[Kitsune]

We've all seen the vasudan freighters being used as gunboats by mercs and rebels, but has anyone considered modding the terran freighters to carry more turrets and such?

The useage that I'm suggesting would be different.  Heavily armed freighters being used to protect other freighters.  They already have a higher speed than most cruisers, and every pilot who has had to babysit a line of cargo knows that it would be nice if maybe one or two of those guys packed some aaa to defend themselves from fighters and bombers.

I've modded the posiedon to carry 8 turrets instead of four, kind of a mini-cruiser for escort duties.  The 'cargo' container carried would be either a small reactor for aaaf beams, or missles for the launchers.  (2xFlail, 2xflak, 2xaaaf, 2xshivan cluster is a really devastating combo).  

I've also redone the triton to carry four more turrets as well for the same type of duty.  Or for the 'light carrier' effect.  Those containers could hold a few of the smaller fighters or bombers, like the ulyssus or zeus.  (2xaaaf, 4xflak)

Cargo containers would be interesting if they were given a couple turrets, especially the huge ones. And they could be given subsystems as well (Fighter Bay.)


I would be introducing these out as modpacks, but I still can't get turrets to work right, and they're simple enough ideas that others could probably manage to do them instead.

If anyone else wants to do them who has an hour of free time, PLEASE DO!

[Alikchi]

Q-ships?

I remember, in World War I, and I assume afterwards, a few merchant ships had submarines attached to them with a telephone line. They basically tugged this sub around. When an enemy sub rose to the surface to take out the defenseless freighter with their deck gun (hey, why waste a torpedo?) the other sub would waste `em.

[Black Wolf]

In some of the preliminaries for a fan fic I'm going to do I figured that this one company managed to corner a significant part of the shipping industry because their convoys were never attacked, the reason being that they used these massive, well defended, (3 aaaf, 3 flak, 2 missile turrets and a ter slash (which is hissen as it's illegal (as far as I'm concerned))) freighters, which had small fighterbays, the idea being that they carried their own escort. Later of course, when this company make a bid for power, these freighter became cruisers, but the I've always thought the idea, uber freighers cornering the market, was a realistic one.

[EdrickV]

Food for thought:
A freighter that doesn't just carry an armed cargo pod, but an armed, detachable, escort ship that can fight on it's own. (Being towed along would save power, keep the crews fresher and would be attackers wouldn't know what hit them, after all, tow ships don't normally haul working ships about. 0:>)

[Fulgrymm]

I did a modified TAC one cargo container for Red5 ages ago. I think that I put six or so turrets on it, and it fits on the Posiedon and Chronos frieghters.

Both Red5 and Mad bomber should have a copy of it; I lost a lot of stuff when my computer exploded a few months ago, though its possible I have a copy of it somewhere. One of the many things I was in the process of doing prior to my computers little tantrum was actually making armed cargo containers for the Triton frieghter. I just haven't had much time, lately, to resurrect most of my projects.

[Ulundel]

I have a toy like this in my mod. It's the Ryx's superfreighter. It has aaafs, some flaks and even one weak TerSlash.

[Redfang]

Originally posted by Alikchi
Q-ships?

 
Seems quite much like that. Except they didn't have more turrets, just better ones.

[an0n]

Put a BFred on the Elysium.

[Ulundel]

Originally posted by an0n
Put a BFred on the Elysium.

I know, when the beam starts up it paints the whole elysium to red.

[an0n]

I put a BFred on the Ursa's turret and sent a wing of 'em against a Lucifer. The poor thing never stood a chance.

[Tar-Palantir]

I always imagined that the Chronos could carry a variety of weapon 'cargo' pods depending on the mission. For instance, a TAC container with:

a few flak or mission turrets for fighter suppression.
a single beam cannon for additional anti-cruiser support.

and so on.

[Stunaep]

Originally posted by an0n
I put a BFred on the Ursa's turret and sent a wing of 'em against a Lucifer. The poor thing never stood a chance.

heh-heh.

Fun... really fun.

[LtNarol]

i really like the idea of armed cargo pods, but the idea of things like the Posiedon with 8 turrets...done you think thats going a bit too far?  I'm all for having a box with a terslash mounted on one side docked to a Posiedon, but actually mounting that many turrets on a freighter is a bit much if you asked me.  It would be more realistic just to model a escort cruiser with lighter weapons designed for anti fighter use.

