Ship Design Philosophy

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Armaments and Fratricide

And if you can't get your opponent to commit fratricide, you could rig up your own missiles with nuclear warheads to explode in the missile swarm midst, far enough away that the radiation and the explosion doesn't damage your hull, near enough that it blinds your opponent's sensors, if only for this turn.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Armaments and dismounted Sandcasters

I wonder how much recoil a sandcaster has; if minimal, I think dismantling one from your space ship and either mounting it on a jeep or even setting it up as heavy weapons platform sounds feasible.

 

[wbnc]

Spaceships: Armaments and dismounted Sandcasters

I wonder how much recoil a sandcaster has; if minimal, I think dismantling one from your space ship and either mounting it on a jeep or even setting it up as heavy weapons platform sounds feasible.

very feasible...it would be nice to have if you location came under fire from a starship, or ground based starship grade weapon...the the option of loading it with anti-personnel rounds sure would be interesting.

nice pic by the way, My dad has lots of them from when he was an armored scout way back int he sixties. Ane jeep a couple of guys and a 107mm recoiless rifle.....a Jeep with heavy artillery bite

 

[Condottiere]

I think the Sandcaster has so much hidden potential that it should have it's own chapter in the new High Guard, or share it with missile and torpedo weapon systems, whose utility is more obvious.

 

[wbnc]

I think the Sandcaster has so much hidden potential that it should have it's own chapter in the new High Guard, or share it with missile and torpedo weapon systems, whose utility is more obvious.

I think we had a rather long discussion about the untapped potential of the sandcaster....somewhere...around here I think. I like ballistic weapons and missile types in general...call me old fashioned. Even in game, they just have a more visceral, satisfying feel to me.

actually it goes back to B5 when they used their guns, and something called interceptors....as point defense against capital ship fire....a very well done fight I might add.


with the advanced/optional Tech chapter open adding optional systems is a lot easier...

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Open Plan Naval Architecture

Nothing says open planing more than just building a shell to stuff in the required ship systems.

Using the hull as the primary floor, walls and ceiling seems an ideal way to better utilize limited space (in, for practical purposes, unlimited space).

Now, for those gaming the system, an interesting question is if you have to pay for the hull, since, in theory, you could pay for a factor one armoured shell. The only thing you really need to nail down are the engines. And airlocks.

You'd have to pay extra for the artificial gravitation floors and inertial compensators, though if it's a field effect, you could have various modules embedded; I like to think artificial gravitation on the floor and ceiling, and inertial compensators along the walls. Or if the hull is wide enough and a cylinder, maybe interspersed amongst each other, while you get to see crew walking on what you'd have regarded as the ceiling.

You'd have to pay for bulkheads, but secondary subdivisions in cubicle walls and steel grid floors should be relatively dirt cheap.

Staterooms would only be the cost of fittings. Life support may need to be calculated for major divisions as a whole, since that canonical shutting down of staterooms doesn't seem viable, and each additional mouthbreather would be a fraction of the cost of the overall overhead needed to maintain a major division.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: One Floor, Two Ceilings

This would be most suitable for dual deck ships.

You embed the the single floor with the artificial gravitational modules, and don't bother doing it with the ceiling, in this case that would be the hull. Everytime you transited to the lower deck, from the upper deck perspective, you'd be walking on the ceiling, being in this case, their floor, which is also the floor of the lower deck.

Should save you money, especially if the ship only has one or two gee acceleration, and you skip on the inertial compensators.

As the ship makes a planetary reentry, you could switch off the artificial gravity.

How much money this will save, either construction or operating costs, is unknown.

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Open Plan Naval Architecture

On reason to have bulkheads is to contain damage, which an open plan may only do so in engineering, cargo and the hangars, as in theory you don't really need to seal off the bridge from the rest of the ship, it's just a good idea.

One interesting issue is out of what the interior divisions are made of, and if the skin of the hull is included when you start attaching armour plate.

The default is that the interior divisions are made of the material that is currently available at the base construction tech level, though with commercial ships this is unlikely the case, and as can be seen when pre-Falklands the Royal Navy tried lightening their ships, the aluminium substitutes burned rather quickly and created toxic fumes.

With Traveller, it comes down to volume and cost. Using bonded superdense for interior divisions and the hull skin should actually allow greater volume for utilization though at a greater cost, if structural strength remains the same, though probably not sufficiently to make it commercially viable.

As such, most commercial ships would use tech level seven hulls and interior divisions, made of titanium steel. At tech level fourteen, that's upto seven tech levels of possible improvements in terms of material science and manufacturing techniques that could make it super cheap, and possibly have the entire ship constructed through a three dee printing process, since presumably titanium steel is going to be a lot more pliable than either crystaliron or bonded superdense.

 

[Condottiere]

Starships: Small Ship Universe

The draw for a small ship universe may have more to do with trying to manufacture massive jump drives, for possibly a niche market.

The exception being interstellar navies, since they like to buy lots of the same things, so it makes it worthwhile to build gigantic jump drives that can propel their massive hulls through other dimensions.

 

[locarno24]

Spaceships: Armaments and Fratricide

And if you can't get your opponent to commit fratricide, you could rig up your own missiles with nuclear warheads to explode in the missile swarm midst, far enough away that the radiation and the explosion doesn't damage your hull, near enough that it blinds your opponent's sensors, if only for this turn.

To be fair, anti-missile missiles are a whole genre of tech not covered in the current rules. A Harrington-style 'triple-ripple' of high-energy nuke blasts is just one option.

I think the Sandcaster has so much hidden potential that it should have it's own chapter in the new High Guard, or share it with missile and torpedo weapon systems, whose utility is more obvious.

