Ships of the Au Ra Confederacy

[Valles]

As of the 43rd year of the Stellar Era, the Au Ra Confederacy has developed and fielded three classes of combatant starship and two government-owned noncombatant classes. Regulatory measures and nominal licensing fees for government-provided design measures have concentrated civilian starship construction into three standardized tradeship classes.

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Verbose:
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Starship-class DD         (AC)          30 HS / 21 TS
[2] S×4 A×4 Xa Hs Mgs (Ica) Qa (Ica) Fa (Ica) Ra Ya Qa (Ica)  [4/4]
Trg: 1   Def: 0      Cost: 335.4 / 50.4      SL 1   {SOLAR}
20 HTK   S×4 A×4       SRW×1 LRW×1 (34 MSP)

Sensors               Surveying
Scan:    2 tH            MSS:         3
Combat:    21 tH         per StmP:    1
Max:    60 tH         Best Det.: Open
Strategic: 60 tH
                  ECM system:
Initiative Bonus: 0      EMS:         0
               Deception ECM:   0
AP Controlled:   0      Counter-EM:   0 / 0

Shield Regeneration         BASV
Normal (X):    0      Short:   5
Burnout (Y):    0      Medium:   3.67
Max Regen (Z):    0      Long:   2.33   
                     
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Short:                     
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Starship-class DD         (AC)          21 TS   
[2] S×4 A×4 Xa Hs Mgs (Ica) Qa (Ica) Fa (Ica) Ra Ya Qa (Ica)  [4/4]
Trg: 1   Def: 0   20 HTK            {SOLAR}   
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Designed before the confirmation of the existence of wormhole passages, and indeed responsible for the survey of the Yangxia system that discovered them, the Starship-class are intended, so far as their designers could envision, to handle as many different missions and situations as possible without the need for support. Their drives are designed for maximum warpfield stability and total isolation from outside spacetime, sparing their crews the discomfort and nausea of conflicting warpsense inputs. As built, they were equipped with then-revolutionary gravitational-anomaly survey equipment, with capable shields and armor, and with both extended range missiles whose bomb-pump warp distortion generators had greatly increased standoff distance - and therefore accuracy - compared with cruder pure-radiation atomic weapons, and with reactor powered spacetime disruption beam weapons capable of breaking down matter at ranges of nearly two light-seconds.

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Verbose:
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Starship Mk2-class DD         (AC)          30 HS / 21 TS
[2] S×4 A×4 Xb Hs Mgs (Ica) Qa (Ica) Fb (Ica) Rb Ya Qa (Ica)  [4/4]
Trg: 1   Def: 0      Cost: 364.4 / 54.7      SL 3   {SOLAR}
20 HTK   S×4 A×4       SRW×1 LRW×1 (34 MSP)

Sensors               Surveying
Scan:    2 tH            MSS:       4
Combat:    21 tH         per StmP:    1
Max:    60 tH         Best Det.: Concealed
Strategic: 60 tH      
                  ECM system:
Initiative Bonus: 0      EMS:         0
               Deception ECM:   0
AP Controlled:   0      Counter-EM:   0 / 0

Shield Regeneration         BASV
Normal (X):    0      Short:   6.33
Burnout (Y):    0      Medium:   5
Max Regen (Z):    0      Long:   3.67
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Short:
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Starship Mk2-class DD         (AC)          21 TS
[2] S×4 A×4 Xb Hs Mgs (Ica) Qa (Ica) Fb (Ica) Rb Ya Qa (Ica)  [4/4]
Trg: 1   Def: 0   20 HTK            {SOLAR}   
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The ascension of a new Khagan and supporting party changed development and exploration priorities on the very eve of the transition to the Stellar Era, and only four three-ship squadrons of Starships would remain in active service, the remaining fourteen constructed vessels preserved in vacuum stasis against future need. While one squadron served as rescue and security force for civilian traffic in the Yangxia trinary system, the remaining three squadrons carried out slow and painstaking survey operations in the star systems found beyond Yangxia's warp gates.

Technological research for both civil and military purposes did not halt during this time, and the improvement of mission-critical systems led to the design of the Mark Two refit program, with improved weapons and survey sensors. The Home Guard squadron and mothball fleet were converted to the Mark Two standard, while the three survey squadrons were planned to be brought back for upgrade after the completion of their established missions.

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Verbose:
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Defender-class ES         (AC)          12 HS / 12 TS
[2] A1×6 Hs Mgs Qa Ya Rb (Ia×2)  [6/3]
Trg: 1   Def: 0      Cost: 181.6 / 27.3      SL 4   {SOLAR}
13 HTK   A×6       LRW×1 (34 MSP)

Sensors               Surveying
Scan:    2 tH            MSS:          N/A
Combat:    21 tH         per StmP:       N/A
Max:    60 tH         Best Det.:    None
Strategic: 60 tH
                  ECM system:
Initiative Bonus: 0      EMS:         0
               Deception ECM:   0
AP Controlled:   0      Counter-EM:   0 / 0

Shield Regeneration         BASV
Normal (X):    0      Short:   1.33
Burnout (Y):    0      Medium:   1
Max Regen (Z):    0      Long:   0.67
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Short:
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Defender-class ES         (AC)          12 TS
[2] A1×6 Hs Mgs Qa Ya Rb (Ia×2)  [6/3]
Trg: 1   Def: 0   13 HTK            {SOLAR}   
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Until SE 43, the Defender Class existed only as a periodically updated series of paper studies for the most quickly-produced possible 'useful' warship. As a dedicated combatant, it used a partially-isolating heterodyning drive system that traded crew comfort for fifty percent more tactical speed and it dispensed with any and every support system not needed to bring a working missile launcher array to combat. Armor composites, while not repairable in the field, offered a one-third increase in protection - increasing the combat endurance of a design so austere that it was never expected to survive more than a single fight.

