The early Kzinti ships are just playable concept models to try out with friends on LAN to try out the feel of doing battles using older starships. Unfortunately the guady colouring seems to be set by ADB and matches that of other models of Kzinti starships. It is intended to make Klingons and Lyrans want to shoot at them....
I borrowed the textures from somebody's Kzinti freighter model.
I'll have ago at some of my own ideas in a texture later. I've always considered that the various nobility of the Kzinti Hegemony would have distinctive colour schemes on their ships and fleets for recognition during their frequent internal disputes, civil wars, etc.
Judging by the amount of armament and size the Dark Stalker is closer to a CL or a CR than a frigate. Then again, what defines a warship as a frigate is the fact that it carries a complement of marines.
Shame that they cancelled ENT just when it was leading up to the Romulan War, first contact with the Kzinti, etc.
In answer to Terradyne, I've never seen the early modules for SFB. My last purchase was the Commander's Edition Volume III back in 1994.
Earlier pre-TOS periods interest me mainly because power, weapons and defences are more limited so players have to create new tactics to cope.
Consider the limitations and constraints of designing a Kzinti warship this far back....
Warp engine power of 3 to 4 boxes. Impulse power about 2 boxes. Maybe 1 or 2 APR and 1 or 2 Battery.
A tripple Warp engine design begins to make sense here.
If you want to have a decent speed the hull is going to have to be small. (Movement cost 0.25 - 0.33 or maybe chance for a 0.5 - 0.67 movement cost medium sized hull).
Weapons available (for SFC) are going to be slow and low yield missiles, short ranged phasers and short ranged disrupters.
Disrupter 1: Offers good close in hitting power but at a high power cost (charging, overloading and holding).
Phaser 3: Only any good at point blank range against similar period ships but doesn't cost anything to hold once charged. Exposes one's own ship to enemy fire to be effective and inferior to Disrupters of the period.
Missiles: Offer long range stand off bombardment of an enemy and cost nothing to use. To a slow moving enemy without Phaser or Tractor Beam technology extremely lethal. On the down side the number of reloads = hull size so a small fast warship would have only 1 or 2 reloads, depending on launcher numbers. A medium sized warship could maybe have more missile launchers or more reloads. Early missiles are going to be slow (speed 12).
One will have to kill or cripple an enemy quickly before the racks run dry or be screwed....
On the defences side:
Shields: These are going to be poor (less than the Z-FF). Against the ship mounted weapons of the period good to soak up one or two good hits before collapsing. Remember that specific and general reinforcing will be feeble because of lack of available power.
Ablative armour: How much is carried depends on hull size and what internal systems it will replace (weight).
Tractor Beams: Not much power to play with so maybe limited to one. Having a lot of Tractor Beams on anti-missile duty will reduce one's warship to a crawl.
Phaser 3: In point defence mode this will be the best defence against missiles primarily incoming from the forward arc. Each will require 1 unit of power to charge everytime it fends off a missile so the number and careful positioning of emplacements will need to be economical.
Speed: Assuming that the enemy will be firing equally slow missiles, maintaining slightly faster than speed 12 will ensure that incoming salvoes astern are outrun. Overall the total battle power consumption of the warship design should allow a good speed with enough spare power to run a reasonable quantity of direct fire weapons plus the ship's essential systems.
Shuttles: On "Defend Me" some use against incoming missiles. On the downside no warp booster packs are allowed, then only speed 6. Also size of ship will limit hangar to only 1 or 2 shuttles.
Typical enemies being faced....
Primarily other Kzinti during any frequent internal dispute.
Lyrans: Disrupters, Phaser 3, ESG?? (No models as of yet by anyone.)
Klingons: Photons, Missiles, Disrupters. (Models already well covered.)
Hydrans: Phaser 3, Fusion Beam. (No models as of yet by anyone).
Gorns: Plasma F, ?? (No models as of yet by anyone).
Carnivons: ?? (Waiting on Terradyne).
Hur'Q: Disrupters, Photons, Missiles, ?? (I've had a go at some basic concept playable models based on Donald Miller's SSD sugestions. He also managed to wrongly spell Hur'Q as "Hurck").
Topic: Ideas For Early Kzinti Warships. (Read 10960 times)