Fighting Ships Preview

[MongooseMatt]

Can be found at;

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/home/detail.php?qsID=1574

 

[EDG]

It'd be interesting to see what these ships look like - the artwork for them in the original CT books was frankly the worst ship art I've ever seen. Hopefully you've got Shaded-Ship-Art-Guy to do a bang-up job on them (who is that, btw?)

 

[walkir]

Fuel for one Week of operation? That's one jump minus the time to reach / leave 100D...

 

[AndrewW]

It'd be interesting to see what these ships look like - the artwork for them in the original CT books was frankly the worst ship art I've ever seen. Hopefully you've got Shaded-Ship-Art-Guy to do a bang-up job on them (who is that, btw?)

One ship in the preview does have an image.

 

[AndrewW]

Over the years, various ships have suffered generator failures and the devices have not replaced.

I hope this isn't a preview of the general quality of the editing.

 

[EDG]

One ship in the preview does have an image.

I know, I'd just be curious to see others.

 

[lurker]

Over the years, various ships have suffered generator failures and the devices have not replaced.

I hope this isn't a preview of the general quality of the editing.

Three errors in just the first half of the first line of the official Mongoose website description of Supplement 3: Fighting Ships

Detaling the largest and most powerful vessels every to play the space lanes,

 

[simonh]

Fuel for one Week of operation? That's one jump minus the time to reach / leave 100D...

I suppose this vessel is only supposed to operate in a fleet context, but still it's crippled because such a tight fuel capacity means it'll be unable to cope with even the least disruptive of emergency situations. Any military vessel should really have fuel for a minimum of a month's operation. Preferably 3 months. After all, how long might a protracted battle from planet to planet across a star system, or flee-and-hide from a surprise encounter with an enemy raiding party take? I'd want 4 weeks fuel endurance in a civilian vessel, let alone a military one.

I've noticed this with other designs as well, it's not a big deal really because I'm fully prepared to allow a few extra weeks worth of fuel in the 'slop space' from it being a fairly high level, abstracted design system.

Simon Hibbs

 

[Stainless]

Poor proof-reading again. Sheesh, yet another book to not purchase. Despite my initial interest in MGT, so far they're doing a good job at saving my money.

 

[walkir]

Fuel for one Week of operation? That's one jump minus the time to reach / leave 100D...

I suppose this vessel is only supposed to operate in a fleet context, but still it's crippled because such a tight fuel capacity means it'll be unable to cope with even the least disruptive of emergency situations. Any military vessel should really have fuel for a minimum of a month's operation. Preferably 3 months. After all, how long might a protracted battle from planet to planet across a star system, or flee-and-hide from a surprise encounter with an enemy raiding party take? I'd want 4 weeks fuel endurance in a civilian vessel, let alone a military one.

I've noticed this with other designs as well, it's not a big deal really because I'm fully prepared to allow a few extra weeks worth of fuel in the 'slop space' from it being a fairly high level, abstracted design system.

Simon Hibbs

Well, the funniest things are the fuel processors. They are just a waste of space as the ship either has J-6 capability or not enough time to process the fuel. Well, the ship has the time, but the life support will fail after a week...

4+ weeks is perfect, but everything less than two weeks on a jump-capable ship is suicide. (Or murder, depending oin who designed it)

 

[simonh]

Poor proof-reading again. Sheesh, yet another book to not purchase. Despite my initial interest in MGT, so far they're doing a good job at saving my money.

Whoa there, I think that's going a bit far. I've been very pleased with the editing on the Traveller line. Every book I've bought has been a very useful resource. Sure there are things I disagree with, but only in the spirit of constructive criticism. Overall it's a nice design, and the deck plans are certainly worth having.

Simon Hibbs

 

[MongooseMatt]

I hope this isn't a preview of the general quality of the editing.

It isn't, no - for some reason this preview seems to have been drawn from a pre-edit file. Looking into that (it _should_ be impossible with our processes, but there is no accounting for Mr Cock Up).

Will be fixed come Monday. The print version will not be affected.

 

[AndrewW]

It isn't, no - for some reason this preview seems to have been drawn from a pre-edit file. Looking into that (it _should_ be impossible with our processes, but there is no accounting for Mr Cock Up).

Will be fixed come Monday. The print version will not be affected.

Things can happen sometimes. Good to hear.

 

[lurker]

Over the years, various ships have suffered generator failures and the devices have not replaced.

I hope this isn't a preview of the general quality of the editing.

Three errors in just the first half of the first line of the official Mongoose website description of Supplement 3: Fighting Ships

Detaling the largest and most powerful vessels every to play the space lanes,

I see they have corrected this.

 

[captainjack23]

Fuel for one Week of operation? That's one jump minus the time to reach / leave 100D...

True, but only if it executes a jump -6. At 5 it has extra fuel for another 3 weeks. Really, though, it should have a droptank of some sort, but that requires adding stuff to the design. I think a minimal change can make it work. One could argue, I suppose that the time in jump space counts as minimal expenditure of power as detailed in High guard, counting as about 7/10 of a week .

But a better solution would be build the P Plant at TL 15, and M drives at TL +3 which gives a 75% reduction in space recovering 11 tons - and possibly one ton of cargo or take a compact bridge, perhaps. This gives you either 12 or 16 extra tons for fuel, and 1+ weeks extra endurance.

Its much more expensive due to the high tech power parts, but it is a hot rod.

