[100822]
Okay, today’s update is a bunch of reference pictures… of ships. This is the first time these ships have been “formally” planned out in any way. Some of these references have been used for a while now (like I used the Symphonia and Ultima refs near the end of the Directorate story arc), but others are, well, new.
This is chronological by BKS history. The Symphonia class ships were built starting from 1809 in anticipation of the Founder War(s). They are actually based off of a Founder design, and kind of set the styling for all the BKS super-heavy destroyers afterward. There are two short “add-on” stories to the Directorate arc detailing the relevant bits of BKS history, which I will eventually post. Interestingly enough, the Symphonia class was pretty much the last class that I drew up.
J and I had a discussion about super-heavy destroyers, and we concluded that most space battles would be fought in orbit, and subsequently that most of the SHD’s volume is taken up by fuel. Projectile weapons used for long-range combat and laser weapons for short-range combat; in this sense the Symphonia, and thus, some classic Founder ships are pretty balanced.
Whereas the Symphonia class is like a seagoing destroyer, the Ultima is kind of like an early carrier. The Ultima uses a lot of parts from the Symphonia (the engine cluster and command center, and some of the hull), but hosts a bunch of Yamato class cruisers (pretty much any ship that looks like this in the BKS era is, at this point, considered a “Yamato” class ship – later revisions as of the time of Starcrossed are modular and generically known as “PASA” class). The development of SHD kind of follows the development of navy ships – ie from destroyer-based to carrier-based.
The Dogma class is an odd beast in that it doesn’t really use any of the standard components used by the rest of the SHDs. Before the outbreak of the civil war, the progressive government made an effort to divert the BKS empire from traditional Founder culture, and thus we see the reduced construction of “traditional” BKS ships and trains (ie those that are actually shaped like traditional ships and trians) and the SHD changes shape a good deal as well.
At the same time, I think the Dogma class ships turn out to be of lesser quality than the traditional BKS SHDs and even the future ones that use BKS designs. Most of them (along with a number of Symphonia and Ultima ships) find themselves on the progressive side of the war, and I don’t think many are left in the Confederate present.
Enigma class ships follow the Dogma class, though some are probably built at the same time. The Engima class is the conservative answer to the civil war, though due to some sort of espionage, more are probably built by the progressive faction (as they probably control more industry). I think (and all these “I think statements” are because I actually have this info written down somewhere and am trying to recall it) they are probably the most numerous SHD class around.
There’s an “Enigma II” class, which is some sort of derivative of the original Enigma class, but I haven’t actually planned out the difference between that and the original Enigma class, so for now, there’s a 50-ship Enigma class, and not two 25-ship Enigma I/Enigma II classes. There’s also a “Confederate” class that’s supposed to be built closer to the Confederate present, but no details on that either…
Ok, these recent posts have been kinda bland; I’m really just streaming this stuff; that’s all for now.
