Ship Design Philosophy

[Condottiere]

Actual prices in MCr. for smallcraft fusion power plants:
sL - 9.1
sM - 10.7
sN - 12.3
sP - 13.9
sQ - 15.5
sR - 17.1
sS - 18.7
sT - 20.3
sU - 21.9
sV - 23.5
sW - 25.1
sX - 26.7
sY - 28.3
sZ - 29.6

 

[Condottiere]

Reconciling the Reactionary Manouvre Drives

1. You can't.

2. You could assume it might be possible if the formula was structured on on an economy of scale model, as smallcraft engines are too large, and capital class are way too cheap.

3. The model would work if smallcraft engines are proportionally larger until they reach sK/aA, because they would need to match up, and follow on to sV/aB in lockstep.

4. aA needs to be revised to a smaller size, since it is proved that smaller engines exist.

5. Engines are also need to be made cheaper as they tend to be four times more expensive, since capital class are 0.5 MCr. per ton.

6. That means installing a twenty ton legal minimum capital class manoeuvre drive is still going to put you way ahead in cost in practically every circumstance.

 

[Condottiere]

Revised Reactionary Manoeuvre Drives
Reconciling Smallcraft and Adventure Class Alphabet Drives

Factor - Tonnage MCr.
sA - 0.2 0.4
sB - 0.4 0.8
sC - 0.6 1.2
sD - 1.8 1.6
sE - 1.0 2.0
sF - 1.2 2.4
sG - 1.4 2.8
sH - 1.6 3.2
sJ - 1.8 3.6
sK - 2.0 4.0
sL - 2.1 4.4
sM - 2.2 4.8
sN - 2.3 5.2
sP - 2.4 5.6
sQ - 2.5 6.0
sR - 2.6 6.4
sS - 2.7 6.8
sT - 2.8 7.2
sU - 2.9 7.6
sV - 3.0 8.0
sW - 3.2 8.4
sX - 3.4 8.8
sY - 3.6 9.2
sZ - 3.8 9.6

 

[Condottiere]

Revised Reactionary Manoeuvre Drives Version Two
Reconciling Smallcraft and Adventure Class Alphabet Drives

Factor - Tonnage MCr.
sA - 0.15 0.4
sB - 0.3 0.8
sC - 0.45 1.2
sD - 0.6 1.6
sE - 0.75 2.0
sF - 0.9 2.4
sG - 1.05 2.8
sH - 1.2 3.2
sJ - 1.35 3.6
sK - 1.5 4.0
sL - 1.65 4.4
sM - 1.8 4.8
sN - 1.95 5.2
sP - 2.1 5.6
sQ - 2.25 6.0
sR - 2.4 6.4
sS - 2.55 6.8
sT - 2.7 7.2
sU - 2.85 7.6
sV - 3.0 8.0
sW - 3.2 8.4
sX - 3.4 8.8
sY - 3.6 9.2
sZ - 3.8 9.6

 

[Condottiere]

Revised Reactionary Manoeuvre Drives Version Two
Reconciling Smallcraft and Adventure Class Alphabet Drives
Commentary

1. You'll note that an economy of scale is effected at 3 tons.

2. aA/sK has been reduced to 1.5 tons.

3. The Alphabets sort of fit into the capital class algorithms, except in price.

4. Prices might be needed to be divided by eight.

 

[Condottiere]

Engines and Energy Weapons

1. I wondered if sE in a hundred ton adventure hull could at least fire off one laser, and not rely on kinetic weaponry solely.

2. sK/aA in a smallcraft can oly power up a single energy weapon, regardless of whether laser or particle beam.

3. Whereas sK/aA in a hundred ton Adventure hull can utilize three lasers.

4. That means one or the other must be wrong.

5. Since it's more likely he smallcraft one, seeing as it doesn't discriminate against either laser nor particle beam, as a particle beam consumes more energy given the restrictions on it's use by low factor power plants in Adventure hulls, though a particle beam barbette is powered at sL.

6. As such, smallcraft weapon table needs to be revised as follows.

7. Smallcraft/Adventure power plants can power up:
a. One laser at sD/sEa
b. Two lasers at sG
c. Three lasers at sK/aA
d. Four lasers at sP
e. Five lasers at sS
f. Six lasers at sV/aB
g. Seven lasers at sZ

8. Smallcraft/Adventure power plants can power up:
a. One particle beam at sG
b. Two particle beams at sL
c. Three particle beams at sS
d. Four particle beams at sW
e. One particle beam at aA/sK
f. Two particle beams at aB/sV

9. Smallcraft/Adventure power plants can power up:
a. One particle beam barbette at sL
b. Two particle beam barbettes at sX
c. One particle beam barbette at aB/sV

10. Bear in mind, hardpoint restrictions/firm points restrictions would remain, unless you find a loophole, say, attaching a weapons pod to the ship and powering it directly.

