ship design: skimp on sensors yet pay much more for weapons?

[GamingGlen]

A ship designed in a module has:
Electronics - Basic Civilian, DM -2, 1 ton, MCr 0.05;
Weapons - Hard point #1: Triple Turret (Beam Laser x3), 1 ton, MCr 4;
(repeat for 9 hardpoints on a 1000 ton ship).

So, spend MCr 40 on weaponry (or even MCr 4 on one turret), yet skimp on paying MCr 1 for better sensors (Basic Military*)?

Why? "Forewarned is forearmed."

* I consider this a name thing, not a restriction. The weapons would be more restricted then better sensors, IMO.

 

[AndrewW]

They spent the budget on weapons and couldn't afford better sensors?

 

[Condottiere]

That, plus a factor six manoeuvre drive.

 

[locarno24]

I would not look too closely at some pre-generated ships.

For that matter, it's also worth thinking about in combat ships - one result I see quite often in slugging matches is a ship losing its sensors, which leaves it useless in a gunnery duel. Any ship expecting to trade broadsides should probably consider a secondary basic civilian electronics suite as a backup fire control for this reason.

 

[dragoner]

I always give military ships at least military sensors, often better.

 

[Condottiere]

In theory, near civilized worlds the local authorities should have the appropriate early warning systems in place, so civilian ships can piggback off that.

 

[wbnc]

I hate to say it, without knowing which module, or vessel, your talking about but sometimes you design pregen ships at less than perfect levels.

Sometimes ships are left at less than optimal load out so the players have something to upgrade/spend money on.Or, in the case of an opposition vessel in a scenario, it's less than optimal to give the PCs some way to get an advantage...

I had to swallow some bile, and nerf a few designs to less than what i would want to fly when working up commercial vessels. Just to leave people room to improve, or give them a challenge to overcome during the progress of the game.

One big difference between a ship that MAY see combat, and one that is expected to get shot at is adding backup systems, enhanced sensors, ECM etc....a non combat oriented vessel would not need as effective a sensor array because even with basic sensors it's pretty easy to detect and target a vessel that's charging across the system towards you.

they might get a bit closer before the hostile is detected but the basic sensors are still good enough to direct gunfire.

 

[Epicenter]

A ship designed in a module has:

That's kind of an awesome ship, actually.

It reminds me of the kind of things you see at arms dealer shows that are intended towards poorer countries here on Earth.

Like mounting lugs to let you mount things like multiple rocket launchers or anti-tank guided missiles on the back of ... civilian pickup trucks to have better weapons than the "mere" technicals of your neighbors who merely mount machineguns or recoiless rifles.

Totally lousy weapons that'd do very poorly in real warfare, but the overarmed thing really gives off that manly aura as well as satisfying penny-pinchers because it feels like they're getting a lot of bang for their buck.

The Imperial Navy would tolerate it because they know exactly how much of a joke those ships would really be against theirs.

I can imagine some company like InterstellarArms or something marketing kits like that to poorer frontier planets to allow them to create a "local collective defense force" or "tactical interstellar response squadron" involving putting heavy guns on some civilian hull but lacking the expensive sensors needed to actually use such weapons to their potential.