Building a Really Cr@ppy Ship

[JFGarber]

... 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. ...

I recommend John Brunner's "Crucible of Time" for an interesting perspective on biological space travel.

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

Strike my previous objection.

Nope!

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.

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.

Well, gentlemen you have converted me to your Organic Planetoid Hull. Well done, bravo.

Rob, I have to take it back, I guess you can have it after all.

 

[jawillroy]

The "starship as organism" or "nautilus shell spacecraft" model works well for "alien sophont spacecraft" IMTU, but I don't see that it would really fit the "grease-stained-engineer" model I have going.

I totally could see it working well with some interpretation of the Zhodani. Maybe you don't need controls for such a vessel, so much as a reasonably powerful telepath to talk to the ship.

 

[jawillroy]

"Space. She looks like someone duct-taped some shipping crates to a J-drive." "

WELL. I can probably make this a LOT worse, but I'm not sure I need to. I miss anything important? Coughed up for a large cargo lock, since all loading's going to be in vacuum. Could squeeze in a couple more staterooms if I pulled tonnage from the consoles, but figured the beancounters of BujjitJump would prefer to have at least a minimally safe ship and skimp on creature comforts. Hence this travesty:

Bouquet d'Rouille, TL-9 200 ton cargo hauler F-BC11.

The Bouquet d'Rouille class freighter is designed specifically to handle cargo routes between worlds maintaining high-ports or regular shuttle service: all features dedicated to surface landings and frontier fueling have been dispensed with. The ship's four staterooms are crowded if a full crew of four is maintained, but typically a crew of 2 or 3 can run the ship, using the empty staterooms as common space. Passenger service is not recommended, though there are reports of crews filling the extra stateroom with hot bunks for under-the-table passenger service.

MCr, new: 26.4 (MCr 23.76 standard design)
MCr 4.752 down
LOW LOW Monthly payments of cr. 99,000!!!

F-BC11
200 tons, cluster config, plate.

A-drives, giving performance of J-1 and 1G acceleration.
Default sensors and Jump Field; no accommodation for surface landings.

1 hardpoint with a ton set aside for a control console, no console installed.

Standard life support for 10 installed.

6 ton bridge with two control consoles and two operating consoles for astrogation, piloting, scan and computer control; Model/1 computer off the bridge
freight and medical workstations (3 tons) adjacent to crew compartments
4.5 tons of consoles in engineering for drive operations
(total 13.5 tons consoles)
4 standard staterooms plus 3.5 tons common space, 1 common fresher (12.5 tons)
4 low berths
Standard airlock.
Large cargo lock
120 tons cargo space.

Console ergonomics = 0 after +2 for bridge
Comfort -1 if no passengers added, -2 if 4th stateroom occupied
Demand (if stateroom free for passenger) -5

My notion - as a Ref - would be that this ship would a) serve as background, b) could serve as a setting or centerpiece for a small adventure, and c) if I had new players learning the game mustering out with a ship, THIS would be the default - with the alternative, "If you want a better ship than this, learn the system well enough to design it yourself."

 

[warwizard]

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...

due to you can't have J2 at TL=9 unless of course you use the experimental version, you are at TL of introduction -2 here.

 

[jawillroy]

As I look at the "experimental" and "basic" jump drives, I'm more and more convinced the consequences of the model were either not well thought out, or Marc's decided to throw out a lot of history. Explicitly on page 338, it states that at TL8 an experimental Jump K can perform at J1; this flies in the face of basically the entire Traveller universe as I know it. I'm not sure I can get behind an experimental Jump drive at TL 6.

I'm sure someone else has noticed this already...

 

[pendragonman]

With a cluster config, why have cargo doors at all? Attachment points for standard cargo pods on the cluster frame. No access to cargo deep space except for EVA.

 

[Drakon]

The "starship as organism" or "nautilus shell spacecraft" model works well for "alien sophont spacecraft" IMTU, but I don't see that it would really fit the "grease-stained-engineer" model I have going.

That is not grease, if it is an organic spaceship that has engineers. You may not want to ask exactly what fluids it may be.

 

[jawillroy]

With a cluster config, why have cargo doors at all? Attachment points for standard cargo pods on the cluster frame. No access to cargo deep space except for EVA.

Good point, unless there's cargo that needs to not be in vacuum.

 

[pendragonman]

Good point, unless there's cargo that needs to not be in vacuum.

In which case the cargo pod would be sealed against vacuum.

 

[kilemall]

Well, gentlemen you have converted me to your Organic Planetoid Hull. Well done, bravo.

Rob, I have to take it back, I guess you can have it after all.

The galaxy is your oyster, or the oyster is your galaxy?

 

[kilemall]

With a cluster config, why have cargo doors at all? Attachment points for standard cargo pods on the cluster frame. No access to cargo deep space except for EVA.

That's what I have IMTU for distributed hulls, mostly strong girders with attach points if not servicing internal hallways and facilities.

Consider the transformer-like HULL A-E freighters of Star Citizen for an alternate take on space containerization-

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/...661-A-Hull-For-Every-Job-The-MISC-Hull-Series

 

[jawillroy]

I reckon that works - my only concern is a question of tonnage. It's a TL9 ship, so jump 2 is under no circumstances a possibility, but I'd as soon avoid having to exercise handwave against the "why can't it do Jump 2 when it isn't carrying cargo?" thing.

 

[pendragonman]

Tonnage is a volume constraint. There is some sort of "center of gravity" to the cluster hull---the point at which all other portions of volume are equidistant, whether there is a cargo pod there or not.

The jump "bubble" is centered there and can only move the volume it is designed for, whether there are cargo pods attached or not. Without TL increase of the engines, the TL 9 engines can only push out so much of an energetic bubble. It is the "friction" of jump space that ablates the energy of the jump bubble, the speed of which determines the distance traveled.

 

[jawillroy]

That works, I reckon. Whether I go with a hold & cargo lock, or a cargo pod frame, it serves.

Might try running this solitaire for a bit, see how things go while figuring out T5.

 

[pendragonman]

One last question: are fusion or fission power plants available and cheaper? Adds the worry of radiation leaks while lowering the fuel needs.

 

[JFGarber]

The galaxy is your oyster, or the oyster is your galaxy?

Not an oyster. It's a turtle. A huge turtle.

 

[pendragonman]

Not an oyster. It's a turtle. A huge turtle.

I was thinking worm...

 

[Reban]

Not an oyster. It's a turtle. A huge turtle.

Standing on the backs of many many, miniphants :rofl:

 

[jawillroy]

One last question: are fusion or fission power plants available and cheaper? Adds the worry of radiation leaks while lowering the fuel needs.

IIRC, fission plants aren't able to power Jump... so unless I wanted to go with a straight STL, that's not a place I can cut.