Common Areas.

[Belisknar]

Common Areas and Living Space
It is common practice to assign an additional amount of tonnage, equal to half that used for staterooms, as common areas or general living space. These will typically be recreation area such as a mess, canteen, or lounge.

This is not strictly necessary and ships can and will vary in this allocation, either increasing it to give crews and passengers a more luxurious (or at least more comfortable) journey, or cutting back to give more space to useful components though at a cost of crew comfort

Too much space is being suggested to be allocated for common areas. 50% of Stateroom Tonnage is way more than what should be the suggested guideline. While I note the second part that it states it not being necessary with the majority of craft leaning towards the lower end (see below) the 50% just seems too big to be the standard guideline that is listed for design.

I'm basing this purely on the listed designs of the common spacecraft that are provided in the October update

Far Trader 200 Tons: 10 Staterooms(40 Tons) Common Area (9 Tons)
Free Trader 200 Tons: 10 Staterooms(40 Tons) Common Area (11 Tons)
Lab Ship 400 Tons: 20 Staterooms(80 Tons) Common Area (15 Tons)
Merc Cruiser 800 Tons: 25 Staterooms(100 Tons) Common Area (44 Tons)
Patrol Corvette 400 Tons: 12 Staterooms(48 Tons) Common Area (10 Tons)
Safari Ship 200 Tons: 11 Staterooms(44 Tons) Common Area (13 Tons) Trophy Room (7 Tons)
Subsidised Liner 600 Tons: 30 Staterooms(120 Tons) Common Area (45 Tons)
Subsidised Merchant 400 Tons: 19 Staterooms(76 Tons) Common Area (5.5 Tons)
Yacht 200 Tons: 12 Staterooms(48 Tons) Common Area (32 Tons) Luxury (10 Tons)

The majority of these ships are around or less than 25% of stateroom tonnage being allocated for common areas. In this list only the Mercenary Cruiser comes close to the 50% suggestion, the Subsidised Liner and Safari are around 33% though the Safari also has the Trophy room which might bump it slightly. The Yacht has 66% and is also bolstered by an additional 10 tons of luxuries.

Seeing as these are the "common" ships and basing off these numbers, it would seem that the more accepted number is 25% and that moving up towards 50% and beyond is more for the luxury end.

 

[wbnc]

The majority of these ships are around or less than 25% of stateroom tonnage being allocated for common areas. In this list only the Mercenary Cruiser comes close to the 50% suggestion, the Subsidised Liner and Safari are around 33% though the Safari also has the Trophy room which might bump it slightly. The Yacht has 66% and is also bolstered by an additional 10 tons of luxuries.

Seeing as these are the "common" ships and basing off these numbers, it would seem that the more accepted number is 25% and that moving up towards 50% and beyond is more for the luxury end.

I'd say your right, but it's a suggestion not a requirement so variance is expected...

from the list most of the ships are "Working" vessels. I imagine the tonnage set aside for common areas would be less than say a passenger liner, or a private vessel that isn't as concerned with maximum use of it's tonnage for income generation.

the safari ship, and merc cruiser, being the exceptions to the others listed. I would expect mercs to need/want more room...either to relax, or train in...and since they are guys who carry guns for a living no one wants them cranky.

as for the patrol corvette It's a military vessel..unless you are talking about a carrier, battleship or other large class, recreational space is extremely limited.

 

[Belisknar]

My point that even with it being a suggestion it's too generous based on the common working ship. dropping it to a quarter of the stateroom tonnage would bring it more in line with what is already there and then the variance that we see makes more sense for the merc cruiser giving them more living space since it would be more a living ship, or could allow for things such as training areas.

 

[MongooseMatt]

This is an area I want to keep deliberately fuzzy, as we don't want to track every little hatch and nook, and if a ref wants to add an alcove or chamber to a specific area of a ship, he should be able to just go ahead and do so, without doing any maths or recalculations.

However, this is a reasonable point - will reduce to a suggested 25%.

 

[Belisknar]

This is an area I want to keep deliberately fuzzy, as we don't want to track every little hatch and nook, and if a ref wants to add an alcove or chamber to a specific area of a ship, he should be able to just go ahead and do so, without doing any maths or recalculations.

However, this is a reasonable point - will reduce to a suggested 25%.

Thanks Matt, appreciate the comments on the reasons behind why it was so vague. That does make sense.