Asteroid station - decisions decisions...

[Shadowrunner]

Seems there is a demand for large deckplans and I've found a bit of time to look at the asteroid station I started. I was reminded of the story of the Baron of Inchin in District 268, trying to build an A class starport on a desert planet, then having to haul fuel from the gas giant.

Wondering where exactly my asteroid station should be parked. On a big rock like Deimos? Or something more like Ceres, with ice and water? Or is this a vehicle or extensive customization of a smaller rock?

I was imagining my asteroid station deckplans will be somewhere between 20-100,000 tons. Deimos is 7 miles across and has no plentiful fuel supply. Ceres for example, is around 500-600 miles across and presumably has oceans and plenty of ice. The original plan was a small rock, around 100,000 tons perhaps, some parts of the station protuding of course.

 

[coliver988]

Depending on where in the belt this asteroid is, there could be nearby ice rocks or other sources of fuel. That would require fuel shuttles as well as a refinery of sorts for processing. So perhaps the asteroid station is spread out among several rocks. You could even move them closer depending on how you want to play that (well, in 8 more years that ice rock will be just half an hour away. Right now the shuttles take four or five hours to get out there).

(see the GURPS Glisten supplement if you can as it has some large asteroid cities and clusters; also, my Scout Way station write-up was based on having several asteroids used for various purposes, all within a couple hundred kilometers of each other).

 

[kilemall]

Depends on what the function of the station is.

Fuel station?
Planetary defense fort?
Asteroid exploitation /defense base?
Spacer habitat?
The starport itself?
High Guard/refinery over gas giant?

 

[Orr]

Like the others said, what is the station for? While form follows function, location follows function too.

 

[agorski]

There's always the hilariously retro dungeon design of Judge's Guild's Drakne Station.

 

[whartung]

I was imagining my asteroid station deckplans will be somewhere between 20-100,000 tons.

But, are plans necessary?

I mean, we have seen the AHL plans. And those are basically the "distinct" decks. There's, like, 20ish pages in that thing? But obviously a lot more decks. The regular nature of the ship makes this process workable.

But something like an Asteroid station. I just think more of things like village and city maps in fantasy games. Typically it's a high level, here's the streets, here's main street, this is the Sheepshead Tavern, here are the stables.

And, you know, there might be an internal floor map of Sheepshead tavern, being a key adventuring place. But the rest of the city? Floor maps of every individual house? Not so much.

But when I think of deck plans, I think of things like AHL, or the Starship Enterprise blueprints by Franz Joseph Designs (I had me a set of those Back In The Day).

And my basic point is that Adventure size deck plans are interesting like Adventure size plans for the Secret Lab Complex are interesting. Because the adventure is inside. Whereas, I dunno, decks of sleeping quarters. Empty, un-detailed sleeping quarters. Dunno. Just, not so much.

The scope is just too big, for me at least.

I know for my AHL set, I opened the plans, you know, once or twice. But that was about it. In then end, most any (and a wide variety of) actual game play would have been well accommodated on two or three of those maps.

 

[Orr]

But, are plans necessary?

Like you, I don't think so and for many of the reasons you note.

A member here recently posted about this topic at his blog:

https://talestoastound.wordpress.com/2018/03/27/more-on-pointcrawl-maps-from-diy-dragons/

After a certain size is reached, what are known as "point crawls" or "node maps" are much more useful. Just what that certain size is will depend on the group in question, of course.

The regular nature of the ship makes this process workable.

Making something "modular" does help. However, even "modular" constructions can be too big to bother fully detailing. Look at the Keiths' Sky Raider planetoid ship. They provided a few modular deckplans for various installations and explained how the living/ag "bubbles" were arranged. They then flatly stated that how everything was connected did not matter and that plans for every type of installation were not necessary.

I know for my AHL set, I opened the plans, you know, once or twice. But that was about it. In then end, most any (and a wide variety of) actual game play would have been well accommodated on two or three of those maps.

Again like you, I've used single pages or used parts of a page from the AHL set far more often than I've used multiple pages or used them as an AHL cruiser.

While all the mapping programs available these days makes creating huge deckplans easy, using those plans in actual play is still a problem.

 

[Shadowrunner]

I'm really grateful for a lot of ideas, I'm surprised. I love the idea of the shifting time length of the fuel journey.

It will definitely be modular but not as "lazy" as AHL. Some areas would be expandable e.g. cargo, fuel, parking and so on.

I guess the station is intended to be a neutral free trade zone between Zhodani and Imperial space. A tiny city with everything, a minor starport or waystation.

