High Tech Hull Building Methods

[Solomani666]

With the new 2.0 rules I would like some ideas if a ships hull were made using an alternate, higher tech design method.

Suppose for instance, instead of building a hull piece by piece and then adding armor plating piece by piece, the entire hull and bulkheads were forged and then milled to spec from a single block of armor. No seams, no welds, no plates.

How do you think this would effect:
Cost.
Build time.
Repair time.
Hull points.
Percentage of hull space needed for armor.
Bulkheads for components.
Certain types of critical hits.
Anything I haven't thought of.

Note:
Temporary repairs might be made as normal.
Permanent repairs would be made by cutting out the damaged hull section, CADing and forging a single block repair piece and then molecularly bonding the piece in place.

 

[Condottiere]

We call two variants planetoids.

Though admittingly, this goes the opposite direction into low tech.

 

[PsiTraveller]

Hollow out an asteroid and make the Systems largest Roto-molding machine ever. Pump in the metal and make a hollow shell. Weld or bolt everything onto it afterwards.

This may be the way things are done, the rules don't give a method of building. A 1 million credit per day number is given somewhere. There are a lot of unknowns. Are ships built in vacuum by men in suits and working modules? Could you hollow an asteroid and make a massive shirtsleeve environment and makes ships faster by not needing men in suits? Bolting things onto a hull/framework may be the faster way to repair things rather than having to molecular bond a single casting. Standard spare parts would make local repairs possible without needing a CNC and bonding rig.

 

[Infojunky]

With the new 2.0 rules I would like some ideas if a ships hull were made using an alternate, higher tech design method.

Suppose for instance, instead of building a hull piece by piece and then adding armor plating piece by piece, the entire hull and bulkheads were forged and then milled to spec from a single block of armor. No seams, no welds, no plates.

How do you think this would effect:
Cost.
Build time.
Repair time.

Increase it by an order of Magnitude.

Hull points.
Percentage of hull space needed for armor.
Bulkheads for components.
Certain types of critical hits.

Pretty much no change...

 

[-Daniel-]

With the new 2.0 rules I would like some ideas if a ships hull were made using an alternate, higher tech design method.

Suppose for instance, instead of building a hull piece by piece and then adding armor plating piece by piece, the entire hull and bulkheads were forged and then milled to spec from a single block of armor. No seams, no welds, no plates.

As I read this I pictured a super duper large 3D printer, space station sized, printing out a ships hull using special material that will harden.

As for the real question, I would say that cutting it out of one solid block would man a lot of waste material. So unless the material could be recycled somehow, it would have to increase the cost of the hull quite a bit I would imagine.

I think of a natural diamond vs the cut stone that it ends up being. The final is missing quite a bit of the original materials.

 

[Solomani666]

Numbers please.

 

[Solomani666]

Currently I am leaning toward:
1.5x hull points
Automatic bulkheads for all components.
1.5x build time
3.0x cost
2.0x full repair time
Reduce armor critical ignored.

 

[-Daniel-]

Currently I am leaning toward:
1.5x hull points
Automatic bulkheads for all components.
1.5x build time
3.0x cost
2.0x full repair time
Reduce armor critical ignored.

Interesting numbers. Would you limit the size of ship that could be built this way?

 

[Solomani666]

Currently I am leaning toward:
1.5x hull points
Automatic bulkheads for all components.
1.5x build time
3.0x cost
2.0x full repair time
Reduce armor critical ignored.

Interesting numbers. Would you limit the size of ship that could be built this way?

10,000 tons
Ships larger than this are built in 10,000 ton sections and molecularly bonded.

 

[Condottiere]

You could also have a crystalline growth along a lattice.

 

[-Daniel-]

Currently I am leaning toward:
1.5x hull points
Automatic bulkheads for all components.
1.5x build time
3.0x cost
2.0x full repair time
Reduce armor critical ignored.

Interesting numbers. Would you limit the size of ship that could be built this way?

10,000 tons
Ships larger than this are built in 10,000 ton sections and molecularly bonded.

Ok, you have my full attention. I think you should write up the idea and put some fluff with it. The core idea is a fun one.

 

[Sigtrygg]

We make crystaliron here today on out TL7.8 earth (sort of).
It is used to make the turbine blades for jet engines and is incredibly expensive since you are basically growing a single crystal of iron alloy in a mold.

Advance a couple of TLs and ask yourself how this stuff can be grown into a hull...

You 'print' the mold for your hull using your massive 3d printer and then 'grow' the hull inside it - note that gravity control really helps with this bit.

At least that is how it is done IMTU.