Ship Design Philosophy
- Thread starter Condottiere
- Start date
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
As I understand it, jump factor two requires the same amount of power as basic ship systems.
In theory, you could switch those over to batteries for presumably six minutes, as power from the engine gets diverted to the jump drives; though, again in theory, the capacitors, accumulators or batteries could jump start the jump drive by themselves, but as I recall, game mechanics sort of required it to be from the power plant or capacitors just recently juiced up.
You can't pro rata the ship computer or the sensors, because then they'll just not work as specified, at best, throttling them down means that they can't work as fast, can't handle as much data, nor look that far.
In theory, you could switch those over to batteries for presumably six minutes, as power from the engine gets diverted to the jump drives; though, again in theory, the capacitors, accumulators or batteries could jump start the jump drive by themselves, but as I recall, game mechanics sort of required it to be from the power plant or capacitors just recently juiced up.
You can't pro rata the ship computer or the sensors, because then they'll just not work as specified, at best, throttling them down means that they can't work as fast, can't handle as much data, nor look that far.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Starships: Hyperspace Navigation and Ballistic Trajectories
M assumption is that a transition usually occurs in a straight line, bar misjumps.
However, in order to skirt gravitational wells, or perhaps even directly having the flight path influenced by them, I wonder if you can deliberately plot a curved flight path?
It would certainly explain how you'd get to the other side of the sun that's blocking a direct path to the nearest point of exit to the primary system planet. Or through all those systems that happen to lie between you and a system four parsecs spinward.
M assumption is that a transition usually occurs in a straight line, bar misjumps.
However, in order to skirt gravitational wells, or perhaps even directly having the flight path influenced by them, I wonder if you can deliberately plot a curved flight path?
It would certainly explain how you'd get to the other side of the sun that's blocking a direct path to the nearest point of exit to the primary system planet. Or through all those systems that happen to lie between you and a system four parsecs spinward.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Spaceships: Munchkinization and Size Categories
For those that have min-maxed their spaceships to within one tonne of the next size category, it should be noted that hulls can become heated and expand, sufficiently to cover that extra fourteen cubic metres, which would make your ship a tad easier to spot and shoot at.
For those that have min-maxed their spaceships to within one tonne of the next size category, it should be noted that hulls can become heated and expand, sufficiently to cover that extra fourteen cubic metres, which would make your ship a tad easier to spot and shoot at.
Spartan159
Banded Mongoose
Condottiere said:
So, how do I plus one this comment? 8)
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
It does seem relevant in a multi-parsec jump, otherwise you'd probably exit along the edge of the destination hex.
Spartan159
Banded Mongoose
Trying to say astrogation in the core might be interesting?
Condottiere said:
In theory, it should. Ships would be departing on multiple vectors from a planet to orient themselves properly for the jump. In some instances they might have to travel for days to get to the proper jump departure point so they could travel in a straight line to their destination, assuming it was a long jump and they had to pass through a star system along the way.
Spartan159 said:
If we assume one star system per hex, then yes, potentially Travellers might take multiple smaller jumps to get to where they wanted to go.
But this rule, like retaining your velocity and heading coming out of a jump, aren't used as far as game mechanics.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
That's why they pay navigators the big bucks.
Or get a DVD.
Or get a DVD.
I like the idea of ships being able to skimp on navigational software (or even a navigator) by buying a 'tape program' created by the starport computer systems that pre-plots their jump for them. So the ship feeds the navigational and jump information into the ships systems, and flies to the appropriate jump point and then jumps.
The downside would be that without a navigator a ship would not be able to plot the most efficient course to any destination, but they would be able to get there, especially if it was a planet. Stations located away from planets would most likely be a much less efficient course (maybe in the range of 10-20% less efficient).
The downside would be that without a navigator a ship would not be able to plot the most efficient course to any destination, but they would be able to get there, especially if it was a planet. Stations located away from planets would most likely be a much less efficient course (maybe in the range of 10-20% less efficient).
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Starships: Appellations
Civilian merchantmen that have a range of above five parsecs are called skippers.
Civilian merchantmen that have a range of above five parsecs are called skippers.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Only those that misjump into another hex.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Spaceships: Armaments and Sandcasters
Let's have another go at this.