[Kitsune]

No, I don't think it's excessive at all.  If I were to say give them twice the amount of hull and 8 turrets, that would be excessive.

Giving them shields, would be useful, certainly would prolong their lifespans against fighters armed with maxims.

But personally, I feel that the number of turrets on ships per size ratio is rediculously low compared to other sci-fi ships.  The Deimos and Hecate are two ships that were gimped for the sake of poly-count...  (The Deimos is missing at least 4 turrets, the Hecate is missing 12 at least.)

Light escort cruisers designed for anti-fighter cover?  I thought we scrapped the poor atens.  Hell, it'd lose out in a fight with a 8-turret posiedon.

Maybe 8 is too much, 6 perhaps.

Besides, crew comfort is obviously not that big of an issue with these guys, I think of freighter pilots and I think of truckers, make a delivery, take a day off, drive another delivery...  Not to mention that most missions to escort one freighter usually doesn't last longer than 15-20 minutes.  I really can't picture the freighter crews being cooped up for more than a day or so at a time.

[LtNarol]

Frieghters are not combat vessels, they're delivery trucks and semis arent armed with 8 machineguns apiece.  Escort cruisers would be something with 8 turrets, the speed of a fast freighter, and a decent hull.  How do you figure a Deimos is missing 4 turrets anyway?  And how do you figure a Hecate is missing 12?  I see no evidence that either is under armed.  Capital ships are not meant to be completely covered in turrets, the Deimos has plenty of firepower if you know how to use it.

[elorran]

Also, arming a vessel with the right weapons is also the other half of the battle.  An AWACS armed with Morning Stars is actually a nasty piece of work for a small bunch of fighters trying to close in on it.

[LtNarol]

Originally posted by elorran
Also, arming a vessel with the right weapons is also the other half of the battle.  An AWACS armed with Morning Stars is actually a nasty piece of work for a small bunch of fighters trying to close in on it.

agreed, it just wouldnt be fun if every ship was so heavily defended that it a freighter can hold its own against a cruiser, with the cruiser an even match for a corvette, and the corvette an even match for a destroyer.  If all ships were so heavily armed, then there would be no point in having the player there as any frieghter wing would be more than enough to take on a Sathanas.

[Kamikaze]

Although heavily armed freighters aren't exactly mass produceable I like the weapon-cargo idea. What would be interesting is a Boadicea design - where when the cargo blows (sexp) a heavy fighter comes out... It could be used in surprise attack. ("hey look a freighter, let's shoot it" "nah, just ignore it just another idiot merchant" "OMG two Erinyes class fighters from the cargo!" )

That reminds me somehow of that one episode in Macross/Robotech where the pilot dude (whatever his name was... Rick?) is in a slow, armored thingy that has a bunch o' missles. Ends up it was a shell for his standard valkyrie/veritech fighter.

[Bobboau]

something like this
still has a few bugs, this is the ship I've been haveing problems with PCS converting, oh and this thing will blow MVs limets to hell and back, I'm afraid you're gona have to load it into the game to see it

[Kitsune]

Okay, the Deimos was designed with four extra turrets on the side of the hull, same dual-barrel type that is used on top and bottom, however the game engine doesn't like those types.  (Look at the BOX the game came in.)

As for the Hecate, start a new game.  Watch the first animation in
 Admiral Petrarch's speech.  If you look there are 3 turrets shown on the top of the Hecate's "wing".  In the game and the models I've seen, there are none there.  (3 on top, 3 on bottom, 6 total on one wing, 12 total for both wings.)

It's one of those things that apparently didn't get edited out for lack of time.

Not to mention, The colossus cutscene's mentions one number for total turrets, the ship itself in Fred has much fewer.

And as for a wing of freighters taking out a sath?  How the hell did you jump to that end?  Flak and AAA’s aren't going to kill a sath.  Even a terslash/light terslash/sgreen wouldn't work, the freighter would get decimated by the sath's beams.  It has a lot of turrets, beams, lasers, flak, and missiles.  I'd give the freighters about 10 minutes max before they were dead.

But we're forgetting, don't sath's have fighterbays?  The larger freighters might have a couple fighters each, but come on.  Stop being cynical.

Thanks Bob for the link, I'll take a look at it inna few.


Edit:  Bad typing...