Ship Design Philosophy

[wbnc]

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.

I think the corsairs oversized hatches are more for fast cargo transfer and carrying small craft rather than swallowing a ship.

I like the idea of a ship designed to literally, lock on and steal the target vessel. that sort of design is doable. Using a forced linkage/grapnel system and docking clamps. but the requirements for extra jumpdrive, and fuel would be tough to manage. Jacking the ship and hauling it off to a nearby system where a cargo ship and better equipped boarding teams were waiting might be an option...if the target has been disabled and has no weapons left to fire at you...the safest way to use a ship like that would be to team up several ships, a couple of armed ships to disable the target and board it..then the Hijacker to move in and haul away the prize ship.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Armaments and Sandcasters

If you assume a muzzle velocity of fifty metres per second, the canister will reach nine thousand metres in about three minutes.

Unfortunately, I think that means that if you tried firing it on Earth, at an angle of around forty five degrees, it would probably plop to the ground at two hundred metres.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Airlocks and Launch Facilities

Airlocks and launch facilities should be individually accounted for in ship design, rather than assigned to some pool like bridge or common area, nor rationed out per tonnage lot.

 

[Askold]

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.

The way I see it, by swallowing a smaller ship the Corsair is capable of something that would otherwise be impossible. Stealing an entire ship and flying it away even if it is not jump capable at the time. Without this ability you would only be able to steal another ship if you can board it, have the extra crew to make it jump AND keep it intact enough to be able to jump with it. Actually, you would also have to be certain that it has enough fuel for the jump.

Sure, with the Corsair you can only do it for 100 Dton ships but those are plentiful and one such ship is probably more valuable than 100 tonnes of random cargo unless you were really lucky.

Fly in, unless they surrender nicely shoot them until they can't resist, grab 'em and run.

And if you instead manage to incapacitate a bigger cargo ship and get your bay full of cargo then that's even better but I wouldn't call it a waste of cargo space to get an entire ship. (Those small scouts seem to be plentiful so selling them probably ain't too hard. Use it in your own fleet or sell it for parts if all else fails.)

 

[AndrewW]

The way I see it, by swallowing a smaller ship the Corsair is capable of something that would otherwise be impossible. Stealing an entire ship and flying it away even if it is not jump capable at the time. Without this ability you would only be able to steal another ship if you can board it, have the extra crew to make it jump AND keep it intact enough to be able to jump with it. Actually, you would also have to be certain that it has enough fuel for the jump.

Would also need whatever ship to fit within the dimensions of the cargo bay.

Could do it with a tow line or docking clamp.

Sure, with the Corsair you can only do it for 100 Dton ships but those are plentiful and one such ship is probably more valuable than 100 tonnes of random cargo unless you were really lucky.

You also would get whatever cargo the ship was carrying.

 

[Condottiere]

That would apply to hangars and launch facilities in general.

First of all, once you've disabled or captured the ship, you'd want to move the action to somewhere no one's looking or can see what's going on.

You need, or more precisely, prefer a ready market for bulk goods.

 

[Askold]

The way I see it, by swallowing a smaller ship the Corsair is capable of something that would otherwise be impossible. Stealing an entire ship and flying it away even if it is not jump capable at the time. Without this ability you would only be able to steal another ship if you can board it, have the extra crew to make it jump AND keep it intact enough to be able to jump with it. Actually, you would also have to be certain that it has enough fuel for the jump.

Would also need whatever ship to fit within the dimensions of the cargo bay.

Could do it with a tow line or docking clamp.

Can you pull a ship behind another one with a tow cable or attach a ship on the outer hull of another ship AND make a jump like that? I assumed that those would be impossible in Traveller and the "cargo" would all have to be internal.

 

[wbnc]

The way I see it, by swallowing a smaller ship the Corsair is capable of something that would otherwise be impossible. Stealing an entire ship and flying it away even if it is not jump capable at the time. Without this ability you would only be able to steal another ship if you can board it, have the extra crew to make it jump AND keep it intact enough to be able to jump with it. Actually, you would also have to be certain that it has enough fuel for the jump.

Would also need whatever ship to fit within the dimensions of the cargo bay.

Could do it with a tow line or docking clamp.

Can you pull a ship behind another one with a tow cable or attach a ship on the outer hull of another ship AND make a jump like that? I assumed that those would be impossible in Traveller and the "cargo" would all have to be internal.

