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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
Joined: 05 Apr 2010
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Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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 Posted: Fri May 16, 2014 7:20 pm Post subject: Battle Horn-Class Bulk Cruiser |
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At first glance, this ship seems to be a WEG error; it has the exact same stats as the Neutron Star from the Rebel Alliance Sourcebook, just under a different name. I've considered a few solutions, but haven't really settled on anything...
-Making the Battle Horn a CEC product and using the images for Omze's Incredible Traveling Starport as the Battle Horn.
-Looking up some art work on the internet to hang the Battle Horn name on
-Changing the stats of the Battle Horn to reflect a more modern, updated version of the basic Neutron Star, possibly with a more balanced, more reliable weapon system, including turbolasers, lasers, tractor beams and room for a starfighter squadron.
Anything I've missed? Which one do you like best? Thoughts?
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.
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Dromdarr_Alark
Commander
Joined: 07 Apr 2013
Posts: 426
Location: Boston, MA
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| Posted: Fri May 16, 2014 7:40 pm Post subject: |
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I read that the Neutron-Star had different configurations like battleship and starfighter carrier. Maybe the Battlehorn could be one of the more popular configurations.
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
Joined: 05 Apr 2010
Posts: 16232
Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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| Posted: Fri May 16, 2014 7:58 pm Post subject: |
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| Dromdarr_Alark wrote: | | I read that the Neutron-Star had different configurations like battleship and starfighter carrier. Maybe the Battlehorn could be one of the more popular configurations. |
It's more that the Neutron Star began as one thing during the Clone Wars, outlived its usefulness as a warship (weaponry became too unreliable), and was then converted into something else. Both versions are still called the Neutron Star, though...
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.
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Corise Lucerne
Lieutenant
Joined: 02 Jan 2014
Posts: 78
Location: USA
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| Posted: Sat May 17, 2014 7:51 pm Post subject: |
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Take a look at the Wookieepedia articlefor the Neutron Star-class Bulk Cruiser. Apparently one of the new D20 books has significantly changed it so that it does now differ from the Battle Horn.
It looks significantly more powerful weapons wise, but is now also slower in terms of hyperspace.
| Quote: | | -Making the Battle Horn a CEC product and using the images for Omze's Incredible Traveling Starport as the Battle Horn. |
The illustration of Omze's Incredible Traveling Starport looks so much like a CEC Action series transport, that if I were to go that route, I'd probably consider the Battle Horn to be a military version of the Action bulk freighters...
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
Joined: 05 Apr 2010
Posts: 16232
Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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| Posted: Sat May 17, 2014 11:40 pm Post subject: |
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| Corise Lucerne wrote: | Take a look at the Wookieepedia articlefor the Neutron Star-class Bulk Cruiser. Apparently one of the new D20 books has significantly changed it so that it does now differ from the Battle Horn.
It looks significantly more powerful weapons wise, but is now also slower in terms of hyperspace. |
The significantly more powerful version is based off an FFG adventure, and is supposed to be the original version of the Neutron Star. The concept is that its weapons are supposed to be so old and unreliable that they are completely stripped out and turned into starfighter carriers for Alliance service.
| Quote: | | The illustration of Omze's Incredible Traveling Starport looks so much like a CEC Action series transport, that if I were to go that route, I'd probably consider the Battle Horn to be a military version of the Action bulk freighters... |
The Action series would be a good platform for an Armed Merchant Cruiser, which sounds right up CEC's alley. Maybe the best approach for this would be to throw out the WEG images of Omze's and just have it visually identical to the Neutron Star-Class.
I'm leaning more strongly toward option 3 from above...
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.
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shootingwomprats
Rear Admiral
Joined: 11 Sep 2013
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Location: Online
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| Posted: Sun May 18, 2014 12:02 am Post subject: |
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My thoughts on this are as follows. The Neutron Star-class was originally rolled out during the Clone Wars but it was quickly discovered it suffered from many design flaws and and never saw action.
Rendili had a number of these hulls sitting around and had to figure out a way to make money. So they dropped in a better hyperdrive and hyperdrive backup engine, dumped the turbolasers and heavy laser cannons and replaced these with quad lasers. This was an attempt to produce something that could be manufactured at a reduced cost and allow the company to recoup some of its losses from the lost government contract.
Because the two ships are so similar it was incorrectly recorded that the Alliance converted Neutron Star-class bulk cruisers when in fact it was the Battle Horn-class bulk freighter.
Here is the Neutron Star-class cruiser as of the Clone Wars era. This would be the stock version of the ship. You will notice it has 25 turbolasers for capital ship fighting and 25 heavy laser cannon for starfighter cover. I used the information presented from wookieepedia since I did not have additional information sources.
