Utilizing Element Cruiser Pods (or, what to do with 715-765 Tons and 2 hardpoints)

Build a space station closer to the star and have a much larger collector - as accumulator pods are charged they can then be transported to the highport...
If the rules are intended to make sense -- and there is no guarantee that is true -- then build a recharging station with a ridiculously large 1} accumulator / collector array, and 2} a much expanded Jump Capacitor in Breakaway Hull pods. Transport (via dedicated small-craft) only the Jump Capacitor pods -- empties go to the station, charged units go to ships.

A 30 dTon modular cutter module can be:
0.6 dTons of 'Breakaway' hardware (1.2 MCr);
1.5 dTons of 'Cockpit' (0.01 MCr);
0.3 dTons of TL 15 Fusion Powerplant (0.6 MCr);
0.6 dTons of Fuel (40 weeks operation; 0 cost); and
27 dTons of Jump Capacitor (51 MCr).

This is enough capacitor to provide J-1 to a ship up to 5400 dTons, or J-6 to a ship up to 900 dTons. Or, you know, skip exchanging pods full of capacitors -- just hook some cabling up and allow the charge to run from the pod to a ship's J-drive until the drive in the ship is fully recharged.
 
There will always be charged pods at the highport for departing ships.

The collector station provides a constant stream of pods to the highport...
 
The Mongoose rules on Collectors don't say much of anything. The original version of Collectors in Annic Nova did specify that gathering a charge takes 1d6 weeks, depending on distance from the star. Though without any sort of clarification about how to adjudicate that.
 
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If the rules are intended to make sense -- and there is no guarantee that is true -- then build a recharging station with a ridiculously large 1} accumulator / collector array, and 2} a much expanded Jump Capacitor in Breakaway Hull pods. Transport (via dedicated small-craft) only the Jump Capacitor pods -- empties go to the station, charged units go to ships.

A 30 dTon modular cutter module can be:
0.6 dTons of 'Breakaway' hardware (1.2 MCr);
1.5 dTons of 'Cockpit' (0.01 MCr);
0.3 dTons of TL 15 Fusion Powerplant (0.6 MCr);
0.6 dTons of Fuel (40 weeks operation; 0 cost); and
27 dTons of Jump Capacitor (51 MCr).

This is enough capacitor to provide J-1 to a ship up to 5400 dTons, or J-6 to a ship up to 900 dTons. Or, you know, skip exchanging pods full of capacitors -- just hook some cabling up and allow the charge to run from the pod to a ship's J-drive until the drive in the ship is fully recharged.
What about the "exotic particles"?
 
An exotic particle is just another name for a vibration in the jump quantum field, the accumulator stores the energy of these vibrations/particles until there are sufficient to undergo the tachyonic condensation symmetry collapse that triggers the jump.

If you want to be able to hot swap accumulators in YTU you can, if you don't then you can't :)
 
An exotic particle is just another name for a vibration in the jump quantum field, the accumulator stores the energy of these vibrations/particles until there are sufficient to undergo the tachyonic condensation symmetry collapse that triggers the jump.

If you want to be able to hot swap accumulators in YTU you can, if you don't then you can't :)
You are the guy that wrote it originally. Yes? If so, and it is just energy, then it is just a matter of capacitors. Yes or no?
 
You are the guy that wrote it originally. Yes? If so, and it is just energy, then it is just a matter of capacitors. Yes or no?
Yes.
The accumulators are not electrical capacitors.
Capacitors store electrical energy, accumulators store jump energy - different energy stores. Can you convert electrical/EM energy to jump energy? Yes, that is what the standard jump drive does. The standard jump drive capacitor stores electrical energy to use as the starter motor for the jump process. The jump energy is stored temporarily in the zuchai crystals and drive coils until the jump is initiated.

Can you convert jump energy in an accumulator into electrical/EM energy, not until higher TLs by which time jump projectors become a weapon type.
<edit> Alternatively it could be possible to convert some of the stored potential jump energy into electricity via the jump machinery... </edit>
 
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The Annic Nova didn't have a power plant. It ran off the accumulators. But all the subsequent versions of collectors very explicitly cannot provide normal power for the rest of the ship. Only capable of fueling the jump drive.
 
The Annic Nova collector also takes 1d6 weeks and has to be near a star, just stick solar panels on the collector sale and store the electrical energy in batteries.
Alternatively it could be possible to convert some of the stored potential jump energy into electricity via the jump machinery...
 
Obviously, you can provide power to the ship by some other means. And, of course, you can houserule that the accumulators can charge the capacitors and then the capacitors can charge batteries. Or that higher tech capacitors don't have the power loss issues of lower tech capacitors and skip the whole battery part. Though in that case, the question is why they can't charge the capacitors from an external fuel source and then travel to the jump point without having internal fuel tankage wasting space...
 
An exotic particle is just another name for a vibration in the jump quantum field, the accumulator stores the energy of these vibrations/particles until there are sufficient to undergo the tachyonic condensation symmetry collapse that triggers the jump.

If you want to be able to hot swap accumulators in YTU you can, if you don't then you can't :)
I totally do want to hot swap them. I wonder if a military unit could have two of them, one to jump in and the other to jump back out in a hurry if need be.
 
It is quite astounding what you can do with Traveller if you ignore the setting constraints and postulate stuff like this. It makes for a different setting but it could be fun.
 
Traveller is great for all kinds of sci fi. I've run a lot of campaigns totally not in Charted Space. I do like the no FTL communicators, but that's about the only thing that's consistent between them all.
 
It is quite astounding what you can do with Traveller if you ignore the setting constraints and postulate stuff like this. It makes for a different setting but it could be fun.
I love the whole collector swapping idea, just not for Charted Space. It breaks too much of what makes Charted Space, Charted Space. In another setting though, I would totally use it.
 
Traveller is great for all kinds of sci fi. I've run a lot of campaigns totally not in Charted Space. I do like the no FTL communicators, but that's about the only thing that's consistent between them all.
Yeah. I have not run any games with FTL communications either, not even in My homebrews.
 
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