Inverted Jump Drive...

There needs to be an update to sensor tech.

The more energy you put into an active "radar" the greater its range, the larger the antenna the greater the range of your active and passive sensors.
 
Sigtrygg said:
There needs to be an update to sensor tech.

The more energy you put into an active "radar" the greater its range, the larger the antenna the greater the range of your active and passive sensors.
Click to expand...
This.

Somewhere between T5 and MgT 2e is a really fun and crunchy system for sensors. Haven't cracked the code yet but I'm not giving up yet.

Back OT... jumping in with a fleet to smash your adversary is not going to be a thing in this paradigm. I mean, a Tigress without jump drive and its fuel requirements? C'mon. Might as well be the Deathstar.

I see systems becoming fully settled to eke out every available resource, stations in every planetary orbit and solar systems become islands in the void - even moreso than they are now. So yeah, interstellar empires become groups of stellar city-states, espionage and subterfuge rule the day. Puts a new spin on Vargr corsairs and Aslan ihatei.

Sounds like it could be a fun universe to play in.
 
Sigtrygg said:
There needs to be an update to sensor tech.

The more energy you put into an active "radar" the greater its range, the larger the antenna the greater the range of your active and passive sensors.
Click to expand...
This is all true, but not applicable since it is nowhere in the game rules.
 
NOLATrav said:
This.

Somewhere between T5 and MgT 2e is a really fun and crunchy system for sensors. Haven't cracked the code yet but I'm not giving up yet.

Back OT... jumping in with a fleet to smash your adversary is not going to be a thing in this paradigm. I mean, a Tigress without jump drive and its fuel requirements? C'mon. Might as well be the Deathstar.

I see systems becoming fully settled to eke out every available resource, stations in every planetary orbit and solar systems become islands in the void - even moreso than they are now. So yeah, interstellar empires become groups of stellar city-states, espionage and subterfuge rule the day. Puts a new spin on Vargr corsairs and Aslan ihatei.

Sounds like it could be a fun universe to play in.
Click to expand...
Might make Dieback worlds more common as well, as resources dwindle, since they cannot be easily imported.
 
I wonder what the maximum cargo and passenger load you could get on 10-100t jump ships?

To colonise a new system you need base infrastructure. Several missions should be able to do it.

The base gathers resources to make a bigger base and more infrastructure so more people can be brought in.

Yup, interesting setting idea.
 
There is still deception. The 'fuel shuttle' docks with the monitor and a covert team slips aboard and disables the ship, perhaps the sensors are taken out so a fleet of small ships can slip in and engage without the monitor even seeing them approach.
 
Ever try to sneak aboard a warship?
How do you get the fuel shuttle?
Put a group of PCs in charge of the monitor, would NPCs get away with it?
 
Sigtrygg said:
Ever try to sneak aboard a warship?
How do you get the fuel shuttle?
Put a group of PCs in charge of the monitor, would NPCs get away with it?
Click to expand...
Just one possible option, not saying it would be easy, but it could make for some good adventuring.

Steal a fuel shuttle from maintenance.
 
There's a bunch of other things you can add on. Extended arrays and all that. If you are a giant sensor ball, you can get all kinds of bonuses besides just Advanced Sensors.
 
AndrewW said:
Just one possible option, not saying it would be easy, but it could make for some good adventuring.

Steal a fuel shuttle from maintenance.
Click to expand...
I agree, it would make for a good adventure for a group of PCs to be hired to conduct such a clandestine operation :)
 
Distributed sensor arrays work on Earth, so they can work from the [local equivalent of] the Oort Cloud.
If you're patient, you can bombard the planet with tiny meteor-emulating nukes unless the system is set up to intercept and destroy every 100 kilo stone coming towards the planet's gravitational well.

But yeah, this would make a great alternate Traveller universe.
 
Sigtrygg said:
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...
Click to expand...
Thankfully for the original idea, these things are not actually well supported by the rules
 
This discussion is why I wouldn't do a true inversion, but bump the maximum up a bit to allow some useful variation in ships without requiring all the Advance/Efficient/etc tech shenanigans. If I'm going to allow those, I want them to add additional variety, not be necessary for basic variety.
 
GypsyComet said:
This discussion is why I wouldn't do a true inversion, but bump the maximum up a bit to allow some useful variation in ships without requiring all the Advance/Efficient/etc tech shenanigans. If I'm going to allow those, I want them to add additional variety, not be necessary for basic variety.
Click to expand...
Or you could use the rules for size reduction due to advanced TL to increase the max size of the ship allowed to jump, instead of reducing the size of the Jump Drive. This would give some variation, but not much.
 
If the limitation is the size of the jump drive, than the next step would be to chain them together to increase parsec tonnes.
 
Sigtrygg said:
I wonder what the maximum cargo and passenger load you could get on 10-100t jump ships?

To colonise a new system you need base infrastructure. Several missions should be able to do it.

The base gathers resources to make a bigger base and more infrastructure so more people can be brought in.

Yup, interesting setting idea.
Click to expand...
On a 100dT ship (J2 & 1G), without armor & only 2 staterooms for the crew, you can get around 38 to 40dT of 'spare' space. So not much in term of passengers (5-6 with a small common area & a small cargo allowance).
You'll be able to ship more by using low berths.
 
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