mavikfelna
Emperor Mongoose
Since I'm currently working on various ship designs and redesigns I thought I'd take a moment to post some of my thoughts and see what you all can add to my thoughts.
Sorry, this got much longer than I expected. There is alot to cover.
First, of particular note is that there are many designs in Charted Space that are literally thousands of years old. TL12 and lower designs in the 3I could exist from all the way back in the First Imperium. They are still used because they are simple, reliable and inexpensive compared to newer designs. And they can be produced at a huge number locations. I think these sorts of designs should really be optimized for the purpose they were designed around. A trade ship needs to be reliable, inexpensive to build, run and maintain and focused on maximizing the profits for the type of trade it deals in. Ships built for other purposes need optimization with those purposes in mind.
Next, prototypes and new designs are by their natures not optimized but there are design principles that should have developed over time that influence these designs and provide some improvements to the new designs based on those existing principles.
Every species is going to have different needs and ideas. Some are new to space flight, some have been in space for thousands of years. Some have psychological and physical needs that must be address in their ship designs that prevent certain optimizations or lead to different optimizations.
There are alot of rules for ship building in MgT2e and they are not all easily accessible or clearly laid out. Most of what I do for optimization relies on @Arkathan's spreadsheet and the rules he decided to include and support.
So, with that being said, here are my optimization idea, pretty much based in 3I designs for now.
Lets follow the design sequence .
0. Choose a Tech Level: There are certain tech levels that provide big bonuses. TL12 and TL15 in particular are breakpoints for power plants and engines, but tech level will affect of the options and optimization choices. When trying to optimize existing designs I usually don't play with tech level, but I will often play with increasing and lowering TL to see how it impacts the design and to create variants. You can design ships and small craft as low as TL5 using the prototype rules and reaction engines and these sorts of designs are fun to try and optimize despite the fact there isn't much you can do. And a planet trying to do these sorts of things without the benefits of being attached to a larger, higher tech polity is really just doing things by trial and error and spending alot of money to do it.
1. Create a hull. I have not played around with odd tonnages and would love to have some insight from others on doing that.
The three hull types make a big difference in the overall cost of the ship. For small ships with few hull points you're almost always better off going with a light hull. You're not really going to survive a hit without significant damage if you have 44 points verses 36 but it will make a huge difference for anything based on cost. So, for any cost sensitive design, it is better to go with a light hull, even for military designs up to about 400 tons or so, unless you expect to be in hazardous situations where you'll be taking a single 1D damage hits fairly often. So things like fighters can get away with light hulls most of the time if the design needs to be cost conscious but a shuttle designed to enter dangerous atmospheres probably does need a reinforced hull. Military ships, at least where cost isn't the major considerations, should always use a reinforced hull but if cost is a factor then standard or light is still a reasonable choice.
Gravity is another area where it can make a huge cost savings on the hull and anything that adjusts hull cost. Under most situations it's not really practical to not take gravity, it's just too useful for everyday activities and the health of most species. For small craft, if comfort for the occupants isn't important, it's a no-brainer to take away gravity, especially for low thrust rating drives, since the pilot and occupants are not going to be really affected by it. On really large hulls, especially lower thrust ones, hamster cages are a good choice to reduce cost but they are a poor choice for any hull that may have to make violent maneuvers on any kind of a regular basis. I do wish we had an option for gravity only in occupied spaces or the ability to exclude certain areas to reduce costs but that isn't currently an option in the rules.
Armor is a tough one. Any ship that might take 1D damage on a regular basis will benefit from at least 3 points of armor. A civilian ship really doesn't need more than 6 points at most and probably shouldn't have armor at all if it's expected to operate in safe areas and not skim its own fuel. If you have a higher level armor type available it is always advantageous to use the higher level armor type. It costs more, but the savings in hull space usually trumps that. Crystaliron is the lowest I would ever use if you do need armor but need to save money. Obviously, if you need armor and are below TL10 your only choice is Titanium and you go with what you've got.
