Player Features and Ideas Discussion

It would be cool, but I don't think it would have much use. When you're hauling in it you'd want to avoid combat and when you're doing combat in it you'd want to avoid hauling, so really in both situations you'd be far better off using other ships.

....and this is why absolutely nobody will fly a Tengu.

Zing! edit: check that timestamp

Galleons you mean? Not capital ships really, but closest thing at the time in that part of the world and century I suppose. There may actually have been larger ships then to. I haven't spent a huge amount of time studying the various ships at sea over the millenia. There have been a lot though, and they go back to 5000 bc with reference to those that could circumnavigate the world and did.

edit:

Just noticed you mentioned Spanish Galleons. I think you might be confusing a Galleon with a Galleon but I could be wrong. The fact that they were Galleons only dictates the general configuration of the ship, rather than role and or overall size.

Galleons could be fit for War with Forecastles, Sterncastles, Siege weapons, and shield walls as well as cannons in later times, but they were also serviceable as trade ships with none of these, or just Ocean going vessels for exploration, or even a combination of those. They could also be refit for different purposes without too much trouble.

I could be wrong though, but with reference to classical ships of the Renaissance, I think that was the largest common vessel of any fleet.

edit: I had no idea they had ships called East Indiamen. Good find that, and moderately interesting. Learned something new.

Tengus tend to be a smaller vessel. The ship referenced here would be more like a size up from a Battleship. Not a Dread, but comparative Tonnage between a common Battleship of the times, (The Galleon), and the later East Indiamen is very close and overlaps somewhat. Apparently the East Indiamen started out in the 700 Ton range and even reached so much as 1500 Tons.

Actually, most Galleons are said to be under 500 Tons, with the Manilla Galleons exceeding even the size of the East Indiamen and reaching as much as 2000 Tons. Obviously it's a very broad Spectrum, so by technicality at least the East Indiamen are somewhat in the region of the largest of the Galleons, but not quite as heavy due to various reason I am sure.

Quite possibly they were longer and had a greater capacity overall, when considering the Manilla Galleons likely accounted for Cannons and the like in their total mass. Something that was not as important or common on the East Indiamen, in addition to their lack of Fore and Sterncastles later on.

Very nice looking ships though.

Effectively, I suppose we would be looking at a Tech 3 battleship here, or one variation of them anyway.

Here's a link, for the sake of it: http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~vaucher/Genealogy/Documents/Asia/asiaShips.html

...you might want to copy and paste that.

it also has the ability to carry a dozen battleships or so

If it could run gate camps it could be an alternative to jf. I assume this is to be a low/null ship, not much point in armed freighters in high.

EW would be better than guns, that is what I use for low sec transports. In low sec transport you either break away or you run out of tank. The original east indiaman could not go to warp so it had to be able to fight.

Balanced right it could be a cool low sec ship for small corps.

The East Indiaman was the largest ship being manufactured by the end of the 18th century. To rig it for guns the hull was widened at the waterline, which then made it slow, and not very agile. Add to it the square-rigging you did get more speed in long runs, but this further reduced the agility making it relatively ineffective in engaging brigs, sloops or frigates one-on-one.

What significant successes this ship had in naval combat was when fleet actions occured. The combined gunnery of a fleet of East Indiamen was sufficient to stave off squadron-sized attacks by smaller naval vessels. (The ship was actually banned from landing at ports in England.) It was eventually targeted by attempts at steam power to overcome this speed problem, which happened in the mid-late nineteenth century

Though it carried significantly more cargo than other vessels at its time, and it made transoceanic runs in tradewinds much faster, and more safely due to its solid build, it was never considered any more than a cargo vessel that could defend itself given the appropriate circumstances.

well East indiamen which is a generic term for any ship working for the East India company, developed into a class of ship of which the largest only converted to 4th rate ships of the line (and only of they had more than 60 guns and 2 decks)

this pretty much puts the indiaman at convoy escort level, IE: a destroyer, not a capital
they were reduced from ship of the line status in the 1750's when it was decided by the Admiralty that fewer than 60 guns couldn't put out the firepower needed for line operations.

so even at their best the biggest merchant ships had teeth, but were still the weakest ships of the lot

I can fit a Mastadon heavily enough to withstand most "normal" ganking Alpha strikes, and to avoid being pointed during its godawful reaching warp interval. Can't say that about the Mammoth, though. I don't see any point in standing around shooting when you're going to run anyway, so fitting warp core stabalizers works well enough (if you fit enough.) The range reduction doesn't matter if you're not going to shoot. All you need is enough tank to withstand an initial whomp.

Of course, there's always limits. They're way too slow to avoid being locked by a destroyer or two...ten... It takes a good 12 seconds for the warp to engage for the upper end industrials.