Schlock Mercenary VII: A T.A.D. Too Much Dialogue These Days

[Max_Killjoy]

Down to about 2 days left, and about $8200 to go for the final stretch goal.

6 hours, $1725 to go.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Sometimes it feels Schlock is just recycling Freefall jokes.

GW

[Max_Killjoy]

In Soviet Russia, bug plants you!

[memnarch]

Sometimes it feels Schlock is just recycling Freefall jokes.

GW

Maybe it's just because i'm reading through freefall for the first time and haven't gotten to that part yet, but I don't see much in similarity besides the "asking for permission beforehand" bit which seems rather generic to me.

[factotum]

And which has been a running gag with the new medic since he was introduced, pretty much.

[eschmenk]

Maybe it's just because i'm reading through freefall for the first time and haven't gotten to that part yet, but I don't see much in similarity besides the "asking for permission beforehand" bit which seems rather generic to me.

Another similarity is that neither Dr. Bowman (the chimp) nor the medic have the ability to understand nor predict the other person's emotional reaction to what they want to do to them. Neither of them intend any harm and both are puzzled by negative reactions.

[factotum]

Looking at this latest strip, I'm beginning to believe something. Everybody is worried that *Petey* might go off the deep end and destroy civilization in the galaxy. What if it's Chinook who's going to attempt that? She's already prone to referring to herself as a goddess (yes, that was originally sarcastic, but not since she dropped "plumbing" from it, I think), and her arrogance is clearly increasing all the time, as her reaction to Iafa in today's strip shows. Remember that Iafa is millions of years older than Chinook, so for her to say "Oh, Iafa, you're so CUTE" in such a patronising way is a warning sign, IMHO.

[guttering flame]

Looking at this latest strip, I'm beginning to believe something. Everybody is worried that *Petey* might go off the deep end and destroy civilization in the galaxy. What if it's Chinook who's going to attempt that? She's already prone to referring to herself as a goddess (yes, that was originally sarcastic, but not since she dropped "plumbing" from it, I think), and her arrogance is clearly increasing all the time, as her reaction to Iafa in today's strip shows. Remember that Iafa is millions of years older than Chinook, so for her to say "Oh, Iafa, you're so CUTE" in such a patronising way is a warning sign, IMHO.

she already went nuts once.

[HandofShadows]

What if it's Chinook who's going to attempt that? She's already prone to referring to herself as a goddess (yes, that was originally sarcastic, but not since she dropped "plumbing" from it, I think)

She didn't drop it. The natives did and she says she misses it. http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2017-09-26

[eschmenk]

Everybody is worried that *Petey* might go off the deep end and destroy civilization in the galaxy.

I never expected that at all. I think a few people were worried about Petey, but I don't think it was very many who were.

I don't expect Chinook will go crazy either, but I think it's a little more likely in her case than with Petey. I think the stuff about being a goddess is just her enjoying herself and is for humor as much anything. I can't blame her for feeling a bit like a goddess, actually. After all, she does control and run a large world, not just a ship.

[Kantaki]

Well Para, let's hope the locals don't hear that comparison. I think it might make them unhappy.

[factotum]

Well Para, let's hope the locals don't hear that comparison. I think it might make them unhappy.

The guys in question are dead, so they're not really in a position to hear anything right now.

[guttering flame]

Well Para, let's hope the locals don't hear that comparison. I think it might make them unhappy.

Para will probably forget to teach her pet tact. They'll hear all about it from him.

[Rockphed]

Does anybody with the planet mercenary RPG have any comments on today's listing of various ship classes? I'm trying to figure out what the letters mean. I'm pretty sure that the letters pretty much mean that the Maxim 39 could rip the Soulward Honor to shreds without blinking, and that Cynthetic Certainty and Breath Weapon would have even easier times of it, but I'm trying to figure out what the X, S, and V stand for. Any thoughts?

[guttering flame]

Does anybody with the planet mercenary RPG have any comments on today's listing of various ship classes? I'm trying to figure out what the letters mean. I'm pretty sure that the letters pretty much mean that the Maxim 39 could rip the Soulward Honor to shreds without blinking, and that Cynthetic Certainty and Breath Weapon would have even easier times of it, but I'm trying to figure out what the X, S, and V stand for. Any thoughts?

I'm guessing the letters refer to ship size and the number to how deadly it is.

[lesser_minion]

I've hidden this, since it's speculation and turned out to be dead wrong:

Spoiler

Show

I'm guessing the letters refer to ship size and the number to how deadly it is.

How would one measure 'deadliness' though?

I guess that the letter could refer to role and the number to maximum power output. Dragon-class warships are a specialised design equipped with oversized power plants and (mostly) omnidirectional weapons. We've also seen ships carrying long-range plasma lances, dedicated support frigates, and so on. So a reasonably complete classification system would have to distinguish e.g., troopships, support ships, dragons, lancers, and carriers.

If that's correct, then a '9' is any ship with carrier-level power output, an '8' is destroyer-level, a '7' is cruiser level, a '6' is frigate level, and '5' would be gunship level, at least if you go by the old ovalkwiki classifications. Presumably, Breath Weapon is on the high end of '9', Cynthetic Certainty is on the low end of 8, the PDCL might have been a 10, TAG an 8, and Bristlecone a 5?

