Spinward Flow
SOC-14 1K
In the past, I've made a collection of below 200 ton Fast Traders with powerful maneuver drives (5-6G) intended to spend 5 tons of cargo space on X-Mail as courier ships for carrying communications between the stars and be able to consistently operate at a profit even with no (other than mail) cargo carried in the cargo bay. These previous designs were:
However, after my "adventure" in designing four TL=11-14 Aslan starships (1, 2, 3, 4) for operations in the Great Rift, where a 5 parsec range was the bare minimum requirement for freedom of navigation across the Riftspan Reaches sector, I realized that it would be a lot of fun to allow the Spinward X-Courier and Spinward Flex Courier designs (of which I'm quite proud) to "expand" their hull sizes slightly in order to accommodate lower technology levels than TL=11 and TL=13 (since the fuel purification plant needs more tonnage at lower tech levels) while leaving some of the previously "wasted space" available for use as life support reserve consumables. I wanted to settle on a hull size that could remain "in common" across all of the relevant tech levels (from TL=9-14 as it turns out) without tipping over into the 200+ ton hull sizes, due to the way that crew requirements for engineers bloats really rapidly above 200 tons with 5G (let alone 6G) maneuver drives in the TL=9-14 range. That bloat in crew size very rapidly devours any kind of reliable profit margins to be earned from X-Mail courier deliveries, which sets a hard cap of Cr25,000 revenue out of which all life support and crew salary expenses must be paid if there is no other cargo to transport, so I simply HAD TO stay in the 100-199 ton range of hull code: 1 if I wanted to make everything fit (and it's still a tight squeeze!).
In the end, I settled on a 198 ton hull this time around, with a design requirement for being able to transit 4 parsecs on internal fuel (plus collapsible fuel tank range extender in the cargo bay) with the option for another 1-2 parsecs of range obtained from use of L-Hyd drop tanks ... for a total maximum one way range of 5 parsecs (Jump-1) or 6 parsecs (Jump-2) ... with sufficient life support reserves to complete the transit (up to 8*5=40 days at Jump-1, or up to 8*3=24 days at Jump-2). In the end, with enough "massaging of the numbers" I was able to succeed in this overall endurance goal, while still having enough cargo capacity left over to be useful when not making long range transits.
Another factor that I realized when redoing these starship designs is that Emergency Agility isn't necessarily a bad thing on a starship this small with maneuver drives this powerful (5-6G). Computer models above 2 require EP, which is why I shied away from using them in the designs listed above in order to have maximum agility available during an encounter with hostile vessels. However, the Race To Profitability against a Far Trader that I ran from D'Ganzio to Ficant and back to D'Ganzio conclusively demonstrated to me the value of having better than a model/2 computer in an encounter with a (discount pirates
) Type-T Patrol Cruiser in the Choleosti system when using LBB5.80 starship combat rules.
Agility is a defensive only modifier, while computer model is an offense AND a defensive modifier (under LBB5.80), putting a lot of weight on the value of having a decent computer on your starship. Skimping on your starship computer is a decent way to become a sitting duck for an attacking band of pirates to take potshots at (especially if they're well armed, like a Patrol Cruiser is) while making it extremely difficult for your own defensive and return fire to be any kind of meaningful threat. Of course, it also helps to have more Agility than the attackers so that you can successfully Break Off By Acceleration after the first combat round (and hopefully the only exchange of fire at long range). This is where having 5G (or more) maneuver drives becomes important to be able to "outrun" any pursuer with hostile intent (or if the picket patrol is against you, be able to run a blockade).
With the modest increase in tonnage from 194 to 198, I was able to develop a dynasty of starships, starting at TL=9 with J1 5G performance capable of 4 parsecs of range (unrefueled) which could be extended to 5 parsecs with L-Hyd drop tanks and a useful cargo fraction. I also decided to "upgun" the ship from the old Sandcaster/Missile dual turret combination (useful because it consumed no EP and thus had no impact on Agility) in addition to providing the ship with the most powerful computer (model/3 at TL=9, which consumes 1 EP) available. The addition of the more powerful computer and swapping the dual turret for a triple turret Sandcaster/Pulse Laser/Missile combination reduced the standard Agility rating from 5 down to 3, but when using Emergency Agility the pulse laser is taken offline and Emergency Agility rises from 3 back up to 5.
This performance profile means that under most circumstances, at the start of (LBB5.80) ship to ship combat at long range, the pulse laser is at a -1DM due to range and is unlikely to be as useful either offensively or defensively as Emergency Agility 5 (pulse laser offline) in order to Break Off By Acceleration. The kicker is that under Emergency Agility, the sandcaster and missile turret weapons are still operational, and missiles prefer long range anyway ... so the intent is to exchange fire ONCE and then escape using Emergency Agility rather than stand and fight (usually).
Addition of the pulse laser to the design allows the class to be outfitted for belter prospecting, with a larger cargo hold capacity than the (5-6x cheaper!) Type-J Seeker allowing for far greater endurance and stocking of consumable supplies, laboratories and workshops, vehicles and other sundry options, in addition to having more powerful maneuver drives capable of hauling much larger asteroids/planetoids back to base intact for processing by mining companies in a more reasonable amount of time. That increased external cargo hauling capacity can come in quite handy for a prospector crew so they don't have to return with nothing to show for their labors if they're unlucky searching the belts in a star system for a strike.
