Scale; Smallcraft or the Elephant in the room.

Infojunky

Mongoose
Ok, been wandering through the mass of books that produced for 1st Edition, looking at the various "vehicles". Most of the Armored vehicles really scale with smallcraft and not vehicles. Heck, in general anything over 5 dTons in displacement really fits into that scale.

My suggestion is move Smallcraft out of Starship scale and into vehicle scale. Also move Softskined vehicles down to personal scale.
 
Infojunky said:
Ok, been wandering through the mass of books that produced for 1st Edition, looking at the various "vehicles". Most of the Armored vehicles really scale with smallcraft and not vehicles. Heck, in general anything over 5 dTons in displacement really fits into that scale.

My suggestion is move Smallcraft out of Starship scale and into vehicle scale. Also move Softskined vehicles down to personal scale.

I dont know info, I'm not really in favour of this...

We'd want Smallcraft to remain in starship scale due to their use in combat though (fighters/strikecraft/drones). So you want a starship scale construction/weapon/armour/damage/etc system to create fighters. Not a vehicle scale system that then requires conversion and probably creates sub-par craft.

Also - softskinned vehicles are just lightly armed/armoured smallcraft if the TL level is high enough. Example, a vehicle that is 5 dtons but uses very little to no armour, isn't that much different from a 10 dton smallcraft with no armour.. Actually, it would be identical but smaller.

The elephant in the room is actually the scaling. I'm looking forward to see what Matt and team are going to be sharing soon with respect to changes in damage/scales to address the problems we've been discussing to death.
 
Nerhesi said:
The elephant in the room is actually the scaling. I'm looking forward to see what Matt and team are going to be sharing soon with respect to changes in damage/scales to address the problems we've been discussing to death.
I am interested as well. I think they are trying to address the issues many have pointed out. 8)
 
All I am saying is the more I look at the pieces that I have been shown is that there is a middle class of vehicles/smallcraft that have more in common with each other than the parts they are currently associated with.

And with the scale conversion rules as they stand it makes more sense that they be combined. As said combination doesn't hurt their utility from their starting positions. Heck the Dog fighting rules alone as for a dogfight class of vehicles....
 
Infojunky said:
My suggestion is move Smallcraft out of Starship scale and into vehicle scale. Also move Softskined vehicles down to personal scale.

You make good points, but I think it would start a riot :)

We'll carry on tweaking the large vehicles and bring them into line - should be a lot easier now with the new revision.
 
msprange said:
Infojunky said:
My suggestion is move Smallcraft out of Starship scale and into vehicle scale. Also move Softskined vehicles down to personal scale.

You make good points, but I think it would start a riot :)

We'll carry on tweaking the large vehicles and bring them into line - should be a lot easier now with the new revision.

How about a Speed to G's conversion chart then? Since we have most of the pieces.... :wink:
 
Infojunky said:
How about a Speed to G's conversion chart then? Since we have most of the pieces.... :wink:

We have made a mention of typical spacecraft speeds in atmosphere (they are quick!), so they are going to be capable of anything below that.
 
Yeah - Im thinking bringing smallcraft down would have huge, and unwanted circumstances.

Military Fighters, OTU and otherwise, can handle free-traders and corsairs with ease - some Navies also use smallcraft as mainstay of their forces (Zhodani, Aslan, and automated craft by K'kree). Changing that would eliminate a strategic aspect of naval warfare (smallcraft), because they would probably be very very fragile at that point.

If you somehow moved fighters to "vehicle rules" while maintaining their hardness, performance, power, etc... then really there is no reason to move them. It would add complications because you would regularly have "vehicles" and "spacecraft" in combat with each other...

I'm a big fan of keeping things in logical groupings.
a) Anything that is a spaceship *hehe - snort snort* - 99% of the time they interact with eachother, and not with the category below
vs
b) Anything that is a planet-bound thingy - again, mostly interacting with each other, not with the above

I find that is a much cleaner delineation than an arbitrary tonnage/size. If you're going to have categories, and not one universal system, then you want categories to mostly interact within themselves, not across.
 
Nerhesi said:
Yeah - Im thinking bringing smallcraft down would have huge, and unwanted circumstances.

Why, do you need Clay Pigeons? Remember pretty much anything 40 tons and under can be K.O.ed by a 1d6 Ships laser. Hint a 10 dton boat is the size of a Large 40+ ft bus.

Nerhesi said:
Military Fighters, OTU and otherwise, can handle free-traders and corsairs with ease - some Navies also use smallcraft as mainstay of their forces (Zhodani, Aslan, and automated craft by K'kree). Changing that would eliminate a strategic aspect of naval warfare (smallcraft), because they would probably be very very fragile at that point.

If you somehow moved fighters to "vehicle rules" while maintaining their hardness, performance, power, etc... then really there is no reason to move them. It would add complications because you would regularly have "vehicles" and "spacecraft" in combat with each other...

I believe you are missing the point, In a lot of my games Small Craft and vehicle interact a lot. A lot of Interface and Orbital Transfer Vehicles and the like are effectively Vehicles in scale in my games, in that the largeness of even small "Smallcraft" can be a hindrance. Thus smooth functioning rules are nice.

