Mating Airlocks to Cargo Hatches
- Thread starter Terry Mixon
- Start date
None of the published deck plans say they are, but otherwise they are a list of components and cargo doors are not a listed component
A crane will still be useful for those 1DTon containers. 14 cubic meters is still larger enough that a crane would be useful. Even something only 1 meter on a side could be heavy enough to benefit from a crane if it were machinery. The advantage should be that it would allow stacking containers internally (and that would be particularly useful if you had many cubic metre containers stacked.
It also allows grabbing something from anywhere in the hold (as log as it was on top) and dropping it into a waiting vehicle using the gib without needing to rely on any portside MHE That might be useful to expedite your unloading in low infrastructure ports or when making "less official" deliveries.
The grappling arm is useful in space. My read is that it cannot be used on land (and it needs the non-gravity to move things). I am also not convinced it can be used to reach into the cargo bay to garb things (whether in gravity or not). At best you might be able to push things out of the hatch and have it pick them up from there.
You can use the RH to design one of these, but the STR of the equipment would be the limiting factor.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
You have to figure out what makes sense, even if only in the context of your version of the setting.
In terms of, what I'll term true containerization, and in context of our deckplans, the smallest standard I have would be a cube, a tad short of three metres by three metres by three metres; internal dimensions vary.
Next would a fortyish footer, which will, of course, accommodate anything what our twenty footers would.
You can probably customize any other size, with laser drills cutting sheets of metal to be assembled.
In terms of, what I'll term true containerization, and in context of our deckplans, the smallest standard I have would be a cube, a tad short of three metres by three metres by three metres; internal dimensions vary.
Next would a fortyish footer, which will, of course, accommodate anything what our twenty footers would.
You can probably customize any other size, with laser drills cutting sheets of metal to be assembled.
I don't have the SOP and my presumption was that containers were the future equivalent of TEU. To make them more compatible with Travellers DTon and deck plan conventions I had them as 2 DTon with the 10ft and 40ft versions being 1 DTon and 4 DTon. All of the real world versions are intermodal shipping containers. It is more efficient to lift them with purpose designed cranes from above, but they can be moved by forklift* if necessary and I don't see the Traveller ones designing that flexibility out.
I still see these as containing sub-packages of either homogenous goods or even random items that have been packed by a shipping company from a variety of sources that only have a destination and broad physical compatibility in common. That I class as the break bulk element. In extremis you with even low capacity MHE you could unload container and move that break bulk and then move the empty container, but in doing so you are then operating in the shippers domain rather than the carrier.
I glossed over the specific dimensions as 14 cubic metres is a terrible number to work from. I also gloss over the cargo deck height as it is not specified. I am going to assume that it is high enough to allow enough space to allow the container to be manoeuvred with MHE available in any port other than possibly Class E.
I think we were talking at cross purposes as I hadn't considered shipping containers in the 5-10 DTon range and they are, in my opinion, out of scope for the 200 Dton merchants and so IMTU they are irrelevant.
*These might be replaced by grav lifters that lock into containers from above (like a delivery drone). They might be very powerful but have a short duration to reduce the overall size (which is an advantage when navigating the confines of a ships hold). It might need to recharge/refuel hourly or even be tied into a fixed power supply. That would make it perfectly useable at a port, but would make it less useful for players to jaunt around a planet (if that is a concern).
I still see these as containing sub-packages of either homogenous goods or even random items that have been packed by a shipping company from a variety of sources that only have a destination and broad physical compatibility in common. That I class as the break bulk element. In extremis you with even low capacity MHE you could unload container and move that break bulk and then move the empty container, but in doing so you are then operating in the shippers domain rather than the carrier.
I glossed over the specific dimensions as 14 cubic metres is a terrible number to work from. I also gloss over the cargo deck height as it is not specified. I am going to assume that it is high enough to allow enough space to allow the container to be manoeuvred with MHE available in any port other than possibly Class E.
I think we were talking at cross purposes as I hadn't considered shipping containers in the 5-10 DTon range and they are, in my opinion, out of scope for the 200 Dton merchants and so IMTU they are irrelevant.
