A2Lm "stretched" Far Trader (Multi) - 300dT

[madmike]

My version of the stretched Far Trader as presented on Freelance Traveller.

This version is a multi-use version, able to carry a good load of cargo and six high passage passengers.

The modern day equivalent for this version of Far Trader are ocean going freighters that offer limited passenger accommodation for passengers whose destination coincides with the ships scheduled route.

Comments welcome

Type A2Lm "stretched" Far Trader (Multi) - 300dT

Ship: Far Trader (Cargo) "stretched"
Class: Type A2long (Multi)
Type: A2Lm
Architect: MJohnson
Tech Level: 14

USP
AL2-34222S1-030000-30000-0 MCr 131.378 300 Tons
Bat Bear 1 1 Crew: 8
Bat 1 1 TL: 14

Cargo: 97.500 Passengers: 6 Crew Sections: 1 of 8 Fuel: 66 EP: 6 Agility: 1
Craft: 1 x 3T Air/Raft
Fuel Treatment: Fuel Scoops and On Board Fuel Purification

Architects Fee: MCr 1.314 Cost in Quantity: MCr 105.102

Detailed Description
(High Guard Design)

HULL
300.000 tons standard, 4,200.000 cubic meters, Close Structure Configuration

CREW
Pilot, Navigator, 2 Engineers, Medic, Steward, 2 Gunners

ENGINEERING
Jump-2, 2G Manoeuvre, Power plant-26.000 EP, Agility 1

AVIONICS
Bridge, Model/2bis Computer

HARDPOINTS
3 Hardpoints

ARMAMENT
1 Dual Beam Laser Turret organised into 1 Battery (Factor-3), 1 Triple Empty Turret

DEFENCES
1 Dual Sandcaster Turret organised into 1 Battery (Factor-3)

CRAFT
1 3.000 ton Air/Raft (Crew of 0, Cost of MCr 0.000)

FUEL
66 Tons Fuel (2 parsecs jump and 28 days endurance)
On Board Fuel Scoops, On Board Fuel Purification Plant

MISCELLANEOUS
14 Staterooms, 1 Low Berth, 6 High Passengers, 97.500 Tons Cargo

COST
MCr 132.692 Singly (incl. Architects fees of MCr 1.314), MCr 105.102 in Quantity

CONSTRUCTION TIME
71 Weeks Singly, 57 Weeks in Quantity

COMMENTS
Third (empty) dorsal turret is typically configured for triple missile launchers. This turret is controlled from the bridge.
The iris valve entry to the passengers, like all off limits areas to the ship, is only able to be opened by crew.

Component breakdown

HULL
Hull: 0.000 Td; MCr 18.000
Armour Factor-0: 0.000 Td; MCr 0.000

ENGINEERING
M-Drive Factor-2: 15.000 Td; MCr 10.500
J-Drive Factor-2: 9.000 Td; MCr 36.000
P-Plant Factor-2: 12.000 Td; MCr 36.000; +6.000 EP

FUEL
P-Fuel: 6.000 Td; MCr 0,000
J-Fuel: 60.000 Td; MCr 0.000
Scoops: 0.000 Td; MCr 0.300
Purification: 4.000 Td; MCr 0.028
L-Hyd Drop Tanks: 0.000 Td; MCr 0.000

AVIONICS
Bridge: 20.000 Td; MCr 1.500
Computer Model/2bis: 2.000 Td; MCr 18.000; -0 EP

WEAPONRY
1 x Empty Turrets: 1.000 Td; MCr 0.000
1 x Laser Turrets: 1.000 Td; MCr 2.000; -2 EP
1 x Sand Turrets: 1.000 Td; MCr 0.500

SCREENS

CRAFT
1 x Air/Raft: 3.000Td; MCr 0.000; Cost of craft: MCr 0.000

ACCOMODATIONS
14.0 x Staterooms (17) : 36.000 Td; MCr 8.500
1 x Low Berths: 0.500 Td; MCr 0.050
Cargo: 97.500 Td; MCr 0.000

Deck Plan Key

Lower Deck

1. Bridge
2. Computer
3. Captains day cabin (or spare stateroom – can be double occupancy)
4. Foyer
5. Kitchenette and duty fresher
6. Starboard airlock
7. Starboard turret
8. Starboard equipment store
9. Starboard cargo lock
10. Starboard access corridor
11. Starboard sensors
12. Starboard maintenance access
13. Starboard fuel scoop and fuel purifier
14. Lower engineering
15. Port fuel scoop and fuel purifier
16. Port maintenance access
17. Port access corridor
18. Port sensors
19. Port cargo lock
20. Port equipment store
21. Port turret
22. Port Airlock
23. Cargo office
24. Low berth
25. Medical centre
26. Ships locker
27. Captain’s stateroom
28. Forward Cargo Ramp
29. Main (lower) cargo deck

Upper Deck

30. Upper engineering
31. Fuel
32. Passenger lounge
33. Passenger stateroom (high passage) (6)
34. Passenger galley
35. Crew Lounge
36. Crew stateroom (5)
37. Crew gallery

 

[BlackBat242]

Isn't this the same ship as in your previous thread of the same name?

