What is an "average commercial shipyard"?

[Fluffy Bunny Feet]

Improvements in manufacturing technologies. More and better automation.

Consider the development of microchips over the last 60 years. There are some of the more successful 8 bit chips still having variants built. They are most certainly built faster now than when they were first built due to the manufacturing being vastly more efficient, yields are far higher and they make more in a batch at higher yields. Even modern chips have much higher yields than those simpler chips had when they were designed and again they can make larger batches.

Apply the same to say a Model T Ford. If we had reason to make them now in volume don't you think that with a modern production line we wouldn't build them faster (and better quality) than they were made by Ford back in their time?

Given those things being true then ship construction over the TLs should become more efficient as well.

 

[MasterGwydion]

Improvements in manufacturing technologies. More and better automation.

Consider the development of microchips over the last 60 years. There are some of the more successful 8 bit chips still having variants built. They are most certainly built faster now than when they were first built due to the manufacturing being vastly more efficient, yields are far higher and they make more in a batch at higher yields. Even modern chips have much higher yields than those simpler chips had when they were designed and again they can make larger batches.

Apply the same to say a Model T Ford. If we had reason to make them now in volume don't you think that with a modern production line we wouldn't build them faster (and better quality) than they were made by Ford back in their time?

Given those things being true then ship construction over the TLs should become more efficient as well.

That was kind of my point.

 

[Limpin Legin]

In statistics, "average" could refer to the mode, mean or median from a set or a table of numbers.

mode is the number that occurs the most frequent in the data set. So where your quote starts by saying "On average, ...", I would interpret that as meaning "On the most frequent occurrences (modal average), ..."

mean is the the number found by totalling all the numbers in the set or table, and dividing the result by two. So where your quote starts by saying "assume that it takes one day per million credits", I would interpret that as being a mean type of average.

median is the number that separates the higher half from the lower half. So, where you have a set of six starport ranks, the median average is the third one in the list. Ie, "Class C" is the third rank in the table of six starports.

 

[tytalan]

CRB pg 257
Class A build all ship types
Class B build Starships
Class C build small craft only
They are not clear about class B Starports for some reason

 

[Condottiere]

Now, I would look at the description as minimum facilities, not Michelin Stars.

 

[Galadrion]

CRB pg 257
Class A build all ship types
Class B build Starships
Class C build small craft only
They are not clear about class B Starports for some reason

Class B starports can build spaceships, but not starships (officially). Starships - those ships which can jump (or exceed lightspeed by other, exotic, methods) - can only be built at Class A starports (except they can also be built by appropriately equipped ships/stations with the right shipyard components).

 

[Condottiere]

That's the starport.

Then you have spaceports, and, presumably, marinas.

 

[rinku]

To clarify, turning the page to p258:

Facilities: These are the starport’s repair and construction ability. A shipyard allows for the construction of new vessels. A shipyard capable of building all types of ships can construct small craft (less than 100 tons), spacecraft (100 to 5,000 tons) and capital ships (more than 5,000 tons). However only a Class A starport can construct jump-capable spacecraft.

So ignore that 200 ton shipyard on the class C ports. That's just building small craft and the rule about building components in parallel to reduce time is much less likely to apply, although I guess you might have one port just churning out cutter modules and another one churning out the base cutter. In practice, the overall time to produce two cutters with a module would likely be similar to two ports just making both parts.

 

[tytalan]

Class B starports can build spaceships, but not starships (officially). Starships - those ships which can jump (or exceed lightspeed by other, exotic, methods) - can only be built at Class A starports (except they can also be built by appropriately equipped ships/stations with the right shipyard components).

Good catch I was half asleep

 

[Maxijohndoe]

Much like the real world there would be many Starports and Orbital facilities capable of building small space and starships - say up to 400 tons - but has the size gets larger the number of shipyards able to construct them gets smaller.

A Class A Starport on a major trade route surrounded by multiple Industrial systems may have hundreds of construction yards churning out big ships on a production line style basis.

A frontier Class A Starport away from major industrial systems may only have a handful of construction yards and only makes ships to order.

But as always it is what the Referee decides.

 

[rinku]

Population is usually a good rule of thumb for things like local production capability.

 

[Endie]

But as always it is what the Referee decides.

Absolutely. The Class rating for star ports is a handy rule of thumb that would probably be true less often than it was false.

The idea that a starport with sizeable shipyards can’t build starships because it doesn’t have enough commercial space for shopping in isn’t really supportable.

Luckily for Terra in the Interstellar Wars they weren’t prevented from building jump-capable ships due to lacking a starport with a big-enough hotel on it.

 

[Maxijohndoe]

Military is different from civilian. In time of war all available resources will be diverted to production. For example the USA was producing more ships and aircraft a day than they produced in a year if you compare 1945 to 1920.

Civilian ship construction is more constrained by the need to make a profit or at least break even. There is a huge market for small ships but big ships are probably limited to a handful of shipyards run by the megacorporations.

That would be the 3I at least. Other polities may have Government controlled civilian ship building.

 

[Condottiere]

It's possible that building a jump drive needs certification, within the Imperium.

 

[Condottiere]

It's possible you can build a spacecraft in your own backyard, if you can get hold of the right parts.