Ship Design Philosophy

[Condottiere]

Spacecraft: Engineering, Manoeuvre Drive, and Pulsing

A. This is inefficient, but you could have a duplicate of the propulsion drive.

B. When we still had actual high burner thrusters, I thought of having two, and alternating one every hour.

C. Ten rounds every hour works out a lot better than one round every one to six hours.

D. In theory, you have to allocate the difference in power between the old and the new acceleration factor.

E. As far as I can tell from the Core rulebook, this is not addressed.

F. However, subsequent supplement indicates that this is required.

 

[Condottiere]

Spacecraft: Engineering, Manoeuvre Drive, and Pulsing

G. Can, in the current edition, alternate pulsing be leveraged?

H. It would have to cheaper, whether capital outlay, or operating costs.

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

J. So spacecraft factor/zero is half a percent, compared to factor/one one percent.

K. But spacestation factor/zero is a quarter percent.

 

[Condottiere]

Spacecraft: Engineering, Manoeuvre Drive, and Pulsing

L. Manoeuvre drive with Thrust 0 consumes tonnage equal to 0.25% of the space station’s total hull and costs MCr1 per ton.

M. Which is half the cost of default spacecraft.

N. Required power = 10% of hull tonnage.

O. In order to use the manoeuvre drive, the ship requires an amount of Power equal to 10% of the hull’s total tonnage multiplied by the maximum Thrust the drive is capable of (multiply by 0.25 if the ship is capable only of Thrust 0).

P. Power is cheap.

 

[Condottiere]

Spacecraft: Engineering, Manoeuvre Drive, and Pulsing

Q. Customization can reduce capital outlay, or lower operating costs.

R. Volume per se, at this end, doesn't matter.

S. 0.3125 percent of volume at three fifths megastarbux per tonne.

T. Or, energy inefficiency thirteen percent of hull volume, three quarters megastarbux per tonne.

U. Or, in the other direction, two and a half percent of hull volume energy efficiency, one and a half megastarbux per tonne.

 

[Condottiere]

Spacecraft: Engineering, Manoeuvre Drive, and Pulsing

Q. Primitive hulls cannot have jump and manoeuvre drives installed.

R. Plasma drives can be installed.

S. They have a power requirement of one power point per tonne, compared to ten for manoeuvre drives.

T. Budget variant can be energy inefficient to one point three power points per tonne.

U. Fifty percent energy efficiency at two and a half power points, would be one point two five; seventy five percent would five eighths of a power point.