Tricked Out Far Trader (2nd edition attempt)

[PsiTraveller]

Caveat: I do not have the final version of Highguard so I will be double checking the tonnages when it comes out. The Jump Drive and M-Drive numbers will not change.
This design is intended to maximize the profit from a ship and offer flexibility to a ship in terms of cargo carried or things transported.

The Far Trader is a 200 Ton Jump 2 ship with 64 tons of Cargo. It is a common ship for players and Tramp Traders. With a few modifications the 200 Ton ship can be made to carry far more cargo than would normally be possible.

The first step is to increase the Jump size of the Engines. Increasing engine tonnage allows for more tonnage to be moved for minimal cost. At Jump 2 the tonnage ratio is 20:1. For every ton of Jump engine increase you can carry 20 more tons of cargo. So increasing the Jump engine by 5 tons allows for 100 more tons of cargo to be moved at Jump 2, and 200 more tons at Jump 1.
Secondly we will be increasing the M-Drive by 2 Tons. This will increase the Thrust to 2 in general use, and will allow a Thrust 1 when fully loaded.

Cost so Far:
5 tons Jump Drive: 7.5 MCr
2 Tons M-Drive: 2 MCr

Cargo Space lost: 7 tons (57 tons internal storage left)

To increase carry capacity racking mounts for External Cargo will be used. These cost 1000 Credits per ton and take up no space. We will install 100 tons worth for 0.1 MCr.

Fuel is needed to move the ship so we will install 20 tons of Demountable Fuel Tanks inside the cargo hold. This will allow the ship to Jump 2 with a full load of External Cargo. 300 tons of volume at Jump 2 needs 60 tons of fuel total, so we need an additional 20 tons. This costs 20 000 Credits, 0.02 MCr
Cargo space left is 37 Tons.

Two tons of Jump Net will be purchased and mounted. This will cost 0.6 MCr. This is not really needed, but I am tricking out the ship completely to show the possibilities.
Cargo space left is 35 tons (internal).

Drop Tank Collar: We want the capacity to move 300 Tons Jump 2 and that needs 60 Tons of fuel. This is 0.24 Tons and will cost 0.25 MCr
Cargo drops to 34.76. Call it 34 to make the math easy.

So at a cost of 10.47 MCr extra what do we have?
The Far Trader at 200 tons can Jump 3 at 200 Tons and has 34 tons of cargo space that will bring in an income of 102 000 Credits per jump. This is pretty much the same as the 64 Tons at Jump 2.
At Jump 2 range the ship can add 100 tons of external cargo and earn 134 * 1600 = 214 400 Credits per Jump, more than doubling the old income.

The ship can move 234 tons of cargo at Jump 1 if the Cargo net is used and the external cargo mounts are not used. This would bring in an income of 234 000 Credits per Jump. This is more than the original Far Trader earned per Jump.

The extra mortgage payment for the upgrades is 43 625 per month for the 40 year term. This represents 28 tons of cargo per month at J2, leaving the extra 172 tons per month increased capacity as profit.

The external cargo mounts also offers players an option for their ship. If they wanted to cross a rift to get to a new main they could mount the external cargo with fuel pods, Jump into empty space, refuel their tanks and Jump again. When they are not using external cargo the mounts do not reduce the Thrust of their ship.

Using a Drop Tank would allow a full cargo load to be moved across a Rift by allowing the internally stored fuel to be used after the Drop Tanks are used in the source system.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

I like it, but I see a small problem specifically for a free trader: A ship with external cargo is unstreamlined. That is not a problem if you jump from high port to high port, but the tramp freighter tend to frequent smaller port without decent infrastructure.

 

[PsiTraveller]

true. you have to deal in Highports. This is about moving the maximum amount of cargo system to system. For larger ships serving wild locations they could put in docking space and a cargo shuttle. Be sure to charge for the service.

In really wild locations you could leave things in orbit and grab them later, shuttling them down 30 tons at a time. This would be a pain in the butt I agree. Again, this is just about moving the most cargo per Jump.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Also, if you ARE dealing in those lower grade starports, the volume of available cargo will be very low. You might have more capacity than the world generates for a Tramp freighter. This would further limit your ship to larger worlds; which will eventually get the attention of the big(ger) boys...

