Starfield Builds: Sleepy Shepherd

-

Sleepy Shepherd

 


Introduction

I've never been able to build a satisfying Taiyo ship. Something about the same, bland rounded look just never excited me. Still, I felt that it was important to have at least one Taiyo construct in my library so I started out with the idea that it would be just a few Taiyo structural pieces. Something to break up the lines of whatever manufacturer I was using. That'd normally be Deimos, HopeTech, or a smattering of the two.

Then the ship started coming together. Not only that, but it was coming together surprisingly well. Before I knew it, the Sleepy Shepherd was done. I didn't have a name for it and I was thinking something related to the Old West of the USA. Well that didn't fit a bunch of former soldiers turned pirates. Then I was thinking about using an online translator for a Japanese name. Again, Taiyo probably had a name for it, but the pirates wouldn't honor that. Finally, I settled on a name based on an anecdote and what better anecdote for pirates and con men is to pull one over on the Law. It's a timeless tale.

Thus I give to you, the Sleepy Shepherd.

 

Head Canon/Lore

The Sleepy Shepherd was captured during a daring raid against a Taiyo shipyard. Orozco's Raiders were looking for parts and ships that they could plunder and they found the second best thing to a new ship, the framework of a new ship that had already had the engines and power systems installed. The ship didn't have a bridge yet, a safety measure that Taiyo employed to deter theft, but the pirates were able to hack into the control systems and fly the ship out into the black.

The Sleepy Shepherd got its name from the Freestar Militia pilot who was fast asleep in his pilot's chair during the entire event. By the time he woke up, the ship that would be christened in his honor was long since departed.

Safely out of Freestar space, the Sleepy Shepherd, often shortened to "Sleepy" or " the Shepherd" was fitted with a few habs and some of the structural components that fill out its form. As money and time permits, new components and habitats will be added to the structure, replacing the framework pieces with useful living/working spaces.

One of the original Darrouzett crew, John Prestley "Cricket" Crick was awarded the Shepherd as his command. Since then, the Shepherd has operated as a supply vessel for Orozco's Raiders. Surprisingly, it is rarely involved in actually piracy operations, instead making occasional supply runs to stations like the Den. The Shepherd also serves as a training ship for new recruits, teaching them how to "not depressurize the habitats," as Cricket claims. In reality, Captain Crick runs a tight ship and his successful recruits move on to active positions within the Raiders. The unsuccessful ones are dropped off at some remote outpost under the guise of shore leave. The outright dangerously incompetent ones have a tendency towards depressurization accidents while cleaning the docker.

Captain Cricket, being more placid and easy going than his fellows could not be more happy with his command. He is no coward, however. On the occasion that the Shepherd actively engages in raids or pirate activities, Cricket has proven an able battle commander.


Assembly


 

Lower Deck


 

  • (2) Deimos Belly - Aft, attached to Aft point of aft landing gear
  • (2) Accu-Lander 11 Landing Gear, attached to Aft points of 500T Fuel Tanks
  • (2) Accu-Lander 11 Landing Gear, attached to the outside points of 500T Fuel Tanks
  • (2) 500T Fuel Tanks, attached to Aft points of Nova Bracers
  • (2) Galleon S202 Cargo Hold, attached to the outside points of Nova Bracers
  • (2) Nova Bracers, attached to Aft points of Reactor and Grav Drive
  • (2) Accu-Lander 11 Landing Gear, attached to outside points of Reactor and Grav Drive
  • 104DS Mag Inertial Reactor
  • Aurora 13G Grav Drive
  • (2) Galleon S202 Cargo Hold, attached to Forward points of Accu-Lander gears.
  • (2) Accu-Lander 11 Landing Gear, attached to Forward points of Galleon cargo holds
  • Nova NG-6 Landing Bay, attached to Forward point of Reactor
  • Nova Galactic All-in-One Berth - B 2x1, attached to Forward point of Grav Drive

 

Deck One


 

