Mobile External Fabrication Units To Build Ships

[Terry Mixon]

Because I like taking the tech to logical (but occasionally ridiculous) conclusions, I give you MixCorp's Mobile External Fabrication Units, which are used to build ships. They come in two flavors: 2-ton output Enhanced units for TL13 and below, and 2-ton output Prototype Advanced units for TL14-16. The enhanced units cost MCr39.5016 each and the advanced units cost MCr770.5076. They can run 5 4-hour shifts a day and fabricate 10 displacement tons of ship per day each.

You are probably saying "Whoa! That's hella expensive!" And you're right. On the flipside, they can build ships very fast when working in swarms. The more the merrier!

I'm including a spreadsheet of a lot of ships with their build times. The average 50% cost of raw materials makes the profit margin sweet, and if you can set up shop in a system with an asteroid belt or three, you've got pretty much everything you need. Robotic mining ships and a refinery/smelter and you are off to the races.

One thing to remember is that fabricators don't do superdense materials, so no armor above crystaliron unless it is added the normal way later. Geir told me that restriction went away with superior fabricators, but that's not written in the books, so a house rule until it makes it in at some point.

MixCorp is presently expanding their yards at Vincennes to bring this capability to the masses. Once they perfect the prototype Hop Drive, the sky is the limit. Hold your hats because here we go!

EDIT: I added a mobile raw materials bin to keep the fab fed.

 

[MasterGwydion]

Because I like taking the tech to logical (but occasionally ridiculous) conclusions, I give you MixCorp's Mobile External Fabrication Units, which are used to build ships. They come in two flavors: 2-ton output Enhanced units for TL13 and below, and 2-ton output Prototype Advanced units for TL14-16. The enhanced units cost MCr39.5016 each and the advanced units cost MCr770.5076. They can run 5 4-hour shifts a day and fabricate 10 displacement tons of ship per day each.

You are probably saying "Whoa! That's hella expensive!" And you're right. On the flipside, they can build ships very fast when working in swarms. The more the merrier!

I'm including a spreadsheet of a lot of ships with their build times. The average 50% cost of raw materials makes the profit margin sweet, and if you can set up shop in a system with an asteroid belt or three, you've got pretty much everything you need. Robotic mining ships and a refinery/smelter and you are off to the races.

MixCorp is presently expanding their yards at Vincennes to bring this capability to the masses. Once they perfect the prototype Hop Drive, the sky is the limit. Hold your hats because here we go!

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I would switch it up to 90% as the materials cost. See if it still makes money. Ships are very complicated items and require some expensive materials. One the flip side, ships are mostly empty space (probably 90% or so) and the fabricator doesn't need to fabricate empty space, so that means faster production as long as you can keep it supplied with the proper materials.

 

[Terry Mixon]

I would switch it up to 90% as the materials cost. See if it still makes money. Ships are very complicated items and require some expensive materials. One the flip side, ships are mostly empty space (probably 90% or so) and the fabricator doesn't need to fabricate empty space, so that means faster production as long as you can keep it supplied with the proper materials.

The book mentions the percentages. I think 50% is valid. There are optional pricing rules if you like.

 

[MasterGwydion]

The book mentions the percentages. I think 50% is valid. There are optional pricing rules if you like.

View attachment 6721

Yeah. Could be up to 120% the price of a finished item. I tend to use 90% for complex high tech (Specialist Plant) things. 50% for middling complexity stuff (Advanced) and 25% for everything else (Basic and Agriculture). In a fabricator you are not using those plants, but I still use that as a guideline. Just my two cents. I still love your idea!

 

[Terry Mixon]

Yeah. Could be up to 120% the price of a finished item. I tend to use 90% for complex high tech (Specialist Plant) things. 50% for middling complexity stuff (Advanced) and 25% for everything else (Basic and Agriculture). In a fabricator you are not using those plants, but I still use that as a guideline. Just my two cents. I still love your idea!

I'd say robot brains are complex, but ships are middling. One thing to remember is that fabricators short of superior don't do superdense materials, so no armor. Thanks.

 

[mavikfelna]

Yeah. Could be up to 120% the price of a finished item. I tend to use 90% for complex high tech (Specialist Plant) things. 50% for middling complexity stuff (Advanced) and 25% for everything else (Basic and Agriculture). In a fabricator you are not using those plants, but I still use that as a guideline. Just my two cents. I still love your idea!

Even at 90% cost of materials for ship building, it will easily make money. At 10 tons per day per unit, you can do a scout/ courier in 10 days. That's 36 of them a year. Or 18 Far Traders. Or 9 400-ton SDBs. That's with just one unit running. If you have 10 units working together they can build 365 Type-S a year.
It's also not limited to just ships. Anything not bio-organic is fair game. Any small, high value item you want to build, you can.

 

[Terry Mixon]

Even at 90% cost of materials for ship building, it will easily make money. At 10 tons per day per unit, you can do a scout/ courier in 10 days. That's 36 of them a year. Or 18 Far Traders. Or 9 400-ton SDBs. That's with just one unit running. If you have 10 units working together they can build 365 Type-S a year.
It's also not limited to just ships. Anything not bio-organic is fair game. Any small, high value item you want to build, you can.

The SDBs would have no armor. That would need to be added on through the normal process. You need superior fabs to make armor, according to Geir, though that isn't written into any current book yet.

Edit: I'm told that they can do crystaliron and below, so maybe that SDB still works.

 

[mavikfelna]

The SDBs would have no armor. That would need to be added on through the normal process. You need superior fabs to make armor, according to Geir, though that isn't written into any current book yet.

Edit: I'm told that they can do crystaliron and below, so maybe that SDB still works.

Yep, you can fab crystaliron just fine.

 

[Sigtrygg]

You just destroyed another setting trope - ship building times.

 

[ross]

You just destroyed another setting trope - ship building times.

I would be more inclined to believe that the technology as presented by the rules did this. The incongruities are getting significantly “worse” as the anachronisms are piling up.

 

[MasterGwydion]

You just destroyed another setting trope - ship building times.

He didn't. The writers did when they allowed those in the Charted Space setting.

Another example of why I constantly harp on about internal consistency.

 

[Terry Mixon]

You just destroyed another setting trope - ship building times.

Yep. I am a menace.

Seriously, though, I can claim only the credit for building them, not for writing the rules that made them possible.

 

[Terry Mixon]

I would be more inclined to believe that the technology as presented by the rules did this. The incongruities are getting significantly “worse” as the anachronisms are piling up.

Indeed. This is a straightforward application of the rules Mongoose put out and a completely foreseeable use of the technology. I'm just putting it into a design.