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Author Topic: The Patented Captain Survival System  (Read 8653 times)
Captain Smith
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The Patented Captain Survival System
« on: March 27, 2003, 02:49:40 pm »

An off the wall thought....it's quoted that ships can only be piloted by native captains...so how do they survive until the destruction of the ship?  Granted most ships will have multiple members of the native species...

But what about an Ur-Quan ship, if the single resident white-rod waver (look at the small pic when you launch fighters, he waves a white rod) were to die, what then?

Really wierd how inconsistent that is in the storyline...or have they made a way to make the captain indestructible until the destruction of his ship?

Heh
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Re: The Patented Captain Survival System
« Reply #1 on: March 27, 2003, 08:15:04 pm »

But why does the strength of the captain decrease when he launches fighters? Does he rip off a pair of his legs to wrap around the fighters pilots' throats, and when they return the rejoin? That's the best story I can think of to make that make sense, and it's pretty ridiculous.
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Novus
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Re: The Patented Captain Survival System
« Reply #2 on: March 27, 2003, 09:09:55 pm »

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It is said that the Ur Quan captain is a single pilot on a single ship. The "crewmembers" in the picture of an Ur Quan vessel is a relative speaking... See it more as an overall strength of the captain here, and not as crew, like all other ships have.
The point is that every Dreadnought carries a single Ur-Quan. However, this does not rule out a crew of non-Ur-Quan. Where do I remember seeing a picture of an Ur-Quan trying to stuff a Spathi into a fighter?
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Re: The Patented Captain Survival System
« Reply #3 on: March 27, 2003, 09:33:53 pm »

I think it was in the SC1 manual (which I have here somewhere). It shows an Ur-Quan with a rod and a talking pet yelling at a fleeing Spathi.
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Re: The Patented Captain Survival System
« Reply #4 on: March 27, 2003, 09:55:59 pm »

Don't forget that the fighter crafts "die" if they don't get back to the mothership dreadnaught in time.. so unless the crewmember wants to die out in cold space, he'd better do his job and get back to the mothership without fooling around.

besides, don't forget it's not a per-ship dominance. The Ur-Quan could decimate your home planet and easily annihilate your entire species if you don't follow orders.



--edit: did I answer the right question? hehe now I'm not even sure what it was.. Tongue
« Last Edit: March 27, 2003, 09:57:32 pm by Censored » Logged

"You boldly enter our space! Approach this Dreadnought as though it were a recreation base and then play the dumb hominid?
Who do you take us for, Captain... Spathi!?"
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Re: The Patented Captain Survival System
« Reply #5 on: March 27, 2003, 11:20:39 pm »

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oh, and to answer the question directly:

The captain itself might be shielded a lot. If you would build a command centre, would you build it to be the first thing to go when a ship comes under fire ?
Now, if I were building a starship, I'd place the command centre/bridge/whatever right in the middle of the ship, far from any incoming bad stuff, with doors locked from the inside, self-contained life support and so on. The only contact needed with the outside world is sensor data in and control data out. Engines and weapons would have to be in contact with the outside, so they're going to be taking some incoming hits, although most nastiness should hit armour plating of some kind.

Now, the ship is fine as long as one person is alive and well and keeping the ship until control (the captain). So why have any more people on board? The answer is simple: the ship is going to take damage every time it gets hit. Specifically, something is going to break and has to be fixed ASAP. So, everyone except the captain is off doing damage control in hazardous areas. No wonder they get killed. The captain is safe and sound as long as someone is around to adjust coolant rods in the reactor room or whatever, but if something bad happens and nobody's there to fix it... KABOOM. You get the idea.

This theory also explains why only starship captains and not the entire crew need be natives. The rest of the crew are only cannon fodder trying to put things back together when they get shot at.
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Re: The Patented Captain Survival System
« Reply #6 on: March 28, 2003, 12:56:34 am »

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In case you are wondering where I got the whole 1 UrQuan per vessel thing: The Star Control 2manual:

Ur-Quan are extremely territorial and aggressive, having evolved as non-social, hunter-killers. Their territorial instincts are so strong that only one Ur-Quan is present on each Dreadnought.



In the paragraph above the one you mentioned:

Aboard ship, these
creatures cling to webbed ceilings with their back legs,
dangling down over their controls and their slave-crew
like hungry spiders.


Slave Crew.

