Ship Design Philosophy

[Condottiere]

Spacecraft: Hulls and Primitivation

L. I suppose, we could have Velcro gloves, and shoe soles.

M. Velcro lined walls, ceilings, and floor would be softer to land on, in case of sudden falls.

N. Should be easier, and cheaper, to cling to, instead of magnetic boots.

O. Plus, you can glue on Velcro strips to equipment and tools, so that they don't float away during microgravity.

P. Placing the strips strategically, kids would be forced to stay where you place them.

 

[Condottiere]

Spacecraft: Hulls and Primitivation

Q. You could have multistorey double hulls, since the decks would be uniform in dimensions.

R. Having independent decks would mean that you could vary gravitational force, or, I suppose, centripetal.

S. That could also act as a series of moving walkways, intersecting at synchronized doorways.

T. Cost remains the same, as do any associated volumes.

U. You just have to make the circumference wide enough, so that the rotational speed is slow enough that you have to pay little mind to the gap.

 

[Condottiere]

1. Astrogation: The jump needs to be plotted.

2. This is an Easy (4+) Astrogation check (1D x 10 minutes, EDU), ...

3. ... modified by the jump distance (thus, a jump covering four parsecs gives DM-4 to the check).

4. If a Traveller has no level in a skill at all, then they are untrained and will suffer DM-3 when trying to use that skill.

5. Astrogation four plus, untrained minus three, seven plus, education factor six to eight.

6. Range one parsec, minus one, eight plus required.

7. Boon, Youtube video tutorial, plus one, seven plus required.

8. Slower timeframe, one to six hours, plus two, five plus required.

9. Get a graduate degree, it would be four plus.

 

[Condottiere]

Starwarships: Hulls and Why Do Spaceships "Sink" Like That?

Spacedock breaks down the frequent sci-fi phenomena of spacecraft appearing to "sink" in space.

Alternatively:

 

[Condottiere]

Spacecraft: Hulls and Primitivation

V. Once you calculate it out, a default planetoid hull costs five kilostarbux per usable tonne.

W. However, getting equivalent performance requires a twenty five percent larger drive, but has organic artificial gravity.

X. Of course, a primitive planetoid hull costs only twenty five hundred starbux per tonne.

Y. Without artificial gravity, but retaining it's structural integrity.

Z. Default primitive hulls have the same life support costs as default hulls, but need less power for basic services.

 

[Condottiere]

Spacecraft: Hulls and Tonnage

Tonnage factor/zero - non discernible or virtual.

Going by acceleration factor/zero, probably one thousandth of a tonne, or fourteen litres.

 

[Condottiere]

Spacecraft: Hulls and Primitivation

1. Tugging is pulling.

2. So what we want is something that's pushing, in a separate hull, the primary primitive one.

3. This could be synonymous with thrust, propel, or drive.

4. Since thrust and drive have connotations in Traveller, that leaves us with propel.

5. A separate, default designed, hull, could act as a propeller, as opposed to what we think of a tug boat.

6. In a way, using tug boats, with or without a tow rope, is rather like chariot racing.

7. Rather impractical in combat, I'd say.

8. In theory, you could attach primitive hulls as pods to primary default hulls.

9. Or, just attach them with docking clamps.

 

[Condottiere]

Spacecraft: Hulls and Primitivation

A. Not taking chances, acceleration would be capped at factor/three.

B. Range is somewhat only limited by the technological level of the jump drive.

C. For paramilitary vessels, on the presumption that we don't (or can't) extend the inertial compensation field beyond the propeller, full speed would be two point nine gravities, emergency factor/three.

D. For commercial shipping, factor/one point nine wouldn't be exceeded, to not penalize crew activities.

E. For passenger comfort, humans might prefer standard Terran gravity, or less.

F. Seventy percent of Terran standard gravity might be a compromise to cater to them.

 

[Condottiere]

Spacecraft: Hulls and Primitivation

G. Non gravitated default hulls are capped at a semimegatonne.

H. We'll assume that includes junkered dispersed structure.

I. A more interesting question would be, what happens when we dock stuff to it, exceeding in total a semimegatonne?

J. Going with the spirit of that caveat, I'd say you start incurring structural failure.

K. So, the totality of what's being accelerated, which I'll assume that's the actual issue, instead of just being parked in orbit, remains at a semimegatonne.

 

[Condottiere]

Spacecraft: Engineering, Manoeuvre Drive, and Pulsing

1. By overloading the manoeuvre drive, the engineer can lend the ship extra speed and manoeuvrability.

2. And then you have manoeuvre drive factor/zero.

3. Zero plus one equals one.

4. A successful Difficult (10+) Engineer (m-drive) check (1 round, INT) will increase the ship’s Thrust by +1 during the next round.

5. Overcharging a Thruster Plate to Increase a Ship’s Agility: Difficult (10+) Engineer (m-drive) check (1D minutes, INT).

6. Engineer-manoeuvre/one, boon, time frame ten to sixty minutes, smarty pants, target number six plus.

7. If the check fails with an Effect of –6 or less, the manoeuvre drive suffers a critical hit with Severity 1, as detailed on page 168.

8. This check suffers a cumulative DM–2 each time it is attempted after the first.

9. This penalty can be removed by performing maintenance on the drive, a procedure that requires Engineer (m-drive) and 1D hours.

