Salvage ships

[Adam Dray]

I'm running a salvage campaign. Where can I find great salvage ship designs and/or deck plans? Preferably compatible with Cepheus Engine / MgT1, but beggars can't be choosers.

I know about the Vulture Class ship in Drinax.

 

[Adam Dray]

Found the 800dT Cortez Class on the wiki.
Found the 400dT Ocklosh Class on the wiki.
Found the 1000dT Sheridan Class mentioned on the wiki, but don't know where it comes from. Pointers?
Found the 2000dT Gerushiirarmu Class on the web.
Found the 400dT Vulture Class from the old Traders & Gunboats supplement (different than the one in Drinax).
Found the 1200dT Labourer Class from T&G.
Found the 300dT Bug Class from Scoundrel.

 

[coliver988]

I've got some deck plans from a Kickstarter. if you search you can find the artist. His site also includes the minis. Not exactly Traveller (not nearly enough fuel tankage of course) but a cool ship (it is actually in my last Traveller game, hoping to continue that at some point):

The Kagekumo (or “Shadow spider”) class is a salvage ship. Though ostensibly designed for commercial use, this large industrial craft has become a favorite of pirates and reavers.

Huge ship about 5K dTons or so based on the registered tonnage.

 

[Garnfellow]

I think Hero Traveller and a couple other sources suggest that the old Type P corsair was originally designed as a salvage ship.

 

[mike wightman]

That was a GURPS Traveller invention and doesn't actually stand up to scrutiny. The Corsair as detailed in S4 is a specially designed bespoke pirate vessel, no mention of it being based on a salvage ship.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

The venerable Express Boat Tender from CT S7?

 

[Silverhawk]

The venerable Express Boat Tender from CT S7?

The idea of just that sort of use for the Express Boat Tender has passed my mind from time to time.

 

[coliver988]

The venerable Express Boat Tender from CT S7?

That would make a good salvage ship.

 

[Timerover51]

See pages 22 and 23 in Supplement 9: Fighting Ships, which discusses the Jump Ship.

Comments: The jump ship is designed to provide maximum flexibility in interstellar transportation. As built, it is capable of jump-6 and 1-G. Special field cables attached to the rear of the ship extend the ship's jump field to include this additional cargo. Alterations in displacement will affect the size of the jump itself, but the amount of cargo carried can be varied to fit the needs.

Capabilities: For each 1,000 tons of cargo carried in the mesh cables behind the ship, jump is decreased by one. Thus, if the 5,000-ton ship carries 1,000 tons behind it, it can only perform jump-5. If it carries 5,000 tons behind it, it can only perform jump-1. In all cases, the internal fuel tankage of the ship (3,300 tons) is sufficient to support the jump.

The picture with the description shows the ship hauling a cargo of what looks like very small asteroids or rocks. Presumably, it could haul and jump with salvaged ships as long as they are less than 5,000 dTons.

 

[Adam Dray]

Thanks! I'll take a look.

I just custom-built a 400dT salvage "Scorpion Class" hauler that can drag an additional 600dT and still make jump-1 and maneuver-1, or jump-3, maneuver-3 unloaded (J-Drive F, M-Drive F, P-Plant F). Cepheus Engine rules...

Scorpion Class salvage hauler
400dT (Streamlined Hull 4, Structure 4, Self-healing)
Titanium Steel Armor (Armor 4)

Jump Drive F
Maneuver Drive F
Power Plant F
Fuel: 114 tons (one jump at 1000dT plus one week operation)
Fuel Processors (5 tons/day)

Model 2/bis Computer (with Auto Repair program x2 attempts)
Standard Electronics
4 Staterooms (1 for captain, 3 double occupancy for crew)
Engineering/Science Lab
Ship's Locker
4 Hardpoints: Two Giant Claws (fore), Two Single Turrets (one fore, one aft)
Fore Turret holds a Pulse Laser
Cargo Bay: 120 tons

Total Displacement Allocated: 391 dT

Cost New: 172.54 MCr

 

[Condottiere]

Salvage could be onsite, so basically lots of turretted laser drills and fusion guns, and mining drones.

I kinda suspect you need a tow line plus the jump net, or if you have a jump bubble, external container ship or even a battle rider tender.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

I just custom-built a 400dT salvage "Scorpion Class" hauler that can drag an additional 600dT and still make jump-1 and maneuver-1, or jump-3, maneuver-3 unloaded (J-Drive F, M-Drive F, P-Plant F). Cepheus Engine rules...

Cepheus has no rules for carrying external craft. I would use the rules from MgT1 for that, since that is what Cepheus is based upon.

MgT1 has Docking Clamps:

A single 20 Dton clamp would enable carrying a single ship of to 600 Dt.
A 10 Dt and a 20 Dt clamp would enable carrying one or two ships of up to 600 Dt total.



Nitpicking:

The ship is underfueled: It needs 120 Dt to jump, and at least 12 Dt for two weeks of PP fuel. If it is to remain on station, to assess or repair a wreck, it probably needs more PP fuel.

The fuel purifier is under-dimensioned. At 5 Dt/day it would take 24 days to purify a single jumps worth of fuel. If you want to jump more often than once a month, you need a bigger plant.

"Standard" electronics is mostly intended for small craft, default for small civilian ships is "Basic". See Merchants, p141-142.

 

[whartung]

So, just what is worth salvaging off of a ship.

I can't imagine the hull has any real value, especially if breeched. Do you think there's a market for scrapped hulls? I just don't think the Galaxy is that resource starved, and I'm under the impression that the hull materials (like uber super duper McDenisity dense dense hulls) are hard to work with, and perhaps just plain easier to make outright than fix and cut and weld.

