big ship where is everyone else?

[MI_Trooper0050]

you know from watching the movie and playing through the levels on the Sulaco i see alot of things, many many different rooms with tons of computers and controls, as well as gigantic cannons. tons of lifeboats along with cryo escape pods. but my question is on these frigates, where is everyone? is there normally a crew that operates all of these? the ship looks entirely too big for just a squad to operate plus we are talking about grunts, they are trained to fight and kick teeth in not control a ship, and then go into a fight. my guess is that there is a crew because when the sephora whent down it sounded liek there where people defending it. but in aliens there seemed to be no visable crew and i know that the ship can be controlled automatedly but whenever i watch the movie i feel like there are others on the ship somewhere far maybe the bridge i dont know. does anybody ever feel this way too? and also ont he first sulaco mission i counted 12 ( i think) cryobeds but in the movie there where 9 marines 2 pilots, 1 LT, Burk, riply and bishop making 15 in all. and unlike prometheus the synethetic slept in cryo like everybody else. and the LT, burk, and ripley also slept int eh same crybay so what happend here? im not trying to knit pick at the game or anything, i enjoy it its just something i noticed and i was curios about, and this is also a thread to discuss the ship and if there is a crew.

[thebluekosh]

The ship to me is actually a really small ship no bigger than the nostromo,note the nostromo is'nt that big also and simmilar size to the Suloco and the larger part is actually a rig that is being towed along.

[MI_Trooper0050]

lol acording to perspective in game the sulaco is huge XD but being a frigate the USCM fleet probably has much larger ships... imagine a carrier type lol

[Pariah]

it does look awfull big for just 15 people

[Pariah]

good point

[MI_Trooper0050]

yeah my guess is that they normally are manned with a large crew but according to xenopedia it uses a computerized mainframe. still doesnt explain why there are so many computer terminals a Bridge im thinking that they primarily use a crew but with instances where there is only need for a small unit engagement such as the Sulaco engaging LV426 they rely on the automation. heres xeno pedia if you want to look http://avp.wikia.com/wiki/Conestoga_class

[The Traveler]

Yeah, that little thing is always bothered me. Sulaco looks avery big ship with many stuffs, but it's carry less then a dozen marines?! And the biggest ranking officer only a newbie LT, kinda wird. OK, they thought it will be a trivial mission. Plus also weird they left no one on the ship. I mean there deosn't have any protocols for this?
In the game the Sephora is the same type of ship and carry more then 300 marines! OK, that number still feels weird, too much. Plus they just grinded like te dozen marines.

[MI_Trooper0050]

after playing the DLC and veiwing more of the sulaco (weather to trust gearbox's interpretation of the sulaco or not) it make alot more sense there ae bunk bed rooms, a larger mess hall, and rec rooms, as well as a library i can only conclude that normally there is a large crew along with the marines.however with only 4 dropships to a frigate, i think 300 marines is a bit too much since an apc can carry a max of 14 unless if they rigged there dropships with seating in which case i dont think they did because when you escape the sulaco, there are no seats in your dropship.

[Redtachi]

Originally posted by Harbinger-HU:

Yeah, that little thing is always bothered me. Sulaco looks avery big ship with many stuffs, but it's carry less then a dozen marines?! And the biggest ranking officer only a newbie LT, kinda wird. OK, they thought it will be a trivial mission. Plus also weird they left no one on the ship. I mean there deosn't have any protocols for this?
In the game the Sephora is the same type of ship and carry more then 300 marines! OK, that number still feels weird, too much. Plus they just grinded like te dozen marines.

I was stationed on a Dock landing ship(length 553 ft ) that could carry multiple humvees, Abrams tanks, LAVs, 5 ton trucks, plus 2 LCAC hovercraft and had a helicopter pad with room for a Chinook(would make multiple trips). Naval crew was 250+ and Marines unit of 300+. That was almost a total of 600 give or take. the USS Sephora(length 1174.54 ft) had only 300 marines, multiple APCs and a few Cheyennes. So that makes actually makes sense to me.
What confused me was the Sulaco only had a crew of 15.
When I read about this game many years ago I thought the Sulaco woke up the rest of the crew members(other Marines) in order to perform a rescue of the lost squad on LV-426. Of course I was totally wrong about the storyline.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Anchorage_(LSD-36)
the complement of 771+ is guaranteed to include the marine unit onboard

[MI_Trooper0050]

^i agree with this only 300 mariens still seems to ba a bit much for the ships capability since the frigate can only cary a maximum of 4 dropships which carry apc's which only carry 14 people per APC. everything else makes sense

[Redtachi]

They would just do multiple drops. Drop a load and comeback for more. We don't usually invade like we did in normandy anymore. Basically pre stage then assault. This is a bit more realistic than the Starship troopers planet invasion.

[thebluekosh]

Maybe the Suloco group was a special case Hudsen says "How do I get out of this chicken **** outfit" meaning they saw little action(he was always braging about him being the ultimate badass) and Lt Gorman was fresh out of the officers college.But just could have easly been a twit ?

[MI_Trooper0050]

yeah that makes sense usually when i think of invasion i see starship troopers or normandy but even in the opening sequence of ACM they said that they were the second group out of stasis. makes alot more sense. i didnt hink much of when Hudson said "How do I get out of this chicken **** outfit" because thats his personality the Sulaco was stationed at Gateway and it probaly was used for random patrols and colony investigations like when one of them said " its probaly just a downed transmitter." heres a xenopedia on the Sulaco, it says it was an "unlucky ship" http://avp.wikia.com/wiki/USS_Sulaco

[ElfShotTheFood]

I always wondered why Bishop didn't radio the guy who made the cornbread to send a ship down to rescue them.