May I have your attention, please, before continuing. This SRP was originally intended to be submitted much earlier but due to personal issues of the modeller the ready model was not sent until very recently, hence the gap between the dates of the RP done for the SRP and the date of the submission. Thank you for your understanding.
We tried to get as many official and unofficial factions from Kusari that would make sense in the construction of the ship as possible and hope that the construction RP makes sense. If there are any inquiries/remarks, please feel free to reach us via my (Gardarik#8217) or Couden's (『 Couden 』#3472) or via this forum account. Thank you.
1. Forum name of the owner: @Emperor Tekagi@Shimamori @Couden (we request the same SRP ship for both of us, 1 bil taken from each, inRP story are intertwined)
2. Exact name of the ship:
"Mizu" Kusari Nobility Cruiser
Proposed infocard:
[Kusari political landscape is characterised by many noble clans competing for power and attention of the imperial throne. Arguably, there is no better way to attract the public gaze than fielding its own flagship as a manifestation of the clan's wealth, connections, and ingenuity.
"Mizu"-class cruiser is one of such attempts. Two sister ships of the class were built by Samura and Kishiro under the supervision of the imperial engineers from Kure for the Shimamori clan. "Mizu" was enhanced with a more sophisticated communication array and additional radiators for increased energy output while still retaining the combat capabilities of the infamous "Hatchet" it is based on.]
3. Exact name, identification and affiliation of the character:
[KNF]IKN-Ikazuchi Zuiryu (Shimamori's, to become SC-Zuiryu) - KSP ID/IFF; SC-Zuikaku (Couden's, KSP ID/IFF)
4. Which official faction(s) were involved in construction of this ship?
Samura
KNF
+ unofficial Kishiro
5. Provide links to the forum roleplay centered around construction of this ship.
Marquess Shimamori bio. Describes how the original unmodified "Takeda" was acquired by the clan.
Fudai Daimyo Kinoshita Akechi's bio. Describes how the Kinoshita came into the possession of a damaged "Takeda" and how the clan became a vassal to the Shimamoris.
Original request to construct "Hitachi" (a failed Satsuma project), followed by request to cannibalise the failed Satsuma to modernise the existing two Takedas of the clan into Mizu.
Request to Samura & Kishiro to construct first Hitachi (failed) and later on Mizu in cooperation with imperial engineers of Kure granted to the clan under the permission from the thread above.
6. Provide other links to the forum roleplay relevant to the subject of this request.
Shimamori (and by extension Kinoshita) are involved in the public & political (mostly, Shimamori) life of the Empire of Kusari. The following RP threads were playing these facets and can be viewed as complementary to the characters (in chronological order from old to new).
Attempt at organising an academic conference (proved out to be not popular). Not directly by the character but rather by the University functioning with the support and under the auspices of the clan. More academic RP.
AHN and Honshu Fun TV as media RP of the clan & another source of revenue (mass media business)
Attempt at Sigma-21 story arc developed by the clan in cooperation with the KuGov given the RP circumstances. Unfortunately, didn't fly. Maybe Meph will reply someday, who knows
7. Provide a cliffnote/summary for the links provided above.
SC-Zuiryu, the flagship of the Shimamori Clan is an old Takeda awarded to the clan founder for a stand-off with the Blood Dragons and due to cronyism of being a distant relative of the ruling dynasty. Zuikaku was awarded to the Kinoshita clan after it got badly damaged during the war with Bretonia and after Kinoshita betrayed his spouse by exposing her relatives leaking intelligence to Bretonia for money. Due to being badly damaged and requiring substantial time and financial resources for repairs, the ship was deemed acceptable by the KNF to be given over to a minor clan. Eventually, financial postwar (Gallic war) hardships brought the small Kinoshita clan under the stewardship of clan Shimamori together with "Zuikaku". Two capital vessels of the size are the only capital vessels in Clan Shimamori's possession. Both being old and requiring upgrades, a request was made to the government to upgrade the ships to a new experimental Mizu ("Auspicious" - Jap., reads as "Zui" present in both ships' name if paired with a different kanji). Another purpose of the upgrade was to reflect the growing importance of the clan after the appointment of Shimamori as the Lord Speaker of the Imperial Diet of Kusari.
Originally, Shimamori wanted to construct only a large flagship of Hitachi (inrp, de facto Satsuma). However, the project failed and instead the engineers suggested the hull of half-done Hitachi to be cannibalised for modernisation of the existing vessels - Zuiryu and Zuikaku. The government and the KNF command agreed to give permission to such a modification on condition that the blueprints would be available to the KNF in case of new class' success in the field for the possibility of further production. Samura and Kishiro were invited to participate in the construction orchestrated by the imperial engineers from Kure shipyard who had been appointed by the imperial government. To balance the rivalry between the corporations, Zuiryu was to be modernised on Yukawa of Kishiro, and Zuikaku - on Yokohama of Samura. Fairly equal distribution of responsibilities between the corporations allowed them both to secure their reputation of being able to complete the project from A to Z on their own.
The main features of the sister ships of Mizu class are:
"horns" akin to the ones found on Tokugawa. The horns contain more powerful antennae and communication relay to empower the communication possibility of the ships on exploration missions or patrol of distant systems (Sigma-63 story).
"fins" to the sides of the main reactor and engines. The fins serve simultaneously as radiators to dissipate extra heat and thus providing better energy management, as well as solar panels for additional energy generation in critical situations and to cover the additional energy consumption of the new communication relay. In
In game, the features above are suggested to be reflected in two ways:
allowing Mizu to mount battleship scanners as a part of SRP (reflect better communication arrays)
have slightly changed stats to reflect ships' increased bulkiness and energy output (deferred to the balance devs for consideration. E.G. +5% powercore, +5% power generation, +5% hull capacity, -5% turnrate)
8. How long has this character been building its backstory?
Shimamori - since July 2020
Kinoshita - ingame since around summer 2021, first mentions on the forum - March 2022 (earlier forumlancing was not available due to @Couden serving mandatory military service Summer 2021-Summer 2022
9. Provide links to the ship model and other necessary files.
NOTE: In Kuze's words, he had some issues re-painting the new parts. Him returning after a long period of personal issues, it was no decent or respectful to ask him of more. Therefore, I kindly ask you to be lenient on this part and help us with it if that is possible.
10. If you feel that you would like to provide us with character references, specify whom.
@Kuze for awesome model and kindly agreeing to do it for us
@Werdackel for doing KuGov part (sorry for bumping you so much)
@Promotheus for doing Kishiro part (sorry for the bumps yet again)