So, clearly:

o Avionics
o Computers
o Weapons
o Turrets (even with out weapons)
o Power Plant, sure.
o M-Drive and J-Drive? Probably.
o Fridge and microwave in the galley? Unlikely

Just seems to me it would make more sense to simply strip the ship in place and take the "meaty bits" and leave the hull and it's bloated, empty tanks behind.

 

[willtron3030]

So, just what is worth salvaging off of a ship.

I can't imagine the hull has any real value, especially if breeched. Do you think there's a market for scrapped hulls? I just don't think the Galaxy is that resource starved, and I'm under the impression that the hull materials (like uber super duper McDenisity dense dense hulls) are hard to work with, and perhaps just plain easier to make outright than fix and cut and weld.

If I were a scavenger from a lower TL who may not be able to make the hull material, but can cut the hull material with some effort (or help), I'd love slabs of hull metal to use as the front glacis of some up-armored tanks, and maybe in some fixed gun emplacements.

 

[Adam Dray]

I am totally leaving the "what do we salvage and how do we sell it?" to the group, so you don't need to sell me on anything. They'll determine their own strategy and pursue it from the start, where they have to examine a dozen broken-down ships and figure out which one to buy and fix.

They might not want a "tug" style boat. They might just want something small and maneuverable with enough cargo to hold the electronics and hub caps they take.

I just need a bunch of salvage ship examples. I plan to go look at them, re-create them in CE rules as closely as possible, but create a few mods here and there. (I hate the "standardized" Imperium, so IMTU I tend to create variants.)

Also, I'm well-versed in the various versions of the rules out there, and I own literally everything published for CE and a tremendous portion of the official and 3P Traveller stuff. I'm just having a hard time sifting through the mountain of pages to find what I need.

 

[Adam Dray]

Nitpicking:

The ship is underfueled: It needs 120 Dt to jump, and at least 12 Dt for two weeks of PP fuel. If it is to remain on station, to assess or repair a wreck, it probably needs more PP fuel.

The fuel purifier is under-dimensioned. At 5 Dt/day it would take 24 days to purify a single jumps worth of fuel. If you want to jump more often than once a month, you need a bigger plant.

"Standard" electronics is mostly intended for small craft, default for small civilian ships is "Basic". See Merchants, p141-142.

Are you looking at the same Cepheus Engine Core Rules as I?

"Fuel needed for a Jump depends on the size of the ship and the length of the Jump and is calculated as 0.1 x Hull tonnage x Jump distance. A single Jump of that distance consumes that much fuel."

So, for a 400 dT ship clamped to another 600 dT ship, for a total 1000 dT, needs 100 tons of fuel for a jump.

"The amount of fuel required by the power plant depends on the tonnage of the power plant itself, and is calculated as one-third of the power plant tonnage per week, rounded down to the nearest ton. Space-faring vessels require a minimum of two weeks’ worth of fuel for the power plant."

Power plant F is 22 tons. One-third of that is 7 tons of fuel per week. Two weeks of fuel is 14 tons.

I realize I mistranscribed my notes, which say two weeks (14) and one jump (100). I wrote "one week" in the ship stats, above. But the fuel calculations are correct, right?

 

[Adam Dray]

Salvage could be onsite, so basically lots of turretted laser drills and fusion guns, and mining drones.

I kinda suspect you need a tow line plus the jump net, or if you have a jump bubble, external container ship or even a battle rider tender.

I imagine any kind of tug as having some kind of partial-enclosure shape. For the Scorpion, I was envisioning a fairly flat ship with a "tail" at a right-angle to the rest of the ship. That plate allows a bit of a "nook" to set a captive ship on and produce the jump bubble around it.

I suspect I should revisit the "streamlined" bit and cross it off, though.

 

[Proneutron]

So, just what is worth salvaging off of a ship.

I can't imagine the hull has any real value, especially if breeched.

A hull breach would be one of the easiest/cheapest things to repair. Functionally simple compared to MD, PP, JD, avionics, LS equipment, sensors, et al. Only fuel tanks would be cheaper probably.

 

[McPerth]

Thanks! I'll take a look.

I just custom-built a 400dT salvage "Scorpion Class" hauler that can drag an additional 600dT and still make jump-1 and maneuver-1, or jump-3, maneuver-3 unloaded (J-Drive F, M-Drive F, P-Plant F). Cepheus Engine rules...

I don't know about CE, but on MgT1 rules I'd add a machine shop at least...

Are you looking at the same Cepheus Engine Core Rules as I?

"Fuel needed for a Jump depends on the size of the ship and the length of the Jump and is calculated as 0.1 x Hull tonnage x Jump distance. A single Jump of that distance consumes that much fuel."

So, for a 400 dT ship clamped to another 600 dT ship, for a total 1000 dT, needs 100 tons of fuel for a jump.

Yes, 100 tons of fuel would allow it a J1 as 1000 tonnes ship, but will not a J3 as a 400 dton ship (it would need 120, as AnotherDilbert says)

 

[Adam Dray]

Yes, 100 tons of fuel would allow it a J1 as 1000 tonnes ship, but will not a J3 as a 400 dton ship (it would need 120, as AnotherDilbert says)

Oh! I missed the "x Jump distance" bit in the first paragraph. Thanks!

So adding 20 tons of fuel capacity, and a little more scrubber capacity to match (I want it to be able to refuel in one day) will fix it all.