BTW, Novus' answer sounds good to me.
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Re: The Patented Captain Survival System
« Reply #7 on: March 28, 2003, 01:49:45 am »

The Ur-Quan Kzer-Za use their slave races' members to crew their ships... but what about the Kohr-Ah?  Of course they don't have a hierarchy to drain slaves from.  But do they fit a whole bunch of Kohr-Ah on a ship, unlike the Kzer-Za?  Would that not cause problems when talking about their innate, biological need to kill one another?

I dunno, I usually believe that the Dreadnought is crewed by Kzer-Za only...  perhaps for the simple fact that while they may attack eachother at sight inside a ship, what's stopping them from doing it when talking to one another in space?  Well, I guess it's the Talking Pet...

I dunno, I'm just gonna believe there alot of green and black caterpillars on their ships.  It's easier that way! lol.
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Re: The Patented Captain Survival System
« Reply #8 on: March 28, 2003, 04:17:13 am »

You all are coming across the reason I'm asking this one - I'm sure there's a completely equal chance for the captain to die in any attack than to always be the last living thing on the ship...wasn't thinking about the fighters or anything, but just in general...why is the captain always the last to go on any of the ships?
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Re: The Patented Captain Survival System
« Reply #9 on: March 28, 2003, 07:30:30 am »

Quote
An off the wall thought....it's quoted that ships can only be piloted by native captains...so how do they survive until the destruction of the ship?  Granted most ships will have multiple members of the native species...

But what about an Ur-Quan ship, if the single resident white-rod waver (look at the small pic when you launch fighters, he waves a white rod) were to die, what then?

Really wierd how inconsistent that is in the storyline...or have they made a way to make the captain indestructible until the destruction of his ship?

Heh


You know, you just made a new plot device.
This would be great for the Timewarp project, if its single player storyline ever gets off the ground.

You could come across an Kher-Za Dreadnaugt in space sometime during the game, which the slaves on board have taken control of (either because the Kher-Za died, or because they overthrew him)

Perhaps you could perusuade them to join your team.

Hmm, an Umgah or Spathi flying an Ur-Quan dreadnaught.

hehehe
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Re: The Patented Captain Survival System
« Reply #10 on: March 28, 2003, 08:17:01 am »

J: I think we went over that idea already and unanimously decided that the hierarchy race best suited to leading a mutiny and taking over a dreadnought was the Yehat. I agree that a renegade dreadnought would be cool, though.

Anyway, the game works the way it does because it is much more simple to have the ship go down when all its crew are dead. Wouldn't it suck if after you lost three crew, your Chmmr Avatar went kaput because the captain died? I always thought of crew loss as an indicator of how much structural damage a ship has sustained, except crew is a more flexible term because it allows for things like the Syreen song and Orz marines.
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Re: The Patented Captain Survival System
« Reply #11 on: March 28, 2003, 06:38:20 pm »

At least as far as dreadnoughts are concerned, the ship blows up if the captain dies, simply because they don't want ANYONE to get ahold of a Dreadnought unless that person is an Ur-Quan Kzer-Za
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Re: The Patented Captain Survival System
« Reply #12 on: March 28, 2003, 11:43:15 pm »

True; for example, the Dreadnaught which crashed on Alpha Pavonis was supposed to be automatically destroyed..

of course, that was so aliens wouldn't study Ur-Quan technology, but you could say that's also in case the captain dies Tongue

err I messed that up a bit
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Re: The Patented Captain Survival System
« Reply #13 on: April 16, 2003, 11:35:28 am »

As was said by Shiver, I believe crew is just meant as an indicator of 'battle damage'.

But if you really want to go with the 'damage control' theory, it seems to be the best 'plug' for the lapse of realism.
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Re: The Patented Captain Survival System
« Reply #14 on: April 16, 2003, 08:34:17 pm »

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The Ur-Quan Kzer-Za use their slave races' members to crew their ships... but what about the Kohr-Ah?  Of course they don't have a hierarchy to drain slaves from.  But do they fit a whole bunch of Kohr-Ah on a ship, unlike the Kzer-Za?  Would that not cause problems when talking about their innate, biological need to kill one another?

I dunno, I usually believe that the Dreadnought is crewed by Kzer-Za only...  perhaps for the simple fact that while they may attack eachother at sight inside a ship, what's stopping them from doing it when talking to one another in space?  Well, I guess it's the Talking Pet...

I dunno, I'm just gonna believe there alot of green and black caterpillars on their ships.  It's easier that way! lol.


I'm certain that thet Kohr-Ah can have multiple persons of their same species together without any problems. I mean come on... the Dynarri engineered them to be soldiers, what good is an army that cannot work together? Would you have a single black Ur-Quan trying to take a city?
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