The Barge

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The Barge
Ship Class	Transport
Built by	Civilian
Technical information
Guns/Turrets	0 / 7
Opt. weapon class	7
Max. weapon class	7
Other equipment	1xCD 1xCM
Hull strength	1,700,000
Max. shield class	7
Cargo space	40,000 units
Nanobots/Batteries	800/800
Max. impulse speed	25 m/s
Max. thrust speed	Thruster not available
Max. cruise speed	350 m/s
Power output	90,000 u
Power recharge	7,500 u/s
Additional information
Ship price	$500,000,000
Package price	$502,082,250

WARNING: DO NOT ATTEMPT PLANETARY LANDING UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.

Designed and manufactured to serve in dark corners of space where the closest friendly base is but a memory; the Barge is a mobile factory, station and refinery designed to operate independently of external support..

Staggering operational and manufacturing costs prevent vessels of this type from being used for any but the most specific and urgent need, as its sheer bulk of size and intense jump hole destabilizing gravity well prevents it from being utilized in any environment but deep space.

Handling

• This ship is too large to use docking bays, it must use mooring points.

Being the currently largest mobile entity in Sirus, it is also the currently least mobile mobile entity in Sirius. It moves at a maximum of 25 meters per second on impulse(that means reverse ,too), a maximum of 260 mps in unassisted cruise, and a maximum of 310 mps in formation cruise. It takes 5 minutes to charge cruise engines.

Angular mobility is so poor that it would likely be of negligible practical use knowing how poor it actually is. It should be noted, however, that the most practical unit of measurement is minutes, not seconds. The only movement measurable in split-seconds when it comes to the Barge is how quickly it will flip when rammed.

It is a common misconception that the Barge cannot dock with any planets. All planets can easily be docked with using the very top of the Mooring Fixture. The potential problem lies with the planetary launch as some planets are stubbornly uncooperative in this regard. The damage the Barge takes during undocking from a planet varies greatly; some planets are perfectly safe to undock from, some deal a modicum of damage, some deal massive damage, and some will destroy even the most robustly armored Barged. There is some inconsistency between SP and MP in this regard, as with most when it comes to the Barge and other ships with special code behind them.

Docking with Trade Lanes is possible and involves much the same techniques as with other moderately large ships such as Super Trains/Transports and capital ships. Approaching the Trade Lane ring head on at full speed and engaging the dock command mere meters away often gives good result as momentum will carry the ship into position and accelerate to Lane speed within moments. Due to the extended time it takes the Barge to charge cruise engines, this technique is usually best employed in one, or both, of two ways: (1) charging forward at max impulse speed (25 mps) in cockpit view and engaging lane dock as close as humanly possible to the dead center of the ring, or (2) charging cruise at the first ring and aiming for the next one along the lane segment.I should admit that the "strafe upwards"and "strafe downwards"buttons really help to align. If you miss a segment of the Lane - do not try to go turn around, reverse or just aim for the next segment.

Docking with Jump Gates is relatively straight forward, arguably easier than the same with Super Trains/Transports or capital ships. Place the Barge so that its antenna is between the gate clamps a little further. Engage the gate dock and hope for the best. If the clamps jostle the Barge to the side,try "/stuck" or abort and realign with a little more space between the barge and gate. You may have noticed that some long ships don't need to fully enter the jump gate before docking, this is just as true with the Barge but more exaggeratedly so.

Docking with stations is easy but it requires some docking preparations.First , you have to know the docking points of various stations.Most stations have a control tower.The docking point of those stations is the center of that control tower.Align the Barge ,so the engines on the back are a little lower than the nose of the barge,touch the middle of the control tower with the antenna on the front and hit dock.Autodocking with this model is unsuccessful for me till now (it goes into a loop).Bases like "Toronto Station" has another trick. As we all know the base docking points are the both ends of the "C-shape" part of the base - the small yellow things. Just aim for that section, nose up ,back down and dock from a further distance.Docking from a direct contact fail. Experiment until successful.

Be patient when flying the Barge and the handling will neither surpass nor fall short of your needs.

Go out into the universe, grasshopper, and barge calmly and intrepidly through all those who stand in your way. Just be sure to ask them kindly to move out of your way first and you'll be fine.

Hardpoints

• 7 Transport Turrets

Purchase Includes

Spoiler:
1 Advanced Deep Scanner ($82,250) 1 Adv. Transport Graviton Shield ($2,000,000)

Availability

Only given via Admin
See the forum topic for more details.

Origin

Modeled by jinx