Vehicle Visual Systems

[Libris]

If it's not one thing it's another

Vehicle visual systems. How do you work out the sizes?

For example, I want a Holovideo with IR and LI with 1000m range. So far I have been adding the cost nine times for +900 metre range, 0.9vl and 0.09EP to the Holovideo and then adding the cost, price and power for IR and LI. Is this right?

 

[snrdg082102]

Hello Libris,

You are on the right track, however instead of adding the base cost, size, and power multiply them by the 9 units of range increase for the Holovideo (HV) unit. Then, as indicated in the example, add the IR and LI systems to the HV unit.

The above is my conculsion after reading through the section titled "Increasing Visual Range," p. 249 approximately half way down the first column of THB, 1st printing. Here is how I think the range increase works for the Holovideo unit the short answer is to multiply the base cost, size, and power by the number of range units increased, in this case 9. Using the example provided in the post.

Base range unit is 100m that you want to increase to 1000m. This is an increase of 9 100m range units. 9 x Base Cost, 9 x Base size, 9 x Base Power. A Holovideo unit with a 1000m range without a display unit would Cost = 9 x 2000 = Cr18,000, Size = 9 x 1.5 = 13.5 vl, and Power = 9 x 0.1 = 0.9.

</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;"> Holovideo Unit without display
Cost (Cr) Size (vl) Power (EP)
18,000 13.5 0.9</pre>[/QUOTE]Adding the required minimum of 1 display unit you get:
</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">Cost (Cr) Size (vl) Power (EP)
18,500 13.6 0.95</pre>[/QUOTE]Multiply the base cost, size and power by the number of display units added: 10 display units would cost Cr5000, have a Size of 1 vl, and require .5 EP to run them.

Adding in the IR and LI systems you get:
</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;"> Cost (Cr) Size (vl) Power (EP)
HV w/1 display: 18,500 13.6 0.95
IR 1,500 1.0 0.03
LI 500 0.2 0.01
Total 20,500 14.8 0.99</pre>[/QUOTE]I hope the above helps.

Originally posted by Libris:
If it's not one thing it's another

Vehicle visual systems. How do you work out the sizes?

For example, I want a Holovideo with IR and LI with 1000m range. So far I have been adding the cost nine times for +900 metre range, 0.9vl and 0.09EP to the Holovideo and then adding the cost, price and power for IR and LI. Is this right?

 

[Libris]

Thanks for the reply but... I think you may be ever more confused than me!

P249 states:

"For each 100m increase in range, double the cost, increase the size by 0.1vl in volume, and add 0.01 to the power requirements."

Fine but I think the cost is ambiguous, especially in the example.

As far as I can tell it should say,

"For example, to increase the range of a video system from 100m to 1100m would add the cost x10, increase the size by 1vl, and increase the power requirements by +0.1. The upgraded video unit would thus cost Cr6,600 , have a volume of 1.4vl, and require 0.13Ep of power."

Given the example (not the explanation) as is you get double the range for free.


I forgot that you really need to include a display for each crew man, err... person, err... thing.

 

[snrdg082102]

Hello again Libris,

My profound apologies for my erroneous post. No, not more confused, I just goofed

up the areas I should have been using in my math, ie the size factor of 0.1 that you pointed out. Of course my only excuse for this error is that I was and still am working on a 10-dton fighter design for GURPS Traveller (GT). I am finding that using GT: Starships is not really working for my idea and trying to use GT: Ground Forces is a little bit closer but not completely compatible with GT: Starships. Again my apologies.

I do not feel that raising the cost 2^10 or 1024 x 600 = 614400 is the right cost increase. However, I could be wrong. Of course I am still using the first printing of the THB and my experience indicates that the instruction about doubling was a cut and paste from the Primary and Communications section. Of course I was out to lunch on the first response and I most certainly can be out to lunch now.

Originally posted by Libris:
Thanks for the reply but... I think you may be ever more confused than me!

P249 states:

"For each 100m increase in range, double the cost, increase the size by 0.1vl in volume, and add 0.01 to the power requirements."

Fine but I think the cost is ambiguous, especially in the example.

As far as I can tell it should say,

"For example, to increase the range of a video system from 100m to 1100m would add the cost x10, increase the size by 1vl, and increase the power requirements by +0.1. The upgraded video unit would thus cost Cr6,600 , have a volume of 1.4vl, and require 0.13Ep of power."

Given the example (not the explanation) as is you get double the range for free.


I forgot that you really need to include a display for each crew man, err... person, err... thing.

 

[far-trader]

Ever since first playing with this section I've been wondering if they meant "double" in the d20 sense of "doubling" where the first double is x2, the second double is x3, the third double is x4, etc, etc...

Hey, I never thought it made sense either but that's the way they do it over on the Wizard's Coast and it would make the costs more reasonable. Not that I've tried it this way myself (yet), it's just a thought.

 

[snrdg082102]

Lo far-trader,

Over on the p. 250, THB 1st printing, in the example for increasing sensor short to long doubling is x2 for the increase of short to medium and x2 for medium to long for a total modifier of x4. The example for increasing the ranges for communication systems is worded almost identically as the text for sensors. The difference is that they substituted 2-way radio for radar. Since both of theses have identical opening text as for visual systems but have different methods for the examples I'd still go with X10 to the base price. Found another example, maybe errata for the THB 1st printing, on p. 252 under Increasing lighting. In this one the base cost of 5 is mutliplied by 10 then multiplied by 2, the size mod of .02 and power, listed in the Visual Table, are both multipled by 10.

Hopefully THB 2nd printing has cleared this one up.

Originally posted by far-trader:
Ever since first playing with this section I've been wondering if they meant "double" in the d20 sense of "doubling" where the first double is x2, the second double is x3, the third double is x4, etc, etc...

Hey, I never thought it made sense either but that's the way they do it over on the Wizard's Coast and it would make the costs more reasonable. Not that I've tried it this way myself (yet), it's just a thought.

 

[Libris]

I would say that the wording on p249 isn't very clear and does seem to imply a logarithmic scale (or is it geometric? ) whereby price doubles at every increase in range but the example makes it quite clear that we are talking about a linear gaming doubling scale rather than real world maths.