Hull options aren't really optimizable except Stealth, and even there there is not alot you can do with it. If you need stealth and can afford Improved stealth, it's the best choice but basic stealth is the choice for the cost conscious. The higher levels of stealth are really just for military hulls that really need to keep their emissions down and you take the best you can afford.
2. Drives. Whoa boy. There are alot of options here but unless you are trying for something specific, there are only a few optimizations.
For maneuver drives, If you are trying to save for cost and tonnage, the best option is almost always increased size, because you will save more weight in total because the power plant is bigger than the m-drive, even at TL15. If the craft you are making is orbital or doesn't mind coasting along and taking a long time for distance travel, then the best option is limited range. If you trying to maximum tonnage saving but cost is less of a concern, the best option is by far is energy efficient but if you only have the TL to add one advantage you might still be better off with a budge option if cost is more important than space. Reducing the size of the power plant makes a much bigger difference in all but the slowest and smallest units. If saving on cost is paramount and you have the tech levels available, High Tech cost savings is the best choice to save space, but it's still 20% more expensive than choosing a budget option. The other options are all for specific mission profiles and should be used as appropriate.
For Reaction drives, I don't actually have enough experience with these to have a solid answer. I would take increased size over fuel inefficient because it will save more space overall unless you have very limited burn time. Fuel efficient seems to be the best advantage, unless again you plan on a very short burn time, then reduced size probably trumps cost reduction.
For Jump Drives, far and away the best option is inefficient. It is a huge cost savings and saves more space than increased size. If you have the tech levels for advantages and can afford the cost, decreased jump fuel is easily the best tonnage savings, none of the others are close and all cost the same. Obviously if you're going to be a raider or scout you need Stealth jump and maybe decreased jump distance to make getting in and out easier.
3. Power Plant. The first rule of optimizing power plants is to only have enough power for most expensive drive and just power the one currently in use. There are a few military reasons you might want to have enough power for everything but even there if you're building a budget mil ship, you just can't afford to power both drives. And if you don't mind using batteries, if the maneuver drive is the cheaper power requirement, then use batteries to power the jump drive, it will save both space and money. If the ship is an armed civilian, don't bother increasing power for weapons unless they require more power than half the hull, as you get to turn off half the hull power when in combat. For both military and civilian it is a good idea to check the power loss for the first and second critical hits, it's cell O26, O27 in the spreadsheet, and have enough power to keep going at one of those levels, since they aren't usually much more than what is needed for M-Drive and hull. You don't need to provide constant power to things like Fuel Purifiers, Loading Belts or Medical Bays. If you use those when you're in orbit or landed somewhere you have lots of power available from the drives not being in use and if you're in combat you should have enough extra to run the medbays. If you need more in flight, have your engineer turn off a few grav plates in the cargo hold and you should be fine.
Also, for space saving, it's always better to use the highest TL power plant you can get. Even with 3x size reduction on the lower TL plant, it will be larger than the higher TL plant.
I don't have an opinion on Sterling plants, I haven't played with them. But they do take up alot more space than a standard fusion plant + 4 weeks of fuel. They do cost less per ton and you don't have to worry about refueling them, but you have to replace them every 10 or 20 years and that along with larger tonnage to begin with expensive.
4. Fuel. For most traders and courier types, 4 weeks of fuel is fine. If you're not regularly stopping somewhere or you often need to make long journies and for whatever reason will not be refueling while you're moving, then go for 12 weeks. If you're going to be landed somewhere for a long time, like a cutter habitat module, I like to for a full year, 52 weeks, but lowering that won't hurt if you need space.
Always add at least a 0.5 ton fuel purifier if you ever might find yourself in a system where you cannot get refined fuel. It's also much cheaper to purchase unrefined fuel and process it while you're sitting in port than buy the refined stuff. If you're not totally unstreamlined it's probably also a good idea to add fuel scoops.
