400 Ton Droyne Explorer TL 15

[mavikfelna]

So in my quest to build characters and ships for each of the races in the Aliens of Charted Space books, i go to the Droyne. This is an obscenely expensive TL 15 400 ton explore for a Droyne Tyafelm to go exploring in Charted Space. It has a jump-4 engine because I couldn't fit in a bigger one and still use the ship for anything. But it has to jump out of Auitawry in the Trojan Reach rift so it has to have drop tanks to clear enough space to make it anywhere useful.
I couldn't use @Arkathan's spreadsheet, cause it can't handle the special Droyne tech so I did everything by hand. I hope I've got all my numbers right!
The Droyne Auspicious of Jump hull tech is very expensive but oh my is that 10% reduction in jump fuel nice! Especially when you can stack another 10% off with the Reduce Jump Fuel modx2 on the engines.
The ship isn't suppose to make money, it's an explorer, but it is off on its own without the support of the Droyne worlds to keep it up so the crew can do some trading to help cover the maintenance and life support bills. A single jump-1 with full freight cargo will net 135000 credit, enough to fund expeditions for over 3 months.

 

[Terry Mixon]

If the Droyne stuff isn’t in the sheet, @Arkathan might be willing to add it.

 

[mavikfelna]

If the Droyne stuff isn’t in the sheet, @Arkathan might be willing to add it.

The Auspicious hull types add some great bonuses at huge cost increases and might be tricky to do. The alternate bridge and crew spaces should be easy. I think it's mostly a question of time for him

 

[Terry Mixon]

The Auspicious hull types add some great bonuses at huge cost increases and might be tricky to do. The alternate bridge and crew spaces should be easy. I think it's mostly a question of time for him

All we can do is be happy with a great spreadsheet, but it never hurts to ask.

 

[Galadrion]

If you need higher jump capability, since you're at TL14 or above there are always collectors. And the Droyne are alien enough compared to most of the Major Races to easily justify using Exotic Tech such as that.

 

[mavikfelna]

If you need higher jump capability, since you're at TL14 or above there are always collectors. And the Droyne are alien enough compared to most of the Major Races to easily justify using Exotic Tech such as that.

Thank you! I hadn't even considered that. It would work much better for crossing the rift. And time is not important here, they can take as long as needed because there is always science and observation to do.

 

[mavikfelna]

@Galadrion
Ok, Using Collectors, I can drop the ship down to 200 tons and improve the performance to Jump-6. Since the 200 ton ship has basically no cargo space, less than 2 tons after 150 days of stores, I gave it a jump net to tow cargo or minerals for sale when the ship needs to make some money to pay for maintenance. It still retains Jump-3 capability with a full load in the net.
It serves a Tyafelm of 6, one of each caste, and has a minor ritual space to help keep them healthy and happy.
The ship is able to cross the Great Rift in any direction for up to 10 jumps, 20 weeks, before fuel and stores run out. It is 2 jumps to Aslan space and 4 jumps to Imperial space.

 

[Galadrion]

Yeah, it's doable to use collectors to drop the ship down to 200 dT, but personally I wouldn't have done so. With a larger hull, you can make a much more capable explorer/surveyor/scout with quite a bit more flexibility. Some things I would suggest adding (while going with the original idea of a 400 dT hull): biospheres (to provide food for the crew), more internal cargo hold (for trading, supplies, whatever), possibly a few 30 dT module bays (for even more mission flexibility). Nothing wrong with your approach, I just would have gone in a little bit different direction.

 

[MasterGwydion]

Yeah, it's doable to use collectors to drop the ship down to 200 dT, but personally I wouldn't have done so. With a larger hull, you can make a much more capable explorer/surveyor/scout with quite a bit more flexibility. Some things I would suggest adding (while going with the original idea of a 400 dT hull): biospheres (to provide food for the crew), more internal cargo hold (for trading, supplies, whatever), possibly a few 30 dT module bays (for even more mission flexibility). Nothing wrong with your approach, I just would have gone in a little bit different direction.

Remember that most Droyne ships are hand-built and most are considered sacred. That is not a mindset that would appreciate modularity. Also Droyne ships can be psionic triggers, something that may not be possible with modules.

 

[mavikfelna]

Yeah, it's doable to use collectors to drop the ship down to 200 dT, but personally I wouldn't have done so. With a larger hull, you can make a much more capable explorer/surveyor/scout with quite a bit more flexibility. Some things I would suggest adding (while going with the original idea of a 400 dT hull): biospheres (to provide food for the crew), more internal cargo hold (for trading, supplies, whatever), possibly a few 30 dT module bays (for even more mission flexibility). Nothing wrong with your approach, I just would have gone in a little bit different direction.

I wanted it to be a fairly intimate ship for a single tyafelm that is a stellar exploration focused team. Going back to 400 tons I'd add in a small craft of some sort, and definitely a Biosphere. But I would also add a second tyafelm to expand the abilities of the group to include planetary exploration as well.

 

[mavikfelna]

Ok, here's a 400 version. It's faster, M-3, and has a DSMS system for deep space maneuvering. It's more heavily armored, to protect vital systems in case of damaging stellar phenomena and is has a crew of 12, 2 tyrfelm, and space for a 2nd scientist. It has a 14 ton hanger bay to hold an ATV and an Air/Raft but I didn't have enough tonnage to add a small craft. It's even more hideously expensive than the original 400 tonner above, but it will survive any fight in it's weight class and probably somewhat above it. The monthly maintenance, including life support, is 52,884 Cr, assuming you buy a 1 ton of unrefined fuel a month. If it runs trade to make some money, it can move 425 tons of freight up to jump-3, which is 1.1MCr of income so just one trade run will keep the ship in maintenance for over 20 months.