 

[PsiTraveller]

Good point, although my intent was to show how to carry the most cargo on the ship. The ability to pack a lot of cargo onto a smaller ship offers more income opportunity, and the challenges to make that income a reality.

I would add something into the cargo deck. There are 34.76 tons of space in the cargo hold. I would add in a Collapsible tank of 31 Ton capacity which would take up 0.31 Tons when not being used. This still leaves 34 tons of cargo space.

The issues raised can be addressed. A ship could be hauled along inside the Jump Net, or strapped onto the External Cargo Mount. A Modular Cutter and 50 Tons of Cargo could be put onto the External Mount. the Cutter would have 30 Tons of Cargo inside it. This would allow deliveries to be made. The Jump Net could do the same thing and bring more cargo. This might be the first delivery to a planet, a ship to allow them to start accessing their system and laying claim to it. I was looking at the issue of being paid by a planet to bring cargo TO the lower tech planet. I keep looking at things like small ships, Drones and space processing equipment to allow a lower tech planet the technology to gain access to the resources of the system. Cargo leaving the system might be the ore or processed metals that the system has produced.

I agree that the lower tech planets may not be producing as much or have a lot of goods on hand. It is something to be aware of for a Merchant crew.

Getting noticed by the bigger companies could be a good thing as well from a game standpoint. It could provide risk and adventure in the form of attacks from the larger company. This provides a source of adventure. On the other hand, if the players are do several bigger jobs and make a name for themselves they could be approached to provide a needed service for the larger company and expand their income base. Maybe they gain a Patron for speedy delivery of something important. It does not always have to be a disaster, it just has to provide an opportunity to game.

For a clandestine mission the Tricked out Far Trader could pack 200 tons of fuel in the Jump Net. I would opt for a collapsible module that has a collapsible tank in it. As the tank is reduced in volume the module is closed as well to consume lower tonnage. Once it gets below 100 tons it would be strapped to the External Cargo Mount. Doing things this way could pack 231 Tons of Fuel onto the ship (leaving 3 tons of cargo space). The Drop Tank collar could give the first 40 ton Jump "free". The rest of the trip could consume the fuel in ever increasing amounts.
The first Jump would be 40 tons of Fuel and a Jump 1. The internal tanks would be refilled from the collapsible tanks and the journey would continue. Once the Tonnage of the ship got below 300 the Jumps would be at Jump 2 and consume 60 tons of fuel.

 

[Epicenter]

which will eventually get the attention of the big(ger) boys...

There'll always be some business for tramp freighters, even in high-pop systems. There'll be those who have irregular shipments they want to have leave on a date of their choosing instead of that of a megahauler, shipments to nearby worlds that aren't the main destination(s), and so on. A single tricked out far trader running the tramp trade could operate pretty profitably from a high-pop world within like J-2 of several low-pop worlds and would probably end up turning away a lot of trade.

Depending on the kind of economic trade model you're using in YTU, the total tonnage per year becomes a huge amount, which would actually support dozens or hundreds of Far Traders.

Depending on the kind of hauling model is being used on the world, the attention might come from other Free Traders or from the tramp hauling services of the larger firms.

 

[Condottiere]

 

[PsiTraveller]

Looking at the Starport section of highguard it has fuel production for a class B Starport at 1000 tons per day.

1000 tons of fuel can move 10 000 tons of ship, so a class B Starport is handling traffic of 10 000 tons per day. You can divide that up by any ship size you want, and carve of a few percent for power plant needs, but roughly you are looking at 10 000 tons of ships per day leaving the system. To support this they will get in about the same. So if the average ship is 400 tons they are getting 25 ships a day entering and leaving the system. This gives an idea of how many people are coming and going past businesses in the Highport, or Lowport and dealing with brokers and Customs.

This can be increased to cover the people and ships not using refined fuel. Local system ships do not need refined fuel so you can add in as many of those as you want.

 

[PsiTraveller]

https://imgur.com/r/funny/i4Mh0Hd

External Cargo racking explained in one picture.