MT Starship Design

[TheEngineer]

As I'm a lazy bum I usually use a spreadsheet and concentrate on core properties of a vehicle/spacecraft.
So a design could be done in 5 minutes ....

 

[Wm_Humphrey]

Originally posted by atpollard:
I like the CONCEPT of a unified design system for all vehicles (land, sea, air and space). I just got the MT CD and am still wading through all of the details. So far, I like what I've seen - especially the lower tech reaction thrust rockets (I think that CT did itself a disservice by introducing Grav and Fusion at such a low TL. If they appeared at TL 10, the Imperium would be little changed, but worlds of TL 6 to TL 9 would have gained a lot more local color.)

I agree that raising the TL bar would have increased the amount of local color. But it would really have required that the lo-tech spaceflight rules from Hard Times be worked out and integrated into the core books. The relative simplicity and uniformity of the space travel and combat rules rests on the fact that virtually all space travel and all interstallar travel is done in fusion-powered, grav-propelled ships.

I personally also like the concept of a unified design system for at least 80% of the vehicles that are likely to be needed; that's what makes MT my favorite design system, as well. But it frequently was a case of overkill on the detail required to throw together an opposing craft that was a one-shot "spear carrier".

That was why I liked was the notion in T4 of a two-tiered approach with the Quick Ship Design System (QSDS) and Standard Ship Design System (SSDS) for ship design. If you just wanted a quick, one-off, basic ship, you used the faster, simpler system; when you had time to kill or some specific goal in mind, you could dig down to the next greater level of detail. Of course, it fell down completely for me when I discovered that you could not, in fact, use the "pieces" in the SSDS to replicate the "modules" in the QSDS.

That's when I went back to MT, lifted some useful bits from T4, and started working on a table of "IDP modules" built from the various pieces of the MT craft design system. In effect, I guess I was trying to bring back LBBs 2 and/or 5 by using the MT rules to build them. I never got too far, though... pity.

 

[Wm_Humphrey]

Originally posted by atpollard:
I like the CONCEPT of a unified design system for all vehicles (land, sea, air and space). I just got the MT CD and am still wading through all of the details. So far, I like what I've seen - especially the lower tech reaction thrust rockets (I think that CT did itself a disservice by introducing Grav and Fusion at such a low TL. If they appeared at TL 10, the Imperium would be little changed, but worlds of TL 6 to TL 9 would have gained a lot more local color.)

I agree that raising the TL bar would have increased the amount of local color. But it would really have required that the lo-tech spaceflight rules from Hard Times be worked out and integrated into the core books. The relative simplicity and uniformity of the space travel and combat rules rests on the fact that virtually all space travel and all interstallar travel is done in fusion-powered, grav-propelled ships.

I personally also like the concept of a unified design system for at least 80% of the vehicles that are likely to be needed; that's what makes MT my favorite design system, as well. But it frequently was a case of overkill on the detail required to throw together an opposing craft that was a one-shot "spear carrier".

That was why I liked was the notion in T4 of a two-tiered approach with the Quick Ship Design System (QSDS) and Standard Ship Design System (SSDS) for ship design. If you just wanted a quick, one-off, basic ship, you used the faster, simpler system; when you had time to kill or some specific goal in mind, you could dig down to the next greater level of detail. Of course, it fell down completely for me when I discovered that you could not, in fact, use the "pieces" in the SSDS to replicate the "modules" in the QSDS.

That's when I went back to MT, lifted some useful bits from T4, and started working on a table of "IDP modules" built from the various pieces of the MT craft design system. In effect, I guess I was trying to bring back LBBs 2 and/or 5 by using the MT rules to build them. I never got too far, though... pity.

 

[Wm_Humphrey]

Originally posted by atpollard:
I like the CONCEPT of a unified design system for all vehicles (land, sea, air and space). I just got the MT CD and am still wading through all of the details. So far, I like what I've seen - especially the lower tech reaction thrust rockets (I think that CT did itself a disservice by introducing Grav and Fusion at such a low TL. If they appeared at TL 10, the Imperium would be little changed, but worlds of TL 6 to TL 9 would have gained a lot more local color.)

