Starport Facilities

[Dracous]

I'd like to have starport facilities clarified.

Essentially there are three classes of construction. Small Craft, Spacecraft and Capital ships. the Classification is size based only (10-100, 100-5000, 5000+).

First Question: A class B Starport has facilities to create spacecraft, does this include jump capable spacecraft? I can't read anywhere in the rules stating otherwise. I think this is a good change.

Second Question: Can class B starports produce small craft? The facilities say spacecraft, should it say spacecraft and small craft?

 

[Reynard]

Small craft are less than 100 tons, spacecraft are 100+ tons have no jump drives and starships are 100+ tons and have jump engines.

Class B facilities have no accommodations for constructing starships but can perform most repairs on all ships. Class A port shipyards have the wealth and facilities to do everything.

 

[Dracous]

Small craft are less than 100 tons, spacecraft are 100+ tons have no jump drives and starships are 100+ tons and have jump engines.

Class B facilities have no accommodations for constructing starships but can perform most repairs on all ships. Class A port shipyards have the wealth and facilities to do everything.

While that has always been the case in different editions of Traveller, the current rules under playtest no longer support those statements. A new player coming to the rules as written in the playtest who is unaware previous editions is not presented with that information you articulate above.

I do don't mind if the facilities of a class B starport change to include jump capable ship construction. It will mean I need to change a few starport classes in my home grown campaign, but does no great violence to it.

What I want to ensure that the change is deliberate and not an accident of language used.

 

[Reynard]

Where in the MT2 core book does it say different?

"Any class A starport has a shipyard which can build any kind of ship, including a starship with Jump drives; any class B starport can build a small craft and ships which do not have jump drives."

Looking at the Common space craft section, they still separate small craft from starships an the above statement does differentiate small craft and ships without engines. It's there.

Making a class B port have jump construction facilities is called a class A starport. Why do that? A class B is a lower grade starport.

 

[Dracous]

I am looking in the world creation section
I'm not sure if the page numbers line up, but I am looking at the Starport section on pages 233 to 234. (I am also looking in the September revision)

Facilities: These are the starport’s repair and construction ability. A shipyard allows for the construction of new vessels. A shipyard capable of building all types of ships can construct small craft (less than 100 tons), spacecraft (100 to 5,000 tons) and capital ships (more than 5,000 tons).

Repair facilities allow a damaged ship to be repaired, and have plenty of spare parts for most common systems.

Limited repair facilities can only fix Hull damage.

This text is used to explain the facilities table on page 233.

Thanks for pointing the text in the common spacecraft section, I never even knew it was there (I skimmed the initial text and went straight to the tables). I would have expected to see information like that in the in the world creation section. However, the statement in the common spacecraft section does not actually say you can't build jump capable spacecraft at class B starports. So a someone new to Traveller could still interpret this in the manner I described.

Also, I really don't like rules like this being presented in a this sort of disjointed way. The rules that describe what a starport facilites and capabilities should be contained in the starport section in world creation.

 

[Reynard]

"I never even knew it was there "

Ah yes and I missed your reference which adds another detail not the same descriptor in MG1. Yeah these descriptors do need common location so we see the whole picture when even us veterans of the game miss the pieces.

 

[Condottiere]

It's a general guide guaranteeing minimal facilities available.

Actual mileage may vary in individual systems.

 

[PsiTraveller]

The Spaceport section updated shipyard facility descriptions, and it seems to be in a new direction (as opposed to class A being Jump Capable ship construction and Class B being non jump capable.)

Under Shipyard
In order to construct ships with jump drives, a shipyard must be of a suitable Tech Level, as defined on the Jump Potential table on page XX. So, for example, to build jump-3 ships, a shipyard must be at least Tech Level 12.Shipyards capable of building ships with jump drives have their cost increased to MCr0.75 per ton.

So it is a matter of paying a 33 percent increase per tonne to build a Jump capable shipyard in a Class A or B Starport. (Non jump shipyards cost .5 MCr per tonn and Jump capable costs 0.75 MCr per ton.

 

[Belisknar]

The December update of High Guard's Space Station Chapter (6) lists 'minimum' specifications for classes of star ports with regards to space stations. It also points out that just because a station meets the requirements to a specific class of star port, it doesn't mean that it will necessarily be recognized as one.

As I said, this is in relation to space stations, however these Minimum Requirements could be infered as what is needed for each class of star port even in relation to Down Ports.