Starship Operator's Manual - Others for CT?

[WHULorigan]

The book draws a lot from the original SOM written for MT and published by DGP. This new SOM also adds new stuff.

The book is actually an excellent synthesis of ALL of the Rulesets that have come before. It draws significantly from both MT:SOM & T5, as well as MgT2 and TNE (and the consolidation of MT & TNE in T4).

And the new SOM adds original material and expanded interpretation.

 

[MasterGwydion]

We were talking about planetary masking in the appropriately titled Planetary Masking thread. We also discussed M-Drives and a ship with a M-1 drive escaping a Size 8+ world that has 1G of surface gravity.

I was happy to see that the new SOM actually discusses this. I've read about 4/5ths of the Gravitics chaper, and I need to start from the beginning and read that chapter again. The book draws a lot from the original SOM written for MT and published by DGP. This new SOM also adds new stuff.

T-Plates (Thruster Plates) are back and used just about exactly as shown in the original SOM. Discussion also covers mounting M-Drives internally to mask the glow of the thrust surface of the plate, but the problem remains of the heat that must be expelled from the inside M-Drive compartment if mounted that way.

I do think this is a great book.

My question is how much space to said Thruster Plates take up? Can Thruster Plates be taken off one vessel and installed in another? If so, what happens if you get too few or too many Thruster Plates on a vessel? The SOM says that thrust can be in directions that is not directly to the aft of the vessel. Does this mean that there are Thruster Plates on the front, sides, and top of the ship as well?

As for ships with M-1 drives escaping the surface of an Size 8+ world, Lifters are used in concert with the Maneuver Drive. This is a departure from the original SOM that used a short-term "overdrive" for the thrust on the T-Plate.

Lifters are basically large deck plates, or gravity plates, that allow a ship to hover while the M-Drive pushes the ship when it moves. These were called Contra-gravity plates in TNE. They can be mounted just inside the hull.

Again, where are these things in the ship design rules? How big are they? Can they be taken out and installed on other vessels? What happens if you get too few or too many on a vessel? Do they function as one machine or many separate machines? Can they fail individually or is it an all or nothing kind of thing?

 

[Condottiere]

Might be interesting to know how much force repulsor beams extrude, and how far that can be sustained.

 

[Longboat]

Again, where are these things in the ship design rules? How big are they?

The SOM shows an M-Drive, but there's no size reference. There is a picture of an M-Drive on page 155, though. It's pretty big and half sunk into the deck. The ones on the Empress Marava deckplans in the book look to be over 4.5 meters long by about 3 meters wide.

 

[collins355]

In the original SOM you could vector your thrust (with reduced performance) from a thruster plate - a bit like a Harrier jump jet.

 

[Longboat]

In the original SOM you could vector your thrust (with reduced performance) from a thruster plate - a bit like a Harrier jump jet.

View attachment 4127

The exact same thing is true for the new SOM.

 

[Longboat]

Here's something New to the game. The SOM doesn't say this explicitly, but it does intend this if you read how M-Drive works and usually push off the system's star.

This means that incoming ships that precipitate out of Jump-Space will do so 100 diameters from the destination world in a star-ward direction. Approach to the world will usually be from the direction of the system's star, because the M-Drive has to use the star's gravitation field to push off of.

That's interesting for Ref description, pirates, and locations of SBD's.

How narrow is that corridor, I wonder.

Leaving a world, the ship's jump point will be 100 diameters out from the world on the far side, opposite the star.



If you use Jump Masking in your game with the system's star, then things get a lot more complicated. If you exit jump space at the 100 diam limit of the star, and the world is in the habitable zone that falls within the star's 100 diam limit, then how does a ship approach? It needs a massive body to push against, and the J-Drive doesn't like exiting space (can a pilot even control that? I think it's automatic) within the 100 diam limit of a massive body.

How does a ship approach a world when it can't push against the star's sun--which is the case according to the new SOM?

