 September 15, 2012 - 8:09pm | Found this site and the tutorial, while not really a step by step , was still interesting. http://roebeast.blogspot.com/2011/03/deodorant-container-scratchbuilding-and.html I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 15, 2012 - 11:32pm | Hmm, no rear views. Just wondering how the dial was incorporated... |
September 16, 2012 - 4:42am | Yeah its not great as tutorials go, infact its pretty filtered liquid waste poor, but it does inspire. I discovered it after googling Sci fi crawler after reading a vehicle listing on a "lost" SF site from circa 2000 after looking at the material on that site I decided to do a new work up on it and detail a class of vehicles called crawlers- heavy tracked vehicles that are largely banned on heavy population worlds for their propensity to to chew up road. it seamed to me after reading the original article that the author was clearly thinking of tanks when he described the military version and I feel that tanks and armored vehicles should be treated separate. RE: http://starfrontiers.info/archive/Ephemeris/index.html What I'm envisioning is a tracked "Damnation Alley" sort of vehicle that would be popular with explorers or on outpost and low population worlds. The original article suggested that the the UPF military had obsoleted this class of vehicle in favor of hover tanks but that the sathar had used it as recently as SW2. I like the idea of this being a sathar favored ground vehicle as it maches their design philosophy for star ships heavy and slow and designed to take a pounding So here's my initial thoughts; Transport/utility crawler: to hull sections each supported with independent chassis sporting two track s each (ie this crawler has 4 tracks) the two hull section are joined by a flexible joint that allows crew to pass between the two sections. this vehicle can make tight turns despite its length. Its was favored for use on mining outpost and such for its ability to transverse very rough terrain and haul heavy loads. Explorer crawler: shorter one section hull, debating two short tracks per side or one long one per side, the hull on this crawler is actually longer than that of a typical wheeled explorer from the AD equipment list. the vehicle is very robust. "the Mercenary": this model was an APC crawler that saw limited use by mercenary groups and mega corps but has been largely phased out for faster/smaller APCs not sure if it should be a 1 or 2 hull design The Ravager- a sathar design heavy armor and heavy weapons, able to carry a large squad of sathar grunts as well as two radio controlled quick deaths, functions as a APC and supports its troops in battle- nasty customer- bring heavy weapons and dont try to capture it as it does have a suicide/self destruct device. I also had toyed with a "snow cat" tracked vehicle for Pale's icy environment. this could be a civilian duty version of this vehicle- less robost but same chassi. all UPF built crawlers are able to be sealed against hazardous environments and have environmental systems for air and temperature regulation. there is an optional airlock that can be fitted onto most models and some crawlers have been used to explore airless planetoids. The "Mercenary" comes equipped with a small turret (MG, heavy laser, or RR) and has side & forward weapons ports for heavy personell weapons (MG, etc) as well as a charged smoke system that releases smoke to protect against lasers- note smoke does not act the same as the AD smoke grenade and does not require dismounting squads to wear a gas mask against the ill effects associated with the AD smoke grenade. all other crawlers can be fitted with the turret but but not the side and forward weapon's ports. there are other options Like a plow blade and a bull-dozer blade- both of which have been employed to clear paths through minefields. One dralasite entreapeneur fitted a crawler with a cone shapped boring device but when his experimental prototype hit dense rock and the bore stopped spinning the rest of the vehicle was spun injuring its occupants. After it was ascertained that no one was seriously hurt this design became the butt of many a joke but latter a 3 headed boring attachment was designed where each head rotated and the whole assembly of three heads was rotated. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 19, 2012 - 12:04am | Great ideas. I have always wondered why tracked vehicals were not more common out in the less populated worlds. They are much better than hovercraft for exploring land. Maybe they thought aircars were a natural replacement for exploring as well as the wheeled explorer. I could see the sathar coming up with an OGRE style tank. An independent AI or even a sathar brain incased in it. A huge tracked death machine with its own agenda. |