{edit: Oh, I see... multi-use variant vs the earlier cargo variant.}

 

[rancke]

Isn't this the same ship as in your previous thread of the same name?

{edit: Oh, I see... multi-use variant vs the earlier cargo variant.}

I use freighter for primarily cargo ships, liner for primarily passenger ships, and merchant for the equally cargo and passenger ships (Could use a better term for the last one, but can't think of one).


Hans

 

[rancke]

When you begin needing four letters to distinguish the type, maybe it's time to consider it an entirely new type.

The following isn't canon, it's just my take on just what is meant by a ship type. I think it works fairly well with canon, although I won't rule out the possibility that somewhere there's a bit of text that contradicts it.

A ship type is a set of major specifications: Hull size, streamlining (but not shape), drives and power plants, etc. Two different ship classes that both meet those specs both belong to that type.

I think a 300T ship type would rate a new letter combination even if one of the ship classes belonging to it is inspired by one of the ship classes belonging to type A.

YMMV.


Hans

 

[madmike]

I did think of a new classification number but decided on the standard classification that LBB2 used. These are stretched designs of the standard A2 Far Trader and as per stretched variations of modern airliners keep the standard designation with subtype to describe the variation.

So, type A2Lm Type A2 stretched Far Trader (multi). Perhaps merchanter might be a more appropriate description?

 

[Dragoner]

Another very nice ship, thanks!

 

[aramis]

I use freighter for primarily cargo ships, liner for primarily passenger ships, and merchant for the equally cargo and passenger ships (Could use a better term for the last one, but can't think of one).


Hans

Merchantman is the term equivalent to Liner and Freighter in normal use.

 

[Rigel Stardin]

Noticed that there is no elevator on the top deck.

outstanding work on both designs..

 

[madmike]

Noticed that there is no elevator on the top deck.

outstanding work on both designs..

Thanks

In regards to the elevator, passengers enter and exit the passenger area via the elevator in the crew area, similar to the A2 200dT design.

 

[Rigel Stardin]

Sorry, I took a quick glance and was looking for it in a different area.

The dreaded V-Day is upon us, and the wife wasn't happy she didn't get a second card and candy.

 

[rancke]

Merchantman is the term equivalent to Liner and Freighter in normal use.

As I said, I'd like to come up with a better word. Liners are mostly for passengers, freighters are mostly for freight. What would be a good word for something in between?


Hans

 

[madmike]

Merchanter perhaps? Bit of both.

 

[rancke]

I did think of a new classification number but decided on the standard classification that LBB2 used. These are stretched designs of the standard A2 Far Trader and as per stretched variations of modern airliners keep the standard designation with subtype to describe the variation.

So, type A2Lm Type A2 stretched Far Trader (multi). Perhaps merchanter might be a more appropriate description?

Up to you, of course, but it's not really a stretched variation any more than a 300T globe is a stretched version of a 200T globe. That neat little drawing at the bottom of your deckplans shows it clearly; the hull is both longer AND broader. (But perhaps this is a quibble?)

Even if it is a stretched version, your excellent design is still only a stretched version of one out of what must be dozens of different Type A2 far trader design; the one we happen to have deck plans for. I don't believe it's a strecthed variant of every existing Type A2 far trader design. I simply don't believe that in all of the Imperium, only one 200T design with Jump2 and 1G maneuver exist. I believe that there must be scores and hundreds and... well, maybe not thousands... of different 200T designs with jump2 and 1G, and while they would all be different classes, they would (I think) all be Type A2s. If that were not so, the Imperium would run out of two-letter type designations pretty quick and be up to five or six letters[*].

[*] Total guesstimate.​

The fact that we only have deck plans for one Type A2 design is simply because Traveller publishers over the years have not seen any need to publish more than one, or at least a greater need to do something else with the available pages.

I don't think a stretched Type A2 ship would be any sort of Type A2 ship itself. Any 300T ship would be a different type from any 200T ship.

