Rethinking The X-Boat

[Condottiere]

Since it's two dimensional, the optimal position for the tender is on top.

Or bottom.

Rather than have multiple examples facing different directions.

 

[alex_greene]

Since it's two dimensional, the optimal position for the tender is on top.

Or bottom.

Rather than have multiple examples facing different directions.

... cancel double entendre mode, please.

 

[phavoc]

For a hub-and-spoke style network (along with high-speed data communications) you'd have crews on standby for their legs in the tender ships waiting for the arrival of current inbound leg(s). Some worlds would be waiting for a single arrival vessel while others could have two or more x-boats as part of their portion of the network.

Local data would be continually uploaded to the next x-boat while the crew is simply on standby. Once arrival of the x-boat(s) happens the data should get transmitted either to a relay facility or directly to the tender. At that point the crew would be notified of the arrival and begin prepping for their departure. They should easily have an hours notice - so the real factor may be boredom, boredom, gotta launch! So much like pilots on alert status in the military.

In the Merchanter books by Cherryh the merchant ships themselves were the carriers of data - they would get continual updates from the departure world as they made their way out-system and then when they arrived they would do a data dump while they made their way in-system. For FTL (or sail travel) it's simple and it works. Ye olde sailing ships had much the same process - except they used wax seals on letters instead of encryption algorithms to know if anyone had tampered with the data.

X-boats make sense for the pony-express route and regular freighters for all other data. Specialized mail ships would really only be needed for physical packages. Imperium could save a bundle if they adopted 20th century postal technologies and processes.

 

[tytalan]

I always thought as tenders being in systems on the edge of the X-Boat route while important/hub systems would have a X-Boat station and tugboats to collect and position the X-Boats. Such systems would probably have @nywhere from twice to three times the X-Boats in ready than the number of routes that go thru the system. The station would probably have at least one tug for every route and a Fuel Barge to get fuel for the stations takes.

Tenders are to me at least either at systems on the far edge of the routes or are moved to temporary points on the routes. It doesn’t make sense not to build a more permanent base in most systems.

 

[tytalan]

1 I don’t think you need to modify it with collectors.
2 Mongooses design doesn’t make any sense
A. The jump drive have increased space just to save a little money

B. It’s power plant is TL 8 while the rest of the ship is 13
C. It carries 41 tons of fuel for jump and power plant but also has batteries because it need 60 pt power to jump this is stupid
X-Boat quick fix replace the batteries, fusion plant and jump drive with a 4 ton TL 13 fusion plant and standard jump 4 this actually increases the cargo space to 5.5 tons turn that into common area and the design actually works. You already have to refuel the jump fuel and this design the power plant has 10 weeks of operational fuel. Still TL 13 and works much better

 

[Condottiere]

Early fusion reactor is cheaper per power point produced.

This might be a case of lowest bidder getting the contract.

 

[tytalan]

I’m updating X-Boats in my game.
I’ve given them M-1
I upgraded the fusion plant to TL12
I increased the size of the cabin to a high stateroom
I went with light hull Budget Fusion, M-Drive and Jump Drive (extra space all)
I went with a battery of only 20ep enough to power jump and the fusion plant can recharge while in jump space no problem
Most systems have either a small or large X-boat station to refuel the X-Boat and repair if necessary (I use a few tenders but they are mostly for temporary use)

The pilot rarely leaves the X-Boat for his term of X-boat duty( hence why it’s considered punishment duty even tho they have a high stateroom)

Since X-Boat are explicitly stated as carrying important information and are not the mail which is carried on Traders the Imperium tends to treat any attack on X-Boats or X-Boat Stations as a act of war (just like interfering with diplomatic communications in the real world). More than one pirate group has gotten a battle raider squadron hunting them for being this stupid.

If you want I’ll post my X-Boat