New Helvetica

[Vogel]

Technology

Being a faction with its own origins, Helvetic-specific technology is to be expected. In total, I can imagine only a few ship/equipment additions to the mod, since New Helvetica isnt terribly large, nor does it have the capacity to produce much in the way of original technology. That being said, there are only three main classes of ships and each one has a single faction-specific weapon available to it. In the effort to prevent misuse of certain ships and equipment here, all Helvetic ships and weapons are faction-specific by rule, and are never to be mounted on anything else, nor flown by anyone else. Of course, for the duration that the faction is not official there are alternatives. Both are provided as follows:


Without Official Status:
Helvetic PC-100 Shrike Light Fighter: A licensed-built Gallic Navy Caracal Light Fighter, the Shrike has been the mainstay of the Helvetic Guard for the past decade. While an advanced design, the fighter is still considered expendable by its Gallic users, and the Crown decided to hamstring the Helvetians even more by revoking access to military-grade weapons; as such it is equipped with Gallic Civilian weapons (laser/deb).

Helvetic PC-200 Lark: A cheap alternative to producing an original line of ships, the Lark is a licensed-built Aurochs Freighter. The Helvetians have taken great liberty in modifying the internal components of these ships to serve as tankers, freighters, and even diplomatic armored transports. They are built to the standards of the original Aurochs, and as such mount civilian weapons.


With Official Status: (new ships/weapons)

Helvetic PC-300 "Herald" Diplomatic Transport:
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Class - Transport
Guns/Turrets - 0/4
Opt. Weapon Class - 8
Max Weapon Class - 8
Additional Equipment - 2xCM
Hull Strength - 180,000
Max Shield Class - Gunboat (Class 8)
Cargo Space - 800
Nanobotts/Batteries - 425/425
Max Impulse Speed - 100 m/s
Max Thruster Speed - 160 m/s
Power Output - 250,000 u
Power Recharge - 20,000 u
Turn Rate - Medium Transport

Helvetic Gunboat Turret: (Class 8) *Use on this ship Only*
Hdmg - 1,200
Sdmg - 900
Refire - 3.0
Range - 850m
Speed - 1,200 m/s
Energy - 6,500 u
Hdps - 3,600
Sdps - 2,700
Eused/s - 19,500 u
Used on Shuttle - 4.3 seconds of sustained firing w/All four guns, 13 shots

Description:
- The Herald is the premier diplomatic vessel employed by New Helvetica. Equipped with powerful engines and surprising defensive capabilities while still bearing a kind of innate elegance, this ship is at the forefront of Helvetic diplomacy. It is, in essence, a luxury yacht equipped with living quarters, meeting rooms, and even a landing bay for small shuttles, all the while with bulkheads as strong as the best gunboats in space and rigged with a highly effective ECM suite.

- The ships look is essentially undecided; Im not sure how much influence Gallic designs would have on this one, especially since it is not a fighting vehicle. It should be of reasonable size, between a Democritus yacht and a large transport, having two or three engines, and most importantly having some kind of noticeable landing bay for a shuttle, around the size of, say, a Rhino freighter. Most likely the ship would be almost pure white, dazzling in fact, as the whole purpose is to make an impression. Windows, while braced like most others in the game, would cover large portions of conference rooms, both above and to the side.

- The gunboat turrets mounted here follow the same principles as all other Helvetic weapons: a compromise of more shield damage for slightly less hull damage and a huge power drain in an attempt to remove the need for secondary shield-busters. As the numbers suggest, even these four Gunboat-type guns would prove to be nothing more than a deterrent, firing potent, but brief, bursts in order to dissuade attackers (also this results in having a weapon ready in the event a gunship or patrol boat is decided on later, but not for the time being). Its a diplomatic transport, so first and foremost its meant to run if the going gets rough, therefore it has two CM hardpoints just as the Democritus does in order to maximize the chance of escape. Because it is purpose specific, Ive even decided on a set cargo manifest, which also serves to point out the fact that it only has 800 units worth of cargo available; this is not a super-trader of any sort, and as with all of the Helvetic ships, it is faction-specific and not for others' use.

