Badenov
SOC-13
So, I went back and reread the whole thread because it started so long ago. What I don't find is how I try to analyze things, and say, "If this is the case in the RAW, but RL doesn't support the reasoning, what about the OTU world makes the RAW the case?" I feel that RL at TL 7/8 has zero need to steer or limit my imagination of future tech (after all, jump drives and reactionless thrusters exist, why can we not accept other things also?). This is particularly the case when technology in RL has eclipsed the RAW. CT is over 45 years behind the present. So is it a sci fi game, or a historical game?
Clearly with RAW (in book 5, at least, book 2 ships seem to only care about the TL of the computer), people are only going to do new construction at TL15 yards, if they can. Power plants are half the mass, so half the cost, and for many things, TL15 is where they're most efficient/useful. That's a no-brainer if it's an available choice. But when those yards have more backlog than you're able to wait on (because that's what everyone wants), that's when you'll build at a lower TL yard and bite the bullet. The ship will cost more and be less efficient (using more space in the ship or giving less awesome performance), but that's the trade off if you need it right away. If you need a ship this year, and the TL15 yards are all full, you'll either pay a premium to bump someone else (and get in a bidding war if the others aren't willing to be bumped), or go to a lower TL planet and get it built there. (An old supervisor once told me, 'If you want something really bad, you'll get something really bad,' and I've found that to be true in so many things.)
The other thing is maintenance and repair requirements. As far as I can tell from my reading of LBB2 and 5, maintenance is TL agnostic. Rather than use TL7/8 examples of why this may or may not work, I said, 'What in-game things would need to be the case to make this true?' There was a comment in a recent thread that I can't find now, about a motorcycle that needed a repair in a place that did not have the TL to repair it. The operators had to buy a locally available/supportable bike to continue. So, about the only ways to make maintenance TL agnostic is to build the device (drive/power plant/whatever) such that the only things you need for annual maintenance are some ubiquitous consumables that can be made anywhere (WD-40 and maybe some filters), or that any complicated bits can be fashioned on board your own ship by 3D printing it. It certainly makes sense, 3D printers are available at TL7/today and will almost certanly be ubiquitous by the end of TL8. Put that in one corner of your engineering space, and you can locally make any sort of part you need, and that seems to answer all the questions. Nothing says ships don't have 3D printers, so lets run with that. Maintenance costs are simply to buy the raw materials to put into the 3D printer.
Iron is iron, available from TL 2 and up. And maybe consumables and filters and things are deliberately made with parts than can be bought anywhere spaceworthy, just for backward compatibility. That doesn't seem like a huge level of effort for the flexibility it gets you. The only things the RAW (MgT1) say you need a shipyard to be at TL for are full replacement of destroyed systems. CT Book 5 says 'In any case, repairs must be conducted at shipyards of the required tech level (although the referee may make exceptions).' That's a ton of leeway, and that means M drives can be repaired at TL 9 or below. Generally the TL F components on warships are screens, armor, computer, and power plant. That's a lot of stuff, but M Drive, J Drive, weapons, and general hull repairs are not on that list. And for civilian ships, the power plant is the probably the only component that has any reason to be TL F. And for very small ships (like many ACS), taking the tonnage and MCr hit on a lower TL PP may be worth it to get the flexibility to be repaired at more places.
Clearly with RAW (in book 5, at least, book 2 ships seem to only care about the TL of the computer), people are only going to do new construction at TL15 yards, if they can. Power plants are half the mass, so half the cost, and for many things, TL15 is where they're most efficient/useful. That's a no-brainer if it's an available choice. But when those yards have more backlog than you're able to wait on (because that's what everyone wants), that's when you'll build at a lower TL yard and bite the bullet. The ship will cost more and be less efficient (using more space in the ship or giving less awesome performance), but that's the trade off if you need it right away. If you need a ship this year, and the TL15 yards are all full, you'll either pay a premium to bump someone else (and get in a bidding war if the others aren't willing to be bumped), or go to a lower TL planet and get it built there. (An old supervisor once told me, 'If you want something really bad, you'll get something really bad,' and I've found that to be true in so many things.)
The other thing is maintenance and repair requirements. As far as I can tell from my reading of LBB2 and 5, maintenance is TL agnostic. Rather than use TL7/8 examples of why this may or may not work, I said, 'What in-game things would need to be the case to make this true?' There was a comment in a recent thread that I can't find now, about a motorcycle that needed a repair in a place that did not have the TL to repair it. The operators had to buy a locally available/supportable bike to continue. So, about the only ways to make maintenance TL agnostic is to build the device (drive/power plant/whatever) such that the only things you need for annual maintenance are some ubiquitous consumables that can be made anywhere (WD-40 and maybe some filters), or that any complicated bits can be fashioned on board your own ship by 3D printing it. It certainly makes sense, 3D printers are available at TL7/today and will almost certanly be ubiquitous by the end of TL8. Put that in one corner of your engineering space, and you can locally make any sort of part you need, and that seems to answer all the questions. Nothing says ships don't have 3D printers, so lets run with that. Maintenance costs are simply to buy the raw materials to put into the 3D printer.
Iron is iron, available from TL 2 and up. And maybe consumables and filters and things are deliberately made with parts than can be bought anywhere spaceworthy, just for backward compatibility. That doesn't seem like a huge level of effort for the flexibility it gets you. The only things the RAW (MgT1) say you need a shipyard to be at TL for are full replacement of destroyed systems. CT Book 5 says 'In any case, repairs must be conducted at shipyards of the required tech level (although the referee may make exceptions).' That's a ton of leeway, and that means M drives can be repaired at TL 9 or below. Generally the TL F components on warships are screens, armor, computer, and power plant. That's a lot of stuff, but M Drive, J Drive, weapons, and general hull repairs are not on that list. And for civilian ships, the power plant is the probably the only component that has any reason to be TL F. And for very small ships (like many ACS), taking the tonnage and MCr hit on a lower TL PP may be worth it to get the flexibility to be repaired at more places.
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