Inverted Jump Drive...

[MasterGwydion]

So... I had another random thought while rewatching Young Guns. Currently you can not have a functional jump drive on a ship of less than 100 tons. That made Me wonder what would happen if you changed the rule to be, "you can not have a functional Jump Drive on a ship over 100 tons." Obviously it would massively change the setting, but I think that that may be a very interesting, almost Western-style feel to the setting.

 

[AndrewW]

Would sure mess up trade and the bulk importation of goods such as food. No big interstellar liners but that would be as big an effect. Probably a lot of smaller jump capable liners, which might actually be more efficient as you might get direct rather then going into a major area and having to take another hop from there.

 

[Condottiere]

Drop tanking is going to become extremely popular.

 

[Geir]

Star Truckers...

 

[MasterGwydion]

Would sure mess up trade and the bulk importation of goods such as food. No big interstellar liners but that would be as big an effect. Probably a lot of smaller jump capable liners, which might actually be more efficient as you might get direct rather then going into a major area and having to take another hop from there.

The more I think about this, the more interesting it seems to me. That would make, importing, exporting, non-locally supported starport construction, and other such things so expensive as to be more or less out of reach to all but the richest and most powerful. This would make a ton of sense to Me with a bunch of close worlds with different tech levels. You can ship the tech over there to raise their tech level, but it will be so expensive as to not be worth it.

 

[Condottiere]

Slow boat to China.

You send a letter of credit, and the goods will arrive in a couple of decades.

 

[vargr1]

Check out _The Getaway Special_ by Jerry Oltion. Mad scientists invents an FTL drive that can be built with parts from a hardware store and releases the design as public domain. A different take on the small-ship universe.

 

[MasterGwydion]

Check out _The Getaway Special_ by Jerry Oltion. Mad scientists invents an FTL drive that can be built with parts from a hardware store and releases the design as public domain. A different take on the small-ship universe.

Very cool! Although, I think you would still have large ships. They'd simply be interplanetary and defensive craft.

 

[ottarrus]

So... I had another random thought while rewatching Young Guns. Currently you can not have a functional jump drive on a ship of less than 100 tons. That made Me wonder what would happen if you changed the rule to be, "you can not have a functional Jump Drive on a ship over 100 tons." Obviously it would massively change the setting, but I think that that may be a very interesting, almost Western-style feel to the setting.

So.... Firefly.

 

[MasterGwydion]

So.... Firefly.

Basically, but with Jump Drives and more than one solar system.. So maybe more like, Killjoys.

 

[wingsday]

I'm not sure you can even make a 100t ship with both a jump drive and a small bay, so the biggest weapons that exist for interstellar navies are barbette's. Imo this probably means interstellar polities basically can't exist, it's too simple to make a home defense fleet that basically can't be beaten by an aggressor

 

[MasterGwydion]

I'm not sure you can even make a 100t ship with both a jump drive and a small bay, so the biggest weapons that exist for interstellar navies are barbette's. Imo this probably means interstellar polities basically can't exist, it's too simple to make a home defense fleet that basically can't be beaten by an aggressor

You can, but you'd likely be better off using 100-ton drone carriers. using 10-ton drones. Each ship can hold 5 drones which can fire 5 missiles each, one each per turn. and still have the cargo space to mount a turret, but likely not a barbette. Or if not a turret, reloads for the 10-ton drones. Or, in theory, you could use missile robots launched from a scale-down fighter launch bay. That would likely get you many missiles fired in salvos of 10 or so, but I have not done the math on that.

As far as Interstellar polities go, he with the greatest tech wins the war. Most bay weapons are nearly useless against sub-100-ton craft. Plus the TL differences with Sensors and Smart Weapons and the defense doesn't come as easy as you would think. I am thinking that the galaxy would breakdown almost into interstellar city-states and the vassals. Then the largest of these may have the resources to uplift other systems until they have a big enough subsector economy to expand their efforts beyond their own subsector. Building a multi-sector or multi-domain polity would therefore be the work of centuries or millennia..

