Tug Concept

[Spinward Flow]

My assumption is that LBB2 is mostly the civilian and paramilitary market, predicated on plug and play interchangeable letter drives and perform differently due to optimization towards that universal support model.

Then LBB5 is the heavily armed hot rod/military ship paradigm, with tech level requirements to support due to an emphasis on optimization and customization.

Ditto.

LBB2 = mass production commercial off the shelf
LBB5 = custom production optimization

 

[mike wightman]

There are considerably more differences that have to be handwaved away.

A LBB:2 ship can have every turret stuffed with lasers and yet still use its full maneuver drive and evasion, under HG merchant ships and scouts can't power triple laser turrets and evade.

LBB:2 allows for jump 3 at TL9, jump 4 at TL10, jump 5 at TL11, and jump 6 at TL12 - note that these are computer limits, under 77 rules then ships could achieve jump 6 at every TL.

The HG paradigm introduces a different jump progression by TL.

LBB:2 drives are big jump drives and small m-drives, HG reverses this so that the jump drive is small and the m-drive huge.

 

[Grav_Moped]

The HG paradigm introduces a different jump progression by TL.

Also a different  maneuver progirssiion by TL. Drive TLs are identical for both Jump and maneuver.

LBB:2 drives are big jump drives and small m-drives, HG reverses this so that the jump drive is small and the m-drive huge

LBB2 uses power plant fuel as the tonnage constraint on maneuver (up to 1kTd, and decreasingly so).

Also, the smaller HG Jump drive makes the varies-by-TL power plant a bigger relative component of the system. LBB2 combined the jump drive's power system with the drive (and kept the tonnage for it in '81 while revising the technobabble to say that wasn't what it was for).