Handling player asteroid bases

[Zemekis]

My players have been toying around with the idea of their very own shipyard/base. But not just buying it but also constructing it from scratch, partially using High Guard Rules, esp. on asteroids.

Here's the plan:
They buy los of construction robots, some heavy machinery for metal processing, some advanced electronical equipment, etc. hire an architect and find a suitable asteroid.

The robots will construct the base according to the architects plans, using the raw materials and the heavy machinery (they know, they need also robots who can work with that type of machinery). But the idea is to get robots to do that. Everything except the architects plan.

After they have installed the machinery necessary to built ships, they just buy the basic materials and have the robots built their ships.

How would you handle it besides saying verboten? Will it be more cost effective or more expensive but succesive shipyards/asteroid bases will be cheaper? And what about the ships?

 

[Zowy]

What type of setting / area is this for?

How do they plan to stay in bussiness? The 3I Mega-corps play hardball with anyone trying to cut into their shipbuilding profits.

How do the populations in the area view robot workers, takeing away their jobs? Who is going to build all the robots they want and at what cost and TL?

If they want to be a Licenced Imperial Corporation ( LIC ) they need to give 1% stock ownership to the Imperial family.

They will need the backing of the system they want to set up in and at least the subsector Marquis blessing. Getting the Sector Dukes blessing would help allso.

Their best bet world to find a world that wants to expand imports / exports and make a deal to upgrade their starport to class A or B. Put together a consortium of Imperial commercial concers, for extra backing and to spread the cost around a bit. Then pray not to many problems come up. Tradewar with the reagons main shipbuilders would be the big one.

 

[klingsor]

The basic idea sounds good enough. It is of course part of the GMs job to complicate things.

I suppose a lot depends on how you see the society in Traveller. The Imperium seems to be anti-robot and I suspect part of this might be labour protection - so jobs that could be automated are still done by people. This will of course vary from world to world. This affects the project by determining how good the robots available are. As far as the basic work is concerned I think they are still going to need people in the loop supervising the robots.

For anything beyond the basic tunnelling though I suspect they are going to need people and a lot of bought in materials.

Shipbuilding I would be very dubious about. One gets the impression that a lot of expensive and very, very large equipment is required for hull fabrication. It might be mostly automated to run but it is going to be hellishly expensive to buy - orders of magnitude more expensive than a ship. It is not as simple as buying a lot of sheet steel (making that from scratch is a whole world of complexity and cost, a steel works can be miles across), welding it up and dropping in some drives and running the pipes and cables. That would work but would produce a pretty rubbish ship - a cheap scow for in-system freight perhaps.

A belt might have the raw materials but there is a lot of different processes involved:
* Find the raw materials.
* Process the raw material into something usable.
* Fabricate the parts from the raw materials.
* Assemble the pieces.

Hugely complicated with a lot of transportation and infrastructure involved. Industry is not an easy thing to bootstrap.

A counter argument might involve nano-technology but off-hand I am not sure if it is in the OTU. Certainly amassing strides are being made in the real world with small scale fabricators but it is still a very immature technology and again the construction of hulls is going to be a bu**er with things density manipulation involved.

 

[Zemekis]

They start in District 268, so Imperial jurisdiction is not an issue. They can buy their robots from Collace or Glisten.
Bowman Belt offers enough asteroids and local population probably wouldn't mind.
And if they put an FTL in the asteroid, local authorities are not too much of a problem I guess.
My concern is really the economics. Will it pay off? Should it pay off?

 

[Zemekis]

You got a point here, Klingsor. It is not only one asteroid base they need but multiple, going into GigaCredits.

* Ore Refining and Processing
* Blast Furnace
* Steel Mill
* Hull Part Processing
* Hull Completion

to name but five. I think I have to come up with a lots of these.

 

[klingsor]

I doubt if it could be made affordable. The economics seem to be so against them. They are going to pay a fortune for importing things like drives and computers let alone steel hulls though asteroid hulls might be better I cannot see it working. Possible yes, profitable no.

