Crew Complements of Gunboats?

[jxie93]

Ah... Gunboats, where do we start?

I have seen just one too many one man gunboats, hell 9 out of 10 gunboats I see are flown by one person.

So my question is, in RP, what is the crew complement of a gunboat? This is totally dependant on the gunboat, obviously. But using common sense, what would you say the typical number of people required to operate gunboat is?

My opinion is that it'd require a minimum of a 2 man crew to fly a gunboat, a pilot and a weapons control. However, to maximise combat effectiveness more people must be used to maintain what is now classified as a warship. Although I do not own any gunboats, I have arrived at this knowledge simply by the inplausibility of roleplay of one person controlling an entire gunboat.

---

*Signature Walkthrough* | *deviantART Gallery* | *Graphics Repository*

[Jeremy Hunter]

a good number would be four or five.

I have an Atlas Freighter, which is bigger than most Gunboats, so four to five for GBs should eb a rounded number.

COnsidering I have like fifty people for my Atlas, which is the size of two Hathors and a Orca (plus or minus two Gophers-I mean avengers).

Hope this helps.

---

May you ever walk in the Light, Shizune.

[Tenacity]

all depends on the individual ship. Most people like to say they have massive crews on their capships, I always took the point of view that as technology advances, the need for excessive crewmembers decreases. You dont need to have people pouring coal into your boilers anymore, nor does it take 3 men to man a turret, they're computer controlled.

For most gunboats, I typically estimate a crew between 5 and 20 people, with larger gunboats leaning towards the latter. You also have to take into account the ship's mission or task at hand - ships which are designed for long, deep-space patrols will take multiple 'shifts', so you have to double or even triple the crewmen onboard. For a small gunboat running 3 shifts, I'd say 15 people average.

Cruisers I typically estimate at twice the amount necessary for gunboats, but again it depends on the size of the cruiser and it's primary mission. Most cruisers are probably going to be in space and operating for longer periods of time than the short-ranged gunboats, so they all need at least a double shift. Smaller cruisers like the kusari destroyer, resheph, thresher, etc. probably only run with 30-40 crew members average, while larger variants like the rheinland cruiser probably have 50-80.

Battlecruisers are larger than cruisers, but crew sizes probably dont vary much. I'd put all of the 'standard' battlecruisers (liberty, img, and bhg) at roughly 80-90 crew members max. The order light carrier obviously has much more than that, due to the need for a full array of fighter pilots and extra crew members tending to the launch bays and ship outfitting/repair.

Typically I claim battleships have around 150-200 crew members, based on size. Some larger battleships, like the liberty carrier, rheinland battleship, kusari battleship, or dreadnaughts more likely have around 300 crew members. Finally, colony ships like the zoner juggernaut are more likely operating with anywhere from 500-1000 crew members, most of them would be colonists/civilians, however, and not necessary for ship operation.

---

[Malexa]

On my Rheinland Gunboat I roleplay to have about 15 to 25 crew members on my gunboat. That thing is large, has lots of windows and needs a crew and besides them, a Marine boarding team.

The Cruiser has about uuuh, I guess 75 men onboard.

The Battleship consists of about over 1000 men.

Makes the most sense to me.

---

[<span style="color:#FFCC00">The Mandalore's Office</span>]

[Montezuma/Kukulcan]

It depends, certain Gunboats like the tridente only have a cockpit enough for one or perhaps two pilots, while the Bretonian Gunboat has a bridge and multiple stories of windoes, indicating possibly quite a large crew.

Though if you intend to go by RP cargo, i suppose it is limited to how many people and supplies you can fit in most Gunboats' rather small holds.

I like to think of my Imperator as having 10 or so pilots and crew, and 30 or so warriors (marines on other ships) aboard.

---

[Agmen of Eladesor]

Flashback time .... haven't we had this conversation before?

Many, many times?

Granted, some people here are new, but this was discussed in the past, I know. (Just pointing that out is all...)

---

Oh god... The end of days... Agmen agreed with me.

[Death.RunningVerminator]

I have only one gunboat. It's the blood dragon one, and, i think about 10 people would pilot a gunboat.. I have mine set up with crew members that operate the ship, and Hirosho's group of Rojus he hangs out with on board.

[Marburg]

Ah... Gunboats, where do we start?

I have seen just one too many one man gunboats, hell 9 out of 10 gunboats I see are flown by one person.

My question is, how on earth can you tell that a gunboat or larger contains only one occupant simply by sight?

Believe it or not, some people simply don't like to portray multiple crew members from a single craft talking on a comm channel.

I've got a Gaian Gunboat with a few people on staff & I've got a zoner whale with a couple dozen robots doing everything from scrubbing the toilet, managing cargo hold inventory, to even cooking food in the galley.

I will never portray that in space for 2 distinct reasons: 1- it's a bitch & a 1/2 to type the name of the person speaking every single time I reply to someone on the server, & 2- it's my job as the captain of the ship to do all the talking on the comms and leave the crew to keep their yaps off my radio & concentrate strictly on their jobs.

If other people dig doin' that sort of thing, that's fine, cause that's the fad bandwagon alot of people have jumped on in recent months, but it gets aggravating & tiresome after a while to feel obligated to respond to multiple crew members from a single ship in an RP engagement.

---

[Tenacity]

My question is, how on earth can you tell that a gunboat or larger contains only one occupant simply by sight?

Believe it or not, some people simply don't like to portray multiple crew members from a single craft talking on a comm channel.

I've got a Gaian Gunboat with a few people on staff & I've got a zoner whale with a couple dozen robots doing everything from scrubbing the toilet, managing cargo hold inventory, to even cooking food in the galley.

I will never portray that in space for 2 distinct reasons: 1- it's a bitch & a 1/2 to type the name of the person speaking every single time I reply to someone on the server, & 2- it's my job as the captain of the ship to do all the talking on the comms and leave the crew to keep their yaps off my radio & concentrate strictly on their jobs.

If other people dig doin' that sort of thing, that's fine, cause that's the fad bandwagon alot of people have jumped on in recent months, but it gets aggravating & tiresome after a while to feel obligated to respond to multiple crew members from a single ship in an RP engagement.

Likewise, I rarely speak from any crew members other than the captain of my ships. Occasionally I'll speak from different crew, but only if it relates to the situation at hand.

People on the comms shouldnt be hearing my chef down in the mess hall grumbling about how I dont pay him enough, or my engineer banging wrenches on the reactor core in frustration when something breaks down, or my pilot talking about how he picked up some chick on the freeport promenade.

The captain does the speaking, the crew does the other things that you dont often hear over the comm channel.

However, I do somewhat like when people speak from the point of view of their characters, because it lets me know the name of the captain commanding the ship and I can then use that in-RP when talking to them.

---

[Akura]

My Phantom Gunboat has a few mindless drones helping maintain and fly it...

Oddly enough, so does my Iseijin Gunboat...