月度归档： 2017 年 6 月

前线来信·Mail call, 美舰本·Pacific

[Mail Call] 2017/06/24 – Shipgirl eyesight

by Morgane 2017年6月25日

Pssst. Tautog here. Whenever there’s a lot of mail calls it generally means the team is busier than usual. Also I’m not drunk! I’m just messing around with the site!

Oh. Huh. A mail call. I feel like I’ve done these before…

Anyways.

Some of the girls wear glasses. Are they near or far-sighted?

The answer (from a purely lore-based perspective) is that neither. Shipgirls have good vision.

The practical answer (from a moe-blob cute perspective) is that out of the universe, we often play up the character traits for cutes or laughs. For instance Mahan runs into stuff because she’s nearsighted. That’s less due to her historical collision (which plenty of ships have) and more because well, her character’s the type to be so absorbed in doing something that she’d probably forget about her surroundings.

Then you have others like Sanny who wears hipster glasses ironically. Because you know, San Francisco? Haha.

Then you have –

Yeah, lemme go steal Sima’s glasses real quick. You’ll get it when you see it!

See? Instant cute!

(I-I’m cute, right? ;_;)

前线来信·Mail call, 美舰本·Pacific

[Mail Call] 2017/06/23 – Tautog answers sub design questions

by Morgane 2017年6月24日

Happy Friday everyone! Wanna know what I do for fun?

I curl up with a shot of scotch and a nice good book. PRINTED ON REAL PAPER. NONE OF THIS DIGITAL STUFF. YOU KNOW. IN MY HANDS.

(Wow. I can see why Dolphin really likes to shout. It actually makes me feel taller!)

Anyways. I’ve been reading fan mail and some of you seem to take issue with submarine design. “Why didn’t ____ country do _____” or “How could they not have done ____,” stuff like that.

You wanna know why? Well, designing a submarine is very hard. You can’t just magic up some kinda superbote. Ships are hard to make because fundamentally they’re metal boxes floating on water. That’s hard enough already, but submarines have an extra job. They have to go into the water and then have the ability to go back up.

All ships have to balance the displacement (which is the submerged part of the ship – the submerged volume) with the volume itself. A normal ship on the sea has to have its displacement equal the total of all the weights of that ship. You can alter volume by adding structures like deck houses and you can add weight by allowing the ship to sink deeper in the water, but a submarine designer can’t do that.

Think about Archimedes’ Principle with simple buoyancy. The submarine has to balance its displacement with its volume just right. Too much displacement and you’ll, well, not come up (bad). Too little, and you’ll never go down (also bad).

I mean, there’s a lot of things to consider. Take something as simple as depth. Depth is good for a submariner! It gives you another axis to which you can fight on. Naturally the deeper you go, the easier it is for you to use and abuse the features of the sea – be it sound features or actual terrain. Because you have to build a stronger hull to withstand greater pressures, it’s probably going to be tougher, too.

But the deeper you want to go, the heavier your hull has to be. Given that we are limited by how big you want that submarine to be, that means less stuff for the other equipment you want to put in. Then you’ve got the metal to consider. How tough is the steel? What kind of a shape do you want your hull to be –

*yawn*

You know what. I’m gonna go to bed… This stuff is important and far too important to be left to a sleepy post. Good night everyone!

前线来信·Mail call, 美舰本·Pacific

Lens of History (9)

by Morgane 2017年6月22日

STEC Archives, Auditory Recording Division
Curator signature: New Jersey
Format: Audio Tape
Object: Recorded audio of Admiral Hymen G. Rickover, item 4519
Location (if known): Unknown
Time (if known): 1982

Is this damn thing on?

Okay. Good. Libby, leave it. Can’t wait until I can actually get an office without being bugged for once… Keep it around just in case our guys & the Reds want to try anything funny.

(Click-click clack – sounds identified as tapping phone keys)

… Yes? Hello. Admiral Rickover, United States Navy. I’m here to return the call, so if you’ll get me –

…

Yes. Hello. Spare me the pleasantries and let’s get down to business.

Good.

Yes.

Yes, that is correct. Let me make this clear. You are deviating from previously agreed upon plan for mutual coastal defense, using deployed American equipment no less.

Your fortification efforts are supposed to be on the Dikson-Murmansk line, not the Kamchatka peninsula.

… Yes. It is my business. The security of the United States is my business, and I’m not about to let you Ruskies feed three hundred million bodies to the damned Abyssal Fleet if this screws up. Do we understand each other?

…

I see.

When did this occur?

Repeat what you just said.

Of course. Of course, we were also informed of this. Do you really think we wouldn’t know? My command is working out an appropriately forceful response. I expect to be in touch soon.

On behalf of the United States and STEC I appreciate your efforts and look forward to further cooperation.

*click*

…

Libby, go get Jer.

(Click-click clack – sounds identified as tapping phone keys)

Cusk. Direct MERLIN to focus on the following coordinates. 46 degree 30 North, 151 degree 30 East. Eight hundred mile radius. Set resolution to 20 meters. I want a feed to my desk in eight minutes or less.

Good.

*click*

(Click-click clack – sounds identified as tapping phone keys)

Which one of our subgirls are near Japanese waters?

Good. Couldn’t have had a better gal. ETA?

… *sigh* That’s unacceptable. Did she –

Good!

Authorize boosters. Tell Tautog she is to OBSERVE only. Do not engage either the USSR or Japanese forces gathered. Run like hell if they start shooting.

Patch me through to her.

Kid. Listen up. I don’t know what the hell’s going on either but I think we’ve been double-crossed. “Give them the pre-fabricated stuff and just help them out,” said our bleeding heart of a President. “Surely this gesture of goodwill will result in great coordination against humanity’s mutual threat!”

Well, I’ve got a data stream in front of me, and I see a hundred and eighty MADE IN THE U.S. OF A blips blinking along the Kuril Islands. If this is a joke I don’t find it funny. If this isn’t then they won’t find it funny.

I’m having Lexy sending coordinates to your gear right now. You’ve got backup coming. Tag along the convoys as best as you can and report to me immediately if situation escalates.

You are clear to engage if at any point you feel like you are under threat.