The massacre of the survey flotilla assigned to monitor the formation of the warp gate that would become known as the Judgement Passage made a previously theoretical exercise painfully relevant, and the first metal cuts for the physical Defenders were made less than twelve hours after word of the Caged Angel arrived at the Palace of the Perfect.

[Valles]

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Verbose:
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Assembler-class DD         (AC)          30 HS / 21 TS
[2] S A1 Ht (MS) Qa (Ica)  [1/1]
Trg: 1   Def: 0      Cost: 277.4 / 26.7         SL 4   {SOLAR}
9 HTK   S×1 A×1

Sensors               Surveying
Scan:    None      MSS:    N/A
Combat:    10 tH      per StmP: N/A
Max:    20 tH      Best Det.: None
Strategic: 20 tH
                  ECM system:
Initiative Bonus: 0      EMS:         0
               Deception ECM:   0
AP Controlled:   0      Counter-EM:   0 / 0

Shield Regeneration         BASV
Normal (X):    0      Short:   0
Burnout (Y):    0      Medium:   0
Max Regen (Z):    0      Long:   0
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Short:
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Assembler-class DD         (AC)          21 TS
[2] S A1 Ht (MS) Qa (Ica)  [1/1]
Trg: 1   Def: 0   9 HTK            {SOLAR}
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Based on the Starship hull for convenience, the Assembler class were, as the name implies, laid down in SE 41 to serve as assembly platforms for Beacon-pattern warpgate monitor and relay stations, the prototype of which was then under construction as a series of prefabricated modules. The volumetric demands of their workspaces meant that other functions were at an extreme premium and mobility and crew spaces were correspondingly austere.

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Verbose:
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Monitor-class FT0         (AC)          6 HS / 5 TS
[2] H Qa Xb (Ica)  [4/4]
Trg: 1   Def: 0      Cost: 71.5 / 10.8         SL 3   {SOLAR}
2 HTK

Sensors               Surveying
Scan:    None      MSS:    4
Combat:    10 tH      per StmP: 1
Max:    20 tH      Best Det.: Concealed
Strategic: 20 tH
                  ECM system:
Initiative Bonus: 0      EMS:      0
               Deception ECM:   0
AP Controlled:   0      Counter-EM:   0 / 0

Shield Regeneration         BASV
Normal (X):    0      Short:   0
Burnout (Y):    0      Medium:   0
Max Regen (Z):    0      Long:   0
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Short:
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Monitor-class FT0         (AC)          5 TS
[2] H Qa Xb (Ica)  [4/4]
Trg: 1   Def: 0   2 HTK            {SOLAR}
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The detection of gravitational anomalies matching theoretical projections of a forming warp gate represented an unanticipated scientific opportunity, and a considerable budgetary struggle ensued. To fully document the formation process an extensive monitoring mission was needed, but in known and safe territory the self-defense and multimission capabilities of the Starship class would have been excessive - and expensive to maintain. The Monitor class, while minimal in most functional terms were designed with extensive automation, allowing increased volume per member of the smaller crew and a matching increase in comfort over the decade long planned mission.

[PracticalM]

Don't the monitor class FT0s not have enough hull spaces to support Xb systems? Need 10 hull spaces to support Xb. Or I am remembering that wrong?

[Valles]

AFAICR, there's a limit on how many HS of non-civilian equipment can be on a freighter hull before you have to pay military (15%) maintenance rates, but X systems force that anyway. Capital survey gear, Xc, has a minimum total hull size requirement, I want to say something like 60HS, but I don't think that the standard-size sets do.

[PracticalM]

In the box below the Ship Hull table, it says:
Freighters built with more than 20% military systems must be built as warships.

X is military system (Xp is not military)

[Valles]

I'd read that as the point where your stopped paying freighter maintenance, given the note a little higher on the same page, but on second reading I admit it's no longer entirely clear. In any case, with all of the built units being within tactical battle range of the Berserker as it arrives in system, the point will be moot by next turn.

[Cralis]

It's gone back and forth throughout Starfire history. For the record, we are clearing it up in the next version with a hard limit of 20%. Any military systems or X means the freighter pays 15% maintenance.

[PracticalM]

It was always my understanding that if you exceed the 20% requirement you had to pay the military hull cost and not be a Freighter hull. But if that changed in Solar, then I'm just mixing rules.

Ship with X systems always pay 15%. The questioning part for me was hull cost.

[Cralis]

It was always my understanding that if you exceed the 20% requirement you had to pay the military hull cost and not be a Freighter hull. But if that changed in Solar, then I'm just mixing rules.

My apologies for being unclear. You are correct. The change we are making is about viewpoint, not end result. It's significantly clearer to just say "Freighters are limited to 20% military systems" than the current text. We are also codifying this in Section H rather than where it is, as a footnote in a hull table.

The implication, of course, is that if you want a hull with > 20% military systems then you have to use something else, like a warship hull.

BTW that has been one of our big pushes for v6.03, to remove all "footnotes as rules" and turn them into actual rules in the rules section of the book.

Ship with X systems always pay 15%. The questioning part for me was hull cost.

Got it.