Hey! That starship design preview looks nifty!

[TrippyHippy]

Well, the new preview (3) is up, and it looks like the starship design has been developed quite a bit from the playtest.

The graphic layout helps a lot, as does the example of a predesigned ship, and some good illustrations.

Fortunately, there is no longer a couple of great big whopping charts to refer to, but what looks like several smaller ones (although I could be mistaken, as we can't see the whole chapter). The system still seems quite technical, but then again, this is appropriate to Traveller, and they do communicate some of the general design decisions that you need to make better. A lot better actually, and the general definitions were very useful looking too. I'd have to see the whole chapter to really give a whizz through, as well as the space combat chapter, but at least the preview makes me want to look through it, and have a go at it now!

Good work, I think.

 

[Golan2072]

A very good preview - worth drooling all over it

Apparently the boogieman of the playtest-MongT system - the power-point allocation system - is gone or at least streamlined; the part on alternative technologies is cool (though I'd give the antimatter power plant a higher than usual TL and the fission power plant a lower than usual TL, but these could be easily house-ruled); and the graphics are great.

By the way, would the ship description graphics as on p.135 be printed in full color?

 

[Zowy]

The alternative drives look good for various ATU settings. The warp drive uses -alot- less fuel ( 2% of ships mass per Jn ), while the other 2 move you alot faster.

I might be tempted to use the Warp drive in a semi-OTU game but bump fuel use up a bit and make micro-jumping around a system with the warp "shadows" of Stars, Gas Giants, ect. becomeing more a part of the game. It would make for many more insystem adventures.

Warp Jn1 drive ships, with 2-3 G manoeuver drives become much more common and usefull. A star systems population would spread out and develop more, when you only need to spend a day or less micro-jumping, instead of a whole week. This would allso be a good way to justify all the underdeveloped systems, as the "best" systems in a subsector would be where most of the people would want to live.

With the Warp drive rating being a function of speed and not max range, multi-subsector adventures become more interesting allso. Cheep slow free traders with low overhead and small crews, can aford to spend more time in port, geting in trouble. Where your faster and / or biger ships cost alot more to run, but are more usefull for Star Mercs and other types of higher powered adventues.

Edit: If you want to mix Jump and Warp drives in the same ATU and allso promote the use of small ships. Rule that Warp drives only work in small ships and the smaller the ship the faster you can go.

100 dTon ship max Warp factor of 4
200 dTon ship max Warp factor of 3
300 dTon ship max Warp factor of 2
400 dTon ship max Warp factor of 1

I would still up the fuel use to balance the Warp vs Jump ship trade dynamics somewhat. But you would end up with small Warp ships spread out all over the place and large 2,000+ dTon main rout MegaCorp Jump ships linking up the most important / profitable worlds.

You could even run a game set around what would happen if Jump drives where the "old" standard and Warp drives had just been introduced in the last 10 or so years. How many of the smaller ship owners are going to be able to upgrade to the new Warp drive when their old Jump drive is only worth 20% or so of it's valuve on the secondhand market?

 

[MongooseMatt]

Looks like someone has the beginnings of an OGL PDF supplement right there

 

[Golan2072]

I like the alternative J-Drive and P-Plant rules. I wonder if there are alternative M-Drive types (Chemical, Ion, Plasma/Fusion Torch and so on) in the final book as well...

 

[FallingPhoenix]

I like the alternative J-Drive and P-Plant rules. I wonder if there are alternative M-Drive types (Chemical, Ion, Plasma/Fusion Torch and so on) in the final book as well...

I could definitely go for those...

FP, who can't seem to settle on one or two ideas.

 

[Jame Rowe]

I quite like how they put in warp drives.