mavikfelna
Cosmic Mongoose
There is a real problem with the automation rules in MgT 2e, though mostly for the Hivers (AoCS2). The K’kree (AoCS1) and the rules in the Traveller Companion are better and may need some tweaking. When you add to it the rules in the Robots Handbook for ship’s brains and robots and how they can interact with ships to automate them, and also Virtual Crew software, it makes the current rules and equipment for the Hivers worse.
The Robot Handbook stuff is explicit automation. The automation rules in the Companion are implicit and AoCS 1&2 and Virtual Crew, are mixed. But they are all automation, though the TC rules are almost purely for crew assistance instead of replacing crew entirely. The Virtual Crew is somewhat nebulous as it has no physical component, like the rules from the TC but it can totally replace the crew, to the point that a bridge is not required, and it can perform physical work and damage control without added robots or equipment.
Virtual Crew and Virtual Gunners can replace any number of crew so long as the computer has sufficient bandwidth to run the programs and operates at the skill level of the program based on its TL and cost. It provides no DMs, just raw skill levels.
The automation rules in the TC allow you to remove standard crew assistance automation for a cost reduction but increase in crew requirements and penalty DMs for crew action or to increase costs and add additional automation for reduced crew and a bonus DM for crew action. It takes no tonnage and only affects cost for the hull and drive spaces. They don’t list a TL for it, it’s probably TL 8, except for the Crew Intensive level, which works at any TL and should be used for any TL below 7, and the Low Automation level is probably TL 7. The automation doesn’t take any tonnage and cost is based on the hull and engineering section costs, from -40% to +100%. It can reduce the total crew by up to 40% or increase it up to +100% depending on high or no automation. And can provide DMs for crew functions from -2 to +2.
K’Kree automation is just Virtual Crew/Gunners with an added tonnage cost and harder limits on crew replaced. It provides a DM from -1 to +2 on certain tasks. I think the Virtual Crew rules should actually follow something like this, requiring a minor percent of hull tonnage be set aside for robots and other equipment to allow it to function. I think the K’kree automation should provide skill levels rather than just DMs. It should probably happen a TL or 2 after similar Imperial tech but otherwise function similarly. The Standard Operations package should be levels 0/1/2, for Basic/Improved/Advanced but suffer a -1 DM for any non-basic task. The Optimized packages would provide +1 DMs to all skill checks. Also, I would allow any ship to add additional computers just for running Virtual Crew software but the computer must be of the same or higher TL as the software package to run it properly. A lower TL computer should introduce negative DMs equal to the difference in TL from the software. I would possibly suggest reducing the hull % by half but round fractions up and have a minimum size of 1 ton except for small craft, with a minimum of .5 tons there.
The Hiver automation, which started me on this thread, requires a lot of tonnage and much larger cost based on the ship's entire tonnage and provides no positive benefits beyond reduced or eliminated crew positions and being able to avoid rolling for very basic tasks. Hiver automation can be full automation, for 12% of the ship’s tonnage at 12.5 MCr per 100 tons of ship, or partial, which can be even more than 20% of ship’s tonnage or as low as 1% for the minimum, focused automation and can be double or more the costs of full automation for full ship coverage down to 1MCr per 100 for a mission package. They suffer negative DMs for all actions, require direct input for some reduction in penalties, restrict access to parts of the ship making damage control and maintenance difficult and they suffer a time penalty to any unattended action.
There are almost no benefits to using Hiver automation, only downsides and those downsides are sufficiently bad that combat is almost impossible for them, their automated weapons suffer a -4 DM to hit in all cases, meaning a 12+ required to hit when their opponent needs an 8+, and moving cargo is uneconomical compared to unautomated ships due to the size, cost and slowness of the system. This is compared to other automation that doesn’t suffer negative DMs at all, or very minor negative DMs at low tech levels.
The TC automation can be easily replicated by the RH robots and brains for similar costs, or improved on to total automation for around half of the cost on a smaller ship, and savings getting significantly bigger on larger ships, and no cost in tonnage. RH robots and brains are far and away the cheapest and easiest way to automate at a ship. Robot costs are fixed, like the Virtual Crew options but much less expensive and, like Virtual Crew, do not take up any space on the ship. A prototype Conscious Intelligence robot brain can be built at TL 16 with level 3 skills and +3 DMs on top of that for under 4MC, including the Haptic Brain Interface for the bridge.
I would dearly love to have interesting racial option for various tech, including automation, but mostly in flavor and only a little where function is needed to be different, and with it balancing reasonably so races that are supposed to be major and competitive can actually do so.
So, I don’t know how to fix everything, but here’s my idea so far. The TC automation can pretty much remain as is. This could be combined with Virtual Crew to further reduce crew and the DMs would stack.
Virtual Crew/Gunners should use costs and values for the K’Kree automation but maybe at 1 TL earlier with half the crew replaced values, FRU. Use skill levels instead of DMs for the crew skill DM and then apply DMs from Optimization or Basic packages. Allow additional computers to be installed only for running Virtual Crew to allow for large crews to be automated.
RH Robots and robot brains should require the virtual crew software for the crew they replace, but they use their own skill levels and DMs instead of the software for skill checks.