  • (2) Dunn-71 Engine, attached to Aft point of Stroud Engine Mount
  • (2) Stroud Engine Mount, upside-down, square configuration, attached to Nova Bracers.
  • (13) Nova Bracer, looking at the ship as having four columns, columns #1 and #4 have five (5) Bracers a piece running from Aft to Fore. Column #2 has one Bracer between the Stroud Engine Mount and the Engineering Bay. Column #3 has two between the Stroud Engine Mount and the Infirmary
  • (8) Taiyo Side Cap, randomly distributed to the outside points of the Nova Bracers. There will always be (2) short of filling every Bracer and it is intended to give an "unfinished" appearance
  • (2) Nova Cowling 2L attached to the Aft points of Nova Bracer columns #1 and #4
  • Nova Galactic Engineering Bay 3x1, attached to Forward point of column #2 Nova Bracer
  • Nova Galactic Infirmary 2x1, attached to Forward point of column #3 Nova Bracer
  • (2) Taiyo Braking Engines (Port/Starboard), attached to Forward point of columns #1 and #4
  • (2) Stroud Nose Cap E, attached to Forward points of Engineering Bay and Infirmary
  • (2) PB-175 Helion Beams, attached to Underside of Stroud Nose Cap E's

 

Connecting Lower Deck to Deck One


 

Select everything on the Lower Deck layer. Drag it over so that the Forward Landing Gear on the Lower Deck, connect directly behind the Taiyo Braking Engine. The Deimos Belly Aft pieces should appear to be supporting the front half of the Dunn-71 Engines.


Deck Two


 

  • (2) Dunn-71 Engine, attached to Aft point of Stroud Engine Mount
  • (2) Stroud Engine Mount, square configuration, attached to Nova Bracers.
  • (2) Nova Bracers connected to the outside pints of the Stroud Engine Mounts
  • (2) Equipment Plates attached to the top of Nova Bracers
  • (2) PBO-100 Auto Neutron Turrets, attached to Equipment Plates
  • (2) Taiyo Mid Cap Port/Starboard, attached to outside points of Nova Bracers
  • (2) Nova Bracers, connect to Aft points of Nova Galactic 1x1 and 2x1 Habs
  • Taiyo Mid Cap Starboard, connect to Starboard point of 1x1 Hab
  • Nova Galactic Storeroom 1x1, attached to Aft point of Taiyo Captain's Quarters
  • Nova Galactive Living Quarters 2x1, attached to Aft point of of the Forward Nova Galactic Storeroom 1x1
  • Nova Bracer, attached to the Aft, Port point of the Living Quarters
  • Nova Bracer, attached to Aft, Starboard point of Captain Quarters
  • Taiyo Captain's Quarters 2x1
  • Taiyo Mid Cap Port, connected to Forward, Port point of Living Quarters
  • (4) Nova Radiator - Top, connected to the tops of Taiyo Mid-Caps
  • Taiyo Mid Cap - Starboard, connected to Forward, Starboard point of Captain's Quarters
  • Nova Galactic Storeroom 1x1
  • Taiyo Mid Cap - Port, connected to Port point of 1x1 Hab
  • (2) Equipment Plates, attached to Top of Forward Taiyo (Port/Starboard) Mid Caps
  • (2) PB-175 Helion Beams, attached to Equipment Plates
  • (2) Nova Engine Struts, attached to Forward points of Captain's Quarters and Storeroom habs

 

Connecting Deck Two to Deck One 

Select everything on Deck Two. Drag over to where the Dunn-71 Engines rest on top of Deck One's Dunn engines. The Nova Engine Struts will appear to be supporting the Stroud Nose Caps.


Top Deck


 

  • Warden SG-400 Shield
  • Nova Bracer, attached to Aft point of Nova Cowling
  • Nova Galactic Control Station 2x1, attached to Aft point of Cockpit
  • Nova Cowling 2L-TM,attached to Aft point of Docker
  • Magellan C1X Cockpit

 

Connecting Top Deck to Deck Two

Select everything on Top Deck. The Shield Generator is not attached to anything, but we will get to that in a moment. Drag the selected items over so that the front of the Magellan Cockpit lines up with the front of the Captain's Quarters on Deck Two. Now drag the shield over to the Nova Bracer on Deck Two, that is aft of the Control Station



Upgrade Path and Final Thoughts

There is not much to upgrade on the Sleepy Shepherd. Improvements, if you would like to call them that, would come in the form of additional habs that provide Mess Halls, Brigs, and so forth.

