Ship Modifications

[phavoc]

An example of how you might modify a starship - https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/silver-spirit-cut-in-half/index.html

 

[Condottiere]

As I recall, Trillion Credit Squadron prohibits that.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

TCS doesn't say anything about enlarging hulls, there are no rules for it, but no-one says it is impossible.

The Covenanter class from TNE is a canonical example that says it is possible, basically cut the forward section (bridge) off a Gazelle and replace it with the hull of a Scout to make a 500 Dt hybrid.

 

[Condottiere]

It depends on whether a hull is defined as being integral to a hull.

I'm not saying it shouldn't be possible, I'm saying that it's specifically prohibited under these rules.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Armour and other parts of the ship integral to the hull (such as configuration or reinforced structure) cannot be changed under any refit.

We can't change an unstreamlined ship to streamlined, or a Suleiman to a Serpent, but nothing is said about stretching the hull.

Repairs to the hull, structure and armour of a ship are lengthy operations involving the replacement of entire hull plates and sections of the ship being cut away and rebuilt.

Apparently we can do deep surgery to ships.

If we can do this with a Scout and a Gazelle, I see no problem with stretching a hull.

 

[phavoc]

Rebuilding warships was quite common in the era of the big gun. Look at the INS Kongo. She started off as a UK-built BC, then underwent several modifications and was rebuilt as a BB. She had her stern lengthened 26ft (easier than cutting the ship in half). Many major warships received entire engineering refits, new turrets, armor, etc. It should certainly not be impossible in Traveller. Though I can see the nightmare of trying to construct rules for it. Heck, there is enough problem with making rules just to build ships, let alone make major refits.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Kong%C5%8D

 

[madmike]

Gypsy Knights Games Anderson and Felix Guide to Naval Architecture has refurbishment rules (page 74) which may assist.

 

[Condottiere]

Back in those days, arms treaties limited the number of ships, and when you can chuck them away and build new ones; provision was made to increase the tonnage during renovations.

currently, it's more to extend the usable life of existing warships, being considered cheaper than building new ships. Fighting Ships of the Solomani state that the Confederation Navy made provisions for an upgrade path for some of their warships.

 

[Condottiere]

You can reduce tonnage to components integral to the manufactured hull, you can't increase them.

 

[phavoc]

You can reduce tonnage to components integral to the manufactured hull, you can't increase them.

If you are building something at a higher TL than you have, the size of something can increase.

 

[baithammer]

For MGT 2ed, use breakaway hull rules and make sure to charge the engineering fee.

 

[Linwood]

I don’t see a problem with allowing ship mods and refurbishment like these, but some ship designs won’t support that well. Close or dispersed structures would likely be relatively easy to refurbish but others might not. I don’t think I’d allow such mods on ships with stealth or similar special hull systems. And there would likely be a penalty to be paid - a negative DM to handling or certain ship systems or maybe some internal oddities that become increasingly annoying over time.

 

[phavoc]

The process is called jumboisation, and evidently it's been pretty common for decades. Far more common with civilian ships than military ones, since the armor factor is a real pain in the ass for capital class ships. But it's entirely possible.

In some instances thsee refit improve the handling, such as changing the bow and making it better to handle rougher seas. Issues like stealth would be moot if this was done professionally. Now half-baked mods could take on all kinds of negative aspects. In the star wars universe they had fighter craft that were a combination of multiple types, basically whatever parts they could weld together. These had a definite deficiency against the front line X-wings and tie fighters, but they were deployed by peopLe who could not afford the real thing, or even the older, cheaper things.

 

[Condottiere]

We had those,

Junk fighters.