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.

 

[Terry Mixon]

@MongooseMatt or @paltrysum, I have a question about the no cost airlocks that one can get free for every hundred tons. The given assumption seems to be that they don't require tonnage, which makes no sense to me. They take up space on the deck plans and they are not 0zero size, so they should require the 2 tons of space of a standard airlock.

To ask the question clearly, does a no cost airlock take up 2 tons of the ship's tonnage allotment or is it a calorie-free sandwich? Or, perhaps as @Vormaerin suggested, the free airlock is assumed to be lumped with corridors and other assumed tonnage?

 

[MongooseMatt]

To ask the question clearly, does a no cost airlock take up 2 tons of the ship's tonnage allotment or is it a calorie-free sandwich? Or, perhaps as @Vormaerin suggested, the free airlock is assumed to be lumped with corridors and other assumed tonnage?

Actually, given that we specifically mention that there is 10% 'wiggle' room on deck plans, due to design and building differences... this will be very much up to you and, indeed, you may find it useful to decide on a ship-by-ship basis.

 

[MasterGwydion]

Actually, given that we specifically mention that there is 10% 'wiggle' room on deck plans, due to design and building differences... this will be very much up to you and, indeed, you may find it useful to decide on a ship-by-ship basis.

So, in other words, again, there is no rule! What a stupid response from the people who are supposed to be designing the rules. Now I can build a ship with 5,000 airlocks. So, by your response, that ship uses 10,000 tons more tonnage at one table, but not at another while playing the same game. Gee thanks! That cleared things up marvelously!

Unless you are telling Me that, by the rules, I can cram 11,000 tons of components into 10,000 tons of ship and that is legal? Because We are not discussing deckplans. We are discussing math and if airlocks cost space and money, just money, or just space.

 

[Arkathan]

MG, the rules already call for optional free pocket-universe airlocks for every 100 tons. That is the rule.
The 10% rule negates the argument that because they are on a deck plan, the free airlocks must take up ship volume. That has also been the rule for years.
The confusion came in because someone misunderstood the minimum 1 per 500 ton rule and said the sky is falling.

If you do not use deck plans, there is no issue. (I do use deck plans and there is no issue)

 

[MasterGwydion]

MG, the rules already call for optional free pocket-universe airlocks for every 100 tons. That is the rule.
The 10% rule negates the argument that because they are on a deck plan, the free airlocks must take up ship volume. That has also been the rule for years.
The confusion came in because someone misunderstood the minimum 1 per 500 ton rule and said the sky is falling.

If you do not use deck plans, there is no issue. (I do use deck plans and there is no issue)

Deckplans and art are never accurate. (That is why I never use either.) I understand that, but I was discussing the actual math, not the art. What matters to me is when they count as tonnage or cost on the spreadsheet and when they don't. Since the spreadsheet is determined by rules in the books, then it is a valid question. When are airlocks free in price? When are airlocks free in tonnage? When must one, the other, or both be accounted for in shipbuilding, not deckplan drawing.

 

[Condottiere]

In Classic, there was a lot more leeway to draw upon from standard components, for odds and ends.

 

[Terry Mixon]

Actually, given that we specifically mention that there is 10% 'wiggle' room on deck plans, due to design and building differences... this will be very much up to you and, indeed, you may find it useful to decide on a ship-by-ship basis.

Thank you.

 

[Arkathan]

Deckplans and art are never accurate. (That is why I never use either.) I understand that, but I was discussing the actual math, not the art. What matters to me is when they count as tonnage or cost on the spreadsheet and when they don't. Since the spreadsheet is determined by rules in the books, then it is a valid question. When are airlocks free in price? When are airlocks free in tonnage? When must one, the other, or both be accounted for in shipbuilding, not deckplan drawing.

When you want something bigger than two tons, and/or when you want more than 1 per 100 tons, you have to pay the credits and tonnage.
Two ton airlocks numbering less than 1 per 100 full tons are included with the hull.

 

[MasterGwydion]

When you want something bigger than two tons, and/or when you want more than 1 per 100 tons, you have to pay the credits and tonnage.
Two ton airlocks numbering less than 1 per 100 full tons are included with the hull.

So, you actually have only 98 tons per 100 tons to build with? Or if I choose to not include the airlock, do I have 102 ton per 100 tons to build with?

 

[Arkathan]

So, you actually have only 98 tons per 100 tons to build with? Or if I choose to not include the airlock, do I have 102 ton per 100 tons to build with?