- 100 ton TL=13 J2 6G Spinward Courier (MCr60.904 in volume)
- 194 ton TL=11 J2 2G Rift X-Courier (MCr74.1984 in volume)
- 198 ton TL=13 J3 2G Rift Courier (MCr89.0704 in volume)
- 194 ton TL=11 J2 5G Spinward X-Courier (MCr121.5184 in volume)
- 194 ton TL=13 J2 6G Spinward Flex Courier (MCr109.8752 in volume)
However, after my "adventure" in designing four TL=11-14 Aslan starships (1, 2, 3, 4) for operations in the Great Rift, where a 5 parsec range was the bare minimum requirement for freedom of navigation across the Riftspan Reaches sector, I realized that it would be a lot of fun to allow the Spinward X-Courier and Spinward Flex Courier designs (of which I'm quite proud) to "expand" their hull sizes slightly in order to accommodate lower technology levels than TL=11 and TL=13 (since the fuel purification plant needs more tonnage at lower tech levels) while leaving some of the previously "wasted space" available for use as life support reserve consumables. I wanted to settle on a hull size that could remain "in common" across all of the relevant tech levels (from TL=9-14 as it turns out) without tipping over into the 200+ ton hull sizes, due to the way that crew requirements for engineers bloats really rapidly above 200 tons with 5G (let alone 6G) maneuver drives in the TL=9-14 range. That bloat in crew size very rapidly devours any kind of reliable profit margins to be earned from X-Mail courier deliveries, which sets a hard cap of Cr25,000 revenue out of which all life support and crew salary expenses must be paid if there is no other cargo to transport, so I simply HAD TO stay in the 100-199 ton range of hull code: 1 if I wanted to make everything fit (and it's still a tight squeeze!).
In the end, I settled on a 198 ton hull this time around, with a design requirement for being able to transit 4 parsecs on internal fuel (plus collapsible fuel tank range extender in the cargo bay) with the option for another 1-2 parsecs of range obtained from use of L-Hyd drop tanks ... for a total maximum one way range of 5 parsecs (Jump-1) or 6 parsecs (Jump-2) ... with sufficient life support reserves to complete the transit (up to 8*5=40 days at Jump-1, or up to 8*3=24 days at Jump-2). In the end, with enough "massaging of the numbers" I was able to succeed in this overall endurance goal, while still having enough cargo capacity left over to be useful when not making long range transits.
Another factor that I realized when redoing these starship designs is that Emergency Agility isn't necessarily a bad thing on a starship this small with maneuver drives this powerful (5-6G). Computer models above 2 require EP, which is why I shied away from using them in the designs listed above in order to have maximum agility available during an encounter with hostile vessels. However, the Race To Profitability against a Far Trader that I ran from D'Ganzio to Ficant and back to D'Ganzio conclusively demonstrated to me the value of having better than a model/2 computer in an encounter with a (discount pirates
) Type-T Patrol Cruiser in the Choleosti system when using LBB5.80 starship combat rules.Agility is a defensive only modifier, while computer model is an offense AND a defensive modifier (under LBB5.80), putting a lot of weight on the value of having a decent computer on your starship. Skimping on your starship computer is a decent way to become a sitting duck for an attacking band of pirates to take potshots at (especially if they're well armed, like a Patrol Cruiser is) while making it extremely difficult for your own defensive and return fire to be any kind of meaningful threat. Of course, it also helps to have more Agility than the attackers so that you can successfully Break Off By Acceleration after the first combat round (and hopefully the only exchange of fire at long range). This is where having 5G (or more) maneuver drives becomes important to be able to "outrun" any pursuer with hostile intent (or if the picket patrol is against you, be able to run a blockade).
With the modest increase in tonnage from 194 to 198, I was able to develop a dynasty of starships, starting at TL=9 with J1 5G performance capable of 4 parsecs of range (unrefueled) which could be extended to 5 parsecs with L-Hyd drop tanks and a useful cargo fraction. I also decided to "upgun" the ship from the old Sandcaster/Missile dual turret combination (useful because it consumed no EP and thus had no impact on Agility) in addition to providing the ship with the most powerful computer (model/3 at TL=9, which consumes 1 EP) available. The addition of the more powerful computer and swapping the dual turret for a triple turret Sandcaster/Pulse Laser/Missile combination reduced the standard Agility rating from 5 down to 3, but when using Emergency Agility the pulse laser is taken offline and Emergency Agility rises from 3 back up to 5.
This performance profile means that under most circumstances, at the start of (LBB5.80) ship to ship combat at long range, the pulse laser is at a -1DM due to range and is unlikely to be as useful either offensively or defensively as Emergency Agility 5 (pulse laser offline) in order to Break Off By Acceleration. The kicker is that under Emergency Agility, the sandcaster and missile turret weapons are still operational, and missiles prefer long range anyway ... so the intent is to exchange fire ONCE and then escape using Emergency Agility rather than stand and fight (usually).
Addition of the pulse laser to the design allows the class to be outfitted for belter prospecting, with a larger cargo hold capacity than the (5-6x cheaper!) Type-J Seeker allowing for far greater endurance and stocking of consumable supplies, laboratories and workshops, vehicles and other sundry options, in addition to having more powerful maneuver drives capable of hauling much larger asteroids/planetoids back to base intact for processing by mining companies in a more reasonable amount of time. That increased external cargo hauling capacity can come in quite handy for a prospector crew so they don't have to return with nothing to show for their labors if they're unlucky searching the belts in a star system for a strike.
who are interested in the safety of making long term investments towards interstellar transport capacity, these low end Courier ships make a compelling case for the notion that how such ships are used and operated can make a tremendous difference in their profit potential, in addition to their capability to extend economic/cultural/political/military hegemony beyond the confines of a single star system through the power of communications and dispatches, binding different interests together across the vastness of interstellar space.
