Ship Design Philosophy

[Condottiere]

Starships: Astrogation

I think the simplest way to express astrogation is to state the desired exit point relative to the closest known significant gravity well in terms of predicted time, angle and distance.

The entry point would be in relation to the exit point, since it has to clear navigational hazards, or at least, you hope that your astrogator has done that.

 

[Condottiere]

Starships: Jump Drive Capacitors and Black Globes

You have to make two assumptions, that the five tonne overhead doesn't count towards total jump drive capacitor capacity, and that one point of damage is the equivalent to one point of energy.

Jump drive capacitors make up twenty percent of the volume, which would give it a redundancy of two hundred and fifty percent.

Considering that overloading the capacitors should lead to a catastrophic event, that is the jump drive explodes, redundancy may not be a bad thing.

I would think that there are two factors to consider, that power input spikes during the run up to transition, and the other one would be holding sufficient charge before it decays to below the threshold required for the programmed jump.

 

[Condottiere]

Starships: Jump Drive Capacitors

Since there is a default two and a half times capacity to that actually required, you could effectively remove the excess, perhaps only keep it at twenty percent extra, essentially halving the capacitor capacity.

As a safety precaution, you could channel this first through a battery containing the correct charge, ensuring that there is no energy spike that could blow up the jump drive.

 

[Condottiere]

Starships: Jump Drive Breakdown

Ten tonne jump drive, default:

. Overhead
.. five tonnes
.. 7.5 megacredits
.. technological level nine

. Jump core
.. four tonnes
.. 4.5 megacredits
.. technological level nine/eleven

. Capacitors
.. one tonne
.. 3.0 megacredits
.. fifty energy points
.. technological level nine

 

[Condottiere]

Inspiration: Spacestation Construction

https://youtu.be/Zn8b3MDMjQ4

Can't spot any thermal vents

 

[Condottiere]

Starships: Jump Drive Breakdown

Ten tonne jump drive, default budget/enlarged:

. Overhead
.. six and a quarter tonnes
.. 5.625 megacredits
.. technological level nine

. Jump core
.. three tonnes
.. 2.025 megacredits
.. one hundred twenty parsec tonnes
.. technological level nine

. Capacitors
.. three quarters tonne
.. 1.35 megacredits
.. twenty two amd a half energy points
.. technological level nine

 

[Condottiere]

Inspiration: Clouds Across The Moon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL8AgEzg5fI

Telecommunications will likely suck over interplanetary distances.

 

[Condottiere]

Starships: Jump Drive Breakdown

Ten tonne jump drive, default budget/enlarged, one shot:

. Overhead
.. five tonnes
.. 1.40625 megacredits
.. technological level nine

. Jump core
.. four tonnes
.. 0.675 megacredits
.. two hundred parsec tonnes
.. technological level nine/eleven

. Capacitors
.. one tonne
.. 0.5625 megacredits
.. thirty energy points
.. technological level nine

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Weaponry and Sandcasters

Sandcaster range appears to be upto closem according the sandcutter variant. Unless there's an unmentioned propellant aspect to it.

So, theoretically, you can birdshoot boarders at close range.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Nothing theoretical about it - see Striker and MegaTraveller.
Here is the Striker version:

6. Sandcasters: Sandcasters may be used as a sort of giant shotgun. They
attack all targets within their danger space, which is 4 cm wide at effective range,
8 cm at long range, and 12 cm at extreme range. Effective range in a standard
atmosphere is 50 cm with a penetration of 20 and an autofire DM of +8. Long
range is 100 cm with a penetration of 10 and an autofire DM of +6. Extreme
range is 200 cm with a penetration of 5 and an autofire DM of +4.

 

[baithammer]

In order for something as fine as sand to be effective in negating lasers its density per volume needs to be rather large, which precludes an energetic expulsion. ( Similar issue with the sand cutter as well.)

 

[Sigtrygg]

Striker says its a shotgun, MegaTraveller says its a shotgun. Nor does a sandcaster fire sand, it fires a cloud of laser diffracting, ablative crystals. Judging by the info from a myriad of Traveller sources the 'sand' cloud is indeed blasted into the path of incoming laser fire. No idea if it is done by chemical propellants, electromagnetic or gravitic projection, but it can most definitely be used as a close range antipersonnel or anti-LAV weapon.

 

[baithammer]

I really find it interesting that MGT 2ed has a specific weaponized sandcaster munition but still uses the default munition as being anti-personnel.

But using past editions to inform on current rules isn't a good default, though its great basis when the current rules don't have or clarify a mechanic.

 

[Condottiere]

Gravity and atmospheric friction would tend to be a factor.

Close range would be upto ten klicks in open space, so basically you could fire at a friendly target that is being boarded, without worrying about penetrating the hull.

Sandcaster launcher is listed at technological level nine availability, so mini mass driver is a possibility.

 

[Sigtrygg]

I've recently toyed with them being a variant of VRF gauss gun tech.

 

[Condottiere]

Muzzle velocity probably becomes relevant.

Which reminds me.

Close range is dogfighting territory; a boarding party is looking at being machine gunned down at six second intervals if exposed on the hull.

Probably a good idea that you can't use sandcaster variants to directly penetrate the hull, since sheer attrition should have sand blasted a hole within six minutes.

Which leaves us with actual machine guns to consider, railguns.

Torpedoes and missiles as well, in theory, but awfully expensive.

 

[Sigtrygg]

A VRF gauss gun has a muzzle velocity of 4.5km/s, mass drivers could be even greater. CPR guns struggle to achieve much over 1.5km/s

 

[Condottiere]

You only need two thousand metres per second, which would get you to ten klicks in five seconds.

You could replace the glitter dust with a warhead.

 

[baithammer]

A VRF gauss gun has a muzzle velocity of 4.5km/s, mass drivers could be even greater. CPR guns struggle to achieve much over 1.5km/s
[/quote

The point of a mass driver is more to do with the mass of the projectile rather than the kinetic force. ( Gauss and Railguns are for more kinetic work.)

 

[Condottiere]

Dirtside, they'd work as mortars or howitzers, depending on actual muzzle velocity.