Travellers Needed! High Guard Updates

[Terry Mixon]

FIRE CONTROL
The use of fire control systems allows weapons to be targeted far more accurately. This can range from simple gyrostabilisation to laser rangefinders and integration of a vehicle’s advanced sensor arrays. However, due to cost and complexity, fire control systems are normally fitted only to a vehicle’s main weapons. Fire control systems are only available for ranged weapons and cannot be used in close combat.

All fire control systems grant the Scope trait for the weapon they are attached to (see page 79 of the Traveller Core Rulebook). The simplest fire control system is just a scope, which requires a gunner to use it. A Basic or more sophisticated fire control system allows the gunner to be elsewhere in the vehicle with a remote connection to the weapon mount. Without a scope, direct fire weapons have a maximum effective range of one kilometre, so any installed fire control system will allow a long-range weapon to reach its full potential.

Geir had talked about this kind of system being applicable to starship weapons, though the mechanics of it would be different. At a minimum, it might be a dedicated computer with fire control software running locally. I can see weapon manufacturers bundling something like that in, or even a robotic gunner brain (using the AGILITY MOD Geir talked about for robots with no limbs rather than giving it tiny little arms) to get better control of the targeting.

With the cost of weapons, having a built-in robotic gunner brain or fire control system should be rolled in.

 

[Terry Mixon]

Ship's armor. Superdense, Coherent Superdense, and Collapsium should be added to the chart on ship armors for completeness.

 

[Terry Mixon]

Ship's sensors. These options might be worth looking at bringing to ships.

 

[Terry Mixon]

Fusion+ power systems. Maybe for small craft or as a backup power supply?

 

[Vormaerin]

With the cost of weapons, having a built-in robotic gunner brain or fire control system should be rolled in.

There shouldn't be people on starships. But the powers that be don't want the ship to be able to fire weapons without human intervention for some reason.

Also, the 1 ton of interior volume that a turret includes was usually defined as the fire control system. It used to be de rigeur to reserve the fire control "space" even if you didn't have a turret at the time. And in versions that used surface area, the turret took up that while the FC took up interior volume.

Currently, the cost of virtual gunners is paid for in bandwidth and software costs. We could completely rewrite the computer rules to de-centralize everything. Could do that for the power plant too.

T-2300 has the option for local vs centralized FC. You might look at that if you are so inclined.

 

[Terry Mixon]

Now for the big one. Comfort Levels. I think this system should be used aboard ships as well.

COMFORT LEVELS
A vehicle designed for short-term use can use less than the standard Space requirement but with a penalty. More or better spaces can positively affect the occupant’s ability to function, as indicated in the Comfort Level table.

Certain items in the Option chapter’s Creature Comforts section have a Comfort Point (CP) score, usually one per Space. Each standard seat Space has a Comfort Point of 1. Total Comfort Points, divided by the sophont’s Space size and number of occupants is the total Comfort Level of the vehicle. If the Comfort Level number lies at the border of two levels, the better level applies.

If so desired, Comfort Levels can be tracked separately for different classes of occupants, with Comfort Points being allocated to Crew, Passengers, Residents or subdivisions of these categories separately.

DMs apply during occupancy of the vehicle and uncomfortable vehicles will have a negative effect on those who have been cooped up inside them. Exiting the vehicle will remove the negative DMs by one per combat round until the DMs are entirely removed but will not reset the DM timetable if the vehicle is then re-entered.

All Comfort Levels can be reset by two days rest ‘offduty’ outside the confines of the vehicle or inside a vehicle with an Excellent or Luxury Comfort Level.



I think Luxury passengers must have Luxury Comfort, High Passengers need Excellent Comfort, and Middle needs Good Comfort. Basic Passengers could get Standard Comfort.

The draft originally said this:

Expectations also play a part in Comfort Levels. Military personnel have lower expectations (by 1 Level or row on the table), and a person’s expectations based on SOC can be a factor, with each attribute DM plus or minus, shifting the Comfort Level up or down the chart by a row. In more permanent accommodations, this results in vastly different requirements for tenements than for luxury apartments.

So, Marines in Basic Comfort (barracks?) would have a negative DM after one month rather than one week. I think that's perfectly acceptable. I don't see it in the VH now, so I'll add a note to the errata.

For small craft, I'd imagine extended seating and below would be the order of the day.

Here are the systems I can find that bestow comfort points.




Bunks should be included in High Guard.




If you stick with the old entertainment systems, they will need points, but I think you should go to this system.

 

[Terry Mixon]

There shouldn't be people on starships. But the powers that be don't want the ship to be able to fire weapons without human intervention for some reason.

Also, the 1 ton of interior volume that a turret includes was usually defined as the fire control system. It used to be de rigeur to reserve the fire control "space" even if you didn't have a turret at the time. And in versions that used surface area, the turret took up that while the FC took up interior volume.

Currently, the cost of virtual gunners is paid for in bandwidth and software costs. We could completely rewrite the computer rules to de-centralize everything. Could do that for the power plant too.

T-2300 has the option for local vs centralized FC. You might look at that if you are so inclined.

Nothing says the robotic gunner couldn't be locked down and require direct fire orders from a living being.

Computers are a mess. They need to be decentralized.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Wouldn't it make a whole lot of sense to bite the bullet and do Mongoose Fire, Fusion and Steel?

The construction rules need a unified scaling architecture.

 

[collins355]

Fusion+ power systems. Maybe for small craft or as a backup power supply?

View attachment 7502

Hmm, so the whole Sylean Federation/Cleon Zhunastu thing about the breakthrough to Fusion+ at TL12 leading to the Third Imperium is retconned away?

 

[agentwigggles]

FFS is more romanticize, then it was ever actually used.

 

[agentwigggles]

Hmm, so the whole Sylean Federation/Cleon Zhunastu thing about the breakthrough to Fusion+ at TL12 leading to the Third Imperium is retconned away?

why?
A Fusion+ plant suitable for a city or spaceship, isnt the same thing as the miniaturization of one for a vehicle.
And this is ignoring the prototyping rules

 

[Vormaerin]

FFS is more romanticize, then it was ever actually used.

This is also true of all the construction books. Very few people actually build Robots, Vehicles, or Starships themselves. Even fewer put in the attention to detail that Terry does.

 

[Vormaerin]

why?
A Fusion+ plant suitable for a city or spaceship, isnt the same thing as the miniaturization of one for a vehicle.
And this is ignoring the prototyping rules

Because miniaturization was, in fact, the core breakthrough that used to define Fusion+. That's why in T5, ship work stations can have their own Fusion+ power distinct from the general ship power.

Fusion+ was, along with Jump Drive, originally marked as "a technology that might or might not be developed at all". It used to be that you could be TL15 and not have "Fusion+", just normal Fusion.

And the fact the Syleans had Fusion+ and no one else did was supposedly a major factor in expansion of the Sylean Federation and the Third Imperium.

Is that super important immutable reality? No. But it is a change if F+ is just the definition power plants at TL 12 or whatever.

 

[Terry Mixon]

This is also true of all the construction books. Very few people actually build Robots, Vehicles, or Starships themselves. Even fewer put in the attention to detail that Terry does.

Thank you.

 

[mavikfelna]

Wouldn't it make a whole lot of sense to bite the bullet and do Mongoose Fire, Fusion and Steel?

The construction rules need a unified scaling architecture.

Please!