 

[Condottiere]

Spacecraft: Engineering, Manoeuvre Drive, and Pulsing

A. You're not going to get very far, with an occasional six minute acceleration factor/one squirt, every one to six hours.

B. On the other hand, a manoeuvre drive doesn't burn gas like a reactionary rocket.

C. Speaking of fuel consumption, does overcharging the manoeuvre drive require the difference in power points between the default factor, and plus one?

D. I'm going to say, yes.

E. Doesn't really matter in terms of the energy budget, since you could set aside a battery for that specific purpose.

F. Arguably, you could set sail with a solar panel, which can withstand upto acceleration factor/one.

 

[Condottiere]

Spacecraft: Engineering, Manoeuvre Drive, and Pulsing

G. Careful positioning of the exit ramp, would allow such a ship to pop out at the hundred diameter limit, and push itself towards the starport.

H. Perhaps, pulsing is more equivalent to rowing.

I. Which would make the vessel more closer to a galley.

J. You could have a slave driver whipping the manoeuvre drive engineers to expedite maintenance on the manoeuvre drive.

K. And a drummer, so that the engineers remain in sync.

 

[Condottiere]

Spacecraft: Engineering, Manoeuvre Drive, and Pulsing

L. Having put some thought into this, we could make the propeller hull module from a spacestation.

M. Spacestations don't appear to have an option for a manoeuvre drive beyond factor/zero.

N. Which is where the option to overclock said factor/zero manoeuvre drive seems so attractive.

O. And, you only pay one tenth of a megastarbux per hundred hundred tonnes of spacestation for it's bridge.

P. I wonder if you can have a small spacestation bridge, for half that cost?

 

[Condottiere]

Spacecraft: Engineering, Manoeuvre Drive, and Pulsing

Q. Space stations are not designed to move any appreciable distance (otherwise they would be classified as ships!) and are never equipped with jump drives.

R. Six minutes of acceleration factor/one doesn't move you any appreciable distance, from a universal perspective.

S. After that, you just coast.

T. Never, doesn't mean cannot.

U. Though, how you control a jump drive, from a non spacecraft bridge, is somewhat in question.

 

[Condottiere]

Spacecraft: Engineering, Manoeuvre Drive, and Pulsing

V. So we use an additional command centre, specialized in jumping.

W. That's going to cost the same as a small bridge, but with a bonus of plus for that particular function, instead of a penalty for spacecraft operations in general.

X. We can confine that quarter of a megastarbux per hundred tonnes to a separate hull module, which would include the engineering aspects required for jumping.

Y. Spacestation hulls cost the same as default spacecrafts', and have the same basic power requirements.

Z. As such, the power grid can support a jump drive.

 

[Condottiere]

Spacecraft: Engineering, Manoeuvre Drive, and Pulsing

1. We can run starship operations from a virtual bridge.

2. Only requirement would be having a conscious sentient astrogator along.

3. You could call him a Heisenberger.

4. Which means that you don't actually need physical control instruments to operate a starship.

5. Or, any spacecraft.

6. What's up in the air would be, would you need to wire up the hull?

7. Meaning, that while you don't need to allocate physical space for a command centre.

8. You do have to pay, default, a semimegastarbux per hundred tonnes.

9. Or half that, for a minus one penalty to spacecraft operations.

 

[Condottiere]

Spacecraft: Engineering, Manoeuvre Drive, and Pulsing

A. With junkerification, hull modules are prefabricated.

B. That would mean, they would be organically wired for the preexisting control centres.

C. Thus, if a hull module was wired up for a small bridge, a default bridge would still be at minus one to spacecraft operation performed within that hull module.

D. While a default bridge wiring of a hull module, would suffer a minus one to spacecraft operations, regardless of the bridge giving the commands.

E. While multi wirings for different command centres would tend to use a specific set, for that particular specialized command centre.

F. Though the more likely [ractice of redundancy wiring for the same command centre has never been covered in Traveller.

 

[Condottiere]

Spacecraft: Engineering, Manoeuvre Drive, and Pulsing

G. Of course, if you an ex cockpitted hull module, in theory, it's not wired up.

H. Or, if so, only for a cockpit.

I. For spacestations, let's term it the control centre.

J. Since there are manoeuvre drives installed on a spacestation, if rather limited in range, it can control it's overclocked manoeuvre drive.

K. Likewise, for more robust rated manoeuvre drives installed in a cockpitted hull module.

 

[Condottiere]

Spacecraft: Engineering, Manoeuvre Drive, and Pulsing

L. Well, I suppose you could substitute a cockpit for a spacestation fifty tonnes and below.

M. Though, a cockpit would have complete instrumentation to control any installed manoeuvre drive or reactionary rocket.

N. You're not getting an advantage, though, since default hull tonnage costs remain the same.

O. It's sort of the other way round, after you surpass fifty tonnes.

P. I'd say where you really can pig out, would be with attaching a command bridge, at only an additional decimegastarbux, per hectotonne.

 

[Condottiere]

Spacecraft: Engineering, Manoeuvre Drive, and Pulsing

Q. It seems a lot cheaper to build spacestations with primitive hulls.

R. They don't tend to move, and it's forty percent cheaper.

S. Since the option for gravity tiling is not available, you'll likely have to spin it.

T. Since the power grid can't support it, presumably, no factor/zero manoeuvre drive.

U. Does leave the door open to be configured as pods and secondary hulls.