Non OTU: A jump shuttle for the cutter

[mike wightman]

Because ships in the 100t to 1000t range need a minimum of 20t for all the minor things not in the LBB2 or HG design system and yet are still vital parts of the ship.

According to LBB2:

The Bridge: All ships must allocate 2% of their tonnage (minimum 20 tons)
to basic controls, communications equipment, avionics, scanners, detectors, sensors,
and other equipment for proper operation of the ship.

Now the actual control space 'bridge' area for a 200-1000t only requires two workstations, one for the pilot and one for the navigator - the 100t scout/courier deckplans includes a two man workstation bridge when only one station is actually required.
Larger bridge crews don't kick in until 1000+ tons - and a bigger bridge is needed in the design sequence.

The alternative is to account for every workstation, sensor, communication system etc - and in most design systems that do not offer a 20t bridge minimum there is still a minimum size for all of the equipment needed. One of the first things I did to simplify MT ship construction was to put together standard control, sensor and environmental system packages, which I continued to do in FF&S.

One of my favourite ship design systems is the one in GT:ISW and it has several bridge size options with sensors being accounted for separately. These rules can be easily ported to HG '80.

 

[aramis]

Hmm - what exactly does a non-OTU tag mean?
Does it mean we are still bound to rule system canon? Which rule system version?

It means, explicitly, "Arguing from OTU-Canon is off topic and may be infracted"
As for rules, that puts it into "Whatever ruleset the OP has specified" in this case, looking for feedback on a clearly HG 2E design.

To my mind the 20t bridge minimum has always made sense.
It is the minimum size for:
control systems
cockpit/bridge workstations
avionics
sensors
grav plates
heat management
atmosphere/water system
acceleration compensators
ship's locker
airlocks

The design systems that reduce or remove the minimum bridge size often require you to account for all of those components.

I'm in the crowd of "Sensors are part of the computer" crowd.
AG/IC are part of the maneuver drives in CT. Not quite explicitly, but the adventures show this to have been RAI.

Airlocks in CT designs aren't covered anywhere else...

 

[mike wightman]

I would have to disagree with "AG/IC are part of the maneuver drives in CT. Not quite explicitly, but the adventures show this to have been RAI" since all the CT adventures and S:7 mention that the AG/IC is built into the floor plates - not accounted for in the m-drive, especially since the x-boat has AG and no m-drive. Further discussion on that topic should get its own thread. Note that I used to consider them part of the m-drive too, but later rule sets showed them to be separate systems.

Splitting the bridge between the cutter and its jump shuttle is quite an neat solution, but since the OP design allocates a full 20t bridge to the jump shuttle it obeys the letter of the HG '80 rules.

I wonder why you would want to shift a 50t cutter using such an jump shuttle, but if you can ship 5 ten ton fighters in place of the cutter...

is it worth considering modular add-ons to small craft that can make them jump capable?

The 95t shuttle has 71 tons of cargo - stick a jump module in the cargo hold that extends 5t outside the shuttle.

I wonder if this could be used in a setting where ships are cannibalised from derelicts or a ship graveyard.

 

[GypsyComet]

Late to the dance, but I would build the Jump Shuttle at 100 tons so it could add "jumping to retrieve a lost Cutter" to its resume'.

 

[Carlobrand]

...I wonder why you would want to shift a 50t cutter using such an jump shuttle, but if you can ship 5 ten ton fighters in place of the cutter...

The original idea was several of the warships carry small craft, presumably for orbit-to-ground errands or ship-to-ship errands. The 50 dT cutter is a reasonably common design, and there's a 50 dT fighter and a 50 dT troop transport, so they seem to like the 50 dT figure as a standard for small craft. If something comes up and you find yourself alone and in a pickle, your ship unable to jump and in need of rescue, carrying one of these along gives you the option to take one of those other boats, lock the shuttle onto it, and then send the combination off to go get help for the stricken ship.

A ship would only need to carry one to be able to have that as an alternative in a tight spot, and since they're the same size as the other 50 dT craft, there's no need for modification of the existing boat bays or launch facilities.

Other uses would be more a case of some naval base deciding, "Well, we've got the things, might as well put some of them to use." Otherwise a garden variety scout/courier or free trader does a better job. I can't really see a use for a fighter transport that gets stranded if one of the five fighters gets fried in a fight. For just hauling fighters around, I hire or draft a local subsidized merchant.

...I wonder if this could be used in a setting where ships are cannibalised from derelicts or a ship graveyard.

Ooh, that would be cool. I wonder if you could work it into an adventure where the players are doing the cannibalizing.

Late to the dance, but I would build the Jump Shuttle at 100 tons so it could add "jumping to retrieve a lost Cutter" to its resume'.

See above. If I have the dimensions right, I think I could hire the subsidized merchant to go retrieve a cutter too. I think the cargo bay's big enough. Makes a nice adventure hook, and it throws work at the subsidized merchants. Gives my Imperium a reason to issue those contracts - saves them from having to build and maintain a ship for those occasional jobs.

 

[GypsyComet]

I think I could hire the subsidized merchant to go retrieve a cutter too. I think the cargo bay's big enough. Makes a nice adventure hook, and it throws work at the subsidized merchants. Gives my Imperium a reason to issue those contracts - saves them from having to build and maintain a ship for those occasional jobs.

If cutters are the largest that would need retrieval of this sort, take the CT examples already cited early on (SDB Jump Shuttle, Supp9 "Jump Ship", and Gazelle) and borrow the external grapple from TNE/T4/MGT for installation on any ship with enough spare jump capacity. Five tons of grapple makes nearly any ship with J2 or better an auxiliary retrieval vessel AND a jump tug the rest of the time.

 

[mike wightman]

Since this is a non-OTU thread have you considered having several of these grapple onto larger ships in order to shift them through jump space?

 

[Carlobrand]

Since this is a non-OTU thread have you considered having several of these grapple onto larger ships in order to shift them through jump space?

Uh ... you know, it never occurred to me to try using several ships to jump one ship. My initial reaction is a cold chill across my spine at the thought of trying to get several fields to work together without having the thing end up misjumping in pieces into different systems. But, that would be a heck of an adventure, whether it worked or not.

 

[Brandon C]

Uh ... you know, it never occurred to me to try using several ships to jump one ship. My initial reaction is a cold chill across my spine at the thought of trying to get several fields to work together without having the thing end up misjumping in pieces into different systems. But, that would be a heck of an adventure, whether it worked or not.

Make sure they are using refined fuel in their well-maintained jump drives

 

[GypsyComet]

My initial reaction is a cold chill across my spine at the thought of trying to get several fields to work together without having the thing end up misjumping in pieces into different systems. But, that would be a heck of an adventure, whether it worked or not.

It has been (MT, from DGP). Ticklish tuning and a lot of finger-crossing in the OTU, but not beyond the pale for a reasonable Ship's Engineer.

It might be harder or easier in an ATU.

 

[whartung]

I have no problem with "Jump Shuttles" but they need to carry the entirety of the fuel load. Jump take an extraordinary amount of fuel over a short time. If you want to have the ship to be jumped specifically designed to work wth the jump shuttle, you'll need large connectors to join the fuel system together and move the volume of fuel necessary.

 

[mike wightman]

Or you could use drop tanks...