 

[Zowy]

Collace has a class B starport, that could be upgraded class A port / shipyard. It allso has the TL / population and political / military power to make it worth the investment risk for outside concerns.

 

[Galaga]

I could see a small craft construction facility, but even that would be huge if they plan to produce most of the components themselves rather than import.

 

[Dave Chase]

And who is going to buy? With out some reputation or MegaCorp backing who would want to buy ships from them.

Why, the blackmarket, pirates maybe some planet in need of some ships.

Then who is going to come calling? The 3I fleet.

If you want to make an adventure out of this, have the asteriod they choose mess with the robots functions. Nothing terrible but the robots need more supervision than normal. Otherwise they bore right through to the outside. They make hallways that look like the inside of snail shell, etc.

Most asteriods do not have all the different types of raw materials that they will need. So now they will have to mine other asteriods for it. Belters and their MegaCorps will start wondering where the material is going and why so much of it is not being sold on the market.

The large number of robots needed would draw more attention than just a few being sold/bought. Unless they are near Hiver space and they can get some from them. Then the Hivers might decide these humans would make an interesting experience for them and get involved?

While marketing and trying to develop the asteroid into the Space Station of their dreams, what about others who run across it? Miners, a ship that picks up odd signals and reports it to the local space patrol, pirates looking for the next base/raid and etc.

Basically, don't give them what they want with out them earning it. This might make a RL year long game in its self.

Dave Chase

 

[Infojunky]

Are just wanting to build ships or are they trying to set up the entire industry?

The yard is just the last step in the manufacturing process....

Where are they going to get their fittings from? The drives, computers, etc.... Those are rather large plants on their own.

It really understanding the scale of the question, the cost are probably on the order of a magnitude greater than the ship the will produce or so.

Considering the scope of the tools they need to purchase along with the tools to maintain the tools that are doing the work, plus the people needed to oversee the operational details...

Those are just the basics.

Now would I let a groups of PCs do this? Hell yes, an entire campaign about building.

At the beginning they have to find a suitable rock, Secure mining equipement, find a willing architect. etc...

Let them do just don't make it easy. And it will become the game. They just won't know it starting off....

 

[lurker]

... hire an architect and find a suitable asteroid.

The robots will construct the base according to the architects plans ... get robots to do that. Everything except the architects plan...

Unless using plans from a built and running facility, I can see some problems. Robots might just follow the plans to the letter. Even after going through computer simulation, an original set of plans usually still has some flaws that are caught by either officials in charge of zoning and building permits, construction foremen, construction crews, or 'building' inspectors. Even with all those eyes, a few problems slip by when building an original plan.

Depending on the sophistication (TL) of the robots, some may be specialized to properly inspect and catch flaws in building materials, machinery, and production.

You will need a team of techs to program, inspect, and keep all those robots running properly, no? More robots for performing repairs? Maybe they should build a robot factory first?

Page 49 of the core rulebook

Often, if the characters have the requisite skills the referee can just assume they succeed. ... you could keep calling for [skill checks] until the characters succeed, but that's dull.

Read further on that page, and you'll see the opposite is also true. Sometimes something is too difficult for the character to succeed and failure should be automatic.

As a GM, I discourage players from acting out of character and role playing their characters trying to do something they don't have the skill or background for (acting as project manager, foreman, materials inspector, and so on [I think something like this should have multiple supervisors with high skill levels in the appropriate specialties [physical construction, power plants, life support, computers, and more] and a 'foreman' with appropriate admin and leadership skills too).

My guess is they are trying to remove the human element so that this base is built in secret? Perhaps hiring a small number of very talented professionals to supplement the characters skills would work. Since you are doing this with a smaller # of people than normal, it will take longer than normal or you will risk problems. Do you kill them after it is built so they can't tell anyone about your base? Did they slip out word of what you were up to? Will people start investigating their disappearance? Does someone notice all the resources you've been purchasing, the ship traffic?

Lots of fun can be had.