Mind you, I'm not claiming that this was what GDW had in mind from the start. I suspect that if it had been, they'd've come up with another designation for the Type A2. What I think is that they didn't spend much time mulling over the ramifications of having hundreds or thousands of shipyards churning out ships from one end of the Imperium to another. Yes, the Empress Marava Class Far Trader may well be the most widepread of all such designs, but I simply refuse to believe that it would be the only one.


Hans

 

[DaveChase]

Entrepreneur


Dave Chase

 

[aramis]

As I said, I'd like to come up with a better word. Liners are mostly for passengers, freighters are mostly for freight. What would be a good word for something in between?


Hans

Merchantman. it's the generic term for a commercial shipping vessel.
You stated you used "Merchant"... which is technically the guy who operates a merchantman. (Yes, they're bass-ackwards from their apparent meanings, but hey! It's English! Weirder stuff happens than that in English.)

Really, there isn't a good term for a mixed design.

 

[Ran Targas]

The term in the airline industry is a "combi" as in combination. They are normally found supporting small cities that can't generate enough passengers or freight to warrant full service. Also, remember that most passenger airliners carry a lot of freight in their belly compartments; it helps them make ends meet. Delta for example offers a freight service on almost all their domestic flights called Delta Dash; you just drop it off at their office near the airport and they do the rest.

 

[madmike]

Up to you, of course, but it's not really a stretched variation any more than a 300T globe is a stretched version of a 200T globe. That neat little drawing at the bottom of your deckplans shows it clearly; the hull is both longer AND broader. (But perhaps this is a quibble?)

It is stretched and slightly broader. Effectively it is a new and bigger version of the venerable A2.

I looked at both options carefully when providing a designation, even toying with a class name. I feel, though, a class name would be inappropriate for a Far Trader type that might be built in numbers counted in tens of thousands at hundreds if not thousands of shipyards throughout Imperial space.

I went down the classification route. Another example is the F-18E/F Super hornet. Same designation as the legacy Hornet but definitely a physically bigger version of the earlier fighter.

I did want the link to the original LBB's though, for the reasons I mentioned earlier.

Choices, choices

Got to love Traveller!

Merchantman. it's the generic term for a commercial shipping vessel.
You stated you used "Merchant"... which is technically the guy who operates a merchantman. (Yes, they're bass-ackwards from their apparent meanings, but hey! It's English! Weirder stuff happens than that in English.)

Really, there isn't a good term for a mixed design.

So true. As I mentioned earlier; in the now cargo, vessels can and do carry small numbers of passengers along their designated cargo routes. A bit more income for ship upkeep. Russian registered cargo ships or freighters seem to do this a lot.

I used "multi" to separate my early cargo only design with the multi cargo/passenger design.

It is great to talk about this...

 

[Selandia]

In the days before airlines, when intercontinental shipping was the only intercontinental way to travel, like interstellar shipping is the only way to go interstellar:

Liner: passengers or cargo, ships working on a schedule (a line), nearly every ship carried cargo and passengers, although some carried enough passengers to be subjected (starting in the late XIX century) to special manning and security regulations. Those were known as Passengers ships, and if working a line as Passengers liners. In some case, like the United Fruit "banana boats", or the refrigerated meat carriers running between Britain and the River Plate, they were not commonly referred to as passengers liner even if conforming to Psg ship reg, but as Mixed liner for a better description of their cargo and passengers capabilities. The Canadian National banana boats running between Montreal and the Caribbeans were advertised as Passengers liners to market passengers capability for tourist travel. If not conforming to regs for the carriage of passengers, liners were referred to as cargo liner

Free trader OTU are like Tramps of yesteryears.

The OTU does not have significant regulations relevant to the carriage of passengers, save a commercial standard of steward for high passengers. Passenger or Cargo liner are essentially commercial designations in OTU.

Selandia

 

[madmike]

In regards to passengers, there would definitely be varying levels of high passage. A dedicated passenger liner would have a far higher level of high passage than a far trader would have in general.

I must admit that with my A2Lm, the temptation to make the passenger arrangement purely mid passage does remain strong. The galley arrangement would suit that also, as passengers can heat and eat or prepare a meal from scratch if desired. The drop in revenue would be offset by not requiring a steward.

 

[Selandia]

Indeed

lost revenues: difference in price of passage 6 x 2,000 = 12,000 x 2 passage/mth

saving, steward salaries = 3,000/mth

new revenues,
-from the former steward cabin = 8,000 x 2 passage/month
-from luggage space re-assigned to cargo 5 x 1,000 = 5,000 x 2 passage/month

29,000 savings and new revenues vs 24,000 of lost revenues

Selandia