Custom Ship: 1000-dTon Scout Cruiser

[Black Vulmea]

Myself, I prefer the TL15 version for the jump-4.

The original TL D scout cruiser in EA5 is based on Gateway Domain circa 993 to 1000, a century before the "classic," "Golden Age" OTU. It seems reasonable that if IISS liked the design that they would upgrade it to TL E or F in the intervening years.

That said, IMTU the TL D Norton Qasar-class is an out-of-date design compared to the Donnies, in service past its prime, retained for deep-space exploration along the trailing frontier due to its long legs.

 

[RossWinn]

Why? What was their reasoning?

In CT and MT most of the IISS was built on TL12 and designed to be easily supported outside the Imperium. TL15 was much rarer in the Third Imperium.

 

[mike wightman]

In MT every design is TL15 because DGP broke the ship construction system. Source MT Imperial Encyclopedia.

In CT the scout is TL9, the tender is TL10 and the xboat is TL10. Source S:7 T&G

 

[Spinward Flow]

In MT every design is TL15 because DGP broke the ship construction system. Source MT Imperial Encyclopedia.

There's also the fact that Max TL "makes things EASIER to build" in SO MANY ways that it's basically a Cheat Code.
The ... pattern ... for that was largely established by LBB S9.
Of the 28 craft featured in LBB S9 ... only SIX craft are NOT TL=F.

1. Scout/Courier TL=9 (p11, LBB2 legacy design)
2. Express Boat TL=A (p12, LBB2 legacy design)
3. Gazelle-class Close Escort TL=E (p17, LBB5.79 legacy design, with a "cheat" of putting 4 turrets onto a 300 ton hull)
4. Mercenary Cruiser TL=C (p21, LBB2 legacy design)
5. Gig TL=D (p27, LBB5.80 design)
6. Azhanti High Lightning-class Frontier Cruiser TL=E (p31)

The other 22 craft featured in LBB S9 are ALL ... TL=F.
The 21.4% (6 of 28) craft that are NOT TL=F are all rather obviously the superminority and are all rather obviously "inferior" designs compared to the BESTEST @Everything™ TL=F craft which are the supermajority of craft featured in LBB S9.

All things considered, this is substantially "Fair" simply because the vast majority of craft featured in LBB S9 are naval vessels used by the Imperial Navy, so TL=F "makes sense" for all the destroyers and battle wagons.



By contrast, the craft featured in LBB S7 are mostly TL=9-A:

1. Express Boat TL=A
2. Express Boat Tender TL=A
3. Scout/Courier TL=9
4. Far Trader TL=9
5. Subsidized Merchant TL=9
6. Assistant TL=9
7. Seeker TL=9
8. Ship's Boat TL=9
9. Pinnace TL=9
10. Cutter TL=9

Relatively few craft in LBB S7 fall outside of the TL=9-A range:

1. Gazelle-class Close Escort TL=E (LBB5.79 legacy design)
2. Gig TL=E
3. System Defense Boat TL=C
4. Jump Shuttle TL=C
5. Launch TL=8

The point here is to use the minimum tech level necessary for construction of the craft with desired capabilities in LBB S7 (and that minimum is pretty darn minimal!). So if anything, the Precedent Is Set™ that for FRONTIER work, TL=9-A is a pretty solid assumption that ought to be getting made.

The only reason the Close Escort "needs" to have TL=E is so that is can mount the "newfangled" Particle Accelerator Barbettes onto its hull (which require TL=E and an obscenely high computer model to hit anything!) ... and ... to "permit" J5 under LBB5 custom drive paradigm rules ... along with the tonnage savings of Bonded Superdense Armor @ TL=E in order to be able to CRAM everything into a hull size "too small" for everything to fit into reasonably, while also showing off the "new" L-Hyd Drop Tanks feature (without adequately explaining how to make it work right). So to say that the Close Escort is "something of an outlier here" is quite the understatement.



The overarching theme though is that (entry level, penny ante) commercial merchant craft are expected to fall into the TL=9 "bucket" ... and the Scouts actually "splurged" on TL=A for the Express Network (to make it "fast enough" to operate).