Well, for starters, the 'pebble round' sandcaster essentially turns it into a fighter autocannon...

 

[locarno24]

Spaceships: Armaments and Fratricide

And if you can't get your opponent to commit fratricide, you could rig up your own missiles with nuclear warheads to explode in the missile swarm midst, far enough away that the radiation and the explosion doesn't damage your hull, near enough that it blinds your opponent's sensors, if only for this turn.

To be fair, anti-missile missiles are a whole genre of tech not covered in the current rules. A Harrington-style 'triple-ripple' of high-energy nuke blasts is just one option.

I think the Sandcaster has so much hidden potential that it should have it's own chapter in the new High Guard, or share it with missile and torpedo weapon systems, whose utility is more obvious.

Well, for starters, the 'pebble round' sandcaster essentially turns it into a fighter autocannon...

 

[Condottiere]

I was hoping for a saboted thirty kilo mini-missile.

 

[wbnc]

I was hoping for a saboted thirty kilo mini-missile.

maybe they will allow some of that in future Advanced Options...

I have to say the mental image of some poor unsuspecting raider pulling alongside a trader armed only with sandcasters..then getting raked with high explosives at point blank makes me giggle.

If a sandcaster is say 75mm-120mm it can pack a low velocity, high explosive, shaped charge round that is as powerful as a modern howitzer.

with the addition of area of affect ( 10 Meter)for shipboard weapons a sandcaster pebble round is now as lethal to ground troops, and vehicles as a howitzer/cluster bomb.

 

[Condottiere]

It's payload, accuracy and speed, meaning if the round goes where it's supposed to and before the other side can take evasive action.

A one twenty mortar round is just as devastating as a six inch howitzer shell.

Sandcaster muzzle velocity might be interesting to know, and if the ordnance might not have additional propulsion that ignites after it leaves the tube, in which case you could have a wire guided anti-tank missile heading for the weakest or designated spot on the opposing ship.

 

[wbnc]

It's payload, accuracy and speed, meaning if the round goes where it's supposed to and before the other side can take evasive action.

A one twenty mortar round is just as devastating as a six inch howitzer shell.

Sandcaster muzzle velocity might be interesting to know, and if the ordnance might not have additional propulsion that ignites after it leaves the tube, in which case you could have a wire guided anti-tank missile heading for the weakest or designated spot on the opposing ship.

If you wanted to use a sandcaster to fire a guided munition the option of Wire, Beam Riding, Or laser designated are all options...all of them wold require the gunner to manually pick, and engage his desired target.
off all of the options I think I like beam Riding best..it minimizes chances of jamming, and loss of control due to the wire being broken. for an infantry weapon it's iffy since the beam can be tracked back to it's source.However since on a starship, the source is bloody obvious already not such an issue.

it's very possible different manufacturers would use a variety of guidance packages so the end user could pick his own preferred method.

 

[wbnc]

Working on an idea ..need feedback

Basically a mobile gun platform..a large vessel..armed with a spinal mount and limited point defense guns. lasers sandcasters, etc...a few bays for dealing with strike ships, and small fast attackers that rush it.

Primary purpose to set up in orbit of a world, or facility, and provide long range fire support, and covering fire for mobile fleet ships. it onl has jump-1, thrust-1, and doesn't carry it's fuel internally using drop tanks when it is being moved from one system to another.

Maxed armor, screens, countermeasures. with enhanced sensors....

the basic idea was that instead of shoving every imaginable weapon on a ship, this is a specialist...a long range sniper for taking precision shots.

t would be a big target, but the fact it an fire a 10DD particle beam at you from very long range, and has nearly maximum armor would make it a seriously unpleasant surprise.

 

[AndrewW]

Primary purpose to set up in orbit of a world, or facility, and provide long range fire support, and covering fire for mobile fleet ships. it onl has jump-1, thrust-1, and doesn't carry it's fuel internally using drop tanks when it is being moved from one system to another.

Might drop the jump-1 and figure on it being carried there by another ship. If it doesn't really need to be mobile could also just put thrust-0 on it.

 

[wbnc]

Primary purpose to set up in orbit of a world, or facility, and provide long range fire support, and covering fire for mobile fleet ships. it onl has jump-1, thrust-1, and doesn't carry it's fuel internally using drop tanks when it is being moved from one system to another.

Might drop the jump-1 and figure on it being carried there by another ship. If it doesn't really need to be mobile could also just put thrust-0 on it.

Not a bad suggestion. The only reason I added jump drives was that it will be in the 10K tons Plus...that would take one big tow vessel

 

[Condottiere]

Spaceships: Hulls, Armour and Structural integrity

In theory, you should be able to strip off all the armour, and if preferred, replaced by something more stronger.

The problem by making the hull a zero percentage component is that you're afraid the armour is the only thing holding the ship together.

 

[Condottiere]

Starships: Engineering and Jump Drive Modules

I'm not a fan of separated jump modules on a transport that's supposed to be transition me through another dimension, and supposedly deliver me safe and sound on the other end.

If you're willing to add gadgetry that helps synchronize the various modules, at a game balance level it's alright.

On the aesthetic level, you have to be reminded of the various tubes that extend out of the back of Star Destroyers, or any number of other drawings and ship models where someone thought this made sense or added interest to the design.

Other aesthetic factors, like the funnels that you see on steamships, especially the ones that have four of them, and the addition of engines to keep a more largish airplane up in the atmosphere.

So yes, let's have separate power plants, and drive modules, but for jump drives, let's add some itzybitzy device that keeps them all in sync where it matters most, not in this universe.