For most military ships and civilian ships that don't need cargo space, use regular fuel tanks for your jump fuel. For everybody else use fuel/cargo containers for all but the jump-1 fuel. Since alot of trading happens along jump-1 mains with some jump-2 gaps, having a far trader with an extra 20 tons cargo capacity on the jump-1 portions is big jump in capacity, 20KCr a jump more in income for plain freight. For ships that rarely jump, either use drop tanks, not a good idea if you're anywhere other than an established trade route with factors in every system you jump to get grab your old tanks when you drop them and get them filled up and reinstalled when you're back in the system, or, just fuel/cargo for all of your jump fuel tanks to maximize in system cargo capacity.
On the subject of jump tanks, all military ships should have mounts so if you're going to be jumping into a hostile system you don't have to worry if you're going to be able to refuel before you get into combat. They are also important for exploration ships, so you are able to jump back of a new system if something dangerous is present. For non-combat ships with jump-2 or greater engines, if you are going somewhere that has large areas of empty space you have to cross, get drop tank mounting large enough to match your hull size. When the tank is attached, you're jump rating is halved, but you now have enough fuel for 5 consecutive jump-1s in those tanks. If you've got internal tankage enough to normally go your full jump rating, then you have an additional jump 1, and if not, you can use your fuel/cargo containers for cargo. Always make sure you buy a tank at a TL14+ shipyard though, unless you have a crack jump engineer. I wouldn't ever buy one below TL12 unless there was no other choice. Also note, if you have Jump-2 but only M-1 drives, you will be at 1/2 G when maneuvering, all your travels are doubled with the tank so you need to take that into account.
5. Bridge. For the most part, use standard bridges with holographic controls if the ship needs to maneuver or use sensors on a regular basis. Small bridges are for when you need to save space and you're not manking bridge related rolls often or you have a really expericenced/well trained crew. If you're a small craft, under 50 tons, bridges are still preferred, but dual cockpits are fine if you might be in combat and need a tiny amount of space. Single cockpits are really only for tiny craft that need every ton and only have a fixed weapon or no weapon at all. And remember, with cockpits of any type, you have 24 of life support, apprently even with additional cabin space added, so they are purely short haul.
Adding a haptic feedback and a ship's brain to a ship is a cheap way to remove the bridge and free up space. But then it's always a robot controlled vessel so you'd best hope your brain is up to the task of piloting, astrogations, communications and sensor ops, plus posibly tactics and leadership, or you're going to need to add additional sensor stations for communications and sensor operators and the other positions. I'm not sure if there is a penalty for operating from a sensor station rather than on a bridge, but there probably should be.
6. Computer. Usually, install the lowest level of computer you can get away with, and use a bis model for greater jump ratings to keep costs down. If you are using the retro tech rules, then retro tech computers are much cheaper. If you have a ship with Jump 5+, it's much cheaper to use a retro tech Core/40 computer rather than a Computer/20/bis and you have more bandwith for more software. In fact, any time your software bandwidth requirements are greater than 20, it's cheaper to switch to the Core/40 retro. Usually this will only be miltary ships and science vessels or big virtual crews.
On the subject of virtual crews, it's actually much cheaper and more effective to use robots and just put a robot interface on the computer.
7. Sensors. Not alot of optimization possible here. You put on what you need and leave it at that. If you have probes, add an extension net.
8. Weapons. It's pretty varied here and depends on the role of the ship. Energy efficient is a good way to keep costs from power plant increases down but unless there are alot of weapons it's not usually needed. Ineffient is probably better than increased size for bays but not for turrets. Accurate and Very High Yield are probably better than Intense Focus for most ships, as the increased effect from accuracy or the better damage rolls from very high yield will do more than the +2 armor pen from intense focus. My preferrence is accurate and high yield together if I can, or just high or very high yield of not. Long range can be useful if your opponents are armed with particle weapons.
8a. Screens. I do enough with these so I really need to hear what you all think. I'd guess that energy related adds/disadds would be better than size related ones for most optimization.
9. Other systems. Always max out the free airlocks.
Drone and Probes. If you're putting on probes, used advanced if you have the TL. Mining drones, use them for resource gathering ships, 10 tons (1 drone swarm) or more for large ships. If you're a combat ship, Repair Drones and Automated Repair/1 software if you're going to spend any time in range of the enemy. Otherwise, not really needed unless you're going to get damaged alot, then having the drones at least make repair a little easier.
