Ask MongooseMatt ANYTHING!!!

[Terry Mixon]

Okay, not really anything, but when we post questions about the rules or potential typos in the feedback area, we often don't receive a response, so I'm creating this thread in the hopes of getting some response to questions we have, even if it is "we're looking at that" or some such.

I'll kick this off with a question I posted a few days ago. The emergency low berths in High Guard 2022 Update are listed at MC1 a pop. Seems real pricy since Mongoose 1e and all the previous versions of Traveller we checked had it being KCr100. In Mongoose 1e, it was listed as MCr.1 and we suspect a typo. Can we get some clartity on that so we can update the starship build sheet to reflect what we suspect if we're right? Thanks.

Also, allow me to suggest that adding KCr, BCr (or GCr to please @Geir), and TCr to your repertoire would be really helpful and would minimize the complaints about not having comma separation in your big numbers, too.

And sorry for all the wild AMA questions you're about to get @MongooseMatt.

 

[MasterGwydion]

@MasterGwydion and I have different views on this. My take is that whatever is clamped needs to be designed to mate with the optional built-in docking hatch, like you said.

Otherwise, you are correct. If it is designed to mate, it will work. Otherwise, it won’t.

Adventure Class Ships page 102 disagrees with you.

"The fighters can be swapped for any small craft up to 30 tons but the carrier’s performance will be significantly affected if it is carrying larger craft."

 

[Terry Mixon]

Adventure Class Ships page 102 disagrees with you.

"The fighters can be swapped for any small craft up to 30 tons but the carrier’s performance will be significantly affected if it is carrying larger craft."

It says nothing about access, so the quote doesn’t materially change the discussion.

And I should have copied and responded to this in the other thread. Let’s be good campers and move over.

 

[paltrysum]

Did you get promoted to management or do you just need more coffee?

I was probably multi-tasking and not paying close enough attention to the conversation that I decided to participate in. Sorry about that.

At least we're all more or less in agreement. I think the takeaway is that docking clamps don't seem to have a hard-and-fast rule regarding access. I keep thinking about that Indigo-class from PoD. It's got 10 docking clamps for 10 fighters. The deck plans put a little room for each of them, but wouldn't those technically be 'airlocks'? I guess I would have envisioned a hallway that they could drain the life support out of for the 10 pilots whenever they deployed to the fighters. Maybe the rectangle for each is intended to represent the hatch access to each. The rules are left vague enough that someone might see things differently.

 

[Condottiere]

Let's be fair.

I'm pretty sure the issue came up, moons and moons ago, whether I directly asked it, or indirectly in some other post discussion on this forum.

Anyone who's really interested could try some search fu.

The answer was, as I recall, some poster mentioned that an airlock was integrated with the docking clamps, and I took it at face value, until quite a while after, it occurred to me that airlocks take up space and cost money.

After that, I decided cargo hatches, and airlocks, would need to be add ons.

The reason you'd sandwich an airlock between two docking clamps, would be that you'd have two points of contact, thereby greater stability, and implied greater capacity.

 

[MasterGwydion]

I was probably multi-tasking and not paying close enough attention to the conversation that I decided to participate in. Sorry about that.

At least we're all more or less in agreement. I think the takeaway is that docking clamps don't seem to have a hard-and-fast rule regarding access. I keep thinking about that Indigo-class from PoD. It's got 10 docking clamps for 10 fighters. The deck plans put a little room for each of them, but wouldn't those technically be 'airlocks'? I guess I would have envisioned a hallway that they could drain the life support out of for the 10 pilots whenever they deployed to the fighters. Maybe the rectangle for each is intended to represent the hatch access to each. The rules are left vague enough that someone might see things differently.

Or, just maybe, deckplans have no rules, so you shouldn't be using deckplans or artwork as the basis for your rules decisions/opinions.

 

[Terry Mixon]

I was probably multi-tasking and not paying close enough attention to the conversation that I decided to participate in. Sorry about that.

At least we're all more or less in agreement. I think the takeaway is that docking clamps don't seem to have a hard-and-fast rule regarding access. I keep thinking about that Indigo-class from PoD. It's got 10 docking clamps for 10 fighters. The deck plans put a little room for each of them, but wouldn't those technically be 'airlocks'? I guess I would have envisioned a hallway that they could drain the life support out of for the 10 pilots whenever they deployed to the fighters. Maybe the rectangle for each is intended to represent the hatch access to each. The rules are left vague enough that someone might see things differently.

My view is that they don’t come with anything by default but can be paired with airlocks if they are the free ones or the airlocks are paid for. Or these new docking hatches, which don’t have details like tonnage or cost. I think like cargo hatches, they won’t have an associated tonnage or cost. Anyway, it’s enough to settle things and allow them to be usable. Thanks.

