Drop Tanks... Back From the Dead?

[rinku]

Tukera might even be able to sell at a premium, leveraging their supposed fast delivery.

"THIS Year's latest Core models! Only our advanced L-Hyd tank equipped Mega-Liners can deliver! Don't wait months and months just to get LAST year's air/rafts!"

Which reminds me. You want a time sensitive cargo that you can reliably get more than Cr25,000 per ton from? Haute couture shipped to the provincials.

 

[Vormaerin]

Not really. At least, not if Future Man is anything like modern man. It's pretty consistently established that businesses won't pay more for faster delivery if they can just order earlier.

Consumers will sometimes pay for faster delivery, but even then there's a lot of resistance which is why it tends to get rolled into subscriptions or other ways of hiding the shipping premiums.

PASSENGERS will pay for faster travel if they can afford it. But not merchandise.

 

[rinku]

That's all very logical, but it misses the reality that hype, spin, and FOMO are what really drive most people's purchase choices.

In reality? Those Air/Rafts may well have been shipped two years ago by regular means and delivered a month before the advertisement was even written. But they're still THIS YEAR'S MODEL FROM THE CORE and can be marketed at a premium because of the supposed existence of the fast delivery ships.

And if an actual latest-fashion-as-possible ballgown from Core was authentically fast-shipped to Regina? The absolute coup of the season, my dear! Worth every Megacredit! (Admittedly that won't work in bulk, but the lesser quality copies for the upper middle class customers will)

 

[Condottiere]

How much does a tonne of used clothing from Goodwill/Capitol cost?

 

[rinku]

They'll deliver for shipping cost.

 

[Condottiere]

And then, marketed (and priced) as the latest Empire fashion.

 

[rinku]

See, C gets it...

 

[Vormaerin]

Freighters are NOT normally shipping for consumers. They are shipping for businesses. Consumers WILL (sometimes) pay for faster delivery. Businesses almost never will if they have any way to avoid it. Container ships can absolutely cross the seas faster than they do, but it uses more fuel and therefore costs more. Every time anyone's experimented with that, it's been a failure. Slower and cheaper wins hands down.

 

[Condottiere]

Alaskan king crabs in low berth.

 

[boggo2300]

Alaskan king crabs in low berth.

is most likely an EXTREMELY inefficient and expensive way of shipping them. something designed to suspend and reanimate a human being is massive overkill for live shipping crabs... hell use seperate fuel tankage for the powerplant, use unrefined fuel and dump em in there! This is not a serious suggestion)

 

[Condottiere]

These are containers designed to float within the hydrogen fuel tanks of a ship and are harder than concealed compartments to detect, as even a thorough examination of the ship does not detect the compartment unless the fuel tanks are opened and searched. Such compartments can only be accessed when the fuel tank is at least three-quarters empty.

A fuel tank compartment inflicts DM-4 to Electronics (sensors) checks and DM-6 to Investigate checks made to search for it.

Fuel tank compartments cost Cr4000 per ton. Note that the tonnage for these compartments is deducted from the ship’s fuel tankage, not its total hull.

 

[rinku]

Refrigerated cargo...

 

[MasterGwydion]

is most likely an EXTREMELY inefficient and expensive way of shipping them. something designed to suspend and reanimate a human being is massive overkill for live shipping crabs... hell use seperate fuel tankage for the powerplant, use unrefined fuel and dump em in there! This is not a serious suggestion)

They use modified low berths for transporting lifestock

 

[Condottiere]

Optionally, we could dose the Alaskan king crabs with the fast drug.

 

[boggo2300]

Optionally, we could dose the Alaskan king crabs with the fast drug.

just chuck em in jump nets and let the environment snap freeze em!

 

[Condottiere]

You can use ordinary nets.

Confined within the jump bubble, it would be the equivalent of vacuum freeze.

But, without atmospheric pressure, their eyeballs would pop out and their blood would boil.

 

[boggo2300]

You can use ordinary nets.

Confined within the jump bubble, it would be the equivalent of vacuum freeze.

But, without atmospheric pressure, their eyeballs would pop out and their blood would boil.

only if you don't jump, anything external to the ship not in a jump net gets left behind when you jump.

 

[MasterGwydion]

only if you don't jump, anything external to the ship not in a jump net gets left behind when you jump.

Or causes a misjump, same as drop tanks that don't get far enough away from the ship.

 

[Condottiere]

Only if you don't calculate in the extra baggage.

Anything within the jump bubble drops into the rabbit hole.

And, as long as it's attached the the primary hull, won't wander off.

 

[rinku]

Well, as I suggested earlier, those fuel tank compatments are going to be a bit chilly, too.

Boiling point of Hydrogen is -252.9 °C, so those smuggling compartments had better be bloody well insulated or they'll cook the fuel. Unless you're smuggling liquid hydrogen, I guess...

I'm... just not seeing them as a practical proposition.