Breaching Tube and Force LInkages, pirates, pirate hunters, rescue ships and military ships that need to capture opposing ships all should have one. If you can't aford the space for the forced linkage, a breaching tube is ok by itself but easily broken if the other ship is still active.
Grappling Arms, useful if you need them but if you don't regluarly need to handle smaller objects and craft around the ship, you're better off in a vacc suit with a thruster pack and tether.
Tow Cables. if you're moving cargo insystem or recoverying vessels or other large objects that you can't fit in your cargo bay, it's very useful. For anyone else probably save the space.
UNREP systems, Great if your a tender or fueler of some kind. You don't need it if you're the reciever and the other side has it.
Clamps and Docking space. If you're using clamps, you will probably pay more in larger drive and power plant space than if using docking space for the smaller clamps but it kind of depends but it will be much cheaper than the docking space. If you need to repair your craft, 1 full hanger per repair is all you need and you probably won't be repairing more than 1 at a time unless you're a carrier. The full hanger is also good for changing cutter modules but it's much cheaper to just do it in space as long as you have time. Docking space is fine and alot cheaper space and cost wise. Carriers are the only things that need launch and recovery spaces.
The various pods and capsules, unless there is pressing reason to use them, they mostly just take up space. Re-Entry capsules as escape pods are ok if your setting requires them but if they aren't required by law, save some space and money.
The various onboard facilities, I don't have much to say here but, if the ship has low berths or troops aboard I will usually require a medical bay. If a ship is going to spend alot of time travelling or expecting to face combat, it should have a workshop. Everything else really depends on the ship's needs
10. Crew. You can get away with alot smaller crew on small vessels that what is recommended. Sensor Ops, Gunner, Medic, even Mechanic can be dropped on small ships. The larger and more complex the ship though and the more you need them. Also, if the ship has troops or low berths, I think they should require a medic, regardless of the ship size. You can get away with junior crew in barracks so long as you have at least 25% of the living space in common area. I usually do all crew in double staterooms because that's the recommendation in the rules. On fancier or larger ships, captains and officers will get single staterooms and for the really fancy ones they'll get high or maybe even luxury.
For low berths and emergency low berth, I just don't use them if I can avoid them. Advanced low berths are ok and why there isn't an advanced emergency low berth I have no idea. If I'm not restricted to the core rules, then I'll use @Terry Mixon's AutoBerths because even the basic versions are far and away better than the standard low and emergency low berths. Also, emergency low berths need errata, as they are about 10x more expensive than they should be.
For passengers, if you're using the standard transport fees then middle passage, double occupancy or high passage in a standard stateroom pay the best per parsec. Low passages pay very well if you can live with the death rate simply because you can fit 10 of them into the same space you can fit one standard stateroom and the common area for it. You pay a tiny bit more of the low berths, or nearly double if you use Advanced ones but pay alot less in life support costs so they are much better value over the life of the ship.
11. Cargo. If you're not a military ship, have enough stores to equal your power plant fuel operating weeks and maybe a small bit extra. Allocate your passenger baggage space next. Note that low passage passengers' baggage is stored in the low berth and need to be allocated to cargo storage space. Everything else is free cargo space. I don't bother with cranes or loading belts because there is no in game benefit for having them but if you want to put them in, I would say 1 loading belt per 100 full tons of cargo, you could drop it per 50 if you really want. A cargo crane would be useful for holds over 100 tons. If you're really concerned about it, get a cargobot per 50 tons of cargo.
Final note, Robots are much cheaper than live crew but alot of people don't like them in their settings. That's fine, and if it's not appropriate for your setting then exlude them. There is no official proscription against robots that I've seen so I like to use them for commercial and small ships. For military vessels I would usually on add them to supplement the live crew, not replace them, except on small or specialized ships.
Anyway, these are my thoughts, I'd like to hear what you all think. And these are just my guidelines, they are not hard set rules and I definatley could be wrong in some of my assumptions so feel free to tell what I got wrong or what you think the guideline should be. When I'm converting official designs, I think you need to keep alot of things in mind that may be in agreement with these ideas too, so even I don't always follow these.