Hivers get the Virtual Crew installation at 1 lower TL than normal but it suffers a -1 DM and takes 10% longer to perform non-basic tasks without supervision. They may perform basic tasks without a skill check.
The Robot Handbook stuff is explicit automation. The automation rules in the Companion are implicit and AoCS 1&2 and Virtual Crew, are mixed. But they are all automation, though the TC rules are almost purely for crew assistance instead of replacing crew entirely. The Virtual Crew is somewhat nebulous as it has no physical component, like the rules from the TC but it can totally replace the crew, to the point that a bridge is not required, and it can perform physical work and damage control without added robots or equipment.
Virtual Crew and Virtual Gunners can replace any number of crew so long as the computer has sufficient bandwidth to run the programs and operates at the skill level of the program based on its TL and cost. It provides no DMs, just raw skill levels.
The automation rules in the TC allow you to remove standard crew assistance automation for a cost reduction but increase in crew requirements and penalty DMs for crew action or to increase costs and add additional automation for reduced crew and a bonus DM for crew action. It takes no tonnage and only affects cost for the hull and drive spaces. They don’t list a TL for it, it’s probably TL 8, except for the Crew Intensive level, which works at any TL and should be used for any TL below 7, and the Low Automation level is probably TL 7. The automation doesn’t take any tonnage and cost is based on the hull and engineering section costs, from -40% to +100%. It can reduce the total crew by up to 40% or increase it up to +100% depending on high or no automation. And can provide DMs for crew functions from -2 to +2.
K’Kree automation is just Virtual Crew/Gunners with an added tonnage cost and harder limits on crew replaced. It provides a DM from -1 to +2 on certain tasks. I think the Virtual Crew rules should actually follow something like this, requiring a minor percent of hull tonnage be set aside for robots and other equipment to allow it to function. I think the K’kree automation should provide skill levels rather than just DMs. It should probably happen a TL or 2 after similar Imperial tech but otherwise function similarly. The Standard Operations package should be levels 0/1/2, for Basic/Improved/Advanced but suffer a -1 DM for any non-basic task. The Optimized packages would provide +1 DMs to all skill checks. Also, I would allow any ship to add additional computers just for running Virtual Crew software but the computer must be of the same or higher TL as the software package to run it properly. A lower TL computer should introduce negative DMs equal to the difference in TL from the software. I would possibly suggest reducing the hull % by half but round fractions up and have a minimum size of 1 ton except for small craft, with a minimum of .5 tons there.
The Hiver automation, which started me on this thread, requires a lot of tonnage and much larger cost based on the ship's entire tonnage and provides no positive benefits beyond reduced or eliminated crew positions and being able to avoid rolling for very basic tasks. Hiver automation can be full automation, for 12% of the ship’s tonnage at 12.5 MCr per 100 tons of ship, or partial, which can be even more than 20% of ship’s tonnage or as low as 1% for the minimum, focused automation and can be double or more the costs of full automation for full ship coverage down to 1MCr per 100 for a mission package. They suffer negative DMs for all actions, require direct input for some reduction in penalties, restrict access to parts of the ship making damage control and maintenance difficult and they suffer a time penalty to any unattended action.
There are almost no benefits to using Hiver automation, only downsides and those downsides are sufficiently bad that combat is almost impossible for them, their automated weapons suffer a -4 DM to hit in all cases, meaning a 12+ required to hit when their opponent needs an 8+, and moving cargo is uneconomical compared to unautomated ships due to the size, cost and slowness of the system. This is compared to other automation that doesn’t suffer negative DMs at all, or very minor negative DMs at low tech levels.
The TC automation can be easily replicated by the RH robots and brains for similar costs, or improved on to total automation for around half of the cost on a smaller ship, and savings getting significantly bigger on larger ships, and no cost in tonnage. RH robots and brains are far and away the cheapest and easiest way to automate at a ship. Robot costs are fixed, like the Virtual Crew options but much less expensive and, like Virtual Crew, do not take up any space on the ship. A prototype Conscious Intelligence robot brain can be built at TL 16 with level 3 skills and +3 DMs on top of that for under 4MC, including the Haptic Brain Interface for the bridge.
I would dearly love to have interesting racial option for various tech, including automation, but mostly in flavor and only a little where function is needed to be different, and with it balancing reasonably so races that are supposed to be major and competitive can actually do so.
So, I don’t know how to fix everything, but here’s my idea so far. The TC automation can pretty much remain as is. This could be combined with Virtual Crew to further reduce crew and the DMs would stack.
Virtual Crew/Gunners should use costs and values for the K’Kree automation but maybe at 1 TL earlier with half the crew replaced values, FRU. Use skill levels instead of DMs for the crew skill DM and then apply DMs from Optimization or Basic packages. Allow additional computers to be installed only for running Virtual Crew to allow for large crews to be automated.
RH Robots and robot brains should require the virtual crew software for the crew they replace, but they use their own skill levels and DMs instead of the software for skill checks.
Hivers get the Virtual Crew installation at 1 lower TL than normal but it suffers a -1 DM and takes 10% longer to perform non-basic tasks without supervision. They may perform basic tasks without a skill check.
