Consoles, Stage Effects, and Ergonomics

[Major B]

I'm scratching my head over the Stage Effects chart and treatment of consoles from page 521.

say I'm building a TL-12 design and follow the console rules from pages 325 and 345, choosing to install a number of spacious control and operating consoles.

Table B on page 345 says a spacious console takes 2 tons and the table at the bottom of the page stipulates an additional .5 tons for control or operating consoles. Therefore, each console takes 2.5 tons of volume.

Evaluating this design using the formula on page 348 gives you an ergonomic rating of 0.

( (5 squares per console) / (# of consoles) ) - 5 = 0

Now look on pages 520-521 (specifically the top of 521). I can make my consoles Ultimate Console-8 which makes them much more effective and also reduces the bulk of each by 4 deck scares (?). Now, each of my Roomy consoles only takes up 0.5 tons each which is great except that my ergonomic rating just changed to a -4!

At a -4 Ergonomic rating, only a flux roll of +4 or +5 avoids a mishap that causes every console to check quality. Note this does not factor in the bridge modifier either, which is eaither a -2 or +2 depending on whether you choose to implement page 348 (Bridge avoids a -2) or page 327 (bridge grants a +2).

Is this errata or is there something that I've failed to understand?

 

[robject]

Well, I think the console itself always takes up 1 square of each control space. It's part of the total, not additional. I see what you mean about p.345 -- it looks like the bottom table is additional, but I think it's simply informational. A "Spacious Console" is not 2 tons; it's 0.5 tons plus 1.5 tons of elbow room around it.

Secondly, I don't think stage effects affects the volume of controls. Peeking at p.521, I see how tech level makes consoles easier or harder to use (Mod), but not smaller.

 

[Major B]

Well, I think the console itself always takes up 1 square of each control space. It's part of the total, not additional. I see what you mean about p.345 -- it looks like the bottom table is additional, but I think it's simply informational. A "Spacious Console" is not 2 tons; it's 0.5 tons plus 1.5 tons of elbow room around it.

Okay. I thought it was added. But then it is still not well synchronized with the ergonomics formula because I could install all spacious consoles, thinking that I would get a good ergonomics result, but still end up with only a -1 value for E (or possibly +1 depending on which bridge modifier is right).

Secondly, I don't think stage effects affects the volume of controls. Peeking at p.521, I see how tech level makes consoles easier or harder to use (Mod), but not smaller.

The note under the table at the top of page 521 is the confusing part.

B= Bulk (in Deck Squares). Minimum Deck Squares = 1.

This is stating that early stage effect consoles take up more space while later stage effect consoles are less bulky. An experimental console will require 1.5 tons more than a standard console and an Ultimate console requires 2.0 tons less (minimum 0.5).

 

[Major B]

Reading last night I also noticed the discrepancy between the text in the middle of page 521 and the table of example consoles that can be built at TL-10.

Early Control Console-9 still computes its C=5 and S=4 based on TL-9, but is built at TL-8. It is subject to Mod -1, costs

twice as much, has EOU -1, Bulk +1 (requires +1 deck squares), and has Safety -1; compared to Console-8, its advantage is​

C=5 S=1 versus C=4 S=0.

emphasis added

Here in the text, C+S is computed on the TL of the console rather than the building TL while the table farther down the page shows that C+S equals the building TL.

This excerpt also explicitely states that a +1 to bulk in QREBS translates into one additional deck square or half a ton of volume.

Maybe the procedure should be something like this for my TL-12 design:

The control console for my pilot is standard at TL9 (according to page 520). I decide to place it on the bridge to get the ergonomic bonus of +2. In allocating the space for a good ergonomic rating I know I need 2.5 tons to get a result of 0 (before adding the bridge modifier). I decide to add a half ton (3 tons total) to get an even better E-rating of 3 (meaning only a small chance of mishap).

THEN, I factor in stage effects. At TL12 I can build an Advanced Constrol Console-9 which provides a +3 mod to the consoles C+S rating of 9 and reduces the console's volume by 1.5 tons (-3 Bulk).

So an Adv Control Console-9 provides C+S=9, Mod +3, takes 1.5 tons of volume, and costs MCr 0.2. And we still retain a good ergonomic rating.

This sequence requires a few choices about interpretation of some conflicting rules sections but I think it works. Anyone agree or disagree with my interpretation?