Carrier craft ideas:

Carrier approaches:
How exactly do you pack in all those Locust and Doombats anyway?
Some illustrations on the various ways fighters _can_ land on a Carrier.


Side view
          6\
     1-->   \top deck ^2^
Rear  ________________^2^_____   Forward
       |              ^2^   |
       |              ^2^   |
 ----4->-4->##---##^5^##------<-3 gravity plane  <-3
       |   docking pilons   |
      _|____________________|_

           bottom deck

          |3
Top view  v

         /\
        /  \
       =|  |=  <docking pilons
  2->  =|  |=  <-5
       =|  |=
        \__/^
       ^  ^ |4
     6/   |1

Front View
          /6
     (1) /
   _______  <-2
   | (3) |       <-2
  ----o----(4) <5     <-2
   \_____/

Approaches:
1)  Approach from rear or forward, same altitude as top deck.  Straight
approach.  Easy landing takeoff maneuver, requires entire deck be devoted
to Carrier purpose.  Can land almost any ship that can land on land.

2) Approach from gravity plane and climb to either top or bottom deck.
Allows more craft to simultaneously launch or land.  Difficult maneuver
with consequences for a missed piloting roll, especially if attempted
at speed.  Doesn't require entire deck be devoted to landing, can land
several fighters at one time.

3) Approach from dead ahead or dead astern.  Dock is open at the gravity
plane allowing even ships which can't land normally to dock.  Requires
very significant structural devotion to Carrier concept.  Fighters are
protected by Carrier hull.  Requires fighters to stow masts, wings etc...
before landing.  Ships designed like Lanceships would fit well here.
  3a)  The same, but the ship is a hollow box with the opening at the
  side with approaches from the side.

4) Docking pilon approach, from rear.  This turns the Carrier into a
gravity plane dock, suitable for almost any type of small craft.  Both
ships can be moving, even maneuvering slowly while docking.
  4a)  Instead of docking pilons, there is a gravity plane landing deck.
  This requires a more complicated landing maneuver, but not as bad as 2).

5) Docking pilon approach, from side along gravity plane.  Slower than
4, but more precise because the gravity plane effect slows the approach
of the two ships.

6)  Eccentric approach.  This approach is well suited to small forecastle
or aft castle landing decks, avoiding the spanker, wings, masts and other
rigging.  It is the most suited to a retrofitted Carrier craft.

Some of the approaches have problems.  It may be difficult to secure a craft
quickly, or turn the Carrier while launch or landing operations are going on.
Some require a lot of communication between the two craft.  Some have major
consequences to botching an approach as there is no safe way to abort a
landing.  Approaches 3 and 6 can be particularly disasterous.  These
difficulties become more important if you are considering launching dozens
or fighters instead of one or two.  It may make sense to have a different
launch deck from the landing deck as they have different requirements.
For example, launching swarms of Locust type craft out the sides (3a) but
having them land in approach 1 (and taken by elevator to their launch cradle)
or approach 4.

Fighter classes:
Light Fighter:
<2 ton, power source: Rudder of Propulsion, Flywheel, 'fighter helm',
Flitter helm
Launched in large numbers, >10 from Carrier ship, short range
Heavy Fighter:
18-24 ton, power source, Minor Helm or Create Minor Helm spell, Furnace
Helm, compare with Mindspider.  No more than 2 per Carrier unless Carrier
exceeds 100 tons.  Capable of sustained combat, multiple purposes.  Like
any other small craft except it can land in a small area without taking
up too much area.

Design strategies for heavy fighters, >10 tons

Boarding
A ship designed for boarding will have provisions to protect the crew
while closing.  For example, the rigging can be controlled from inside
the hull, through pulleys, and what weapons it has may be turretted.
It will naturally have a ram, but shearing devices, Jettisons, Catapults
loaded with shot and similar anti-crew weapons should be expected.

Such a ship would be designed to be safe to operate even when its gravity
plane is suddenly changed by approaching a more massive ship.  Internal
ladders, doors and hatches should be operable in many gravitational
orientations.

To assist boarding, a ship may have ballistae capable of firing grappling
lines from protected locations.

Assault Craft:  For attacking a ground target, or an asteroid, it makes
sense to land troops away from the target and have them march there on
their own.  Such a ship much be able to land in wide variety of terrains
quickly, unload troops and retrieve them quickly.  Almost all other
considerations are secondary.  However, while approaching their target
and when on the ground Assault craft are quite vulnerable to other ships.
Various methods can be used to protect Assault craft.
The simplest is to provide them with heavy weapons that can fire as the
ship is making an approach and when it is on the ground to discourage
attacking ships.  It is a good idea to have atmospheric fighters escort
your assault craft in.

Assault craft can also take off after their troops disembark to provide
close air support.

Atmospheric fighters:  The prime requirement for this sort of craft is that
it can fight inside the gravity well of a planet, asteroid or space port.
That means no reverse-gravity decks.  The ability to work in the fade
off area between the gravity well and wildspace is also a plus.  In
wildspace a ship can be rolled in order to interpose the hull with incoming
fire or to enable one's own weapons to fire.  An atmospheric fighter won't
rely on that maneuver!

Cargo shuttles:
Unlike the assault craft, cargo shuttles aren't required to be able to
land everywhere.  However, the ability to quickly load cargo and offload
it with a small crew is essential.  Also, unlike a more combat oriented
craft, it doesn't have the requirement of operating in rapidly changing
unpredictable gravitational fields.  Since a cargo shuttle may also
be used for transfering crew, diplomats and merchants they may be designed
with comfort in mind.

Air Shuttle:  Some very large ships can't land, can't even safely enter
the gravity well of a planet.  If providing enough air plants for the
Capital ship is impractical it will be necessary to shuttle good air to it.
An air shuttle has an extremely large air envelope because of its length
and extended pontoons.  While the ship itself displaces less than 10 spatial
tons, the envelope is based on the length and beam width of the ship, which
is sufficient to give it an envelope equivalent to a 100 ton ship, or larger.

Wildspace fighter:  Unlike an atmospheric fighter, a wildspace fighter
operates primarily in space.  It may not be able to land except on a
gravity plane dock or specially designed landing cradles.  It can have
weapons on the reverse-gravity decks and can make use of rolling the
ship to advantage.  This will be reflected in the rigging design.  It
is distinct from a fighter designed for boarding in that it is designed
to fight from a distance, outside of their enemies' gravity planes.

Battle section:  Like the Star Ship Enterprise which separates its saucer
section, a heavy fighter could simply be the combat component of a large
ship.  Some of the helm designs that permit really large ships have a
really low combat SR.  However a heavy battle bridge, (perhaps powered
by a Create Major Helm, 7th level spell, on a scroll?) could be really
useful.  This is appropriate for merchant vessels, colony transports
and the like.  It has advantages over having a separate ship escorting
the merchant vessel in that coordinating an escort ship at Spelljamming
speeds is difficult.  At the very least, the Battle Section could delay
her attackers until the transport escaped to spelljamming speeds itself.



What makes the difference between a carrier craft and a normal craft is
that a carrier combat craft has much less need of cargo space.  That
means they can have thicker hulls and internal bracing in order to
have a better Armor Class.  They also don't have to make the same design
compromises other ships have to do because they are designed for a
purpose.  They don't need all of: ability to fight in the atmosphere, the
ability to fight in wildspace, the ability to transport cargo quickly,
the ability to go on three month trips through the phlogiston, and/or
the ability to land in the water or on various terrain.

Michael Sandy