Close Escorts are an obsolete Imperial Navy craft (because, TL=E).

The LBB S7 System Defense Boat (TL=C) is simply an "example" of what can be done with boats (J0 craft) that are maneuver only combatants at lower (than TL=F) tech levels produced domestically for local system defense purposes from in-system construction yards, but which can be exported to nearby worlds(!) to bolster system defense patrols beyond the home star system doing the construction (see: Shared Defense doctrine).

The Launch can "get away with" being a "nuclear teakettle" @ TL=8 simply because the craft is limited to 1G maneuver.

In MT every design is TL15 because DGP broke the ship construction system. Source MT Imperial Encyclopedia.

MT ... "broke" a lot of things ... including the Third Imperium setting.
Breaking the ship construction paradigm was just a "bonus" ...

 

[Badenov]

There's also the fact that Max TL "makes things EASIER to build" in SO MANY ways that it's basically a Cheat Code.

One more benefit to TL F, your power plant is half the size of older models. It's not a thing with LBB2 ships, but with LBB5 ships, it's a thing. Not a big thing at small hull sizes, but for capital warships, it can be thousands of tons.

 

[Badenov]

In MT every design is TL15 because DGP broke the ship construction system. Source MT Imperial Encyclopedia.

In CT the scout is TL9, the tender is TL10 and the xboat is TL10. Source S:7 T&G

So, the CT construction system wildly favors TL15 construction also for large capital warships.

A 25000-ton warship at TL15: ~23500MCr.
The same ship, modified for TL14 and tonnage increased to account for larger power plant and the next best Meson Spinal: 35000 tons and 42300MCr. TL15 is a huge cost savings

 

[Grav_Moped]

One more benefit to TL F, your power plant is half the size of older models. It's not a thing with LBB2 ships, but with LBB5 ships, it's a thing. Not a big thing at small hull sizes, but for capital warships, it can be thousands of tons.

It can be a big thing in little ships too, under certian circumstances. My S3 (Type S Scout/Courier at TL-13) fits J3/2G into the drive bay of a LBB2 Standard Hull. At TL-11 (minimum for J-2) or -12 the power plant won't fit in there. At TL-15, the ship can be J3/3G because the 3Td saved in power plant gets replaced by 3Td more maneuver drive.

All links are to posts in my 2021 thread, Type S3 Far Scout/Courier.

 

[Black Vulmea]

In CT and MT most of the IISS was built on TL12 and designed to be easily supported outside the Imperium. TL15 was much rarer in the Third Imperium.

[taps sign]



The bulk of the IISS fleet, like the bulk of its personnel, is Communications: x-boats, tenders, couriers, TL 9-A.

The next largest component is Survey. Which uses, canonically, a TL F workhorse, the Donnies.

The only Exploration ship we're shown by GDW is the TL E AHL. QLI gave us the c. 993 TL D Qasars; given the period, this was closer to the Imperial max TL than the average.

IISS also picks up odd ships here and there; frex, Survey in the Marches has a pair of TL D Leviathans (A4. p. 23). IMTU this is pretty common; IISS's budget gets used as a sort of works program for local systems, so they get all sorts of oddball ships, which give the Operations staff fits: "Wait, why do I need condenser coils for a Lord Somerset on Howarth?!"

Kurgulash med scouts operate out of the Technical office; it's the only IISS ship I can find that's actually TL C, btw.

So Scout ships are all over the map in terms of technology. However, the most complete sources on IISS gear in CT are Grand Survey and Grand Census, and most of it's TL F. That tech level is well established by the 1106 "Golden Age," so much so that IN is phasing out older TL F designs for newer ones.

As discussed upthread, maintaining a ship in good working order and permanently repairing or replacing battle damage to a ship are not the same thing in CT. A class B starport a score of parsecs beyond the Imperial frontier can keep a TL F ship flying as well as a TL C or TL 9; I kinda think they're designed that way, in fact, as if naval architects understand that Charted Space isn't homogenous in its technology . . .