Distributed Hulls, Hangers and External Mounts - oh my

[DALT]

Dear All,
I am trying to get my thoughts together on ship designs in preparation for the new High Guard rules coming out soon. To this end I have been re-reading GDW Book 5 and GDW Adventure 5. I have also been reading Mongoose T1 Main rules, Highguard & TCS, together with these forums.
The one book I am missing is Mongoose's T1 Traders and Gunboats, which has something called "External Mounts" used in the example for hauling Cargo. Can anybody reply with the rules for this please. (Are they any different from a Docking Clamp p45 of High Guard) I look forward to the rules on launching fighters, support craft and escape pods.

As per normal (for me) I have been thinking about LASH operations for Fledgling Merchant lines, Battleship vs BattleRiders, accuracy of Jumping to another system (location and time) for individual ships and Fleets - All within the 3rd Imperium's reality (so nothing that changes the fundamental way that things would be done.) To this end, what sources are considered Canon?

 

[wbnc]

if I understand correctly a cargo clamp is just a basic lock down for cargo containers, it does not supply power or allow access to anything loaded on it...it can only be accessed from outside the ship.

 

[AndrewW]

Book 6: Scoundrel has External Cargo. Also, the new edition of High Guard has an External Cargo Mount.

You can mount cargo on the outside of the ship instead of cargo space on the inside. Not really a Docking Clamp which allows for personnel transfer, an External Cargo Mount is like a cargo rack on top of a station wagon as an example.

Supplement 2: Traders and Gunboats has:

Multi-Environment Space
Re-entry Capsules
Re-entry Capsule Launchers

 

[Condottiere]

A large enough clamp that allows an airlock, or at least a door that has the option of attaching an airlock.

 

[AndrewW]

A large enough clamp that allows an airlock, or at least a door that has the option of attaching an airlock.

You could combine a Docking Clamp and an Airlock for that.

 

[Tenacious-Techhunter]

For a real-world example of a Cargo Clamp, see the Twistlock, used with standardized cargo containers under some pretty harsh oceanic conditions.

I would argue putting a dTon value on a cargo clamp is pretty pointless, as 1 dTon's worth could probably hold 1 kdTon's worth of cargo. Better to make it a hull mod.

 

[AndrewW]

I would argue putting a dTon value on a cargo clamp is pretty pointless, as 1 dTon's worth could probably hold 1 kdTon's worth of cargo. Better to make it a hull mod.

It doesn't take any tonnage.

 

[Condottiere]

Making the airlock optional, means that really large clamps can have really large airlocks, ideal for transferring cargo.

 

[PsiTraveller]

The racking for an external cargo mount is a lot like a roof rack on a station wagon. Cargo containers can be attached to the rack. In 2nd edition these containers can be individually explosively separated from the rack in an emergency. "External cargo can be jettisoned remotely. The mount is equipped with explosive bolts, allowing specific cargo to be released if necessary. A ship using external cargo mounts will become unstreamlined." pg 41

First edition noted that the use of external racking allowed for faster handling than fitting things through a cargo door, but the containers were vulnerable to damage from the space environment:
"Ships with internal cargo bays, such as most free traders, offer much more protection to their cargo. The armoured hull
shields the cargo from heat, radiation, micrometeorite impacts or attack and the ship can enter the atmosphere and land at a
DownPort, delivering its cargo much more quickly. However, the cargo bay doors are a literal bottleneck on the amount of cargo
that can be transferred. If the airlock is only big enough to fi t a single container at a time, then unloading all two hundred cargo
containers will take a considerable length of time – hardly ideal when a pirate has you in his sights and is demanding you hand
over all your valuables immediately." (Scoundrel page 51).

A ship with en external racking system will look a lot like a modern container ship, being unloaded by cargo handler pod

The first edition Scoundrel book has a good description of a cargo ship on page 93, but a bad design for one. A 300 core of ship with living compartments and engines has 500 tons of cargo racking attached to it. The ship has Jump 2 capacity when fully loaded at 800 tons, and Jump 4 capacity when at 300 tons. The bad design part is they only have a Jump 2 capable computer. So the idea of a fast shipping route when carrying smaller loads. They could spend 2 MCr more and get a Rating 20 computer with Jump 4 software, (or even 1.5 and get a rating 15 computer that is Jump enhanced) and have a fast courier option.
Also ignore the fuel tank error, 50 tons in external tank in top paragraph and 30 tons mentioned in ship section. At 800 tons the J2 would need 160 tons of fuel for a Jump2.

If you want a ship to be unstreamlined and not really good at landing in atmosphere, give it external racks and let it haul as much cargo as it can. It may be limited to highports and need a cargo pod to unload it but there is income in bulk hauling, especially in 2nd edition. And buy a better computer to allow for fast jumps.