*These might be replaced by grav lifters that lock into containers from above (like a delivery drone). They might be very powerful but have a short duration to reduce the overall size (which is an advantage when navigating the confines of a ships hold). It might need to recharge/refuel hourly or even be tied into a fixed power supply. That would make it perfectly useable at a port, but would make it less useful for players to jaunt around a planet (if that is a concern).
Last edited:
I also think we need to be careful in ascribing facilities to ports based on their class. The class distinctions are largely focussed on the facilities they provide visiting ships, but they are still ports and the primary means of trade for the entire main world (and possibly a multi world system). The facilities they offer shippers and freight forwarders might therefore be more standard. In Empire influenced ports where TRADE is the main aim then port facilities cannot adversely impact that. They may not be able to attract ships, but they certainly won't be operating in a way that discourages them.
RAW in MGT2 has the port classification making very little influence on the quantity of speculative goods or freight available. The difference between a Class E and Class A is only 3 steps on the freight availability table and that only makes 1D of difference on each of the Major Minor and Incidental cargos. If the planet is not unfavourable to trade due to other factors (low pop, low tech or red or amber zone) you are not talking several dozen DTons available to any random tramp vessel that happens along to any specified destination. My default assumption is that Major cargos are in containers ready to go, minor cargo is break bulk needing MHE (so pallets etc.) and that incidental cargos are man-portable break bulk.
Speculative cargo and mail is of course in addition to this. Your ability to find speculative cargo is more dependent on Starport class, but that is digital (or maybe affects the price if you are using it in a task chain). The amount of cargo available is only affected by the population of the planet. Assuming you can find a seller (and you can try multiple times) there will always be a several tens of DTons of common goods available plus quantities of the other trade code goods, plus a quantity of random goods.
The assumption is these are the goods available to player ships and are in addition to any that might be carried by the professional freight lines (though off the mains this may be nil).
These quantities reset every month (equating to the 2 jumps plus two weeks transit of a ship doing a round trip journey).
This gives us no idea of how much cargo the port handles overall of course since we don't know how many tramps are popping in each week. GURPS Far Trader tried to establish this but after lots of very complex maths you still ended up with only a vague idea of the overall annual freight turn over.
It would be that number plus the type of imports/exports that tells you the sort of facilities a port used or how it tended to operate. If you are moving 100 DTons of washing machines each day via independent carriers then moving each one individually is probably contra-indicated.
RAW in MGT2 has the port classification making very little influence on the quantity of speculative goods or freight available. The difference between a Class E and Class A is only 3 steps on the freight availability table and that only makes 1D of difference on each of the Major Minor and Incidental cargos. If the planet is not unfavourable to trade due to other factors (low pop, low tech or red or amber zone) you are not talking several dozen DTons available to any random tramp vessel that happens along to any specified destination. My default assumption is that Major cargos are in containers ready to go, minor cargo is break bulk needing MHE (so pallets etc.) and that incidental cargos are man-portable break bulk.
Speculative cargo and mail is of course in addition to this. Your ability to find speculative cargo is more dependent on Starport class, but that is digital (or maybe affects the price if you are using it in a task chain). The amount of cargo available is only affected by the population of the planet. Assuming you can find a seller (and you can try multiple times) there will always be a several tens of DTons of common goods available plus quantities of the other trade code goods, plus a quantity of random goods.
The assumption is these are the goods available to player ships and are in addition to any that might be carried by the professional freight lines (though off the mains this may be nil).
These quantities reset every month (equating to the 2 jumps plus two weeks transit of a ship doing a round trip journey).
This gives us no idea of how much cargo the port handles overall of course since we don't know how many tramps are popping in each week. GURPS Far Trader tried to establish this but after lots of very complex maths you still ended up with only a vague idea of the overall annual freight turn over.
It would be that number plus the type of imports/exports that tells you the sort of facilities a port used or how it tended to operate. If you are moving 100 DTons of washing machines each day via independent carriers then moving each one individually is probably contra-indicated.
