Dumb Bk 2 Design Question

[FlightCommanderSolitude]

I was noodling around with the Bk 2 starship design system the other day and ended up kind of flummoxed by the concept of the "custom hull".

It appears that the custom hull allows you to construct a hull with any ratio of main compartment tonnage to engineering compartment tonnage that you desire; you just need to pay a little extra.

As far as I can tell, nowhere in the text is this stated explicitly. The only clue is the Type T Patrol Cruiser, the description of which reads, "Based on a custom 400-ton hull..."

Now, the Type T is a J-3 vessel. A 400 ton hull has a 50 ton engineering compartment; the jump drive and powerplant alone take up 54 tons, so either the Type T is broken out of the box (not impossible) or the custom hull is used to allow the Type T to employ larger drives than a standard hull.

So I guess my dumb question is, is that what a custom hull is for?

 

[daryen]

Just to expand thrash's comments.

The advantages of using a standard hull:
- Fixed build time.
- Significant cost reduction.
The disadvantage of using a standard hull:
- Fixed engineering section size.

That fixed engineering section means that your jump drive, maneuver drive and power plant must all fit in it. It also means that if you do NOT fill it up, you don't get that space back. (The Type-R is like that. It has 15 tons free in the engineering section that it can't use for cargo or staterooms.)

The advantage of a custom hull is that there is no fixed engineering section. Therefore you can any size drives, and whatever you don't use is available for other use.

 

[FlightCommanderSolitude]

Thanks for both of these responses. Was any of this actually stated in the rules? I can't find it - so I'm assuming you've either deduced it as I did above, or are referring to some errata/clarifications somewhere.

 

[FlightCommanderSolitude]

Right, I was aware of that rule, but it unfortunately covers only half of the issue: the size of the hull. It doesn't mention the hull sections at all.

 

[dean]

I think what he is stating is that no where does the standard hull size explicitly state that you are limited to preset volumes for the engineering spaces, etc.

You kind of have to read into it..

The "Standard Hulls" table has a "Drives" column that really isn't labeled properly- it should say Engineering Section Size or some crap like that.

Then, buried in the rules in "The Engineering Section" (on page 13 of my really old CT book 2) it says "The prices and masses of drives and power plants are described on the drives and power plants table; their total tonnage may not exceed the tonnage of the engineering section of the vessel."

From these tidbids you can reason that the "Drives" column is the maximim size of the engineering section for the listed hull tonnages. I personally think it's silly for a 200 ton hull to be limited to the same maximum engineering section size as a 100 ton vessel. But of course a person is free to change any "rule" he sees fit (a la Book 1 page 7) .