Bengal Depopulation

[Darquesse]

We all want a Bengal. Who needs an Idris when you have a mammoth of a carrier, and the players to crew it?

Well, our enemies are thinking the same. They'll get their grubby hands on a Bengal eventually. This is pure provocation. So what are we going to do about it? Buy every Bengal in the 'verse and put them in a fridge for later consumption? Destroy the enemy Bengal? Infiltrate the Bengal and take it for ourselves? Recruit the Bengal crew to our cause, or ally with them?

OR LET THIS IMPERIALIST CAPITALIST OPPRESSIVE PATRIARCHY GO UNCHALLENEGED??

That's what I thought.

(sry 4 spam k)

 

[Black Sunder]

https://testsquadron.com/threads/operation-bengal-seize.4829/

 

[Darquesse]

https://testsquadron.com/threads/operation-bengal-seize.4829/

The idea isn't about acquiring a TEST Bengal as much as it is trying to reduce the amount of Bengals our opponents can get their hands on.

 

[mromutt]

The idea isn't about acquiring a TEST Bengal as much as it is trying to reduce the amount of Bengals our opponents can get their hands on.

crash ours into theirs

 

[Wolf Lord Caldersson]

This is going to cause nothing but an argument as always. We are going to get a bengal, we have the people and reaources to man it. We are the biggest org in game and if we cant hold onto it than no other org could either. We will need to wait for full details before we lock in plans though.

The whole idea of throwing a bengal into the sun was am early idea from when test was young and they didnt think they could ever hold onto a bengal.

I only got all this info after discussion with montoya and others. There still seema to be a bitterness in a few of the "old vets" about the bengal.

 

[honcho12]

We are the biggest org in game and if we cant hold onto it than no other org could either. We will need to wait for full details before we lock in plans though.

We could absolutely hold a bengal if we really wanted to, but is it worth it? Who is going to spend their time guarding it, or who will pay the NPCs to guard it? How will the bengal generate income? If it does end up making sense to keep the bengal, then sure, lets keep it. But if would require everyone to spend 2 hours a day guarding, or paying crazy taxes for no real gain, I hope you don't mind when we crash it into the nearest sun.

 

[EpilepticCricket]

How will the bengal generate income?

Easy, we charge a ludicrous amount of creds to people that want to experience one first hand so they can board (no weapons allowed obviously).

Then, we hold an auction. This auction is for one lucky player to have the honor of sitting in the captain's chair and making the declaration to ram the ship into the star. I honestly believe that we would make far more money selling this once in a lifetime opportunity (if you'll pardon the pun) of being on the TEST Bengal as we remove it's pixels from the internet in a blaze of beer fueled glory (potentially accompanied by a live musical version of Yakko's Universe by The Animaniacs) then we would by doing anything else.

 

[WarrenPeace]

As far as I see it, there is no ongoing way to make money with a Bengal outside of extortion or conquest. Fuel, maintenance, and crewing will all jack up the running costs. A Bengal's value lies in its ability to project force far beyond normal starfighter range. If we're not actively at war with someone or demanding money from a group so we don't fly into their system and wreck their shit, a Bengal will do nothing but drain resources that could be put to better use elsewhere. We want to make sure our infrastructure can support a Bengal before we try to incorporate it into our fleet.

Now, that's not to say that I think we shouldn't have a Bengal. But the first one we find, after patching it up, I am firmly in favor of sundiving it. The benefit we get from giving it a good solar bukkake will far outweigh the benefits of keeping it around. After the first one, I'd say keep any other Bengals or other capital ships we find, because sending them to sunbathe will have sharply diminishing returns.

Sidenote: I typed Bengal so many times that the word Bengal is beginning to lose any meaning.