First of all, the canister has no propulsion, which means any that's given comes from the launcher. The canister is ejected. There's also no guidance onboard. It is just a metal container full of crystals. That can be manufactured a tech level five.
My estimate the canister weighs in at forty kilogrammes, which is five hundred sixty thousand cubic centimetres.
If you manufactured them as rectangles, you could have them sized at fifty centimetres by fifty centimetres by two hundred twenty four centimetres. You know, Wookie height.
Or sixty centimetres by sixty centimetres by one fifty six centimetres. Probably shorter than you.
Let's say the generic turret launcher is two cubic metres. Reloading is likely to be straight line vertical, possibly requiring the launch section of the launcher to align itself first to the reloading equipment vertically, though it seems likely the missile launcher has to do this as well.
The launcher is mentioned at tech level seven, but then again, so are viable laser weapons, both of which I'm more inclined to see at tech level eight in view of our actual technological development. But, whatever.
So what ejects the canister?
Could be air pressure,
Could be steam pressure.
Could be a rubber band.
Let's have another go at this.
First of all, the canister has no propulsion, which means any that's given comes from the launcher. The canister is ejected. There's also no guidance onboard. It is just a metal container full of crystals. That can be manufactured a tech level five.
My estimate the canister weighs in at forty kilogrammes, which is five hundred sixty thousand cubic centimetres.
If you manufactured them as rectangles, you could have them sized at fifty centimetres by fifty centimetres by two hundred twenty four centimetres. You know, Wookie height.
Or sixty centimetres by sixty centimetres by one fifty six centimetres. Probably shorter than you.
Let's say the generic turret launcher is two cubic metres. Reloading is likely to be straight line vertical, possibly requiring the launch section of the launcher to align itself first to the reloading equipment vertically, though it seems likely the missile launcher has to do this as well.
The launcher is mentioned at tech level seven, but then again, so are viable laser weapons, both of which I'm more inclined to see at tech level eight in view of our actual technological development. But, whatever.
So what ejects the canister?
Could be air pressure,
Could be steam pressure.
Could be a rubber band.
Spartan159
Banded Mongoose
Over-sized Wile E Coyote Acme Slingshot, turret mounted. /nod :lol:
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Spaceships: Armaments and Sandcasters
Mass drivers are available at tech eight, which seems the logical way to launch the canisters, so you have to wonder what they used at tech level seven, and if they were still using the technology at tech level fifteen.
You can't really drop them, unless it's a chase.
And the canister needs enough velocity to get where it's supposed to be going, in order to position itself between the ship and the incoming ordnance.
Since it's in space, being a rectangle doesn't matter, and probably helps in regard to storage.
The launcher is, of course, an autoloader. If it were a manual operation, not only should reloading be slower and more awkward, the launcher would be half the size, one cubic metre.
Something to keep in mind for sandcaster VLS packs, since they'd only be one shots and reloading would be from the outside.
Mass drivers are available at tech eight, which seems the logical way to launch the canisters, so you have to wonder what they used at tech level seven, and if they were still using the technology at tech level fifteen.
You can't really drop them, unless it's a chase.
And the canister needs enough velocity to get where it's supposed to be going, in order to position itself between the ship and the incoming ordnance.
Since it's in space, being a rectangle doesn't matter, and probably helps in regard to storage.
The launcher is, of course, an autoloader. If it were a manual operation, not only should reloading be slower and more awkward, the launcher would be half the size, one cubic metre.
Something to keep in mind for sandcaster VLS packs, since they'd only be one shots and reloading would be from the outside.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Starships: Corsairs
Never quite understood why you'd want to waste cargo space trying to swallow a spaceship, which in any case would be limited to hundred tonnes or less.
Use that capacity for increased bunkerage, speed and range, and use clamps to grapple the unlucky target, like a preying mantis.
You could also escape the system with that captured prey.
Never quite understood why you'd want to waste cargo space trying to swallow a spaceship, which in any case would be limited to hundred tonnes or less.
Use that capacity for increased bunkerage, speed and range, and use clamps to grapple the unlucky target, like a preying mantis.
You could also escape the system with that captured prey.