All in all, I really like how this ship came out. I am guilty of using "top shelf" items on it, so a few of the next builds will be using gear that is a little more reasonably middle-ground stuff. That will surely open up an Upgrade Path discussion for those projects.

Also, I removed the stats and difficulty portions of the write-up. You can click one of the images to see the stats and, frankly, what might be challenging to one person might be a breeze to somebody else. It's not for me to say. I'm going to go back and retroactively remove those sections from the other entries.

If you've read to this point, thank you. Hope you've enjoyed the content I've been putting here.

Comments

  1. AnonymousFebruary 28, 2024 at 3:43 PM

    Well it’s Taiyo. That means you did a fantastic job. Well written lore and easy to follow build. Very nice.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousFebruary 29, 2024 at 2:06 PM

    Nolgroth here. Thanks. I think that my favorite part is that it's like a ship kit. Pull out the bracers and fill -in with your Habs of choice.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Starfield Build: Star Vault

-
Image
  Nova Galactic Vault-Tec: Star Vault   Introduction Okay, @Mtfreeman (on the Starfield Anonymous Discord) made a passing comment about making a Vault-Tec space vault. Here is my answer to that comment (he never made it an official challenge). I give you the Star Vault.  My operating hypothesis is that Vault-Tec got a hold of some Zetan technology and did their absolute best to duplicate form and function within the scope of then current technology. They paired up with the Nova Galactic in their version of reality to create the most powerful ship that they could and put aboard a  small compliment of Vault occupants. Head Canon/Lore In the spirit of the malleable Fallout canon, this ship is equipped with anachronistic Engines, Reactor, Grav Drive, Weapons, and Shield. It's insidious experiment was to test the occupants' ability to adapt by Grav Jumping once every 24 Standard/Earth hours to a random star. The very few occupants exited the Star Vault after a few of these random j
Read more

Starfield Builds: Celestia

-
Image
Celestia Introduction The Celestia is a B-class multi-purpose vehicle. It is a competent fighter, cargo transport, and passenger ship all at once. I don't remember which ship I built it from, but the Fuel Tank is beyond the character's Ship Design skill. It was most certainly a pirate ship of some sort, with "pirate" meaning any of the antagonistic factions out there. The Celestia is greatly inspired by the Galaxy-class Freighter from the Wing Commander: Privateer game from a couple of decades past. That ship had much more narrow engine nacelles and they were mounted on thin rails. I think that this ship captures the overall feel of the Galaxy-class within the Starfield universe.   Head-canon Lore The Celestia is a Galactic-class civilian transport built by the Deimos Staryard in the Sol system. The Galactic-class is a sleeper favorite of explorers, bounty hunters, and other adventurers who roam the galactic highways.   General Overview The Celestia is truly a Jack-of
Read more

Starfield Builds: Redshift

-
Image
  Redshift Introduction WARNING : This ship uses a fair amount of merging techniques to get the engine pods to look like they do. Rather than try to explain each step, please visit Crimson Flyboy's tutorial video on merging . I used the drop merging technique on those pieces . That out of the way, this is my "entry" for the Discord Ship Building challenge. As this is an informal challenge, the only rule was to build a ship for a member of Constellation.  I chose Noel, as she is the least developed character in Constellation. I don't play nice with the Constellation members, but I know that Noel is not a companion and, according to an online source, doesn't really have much of a backstory. That was perfect for me, as it gave me room to invent something whole cloth. And, if later on Bethesda gets around to giving Noel something more substantive than being told to shut up by Sarah, there are a whole lot of universes out there in the multiverse. My Noel dwells in one
Read more