HG-compatible Book 2 style ship design

[rancke]

Here's something I worked on a while back. I was reminded of it by a recent post. I thought I might go back and finish it, but first I'd like to hear what you guys think of it.

HG-compatible Book 2 type ship construction rules.

Note: Only changes to original rules listed.

Ship Design and Construction

REQUIRED STARSHIP COMPONENTS

[First three paragraphs unchanged].

Hulls vary in their requirements for drive and power plant based on tonnage. Any specific drive will be less efficient as the tonnage it must drive increases. The drive potential tables lists up to 24 standard drive types, identified by the letters A through Z (omitting I and O to avoid confusion with the numerals 1 and 0). Also listed are various tonnage levels for hulls; any tonnage which exceeds a listed level should be read as the next higher level. Correlating hull size with drive letter indicates drive potential. For maneuver drives, this potential is the Gs of acceleration available. For jump drives, the potential is the jump number (Jn) or jump range in parsecs. For power plants, it is power plant rating (Pn). For instance, a 200-ton hull equipped with maneuver drive-B can produce 1-G acceleration; an 800-ton hull equipped with jump drive-K can produce jump-2.

Shipyards on high-population worlds have a number of standard designs for hulls and components available. Such standard designs can be produced faster and at lower costs than custom designs.

Jump drive, maneuver drive and power plant tables.

    Jump         Maneuver     Power
    Drive        Drive        Plant
    Mass  MCr    Mass  MCr    Mass   MCr
A    2      8      2     1       3     9
B    3     12      4     2       6    18
C    4     16      5   2.5       9    27
D    6     24      8     4      12    36
E    8     32     10     5      18    54
F   12     48     12     6      24    72
G   16     64     16     8      30    90
H   18     72     20    10      36   108
J   20     80     30    15      48   144
K   24     96     32    16      54   162
L   30    120     40    20      60   180
M   32    128     48    24      72   216
N   40    160     50    25      90   270
P   60    240     60    30     120   360
Q   80    320     64    32     150   450
R   90    360     80    40     180   540
S  100    400    100    50     240   720
T  120    480    150    75     270   810
U  150    600    160    80     300   900
V  160    640    200   100     360  1080
W  200    800    240   120     450  1350
X    -      -    250   125       -     -
Y    -      -    320   160       -     -
Z    -      -    400   200       -     -

The following restrictions apply based on TL: At TL 9 and 10, only jump-1 drives may be built; at TL 11, only jump-1 and jump-2 drives may be built; at TL 12, only jump-1 through jump-3 may be built; at TL 13, only jump-1 through jump-4 may be built; at TL 14, only jump-1 through jump-5 may be built; at TL 15, jump-1 through jump-6 may be built.

At TL 13 and 14, power plant tonnage and cost are reduced by one third; at TL 15, they're reduced by another third (E.g. a power plant-A masses 2 tons and costs MCr6 at TL 13 and 14; it masses 1 T and costs MCr3 at TL 15).

Jump Drive potential

Hull  A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  J  K  L  M  N  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W
tons
 100  1  2  3  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -
 200  -  -  1  2  3  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -
 400  -  -  -  -  1  2  3  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -
 600  -  -  -  -  -  1  1  2  2  3  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -
 800  -  -  -  -  -  -  1  1  1  2  2  3  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -
1000  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  1  1  2  2  3  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -
2000  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  1  2  3  -  -  -  -  -  -
3000  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  1  1  2  2  3  -  -  -
4000  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  1  1  1  2  2  3  -  
5000  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  1  1  2  2  3

Note: A jump drive of high potential installed in a big hull will perform at the indicated lower level. The reverse is not true. A jump-1 drive installed in a smaller ship will still only perform jump-1.

Maneuver Drive potential

Hull  A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  J  K  L  M  N  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z
tons
 100  1  1  2  3  3  4  5  6  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -
 200  -  1  1  1  2  2  3  3  4  4  5  6  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -
 400  -  -  -  1  1  1  1  2  2  3  3  4  4  5  5  6  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -
 600  -  -  -  -  -  1  1  1  2  2  2  3  3  3  3  4  5  6  -  -  -  -  -  -
 800  -  -  -  -  -  -  1  1  1  1  2  2  2  2  3  3  4  6  -  -  -  -  -  -
1000  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  1  1  1  1  1  2  2  2  3  3  5  5  5  6  -  -  -
2000  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  1  1  1  1  1  1  2  2  3  3  4  4  5  6
3000  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  1  1  1  1  2  2  2  3  3  3  4
4000  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  1  1  1  1  2  2  2  3  3  
5000  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  1  1  1  1  1  2  2  3

Note that some drives are bigger than needed to produce the indicated effect. If you want a drive that fits perfectly, you may need to have it custom-made.