 

[Condottiere]

Venture Class

Variants
1. TL8 Prototype Armoured Scout - Pioneer
2. TL9 Flea Trader - Venture
3. TL10 Prototype Scout Jump Two - Pathfinder
4. TL11 Packet ship
5. TL12 Yacht
6. TL13 Express Boat
7. TL14 Fast Courier Jump Five with hundred ton drop tank

 

[Condottiere]

10 ton Bridge
4 workstations at 1 ton each
- Flight controls
- Astrogation
- Communications/transponder
- Engineering
- Environmental Systems/Life Support
- Internal Security/Operations Management/Resource Allocation
- Ship's Computer
- Sensors/Lidar/Radar/Infra red/Optical/Geiger Counter/Gyroscope

1.5 tons avionics
1.5 tons corridor
1 ton ship's locker
1 ton air-lock
So there's one ton leftover to be distributed

4 ton Stateroom
2.5 tons
0.5 tons fresher
0.5 tons corridor
0.5 tons common area

 

[Condottiere]

Bridges

1. A hundred ton ship ten ton bridge costs 0.5 MCr, while a two hundred ton ship's ten ton bridge costs 1 MCr. A three hundred ton ship's twenty ton bridge costs 1.5 MCr, while a thousand ton ship's twenty bridge costs 5 MCr.

2. The difference can only be wiring, hull and internal sensors.

3. A hundred ton smallcraft cockpit with two crew either have a three ton cockpit or a six ton control cabin, both of which will cost 0.5 MCr.

4. You could assume that the cost of the Jump Drive covers the jump drive bridge controls and monitoring systems.

5. A two thousand to Capital class ship with either a ten or twenty ton bridge (depending on interpretation) costs 1 MCr or 2 MCr.

 

[Condottiere]

Bridges

1. So we can gather that the smallest bridge for a jump capable ship is ten tons at 0.5 MCr.

2. Reconciling the smallcraft bridge with the Adventure class one, we can see that there is a difference of four tons, of which one ton would be for the ship's locker, and one ton for the air-lock, leaving another two tons for two more workstations, one of which would be dealing with aspects of jump operations.

3. Avionics may be only 0.5 tons per fifty tons of hull, which would sync in with 1.5 ton cockpits.

4. Going by the blueprints, 0.5 tons of the 1.5 ton avionics suite would be crawl and work space, though I would have installed them in pop out modules for easy maintenance.

5. The mistake that HG may have made in regard to smallcraft, is that sixty ton plus ships need two crew stations as a space requirement for more equipment, rather than that they need that extra crew member.

 

[Infojunky]

10 ton Bridge
4 workstations at 1 ton each
- Flight controls
- Astrogation
- Communications/transponder
- Engineering
- Environmental Systems/Life Support
- Internal Security/Operations Management/Resource Allocation
- Ship's Computer
- Sensors/Lidar/Radar/Infra red/Optical/Geiger Counter/Gyroscope

Awful lot of assumption in those numbers, remember many smaller ships only have two workstations in their bridges. You also have to remember that the "Bridge" cover the whole controls volume slice of the hull i.e. in other editions of Traveller this generally has be around 5% of the hulls volume with a certain minimum volume...

1.5 tons avionics
1.5 tons corridor
1 ton ship's locker
1 ton air-lock
So there's one ton leftover to be distributed

What's a Ship's Locker?.... In that Ship's Lockers are a agglomeration of of all the lockers, lazerettes, wall stands and storage cabinets throughout the ship/vessel, as such you generally don't need to allocate specific space to it. Well I mean you can if you are detail every locker on the ship.....

4 ton Stateroom
2.5 tons
0.5 tons fresher
0.5 tons corridor
0.5 tons common area

Does every Stateroom need its own fresher?

 

[Condottiere]

1. You'll notice I do make a lot of assumptions with ship design, and then ex post facto try to find some text or extrapolation to justify.

2. Freshers - not every stateroom has them, but by default they would be included, considering the fact I just paid ten thousand schmuckers for two weeks in an enclosed space.

3. Adventure class bridge size - I work with what I got, and it chimes in with the smallest legal command module from the capital class design, and the largest smallcraft one. Eerily so.

4. Ship's locker - common space ship equipment, as I understand it, a Bag of Infinite Holding combined with a Wand of Wonders. Never really occurred to me to start looking closer at the blueprints, until I realized that the air-lock and the ship's locker don't have separate tonnage, so they must constitute part of the bridge's, whereas you have to install them separately on a smallcraft.