Sorry, this got much longer than I expected. There is alot to cover.
First, of particular note is that there are many designs in Charted Space that are literally thousands of years old. TL12 and lower designs in the 3I could exist from all the way back in the First Imperium. They are still used because they are simple, reliable and inexpensive compared to newer designs. And they can be produced at a huge number locations. I think these sorts of designs should really be optimized for the purpose they were designed around. A trade ship needs to be reliable, inexpensive to build, run and maintain and focused on maximizing the profits for the type of trade it deals in. Ships built for other purposes need optimization with those purposes in mind.
Next, prototypes and new designs are by their natures not optimized but there are design principles that should have developed over time that influence these designs and provide some improvements to the new designs based on those existing principles.
Every species is going to have different needs and ideas. Some are new to space flight, some have been in space for thousands of years. Some have psychological and physical needs that must be address in their ship designs that prevent certain optimizations or lead to different optimizations.
There are alot of rules for ship building in MgT2e and they are not all easily accessible or clearly laid out. Most of what I do for optimization relies on @Arkathan's spreadsheet and the rules he decided to include and support.
So, with that being said, here are my optimization idea, pretty much based in 3I designs for now.
Lets follow the design sequence .
0. Choose a Tech Level: There are certain tech levels that provide big bonuses. TL12 and TL15 in particular are breakpoints for power plants and engines, but tech level will affect of the options and optimization choices. When trying to optimize existing designs I usually don't play with tech level, but I will often play with increasing and lowering TL to see how it impacts the design and to create variants. You can design ships and small craft as low as TL5 using the prototype rules and reaction engines and these sorts of designs are fun to try and optimize despite the fact there isn't much you can do. And a planet trying to do these sorts of things without the benefits of being attached to a larger, higher tech polity is really just doing things by trial and error and spending alot of money to do it.
1. Create a hull. I have not played around with odd tonnages and would love to have some insight from others on doing that.
The three hull types make a big difference in the overall cost of the ship. For small ships with few hull points you're almost always better off going with a light hull. You're not really going to survive a hit without significant damage if you have 44 points verses 36 but it will make a huge difference for anything based on cost. So, for any cost sensitive design, it is better to go with a light hull, even for military designs up to about 400 tons or so, unless you expect to be in hazardous situations where you'll be taking a single 1D damage hits fairly often. So things like fighters can get away with light hulls most of the time if the design needs to be cost conscious but a shuttle designed to enter dangerous atmospheres probably does need a reinforced hull. Military ships, at least where cost isn't the major considerations, should always use a reinforced hull but if cost is a factor then standard or light is still a reasonable choice.
Gravity is another area where it can make a huge cost savings on the hull and anything that adjusts hull cost. Under most situations it's not really practical to not take gravity, it's just too useful for everyday activities and the health of most species. For small craft, if comfort for the occupants isn't important, it's a no-brainer to take away gravity, especially for low thrust rating drives, since the pilot and occupants are not going to be really affected by it. On really large hulls, especially lower thrust ones, hamster cages are a good choice to reduce cost but they are a poor choice for any hull that may have to make violent maneuvers on any kind of a regular basis. I do wish we had an option for gravity only in occupied spaces or the ability to exclude certain areas to reduce costs but that isn't currently an option in the rules.
Armor is a tough one. Any ship that might take 1D damage on a regular basis will benefit from at least 3 points of armor. A civilian ship really doesn't need more than 6 points at most and probably shouldn't have armor at all if it's expected to operate in safe areas and not skim its own fuel. If you have a higher level armor type available it is always advantageous to use the higher level armor type. It costs more, but the savings in hull space usually trumps that. Crystaliron is the lowest I would ever use if you do need armor but need to save money. Obviously, if you need armor and are below TL10 your only choice is Titanium and you go with what you've got.
Hull options aren't really optimizable except Stealth, and even there there is not alot you can do with it. If you need stealth and can afford Improved stealth, it's the best choice but basic stealth is the choice for the cost conscious. The higher levels of stealth are really just for military hulls that really need to keep their emissions down and you take the best you can afford.