 

[Terry Mixon]

Or, just maybe, deckplans have no rules, so you shouldn't be using deckplans or artwork as the basis for your rules decisions/opinions.

If we were using artwork for rules, the express boats in Singularity would mean they have maneuver drives.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

The nice thing is the rules say you get an airlock per 100 tons of ship. Most ships have no more than a couple airlocks, so you could use those free ones beside your docking clamps to make it work at no cost. Need more airlocks, just buy them - much cheaper than EVA.

 

[Sigtrygg]

If we were using artwork for rules, the express boats in Singularity would mean they have maneuver drives.

Nah, that shows venting jump drive plasma in the lead up to jump...

 

[Terry Mixon]

Nah, that shows venting jump drive plasma in the lead up to jump...

Why not?

 

[boggo2300]

The nice thing is the rules say you get an airlock per 100 tons of ship. Most ships have no more than a couple airlocks, so you could use those free ones beside your docking clamps to make it work at no cost. Need more airlocks, just buy them - much cheaper than EVA.

Generally speaking you don't NEED an airlock for a docked ship, sure it may come up sometimes when you are connecting to some ship or boat with an alien atmosphere, but that's pretty uncommon, so a hatch is pretty much all you need with your docking clamp

 

[Condottiere]

You can be creative with your airlock configuration.

At it's simplest, a set of vacuum proof hatches, attached air tank, and a pump.

 

[paltrysum]

Generally speaking you don't NEED an airlock for a docked ship, sure it may come up sometimes when you are connecting to some ship or boat with an alien atmosphere, but that's pretty uncommon, so a hatch is pretty much all you need with your docking clamp

That makes sense, but I guess it depends on design. For example, I never imagined that a Rampart fighter had an underside access hatch. I kind of imagine them as F-15s in space, and therefore there's just the cockpit entrance. To attach one with a docking clamp, you'd have to attach the fighter upside-down on the hull so the pilot could climb in.

On the other hand, if there are purpose-built fighters for the ship, then an underside hatch is fine as long as in your head canon, one is present.

 

[Sigtrygg]

You do it the way the coolest space fighter in science fiction does it - the cockpit is a detachable unit.

I am of course talking about the Space Above and Beyond Hammerhead.

edit - second coolest, the coolest remains the original B5 Starfury...

 

[MasterGwydion]

Death Gliders in Stargate are entered from the bottom. Why would you use a TL-6 aircraft as the basis for your spacecraft instead of using examples of spacecraft? Obviously you don't enter an airplane from underneath, but then again, aircraft don't use docking clamps in real life because then they are no longer streamlined. (except for stuff like the Bell X-1 and the space shuttle). Fighters in HG are all space fighters that can operate in an atmosphere, not atmospheric fighters that can operate in space. So, all of them are designed to be used in space and all of them are designed to be small craft on larger ships. Way different from an F-15 which is only designed to land on the ground. Hell, the F-15 isn't even designed to land on a carrier, much less designed to be used with docking clamps.

That's like using a train when you need to use a lorrey, because you think they should be designed the same way.

Edit -

Also, if they are canopy entry only, do all pilots wear vacc suits? Doesn't that impede the pilots' DEX? What is a better pilot? One that can move about freely wearing only a g-suite or one that can barely move because they are in a vacc suit? Or do you think that cockpits have enough room to remove or enter a vacc suit?

 

[boggo2300]

That makes sense, but I guess it depends on design. For example, I never imagined that a Rampart fighter had an underside access hatch. I kind of imagine them as F-15s in space, and therefore there's just the cockpit entrance. To attach one with a docking clamp, you'd have to attach the fighter upside-down on the hull so the pilot could climb in.

On the other hand, if there are purpose-built fighters for the ship, then an underside hatch is fine as long as in your head canon, one is present.

I never got the impression that Ramparts were ever designed to be used on outside docking clamps...

 

[MasterGwydion]

I never got the impression that Ramparts were ever designed to be used on outside docking clamps...

Or, because of the generic and non-granular way that docking clamps are described, it can be assumed that all ships are constructed with docking clamps in mind, since most highports use docking clamps and not internal bays.

1,000-ton ship

Docking Clamp 4 = 20 tons and 4MCr
Docking Space = 1,100 tons and 275MCr
Full Hangar = 2,000 tons and 400MCr
Docking Facility = 3,000 tons and 750MCr

 

[MongooseMatt]

edit - second coolest, the coolest remains the original B5 Starfury...

You mis-typed X-Wing...

 

[Condottiere]

 

[Hardwire]

Hello, Not sure you have been keeping up with the discussion on Jump Templates. As it looks now the only reference I can find to a Jump Template, in MgT2e is in the WBH. and that is only in a chart about jumping to an empty Hex.

Is a Jump Template only used to jump to an "Empty" Hex or are there other uses for them.

We have no write-up as to what a Jump Template can do for the average Traveller.