I did play AHL but there are a few things new to me, thank you for the links and references.

 

[Orr]

I love the idea of the shifting time length of the fuel journey.

I do too, but it works at Glisten because the belt there is settled to the tune of billions. If you shift the port to get closer to a new fuel source, you'll still be close to any number of habitats. Because your idea is a small, neutral, trade entrepot, I'd think it would be perched right on top of it's fuel source.

It will definitely be modular but not as "lazy" as AHL. Some areas would be expandable e.g. cargo, fuel, parking and so on.

Lazy or economical. Just because I used the AHL plans for more things than the actual AHL scenarios, it doesn't mean the product was bad.

I guess the station is intended to be a neutral free trade zone between Zhodani and Imperial space. A tiny city with everything, a minor starport or waystation.

All that just screams CERES instead of Deimos to me. They think it has more water than Earth does. Most of it is in the mantle and is solid, but you could drill down to it. There are also "ice volcanoes" which might be a good place to drill. Set up your mining & refining infrastructure and you'll be taping a resource larger than Earth's oceans but at the bottom of a much smaller gravity well.

 

[Shadowrunner]

Absolutely - economical, that's the word I'm looking for. I liked AHL, couldn't get lost, just I had a problem with 40 Zhodani Marines on level 38, otherwise I enjoyed that game.

I really like the Ceres-style idea, perhaps partly on the surface and partly subterranean in the ice and across crevices etc...the lower parts feeding on a warm ocean beneath the ice. Fairly low gravity of course, no need to refuel in the local gas giant and risk it's horrible escape velocity. There could also eventually be an orbital counterpart. The base still works in the ice as if in orbit, it will need airlocks, purifiers and LSS. Once again many thanks for the input! Will credit everyone of course.

 

[Orr]

Absolutely - economical, that's the word I'm looking for. I liked AHL, couldn't get lost, just I had a problem with 40 Zhodani Marines on level 38, otherwise I enjoyed that game.

LOL! Definitely! There are scenarios which end up with neither side wanting to move. I'm thinking of the hangar deck assault as part of the Bard Endeavor boarding. All of the Sollies enter through an exterior vehicle lock directly into the sunken fighter launch/handling "loop". While the Imps get a variable number of troops, they all start on the working floor above the loops. The Sollies are rats in a trap until they can climb out of the loop.

I really like the Ceres-style idea...

Glad to help in some small way.

... perhaps partly on the surface and partly subterranean in the ice and across crevices etc...

The ice is tens of kilometers deep. It's in the mantle below the crust. What was thought to be surface ice is now believed to be various salts. There should be ice in some polar craters thanks to the permanent shadows there. Whether that polar ice is enough to supply a fuel operation is your call.

There are also strong indications of ice volcanoes, mostly because water vapor has been detected. The ice versions of those volcanoes' "magma" chambers could be places to tap. Of course, those regions will also be geologically active!

... the lower parts feeding on a warm ocean beneath the ice.

The theorized liquid ocean is even deeper in the mantle than the ice. While Traveller's tech means you can reach it, it's still going to be relatively harder to get at the ocean than the trillions of tons of ice above it.

Fairly low gravity of course, no need to refuel in the local gas giant and risk it's horrible escape velocity.

Yes, very much so. More water than Earth and at the bottom of a smaller gravity well? Sounds good to me!

There could also eventually be an orbital counterpart. The base still works in the ice as if in orbit, it will need airlocks, purifiers and LSS.

ISTR seeing a diagram on-line featuring an "orbital" structure connected by a beanstalk to an "ice-teroid". ISTR the "ice-teroid" being called "The Pond". Sorry, but I can't remember more.

Once again many thanks for the input! Will credit everyone of course.

Again, glad to help. I'm a binocular-level amateur astronomy buff. My time off-shore gives me plenty of opportunities, so I read a lot about the objects I can potentially spot. Don't worry about giving me any "credit" either. I don't care about that and you would have figured all this stuff out anyway.

 

[Shadowrunner]

I think I would differ from the pointcrawl thread by saying we should map everything, but perhaps mapping areas in different scales is the answer. It doesn't need a full scale map of the ocean pipeline or monorail, perhaps the bits at either end and stops along the way. Some areas are modular perhaps, e.g. cargo and fuel.

I thought Ceres was like Europa, obviously not. Maybe also I believed "Europa Report" too much, they drilled that ice in no time. Polar ice doesn't sound like a business plan to me, but then my level of engineering is lego and airfix.

Loving the geological activity idea. Park here at your own risk.