Stealth J-Drive cost

zozotroll

Mongoose
In my copy of Hig Guard, there is no cost listed to make a J-Drive stealthy. So I just went to a couple of the ship books to see what they did. In one ship it seems to be 1.5X cost, for acouple it seems 2X cost, and in the first one I checked it is 10X(!) cost. Those all cant be righ. Des somebody have a later printing that lists what it is spposed to be. I may wind up buying one of those hips I listed and dont want to pay way to much

Thanks
Owen
 
Page 43 of High Guard, 2nd column, first paragraph, last sentence:

"A stealth drive takes up no extra tonnage but costs ten times the amount of a standard jump drive."
 
"A stealth drive takes up no extra tonnage but costs ten times the amount of a standard jump drive."

It's the last sentence of the stealth j-drive entry in my copy of High Guard (pdf), page 43.

Thanks,
Whitt
 
zozotroll said:
In my copy of Hig Guard, there is no cost listed to make a J-Drive stealthy. So I just went to a couple of the ship books to see what they did. In one ship it seems to be 1.5X cost, for acouple it seems 2X cost, and in the first one I checked it is 10X(!) cost. Those all cant be righ. Des somebody have a later printing that lists what it is spposed to be. I may wind up buying one of those hips I listed and dont want to pay way to much

Thanks
Owen

Probably looking at some of the ships in Traders & Gunboats, those where done before the updated High Guard which added the 10x cost.
 
Given the cost, a fast cycle drive is MUCH better bargain. A stealth drive doesn't have many advantages.
 
Cnsidering your stance on sensors, I have to agree.

But....every sensor that has ever been made has a counter of some sort. We eventualy figure out a way to cover emisions, or spoof the sensor. right now there is not that big of an advantage to covering up IR in space. We just dont do enough up there to jsutify the expense to look into it.

But in the 3I, they have the need, the big bucks and the bigg brains to throw at the problem. Do I have the least idea of how to do it? No I do not. If I did, I would be beasting down DARPAs door looking for my bazilion dollar contract rather than hanging out here.

So in most of the games I play in, sensors are not so good. Well not that they are not good, just emcon is much better. In thatsituation, stealth jump may make sense. I am still trying to figre that out.

Owen
 
zozotroll said:
Cnsidering your stance on sensors, I have to agree.

But....every sensor that has ever been made has a counter of some sort. We eventualy figure out a way to cover emisions,

Not in reality. In games of course we do. Which is why the CRB states there is no stealth in space.
 
Love the fact you can be all hidey when you jump into a system, especially if the main world is on less than friendly terms with you, however x10 cost is crazy money and really would boost Maintenance costs...

I want to add the option to my 600dton ship, but I worry about the ensuing cost of everything :(
 
zero said:
Love the fact you can be all hidey when you jump into a system, especially if the main world is on less than friendly terms with you, however x10 cost is crazy money and really would boost Maintenance costs...

I want to add the option to my 600dton ship, but I worry about the ensuing cost of everything :(


Better (if you want to spy a bit) to jump a couple light hours out system and unfurl radio scope, deploy large IR sensors etc. Sit and gather as much data as you want then jump out again...
 
^ A Fair point. Use of the local Gas Giant to skim up some new fuel, then off you go. Of course when there is no GG and you'll need to actually make an appearance at the Starport would be a problem... :roll:
 
Skimming a gas giant just like that, eh? One word: Gunboats.

And DWF, welcome to the Scout service!
 
Reynard said:
Skimming a gas giant just like that, eh? One word: Gunboats.

And DWF, welcome to the Scout service!

Yep. That's why my new Scout/Courier design has fast cycle J-Drives & a standard cargo hold for deploying such modules quickly. :wink:
 
Reynard said:
Skimming a gas giant just like that, eh? One word: Gunboats.


Out at the orbit of Neptune, those'll be pretty spread out.

If I wanted to be really well hidden I'd pop out in the halo region, latch onto a ball of ice with my handy mosquito rig, and process ice into fuel while deploying a several AU wide VLBA to gather info on the system. You'll have a full fuel load by the time your array is in place, you WILL see any interceptors coming, and they stand a gnat's chance of detecting you unless the system is known for its deep space observatories or large numbers of Oort Eccentrics (odd rich people, not rocks on funny orbits) or Space Gypsies.
 
And so a Stealth J-Drive is only good for those who want to spy, or use the hex as a refuelling pitstop to somewhere more friendly, and actually go nowhere near the specific main world for their adventure of the fortnight or let them know you're there :mrgreen:
 
zero said:
And so a Stealth J-Drive is only good for those who want to spy, or use the hex as a refuelling pitstop to somewhere more friendly, and actually go nowhere near the specific main world for their adventure of the fortnight or let them know you're there :mrgreen:

The term, "White Elephant" comes to mind...
 
DFW said:
zero said:
And so a Stealth J-Drive is only good for those who want to spy, or use the hex as a refuelling pitstop to somewhere more friendly, and actually go nowhere near the specific main world for their adventure of the fortnight or let them know you're there :mrgreen:

The term, "White Elephant" comes to mind...

until it nudges a cryogenic kinetic kill projectile at your highport because you failed to transfer a million credits to a numbered bank acount ... let's see what the next system will choose to do.

Then it becomes a "cash cow". ;)
 
atpollard said:
DFW said:
zero said:
And so a Stealth J-Drive is only good for those who want to spy, or use the hex as a refuelling pitstop to somewhere more friendly, and actually go nowhere near the specific main world for their adventure of the fortnight or let them know you're there :mrgreen:

The term, "White Elephant" comes to mind...

until it nudges a cryogenic kinetic kill projectile at your highport because you failed to transfer a million credits to a numbered bank acount ... let's see what the next system will choose to do.

Then it becomes a "cash cow". ;)


Don't need a stealth drive to do that. It doesn't even really help.

Look at the minuscule distances involved: "Normally,
a ship that emerges into real space will be automatically detected
if it emerges within the “minimal” detail range of the sensor."

~50k KM.
 
Its not the cost of carrying a white elephant through jumpspace.

Its cleaning all that elephant mess up afterwards.
 
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