100Dton Light Merchant

[Brian Smaller]

Hi Chaps
Another deck plan done. The heavy merchant I promised is still a ways away. I might have bitten off more than I can chew with that one.

Until then though....full plans over at my blog.
http://woolshedwargamer.com/2014/08/19/banner-class-light-merchant-traveller/

Cheers
Brian

 

[Carlobrand]

Hmmm. Looks scoutish, doesn't carry enough to break even by freighting - is this a converted scout or a dedicated speculative trade design by one of the shipping companies?

 

[rancke]

Hmmm. Looks scoutish, doesn't carry enough to break even by freighting...

If it can find a contract to carry freight regularly it can do three jumps per month, making it able to turn a profit. It would be a very niche route¹, though, so it probably would have to be a one-off with no discount.

¹ * Regular year in, year out supply of freight each way between two worlds lying one parsec apart.
* Not enough freight to keep a bigger ship employed.
* One or both worlds unable to afford system defenses. ​

Hans

 

[Xerxeskingofking]

If it can find a contract to carry freight regularly it can do three jumps per month, making it able to turn a profit. It would be a very niche route¹, though, so it probably would have to be a one-off with no discount.

¹ * Regular year in, year out supply of freight each way between two worlds lying one parsec apart.
* Not enough freight to keep a bigger ship employed.
* One or both worlds unable to afford system defenses. ​

Hans

why would one of the worlds need to be unable to afford a defense fleet?


also, can I confirm that the design only has a single triple turret with a laser/missile/sandcaster? the way it's laid out, it looks like it has two turrets, though I am not really familiar with CT HG stat blocks.

 

[aramis]

why would one of the worlds need to be unable to afford a defense fleet?

If they can afford a defense fleet of 3+ Type T's, they can rotate them through cargo duty and/or afford to build one of these themselves and skip the merchants entirely.

 

[robject]

Here's a Traveller5 variant of your light merchant.

Trader A-AL22 Achilles MCr44

Using a 100-ton, TL12 hull, the Achilles Class Free Trader mounts jump drive-A, maneuver drive-A, and power plant-A, giving a performance of jump-2 and 2G acceleration. Fuel tankage supports a 1 parsec jump, at 10t per parsec, and one month of operations. Attached to the bridge is a Computer Model/1bis std. There are 7 staterooms and 2 low berths. Installed weaponry include 1 T3 Hybrid L-S-M. Cargo capacity is 21 tons. The ship has a lift body hull, with scoops, intakes, and bins for frontier refueling.

The ship has 3 crew, and can carry 4 passengers and 2 low passengers.


Crew comfort: +0
Passenger demand: +0

   Tons     Component                                MCr    Notes
-------     -----------------------------------    -----    --------------------
    100     Lift body Hull                            16    L
      1     Landing legs with pads                     1    
      1     Flotation hull                             1    
    0.5     Fins                                     0.2    
      0     AV=12. 1 Kinetic Plate                     0    
     10     Jump Fuel (1  parsec)                      0    1 parsec jump, at 10t per parsec
      2     Plant Fuel (one month)                     0    one month
      4     PowerPlant-2 (A)                           4    P 2
     10     Jump Drive-2 (A)                          10    J 2
      2     Maneuver Drive-2 (A)                       4    2 G
      1     Fuel Scoops                              0.1    
      1     Fuel Purifiers                           0.1    
      1     Fuel Intakes                             0.1    
      1     Fuel Bins                                0.1    
      1     Vd T3 Hybrid L-S-M                         2    
      1     Computer Model/1bis std                    3    
      6     Spacious Bridge                          0.4    2cc 0op 1ws
    0.5     Crew Shared Fresher                      0.5    4 crew
      6     3x Crew Stateroom                        0.3    #3 1 crew
      8     2x Crew Lounge                             0    #2 
      1     2x Low Berth                             0.2    #2 1 passenger
    0.5     Air Lock                                 0.1    
     21     Cargo Hold Basic                           0    
    0.5     Shared Fresher                           0.5    4 passengers
      8     4x Standard Stateroom                    0.4    #4 1 passenger
     12     3x Passenger Lounge                        0    #3

 

[aramis]

Doing the math... and trusting your price calculations
MCr37.724
Monthly Payments: Cr144,684 (rounded up to whole credit)
Fuel: Cr10,500/mo at 2 jumps/month; 15,500 at 3 jumps a month.
Crew: Pilot Cr5,000 Gunner Cr1,000
Income per jump: Cr74,000 maximum (Including a 5Td mail subsidy)
Add KCr6 per month for a factor at either end (KCr3 each for the combination of his office, housing and food if going for 3 jumps/month. Add warehousing {using C port secure/refer as the baseline} Cr540/week, for KCr2 per end. )

So...

With a 3j1/mo routing it needs about KCr176.2 per month in income. It can generate a maximum of KCr222 assuming 100% fill.

However, anyplace that needs 150Td/mo is better off letting a Type C do the run on a 2 week schedule with a once a month trip, because it can make money elsewhere on the other leg.