Neutron Star-class bulk cruiser
Craft: Rendili StarDrive’s Neutron Star-class bulk cruiser
Affiliation: General
Era: Clone Wars
Source: +Oliver Queen
Type: Freighter/Frigate/Patrol Vessel
Scale: Capital
Length: 600 meters
Skill: Capital ship piloting: Neutron Star-class bulk cruiser
Crew: 2,200 gunners: 57, skeleton: 840/+10
Crew Skill: Astrogation 3D+2, capital ship gunnery 3D, capital ship piloting 4D+1, capital ship shields 4D, sensors 3D+2, starship gunnery 4D
Passengers: 250 (troops)
Cargo Capacity: 5,000 metric tons
Consumables: 1 year
Cost: 6.5 million (new), 3 million (used)
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x3
Hyperdrive Backup: x20
Nav Computer: Yes
Maneuverability: 1D
Space: 4
Hull: 5D
Shields: 2D
Sensors:
Passive: 40/1D
Scan: 80/2D
Search: 125/3D
Focus: 5/3D+2
Weapons:
24 Turbolasers
Fire Arc: 10 front, 10 left, 10 right
Crew: 1 (15), 2 (10), 3 (5)
Scale: Capital
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 3-15/36/75
Damage: 5D
25 Heavy Laser Cannons
Fire Arc: 5 front, 10 left, 10 right
Crew: 1
Scale: Starfighter
Skill: Starship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-3/12/25
Damage: 6D
2 Tractor Beam Projectors
Fire Arc: Front
Crew: 1 (1), 6 (1)
Skill: Capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-5/15/30
Damage: 4D
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
Joined: 05 Apr 2010
Posts: 16232
Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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| Posted: Sun May 18, 2014 12:27 am Post subject: |
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I did something similar with my own version, the major difference was a rule to reflect the unreliable nature of the stock weapons in the classic era. Basically, on a Wild Dice failure by the Bulk Cruiser's To Hit roll, the weapons misfire and can't fire again until the next round.
The direction I'm leaning for the Battle Horn is to basically say that it uses the same basic Hull as the Neutron Star, but is a newer, more reliable platform used primarily by local governments as a patrol ship. Not up to the standards of the Imperial Navy, it still features a respectable mix of turbolasers, laser cannon and tractor beams, plus hangar space for a squadron of fighters.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.
The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index
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shootingwomprats
Rear Admiral
Joined: 11 Sep 2013
Posts: 2687
Location: Online
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| Posted: Sun May 18, 2014 2:13 am Post subject: |
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| crmcneill wrote: | | I did something similar with my own version, the major difference was a rule to reflect the unreliable nature of the stock weapons in the classic era. Basically, on a Wild Dice failure by the Bulk Cruiser's To Hit roll, the weapons misfire and can't fire again until the next round. |
Yeah I had thought to go that extra mile to incorporate that but figured that no matter what I came up with someone else would have their own idea of how to do it, so to keep the discussion on track, I just chose not to include it.
| crmcneill wrote: | | The direction I'm leaning for the Battle Horn is to basically say that it uses the same basic Hull as the Neutron Star, but is a newer, more reliable platform used primarily by local governments as a patrol ship. Not up to the standards of the Imperial Navy, it still features a respectable mix of turbolasers, laser cannon and tractor beams, plus hangar space for a squadron of fighters. |
A few things I would point out to you. The Battle Horn-class only has quad lasers and tractor beams that it comes stock with. Furthermore it does not come with any landing bay facilities. These need to be retrofitted by the owner.
Since the Battle Horn-class is exactly the same as the retrofitted "Neutron Star"-class I made the decision that the Alliance retrofit were actually Battle Horn-class and not Neutron Star-class.
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CRMcNeill
Director of Engineering
Joined: 05 Apr 2010
Posts: 16232
Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.
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| Posted: Sun May 18, 2014 8:37 am Post subject: |
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| shootingwomprats wrote: | A few things I would point out to you. The Battle Horn-class only has quad lasers and tractor beams that it comes stock with. Furthermore it does not come with any landing bay facilities. These need to be retrofitted by the owner.
Since the Battle Horn-class is exactly the same as the retrofitted "Neutron Star"-class I made the decision that the Alliance retrofit were actually Battle Horn-class and not Neutron Star-class. |
The Alliance version as published in the Rebel Alliance Sourcebook specifically mentions that it is modified from the original to serve as a starfighter carrier. The only mention of the Battle Horn in the official material is in the Dark Force Rising Sourcebook, based on a scene in the novel where the Chimaera attacked a convoy being escorted by a bulk cruiser carrying a wing of A-Wings. That is the only mention of a bulk cruiser in that novel, and the stats for the Battle Horn (which as you say are almost identical to the Neutron Star-Class) are published only in the Sourcebook for that novel. Therefore, if the Battle Horn is the bulk cruiser used in the novel, it has the same starfighter capacity as a Neutron Star, as the novel specifically mentions that the ship deploys three squadrons of A-Wings.
As far as retrofitting, if the owner is going to put something in, something else needs to come out. Warships aren't designed to just have lots of extra space sitting around waiting to be used; that space will be used for something. My thinking was that the capacitors and other equipment for the stock Neutron Star's heavy turbolasers were removed to make way for starfighter launch bays, with more modern quad-laser cannon replacing the stock heavy lasers. This wouldn't draw nearly as much power as the stock weaponry, so the extra power could be shunted to the hyperdrive.
I like your idea of Rendili using Neutron Star hulls to make a bulk carrier, but the Alliance sourcebook specifically states that the modification to turn the ship into a carrier was done by Alliance techs. Perhaps Rendili got the idea for the Battle Horn from them (or vice versa).
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.
The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index
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