Book 2 Ship Compartments

[whartung]

Stumbled across a an aspect I never paid attention to before.

Book 2 divides the ship into an Engineering and Main compartment. The drives and PP fit in the engineering compartment, the rest in everything else.

This seems to manifest in the standard hulls which dictate not just overall size, but compartment size.

For example, if you want a 100 ton J2/M2 ship, you can't use the stock 100 ton hull. The engineering compartment is too small and you must pony up the extra 8MCr for a custom hull.

Similarly, if you have a 400 tone ship with J2/M2, there's 5 tons remaining in the engineering compartment. No doubt it can be used for cargo (though RAW, the main is for "everything else", including fuel, so...who knows), but I'm guessing it can not be part of the contiguous cargo space on the ship. That is, you should divide your cargo into the main compartment cargo and the engineering compartment cargo. (I assume the engineering cargo is behind the firewall or some such thing, assuming it can be used for anything that is.)

On a 400 ton ship, the custom hull adds 24MCr to the price, and adds 2 months to the build time, not nothing to say the least.

I've never really bumped into this, curious if other have been impacted by the compartments in their designs.

 

[mike wightman]

Yes you can use a stock 100t hull for J2/M2 (or do you mean the 200t hull?)
100t splits as 85/15 - JDA+ PPA+ M DA =15t.

Also waste space in the engineering section can not be used for any other purpose, no fuel, no cargo, no frozen corpses, nothing. It can only be used if at some later date you get a bigger drive.

When hulls are constructed, they are divided into an engineering section
for the drives and the main compartment for everything else. All drives and power
plants must be located in the engineeringsection, and only drives and power plants
may be placed in that section. All other ship components, including fuel, cargo
hold, living space, and computer must be located in the main compartment.

 

[coliver988]

but that extra space is where the still goes! Engineers always have a still somewhere.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

For example, if you want a 100 ton J2/M2 ship, you can't use the stock 100 ton hull. The engineering compartment is too small and you must pony up the extra 8MCr for a custom hull.

Custom hulls cost a minimum of MCr 20, so a 100 Dt custom hull is MCr 18 more expensive than the standard hull. Basically thats not a realistic option.

 

[Nightwind1]

but that extra space is where the still goes! Engineers always have a still somewhere.

Especially on Scout ships.

 

[Enoki]

You could use the 'extra' engineering space for the ship's septic tank... Now you have the basis for an 'Aww $h!+ disaster on the ship when the players least expect it...

 

[Condottiere]

Inertial compensation failure, followed by artificial gravity.

 

[Grav_Moped]

I'd house-rule that you could put fuel purification machinery in the drive bay, or as much of it as will fit. It's kinda like drives...

I'd also consider house-ruling putting fuel in there, but you need to buy demountable tanks to do it, and you have to use that fuel first. Any drive hit also takes out the fuel tankage in there, which if it still contains any fuel at that point does thermal-shock damage to all drives (1 hit each) and likely kills any engineering crew present if it's not vented immediately (that is, the drive bay must start in vacuum, with any engineering crew in vacc suits, and a hatch to the outside must be left slightly open -- or they're doomed).

 

[Condottiere]

In theory, the compartments are divided by heavy duty bulkheads, which, in theory, should contribute to the structural strength (and hull points) to the spacecraft.

Don't build them in, and you can vary far more easily the size of various compartments.

 

[mike wightman]

"and only drives and power plants
may be placed in that section."
No stills, no septic tank (part of life support), no fuel, no fuel purifiers, only drives and power plant.

 

[McPerth]

'd house-rule that you could put fuel purification machinery in the drive bay, or as much of it as will fit. It's kinda like drives...

LBB2 (where this problem is) doesn't have purification plants...

 

[coliver988]

"and only drives and power plants
may be placed in that section."
No stills, no septic tank (part of life support), no fuel, no fuel purifiers, only drives and power plant.

I find it odd that if you have a dton or two left over you cannot put anything in there that is free standing and portable. So no crew either?

 

[mike wightman]

Nope, nothing. Drives only in the engineering compartment.

 

[coliver988]

no access from the rest of the ship then? I can't see having access to space and not dropping a spanner or something in there. Space being such a premium in Traveller I just can't see not using all available space. While you can't connect anything up, if there is access to the drive compartment, and you have 1dton (2 squares of 1.5 is a fairly large area) I don't see why you could not put a crate in there, or a still, or a hammock

 

[kilemall]

In theory, the compartments are divided by heavy duty bulkheads, which, in theory, should contribute to the structural strength (and hull points) to the spacecraft.

Don't build them in, and you can vary far more easily the size of various compartments.

I always figured the engineering/main paradigm was about bulkheading the explodey/radioactive parts from the human/cargo parts.

 

[mike wightman]

I wonder if you could build another drive compartment by installing a new bulkhead - more room for bigger drives.

Build a 10t engineering compartment into the main compartment of a 200t standard hull and you could get a B jump drive (15t) and the B m-drive and power plant in the new 10t. Build a 20t compartment and you could get C drives (20t jump C, 15t m-drive and pp C)

 

[Spinward Flow]

I wonder if you could build another drive compartment by installing a new bulkhead - more room for bigger drives.

Sure!
We call that a CUSTOM HULL though ...

 

[Condottiere]

I hear that a little radioactivity is healthy.

If you treat engineering components as modular, they don't need to be all, or in part, in the same place.

Or in secondary hulls.