[Ship Review] OTAS Castrum

[Snowship]

By Snowship


OTAS Castrum
"Heavy Duty Explorer/Corporate Mothership" - M0

Short Summary
OTAS Corporation mothership. Small, fast, heavily shielded and packs a punch. Let down by it's small amount of external docking ports of TS/TP & M6 class ships only.

Overview
With the ever increasing presence of the Xenon, the OTAS Corporation embarked upon a design which would be able to handle deep-sector exploration and sustained Xenon sector infiltration and attacks.
Leaving the OTAS slipways was the design known as the Castrum.

Although heavy shielded, the Castrum is the smallest of the X-Universe's Mega-Capitals and as such can only externally dock a small contingent of ships. What it lacks in size and fleet capacity it makes up for in speed and mission flexibility.

In the preliminary stages of development, OTAS scientists came across the designs of the Argon Leviathan and noted various points that they felt could be improved upon. Concerned that Xenon-sector infiltration missions would be compromised by lack of weapons capability, the OTAS Shipyard Engineers ensured the Castrum could support a wide range of Weapons systems, something they knew the Leviathan lacked. Heavy duty shields were also considered a must and the ship was given a smaller size to reduce it's damage profile, even though this reduced docking ability for a support fleet. OTAS also acquired some designs of the Terran/Argon joint venture Point-to-Point Jumpdrive and with OTAS Scientists know-how modified a standard jumpdrive to use this new point-to-point capability, OTAS corporate theft at it's best.

What came out of the Shipyard was a small, fast but heavily shielded Ship that more than fills the OTAS Corporations' requirements and is looked upon with envy by rival corporations across the sectors.



The Maiden Voyage
(Incorporating Yaki's Custom Starts - OTAS TP start)
Jak Asana was given the honor of being the Test Pilot for the shake-down of the new OTAS Castrum.
An Unknown sector S/W of Maelstrom was chosen because of it being out of the way and the least likely area for the new design to be spied upon.
Once the Jumpdrive spooled up and activated the trouble started...

Terran Intelligence, not wanting to have a rip-off of their technology fall into civilian hands, with the help of Argon spies sabotaged OTAS's P2P Jumpdrive.

Leaving the jump, the Castrum crew found themselves in the middle of a Xenon Core sector surrounded by Xenon capital ships. Under immense pressure, OTAS Scientists on-board were able to patch the jumpdrive enough, that with shields failing, the Castrum could jump to safety.

Personal View
I find this a great ship to control. It's got good relative speed for it's class and has better shielding than it's Argon counterpart. I use it as a sector exploration ship and Xenon sector clearance vessel (a job in which it excels, I've found it survives battles better than the Leviathan, using less weaponry - I only have front and R/H side turrets PPC equipped, the rest is Flak's, can even clear Kha'ak sectors easily).

Comments from Observers
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Comments from other Capitans
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Statistics

General

• Ship Class: M2 (pseudo M0)
• Length: 1,344m (2,246m in game)
• Basic Cost: $310,680,011 (Available by Custom Starts, Special Shipyards-Mods, Scripting or since patch 0.74 after completing the SCRAB-Mission)
• Max Speed: 58.9 m/s
• Acceleration: 5m/s
• Max Steering: 0.78%
• Max Shields:2x10GJ
• Hull: 510,000
• Max Cargo: 30,000 units XL
• Docking: 6 x M6, 2 x TS/TP (External docking only)

Power Generator

• Shield Regen: 48,000 MW
• Weapon Battery: 450,000 MJ
• Weapon Regen: 22,495 MW

Weaponry
Missiles: Mosquito, Wasp, Dragonfly, Silkworm, Hornet, Disruptor, Firefly, Thunderbolt, Tempest, Hurricane, Cyclone, Tornado, Typhoon, Firestorm Torpedo, Aurora
Main: None

Turrets

• Fore Turret (Front):6 mountings; A-HEPT, B-HEPT, A-PSG, A-PPC, B-PPC, G-PPC, CIG, MD, A-FAA, B-FAA, A-PBE, B-PBE
• Aft Turret (Rear):6 mountings; A-IRE, B-IRE, A-PAC, B-PAC, A-HEPT, TB, A-PSG, A-PPC, MDS, MD, A-FAA, A-PBE
• Dorsal Turret (Up):8 mountings; A-PAC, B-PAC, A-HEPT, B-HEPT, A-PSG, B-PSG, A-PPC, B-PPC, G-PPC, CIG, MD, A-FAA, B-FAA, A-PBE, B-PBE
• Ventral Turret (Down):8 mountings; A-IRE, B-IRE, A-PAC, B-PAC, A-HEPT, B-HEPT, TB, A-PPC, B-PPC, MD, A-FAA, B-FAA, A-PBE, B-PBE
• Left Turret:10 mountings; A-IRE, B-IRE, A-PAC, B-PAC, A-HEPT, B-HEPT, TB, A-PPC, B-PPC, MD, MDS, A-PBE, B-PBE
• Right Turret:10 mountings; A-IRE, B-IRE, A-PAC, B-PAC, A-HEPT, B-HEPT, TB, A-PPC, B-PPC, MD, MDS, A-PBE, B-PBE

Weapon Notes:
CIG - Concussion Impulse Generator, MD - Mass Drivers, TB - Tractor Beam, MDS - Mobile Drilling System

Variants
None

Special Features
OTAS Group Shield
Description: Temporarily increases shield recharge rate for surrounding vessels.
OTAS ECM
Description: Electronic Counter Measures which destroys all incoming missiles automatically.
OTAS Turret Jammer
Description: Temporarily jams enermy turret fire.
OTAS Damage Control System
Description: Hull damage is repaired (since 0.74 avail) see Otas Damage Control Systems

Strengths & Weaknesses
Pros: Small, Fast, Heavily Shielded
Cons: Reduced Ship docking abilities and turret quantity

[End Review]
__________________________________________________ ______________

Acknowledgements
Egosoft - for developing such an addictive and engaging game
XTM Development Team - for developing a well moulded mod

 0 Comment(s)

[NovaCatt]

Hiya Peeps,

@ Snowship..........

Hiya Mate,
That Was Very Well Written!!!!

I'm Sure Roger Wont Mind Your Having Used His Writing Style As A Template/Guide..........

Keep Up The Good Work!!

Cheers & Thranx

 0 Comment(s)

[Sirus5]

I thought the Group shield was only available on the Custodian....
Ah, no, I was mistaken, this is a "Group" shield which shields surrounding vessels rather than the Custodian's shield which works in a slightly different way, boosting other shields ships...

OK, Adding this to Sticky

Sirus

 0 Comment(s)

[Roger L.S. Griffiths]

Hi Snow,

Great review, keep up the good work!!!

Thanks for the ack, nice to know that my work has inspired someone

TTFN

 0 Comment(s)

[agerweb]

At the Specialist Shipyard created by the extra XTM Script the Castrum costs
310,680,011
And you can only get one!

Rather bizarrely it only allows GPPC in the Dorsal and Front turrets, not the Ventral.
It also says in the ship details it has a hanger for 40 Ships - this of course is not true

 0 Comment(s)