Karagin
12/25/06 11:51 AM
70.123.166.36
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Okay without bring in WoB as their source, could pirates in the BT universe get and keep a warship? I think the corvette size or frigate size vessels would be about all they could capture or steal.
Now to add the WoB angle for those who like the current storyline and it's cheese. What happens to the WoB navy once they are beat?
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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Nightward
12/26/06 12:36 AM
203.206.21.58
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Get? Maybe. The Star League Defence Forces are supposed to have mothballed vessels here, there, and everywhere. If ComStar didn't clean all of them up and the Houses didn't find all the stashes, a few could be floating around in the Periphery.
On the other hand, they've been mothballed. They may be lacking crucial K-F drive parts, ammo magazines may be empty, electronics may have been scavenged, armour plating and drive sails may have been removed... the list goes on.
If they found a few vessels and they were missing different parts on each, maybe they might be able to cobble something together. Probably not, though, because WarShips are LosTech.
Could a raider force snaffle one? Yes, maybe. Even ignoring the Author Fiat of Operation Audacity, something like Archer's acquisition of the Black Talon could happen. A pirate force isn't going to have the ability to board and secure a WarShip, but they might be able to get to one in dry-dock, as long as the House or WoB/ComStar forces controlling it are total dumbasses.
Essentially, Pirates are too poorly-equipped to take one by force, and too technically lacking to maintain (or even crew them) if they obtain one via any other means.
Very few Periphery Staes could maintain a WarShip. Pirates have no chance.
Yea, verily. Let it be known far and wide that Nightward loathes MW: DA. Indeed, it is with the BURNING ANIMUS OF A THOUSAND SUNS that he doth rage against it with.
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Karagin
12/26/06 01:07 AM
70.123.166.36
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You know your counter point about finding mothballed warships seems to set a counter to the WoB finds....but that is off topic...sorry.
Interesting take on this, noting that in most sci-fi games the pirates have warships or armed merchant ships that allow them to attack shipping lanes or planets or space stations etc...yet in BT they are lucky to have dropships.
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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Greyslayer
12/27/06 02:40 AM
216.14.198.52
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They could probably get a warship as a base of operations in 'stationkeeping' mode and getting most of the smaller weapons operational for point-defense.
If they get the extensive passive detection equipment online they would have quite a defensive position, but getting the unit battle operation and jumping is something I would find highly unlikely unless they had some good contacts in the dark nebulae.
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Karagin
12/27/06 06:27 AM
70.123.166.36
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So you are ruling out any of the folks trained to keep jumpships up and running?
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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Greyslayer
12/27/06 07:39 AM
216.14.198.60
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The condensed nature of the military grade KF drive does not lend it well to conventional repairs. They could probably repair the sail and auxilary equipment fine enough but the jump drive and capital weapons would be a problem I very much doubt they would be able to overcome.
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Cray
12/27/06 09:41 AM
70.118.43.50
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Quote:
The condensed nature of the military grade KF drive does not lend it well to conventional repairs. They could probably repair the sail and auxilary equipment fine enough but the jump drive and capital weapons would be a problem I very much doubt they would be able to overcome.
Yeah, you'd need a very specialist facility to handle most KF drive damage on a warship. A popped helium seal wouldn't be bad, but a crack in the coil itself would take more than a Periphery shipyard could handle.
OTOH, most of the other equipment on a warship wouldn't be such a problem if the pirate band can maintain jumpships and dropships. The only other difficulties might be capital energy weapons and the fusion rockets.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
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Karagin
12/27/06 10:01 AM
70.123.166.36
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Okay now I think we are on to something, something they can do others will be out of their reach and thus they will lose something or many somethings, but should be able to keep the ship running as along as they have some skilled crew.
Now this does raise some questions on what those skills would be and how high would a person need to be etc...
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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Cray
12/27/06 03:16 PM
70.118.43.50
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Quote:
Okay now I think we are on to something, something they can do others will be out of their reach and thus they will lose something or many somethings, but should be able to keep the ship running as along as they have some skilled crew.
Now this does raise some questions on what those skills would be and how high would a person need to be etc...
Without getting quantitative, you'd need a rare skillset in pirates: dropship and jumpship maintenance skills. While the bigger pirate bands have those to some degree, they're probably at the box monkey level.
And it'd be best if the techs/engineers in question were more than "box monkeys" who swapped a fresh black box for a busted one, but also had some actual understanding of the technology of jumpships. That was even rare in Houses in the 3020s. In the 3050s, the Houses were having trouble with giant fusion rockets needed by warships, too. The Fox Corvette didn't move forward until Comstar supplied fusion rocket assistance.
So, the pirate band would basically need those rare engineers from House or Clan jumpship shipyards. The only alternative would be Star's End pirates, who sit on a former RWR shipyard.
Skill ranks? 2 to 4 (in RPG terms) would be fine. It's not so much the skill or rank, since the RPG tech skills are rather generic and undetailed. It's having engineers with a good understanding of the hard parts of warship maintenance: giant fusion rockets and compact KF cores.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
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Karagin
12/28/06 12:21 AM
70.123.166.36
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Going with the idea of cobabled together stuff, via the earlier setting of the game BEFORE the arms races and high tech revivable, how did the Jumpships that were privately owned keep their ships going?
And we all know that 1% in spare parts are normal on a warship, per our other discussion, but then again that's not a set in stone rule either.
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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Cray
12/28/06 12:51 AM
70.118.43.50
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Quote:
Going with the idea of cobabled together stuff, via the earlier setting of the game BEFORE the arms races and high tech revivable, how did the Jumpships that were privately owned keep their ships going?
Visits to shipyards.
Pirates had to raid for jumpship parts.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
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Karagin
12/28/06 12:53 AM
70.123.166.36
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So they can't raid for parts, but they could buy them via the black market or trade something else for them etc...
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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Cray
12/28/06 10:33 AM
70.118.43.50
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Quote:
So they can't raid for parts, but they could buy them via the black market or trade something else for them etc...
Right. And that gets exponentially harder for warship parts.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
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Greyslayer
12/29/06 02:49 AM
216.14.198.60
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Quote:
Right. And that gets exponentially harder for warship parts.
I can just see the black market having a spare kf drive for a cruiser (the exact type and weight) laying around 
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Karagin
12/29/06 01:21 PM
70.123.166.36
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Okay maybe not everything, but enough parts to get things working ror close to it.
Somethings you just can't fix...unless you happen to be stuck near Tatoonie and know a certain junk dealer...
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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