Without the mail, it only brings in KCr162/mo, and loses money hand-over-fist even on a 3 jumps a month run.


With standard 2/month, it needs KCr150.7, and generates 108 without mail, 148 with. again, losing money. (but close enough that a subsidy contract may be worthwhile.

 

[robject]

Doing the math... and trusting your price calculations

Wil, let's put this math into a web-enabled worksheet.

 

[aramis]

Wil, let's put this math into a web-enabled worksheet.

Ok. That's 4 hours of JS coding.
http://www.travellerrpg.com/tools/shipecon.html
Edit: now I am trying to make it so that the URL can populate the fields.
Edit: it seems to be working. The above design: http://www.travellerrpg.com/tools/shipecon0_2.shtml?bp=37.724?cp=1?cg=1?fj=10?fp=1?kt=54?

 

[rancke]

why would one of the worlds need to be unable to afford a defense fleet?

Otherwise the ship would not need to be armed. It would be an unnecessary expense.


Hans

 

[Timerover51]

I can see it working as basically a smaller subsidized merchant, owned by a small interstellar corporation for supplying a small colony, mine, or production plant one jump away from a larger population planet. Maybe from a Class A or B starport to a Class D or E one.

 

[selunatic2397]

My players captured a seeker and ended up using it for the jump from Hefry to Regina...

Just mail and incidental cargo...plus any gratuities for giving someone a lift...they gave it to a players retired merchant character...

Pretty much was a j1 merchant in how they used it, never made much credits but what the hay...it was free and only cost annual maintainance plus life support/fuel.

 

[martletsquire]

Regarding a need for armed merchants when a system can afford T type vessels, can you say... Pirates? Argh!

Seriously, though. Regarding the T types, for a decent system, standard vessel rotation will have one being fixed/updated/refitting/grounded for various reasons, one vessel working up to full status (finding out what did and didn't get fixed and fixing it), training new or old crew or on some bureaucratic assignment, while a whopping 1, count them 1, is truly available for anti-piracy work in... 1 system.

So, assuming that the above decent system has 3 T types, that means 1 is available for protection/escort/suppression work. Most likely, unless this same system has SDBs or lots of Fighters, means that the lonely T will be stuck in the parent system, only able to effectively protect only a portion of Home-World's orbitals, not including any in-system space infrastructure such as orbital extraction mines, research stations, habitats or such.

Okay, here's the point. I am a merchie out of said home system. Who protects me outside of the jump limit, or during heavy traffic, or at the other end? Armed Merchie makes sense to me.

And then there are those other systems that buy a squadron of T types. They can afford to buy, but not really maintain or properly crew them. Think small dictatorship. Or Iran in the '80s and '90s with their F-14s. Pretty to look at, but mosty hangar queens. Definitely need to have some guns aboard my merchie if I can get away with it.

And to the commercial viability of a 100t J1 merchie, well... All those great Victory ships of WW1 and Liberty ships of WWII were great for military cargos but sucked in comparison to regular freighters from a commercial standpoint. To make money off of a Liberty ship would require either a lack of regular merchant traffic or dealing in a niche market somewhere. Just look at today's world. Lots of room for big merchies plying the seas and making money. Also lots of need for little island-hopper freighters carrying smaller amounts of cargo on an as-needed basis.

So screw commercial viability. Go Navy! Maybe that same system with the 3 T types has a few 100 ton modified Scouts carrying cargo under arms as a naval merchant reserve, or maybe the IISS has a few to outfit all of the research labs and scout bases out there.

Just my Cr 0.02.

 

[rancke]

Regarding a need for armed merchants when a system can afford T type vessels, can you say... Pirates? Argh!

That's what the system defenses are for.

Seriously, though. Regarding the T types, for a decent system, standard vessel rotation will have one being fixed/updated/refitting/grounded for various reasons, one vessel working up to full status (finding out what did and didn't get fixed and fixing it), training new or old crew or on some bureaucratic assignment, while a whopping 1, count them 1, is truly available for anti-piracy work in... 1 system.

I usually consider a squadron of ships (8) to be needed to provide adequate coverage.

So, assuming that the above decent system has 3 T types, that means 1 is available for protection/escort/suppression work. Most likely, unless this same system has SDBs or lots of Fighters, means that the lonely T will be stuck in the parent system, only able to effectively protect only a portion of Home-World's orbitals, not including any in-system space infrastructure such as orbital extraction mines, research stations, habitats or such.

Oh sure. Mainworldd only until you get quite a few more ships.

Okay, here's the point. I am a merchie out of said home system. Who protects me outside of the jump limit, or during heavy traffic, or at the other end? Armed Merchie makes sense to me.

You jump when you reach the jump limit, heavy traffic implies a lot more commercial activity (and hence a lot more taxxpayers) than what is needed to support a squadron of Type T's, and on the other end the other system defenses will protect you.


Hans

 

[Brian Smaller]

You know - I never thought about how profitable the ship would or wouldn't be. As far as uses go - some of the comments above seem to be pretty practical - small subsidised runs, resupply of bases etc - sounds about right. Thanks for the input - got to love Travellers