 

[wingsday]

You can, but you'd likely be better off using 100-ton drone carriers. using 10-ton drones. Each ship can hold 5 drones which can fire 5 missiles each, one each per turn. and still have the cargo space to mount a turret, but likely not a barbette. Or if not a turret, reloads for the 10-ton drones. Or, in theory, you could use missile robots launched from a scale-down fighter launch bay. That would likely get you many missiles fired in salvos of 10 or so, but I have not done the math on that.

As far as Interstellar polities go, he with the greatest tech wins the war. Most bay weapons are nearly useless against sub-100-ton craft. Plus the TL differences with Sensors and Smart Weapons and the defense doesn't come as easy as you would think. I am thinking that the galaxy would breakdown almost into interstellar city-states and the vassals. Then the largest of these may have the resources to uplift other systems until they have a big enough subsector economy to expand their efforts beyond their own subsector. Building a multi-sector or multi-domain polity would therefore be the work of centuries or millennia..

That's fair I guess, the reason I would give a large advantage to home defense forces is that they don't even have to build big ships, a 2/3/400t ship can mount *both* an offensive and defensive armament, in addition to the regular sdb benefits. There's also the possibility of mounting some capital turrets to a few reasonably sized rocks, like spinal mount module from whatever book that was. Also there will, probably, still be fairly large targets to shoot at for an attacker, the reduction in interstellar freight probably means space stations are smaller on average, but there's probably more intrastellar freight, thus more stations, and they do still have a minimum worthwhile size. Anyway there probably are things you may want a bay for, especially as tech levels(and thus armor levels) advance. Also a potential way around this is using breakaway hulls that fuse to carry large weapons, kind of a hilarious ship type

 

[Condottiere]

Stealth - you sneak in and drop a nuke.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Your biggest ship is 100t.

I build a 1000t sensor.
I build 1000 100t weapon bays that outrange anything you could be carrying.

I can see you before you can see me.

I can destroy you before you even see me.

 

[Alqualonde]

Build a 5001 dT non-jump ship or station. Armor it to twice the tech level (for TL-F it will be 30). None of the 100dT ship's weapons will penetrate the armor... It will be a one way battle.
The idea is interesting, it's just that wars will become limited. Once a world has a big monitor, it won't be possible to capture it.

 

[Nelphine]

And back to the land of spies and sabotage we go!

 

[MasterGwydion]

Your biggest ship is 100t.

I build a 1000t sensor.
I build 1000 100t weapon bays that outrange anything you could be carrying.

I can see you before you can see me.

I can destroy you before you even see me.

Stealth Hulls and Stealth Jump would become very important.

Edit: and Anti-Radiation missiles and torpedoes.

 

[Sigtrygg]

They won't help you.

Your 100t jump ship has to have jump engine, power plant, sensors, weapons.

My 10,000t monitor has sensors 100 times more powerful than the ones you mount, and has enough of them to scan the whole sky - so there is no stealth in space without a magic cloaking device.

It has weapons that individually are bigger than your ship, they are longer range than your weapons and can destroy you with one hit.

I have point defence, hundreds of tons of ECM, armour thicker than your jump ship. I can splash every missile you launch before it gets anywhere near.

Your 100t jump craft would be vapour before they got into range to use their weapons.

Oh, and I can have many monitors, stations, planetary and moon based defences...

 

[MasterGwydion]

They won't help you.

Your 100t jump ship has to have jump engine, power plant, sensors, weapons.

My 10,000t monitor has sensors 100 times more powerful than the ones you mount, and has enough of them to scan the whole sky - so there is no stealth in space without a magic cloaking device.

It has weapons that individually are bigger than your ship, they are longer range than your weapons and can destroy you with one hit.

I have point defence, hundreds of tons of ECM, armour thicker than your jump ship. I can splash every missile you launch before it gets anywhere near.

Your 100t jump craft would be vapour before they got into range to use their weapons.

Oh, and I can have many monitors, stations, planetary and moon based defences...

What does the sensor size matter? Isn't it only a +2DM?