2. Drives. Whoa boy. There are alot of options here but unless you are trying for something specific, there are only a few optimizations.
For maneuver drives, If you are trying to save for cost and tonnage, the best option is almost always increased size, because you will save more weight in total because the power plant is bigger than the m-drive, even at TL15. If the craft you are making is orbital or doesn't mind coasting along and taking a long time for distance travel, then the best option is limited range. If you trying to maximum tonnage saving but cost is less of a concern, the best option is by far is energy efficient but if you only have the TL to add one advantage you might still be better off with a budge option if cost is more important than space. Reducing the size of the power plant makes a much bigger difference in all but the slowest and smallest units. If saving on cost is paramount and you have the tech levels available, High Tech cost savings is the best choice to save space, but it's still 20% more expensive than choosing a budget option. The other options are all for specific mission profiles and should be used as appropriate.
For Reaction drives, I don't actually have enough experience with these to have a solid answer. I would take increased size over fuel inefficient because it will save more space overall unless you have very limited burn time. Fuel efficient seems to be the best advantage, unless again you plan on a very short burn time, then reduced size probably trumps cost reduction.
For Jump Drives, far and away the best option is inefficient. It is a huge cost savings and saves more space than increased size. If you have the tech levels for advantages and can afford the cost, decreased jump fuel is easily the best tonnage savings, none of the others are close and all cost the same. Obviously if you're going to be a raider or scout you need Stealth jump and maybe decreased jump distance to make getting in and out easier.
3. Power Plant. The first rule of optimizing power plants is to only have enough power for most expensive drive and just power the one currently in use. There are a few military reasons you might want to have enough power for everything but even there if you're building a budget mil ship, you just can't afford to power both drives. And if you don't mind using batteries, if the maneuver drive is the cheaper power requirement, then use batteries to power the jump drive, it will save both space and money. If the ship is an armed civilian, don't bother increasing power for weapons unless they require more power than half the hull, as you get to turn off half the hull power when in combat. For both military and civilian it is a good idea to check the power loss for the first and second critical hits, it's cell O26, O27 in the spreadsheet, and have enough power to keep going at one of those levels, since they aren't usually much more than what is needed for M-Drive and hull. You don't need to provide constant power to things like Fuel Purifiers, Loading Belts or Medical Bays. If you use those when you're in orbit or landed somewhere you have lots of power available from the drives not being in use and if you're in combat you should have enough extra to run the medbays. If you need more in flight, have your engineer turn off a few grav plates in the cargo hold and you should be fine.
Also, for space saving, it's always better to use the highest TL power plant you can get. Even with 3x size reduction on the lower TL plant, it will be larger than the higher TL plant.
I don't have an opinion on Sterling plants, I haven't played with them. But they do take up alot more space than a standard fusion plant + 4 weeks of fuel. They do cost less per ton and you don't have to worry about refueling them, but you have to replace them every 10 or 20 years and that along with larger tonnage to begin with expensive.
4. Fuel. For most traders and courier types, 4 weeks of fuel is fine. If you're not regularly stopping somewhere or you often need to make long journies and for whatever reason will not be refueling while you're moving, then go for 12 weeks. If you're going to be landed somewhere for a long time, like a cutter habitat module, I like to for a full year, 52 weeks, but lowering that won't hurt if you need space.
Always add at least a 0.5 ton fuel purifier if you ever might find yourself in a system where you cannot get refined fuel. It's also much cheaper to purchase unrefined fuel and process it while you're sitting in port than buy the refined stuff. If you're not totally unstreamlined it's probably also a good idea to add fuel scoops.
For most military ships and civilian ships that don't need cargo space, use regular fuel tanks for your jump fuel. For everybody else use fuel/cargo containers for all but the jump-1 fuel. Since alot of trading happens along jump-1 mains with some jump-2 gaps, having a far trader with an extra 20 tons cargo capacity on the jump-1 portions is big jump in capacity, 20KCr a jump more in income for plain freight. For ships that rarely jump, either use drop tanks, not a good idea if you're anywhere other than an established trade route with factors in every system you jump to get grab your old tanks when you drop them and get them filled up and reinstalled when you're back in the system, or, just fuel/cargo for all of your jump fuel tanks to maximize in system cargo capacity.
