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Now it is possible to specify names for TSN shuttles, and we have one named shuttle on every ship, I want to get some ideas on what we could do with them. All suggestions are welcome, though it will depend on how challenging it is to add functions to the missions script (I did think cargo supplies, but this would take a lot of work, and since the Grant and Jinn don’t work for some reason, may not yet be possible)
One idea so far is rescue and recovery operations. Instead of ships getting lifepods and black boxes, it’ll be down to shuttles instead. It’ll make it more complex, especially in a combat situation. Does this sound interesting?
Felt pod recovery using the shuttle was a nice addition in the mission. Would definitely be interesting in a combat situation. Becomes more of an issue on weeks where attendance is low.
I love this idea. It’s already tense to think your comrades are sitting in life pods with enemies nearby, now imagine one of your bridge crew has to jump in a shuttle to retrieve the pods!
I guess we’ll have to designate who the shuttle pilot is ahead of time, otherwise it’ll be a scramble to get somebody out in time…
There might be one issue though, in the script that was set up for shuttles to pick up anomalies, they could only hold one at a time before having to return to the ship. Is that able to be modified in the script? Or should we make it keep going out for every pod anyway? That would certainly make for a tense situation, possibly resulting in further casualties…
Who considers themself to be fighter qualified? Off the top of my head, I know that Donovan, Clay, and myself are. There were several pilots last session and I don’t know who were flying them but if they felt comfortable with the job and wanted more then identifying resources on each ship might help.
I consider myself qualified, or at least perfectly comfortable flying them. Was one of the ones out in a shuttle last shift, though I’d forgotten to remove the comment mark for the pitch inversion, which made everything weird.
It should be possible for me to script it so that a shuttle is only able to pick up one pod at a time and one blackbox. I need to figure out if I can detect when a shuttle is docked or not (its either using the ‘if_exists’ or the ‘if_docked’ I think). I could then have all shuttles with a simple cargo system where they can hold a couple of pick ups. Larger shuttles could have more, smaller shuttles less.
Perhaps there should also be a basic profiency on using shuttles. They are unlikely to be in combat, which might take more training to have effective fighter wings, but a basic ‘fly here, pick up this, fly back’ so everyone can do it.
I brought up at some point during the shift last week your expectation that ensigns have a “basic proficiency” for the fighter console and higher ranks to be “good on all consoles”. Since this is the second time you’ve mentioned proficiency, do we have a definition for it? If not, how do we define it?
Basic proficiency: Can fly a shuttle? (non combat)
General proficiency: Can fly a fighter effectively? (combat “certified”)I think we should also be careful that we not think about TSN fighter tactics in terms of wings of squadrons. Unless we deliberately form up a carrier and a flight group, anyone flying a fighter is almost certainly pulling double duty. Because of this, about the only time I expect a ship trying to field all its fighters in a coordinated fashion is when it is crippled and trying to mount a last ditch defense to get itself repaired enough to run away. In experimenting last weekend, fighters make for great point defense if the ship is getting overwhelmed by drones or otherwise can’t turn around to affect a defense of its own but van Leigh was generally keeping me busy enough flying his ship that simply setting the Phoenix for full reverse and popping out in a fighter wasn’t usually an option. Were I in another position that didn’t require generally constant active window control (note, not an “easier” or “less important” position. I’ll never be as good at Slate or Mundy at timing 2-1-1, Donovan at cycling for invisible contacts, Vaj for actually conserving power, etc.) then it would be more viable.
I would like to chime my opinion in, as well. I rather enjoyed the opportunity to take the shuttle out, and I think the scripting will add more “meat” to the missions as well as “flavor.”
By “meat,” I mean actualy parts of the mission that require the shuttle to make sense – transferring of supplies/ordinance from one ship to another, recovering cargo/lifepods/VIPs/Prisoners of War/etc.
“Flavor” comes in the RP – having an officer being in charge of the shuttle and docking bay – making sure pre-flight is done for the shuttle while helm is provisioning the main ship, depressurizing and opening docking bay doors, etc. On Lancer, we have extra “duties” that only really come out during roleplay. For example, Morlock is in charge of our Security force onboard and has them report to the docking hatch when transporting prisoners or other non-TSN-officer “guests.”
Lifepod recovery in the shuttle added more fun to the game for me, knowing that I was exposed in a relatively defenseless shuttle with combat not too far away. It was also a little more nerve-wracking (but still fun) when I realized that I had to wait for CIC to actually transfer the Lifepod aboard, not just run into it.
I also agree with Nhaima, in that I don’t expect a lot of fighter wing tactics given our current fleet configuration. However, I have served on non-TSN ships that have used fighters/shuttles quite effectively as drone screens and distractions for their mothership. Nhaima is probably the most experienced, bravest, bad-ass single-seat-ship pilot in the fleet right now. Her ability to tango an enemy fleet and lead them to a minefield or actually fly THROUGH a singularity is unparalleled. It’d be a shame if we let talent like that go to waste.
For the time being, fighters are on the back burner (excuse the pun!)
As for shuttles, basic proficiency needs to be all the operation of the console – pitching up, down, rolling left and right, yaw (or whichever controls are included), stopping, boosting and docking. There also needs to be a basic exercise like depart the ship, collect a life pod and return. Navigation could be made more difficult by placing the lifepod in an asteroid field. There doesn’t necessarily need to be any firing involved as that isn’t what the shuttle will be used for, though a very basic exercise could be shooting down drones launched from a Kralien drone cruiser if we think there should be a small element of combat.
As for fighters, basic proficiency would be as the shuttle, just with an expansion on the combat side. Infact, shuttle proficiency could be the first step, with fighter proficiency being one level up. Things like target identification/ attacking a specific target (drones or ships, kraliens or torgoths, W83 or R54 etc), evasion and some kind of coordination with ships or other fighters.
2.6 actually made target acquisition much easier. They have target IDs now, rather than needing to know what the hull for each different enemy type looks like in 3d rather than just on the science screen/captains map.
Would be nice to have a transfer of personnel between ships, such as DAMCON team members, via the use of shuttles.
That is something I would love to do, however it would have to be activated by the GM. It could make some great roleplay though, with the GM acting as a watch officer taking the order and then organising the crew/supplies to transfer. If we did it that way, we’d need full protocols to be designed and followed to make it flow smoothly. Otherwise, it would be chaos and turn into a comedy of errors.
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