Re: Shipboard slang - Was: Mammoth -> Horseshoe Crab sailor slang/crew requirements

Whoa! That is awesome. I checked out your whole site, and loved it. you are
the closest to anyone I have heard of to my type of campaign. Admittedly, I
don't have anywhere near the variety of personal gear and high magic holo
chambers and such, but I seem to have done a little better in weaponry and
creature comforts aboard ship. 
	I am interested in the S.A.G.E item/personality, I have something
similar, but more primitive, with the ship AI and an autopilot linked to
planetary locator. Not all of my military ships even get one of those, just
the command ships, carriers, and star knight (paladins) scout-ships. 
	Your spear of defense looks very similar to what my warships have
deck-mounted as crew served weapons (think of them as twin .50 cal
machinegun mounts), but again, mine are a little more primitive than yours
without as much variety of spell effects. I do have one up on you in regards
to those items however I've linked mine to small magic batteries (about the
size of two ammo cans equal to 64 additional spell levels) for almost
continuous recharge. 
	We tried the comm. badge ala star trek, but decided that it wasn't
feasible to issue items that had to be custom made to each of the crew
members, who might leave or die, leaving the ship with an expensive magic
trinket nobody could use. 
	I was blown away by how similar our ship to ship comms and sensor
suites are, but my guys and I never thought to add in a database like the
one you've designed (the unimatrix), although it would make sense the way
the wizards in my sphere work collectively to share ideas and research.
	You and I evidently also came to the same conclusions with the short
wand idea, however I have added a pistol grip to ours so that nonmages can
fire them at double the charge cost (one for the spell and one for the grip
to allow nonmage to shoot). We just call them blasters and wear them in hip
holsters.
	I was a bit surprised that you didn't have hot and cold running
water in your ships and that in your descriptions you mentioned carrying
water in barrels. I have supplied all my vessels with high pressure fresh
water for drinking, fire fighting, and showers with items like decanters of
endless water run through piping and into tanks with stones of purification
(priest spell purify water)and, depending on whether it is a hot water
supply or cold, hot plates (heat metal spell). Used water can be held and
purified again, or jettisoned into space.
	It is interesting that your gravity drive is nearly the same as
mine, but rather than creating a well into which the ship falls, mine
creates multiple reverse gravity fields angled so that they squirt the ship
or missile out ahead of them (similar to how a railgun launches its
projectile only with gravity instead of magnetic force). 
	I noticed the ironclads in your shipyard, if you were to add fins,
flukes and a more streamlined aft hull, you might have something that
resembled our Orca class heavy cruisers and improve the MC by one or two
classes. Also if you replaced the bombards with heavy accelerators fitted
with autoloaders (set up like those tennis ball pitching machines) you could
eliminate the air fouling and increase your rate of fire. Adding turrets to
the fore and aft mounts will increase your salvo density per side by
allowing those two mounts to fire on the broadside as well. 
	I could go on and on with the things I admire about what you've got.
You've definitely given me some great ideas to try out and think about. It
is late and I have just gotten off of a 36 hour duty, so I must stop now. I
hope I have given you some small but helpful ideas for your own sphere.
Thank you for your feedback and help. Hope to write again soon.

	
	
V/R FC2 Riley, James R. 
cel: 228-249-2967
e-mail: jamesriley@???.net


Use my ship for comparison if you are looking for a
fleshed out ship to compare your own shipsI hope it helped a little. 

http://www.geocities.com/asibal_2000/spelljammer/hammership.html

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