Trillion Credit Squadron clarifications

[dccarles]

In my free time I've been writing an alternative to Andrew Moffat-Vallance's very useful High Guard Shipyard, and I've run across a couple of minor ambiguities in Trillion Credit Squadron. In the absence of an official ruling, what I want to know is your opinion on how these ambiguities are to be resolved.

#1) Fuel Tank supports
"All costs and times are the same as those for interior demountable tanks, with an addition of a charge for exterior tank supports of Cr500 per ton." (p. 14)

"Drop tanks may be built onto a ship when it is originally produced at a cost of Cr10,000; they may be added to an existing ship at a cost of Cr1000 per ton. In both cases the tanks themselves must also be purchased at Cr1000 per ton." (p. 14)

Exterior demountable and drop tanks require tank supports, given at a cost per ton. The rules don't specify whether the cost is per ton of ship or per ton of supported fuel tank, though they seem to imply the latter. Which do you think it should be?

2) Crew for Backup Systems
Trillion Credit Squadron doesn't say whether or not backup systems require a crew allotment. Do they or don't they?

--Devin

 

[aramis]

Tonnage should be for the tankage.

Given that
(1) Backup drives are offline until used (bk2)
(2) drive tonnages are the basis for engineering crew rates (bk 5 and bk 2)

The case can be made that they shouldn't be counted. However, the formulae simply list "per ton of drives"... so by the strict rules, yes, they do require crew, since they still require maintenance and such.

 

[Icosahedron]

Can't help with TCS, I'm afraid, I'm not sufficiently familiar with it, but as a design request for your software:

HGS is, as you say, a very useful tool. It's only disadvantage for a houseruler such as myself, is that you can't customise it.

If you're going to the trouble of producing such an item, pretty please can you make it so its controlling functions are accessible and can be tweaked?

 

[The Oz]

Support for fuel tankage is by ton of fuel tank, I'd think.

As for the backups, since they don't use energy until in use I'd think they don't use crew until they're in use, although Aramis does have a point about maintenance.

Perhaps you could set a switch to make it change between methods as desired?

 

[dccarles]

Can't help with TCS, I'm afraid, I'm not sufficiently familiar with it, but as a design request for your software:

HGS is, as you say, a very useful tool. It's only disadvantage for a houseruler such as myself, is that you can't customise it.

If you're going to the trouble of producing such an item, pretty please can you make it so its controlling functions are accessible and can be tweaked?

That's one of the main reasons I'm writing an alternative. The source code (Java) will be included, so you can change anything you like, so long as you can put up with my monkeys-flinging-excrement coding style.

Perhaps you could set a switch to make it change between methods as desired?

I've thought of doing that. It is a trifle messy, though, but if people want it in, I'll put it in.

--Devin

 

[aramis]

That's one of the main reasons I'm writing an alternative. The source code (Java) will be included, so you can change anything you like, so long as you can put up with my monkeys-flinging-excrement coding style.



I've thought of doing that. It is a trifle messy, though, but if people want it in, I'll put it in.

--Devin

Just comment the heck out of it, and even the worst spaghetti code can be useful...

 

[Icosahedron]

That's one of the main reasons I'm writing an alternative. The source code (Java) will be included, so...

Hmm, maybe I should have said:

It's only disadvantage for a houseruler and non-programmer such as myself, is...

That's why I prefer spreadsheets.