Travelling Across the Great Rift

[MongooseMatt]

This is the custom 100-ton Modified Seeker, the Reftbreaker. At MCr52.375, it can make two jump-4 leaps while carrying a Pilot and Astrogator.



What ship do you use to cross The Great Rift, and what is it called?

The Great Rift

The Great Rift

www.mongoosepublishing.com

 

[Sigtrygg]

Which book is that one in?

 

[MongooseMatt]

Which book is that one in?

That will be the Great Rift

 

[Condottiere]

G/Rifter?

Gre/fter?

 

[Sigtrygg]

It's not a legal design.

Jump 4 requires 40t of fuel

2x fuel reduction is 10% reduction.

10% of 40 is 4.

36t for a jump 4. 2x jump 4 should be 72 tons.

It looks like the author has gone with 40%-10% = 30% (30 tons, 60 tons for 2 jumps) rather than a reduction 10% of 40t (36 tons, 72 tons for 2 jumps)

Note, if the official rule is that the fuel reduction advantage reduces the jump fuel % then a three step reduction means a jump 1 ship will not require any fuel (with 2 advantages 10%-10%) and actually conjure 5% hydrogen from jumpspace (10%-15%=-5%)

 

[Arkathan]

The only way I can get it to work is to stretch the habitability rules. Barracks. Maybe that .5 common space is a fresher? Three weeks of cold MRE's packed into some corner.
Anything else requires the Modification on the modified Seeker to weld an extra few tons onto it.

 

[Condottiere]

I tend to think that the more likely design would be two hundred tonnes.

Also, drop tanks.

 

[Fluffy Bunny Feet]

I did a quick conversion of an Scout/Courier variant I had and by using TL16 to allow 3 advancements to the J-Drive cutting the jump fuel by 15% it has 69 tons of fuel, 1g, no armour, 1 stateroom, small bridge, civilian sensors, no cargo, no air raft or docking space. So either a 1 person crew or double occupancy. 55.45 MCr for the first unit not including design fee. Stripped to the bare bones. The only "luxury" being the 1 ton fuel processor to refuel and return. Pretty much a useless craft.

By using a non gravity hull I was able to reduce the price to 48.05 MCr (for the first unit) AND free up 1 ton for cargo (or a biosphere). Could have made it cheaper by using TL 8 fusion but that would have used up the saved ton.

Added advancement to the M-Drive reducing power by 50% and advancement to the TL 12 power plant and a light hull, price 46.9 MCr. Still only 1 ton of cargo.

If they were willing to do multiple jump 2 you reduce the price a lot and even though you need another ton of fuel you would be up to 5 tons of cargo.

 

[Sigtrygg]

You can get the 8 parsec range by using a jump 3 TL15 drive with the other changes Fluffy Bunny Feet has mentioned - 69 tons of fuel, a stateroom 4t, 0.3t of cargo you even save 2.5 tons on the size of the jump drive to re-allocate.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Final stab at a TL15 jump 4 version - we need to find 10 tons

scrap the sensors - 2t
reduce the cargo - 5.5t
cabins - get rid - 4.5t
total saving 12t

And now for the wigglewave - reintroduce the 2t smallcraft stateroom, or have 2x1t barracks for the crew.

 

[Sigtrygg]

I wonder how many other ships are similarly broken due to the author not using the rules as written in HG2022?

 

[ColinD]

This is the custom 100-ton Modified Seeker, the Reftbreaker. At MCr52.375, it can make two jump-4 leaps while carrying a Pilot and Astrogator.

View attachment 3721

What ship do you use to cross The Great Rift, and what is it called?

The Great Rift

The Great Rift

www.mongoosepublishing.com

The artist did a great job! The spoiler across the back looks really neat with the wedge accentuating paint job.

 

[Terry Mixon]

I wonder how many other ships are similarly broken due to the author not using the rules as written in HG2022?

I assume by default that all the designs presented in the books are broken and now using the RAW unless I double check them myself.

 

[RYXlord]

Is crossing the Rift too expensive? Are all those fancy high-tech ships too confusing? We here at Fro-Zen have you covered! Our state of the line rift liner uses mature off-the-shelf technology designed for your comfort and discerning budget. Don’t want to spend weeks in a cramped a tin can with with your family? Slide into our luxurious state of the art cryo-suites and next thing you know you’ll be across the spanless void of space and time, a sector away and a whole year later, with just one night’s rest. What value! How are we able to make it so cheap? Simple: our entire ship costs less than a single one of our competitor’s engines!

100 tons. 24.6mcr. TL 11.

(This has me wondering how effective it would be to save space on staterooms and sanity on long voyages by have multiple crews alternating through frozen watches)

Edit - Fixed some values, Thanks Fluffy Bunny!

 

[Fluffy Bunny Feet]

Minor nit your small bridge should be 1/2 price.

Alternating time in low berths should also mean switching out crew members as it will just seem like "yesterday" that annoying twit was annoying you. Being switched off with new crew members would work better.

 

[Condottiere]

 

[RYXlord]

But wait, there's more! Presenting the Fro-Zen Deluxe and Supreme!

Playing around with the scaling a bit it seems there's a sweet spot for the concept at 200t, which puts it in a better place in regards to the 10ton minimum on J-drives, while keeping the bridge tiny. By taking advantage of this, we can scale back the improved systems and reduce the tech level for even more savings. The end result, the TL10 Fro-Zen Deluxe gives room for both a more dedicated crew section and 4x as many low berths, all for the shockingly low additional price of 4 mcr over the 100t model. Talk about value!

The Fro-Zen Supreme takes the design to it's logical conclusion, with a 1,000 ton hull capable of carrying 128 low-berth passengers, watched over by dedicated medical staff and with a medical bay on board in event of emergencies, all for the low price of 100mcr, practically a steal for a ship of this size.

They still take a year to cross the reach, but they feel less like joke ships now at least, haha.

 

[Sigtrygg]

I think you have hit on a concept that makes a lot of sense.
A jump drive 1 with 3x reduced fuel is TL12 or 8.5% of hull volume per parsec.

I think there would be a long duration scout version that maps the empty hexes...

 

[Condottiere]

The fourth one would be access to the wished for technological level industrial base.

 

[Arkathan]

I still maintain that the next HG should provide access to the Good-Cheap paradigm.