Building a Really Cr@ppy Ship

[jawillroy]

I'm experimenting with stage effects etcetera to build a truly awfulfreighter. A fright of a freighter. The cheapest means possible of moving cargo from high-port to high-port, with the least attention possible to creature comforts. A cramped bridge, minimal crew housing, blind as a bat and undergunned and understaffed.

The governing tech is 9. I'm going with a cluster config 200 ton hull, which already is doing nicely at keeping costs down.

I see that at the same tech, you have both alternate (x1 cost, 100% efficiency) and basic (90% efficiency, 1.1 fuel, half cost.)

How does one interpret 90% efficiency in terms of jump? Not capable of making a parsec, microjumps only?

It's obvious that I could go with Alternate P and J and skimp on the M drive, but what happens if you go with the 100% jump and a 90% power plant? The bean-counters want to know!

You think this is bad, wait until I get to the crew quarters.

Ideally, we're looking for a jump ship that

A) carries more than a free trader
b) at ship's boat budgets
c) with all the comforts of a rescue ball.

 

[atpollard]

I see that at the same tech, you have both alternate (x1 cost, 100% efficiency) and basic (90% efficiency, 1.1 fuel, half cost.)

How does one interpret 90% efficiency in terms of jump? Not capable of making a parsec, microjumps only?

What about 10% larger?

 

[jawillroy]

What about 10% larger?

I could get behind an 11 ton Jump Drive A for 5 Mcr. Or maybe fuel consumption goes up? Hooray for pennywise pound foolish! "Ship's called Darlene, after a girl I used to date. Little thing swore up and down she was cheap date but she drank like nobody I've ever seen since."

 

[atpollard]

basic (90% efficiency, 1.1 fuel, half cost.)

Suggests that BOTH size and fuel consumption increase.

90% efficient could also be applied to the maximum ship size ... an 'alternate' JD-A provides J1 in a 200 dTon ship, but a 'basic' JD-A provides J1 in a 180 dTon ship (200 x 0.9).

 

[jawillroy]

Suggests that BOTH size and fuel consumption increase.

90% efficient could also be applied to the maximum ship size ... an 'alternate' JD-A provides J1 in a 200 dTon ship, but a 'basic' JD-A provides J1 in a 180 dTon ship (200 x 0.9).

Although when you start monkeying around with that, it begs the question: why can't a "basic" JD-A provide J2 in a 90 dTon ship...

 

[robject]

Note that it is (currently) possible to get a free hull by using a 100t Organic Planetoid hull without Lifters.

 

[robject]

The governing tech is 9. I'm going with a cluster config 200 ton hull, which already is doing nicely at keeping costs down.

[...]

How does one interpret 90% efficiency in terms of jump? Not capable of making a parsec, microjumps only?

If that. The safest explanation is "jump is not possible".

Consider an Early Jump Drive-9 (produced at TL 8). It can't do jump. Period.

 

[whulorigan]

Note that it is (currently) possible to get a free hull by using a 100t Organic Planetoid hull without Lifters.

A Planetoid Hull is defined as a hollowed out Nickel-Iron Asteroid. How does one get an "Organic Planetoid"?

 

[jawillroy]

A Planetoid Hull is defined as a hollowed out Nickel-Iron Asteroid. How does one get an "Organic Planetoid"?

Yeaaaah. That doesn't look legit...

 

[atpollard]

Although when you start monkeying around with that, it begs the question: why can't a "basic" JD-A provide J2 in a 90 dTon ship...

For the same reason a normal JD-A will not provide J4 in a 50 dTon hull ... because Marc says so.

 

[aramis]

What about 10% larger?

try 11.111% larger, as that's 10.111111=1.0/0.9

 

[jawillroy]

try 11.111% larger, as that's 10.111111=1.0/0.9

Heck, I'd probably just go ahead and round up to the nearest ton: so, 12.

Nav. Architect: "Well, that's going to cut into your cargo space, so over time, you'll see the standard drive is the best..."

CFO Bighwig: "Vent that. We'll take two tons out of the crew compartment. We're not building a yacht, here."

 

[JFGarber]

...
How does one interpret 90% efficiency in terms of jump? Not capable of making a parsec, microjumps only? ...

I am also working to understand tech level effects and ship design. I interpret the efficiency as a direct multiplier on the drive's potential. So a J-3 drive at 90% efficiency results in J-2.7. However, the note at Table X on page 294 states

"Efficiencies round down (thus Early Jump-1 at
90% becomes Jump-0)."

So that instead of J-2.7 you end up with J-2.

That said, I don't apply the "round down" to M-drive, because I can easily apply decimal g's to the distance and speed equations. I have to stay with integer jump drives because of the map setup, but not so for boosting to orbit.

Hope this helps.

 

[jawillroy]

"Efficiencies round down (thus Early Jump-1 at
90% becomes Jump-0)."

...

Hope this helps.

It does help.

I suppose the question remaining is, does "Jump - 0" mean "no jump" or does it mean "micro-jump?"

I have IMTU at least one binary system where such a drive would be useful, even ideal. Not the sort of thing a PC would want to own, but the sort of ship a Traveller might get stuck crewing...

 

[robject]

It means none at all.

But: I don't know if there's a reference for that. It's just an implication from the fact that there are NO Jump drives at TL 8, but you can certainly design an "Early" Jump Drive-1 at TL 8. It just doesn't work, not even for a micro-jump.

 

[atpollard]

Perhaps Jump-0 is literally that.
You enter jump-space for 1 week and re-emerge where you left.
An interesting technical curiosity, but of little practical value.

 

[JFGarber]

Might be interesting for those SF / Cthulhu mashup campaigns.

 

[jawillroy]

Might be interesting for those SF / Cthulhu mashup campaigns.

Well, I'm totally designing this ship to trigger sanity checks, so that makes total sense. "He was a fine pilot before he took the job with Bujjit-Jump, but now? Something's not quite right in his head anymore. Says his stateroom's the size of a low berth."

 

[Reban]

A Planetoid Hull is defined as a hollowed out Nickel-Iron Asteroid. How does one get an "Organic Planetoid"?

Nope!

Planetoid Hull:
A small planetoid with a laser-tunnelled interior for drives, crew, and payload.

Organic hulls are made from captured or farmed organisms.

So an organic planetoid could be a Space-Nautilus, Space-Oyster or Space-Tortoise with space for crew, drives and payload hollowed out under the creatures shell.

ACS actually gives only two choices for the hull structure or armor of a planetoid hull; FeN and Organic. If space creatures are two un-Traveller for you you could reason that an organic planetoid is a carbonaceous asteroid with some sort of living element capabale of surface self-repair.

 

[pendragonman]

Could also be the sloughed off skin of some space beast as it goes thru growth cycles.

Probably one specifically farmed to slough off approximate ships hulls at regular intervals.