Question about Thrust rating in High Guard

[Woods Walker]

This has probably been done to death but I just can't find the answers. I recently picked up High Guard and after looking at the thrust rating for many ships I'm confused by the high numbers. Tugs with a thrust rating of 14 vs fighters with a rating of only 6. Throughout the book the thrust rating for a lot of ships is very high.
I have checked the errata and I've looked through the book but I just can't find the explanation for thrust ratings above 6 in the write ups. If anyone could explain I would really appreciate it.

 

[Condottiere]

1. My rule of thumb is that fighters manned by normal humans don't exceed 10G, exceeding that is unhealthy.

2. Due to inherent structural stress, no craft larger than sixty tons may exceed 6G thrust. They probably can go faster, and if designed with that in mind, probably will do so safely, though may require higher maintenance costs and more frequent checks; however, not covered in the rules.

3. You probably won't find many passenger shuttles pushing past 7Gs, and even then, maybe only express ones.

4. You should also note at what TL the craft has been constructed at, as the grade of inertial compensators are assumedly dependent on TL, witnessed by the Man Drive TL possibility table.

 

[Woods Walker]

All very true but battle ships can do thrust 12 and weigh in at 200,000 dTons. Their just seems to be something I'm missing. When I check the capital ship design rules I couldn't find any option that would allow a thrust rating above 6. Hence my confusion.
I just can't figure out the disconnect between the ship write ups and ship design rules.

1. My rule of thumb is that fighters manned by normal humans don't exceed 10G, exceeding that is unhealthy.

2. Due to inherent structural stress, no craft larger than sixty tons may exceed 6G thrust. They probably can go faster, and if designed with that in mind, probably will do so safely, though may require higher maintenance costs and more frequent checks; however, not covered in the rules.

3. You probably won't find many passenger shuttles pushing past 7Gs, and even then, maybe only express ones.

4. You should also note at what TL the craft has been constructed at, as the grade of inertial compensators are assumedly dependent on TL, witnessed by the Man Drive TL possibility table.

 

[coldwar]

I think you are reading the Battleships thrust wrong.
6-11 If I am right, the 6 is its thrust. The second number is the technology level of the part.

The Tug is really high, as it is meant to be able to push another ship. On its own, or with other tugs if the ship is much bigger then only one tug can handle.

 

[DickTurpin]

Only small craft can have thrust numbers above six without the temporary boost from high-Burn Thrusters (Book 6: Scoundrel p.88). I don't know if this is actually stated in the rules like it is for Jump number or if that is just where the tables end.

As others have said, the tug is intended to push much larger ships around so it needs extra power. When working in a crowded area tugs are probably restricted to no more than 2G acceleration unless the starport administrators are trying to cause accidents.

I agree that fighters are not as fast as they should be as well. I think thrust six should be the minimum and if their role is to chase ships down before they can reach the jump limit then they need to be even faster than that.

 

[Saladman]

I've just been looking at High Guard myself. I notice the 20-ton multipurpose fighter gets up to 9g of thrust. I'm now picturing the 10 ton fighter as more commonly available than I figured from the core book. Either outdated military surplus, or else new Megacorp production for the civilian market. So mainly fielded by merchant ships and small/poor worlds and habitats as a "close enough" defense against common pirates and raiders.

 

[Woods Walker]

I think you are reading the Battleships thrust wrong.
6-11 If I am right, the 6 is its thrust. The second number is the technology level of the part.

The Tug is really high, as it is meant to be able to push another ship. On its own, or with other tugs if the ship is much bigger then only one tug can handle.

Yeah, I see what you mean about 6-11. I didn't notice any rules governing towing but I haven't checked my book in a while. Thanks for clearing things up.