 

[Darquesse]

As far as I see it, there is no ongoing way to make money with a Bengal outside of extortion or conquest. Fuel, maintenance, and crewing will all jack up the running costs. A Bengal's value lies in its ability to project force far beyond normal starfighter range. If we're not actively at war with someone or demanding money from a group so we don't fly into their system and wreck their shit, a Bengal will do nothing but drain resources that could be put to better use elsewhere. We want to make sure our infrastructure can support a Bengal before we try to incorporate it into our fleet.

Now, that's not to say that I think we shouldn't have a Bengal. But the first one we find, after patching it up, I am firmly in favor of sundiving it. The benefit we get from giving it a good solar bukkake will far outweigh the benefits of keeping it around. After the first one, I'd say keep any other Bengals or other capital ships we find, because sending them to sunbathe will have sharply diminishing returns.

Sidenote: I typed Bengal so many times that the word Bengal is beginning to lose any meaning.

We can always dump it somewhere until we're at war again. Cut the costs to zero, or maybe the affordable cost of insurance, and that's it. Or we could use it as our mobile HQ for our roaming fleet, where the fleet will need Bengal's protection, but will make enough money to pay for the Bengal's upkeep.

 

[honcho12]

affordable cost of insurance

I can't imagine there will be bengal insurance. You can get car insurance, truck insurance, jet insurance, yacht insurance, but no one would insure your aircraft carrier, especially if you just sort of 'found it' floating around...

 

[EpilepticCricket]

We can always dump it somewhere until we're at war again. Cut the costs to zero, or maybe the affordable cost of insurance, and that's it. Or we could use it as our mobile HQ for our roaming fleet, where the fleet will need Bengal's protection, but will make enough money to pay for the Bengal's upkeep.

Dumping it in protected space is potentially an option, but honestly just the fact that we have one will make us a target for all the orgs that will inevitably want to take it from us.

Unless we can keep it completely under wraps that we have one (which is unlikely) then we may as well put it to use as soon as we can. If there's a tactical need for one when we find it then we'll obviously keep it. We're not going to jeopardize the health of the org and the safety of our members just to make some people QQ on the forums.

However, if we don't see a need for it, and the costs/risk of keeping it are greater than the fun factor we'd get by doing something else (Crash into the sun, sell it to 5 other orgs just to see the shit hit the fan when they all show up, etc).

 

[Wolf Lord Caldersson]

As far as I see it, there is no ongoing way to make money with a Bengal outside of extortion or conquest. Fuel, maintenance, and crewing will all jack up the running costs. A Bengal's value lies in its ability to project force far beyond normal starfighter range. If we're not actively at war with someone or demanding money from a group so we don't fly into their system and wreck their shit, a Bengal will do nothing but drain resources that could be put to better use elsewhere. We want to make sure our infrastructure can support a Bengal before we try to incorporate it into our fleet.

Now, that's not to say that I think we shouldn't have a Bengal. But the first one we find, after patching it up, I am firmly in favor of sundiving it. The benefit we get from giving it a good solar bukkake will far outweigh the benefits of keeping it around. After the first one, I'd say keep any other Bengals or other capital ships we find, because sending them to sunbathe will have sharply diminishing returns.

Sidenote: I typed Bengal so many times that the word Bengal is beginning to lose any meaning.

We have to look at it as this.

Does test need Capital ships, specifically a carrier class (pegasus or bengal)? Yes or no? Answer: Yes, we have a use and need for a ship.

Now a Pegasus class might do, but we have to look at cost/benefits compounds.

The Pegasus is a ship that is around 70-80% (700-800m) the size of the bengal (1000m). Which stands to reason that it uses less resources, lets say 60% (which imo seems low). It carries 30 fighters opposed to Bengal guesstimated 70-80 fighters. The Pegasus it also is reason to believe will have less armor/offensive weapons than the Bengal. It would take 2.5 Pegasus to match the Bengal and its payload. We will say 2, for easier math. That means 2 Pegasus require 120% the resources of a Bengal and only provides 60 fighters vs Bengals 70-80. We then have to look out for player usage. 2 Pegasus means 2 captains, 2 pilots, 2 radar operators, while the Bengal has 1 captain, 1 pilot , 1 radar operator.