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Helvetic PC-210 Skylark Freighter:
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Class - Freighter
Guns/Turrets - 0/5
Opt. Weapon Class - 5
Max Weapon Class - 5
Additional Equipment 1xCM, 1xM
Hull Strength 18,000
Max Shield Class Freighter (Class 6)
Cargo Space - 600
Nanobotts/Batteries 100/100
Max Impulse Speed - 80 m/s
Max Thruster Speed - 199 m/s
Power Output 40,000 u
Power Recharge 1,300 u/s
Turn Rate Slow Freighter

Helvetic Turret: SG-715 Tachyon Cannon Turret (Class 5) *Use on this ship Only*
Hdmg - 525
Sdmg - 450
Refire - 4.0
Range - 700m
Speed - 700 m/s
Energy - 300 u
Hdps - 2,100
Sdps - 1,800
Eused/s - 1200 u/s
Used on Fighter 8.5 seconds of sustained firing w/All five guns, 34 shots

- The Skylark is the band-aid solution to commerce: take an existing design and modify it to your standards. The Skylark is the natural progression of the PC-200 Lark, therefore being an Aurochs freighter using Helvetic technology. The Helvetians have worked hard to develop a freighter with increased cargo load and defensive capabilities within the same frame, and the fruits of their labor does not disappoint.

- In appearance, this ship is virtually the same as the Aurochs, with the obvious differences being in color scheme and insignia. A few other additions/subtractions could be made, but for the most part it is the same ship using Helvetic weapons and bearing Helvetic insignia. This ship would serve the cargo-specific duties in the faction, be it trade convoys or serving as armory ships.

- The gun turret follows the same principles as the gun its based off of, being virtually identical except for a slightly increased range. Most freighters, including the Aurochs, seem to be able to fire their weapons almost indefinitely, but since these weapons are rather powerful the energy tax seen on the original gun has stayed in place, removing this ability. As for equipment, this ship sacrifices the two forward guns and the CD slot that were present on the Aurochs and make up for it in increased hull strength and hold size.

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(Now, I've saved the primary fighter for last, since what's involved here is even more of a trip than this entire faction is. I've attempted to explain myself in the giant monologue that is to follow, so please read that before criticizing this portion, please.)


Helvetic PC-110 Kite Multirole Fighter:
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Class - Multirole Fighter
Guns/Turrets - 0/4
Opt. Weapon Class - 9
Max Weapon Class - 9
Additional Equipment - 1xCM, 1xCD, 1xM, 1xBT
Hull Strength - 8,500
Max Shield Class - Heavy Fighter (Class 9)
Cargo Space - 70
Nanobotts/Batteries - 60/60
Max Impulse Speed - 80 m/s
Max Thruster Speed - 199 m/s
Power Output - 30,000 u
Power Recharge - 1,000 u/s
Turn Rate - Medium VHF

Helvetic Fighter Gun: SG-710 Tachyon Cannon (Class 9) *Use on this ship Only*
Hdmg - 525
Sdmg - 450
Refire - 4.0
Range - 650m
Speed - 700 m/s
Energy - 297 u
Hdps - 2,100
Sdps - 1,800
Eused/s - 1188 u/s
Used on Fighter - 6.3 seconds of sustained firing w/All four guns, 25 shots

Description:
- The Kite is the fruits of years of research and development by the best minds of New Helvetica. Built upon design elements of the latest Gallic fighters, the Kite is an attempt to glean the most function out of the least amount of materials as possible. It is a multi-role fighter that can undertake virtually any mission it is assigned, albeit far less effectively than mission-specific spacecraft. As such, its weapons systems, defensive capabilities and maneuverability suffer, but coordination with other units can surmount these deficiencies to make for a very deadly force.

- While the Helvetians would make something original, they lack the infrastructure and technical expertise, therefore the final design would most likely look like a heavily-modified Gallic Navy fighter, with different wings and whatnot. The color scheme will vary in that the black areas would turn lighter while the white takes on more of a brighter, metallic hue. The ship will be twin engined, with mounting points for four guns, a cruise disruptor, mines, countermeasures, a thruster, and a single bomber torpedo (more on that, see below). A vertical stabilizer is mandatory, as it would be the area in which a standard red-striped cross band insignia would be drawn. That, along with roundels on the wings, would be the final indicator that these are not Gallic fighters.

And now for the big debate

- This fighter, being multi-role, is the logical solution for a small pseudo-house trying to cover its butt. New Helvetica wouldnt have the capacity to build an entire line of fighters and bombers, let alone cruisers and battleships, so I believe that they would follow in the footsteps of modern military aviation, and even the aviation in Starlancer (the Jackhammer, for instance, is practically a torpedo). Now, the current Discovery setup has a few heavy weapons on its fighters, but as we all know, the fighter torpedoes are a joke when it comes to taking on anything larger than another fighter. Therein steps the problem: what would a multi-role fighter need to have some capability against something larger than a gunship without an intermediate weapon between fighter and bomber torpedoes available?

As far as Im concerned, theres only one solution, and it ties in with the nature of a multi-role fighter: Give it a SNAC.