Assuming that any jump it makes will be from either a fleet or a station, outside of a 100d zone, there's minimal time before the outward jump, and a weeks thrust to get to its target; its tight, but doable. For planetary landings, or for any locations well within a deep 100d jump shadow, use another ship.

[Plug]
Or, even better, Remulak-Lamaar Shipyards produces an excellent 100dt J6 courier -the XPS6 (Mustang)- for the Scout service. At MCr 198 , it is 100Mcr less, delivers up to 6 tons securely out to J6, and at 6G thrust, will get it there as fast as possible ! Now available for civilian and military purchase !
Details in "Book 3: Scout" !
[/Plug]

 

[walkir]

Fuel for one Week of operation? That's one jump minus the time to reach / leave 100D...

True, but only if it executes a jump -6.

You wouldn't fit in a J-6 drive otherwise. Going J-5 would save MCr 18 and 8 dTons before considering to reduce the fuel tanks.

One could argue, I suppose that the time in jump space counts as minimal expenditure of power as detailed in High guard, counting as about 7/10 of a week.

So the J-Drive is only needed at full power to enter and leave Jumpspace? (And where exactly is it detailed, I did not find details about that)

But a better solution would be build the P Plant at TL 15, and M drives at TL +3 which gives a 75% reduction in space recovering 11 tons - and possibly one ton of cargo or take a compact bridge, perhaps. This gives you either 12 or 16 extra tons for fuel, and 1+ weeks extra endurance.

True, that's a good option. And should have been done from the start.

Assuming that any jump it makes will be from either a fleet or a station, outside of a 100d zone, there's minimal time before the outward jump, and a weeks thrust to get to its target; its tight, but doable. For planetary landings, or for any locations well within a deep 100d jump shadow, use another ship.

Imho, the military assumes the worst, not optimal circumstances. Just imagine coming out in the middle of a battle, closer to the enemy forces - it's a sitting target.

[Plug]Or, even better, Remulak-Lamaar Shipyards produces an excellent 100dt J6 courier -the XPS6 (Mustang)- for the Scout service. At MCr 198 , it is 100Mcr less, delivers up to 6 tons securely out to J6, and at 6G thrust, will get it there as fast as possible ! Now available for civilian and military purchase !
Details in "Book 3: Scout" ![/Plug]

Unfortunately, this hasn't reached my FLGS yet.

 

[drnuncheon]

Its much more expensive due to the high tech power parts, but it is a hot rod.

You can save some money by remembering that streamlined ships get fuel scoops for free.

 

[drnuncheon]

You wouldn't fit in a J-6 drive otherwise. Going J-5 would save MCr 18 and 8 dTons before considering to reduce the fuel tanks.

How often is the destination fleet going to be exactly a multiple of 6 parsecs away?

So the J-Drive is only needed at full power to enter and leave Jumpspace? (And where exactly is it detailed, I did not find details about that)

I haven't seen details anywhere but we can argue from observation and p141:

First, the fuel is used to "inflate" the pocket universe created by the jump drive. So presumably most or all of it is used at the start - maybe some is kept in reserve to keep the bubble inflated during the trip, but…

Second: …the time taken for a jump is variable. If the jump drive were using that fuel up at a steady rate all through the jump process, then shorter-duration jumps should use less fuel. However, the fuel requirement is fixed, so that's not the case.

Third: actually exiting jumpspace doesn't seem to require jump drive or fuel. It happens when the Jump bubble collapses, which can happen due to gravity.

Based on these three things it seems likely that the jump drive "fires" once at the beginning of the trip and is not used thereafter.

 

[walkir]

You wouldn't fit in a J-6 drive otherwise. Going J-5 would save MCr 18 and 8 dTons before considering to reduce the fuel tanks.

How often is the destination fleet going to be exactly a multiple of 6 parsecs away?

As even one J-6 is more than this ship can handle this imho isn't worth considering.

Third: actually exiting jumpspace doesn't seem to require jump drive or fuel. It happens when the Jump bubble collapses, which can happen due to gravity.

Or because you have problems with the Drive. If you could turn it off in jumpspace you could do maintenance on it there. Which would be pretty strange. (You don't fix your M-Drive at 6G acceleration, do you? )

Edit: Oh, and the question where it's detailed was about where minimum power expenditure is detailed.

 

[captainjack23]

You wouldn't fit in a J-6 drive otherwise. Going J-5 would save MCr 18 and 8 dTons before considering to reduce the fuel tanks.

Agreed. But, as noted, a drop tank fitting would allow the ship to hold a jump 5 onboard, and extra 40-50 tons fuel when needed for a J6. 2 dt (IIRC) for an up to 50 ton droptank used when a J6 is needed.

So the J-Drive is only needed at full power to enter and leave Jumpspace? (And where exactly is it detailed, I did not find details about that)

Its one of those tings that can be interpreted in a variety of ways -and has been hashed around quite a bit. For my money, it allows refs to customize their campaigns within the OTU. But like I said: It's an argument.

True, that's a good option. And should have been done from the start.

Perhaps, next time they'll use Remulak-Lamaar Shipyards

Imho, the military assumes the worst, not optimal circumstances. Just imagine coming out in the middle of a battle, closer to the enemy forces - it's a sitting target.

I based my parameters on the upgraded drives allowing an extra week of operation- not on the unmodified ship; your comments are quite accurate on the ship as designed.

Details in "Book 3: Scout" !

Unfortunately, this hasn't reached my FLGS yet.

I'd raise hell with them for that. It's a great book. From a biased viewpoint, I admit.