He was the last of the Big Three

Arthur C. Clarke died today, at age 90. He was the last of the Big Three — Isaac Asimov, Clarke, and Robert Heinlein — to pass away, and we shall not see their like again.







"Life is just one big banana. Science fiction allows us all to peel open the reality and discover the yellow truth inside." -- Arthur C. Clarke

I have a MySpace page

I now have a MySpace page:

http://www.myspace.com/packtactics

Not much there yet, I set it up mostly to run the MetaPlace chat application.

Work continues on the aircraft carriers.

I have worked out the tech levels and which ships are available at each level.

If all goes well, this will be my deepest tech tree so far. One of the problems I have been having is that the players have been going all out on technology and running off the end of my tech tree. This one runs up to 1960's level tech, so if the players want to spend all their money on aircraft carrier development they can be building Kitty Hawk Class ships in 1946 if they want.

USS United States

I was happily working through doing the research needed to add aircraft carriers to the game when I came across this:

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/cva-58.htm

To make a long story short, in 1949 the US Navy laid down the USS United States, the largest and most expensive aircraft carrier ever built. It would be as big as the Nimitz, carry 45 fighters and 12 long range nuclear bombers.

It was canceled by the secretary of defense 5 days after construction began, the components were scrapped and it resulted in the resignation of the Secretary of the Navy.

I could leave it out of the game, since it is pretty much at the end of the tech tree anyway.

... or I could leave it out until I add the nuclear weapons tech.

Right now I am leaning towards tweaking the current carrier stats to make it fit and having it in the next game.

I also think it is something the Japanese and Germans would probably have built if they had had the chance.