What if the Solomani subsidized their scout ships for export

[Tom Kalbfus]

Suppose the Solomani chipped in 30% of the cost of their 200 ton hulls, so they would fall below the cost of similar built ships in the Imperium. What if the idea was to get a lot of Solomani built ships into Imperial space so that when the Solomani government sent in their spy ships the Imperium wouldn't notice?

 

[Condottiere]

Sure, though I would guess that traffic and trade in the congested Solomani sphere is enough to make it profitable for regular routes and large freighters.

Over the borders of the Sphere and unexplored regions, it would behoove Naval intelligence to push out people, some of them plants, to do reconnaissance and do some intelligence gathering, in an economically viable hull.

Solsec probably would encourage it for internal trade, as it would be less suspicious than having the same guy hang around the starport bar.

 

[Easterner]

How about the Soli's take that '30%' budget loss and buy some cheap surplus Type S, Marava's and Beowulf's and infiltrate using those. Which would be less noticeable?

 

[F33D]

How about the Soli's take that '30%' budget loss and buy some cheap surplus Type S, Marava's and Beowulf's and infiltrate using those. Which would be less noticeable?

FTW

 

[GypsyComet]

There is probably a 10 to 20 parsec zone along the border with a lot of mixing, but the Solomani have no separate Scout Service, IIRC, and no tradition of handing old junk heaps to retirees. The ships much more likely to be hopping the border are merchants like the Sundowner and the bulk freighter out of Solomani space, and the Marava from Imperial space.

By the time you are crossing from Diaspora into Massilia, Solomani ships are going to be unusual enough to be remarked on.

 

[Easterner]

Never heard of FTW.

Urban Dictionary time.

LOL

Thanks!!!!!

 

[Condottiere]

Not so much subsidize in total, but rather the hull size and configuration, or build so many hulls for scouts that there's an economy of scale effect, and that civilian buyers would have a cheap ready made hull that they can fit out as they like.

The Solomani Navy would want their scouts to be inconspicuous, so they won't go for a sexy or threatening configuration, rather a more comfortable and reassuring one.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

There is probably a 10 to 20 parsec zone along the border with a lot of mixing, but the Solomani have no separate Scout Service, IIRC, and no tradition of handing old junk heaps to retirees. The ships much more likely to be hopping the border are merchants like the Sundowner and the bulk freighter out of Solomani space, and the Marava from Imperial space.

By the time you are crossing from Diaspora into Massilia, Solomani ships are going to be unusual enough to be remarked on.

Who said anything about Junk Heaps, the Solomani are subsidizing newly manufactured Scout Ships for sale to the General Public, so a 200-ton Scout ship instead of costing twice as much as a Imperial 100 ton scout ship costs 140% of the standard Scout ship, so by paying 140% of the cost of an Imperial Scout Ship, the customer is getting twice as much ship as the standard 100 ton scout ship, this would be about Cr38,556,700 If the scout ship had all the features of the Type S but twice as big. This is about Cr2,000,000 more than the price of a Free Trader, A bunch of PCs would be very tempted to by the Solomani type 200-Ton Scout ship if they want an upgrade from the 100 ton Type S. Of course this sort of ship will bring on all sorts of suspicion by the Imperial Authorities if they see the PCs flying around in it. This would be a great boon to Solomani Shipyards, and perhaps some of the shipyard owners are giving kickbacks to the Solomani Politicians for doing this. The Imperium probably doesn't like the Solomani dumping their starships into Imperial Space at subsidized rates. Part of the Subsidy could simply be that the Shipyard owners don't pay any taxes to the Solomani Government for starship sales to foreigners. This is a sort of Industrial Policy on the part of the Solomani Sphere to gain market share and to make their class of scout ship more common, so it can also be used for spying missions.

 

[GypsyComet]

The 200 ton Solomani Courier is depicted as more of a political courier than a military courier, so it will attract attention.

Who said anything about Junk Heaps?

The Imperial Type S is overbuilt in such quantities that the IISS hands them to people who are *leaving*. The Solomani don't have a Scout Service and don't hand out ships like candy. There is nothing in Solomani space that compares to the Imperial Type S for sheer numbers.

 

[Condottiere]

I'll assume that this may have been sparked off by my revisioning of the Solomani Navy, specifically in the small ship category.

The specific reason that I discarded the hundred tonner as the primary scouting hull by the Solomani is that I don't view it under current design rles as economically viable as a civilian trader, nor the capacity to fulfil the roles hat a purely naval service would expect it to accomplish.

This is to be explained that instead of the Solomani Navy trying to cram everything in, they've decided just to mass produce two hundred tonners, so that when they do retire the hulls, stripped off anything sensitive, it can easily be refirbished or converted to private and commercial use helped by the fact that even a more limited number of alphabet selection exists, that true economy of scale is encouraged and practised.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

I'll assume that this may have been sparked off by my revisioning of the Solomani Navy, specifically in the small ship category.

The specific reason that I discarded the hundred tonner as the primary scouting hull by the Solomani is that I don't view it under current design rles as economically viable as a civilian trader, nor the capacity to fulfil the roles hat a purely naval service would expect it to accomplish.

This is to be explained that instead of the Solomani Navy trying to cram everything in, they've decided just to mass produce two hundred tonners, so that when they do retire the hulls, stripped off anything sensitive, it can easily be refirbished or converted to private and commercial use helped by the fact that even a more limited number of alphabet selection exists, that true economy of scale is encouraged and practised.

My idea was to make them like "Space Toyotas".

 

[Condottiere]

1. So is mine, more or less.

2. Anything six hundred tonnes and above will be equipped with capital class engines, and they would be available for commercial interests (economies of scale).

3. For a variety of reasons, three and four hundred tonners will be used by the Solomani Navy.

4. Wait until you see how they resolved the issue of keeping an emergency hundred tonner starship as part of medium, possibly intermediate, sized starship inventory.

 

[Rick]

It might just be the case that the 'abundance' of subsidised hulls is, in fact, a way of keeping a reserve of ships available in case of war. If you have a series of civilian ships with a similar layout to a military design, it would be easier to refit it to military service than to build one from scratch.

 

[Condottiere]

That would be the dual use part of it.

If they do conversions it might be an idea to make it easy to increase engine size and fuel capacity.

 

[JBRocky]

There is probably a 10 to 20 parsec zone along the border with a lot of mixing, but the Solomani have no separate Scout Service, IIRC, and no tradition of handing old junk heaps to retirees. The ships much more likely to be hopping the border are merchants like the Sundowner and the bulk freighter out of Solomani space, and the Marava from Imperial space.

By the time you are crossing from Diaspora into Massilia, Solomani ships are going to be unusual enough to be remarked on.

Was going to say something like this.

 

[Condottiere]

I don't see how having a prioritized jump six super direct express service is going to cause an inordinate burden, either financially or infrastructurally, under current design rules for an interstellar empire.