As for the NPC's, we have to remember 2 things. There will be "background NPC's" aboard the Bengal which I imagine are there just for environmental reasons and won't be paid. Players aboard the ship that are offline will act as a NPC until that person logs on and resumes his online game play. I am not sure how either one of these will work, so keep this as a note until CIG decides to reveal their glorious plans.

As far as money making, capital ships are money sinks no matter what. It's how to reduce overhead and maximize their usage. We won't be taking a Pegasus into a bounty hunting project. The only PvE thing I see us doing, is raiding Vanduul or UEE. Large capital ships are to be supported, not to support others. Again we need to min/max resources and as my first paragraph showed 2 Pegasus potentially will cost more than a single Bengal, don't get me wrong though, the Pegasus is a sexy beast and I want Test to have it too.

 

[NKato]

We have to look at it as this.

Does test need Capital ships, specifically a carrier class (pegasus or bengal)? Yes or no? Answer: Yes, we have a use and need for a ship.

Now a Pegasus class might do, but we have to look at cost/benefits compounds.

The Pegasus is a ship that is around 70-80% (700-800m) the size of the bengal (1000m). Which stands to reason that it uses less resources, lets say 60% (which imo seems low). It carries 30 fighters opposed to Bengal guesstimated 70-80 fighters. The Pegasus it also is reason to believe will have less armor/offensive weapons than the Bengal. It would take 2.5 Pegasus to match the Bengal and its payload. We will say 2, for easier math. That means 2 Pegasus require 120% the resources of a Bengal and only provides 60 fighters vs Bengals 70-80. We then have to look out for player usage. 2 Pegasus means 2 captains, 2 pilots, 2 radar operators, while the Bengal has 1 captain, 1 pilot , 1 radar operator.

As for the NPC's, we have to remember 2 things. There will be "background NPC's" aboard the Bengal which I imagine are there just for environmental reasons and won't be paid. Players aboard the ship that are offline will act as a NPC until that person logs on and resumes his online game play. I am not sure how either one of these will work, so keep this as a note until CIG decides to reveal their glorious plans.

As far as money making, capital ships are money sinks no matter what. It's how to reduce overhead and maximize their usage. We won't be taking a Pegasus into a bounty hunting project. The only PvE thing I see us doing, is raiding Vanduul or UEE. Large capital ships are to be supported, not to support others. Again we need to min/max resources and as my first paragraph showed 2 Pegasus potentially will cost more than a single Bengal, don't get me wrong though, the Pegasus is a sexy beast and I want Test to have it too.

You nailed a few points I had in mind. On the question of having a role for the TEST persistent capital ship, you can rest assured I will find something for it to do that will benefit the organization in the long term.

 

[mromutt]

As far as I see it, there is no ongoing way to make money with a Bengal outside of extortion or conquest. Fuel, maintenance, and crewing will all jack up the running costs. A Bengal's value lies in its ability to project force far beyond normal starfighter range. If we're not actively at war with someone or demanding money from a group so we don't fly into their system and wreck their shit, a Bengal will do nothing but drain resources that could be put to better use elsewhere. We want to make sure our infrastructure can support a Bengal before we try to incorporate it into our fleet.

Now, that's not to say that I think we shouldn't have a Bengal. But the first one we find, after patching it up, I am firmly in favor of sundiving it. The benefit we get from giving it a good solar bukkake will far outweigh the benefits of keeping it around. After the first one, I'd say keep any other Bengals or other capital ships we find, because sending them to sunbathe will have sharply diminishing returns.

Sidenote: I typed Bengal so many times that the word Bengal is beginning to lose any meaning.

I want to start by saying I don't disagree with you, but I always fantasized about a bengal being our station that we can all hangout on anytime (also our highest populated testie place).