If you build a 99 ton small craft, you have 97 tons to build with, since you need an airlock.
If you build a 100 ton craft, you have 100 tons to build plus a free two-ton airlock included with the hull.
This is consistent with the examples in High Guard.

 

[MasterGwydion]

If you build a 99 ton small craft, you have 97 tons to build with, since you need an airlock.
If you build a 100 ton craft, you have 100 tons to build plus a free two-ton airlock included with the hull.
This is consistent with the examples in High Guard.

If I remove that airlock do I gain back the 2 tons in the 100-ton ship? An airlock isn't required until 500 tons or so it seems.

 

[Tforbes]

If I remove that airlock do I gain back the 2 tons in the 100-ton ship?

Diabolical. Im imagining a Sims swimming pool situation where the travellers enter the ship and then the airlock disappears and theyre trapped

An airlock isn't required until 500 tons or so it seems.

There are a couple nested / connected rules.

#1 - All ships need at least 1 airlock
#2 - Every 100-tons a ship CAN have a "freebie" airlock
#3 - for every 500-tons a ship MUST have 1 airlock

 

[MasterGwydion]

Diabolical. Im imagining a Sims swimming pool situation where the travellers enter the ship and then the airlock disappears and theyre trapped

LMAO!!!

There are a couple nested / connected rules.

#1 - All ships need at least 1 airlock

False. Where is the airlock on the Light Fighter?

#2 - Every 100-tons a ship CAN have a "freebie" airlock
#3 - for every 500-tons a ship MUST have 1 airlock

Which means that until 500 tons, no airlock is required. Again, see the Light Fighter.

 

[Condottiere]

I would think more that you are in the middle of constructing your primitive planetoid spacecraft at two kilostarbux per tonne, collect your free airlocks valued at two hundred kilostarbux per two tonnes, and resell them.

What do they call it?

Infinite money glitch.

 

[Arkathan]

If I remove that airlock do I gain back the 2 tons in the 100-ton ship? An airlock isn't required until 500 tons or so it seems.

No, and now you cannot get in or out of the ship without depressurizing it, If you have a cargo hatch.
Cutting torch and welder otherwise.

The requirement is 500 tons or less. At 501, you need two airlocks.

 

[MasterGwydion]

No, and now you cannot get in or out of the ship without depressurizing it, If you have a cargo hatch.
Cutting torch and welder otherwise.

Or you can't get in or out of your ship outside of an atmosphere or hangar bay. Ship can be designed to fly from atmosphere to atmosphere through space and never need an airlock. Such as fighters, even SDBs are able to only have a hatch if they are not designed to be exited in space.

 

[Tforbes]

LMAO!!!

False. Where is the airlock on the Light Fighter?

if the cockpit pressurizes when the pilot is inside, then the cockpit IS the airlock.
If the cockpit remains unpressurized, then the flight suit is the airlock.

Which means that until 500 tons, no airlock is required. Again, see the Light Fighter.

I read "for every 500 tons" to represent the band between 1ton-500tons and then 501tons to 1000tons to REQUIRE a 2nd airlock.

However, I recognize the substantial difference an Airlock (the formal doorway in HG) and an airlock (which could be a simple hatch if the Travellers are willing to completely depressurize the ship for entry / exit)

 

[Vormaerin]

The second is not an airlock. It's just an airtight doorway. The entire point of an airlock is that you don't have to depressurize the entire ship.

"An airlock is a room or compartment which permits passage between environments of differing atmospheric pressure or composition, while minimizing the changing of pressure or composition between the differing environments."

 

[Tforbes]

The second is not an airlock. It's just an airtight doorway. The entire point of an airlock is that you don't have to depressurize the entire ship.

"An airlock is a room or compartment which permits passage between environments of differing atmospheric pressure or composition, while minimizing the changing of pressure or composition between the differing environments."

if they closed off the internal doors to the Bridge and crew quarters, then would the rest of the main body of the ship be considered an airlock for purposes of this example about entering into the ship via a hatch?

 

[Vormaerin]

Sure, for values of airlock that make the word essentially meaningless. If you say airlock, everyone is going to expect a foyer with airtight doors one both sides so you can change the atmosphere in a small area when transitioning instead of a huge area.

So, yes, in theory, the foyer could be 90% of your house. But you've stretched the meaning to a point where no one will understand what you are saying.