Toshiro
Well-Known Member
I post this because though changing the articles for the Chiaki in regards to its Tier would be a quick thing, the reasons and justifications for it require some significant discussion and elaboration. I have spent the last year pondering its Tier, only making the Chiaki 1B Refit a Tier 10 for the sake of continuity with the original Chiaki, but the recent rule changes to weapons loadout have been added to my existing concerns and pushed my opinion in the opposite direction. I would like to reclassify both the old and new Chiaki as Tier 11.
Arguments for Tier 11 Classification
The initial concerns for this stemmed from a year before the recent 8+2 Weapon thing, back when I was working on updating the Plumeria and Chiaki in the earliest planning stages. As seen here in the Damage Rating Version 3 article, under "What size do I fit in?", the classification for Tier 11 is "100~250 meters long, as big or bigger than US Navy Destroyers ". However, the Chiaki is listed as Tier 10 in the same table even though it is 121.5 meters in both the original and the 1B refit. Though there are inconsistencies with the width and height between these two articles, it's because I explicitly measured the dimensions of the DOGA model to more accurately reflect them, but the length of the vessel, the important metric for this discussion, is consistent. There is no overt justification I am aware of for the Chiaki to be one Tier under size.
My best guess at the time was that the logic for this was "Well, the Plumeria is bigger than this ship, and is Tier 11, so this should be Tier 10", and on the surface this seemed suitable if a bit of a casual interpretation. However, the Plumeria, from strict measurements, is just barely Tier 12 compliant at 254 meters. The best reason I can think of for the Plumeria to be one Tier undersized is that it is a Tier 11 ship with a huge gun stuck on the front, when doing armor calculations, and this argument is actually something I find to be justified. By the same logic, however, a Chiaki and a Plumeria with its Main Gun removed are far closer in length (121.5 meters vs 163 meters by my calculations). Even this less solid justification for artificially lowering the Chiaki by one Tier suddenly seems a lot weaker to me when considering this fact.
As adjusting to this Tier would allow my Chiaki 1B refit to keep its current weapon loadout without modification under the new 8+2 system, that's the final nail in the coffin to compel me to make the request which I'd elected not to make before: Change the Chiaki from Tier 10 to Tier 11.
Future Intentions
I must also clarify my intentions as to future Chiaki variants in this regard, as I had planned to make at least one and possibly two future variants of the Chiaki with different specifications, which also require the Tier 11 change to be salvageable. These could be considered a personal bias toward shifting toward Tier 11, so I feel obligated to state them now.
One Chiaki variant I am considering, and have considered for a long time, is a Chiaki with a modified secondary spike from a Plumeria installed on the front as a weapon that is the same as the old Sakura's in strength while increasing its length to an exact match with the Sakura. The logic is to re-visit the "Light Gunship" + Power Armor/Fighter concept of the Sakura which can be produced more quickly and cheaply for the war, though lacking the sheer versatility of the Plumeria or Fuji. The working name for this concept is the Azusa (Cherry Birch) class. Most of the work on this is done, but I need to finish a civilian craft first before I can consider submitting this...and the civilian craft is undergoing a form of 'feature bloat' that always takes up more time than expected.
Another I am considering is a strange one in that it turns the maintenance conduit area between the two decks into living and working space for Mini-Neko, and the rest of the ship is dedicated to hangar space and other systems. It would essentially either be a Chiaki 1B or more likely an Azusa-class designed into a compact carrier that could house a disproportionally vast number of Power Armor and Mini-Neko crew since the Mini-Neko do not need anything near the same space for living in, meeting in, eating in, or bridge command. Things like maintenance and other tasks would be conducted by Mini-Neko in Power Armor. The conceptual name for this is the Hanami (flower viewing) class, since a massive amount of Power Armor are intended to launch from it like falling flower petals from a tree. Unfortunately, this concept is further out as it requires the completion of a Mini Neko-spec power armor first, as well as possibly a Kyoto refit.
Arguments for Tier 11 Classification
The initial concerns for this stemmed from a year before the recent 8+2 Weapon thing, back when I was working on updating the Plumeria and Chiaki in the earliest planning stages. As seen here in the Damage Rating Version 3 article, under "What size do I fit in?", the classification for Tier 11 is "100~250 meters long, as big or bigger than US Navy Destroyers ". However, the Chiaki is listed as Tier 10 in the same table even though it is 121.5 meters in both the original and the 1B refit. Though there are inconsistencies with the width and height between these two articles, it's because I explicitly measured the dimensions of the DOGA model to more accurately reflect them, but the length of the vessel, the important metric for this discussion, is consistent. There is no overt justification I am aware of for the Chiaki to be one Tier under size.
My best guess at the time was that the logic for this was "Well, the Plumeria is bigger than this ship, and is Tier 11, so this should be Tier 10", and on the surface this seemed suitable if a bit of a casual interpretation. However, the Plumeria, from strict measurements, is just barely Tier 12 compliant at 254 meters. The best reason I can think of for the Plumeria to be one Tier undersized is that it is a Tier 11 ship with a huge gun stuck on the front, when doing armor calculations, and this argument is actually something I find to be justified. By the same logic, however, a Chiaki and a Plumeria with its Main Gun removed are far closer in length (121.5 meters vs 163 meters by my calculations). Even this less solid justification for artificially lowering the Chiaki by one Tier suddenly seems a lot weaker to me when considering this fact.
As adjusting to this Tier would allow my Chiaki 1B refit to keep its current weapon loadout without modification under the new 8+2 system, that's the final nail in the coffin to compel me to make the request which I'd elected not to make before: Change the Chiaki from Tier 10 to Tier 11.
Future Intentions
I must also clarify my intentions as to future Chiaki variants in this regard, as I had planned to make at least one and possibly two future variants of the Chiaki with different specifications, which also require the Tier 11 change to be salvageable. These could be considered a personal bias toward shifting toward Tier 11, so I feel obligated to state them now.
One Chiaki variant I am considering, and have considered for a long time, is a Chiaki with a modified secondary spike from a Plumeria installed on the front as a weapon that is the same as the old Sakura's in strength while increasing its length to an exact match with the Sakura. The logic is to re-visit the "Light Gunship" + Power Armor/Fighter concept of the Sakura which can be produced more quickly and cheaply for the war, though lacking the sheer versatility of the Plumeria or Fuji. The working name for this concept is the Azusa (Cherry Birch) class. Most of the work on this is done, but I need to finish a civilian craft first before I can consider submitting this...and the civilian craft is undergoing a form of 'feature bloat' that always takes up more time than expected.
Another I am considering is a strange one in that it turns the maintenance conduit area between the two decks into living and working space for Mini-Neko, and the rest of the ship is dedicated to hangar space and other systems. It would essentially either be a Chiaki 1B or more likely an Azusa-class designed into a compact carrier that could house a disproportionally vast number of Power Armor and Mini-Neko crew since the Mini-Neko do not need anything near the same space for living in, meeting in, eating in, or bridge command. Things like maintenance and other tasks would be conducted by Mini-Neko in Power Armor. The conceptual name for this is the Hanami (flower viewing) class, since a massive amount of Power Armor are intended to launch from it like falling flower petals from a tree. Unfortunately, this concept is further out as it requires the completion of a Mini Neko-spec power armor first, as well as possibly a Kyoto refit.