On the subject of jump tanks, all military ships should have mounts so if you're going to be jumping into a hostile system you don't have to worry if you're going to be able to refuel before you get into combat. They are also important for exploration ships, so you are able to jump back of a new system if something dangerous is present. For non-combat ships with jump-2 or greater engines, if you are going somewhere that has large areas of empty space you have to cross, get drop tank mounting large enough to match your hull size. When the tank is attached, you're jump rating is halved, but you now have enough fuel for 5 consecutive jump-1s in those tanks. If you've got internal tankage enough to normally go your full jump rating, then you have an additional jump 1, and if not, you can use your fuel/cargo containers for cargo. Always make sure you buy a tank at a TL14+ shipyard though, unless you have a crack jump engineer. I wouldn't ever buy one below TL12 unless there was no other choice. Also note, if you have Jump-2 but only M-1 drives, you will be at 1/2 G when maneuvering, all your travels are doubled with the tank so you need to take that into account.
5. Bridge. For the most part, use standard bridges with holographic controls if the ship needs to maneuver or use sensors on a regular basis. Small bridges are for when you need to save space and you're not manking bridge related rolls often or you have a really expericenced/well trained crew. If you're a small craft, under 50 tons, bridges are still preferred, but dual cockpits are fine if you might be in combat and need a tiny amount of space. Single cockpits are really only for tiny craft that need every ton and only have a fixed weapon or no weapon at all. And remember, with cockpits of any type, you have 24 of life support, apprently even with additional cabin space added, so they are purely short haul.
Adding a haptic feedback and a ship's brain to a ship is a cheap way to remove the bridge and free up space. But then it's always a robot controlled vessel so you'd best hope your brain is up to the task of piloting, astrogations, communications and sensor ops, plus posibly tactics and leadership, or you're going to need to add additional sensor stations for communications and sensor operators and the other positions. I'm not sure if there is a penalty for operating from a sensor station rather than on a bridge, but there probably should be.
6. Computer. Usually, install the lowest level of computer you can get away with, and use a bis model for greater jump ratings to keep costs down. If you are using the retro tech rules, then retro tech computers are much cheaper. If you have a ship with Jump 5+, it's much cheaper to use a retro tech Core/40 computer rather than a Computer/20/bis and you have more bandwith for more software. In fact, any time your software bandwidth requirements are greater than 20, it's cheaper to switch to the Core/40 retro. Usually this will only be miltary ships and science vessels or big virtual crews.
On the subject of virtual crews, it's actually much cheaper and more effective to use robots and just put a robot interface on the computer.
7. Sensors. Not alot of optimization possible here. You put on what you need and leave it at that. If you have probes, add an extension net.
8. Weapons. It's pretty varied here and depends on the role of the ship. Energy efficient is a good way to keep costs from power plant increases down but unless there are alot of weapons it's not usually needed. Ineffient is probably better than increased size for bays but not for turrets. Accurate and Very High Yield are probably better than Intense Focus for most ships, as the increased effect from accuracy or the better damage rolls from very high yield will do more than the +2 armor pen from intense focus. My preferrence is accurate and high yield together if I can, or just high or very high yield of not. Long range can be useful if your opponents are armed with particle weapons.
8a. Screens. I do enough with these so I really need to hear what you all think. I'd guess that energy related adds/disadds would be better than size related ones for most optimization.
9. Other systems. Always max out the free airlocks.
Drone and Probes. If you're putting on probes, used advanced if you have the TL. Mining drones, use them for resource gathering ships, 10 tons (1 drone swarm) or more for large ships. If you're a combat ship, Repair Drones and Automated Repair/1 software if you're going to spend any time in range of the enemy. Otherwise, not really needed unless you're going to get damaged alot, then having the drones at least make repair a little easier.