I agree that raising the TL bar would have increased the amount of local color. But it would really have required that the lo-tech spaceflight rules from Hard Times be worked out and integrated into the core books. The relative simplicity and uniformity of the space travel and combat rules rests on the fact that virtually all space travel and all interstallar travel is done in fusion-powered, grav-propelled ships.

I personally also like the concept of a unified design system for at least 80% of the vehicles that are likely to be needed; that's what makes MT my favorite design system, as well. But it frequently was a case of overkill on the detail required to throw together an opposing craft that was a one-shot "spear carrier".

That was why I liked was the notion in T4 of a two-tiered approach with the Quick Ship Design System (QSDS) and Standard Ship Design System (SSDS) for ship design. If you just wanted a quick, one-off, basic ship, you used the faster, simpler system; when you had time to kill or some specific goal in mind, you could dig down to the next greater level of detail. Of course, it fell down completely for me when I discovered that you could not, in fact, use the "pieces" in the SSDS to replicate the "modules" in the QSDS.

That's when I went back to MT, lifted some useful bits from T4, and started working on a table of "IDP modules" built from the various pieces of the MT craft design system. In effect, I guess I was trying to bring back LBBs 2 and/or 5 by using the MT rules to build them. I never got too far, though... pity.

 

[atpollard]

HELP. While digging into the Vehicle design rules I have unearthed a question.

The MegaTraveller Referee's Manual (pg 69, step 5 - Sensors and Electronics 2, item 9 - Visible Light and IR Enhancement Sensors) lists several upgraded sensor enhancements:

Adv Active IR Sensor
Adv Image Enhance
Synthetic Vision

Where does it describe what these are and what they do? Other than some possible bragging rights, I can find no description or game effect. Most of the other sensor enhancements are included in the EMS arrays on the next page, but these are not and appear to be upgrades to the EMS arrays. I just cannot find any place that tells what they do.

"Visible light and IR enhancement sensors improve the ability to detect objects" is a little vague.

Thanks for the help.

 

[atpollard]

HELP. While digging into the Vehicle design rules I have unearthed a question.

The MegaTraveller Referee's Manual (pg 69, step 5 - Sensors and Electronics 2, item 9 - Visible Light and IR Enhancement Sensors) lists several upgraded sensor enhancements:

Adv Active IR Sensor
Adv Image Enhance
Synthetic Vision

Where does it describe what these are and what they do? Other than some possible bragging rights, I can find no description or game effect. Most of the other sensor enhancements are included in the EMS arrays on the next page, but these are not and appear to be upgrades to the EMS arrays. I just cannot find any place that tells what they do.

"Visible light and IR enhancement sensors improve the ability to detect objects" is a little vague.

Thanks for the help.

 

[atpollard]

HELP. While digging into the Vehicle design rules I have unearthed a question.

The MegaTraveller Referee's Manual (pg 69, step 5 - Sensors and Electronics 2, item 9 - Visible Light and IR Enhancement Sensors) lists several upgraded sensor enhancements:

Adv Active IR Sensor
Adv Image Enhance
Synthetic Vision

Where does it describe what these are and what they do? Other than some possible bragging rights, I can find no description or game effect. Most of the other sensor enhancements are included in the EMS arrays on the next page, but these are not and appear to be upgrades to the EMS arrays. I just cannot find any place that tells what they do.

"Visible light and IR enhancement sensors improve the ability to detect objects" is a little vague.

Thanks for the help.

 

[GypsyComet]

You've stumbled over the big weakness of MT: too many unwritten assumptions built on the big assumption that the reader has an encyclopedic knowledge of CT. My Ref's Manual is buried somewhere at the moment, but I suspect the reference you need will be either Striker or Book 8: Robots. That said, none of the example designs mention those three options, so my guess is that they are included as part of the bigger PEMS sensors, or don't apply to ship scale.

 

[GypsyComet]

You've stumbled over the big weakness of MT: too many unwritten assumptions built on the big assumption that the reader has an encyclopedic knowledge of CT. My Ref's Manual is buried somewhere at the moment, but I suspect the reference you need will be either Striker or Book 8: Robots. That said, none of the example designs mention those three options, so my guess is that they are included as part of the bigger PEMS sensors, or don't apply to ship scale.