Supposedly this is all going to be added to the Ovalkwiki at some point, but I think people who have the RPG do post here as well.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

yeah, higher numbers better sounds like a decent guess. The letters are kind of insufficient data, but since Maxim 39 and this repurposed freighter are both V it could be a classification for support ships or something like that. S could be a gunship and X could be a carrier or capital ship, but that's just plain guesses at possible categories existing under this system. The fact that the letters we see are all from the end of the alphabet suggests the number of different classifications used is probably at least 24, so there could be a few quite specialized classes.

Although it does seem weird to me that the Breath Weapon would be clearly more powerful than the commodores ship. Maybe they don't count the output of the long guns because it's new and weird and classified?

[Max_Killjoy]

From the Planet Mercenary RPG:

Letter Designation	Length
Z	< 10 m
Y	10–39 m
X	40–99 m
V	100–299 m
T	300–499 m
S	500–999 m
Q	> 999 m

Numerical Designation	Firepower
0, 1, 2	Low. What these ships lack in firepower they often make up for in maneuverability and/or hull strength
3, 4, 5	Medium. These ships tend to include point defenses and minimal STS weaponry (e.g. gunboats, freighters, privateer ships).
6	High. These ships tend to include STS weaponry and systems for defeating defensive countermeasures. This is the minimum rating for a ship considered a threat to capital ships or fortified stations.
7, 8, 9	Critical. Affectionately known as the “MOAR GUNS” classes, these ships tend to include gravy guns and appear war-ready (e.g. battleplates, thunderheads, LOTA).

[lesser_minion]

Not what I was expecting (I'd have expected something more 'objective'), but it's generally consistent with what we knew about the ships already. Some of them, at least. Kitesfear was previously said to be 70-75m in length, and Cynthetic Certainty would presumably be the same size. Breath Weapon was rated for comparable power output to a UNS carrier, and those are in the 600m range. But it puts Maxim 39 at a bit larger than what 'frigate' was previously said to imply from Howard's notes on the wiki.

In any event, if '6' is the minimum to even register as a threat to a capital ship, Shiplord Srabben can expect a bad day.

[factotum]

What's interesting is that Breath Weapon is apparently rated S9, which is the highest firepower available. Presumably size makes a difference here, because bigger ship means more annie plant and thus more power, so a battleplate would still beat it one-on-one, but this converted freighter the shiplord is flying doesn't stand the ghost of a chance.

[Max_Killjoy]

Breath Weapon gets a 9 because of the "long gun" it carries -- it only gets one shot if it wants to remain functional, but there's literally not a ship we know of in the setting it can't destroy with that one shot.

[eschmenk]

Breath Weapon gets a 9 because of the "long gun" it carries -- it only gets one shot if it wants to remain functional, but there's literally not a ship we know of in the setting it can't destroy with that one shot.

Are you sure it carries a long gun? I don't remember any indication that it did and Murtaugh denied it. I don't understand how Breath Weapon could be classified as a 9 without one, though.

[HandofShadows]

Breath Weapon gets a 9 because of the "long gun" it carries -- it only gets one shot if it wants to remain functional, but there's literally not a ship we know of in the setting it can't destroy with that one shot.

The ship we saw before could only fire the long gun once safely, but we don't know the endurance of the Breath Weapon and it's a much larger ship so it may be able to fire multiple times. Also it has combat ready parasites that seem to be fairly powerful as well.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Okay, so letter is size, number is relative firepower, makes some sort of sense. So a Y9 could be a very heavily armed attack craft. This is a big threat to a police forces dropship at X4, outright outclasses a light scout shuttle at Z2 but doesn't come anywhere near a proper battlecarriercruiserdeathvessel scoring T9.

[Thalnawr]

Coincidentally, a "standard" Celeschul Orbital Foundries Dragon-class Interdiction Cruiser rates at X4 in the RPG. There's a "gun package" that upgrades its missile weaponry, but the game doesn't list how much firepower on the vehicle rating scale that bestows. The non-standard "main gun" that Cynthetic Certainty has, plus other upgrades must be pushing it up to the X8 rating shown today.

[lesser_minion]

Are you sure it carries a long gun? I don't remember any indication that it did and Murtaugh denied it. I don't understand how Breath Weapon could be classified as a 9 without one, though.

I didn't think it carried a long gun either, but Breath Weapon and similar Oafan warships are comparable in size and power output to UNS carriers, which, while they aren't battleplates, are themselves a pretty big deal.

[Rockphed]

I think I can already see how to fix this system. An initial letter to designate ship size is good. Then we need a designation for the total output of annie-plants (or perhaps the radius of the effective single annie). We possibly need a third designation for how efficiently that output is turned into shields and weapons.

So a tricorn class battleplate would be Q-170-90 while Petey's frigate that vaporized the Tricameral Assembly would be an X-4-7.

[Max_Killjoy]

Only tangentially related via Howard, but: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...er/description

[Max_Killjoy]

The Uuplechans seem to be either very isolationist, very new to the wider galactic community, or both. Far newer than "terrans", certainly. I say this because they seem utterly ignorant of what's about to show up in the system and how utterly outgunned their cute little paramilitaries are.

[guttering flame]

The Uuplechans seem to be either very isolationist, very new to the wider galactic community, or both. Far newer than "terrans", certainly. I say this because they seem utterly ignorant of what's about to show up in the system and how utterly outgunned their cute little paramilitaries are.

I'm thinking more delusional. You can't find plenty of those around here. Full of stupid bravado and self aggrandizement.
Read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_March_of_Folly