Nerhesi said:
I'm a big fan of keeping things in logical groupings.

a) Anything that is a spaceship *hehe - snort snort* - 99% of the time they interact with each other, and not with the category below
vs
b) Anything that is a planet-bound thingy - again, mostly interacting with each other, not with the above

I'm sorry this argument doesn't hold water;

1. Spacecraft, even the Air/Raft can achieve Orbit. The Prospectors buggy is a Air/raft variant. The speeder Orbit capable, the rules have all the necessary parts to make small spacecraft other than the conversion from KPH to Acceleration (Note If I had a mass this wouldn't be an issue)

2. Ubiquitous mid level access to Grav Vehicles.

3. Ships Dock on planets, in fact most are pretty awkward on the ground and in the lift off and landing phases. i.e. become targets for smaller craft.

4. the reverse of 3....

Nerhesi said:
I find that is a much cleaner delineation than an arbitrary tonnage/size. If you're going to have categories, and not one universal system, then you want categories to mostly interact within themselves, not across.

I am not asking for a Universal system, I am asking for one conversion chart for Vehicles. Said Chart expands the whole Dogfight section without detracting from anything.

I asked for a seachange and am settling for a single chart....... A change that will expand utility of the rules accross the rules instead limiting options....

Edited for format...
 
Infojunky said:
Why, do you need Clay Pigeons? Remember pretty much anything 40 tons and under can be K.O.ed by a 1d6 Ships laser. Hint a 10 dton boat is the size of a Large 40+ ft bus.

Yes, and fighters can be anywhere from that at MINIMUM, to 10 time the size. Which means, they are tough space ships. (and can easily take pulse and med pulse and so on) Logically, being made out of the same stuff as spaceships, the only difference is how much "chunk" they have.

I believe you are missing the point, In a lot of my games Small Craft and vehicle interact a lot. A lot of Interface and Orbital Transfer Vehicles and the like are effectively Vehicles in scale in my games, in that the largeness of even small "Smallcraft" can be a hindrance. Thus smooth functioning rules are nice.

I think you kind of missed the point. Smooth functioning rules is what we have now. Even if somehow, if in your campaign you seem to have trucks, bikes, cars, and tanks exchanging fire with ships boats and fighters... The current system is beyond smooth - it is seamless.

I'm sorry this argument doesn't hold water;

1. Spacecraft, even the Air/Raft can achieve Orbit. The Prospectors buggy is a Air/raft variant. The speeder Orbit capable, the rules have all the necessary parts to make small spacecraft other than the conversion from KPH to Acceleration (Note If I had a mass this wouldn't be an issue)

2. Ubiquitous mid level access to Grav Vehicles.

3. Ships Dock on planets, in fact most are pretty awkward on the ground and in the lift off and landing phases. i.e. become targets for smaller craft.

4. the reverse of 3....

So my argument for two-tier clear delineation doesn't hold water (terrestrial vs space)... because you can come up with 4-arbitrary definitions to denote differences? - come on info :)

Regardless of how you try to spin it, we have the following realities:

a) Space stuff (small, space and capital craft) in space uses thrust, uses computer software, evades, has ranges in thousands of kilometers, docks inside hangers, and is used in space battles

b) Vehicles, regardless of the oddities in your campaign, do not in anyway interact in ways like the above. Completely different speeds, ranges, weapons, and terms of usage (you don't have bikes and cards being launched in fleet engagements)

I think we can both agree Info, even if Smallcraft and Vehicles interact 1-5% of the time, Spacecraft and Smallcraft interact 99% of the time. Whether it is in civil, or a military manner.

I am not asking for a Universal system, I am asking for one conversion chart for Vehicles. Said Chart expands the whole Dogfight section without detracting from anything.

I asked for a seachange and am settling for a single chart....... A change that will expand utility of the rules accross the rules instead limiting options....

The current system has massive utility, seamless transitions, and needs NO conversion chart. At all.

Literally, the only step up to improve this system, would be to go to single system for any craft (from bicycle to tank to fighter to capital ship).

There are just no value statements for trying to move stuff around - there is no problem to address... It may be personal preference, but it will introduce more problems while not solving any existing one.

I'll re-iterate what I said earlier, Smallcraft, spend 99% of their time with spacecraft, rather than with terrestrial vehicles. Whether it is docking in hangars and bringing cargo to a starport, or in groups of 100+ as fighters. They carry the same weapons, use the same M-drives (and R-drives), and generally are much more aligned that way.
 
Note; I trimmed all the Subjective arguments that relates to an argument conceded before. Nerhesi all that was summed up in the previous is that you have forgotten the Golden Rule of Traveller "All Traveller games are different". We all forget that from time to time.

Now the your remaining point is still salient, but wrong.

Nerhesi said:
The current system has massive utility, seamless transitions, and needs NO conversion chart. At all.

How fast does you ship move in Atmosphere? In KPH?

The chart I am asking for is a linear two way thingy, Atmospheric speed to G equivalents and back again. (I mean I could go one borrowing the one from previous editions of Traveller, but it would be nice to see it here)
 
Then we definitely got caught up in a "speaking past eachother moment".

I totally agree we should have something to indicate Thrust + Size vs speed in atmosphere.

I just dont think it requires us to move smallcraft to t "ground scale".

Ok thanks for the clarity info :)
 
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