 

[GypsyComet]

You've stumbled over the big weakness of MT: too many unwritten assumptions built on the big assumption that the reader has an encyclopedic knowledge of CT. My Ref's Manual is buried somewhere at the moment, but I suspect the reference you need will be either Striker or Book 8: Robots. That said, none of the example designs mention those three options, so my guess is that they are included as part of the bigger PEMS sensors, or don't apply to ship scale.

 

[atpollard]

Originally posted by GypsyComet:
That said, none of the example designs mention those three options, so my guess is that they are included as part of the bigger PEMS sensors, or don't apply to ship scale.

It was such a grand leap from the CT multiple contradictory rules (Book 2 vs High Guard vs Striker) to the MegaTraveller unified vehicle design rules - brilliant concept - that it is a little disapointing how much unnecessary complexity and virtually useless steps crept into the process.

Although the 3 sensors which I inquired about:

Adv Active IR Sensor
Adv Image Enhance
Synthetic Vision

do not appear in the design examples, two 'lesser' sensors (Active IR Sensor and Image Enhancement) are listed as included in Active EMS and Passive EMS. Synthetic Vision is listed as beyond the TL of Adv Active IR Sensor and Adv Image Enhancement. This would lead one to suspect that these Advanced sensor enhancements are better than the standard EMS packages.

Given the fact that all of the sensor data is boiled down to a handfull of detection ratings, the whole section on sensors should have been boiled down into a tabe of TL vs sensor quality that translated directly into the detection ratings (while providing a single calculation for energy, volume, mass, and cost). The rest of the detail is unnecessary complexity and is lost in the rules.

I like some of the details on Ship design in T5, let's hope for the best with this newest effort.

 

[atpollard]

Originally posted by GypsyComet:
That said, none of the example designs mention those three options, so my guess is that they are included as part of the bigger PEMS sensors, or don't apply to ship scale.

It was such a grand leap from the CT multiple contradictory rules (Book 2 vs High Guard vs Striker) to the MegaTraveller unified vehicle design rules - brilliant concept - that it is a little disapointing how much unnecessary complexity and virtually useless steps crept into the process.

Although the 3 sensors which I inquired about:

Adv Active IR Sensor
Adv Image Enhance
Synthetic Vision

do not appear in the design examples, two 'lesser' sensors (Active IR Sensor and Image Enhancement) are listed as included in Active EMS and Passive EMS. Synthetic Vision is listed as beyond the TL of Adv Active IR Sensor and Adv Image Enhancement. This would lead one to suspect that these Advanced sensor enhancements are better than the standard EMS packages.

Given the fact that all of the sensor data is boiled down to a handfull of detection ratings, the whole section on sensors should have been boiled down into a tabe of TL vs sensor quality that translated directly into the detection ratings (while providing a single calculation for energy, volume, mass, and cost). The rest of the detail is unnecessary complexity and is lost in the rules.

I like some of the details on Ship design in T5, let's hope for the best with this newest effort.

 

[atpollard]

Originally posted by GypsyComet:
That said, none of the example designs mention those three options, so my guess is that they are included as part of the bigger PEMS sensors, or don't apply to ship scale.

It was such a grand leap from the CT multiple contradictory rules (Book 2 vs High Guard vs Striker) to the MegaTraveller unified vehicle design rules - brilliant concept - that it is a little disapointing how much unnecessary complexity and virtually useless steps crept into the process.

Although the 3 sensors which I inquired about:

Adv Active IR Sensor
Adv Image Enhance
Synthetic Vision

do not appear in the design examples, two 'lesser' sensors (Active IR Sensor and Image Enhancement) are listed as included in Active EMS and Passive EMS. Synthetic Vision is listed as beyond the TL of Adv Active IR Sensor and Adv Image Enhancement. This would lead one to suspect that these Advanced sensor enhancements are better than the standard EMS packages.

Given the fact that all of the sensor data is boiled down to a handfull of detection ratings, the whole section on sensors should have been boiled down into a tabe of TL vs sensor quality that translated directly into the detection ratings (while providing a single calculation for energy, volume, mass, and cost). The rest of the detail is unnecessary complexity and is lost in the rules.

I like some of the details on Ship design in T5, let's hope for the best with this newest effort.