A simpler question. If the M-Drive is used to push off the system's star to reach the asteroid belt in the far outsystem. How does a ship get back to the innersystem main world?



Maybe the world uses a planet? Flight paths are no longer straight. Push off an asteroid and make the journey to the closest GG, if available, then use the GG to push off of to go to the main world.

We're not always talking about full acceleration to mid-point, flip the ship, and then full deceleration to destination.

I guess momentum in space has a lot to do with normal space travel in Traveller.

 

[WHULorigan]

Here's something New to the game. The SOM doesn't say this explicitly, but it does intend this if you read how M-Drive works and usually push off the system's star.

This means that incoming ships that precipitate out of Jump-Space will do so 100 diameters from the destination world in a star-ward direction. Approach to the world will usually be from the direction of the system's star, because the M-Drive has to use the star's gravitation field to push off of.

That's interesting for Ref description, pirates, and locations of SBD's.

How narrow is that corridor, I wonder.

Leaving a world, the ship's jump point will be 100 diameters out from the world on the far side, opposite the star.



If you use Jump Masking in your game with the system's star, then things get a lot more complicated. If you exit jump space at the 100 diam limit of the star, and the world is in the habitable zone that falls within the star's 100 diam limit, then how does a ship approach? It needs a massive body to push against, and the J-Drive doesn't like exiting space (can a pilot even control that? I think it's automatic) within the 100 diam limit of a massive body.

How does a ship approach a world when it can't push against the star's sun--which is the case according to the new SOM?

A simpler question. If the M-Drive is used to push off the system's star to reach the asteroid belt in the far outsystem. How does a ship get back to the innersystem main world?



Maybe the world uses a planet? Flight paths are no longer straight. Push off an asteroid and make the journey to the closest GG, if available, then use the GG to push off of to go to the main world.

We're not always talking about full acceleration to mid-point, flip the ship, and then full deceleration to destination.

I guess momentum in space has a lot to do with normal space travel in Traveller.

I think the term "push off of" is being used as general terminology, and not to suggest that the M-Drive system can only "repel". At least it has never been that way before in any other ruleset. The M-Drive use the gravitational field interaction as a system against which to react, push or pull.

 

[Sigtrygg]

The new SOM is a great book, I like it a lot, but it is not without its flaws:

it gets the size of the displacement ton wrong, Mongosse Traveller has always used 14m³ in the core rule book and High Guard

it introduces technology that is not in MgT High Guard

it still doesn't deal with waste heat (their explanation of cooling fusion products by expansion is physically wrong)

 

[Condottiere]

If you can't get rid of it, conventionally, transform it.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Into what? What can you convert the waste heat into, without doing more work (which generates yet more waste heat)

 

[Longboat]

I think the term "push off of" is being used as general terminology, and not to suggest that the M-Drive system can only "repel". At least it has never been that way before in any other ruleset. The M-Drive use the gravitational field interaction as a system against which to react, push or pull.

I need to read the chapter again, but it did seem to suggest the M-Drive needs to push off of something, and usually that's the system's star.

 

[Condottiere]

Heat tends to excite stuff.

Get a critical mass of heat, and excite stuff out of the rear.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Heat tends to excite stuff.

Get a critical mass of heat, and excite stuff out of the rear.

Dumping hot stuff overboard is an option, so where do you get the stuff you are dumping overboard?
If you dump all your reaction plasma then you can forget about any form of stealth.

 

[Condottiere]

But, you could get propulsion.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Sure, scrap your gravitc 1g drive for the 0.000001g thrust from the plasma exhaust.

 

[Condottiere]

You could also aim it at your solar sail.

 

[Condottiere]

Fuel Augmented Reheated Thrusters

 

[Sigtrygg]

You could also aim it at your solar sail.

Who needs contragrav when you can just lift yourself up by the back of your trousers...

 

[Sigtrygg]

Fuel Augmented Reheated Thrusters

If you have to pump the waste plasma you are introducing more waste heat into the ship, which requires more coolant to be pumped around your ship, which generates yet more waste heat.