Balance of different Traveller starship rules?

[Chuckster]

Hi. I'm returning to Traveller having not played it since the original Classic series. I'm particularly interested in revisiting starship building and checking out the different offerings over the years since the first booklets. I'd appreciate people's views on the pros and cons of the different offerings out there for combat starships by the various publishers: Mongoose, Brilliant Lance, GURPS, Megatraveller, T5 I believe the fleet level rules for starships are not out yet, etc. What kind of ship do the different rules sets favor? Light spinal mounted meson transported plantoids still rule?

I have even now memories of trying various home rule patches to get the original classical rules to function the way the ship designs as offered to work tactically in a supposed battle situation. Who has made the most balanced job since then do you think?

Will appreciate any input you may like to share, cheers.

 

[Ishmael]

imho, this is the best available although its not official.
"Fusion Guard" by Bruce Allan Macintosh, originally as a system for T4.1
You'll still need other rules to actually build the ships though.

http://webspace.webring.com/people/lc/ca_barnett/misc/mcp.txt

 

[aramis]

TO answer the OP's question

Some terms:

criticals: hits that have immediate effect on performance
Cumulative Criticals: Hits that don't immediately reduce performance rating don't add, but ones that do cumulatively degrade performance
Cumulative hits: hits that don't degrade performance still cumulate until performance drops.​

CT Bk2 only - Carriers at 5KTd (largest available hull). Damage is cumulative hits; B2 77, B2 81, and TTB are all minis on table; Stater is range bands but otherwise the same mechanics.

CT HG (Bk5) - 19KTd spinal mount ships - due to avoiding bonus to be hit, and having the ability to carry a large enough spinal to do much damage. Damage is cumulative criticals.

MT HG - same as CT HG, for the same reasons; it's just a task system and design system change... However, due to some glitches in the design system, armor can be a major problem, as only price limits it... but meson guns ignore it, so it's a minor-issue for TL 13+.


TNE - Brilliant Lances and the TNE Core Rules both support bigger is better in terms of firepower; a practical cap for warships of about 50KTd due to radiator area exists. Really big ships lack sufficient surface area for radiators and weapons, but can carry massive armor. Fuel limits on maneuver make armor even more critical. Damage is cumulative criticals mode for BL and the Core Rules; Major crits only for Battle Rider.

T4 - all the same issues of TNE, coupled to a really vague non-tactical-feeling combat system... the surface area issue is the same.

T20 - The true queens of battle are several hundred KTd... The largest spinals, on a J6 frame, plenty of armor, and usually fighters as well. And a combat system that actually provides for cumulative hits, not just cumulative crits. Still, most ships are taken out by cumulative crits, and the advantage of the 19KTd self-mobile spinal is still present.

MGT Core Only - Cumulative Crits and cumulative hull hits, and small ships, with range band combat. Advantage goes to him with the most guns, but the best way to insure you keep the most guns is to have them on multiple ships. Given that the peak hull is 2500Td, the best break-even seems to be about 600-1000 Td; bigger is less survivable, but kills quicker. 2 hits to a system takes it out, so two PP hits, and even the biggest ship is toast. Armor limited by TL, rather than size, and is percentage of hull, not thickness of armor.

MGT HG (Bk2) - Still cumulative crits, but also with cumulative hits to hull, section by section. Still only takes two successful lucky hits to take out a ship's PP, rendering it a combat kill.

GT: Cumulative hits to systems, IIRC. Big numbers. Due to the armor rules, bigger ships can be particularly tough nuts to crack, so I suspect the general proviso is "Bigger is better", but I don't play GURPS anymore, and haven't looked at the volume to damage ratios for spinals, etc.

 

[Chuckster]

Wow. Thank Aramis! I'll have to get with the acronyms. I'm going to spend time on Mongoose's stuff first, have their High Guard and Trillion Credit Squadron, though I also have access to Brilliant Lance and Megatraveller. I'll stick with TL 15 for my first passes.

CT HG (Bk5) - 19KTd spinal mount ships - due to avoiding bonus to be hit, and having the ability to carry a large enough spinal to do much damage. Damage is cumulative criticals.

Yes, have a proper understanding of this and nice to see I'm on the same page as you at least Aramis.

 

[Chuckster]

And I've discovered the abbreviations sticky above...