Equipment and starships

[JcFalkenburg]

One of the complaints I've heard is about the lack of equipment and no standardized starships. Why don't we go about converting the equipment from the original core set to T5. It would give me a chance to get used to the makers and minimize the work for individual referees. We could divide the labor beforehand, or everyone could just pick their favorite peice of equipment or starship ( or small craft) and give it the T5 spin.

 

[Murdoc]

OMG, I am so sick of that complaint... there is equipment!! 20 pages of it!! There's freakin' Sunglasses in it! There's "Cool Sunglasses" in it! There's flavoured water, energy drinks, bottled juice, all the camping equipment and sensors, religious shrines, toolkits, drugs, teleport platforms, and clothes and on and on! Can we please kill this diabolical meme! :file_28:

 

[robject]

Page 608 to 630 - Equipment

LOL! Murdoc, we know there's equipment -- and some of it comes from CT and MT, I think. I like the "Cool" Sunglasses item, myself.

I also especially like this note on page 608:

Any pieces of equipment may also be installed in powered armor, vehicles, or robots, subject to various rules constraints not discussed here.

Well, the last part of that sentence perhaps refers back to the armor, vehicle, or robot chapters, assuming those rules have constraints listed (I think armor might). Barring that, however, this is a nice way (for example) to install short-range sensors on powered armor, or vehicles, or robots.

Omitted

However, I do note that there are a few lists missing: Smallcraft, Vehicles, Vehicle Weapons, Weapons, Explosives, and Robotics -- all of which were in the draft chapter. They'll have to show up later.

Needed

But. But, what we don't have, and what we need, are walkthrough examples of ship design. A couple of documents which show the Book 2 guy how we walk through T5 to build an Animal-class Safari Ship, or a Patrol Corvette. Or the Broadsword. Or the ANNIC NOVA, for that matter.

I think such a walkthrough would help, because the rules are terse in places, to put it mildly.

 

[Murdoc]

LOL! Murdoc, we know there's equipment -- and some of it comes from CT and MT, I think. I like the "Cool" Sunglasses item, myself.

But I keep seeing it crop up, like in the OP. So obviously not everyone knows it, and it's a touchy enough subject that anyone who thinks it complains and thus spreads the outrage to others. Someone has to put out these fires.

Yes, I agree that we could use more lists of all the other stuff, perhaps in a big catalogue. And walk-throughs would be nice, perhaps as a free PDF somewhere.

 

[BytePro]

But I keep seeing it crop up, like in the OP.

Truth is often less interesting than fiction - the interwebs are a wealth of persistent and ubiquitous misinformation repeated endlessly for dramatic draw...

I've only ever seen the book on an unpacking video and haven't even read the TOC, but I knew better than to put any grain of faith in such ludicrous statements. 23 pages of 'non existent' equipment doesn't surprise me in the least. :rofl:

Heck, given page size, that would come close to filling a CT LBB.

Books selling without comprehensive examples is, unfortunately, very much the market norm - they sell, so the motivation to go to the extra effort is generally low. And good examples take a lot of effort...

 

[JcFalkenburg]

Get off your high-horses and consider the implications of what I originally posted. If its ever been in any edition of Traveller , Marc has given us the tools to make it . Lets do that.

 

[Murdoc]

Well that's not entirely true. I tried making three well-known Traveller robots using the Robot rules, and couldn't do any of them. But I'm sure the other Makers will work out better, so I have no problem with your suggestion. Except perhaps that official stats for a lot of the important stuff will most likely come out later in future supplements, but as an interim solution it's a good idea.

And high horses? I don't know where you're getting that from.

BytePro: Well said.

 

[aramis]

One of the complaints I've heard is about the lack of equipment and no standardized starships. Why don't we go about converting the equipment from the original core set to T5. It would give me a chance to get used to the makers and minimize the work for individual referees. We could divide the labor beforehand, or everyone could just pick their favorite peice of equipment or starship ( or small craft) and give it the T5 spin.

The "classic" ship list is present, with some basic data, but not enough to fill out the fillform. There's enough to allow you to build them, but it doesn't list the accomodation types, so different builders will get different ships.

It's interesting to note a few things

class	T5	CT Bk2	Other
Scout/Courier	100Td	100Td	100Td
Free Trader	200Td	200Td	200Td
Far Trader	200Td	200Td	200Td
Corvette	500Td	T 400Td	400 or 440‡
Subsidized Merchant	n/l	400Td	400
Yacht	500Td	200Td	200
Frigate	600Td	n/l	FF† 400Td
Corsair	400Td	400	400 or 440‡
Cruiser	2000Td	800Td̂§	30K-100K
Merc Cruiser	n/l	800Td	800 or 880‡
Lab Ship	400Td	400	400
Safari Ship	n/l	200	200
Destroyer	n/l	400 §	1000 to 20k

[tc=3]n/l not listed
† Listed as "Fleet Courier" Coded as FF
‡ MT lists a number of ships with 10% extra displacement
§ actually, in Mayday[/tc]

Looks like t5 is intended to be a small ship universe.

 

[BytePro]

Get off your high-horses and consider the implications of what I originally posted. If its ever been in any edition of Traveller , Marc has given us the tools to make it . Lets do that.

No high horse here - as read, the implication of what you originally posted was that outrageous claims were essentially true and you want others to help you fix them.

Why not start yourself?

[Converting an item to T5 - not getting off your high horse. ]

It sounds like you want to get the ball rolling... so why not pick an item from a previous version not in the 23 pages provided and post a conversion. Doesn't matter if you are unsure of the process and get something 'wrong' - I'm sure others will help out.

 

[BytePro]

The "classic" ship list is present, with some basic data, but not enough to fill out the fillform. There's enough to allow you to build them, but it doesn't list the accomodation types, so different builders will get different ships.

It's interesting to note a few things

Nice table - looks like the only significant change from LBB2 is a Yacht.

Like the idea of different builders getting different ships - supports the 'class' notion better, IMO. Especially when one factors in differences in TL levels. Can see OTU books filling in the details - with variances for megacorps/lines, etc. relevant to the setting.

Given CT and MgT both supported only 'small ship universes' in their core books, yet supported big ship universes with HG, wouldn't be surprised if T5 is intended to do the same.

 

[JcFalkenburg]

That's what I'm talking about. Bytepro- I will do. I'm in the midst of a 60 hour work stretch ( I work 12 hour nights in a trauma center, but , hell, sleep is for the weak ) ill try to post something by Thursday. I'll post what it will be this afternoon when I wake up so that if anyone else wants to join in the fun there won't be any replication-- heck, maybe replication would be fun. Well , I hear MY high-horse calling...