Visual reason why you don't speed when docking

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phavoc

Emperor Mongoose
A cruise ship ran aground and crushed part of a dock in Honduras (link below). There are a number of videos out there showing massive ships out of control running aground or slamming into things. Most PC ships are small, so a 200 ton ship kissing a 50,000 Dton station might not be as big of a deal. But any station is going to feel a ship bumping into them, let alone the risk of a hull breach at the site of impact.

This also begs the question of all those illustrations of starports right next to major cities. It's very uncommon for aircraft to auger into a major populated area, but there have been aircraft crashes along the landing paths - which in many places are set aside for businesses, warehouses or open areas.

So what do refs and players think about the odds of a starship losing control of having equipment failure and crashing when approaching a starport? Does anyone use that as a plot device for adventures, or the designs of their starports?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/giant-cruise-ship-smashes-dock-195639037.html
 
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Some people can't drive.
 
phavoc said:
So what do refs and players think about the odds of a starship losing control of having equipment failure and crashing when approaching a starport? Does anyone use that as a plot device for adventures, or the designs of their starports?
Click to expand...
Ships can crash all over the place in my games. No place is immune.
 
phavoc said:
So what do refs and players think about the odds of a starship losing control of having equipment failure and crashing when approaching a starport? Does anyone use that as a plot device for adventures, or the designs of their starports?
Click to expand...

I use a rule that the higher the rating of a spaceport, the more control there is to landing there. IMTU I've declared that any star system with a C starport or better likely even has a "speed limit" in the system and likely rules on how close you can Jump in near the mainworld.

Starport C and above: Likely a functional SDB on-alert and possibly ground-side defenses. These sit around waiting for those "disgruntled small starship captains" who decide that committing suicide by slamming into a world a 0.5c (or some other very fast speed) is a great way to die. There is a speed limit in the system computed as the difference in velocity between the target world - usually the mainworld - and the starship. A ship that is hurtling towards the mainworld (or on a course that would easily allow it change course and hit the mainworld) at high speeds may be given warnings to slow down if it's still hours out. If there isn't time like that, it'll just be shot down. Obviously, there's mitigating factors like the ship being in communication with the system traffic control and so on. There is likely a traffic control system that assign arriving starships to some course and speed.

Starport B and above: As C, but likely the starport defenses are likely better and faster to react. There will definitely be a traffic control system that assigns arriving starships to some course and speed. If the starport has an orbital terminal, it's likely that most ships will be serviced there instead.

Starport A: As B, but again better. It's likely that armed ships may not even be allowed to land on the groundport until cleared at the highport first (a brief safety inspection or at least to ensure yearly maintenance was actually performed at a reputable place, and so on). There's likely a lot of laws that would be considered very intrusive by "freedom at all costs" types; these rules are more lax in the highport. For instance, a Class-A starport may require a licensed "pilot" (assigned by the starport staff) to fly your ship down to the ground, or they might have some other system to improve safety.

Starport D and worse: Anything goes.

These rules likely are going to get more restrictive on high population worlds (shifting up, so a Starport B on a High Population world probably would have systems and rules in place more like an A starport). They may possibly be less restrictive on low population worlds.
 
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