[eliex]

 Destroyers ARE flagships like ShadowGorrath said, and obviously, they don't come out into battle anytime one of their ships starts to get into a battle.
 It's more tactical to grapple-hook cruisers with a corvette,  because unless I wanted the Admiral of the opposing side, I'd just blow up the flagship. 

[Snail]

To be honest, why the hell would you need 10,000 over people to crew a ship if you can just pilot it with AI? I find that notion, even only for movement, a bit far fetched.

[DarthWang]

There are a lot more jobs on a ship that just piloting it.

Do you think all 10,000 crewmembers are needed to steer the ship and make subspace jumps?

[foolfromhell]

There are a lot more jobs on a ship that just piloting it.

Do you think all 10,000 crewmembers are needed to steer the ship and make subspace jumps?

Well... 1 to captain, 1 to beat the drums, 9998 to row.

[Colonol Dekker]

http://usmilitary.about.com/od/enlistedjob1/a/navyjobs.htm

Check there, most of these would be transfereable. (except sub obviously) and i'd imagiun that numerous other roles would be concieved to fill even more specialised roles.. Beam core specialist etc and other crap plus chef, 2nd rating.. never can have too many..

[foolfromhell]

I like my ROW idea better.

Imagine that. 9998 slaves ROWING!!

[Colonol Dekker]

<stiff upper lipped> We British have bad experiences with forcing Rowing on people. <stiff upper lipped>

Best to forget it ever happened...

[Killer Whale]

Rowing a 1.2 km long ship or longer would take a huge amount of effort in water. In air it would never move. In space it would most likely fall to the highest gravity field nearby, honestly, what is there in space to pull yourself along with, it's a high quality vacuum, air is 100s of times more dense and easier to pull along on, water it even easier, stone is to hard to move the oar. how are a billion rowers going to row a 100m craft through space?! (i understand you were joking, i was too, this is a serious reply to a joke, not me thinking your the worst physics students in the universe)

Hmmm, AI can control a ship in the game, why not in the FS universe, have a score of unmanned destroyers with their waypoints and targets set by an Admiral in an argo sized and crewed ship a million mile away?

[Snail]

Do you think all 10,000 crewmembers are needed to steer the ship and make subspace jumps?

I know, but I think you need a lot more than 0.0000 crewmembers needed to steer a ship and make subspace jumps.

[Art Kelson]

Row row row your Boat, gently down the Stream...

No seriously. To stear the Ship and keep it stabil, only the Engine and Bridge Crews are necessary. Anyone remembers Star Trek, where Cpt. Data is stearing the whole Enterprise by himself, with help of the Ships Computer ? I think there is a similar "Auto-Pilot" Function , inside Freespace Capships. Even our todays Jets have something like that.

The Problem is, if this Destroyer has it´s complete Crew (about 10.000), then you need a whole Corps to capture that Ship...i imagine the hundrets of Transporters docking on a Destroyer, just to capture it...

[Snail]

This is not Star Trek.

I think it's stupid to believe that only an engine and bridge crew is necessary to crew a ship when there are usually 10,000 people on the thing. Remember when I said it wasn't Star Trek? I think there isn't a similar Auto Pilot function in FreeSpace capital ships, because then you wouldn't ****ing need 10,000 people on the thing.


Then again, there was the Bastion... Why am I always on the wrong side of an argument?

[Art Kelson]

I only took Star Trek as an Example, not as a fact.

And I assume thoose 10.000 People to be part of regular Troops, waiting to invade Planets etc.
Maybe they are just statists, like in Star Wars...running around without Sence...
I never read a Statement in Freespace, that there are no Auto Pilot Functions in Capships...so it might be possible.

[Snail]

My argument is more or less ****ed since the Bastion was able to get to the node without any crew.

You win.

I hate life.

[ShadowGorrath]

But the Bastion couldn't maneuver, defend itself properly, and etc. Besides, it was remote controled. And you need people for NAV, Sensors, Comms, Weapons, Fighterbay ( rearm, pilot, supply, repair ), engines, engineers, bridge to control everything, life support control, maintenance, etc. You actually need the crew. An AI controlled ship couldn't support a crew or fighters/bombers. And AI can be outsmarted by people. Plus, AI doesn't have the 'instinct of survival', so you'd loose a lot of AI controled ships. And as far as I know, they are still expensive and need time to be built. Also, AI ships wouldn't be able to properly defend others. Sorry, writing from a phone, can't expand the ideas.

[Stormkeeper]

My point is that all you have to do is cut life support, and power, then override the system and pirate the autopilot and force the destroyer to jump to a friendly station.

[Blue Lion]

And in the process kill the entire crew, that's never a good plan for taking a ship.

[Stormkeeper]

And in the process kill the entire crew, that's never a good plan for taking a ship.

I thought we just wanted the ship, not the crew ?

[Kieve]

My first thought on seeing the topic and opening posts, all discussion of AI and remote-operation aside, was the idea of a Shivan vessel designed for ship capture. Which in and of itself is something of a quandry I suppose, since their instinct has more or less been "BLOW IT ALL TO HELL!!!" but eh...

So maybe you have a Terran vessel built for the same kind of ****-you tactics the Shivans enjoy. A ship perhaps cruiser-sized or so, whose forward section is just one big armored spike with a boarding tunnel. Add to that some big powerful engines and a few turrets (plus a fighter screen) for defense, and boom - one nasty ship-stealer. Let's see a destroyer dodge a spire like that driving straight for their midsection. Sure, it might take a beam hit or three, but you get a fighter screen to throw a couple Helios bombs their way, disable some turrets, you've got yourself a nice soft hole to drive that sucker into.

Maybe direct ship-to-ship collision is a bit over the top, but personally I like the idea of jamming a boarding party right down a destroyer's throat and into the hull...

[Blue Lion]

And in the process kill the entire crew, that's never a good plan for taking a ship.

I thought we just wanted the ship, not the crew ?

And that'll work... once. Then it'll be known the crew is gonna die no matter what.

[Droid803]

Then, you get a dramatic rise in the number of Kamikazes, and increased incidence of scuttling.