5. Cost of smallcraft and Adventure class bridges need to have a basic cost, plus wiring and sensors, which can't cost that much.

 

[Condottiere]

Venture Class

Hull
100-tons tl9 streamlined titanium steel with 1.25 hull/structure points
2.2 MCr
configured as a flattened sphere/disc

Armour
None, but you have to wonder what's the minimum hull thickness to maintain structural integrity; self sealing is relatively cheap especially if you confined it to the bridge and crew quarters, and radiation shielding seems a worthwhile insurance policy, but for the basic model, while not cutting corners, the aim is to get the cheapest possible starship

Engines
12.5 tons at 16.5 MCr
2.5 tons sE/aA'-tl9 125% 3.125 fusion power plant 5.5 MCr
fuel consumption 1 ton fortnightly
2.5 tons sE/aA'-tl9 gravitic drive 4 MCr
7.5 tons sE/aA'-tl9 jump drive 7 MCr.
assuming tl9 is the tech level that allows both reactionless drives, inertial compensation and artificial gravity: acceleration factor one doesn't really need inertial compensation, and you line up direction at ninety degrees to the deck, and thereby dispense with artificial gravity, though a week in hyperspace just floating around probably isn't worth the heath effects

Bridge
10 tons at 0.5 MCr with a 0.03 MCr Model1=tl7 computer
standard sensors-tl8 dm-4 with radar and lidar
theoretically, the computer could be ten percent cheaper, and the sensors five percent, though how'd you'd adjust the bridge cost would seem to be a mystery in that case; you could make the bridge compact, but the idea is to make flying it as idiot-proof as possible

Weapons
1-ton triple turret at 1 MCr
at factor one acceleration you're likely to be a sitting duck, but probably removed in the core systems

Fuel
12 tons, sufficient for jump one and four weeks of operations

Cargo
61.5 tons

Staterooms
2 Capsule rooms at 1 ton and 0.1 MCr

Extras
Fuel scoop
Fuel Processor 1-ton 0.05 MCr
Ship's Locker
Air-lock
Fresher 0.5 tons 0.05 MCr
Galley 0.5 tons 0.05 MCr
Rear cargo hatchback
3 telescoping legs with pads
I'm guessing the costs of the galley and the fresher, probably both cost around ten thousand

Software
Jump Control/1 0.1 MCr
Manoeuvre/0
Library

20.58 MCr
Maintenance monthly cost 1'715 Cr
Monthly life support cost 2'000/3'000 Cr for single/double occupancy

 

[sideranautae]

Armour
None, but you have to wonder what's the minimum hull thickness to maintain structural integrity;

Hmm, if engaged in interplanetary travel (constant acceleration speeds) vs. sand like particles? Several feet thick at a minimum. At least to keep people from getting splatted by the dust.

 

[Infojunky]

Armour
None, but you have to wonder what's the minimum hull thickness to maintain structural integrity;

Hmm, if engaged in interplanetary travel (constant acceleration speeds) vs. sand like particles? Several feet thick at a minimum. At least to keep people from getting splatted by the dust.

Naw just a good pulse laser.....

 

[sideranautae]

Naw just a good pulse laser.....

Naw, too small and coming in too fast to detect in time. Even then all you've done is change it to molten state and the ship still receives the same K.E. hit.

 

[Infojunky]

Naw just a good pulse laser.....

Naw, too small and coming in too fast to detect in time. Even then all you've done is change it to molten state and the ship still receives the same K.E. hit.

We can go down to sand grains now, and in line with the direction of travel we can use aperture synthesis to increase the detection range. Then couple that with asymmetric heating to provide thrust to move said particle out of the way. Then add a particle shield which mostly tinfoil and styrofoam and space what's the worry?

 

[sideranautae]

We can go down to sand grains now, and in line with the direction of travel we can use aperture synthesis to increase the detection range.

But not far enough. Going out to Neptune on a 1G freighter you will reach speeds of ~6,500 kilometers a second. It is either a thick hull or death. Take your pick.

Also, if that was the method used in Trav all ships would be gunned as a requirement 100% of the time.

 

[Condottiere]

You'd need to set up the turret as a CIWs, though going by the current Mongoose smallcraft design sequence, you could do that with ten small arms rather than assigning ship weaponry slots.

 

[Condottiere]

Venture Class

1. If I raise the roof a bit, to just over six metres, I could create a cargo bay of six metres by twelve metres by nine metres equals forty eight tons or twelve twenty foot containers, or six forty foot containers.

2. That leaves thirteen and a half tons to cover the additional headroom and some more cargo compartments or staterooms, or even fuel for one more jump; or with a aA jump drive with an additional two and a half tons leaving one ton.