Far Scouts Reimagined - Ramscoops and Collectors

[wingsday]

Someone needs to design a pop-up or deployable Ramscoops

Perhaps with an adjustable hull?

 

[MasterGwydion]

Perhaps with an adjustable hull?

Maybe. I do not yet have the book that contains those rules.

 

[wingsday]

Maybe. I do not yet have the book that contains those rules.

If you can use it to disguise a medium bay in a 130t ship, I don't see why you couldn't use it to hide 100t of ramscoops in a 1900t ship, weapons arw the only ship component explicitly called out though

 

[Condottiere]

Seems more of an issue if the ramship suddenly develops streamlining.

 

[alex_greene]

Or you could declare that the ramscoops are designed to be sealed for entry in atmosphere, allowing streamlined vessels to mount them, adding nothing to the mass but costing three times extra.
When in doubt, keep everything the same but jack up the price 300%. That's the Traveller way.

 

[Sigtrygg]

The ramscoop is just a powerful magnetic funnel, switch it off.

 

[alex_greene]

The ramscoop is just a powerful magnetic funnel, switch it off.

I suspect there could be a gravitic element, also. There's nothing that says that ramscoops can't be designed to act as fuel collectors and exotic Jump particle collectors at the same time, storing the hydrogen fuel in the fusion tanks and the Jump juice in the J-drive's capacitors, or did nobody think of that when they wrote High Guard?

I won't be posting a rewrite of the Rift Runner or DSB above to combine collectors and ramscoops and make them available for streamlined ships, allowing them to land on planets with atmospheres. You can do that, and see how much extra cargo space your ships can save.

 

[Condottiere]

They're alternatives.

And in either case, you keep swimming around in space, until you're full, then migrate.

 

[alex_greene]

They're alternatives.

And in either case, you keep swimming around in space, until you're full, then migrate.

Pretty much par for the course for player characters. What was the name of this game again?

 

[alex_greene]

So now we need to think of rules for collectors and ramscoops to account for the idea that they may be activated only for short periods of time, such as three days while the Travellers head for the surface in a shuttle, and the shipboard crew just unfolds the collectors to top up the Jump capacitors rather than have to refill them completely, or makes a brisk four-day jaunt around the star and back again before the Travellers have wrapped up their latest assassination attempt or heist and collected their pay.

 

[Condottiere]

Someone suggested breakaway hulls.

One can go feeding, and the other, business.

 

[Zapgun]

Far Scout, Class: Rift Runner

TL 15	Hull 80	Crew Pilot, Astrogator, Engineers x2
Armour	Bonded Superdense, 4	7.68 tons
M-Drive, TL 15, energy efficient x3 (-75%)	Thrust 2	4 tons
J-Drive, TL 15, energy efficient (-25%)	Jump 4	25 tons
Extra capacitors	Allows drive to make two successive jumps	5 tons
Power Plant, Fusion, TL 15, 20 points / ton	240	12 tons
Fuel for 24 weeks of operation		12 tons
Ramscoops (5 tons + 1% of ship tonnage, minimum 10 tons)	Process 50 tons per week	10 tons
Collectors (5 tons + 4% of ship tonnage)		13 tons
Remove fuel scoops, fuel processors		-2 tons

Keep the rest of the stats for the Far Scout, but add

Biospheres x2

Eliminate life support costs for crew of 4

2 tons

Cargo

47 tons

Power Requirements

Basic Ship Systems	40
Manoeuvre Drive	10
Jump Drive	60
Sensors	5
Weapons	2
Biospheres	2

Let somebody else worry about the cost. The Scouts can put some sort of number in their annual budget. Talk to the Bureaucracy.

Nice design Alex. Curious though, where did you find the rules on 'extra capacitors' giving you additional jump range? I didn't seem to find that in High Guard.

 

[tytalan]

The biggest problem you will have with these is they are basically useless if your more they 1000D of a planetary body since your M-Drive will not work.

 

[Zapgun]

The biggest problem you will have with these is they are basically useless if your more they 1000D of a planetary body since your M-Drive will not work.

Yes, they need the deep space maneuver system added to them.

 

[WHULorigan]

The biggest problem you will have with these is they are basically useless if your more they 1000D of a planetary body since your M-Drive will not work.

I don't remember specifically what the MgT rules state, but in T4 & T5, after the 1000D limit form any/all gravitating bodies the M-Drive still works, but at only 1.0% efficiency. So they are still useable, just not like they are in-system.

 

[wintertraveller]

Someone needs to design a pop-up or deployable Ramscoop.

Maybe the adjustable hull feature could cover this pop-up feature like is does for all weapon systems including the big ones?

 

[MasterGwydion]

They're alternatives.

And in either case, you keep swimming around in space, until you're full, then migrate.

Now I want to build this as a Bio-ship. lol

 

[Arkathan]

Nice design Alex. Curious though, where did you find the rules on 'extra capacitors' giving you additional jump range? I didn't seem to find that in High Guard.

Didn't see anyone answer you, so it is on pg42 of HG22 in the Black Globe section.
MCr 3 per ton.

 

[MasterGwydion]

Didn't see anyone answer you, so it is on pg42 of HG22 in the Black Globe section.
MCr 3 per ton.

Yeah. They really tucked that into a stupid spot in the book.

 

[Arkathan]

Yeah. They really tucked that into a stupid spot in the book.

Yes, and the tradition has been carried on since the LBB 5 High Guard.
I guess I had dipped out on the thread by the time the question was asked, but when it got necro'd I saw the question and knew where to look... because it has always been in that dumb spot.