September 19, 2012 - 5:31am | Great ideas. I have always wondered why tracked vehicals were not more common out in the less populated worlds. They are much better than hovercraft for exploring land. Maybe they thought aircars were a natural replacement for exploring as well as the wheeled explorer. I could see the sathar coming up with an OGRE style tank. An independent AI or even a sathar brain incased in it. A huge tracked death machine with its own agenda. I like this, though I lean toward the sathar brain over AI since they do that with the obelisk listening post- though it does stretch the imagination that the worms could leave a disembodied brain in an obelisk listening post for 900 years- I suppose we have to write in that they send a small ship with a crew to do maintenance every 100 years and install a new overseer. I've also contended that the huge tank in Sundown on Starmist was designed and built by the klikks to oppose a dangerous enemy and that since the klikk ship that left the tank and the sathar that visited Volturnus were only 200 years separate that its a good possibility that the sathar were the target of that tank. So it stands to reason the the worms would have had a military asset that was of a scale to oppose that tank. I had been thinking mecha but an ogre sized tank run by a sathar brain would do as well. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 19, 2012 - 2:51pm | I've also contended that the huge tank in Sundown on Starmist was designed and built by the klikks to oppose a dangerous enemy and that since the klikk ship that left the tank and the sathar that visited Volturnus were only 200 years separate that its a good possibility that the sathar were the target of that tank. So it stands to reason the the worms would have had a military asset that was of a scale to oppose that tank. I had been thinking mecha but an ogre sized tank run by a sathar brain would do as well.
It's interesting you don't see more tech or "scars of combat" in this area. Possibly the sathar stole the tank during a raid and wanted it for study. |
September 19, 2012 - 2:54pm | Which brings me to another thought; we should see more floating tech in the Frontier left over from klikk's, sathar and other incursion into UPF space. Tech such as probes, satellites, derelict ships, etc. |
September 19, 2012 - 4:51pm | You dont see the tech because 700 years is a long time and Starmist implies that the tank was barely kept running because the heliopes were maintaining it. If the klikks are still ariund then their floaty tech is and the mega corps and the UPF would dearly love to get their hands on it. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 19, 2012 - 7:14pm | You dont see the tech because 700 years is a long time and Starmist implies that the tank was barely kept running because the heliopes were maintaining it. If the klikks are still ariund then their floaty tech is and the mega corps and the UPF would dearly love to get their hands on it.
Well, I wouldn't say there isn't tech around; did MegaCorps and the UPF run a vacuum over the Frontier sucking up all the drifting tech from SWI and SWII? Tech waiting to be discovered is a treasure trove for players and offers an avenue to allow GM's to add believable tech into the setting, "Oh, well that was a clikk device." :-) I don't think 700 years it that long. I believe this area of the galaxy "sucks" in ships from the Void, that's why we see it teaming with so much life that originated "outside" the Frontier Sector. I don't believe the heliopes maintained the tank and I'm not sure the sathar were aware of it's presence (which seems odd since they were observing them). Too bad it blows up in the end, I guess Garry didn't want GM having to deal with this high-tech vehicle.  |
 September 20, 2012 - 5:24pm | The Sathar destroyed themselves and their ships so large tech would be very very rare but things like a small warship which all the crew succumbed at once to something like poisoned air might be available. Smaller tech like vehicles and weapons would be left after battles but Spacefleet and Landfleet would have cleaned them up. Again a small skirmish away from the main battle in which no one survived (an IED that took out a lone vehicle) could be found. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
September 20, 2012 - 6:13pm | Ya, it's not like modern airplane techs piecing a plan back together. Having access to the plans and parts helps a lot. |
September 21, 2012 - 8:18pm | Actually 700 years may or may not matter. If the environment is right, any tech should be able to survive for 1000's of years. You just have to work it in your game. Plausability of an isolated skirmish in an environment that preserves tech, say an airless moon, I think would be a good game idea. Using Jedion's 'Magic in the Frontier' article and you can leave bits and pieces here and there fo the pc's to discover. Just think, a sathar style OGRE sized tank gets awoken on an airless moon, somehow it takes over the mining ship, maybe small drones. Then it uses the mining ship to make its way to an inhabited Frontier planet, maybe not it's original destination, but it learns fast and is a little crazy anyway. OH NO! A giant sathar tank just dropped into Port Loren and now it is up to the pc's and their pet Hydra they put back into the zoo, to stop it. |