Power Plant potential

Hull  A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  J  K  L  M  N  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W
tons
 100  1  2  3  4  6  8 10 12 16 18 20  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -
 200  -  1  1  2  3  4  5  6  8  9 10 12 15 20  -  -  -  -  -  -  -
 400  -  -  -  1  1  2  2  3  4  4  5  6  7 10 12 15 20  -  -  -  -
 600  -  -  -  -  1  1  1  2  2  3  3  4  5  6  8 10 13 15 16 20  -
 800  -  -  -  -  -  1  1  1  2  2  2  3  3  5  6  7 10 11 12 15 18
1000  -  -  -  -  -  -  1  1  1  1  2  2  3  4  5  6  8  9 10 12 15
2000  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  1  1  1  2  2  3  4  4  5  6  7
3000  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  1  1  1  2  2  3  3  4  5
4000  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  1  1  1  2  2  2  3  3  
5000  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  1  1  1  1  2  2  3

The power plant must be able to produce an effect at least equal to the jump drive or the maneuver drive, whichever is the highest, e.g. a ship with 2G and jump-1 needs a power plant with an effect of 2 or more, and so does a ship with 1G and jump-2.

If you want to be able to use the maneuver drive and energy weapons at the same time, the power plant must have a higher effect than the maneuver drive level. (For every level the power plant exceeds the maneuver drive, you get power points equivalent to the ship's tonnage in hundreds, e.g. a 400 T ship gets 4 excess power points for every extra level).

Note that some plants are bigger than needed to produce the indicated effect. If you want a plant that fits perfectly, you may need to have it custom-made.


Any comments?


Hans


PS. If anyone wants to take over and use any or all of this for anything official, you have my complete and total permision to do so. (IMO you shouldn't need the permission of anyone working in sombody else's universe to use his stuff. Such permission should be implicit in him working in that setting in the first place. But I know you may (need permission, I mean), so it is hereby given.)

 

[rancke]

(You got more, tables and writeups?)

No, this is as much as I managed to do before getting diverted by other projects.



Hans

 

[mike wightman]

I like it Hans

 

[tbeard1999]

I tried something similar. I tried to revise Book 2 drives per HG. The idea was that the Drive Potential Table would remain the same, but that the mass and cost would change.

I failed, because the Drive Potential Table has some mathematical inconsistencies, which cannot be repeated with High Guard's drive formulae. As a result, I had to revise the Drive Potential Table, which became a lot of hassle for very little benefit.

Here was my solution:

1. Use HG exclusively for ship design and combat. Not really a bad choice, now that we have various HG spreadsheets available. And I always found the HG combat system a better RPG system, since it didn't require a map and counters.

2. Use HG for drives; LBB2 for everything else, including combat. In other words there are no "standard" drives. Just use the charts in HG, page 23 to determine drive sizes and costs.

Option 2 requires some additional effort, though, because the LBB2 combat system reflects damage by reducing a drive rating.

A simple way to model that: each hit would reduce drive performance by 1. But allow players to buy extra heavy drives for redundancy. For every X tons of extra drive tonnage, the drive can take 1 hit without degrading. The X Rating for each drive type is:

Maneuver: 6
Jump: 4
P7-8: 12
P9-12: 9
P13-14: 6
P15: 3

There's a more fiddly approach, though. Instead of using drive letters, use drive tonnage. Every hit on a drive will damage X tons of drive. When operational drive tonnage drops, performance will drop accordingly, per HG drive tables, pg. 23. Restating them for combat use:

	M	J	P7-8	P9-12	P13-14	P15
Rating	%	%	%	%	%	%
0	<2%	<2%	<4%	<3%	<2%	<1%
1	2%	2%	4%	3%	2%	1%
2	5%	3%	8%	6%	4%	2%
3	8%	4%	12%	9%	6%	3%
4	11%	5%	16%	12%	8%	4%
5	14%	6%	20%	15%	10%	5%
6	17%	7%	24%	18%	12%	6%

P7-8: Power plant, TL 7-8
P9-12: Power plant, TL 9-12
etc.

For instance, assume that a 400 ton trader has 44 tons of Maneuver Drive, which is sufficient for Maneuver 4. A missile hit damages 6 tons of Maneuver Drive. Looking at the above chart, the 38 remaining operational tons are less than 11% of hull tonnage, but at least 8%, so the M drive is now M-3.

For most LBB2 ships, each hit will damage 6 tons of maneuver drive, 4 tons of Jump Drive and 12 tons of power plant.