The time it takes, at least according to T0-20 rules to change out cargo pods in a modular cutter got me a bit angry, especially as it was so in-efficient. Rather than having the cutter go outside the ship, drop the pod, dock and pick up the new pod, then take it out, then reversing everything so as to put the first pod back, then pick up the second pod yet again, I developed something else, (ie. stolen from others).
The pod magazine is your normal cutter bay which is surrounded on most sides by various pods which you could have prepared in advance. An example is that we have one pod set up for setting up a trading post, another for an advanced base on a planet/asteroid we are exploring, even a mining pod which could be used to extract precious metals or hydrogen from ice. (our gm won't just let us throw chunks of ice into the refinery tanks).
Now instead of having to back in and out, the shuttle just manuevers inside the dock and turns to the pod it wants and loads it as normal. You can keep 1 space open for the pod in the cutter or fill it for extra cargo space.
I originally had thought to have the cutter locked in place and be rotated to the proper pod but it was easy to figure out that the additional machinery needed to do this would outweigh the problems of the original method.
Since this would technically leave some dead space, I just surround the bay with a fuel tank, allowing use of every possible square inch. It also makes it easier to pump fuel from a dedicated pod into the tanks.
I added 10% to both the cost and weight of the cutter bay to handle the increased work & machinery. I would add in all the cost data but my books aren't available to me at the present moment. I would have cost it higher but since the book does allow you to do this with 2 pods at the original price, 10% more doesn't sound that bad.
By the way, our ship is a 5kdton Armed Merchantman explorer, essentially brand new (t-20 rules). It is astonishing what you can afford when your merchant captain can generally get anything he wants to buy at 30% and sell it at 400%, especially gold, radioactives jewelry.
(the bum rolled gold 4 times in a single trading session and got a max roll on the amount. Then he popped over to another system and sold it for 4x as much as it's book price, then he returned to the first planet with another load of stuff they had wanted and did it again.) One reason why I have a hard time with people saying they can't make money with speculative cargoes.
The pod magazine is your normal cutter bay which is surrounded on most sides by various pods which you could have prepared in advance. An example is that we have one pod set up for setting up a trading post, another for an advanced base on a planet/asteroid we are exploring, even a mining pod which could be used to extract precious metals or hydrogen from ice. (our gm won't just let us throw chunks of ice into the refinery tanks).
Now instead of having to back in and out, the shuttle just manuevers inside the dock and turns to the pod it wants and loads it as normal. You can keep 1 space open for the pod in the cutter or fill it for extra cargo space.
I originally had thought to have the cutter locked in place and be rotated to the proper pod but it was easy to figure out that the additional machinery needed to do this would outweigh the problems of the original method.
Since this would technically leave some dead space, I just surround the bay with a fuel tank, allowing use of every possible square inch. It also makes it easier to pump fuel from a dedicated pod into the tanks.
I added 10% to both the cost and weight of the cutter bay to handle the increased work & machinery. I would add in all the cost data but my books aren't available to me at the present moment. I would have cost it higher but since the book does allow you to do this with 2 pods at the original price, 10% more doesn't sound that bad.
By the way, our ship is a 5kdton Armed Merchantman explorer, essentially brand new (t-20 rules). It is astonishing what you can afford when your merchant captain can generally get anything he wants to buy at 30% and sell it at 400%, especially gold, radioactives jewelry.
(the bum rolled gold 4 times in a single trading session and got a max roll on the amount. Then he popped over to another system and sold it for 4x as much as it's book price, then he returned to the first planet with another load of stuff they had wanted and did it again.) One reason why I have a hard time with people saying they can't make money with speculative cargoes.
Except that I don't believe in the (skinny) spine version. I don't think the spine is enough to support the craft. At the very least it needs to be a half cylinder imo.
