantly more frightening.

Coincidentally, having enough arms to repel a heavily armed pirate jumpship also has a tendency to make you a pretty effective pirate yourself.
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marauder648

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Re: Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport
« Reply #10 on: 29 April 2016, 01:55:42 »
Heh so a captain of one of these things could well have been more akin to Sir Francis Drake or Sir John Hawkins rather than just a honest merchant, if they were of mind to.
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gyedid

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Re: Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport
« Reply #11 on: 29 April 2016, 02:43:25 »
It's the engine that's the clue.  At 2/3, a Sylvester could have carried another 18 kilotons of cargo.  The cargo is well beyond what a merchant ship would need, and leans more towards the corvette/light destroyer of the era level of firepower, eating up mass that could have gone towards valuable cargo.

Did you mean "acceleration" here?

cheers,

Gabe
So, now I'm imagining people boxing up Overlords for loading as cargo.  "Nope, totally not a DropShip.  Everyone knows you can't fit a DropShip in a WarShip!  It's...a ten thousand ton box of marshmallows!  Yeah.  For the Heavy Guards big annual smores party."
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Giovanni Blasini

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Re: Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport
« Reply #12 on: 29 April 2016, 09:01:02 »
Yes, yes I did.
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Intermittent_Coherence

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Re: Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport
« Reply #13 on: 29 April 2016, 10:25:58 »
Quote
(primitive cores are significantly more expensive than standard cores)
I always thought this was from the perspective of building primitive cores using tooling intended for standard cores. Back when primitive cores were the standard, there should have been more parity in price. In fact standard cores should logically cost more than primitive cores at the time they were first introduced, with the price dropping as more and more adopted the technology.

Giovanni Blasini

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Re: Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport
« Reply #14 on: 04 May 2016, 10:52:55 »
So, with Carracks all over the place during the First Succession War, anyone care to speculate on the differences between the Sylvester and SLDF Carrack?
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Re: Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport
« Reply #15 on: 04 May 2016, 12:01:14 »
Being a civilian ship, the Sylvester should have more cupholders than the Carrack.
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Giovanni Blasini

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Re: Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport
« Reply #16 on: 04 May 2016, 15:21:29 »
True.  The SL Carrack may also be 20kt bigger.
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Re: Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport
« Reply #17 on: 04 May 2016, 16:22:21 »
it's lyran made, so real Leather upholstery, deluxe sound system, and the extra large cup-holders. they wanted the retractable moon roof, but their engineers convinced them that was a bad idea..

 ;D

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Re: Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport
« Reply #18 on: 04 May 2016, 16:33:55 »
it's lyran made, so real Leather upholstery, deluxe sound system, and the extra large cup-holders. they wanted the retractable moon roof, but their engineers convinced them that was a bad idea..

 ;D

I can imagine the Sylvester being quite luxuriously appointed, real leather chairs in the mess hall/crew quarters, wood panneling etc.  The Carrack to me would be very much a solid workmanlike interior, but the Sylvester, because they were a private design by a VERY wealthy man would probably show off that wealth in parts of the ship where perhaps the Captain might entertain guests etc.
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nerd

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Re: Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport
« Reply #19 on: 05 May 2016, 10:41:04 »
I can imagine the Sylvester being quite luxuriously appointed, real leather chairs in the mess hall/crew quarters, wood panneling etc.  The Carrack to me would be very much a solid workmanlike interior, but the Sylvester, because they were a private design by a VERY wealthy man would probably show off that wealth in parts of the ship where perhaps the Captain might entertain guests etc.
Not unlike the the extra level in the forward superstructure of the SS William A. Irvin in Duluth. It was set up for guests of US Steel, including the corporation's president and namesake. See Here
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marauder648

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Re: Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport
« Reply #20 on: 05 May 2016, 11:04:01 »
Not unlike the the extra level in the forward superstructure of the SS William A. Irvin in Duluth. It was set up for guests of US Steel, including the corporation's president and namesake. See Here

Aye, and it fits the Lyran mindset which seems to be "Look at our wealth, our wealth is amazing!"
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glitterboy2098

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Re: Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport
« Reply #21 on: 05 May 2016, 13:20:18 »
Aye, and it fits the Lyran mindset which seems to be "Look at our wealth, our wealth is amazing!"

which means the ship is probably trying very hard to be a weaponized cruise liner..

marauder648

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Re: Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport
« Reply #22 on: 05 May 2016, 14:01:38 »
which means the ship is probably trying very hard to be a weaponized cruise liner..

It basically is, you could probably carry many thousands aboard this thing, and its got big enough grav decks to make life comfortable.  Perhaps it would be a unique one off build based on the Sylvester called the LCS Titanic.
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DarthRads

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Re: Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport
« Reply #23 on: 07 May 2016, 19:36:24 »
It basically is, you could probably carry many thousands aboard this thing, and its got big enough grav decks to make life comfortable.  Perhaps it would be a unique one off build based on the Sylvester called the LCS Titanic.

But it hit an asteroid and was sucked into a black hole...

HobbesHurlbut

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Re: Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport
« Reply #24 on: 08 May 2016, 16:59:31 »
But it hit an asteroid and was sucked into a black hole...
Feh. Caught in the gravitional pull of a pulsar star rack up tension better while allowing a slim possibility of crew being rescued.
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gyedid

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Re: Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport
« Reply #25 on: 15 May 2016, 23:06:16 »
Having just gone over the Warship list for Empires Aflame in response to another thread, I noticed that the Sly is still active in the EA-verse as of 3095.  And there are *five* of them in total--one more than was produced, if I interpreted the original fluff correctly.

How...?  Shouldn't these be Carracks then?

cheers,

Gabe
So, now I'm imagining people boxing up Overlords for loading as cargo.  "Nope, totally not a DropShip.  Everyone knows you can't fit a DropShip in a WarShip!  It's...a ten thousand ton box of marshmallows!  Yeah.  For the Heavy Guards big annual smores party."
--Arkansas Warrior, on the possibility of carrying Dropships as cargo in Warship cargo bays.

TERRAN SUPREMACY DEFENSE FORCE.  For when you want to send the SLDF, but couldn't afford the whole kit and kaboodle.

Liam's Ghost

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Re: Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport
« Reply #26 on: 15 May 2016, 23:13:29 »
There still aren't any official stats for the inner sphere carrack, so the intent was probably to use something that they had stats for.
Good news is the lab boys say the symptoms of asbestos poisoning show an immediate latency of 44.6 years. So if you're thirty or over you're laughing. Worst case scenario you miss out on a few rounds of canasta, plus you've forwarded the cause of science by three centuries. I punch those numbers into my calculator, it makes a happy face.

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Re: Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport
« Reply #27 on: 20 May 2016, 22:06:07 »
Always thoughti it was shame that Sylvester Transport was so darn expensive for the Lyrans, it would made great cargo ship and perhaps nifty Social General mobile home.

I do wonder if Sylvester Transport's baby Sylvester will ever see the light.
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chanman

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Re: Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport
« Reply #28 on: 24 May 2016, 00:25:18 »
Originally posted Dec. 10, 2006 (!!)

We are all so, so old  :(

marauder648

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Re: Gyedid's old WSotW repost: Sylvester Transport
« Reply #29 on: 24 May 2016, 06:40:44 »
We are all so, so old  :(

Whelp! I'm 36 on the 28th :p
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