Now I have a lot of explaining to do, as Im aware of the rather nasty history of earlier versions of Discovery in which SNAC-comparable weapons were on fighter platforms. Such a weapon capable of sniping fighters out of the sky on a maneuverable platform would be Hell, not that people have had much trouble doing the same on bombers. The concept of the bomber was to sacrifice maneuverability and anti-fighter weapons for a large core capable of firing that big gun; supposedly this balanced out the fighter SNAC equation, although evidently it hasnt. So I asked myself, what could I possibly do to nerf a fighter with a SNAC? To maintain some semblance of the balance Discovery has established? The answer lies in the nature of multi-role fighters: the ability to do everything, but nothing well.

Some people have told me that Super Heavy Fighters are multirole, but thats outrageous; their maneuverability is horrendous, and their armor does little if anything to protect them. In fact, seeing them in action, Id equate them to bombers with nerfed weapons. If they cannot maneuver to fight, they cant fight, since in this game there are no other variables such as speed and altitude, just maneuverability. A SNAC multi-role fighter needs to have maneuverability. But then what? You have a fast-moving SNAC machine?

No, theres more to it than that, a lot more. Its worth noting that the SNAC requires a large core, no? 29,740 u for a shot to be exact. I made the core of this fighter 30,000 u flat, meaning one shot and its drained, very similar to SHFs, but look at the recharge rate of 1,000 u/s, less than that of most VHFs. This means that for every SNAC shot, the pilot has to wait thirty seconds in order to fire it again, all the while possibly having to fire his main guns and thus delaying the shot further. Unless the most exacting circumstances were met, no 1v1 with this fighter could ever end in the feared SNAC in the face instant death shot as it would be unable to drop the targets shields in time before it had a full charge to fire the SNAC at all. Youd require another ship keeping its shields down.

To do so would require teamwork.

On top of that, by the same token, the delay in firing would prevent the fighter from SNAC-spamming capital ships; consider the math. A single shot every thirty seconds on the mark would cause 132,000 hull and 66,000 shield damage. Thats every thirty seconds. Compare that to a bomber, in my example a Bergelmir: in 30 seconds the bomber can, theoretically speaking by firing shots perfectly one after the other when available, cause 448,800 hull damage and 224,400 shield damage. Clearly this uber fighter is no equal to a bomber, since itd take more than one ship to deal the same damage.

To do so would require teamwork. Noticing a trend? To use these ships anywhere near the scary level hypothesized by doomsayers would require multiple ships with extremely good fighting coordination, a skill that goes beyond the ability to use the single SNAC-death shot.

Now in my effort to further balance things out, I nerfed a lot on this fighter, as looking at the numbers may indicate. The fighter has the maneuverability of a mid-line VHF, therefore it can dogfight, but it has the armor of a HF and is limited to a Class 9 Shield, meaning the Mini-Razor would be much more effective in killing it. Compare that to a slow-firing SNAC every thirty seconds at it even puts this uber fighter at a disadvantage (without teamwork).

[Please note that the extra CD slot is a CD-only slot for policing purposes; no fighter torpedoes.]

Even on top of that, in the effort to nail down the power core, I even nailed down another element that nerfs the ship: Even with just four high-powered guns the ship only has enough power for some 6.3 seconds worth of sustained fire. Now, as you can see, in order to balance this a bit more I decided that the Helvetic gun would have more capability in the shield-damage department so that it wouldnt be necessary to sacrifice any of the meager four guns for Debilitators. But at the same time, the large power core for the SNAC would make the guns fire for something like twice as long as other fighters, so I shoved the energy use per-gun way up to compensate and get that 6.3 seconds worth.

The icing on the cake? Make this ship closed-faction specific (like the SCRA/Phantoms/etc) and mount only the given gun. Make it a rule. Then there will be no abuse of this ship's power core to make it an uber-fighter. Other servers would be advised to make the same restrictions, and as for offline Open-SP play, would that really matter?

The end result, in my opinion, is the best multi-role fighter possible in the Discovery Freelancer setting. It has acceptable dogfighting maneuverability, but sacrifices protection, leaving it vulnerable to Razors and the like. It has a SNAC, but the power demands sap it dry and even affect the basic gun setup: the guns are advanced enough to cause plenty of both shield and hull damage, but theres only four, and cannot be fired for long. The dreaded SNAC is essentially worthless unless theres other fighters backing you up, and even when there are, you suffer the penalty that is the birthmark of a multi-role fighter. While its possible to restrict the fighter to, perhaps, Nova Torpedoes only, bear in mind that torpedoes and missiles in this game, and most especially on the server, are fickle at best, and I believe are not suitable for most bomber missions regardless.

Hopefully this has addressed the issues concerned with the SNAC being on a fighter. If theres anything I missed that would jeopardize the purpose and balance of this ship, feel free to elaborate, but bear in mind I refuse to remove the SNAC on this fighter by principle only; Im not afraid to twist traditional things around here if they can still be reasonably worked with.