Breaching Tube and Force LInkages, pirates, pirate hunters, rescue ships and military ships that need to capture opposing ships all should have one. If you can't aford the space for the forced linkage, a breaching tube is ok by itself but easily broken if the other ship is still active.
Grappling Arms, useful if you need them but if you don't regluarly need to handle smaller objects and craft around the ship, you're better off in a vacc suit with a thruster pack and tether.
Tow Cables. if you're moving cargo insystem or recoverying vessels or other large objects that you can't fit in your cargo bay, it's very useful. For anyone else probably save the space.
UNREP systems, Great if your a tender or fueler of some kind. You don't need it if you're the reciever and the other side has it.
Clamps and Docking space. If you're using clamps, you will probably pay more in larger drive and power plant space than if using docking space for the smaller clamps but it kind of depends but it will be much cheaper than the docking space. If you need to repair your craft, 1 full hanger per repair is all you need and you probably won't be repairing more than 1 at a time unless you're a carrier. The full hanger is also good for changing cutter modules but it's much cheaper to just do it in space as long as you have time. Docking space is fine and alot cheaper space and cost wise. Carriers are the only things that need launch and recovery spaces.
The various pods and capsules, unless there is pressing reason to use them, they mostly just take up space. Re-Entry capsules as escape pods are ok if your setting requires them but if they aren't required by law, save some space and money.
The various onboard facilities, I don't have much to say here but, if the ship has low berths or troops aboard I will usually require a medical bay. If a ship is going to spend alot of time travelling or expecting to face combat, it should have a workshop. Everything else really depends on the ship's needs
10. Crew. You can get away with alot smaller crew on small vessels that what is recommended. Sensor Ops, Gunner, Medic, even Mechanic can be dropped on small ships. The larger and more complex the ship though and the more you need them. Also, if the ship has troops or low berths, I think they should require a medic, regardless of the ship size. You can get away with junior crew in barracks so long as you have at least 25% of the living space in common area. I usually do all crew in double staterooms because that's the recommendation in the rules. On fancier or larger ships, captains and officers will get single staterooms and for the really fancy ones they'll get high or maybe even luxury.
For low berths and emergency low berth, I just don't use them if I can avoid them. Advanced low berths are ok and why there isn't an advanced emergency low berth I have no idea. If I'm not restricted to the core rules, then I'll use @Terry Mixon's AutoBerths because even the basic versions are far and away better than the standard low and emergency low berths. Also, emergency low berths need errata, as they are about 10x more expensive than they should be.
For passengers, if you're using the standard transport fees then middle passage, double occupancy or high passage in a standard stateroom pay the best per parsec. Low passages pay very well if you can live with the death rate simply because you can fit 10 of them into the same space you can fit one standard stateroom and the common area for it. You pay a tiny bit more of the low berths, or nearly double if you use Advanced ones but pay alot less in life support costs so they are much better value over the life of the ship.
11. Cargo. If you're not a military ship, have enough stores to equal your power plant fuel operating weeks and maybe a small bit extra. Allocate your passenger baggage space next. Note that low passage passengers' baggage is stored in the low berth and need to be allocated to cargo storage space. Everything else is free cargo space. I don't bother with cranes or loading belts because there is no in game benefit for having them but if you want to put them in, I would say 1 loading belt per 100 full tons of cargo, you could drop it per 50 if you really want. A cargo crane would be useful for holds over 100 tons. If you're really concerned about it, get a cargobot per 50 tons of cargo.
Final note, Robots are much cheaper than live crew but alot of people don't like them in their settings. That's fine, and if it's not appropriate for your setting then exlude them. There is no official proscription against robots that I've seen so I like to use them for commercial and small ships. For military vessels I would usually on add them to supplement the live crew, not replace them, except on small or specialized ships.
Anyway, these are my thoughts, I'd like to hear what you all think. And these are just my guidelines, they are not hard set rules and I definatley could be wrong in some of my assumptions so feel free to tell what I got wrong or what you think the guideline should be. When I'm converting official designs, I think you need to keep alot of things in mind that may be in agreement with these ideas too, so even I don't always follow these.
