PsiTraveller
Cosmic Mongoose
Is there a limit RAW to how breakaway hulls fit together?
Assume a standard shape hull of 200 tons. This is your core module. Everything will be done in 200 ton units.
The Core modue has 200 tons, Power plant and Jump drives the Thrust 1, Jump 1. The Core unit will have the 5 extra tons of Jump drive on it.
A Supplemental unit will have Thrust 1, Jump 1 and fuel for the 200 ton module, plus power to provide enough power to the Jump drive for the 200 ton unit. It will not have a bridge, since it will be controlled by the Core unit once connected. It may have a Bandwidth 5 computer and Virtual Crew software to drone the unit into place and mate with the Core unit, or maybe they will be connected at a Highport facility.
RAW has 2% total volume being used as connector, so there will be 8 tons of connector tonnage to connect the 2 units together.
So combining the Core unit with the Supplemental unit gives us a 400 ton ship, with power and Jump drives for 400 tons (with the extra 5 tons of Jump drives needed in the core unit.) Now it does not say how the 8 tons of connector units work but I would argue for 4 tons on the Core unit and 4 tons on the Supplemental unit, equal tonnage, to connect the two pieces together. This seems logical to me.
This system would allow for different configurations of the Supplemental units. One unit could be cargo based, another filled with staterooms for passenger runs, another for lab work or medical bays.
That is all well and good. Here is where I want to stretch the rules. (Literally)
Assuming 4 tons of connectors allows a breakaway unit to mate with another breakaway unit with 4 tons of connectors, could a breakaway ship design be built that did not have an upper limit on hull size? At least until the ship reached 1001 tons and RAW needs another 20 tons of bridge to prevent the -1 on all checks, which could allow 2000 ton ships if you were not worried about the -1 since you can run one bridge size smaller and live with the -1.
Going to the Core unit again, the ship has 4 tons on the starboard side that allows the connection with the Supplemental unit. This would mean the Supplemental units have connections on the Port side to connect the ships together.
What if you doubled the tonnage on the ships to be 4% of the total, and allowing for units to connect on both sides of the ship. So the Core unit would have connector on both sides of the ship. The Supplemental units could have connectors on both sides as well. The Core unit could be the center of the ship and the Supplemental units connect on either side until the preferred size of ship is built.
If you are not using the Connectors the tonnage is wasted space, but it allows ships to be configured to meet various needs and situations. If there is more cargo at a port, a cargo module could be taken. If there were more passengers a passenger module could be taken. The key is twofold. THe ability to build a ship of varying tonnages to meet a need, or to leave a unit behind if it is not needed, saving fuel needs for not having to move the tonnage into Jumpspace.
Assume a standard shape hull of 200 tons. This is your core module. Everything will be done in 200 ton units.
The Core modue has 200 tons, Power plant and Jump drives the Thrust 1, Jump 1. The Core unit will have the 5 extra tons of Jump drive on it.
A Supplemental unit will have Thrust 1, Jump 1 and fuel for the 200 ton module, plus power to provide enough power to the Jump drive for the 200 ton unit. It will not have a bridge, since it will be controlled by the Core unit once connected. It may have a Bandwidth 5 computer and Virtual Crew software to drone the unit into place and mate with the Core unit, or maybe they will be connected at a Highport facility.
RAW has 2% total volume being used as connector, so there will be 8 tons of connector tonnage to connect the 2 units together.
So combining the Core unit with the Supplemental unit gives us a 400 ton ship, with power and Jump drives for 400 tons (with the extra 5 tons of Jump drives needed in the core unit.) Now it does not say how the 8 tons of connector units work but I would argue for 4 tons on the Core unit and 4 tons on the Supplemental unit, equal tonnage, to connect the two pieces together. This seems logical to me.
This system would allow for different configurations of the Supplemental units. One unit could be cargo based, another filled with staterooms for passenger runs, another for lab work or medical bays.
That is all well and good. Here is where I want to stretch the rules. (Literally)
Assuming 4 tons of connectors allows a breakaway unit to mate with another breakaway unit with 4 tons of connectors, could a breakaway ship design be built that did not have an upper limit on hull size? At least until the ship reached 1001 tons and RAW needs another 20 tons of bridge to prevent the -1 on all checks, which could allow 2000 ton ships if you were not worried about the -1 since you can run one bridge size smaller and live with the -1.
Going to the Core unit again, the ship has 4 tons on the starboard side that allows the connection with the Supplemental unit. This would mean the Supplemental units have connections on the Port side to connect the ships together.
What if you doubled the tonnage on the ships to be 4% of the total, and allowing for units to connect on both sides of the ship. So the Core unit would have connector on both sides of the ship. The Supplemental units could have connectors on both sides as well. The Core unit could be the center of the ship and the Supplemental units connect on either side until the preferred size of ship is built.
If you are not using the Connectors the tonnage is wasted space, but it allows ships to be configured to meet various needs and situations. If there is more cargo at a port, a cargo module could be taken. If there were more passengers a passenger module could be taken. The key is twofold. THe ability to build a ship of varying tonnages to meet a need, or to leave a unit behind if it is not needed, saving fuel needs for not having to move the tonnage into Jumpspace.