You cant jump using tow cables, but docking clamps, and external cargo mounts work just fine for jump travel. those are either in Highguard, or the new revision rules.

 

[Condottiere]

As long as it's all within the jump bubble and the jump drive can cough up enough push.

We still have jump bubbles, right?

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Life Support Costs for Humans

The basic cost should be how much of the ship will be oxygenated, the added variable cost is how many humans are onboard.

 

[wbnc]

Spaceships: Life Support Costs for Humans

The basic cost should be how much of the ship will be oxygenated, the added variable cost is how many humans are onboard.

I agree with you for the mos part. But ome basic cost for uninhabited, or unused portions of the ship would be in order. from experience opening a hatch into an unused portion of a tanker was like opening the gates to the "Hell of the undying funk." air will go bad very quickly in a sealed environment. No mater how hard you scrub, there is always something in there that eats up/contaminates the air, mold, fungus, chemical skuzz.

In mines they occasionally have problems with Black Damp, air that has been contaminated or has had it's oxygen used up by god knows what. on a starship that would be less of a problem. However, there everytime a crewman walks onto the ship from a planetary environment their is a chance something stuck to his uniform,, his boots, or was spread by a cough or a sniffle. Unless the crew goes through a clean room stye scrub down every time the enter and exit the sip they will e tracking in all sorts of biological material. if he carries some of that material into storage area, and then shuts the hatch. the organic material can breed and thrive until it becomes a problem if the area is not frequently cleaned, or the air isn't regularly cycled.

I would think that part of the upkeep, and monthly costs also include stuff like cleaning materials, recycling air in unused portions of the ship, decontamination procedures, etc. all bundled under Monthly life support. So i reason while a ship will save a lot of resources and credits if an area is unused, a base cost should be applied.

 

[Condottiere]

 

[wbnc]

And the cat does double duty as a hostile Xenoform detector.

 

[Condottiere]

Cats are standard issue on Solomani ships.


Spaceships: Mobile Air Scrubber and Climate Control

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Boarding Pods

Attaches itself like a leech, and cuts into the hull.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Crew Facilities, Staterooms and Corridors

So I was wondering how to get that tight knit cohesiveness that Solomani ships are supposedly renown for.

So at least for troop transports, you turn staterooms into corridors, three metres wide, and install on both walls three sets of bunks ninety centimetres by two hundred ninety centimetres, with ninety centimetres headspace, retractable. Or maybe barracks.

With both walls occupied, the corridor would one hundred and twenty centimetres wide, which is about a foot less than the norm.

Since most Solomani aren't likely to exceed two metres in height, the extra bunkspace could be used to store the trooper's belongings.

Probably more relevant in smaller troop transports.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Sensors and Sandcsreens

I wonder how many canisters of sand or some more effective material you'd have to dump, in order to prevent the enemy's sensors being able to penetrate them and target lock your ships?

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Crew Facilities, Staterooms and Corridors

Stock Barracks (Tech level seven): Used by slavers and livestock peddlers, a stock barracks is extremely low-grade housing for animals and slaves. Stock barracks are sold in increments of ten tons, which can hold twenty humanoid-sized life forms safely and healthily. These ship add-ons come with their own air scrubbers and waste-collectors, placing no further taxation on the life-support systems of the ship. Twenty five thousand schmuckers per ten tons.

We can use this as the three metre wide corridor, with two sets of bunks on either side per two tonnes.

The description says the air scrubbers are self contained, though I suspect the running costs were overlooked, but probably considerably less than that of a stateroom.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Armaments and Meson Screening

I'd deploy a minor combatant between a capital ship and an unfriendly meson spinal mount pointing it's way.

You might think that it wouldn't matter, since the meson would just glide through the molecular structure of the blocking ship, unless it happened to have it's own meson screen, in which case the meson trajectory should suddenly fall short between the blocking meson screened ship and the capital ship, any remaining mesons still on target would then get degraded by the capital ship's meson screens.

 

[Condottiere]

Starships: Canon

Some things Marc has repeatedly said are NOT canon:

1. Anything under 100 tons jumping. 101-ton jump ships work, but 99-ton jump anythings simply don't.

I disagree because there no such cut and dried absolutes based on our measurements.

That's why my take on it is a one percent variance at any particular volume at no penalty, to take onto account any minor space debris that got sucked into the jump bubble.

Also, a ten percent variance, with increasing chance and severity of a misjump, the larger the gap between the power used and the actual volume of material contained within the jump bubble.