Just another factoid I thought I'd share. People probably already are aware of this...
Standard hull discounts are such that:
100 dtons grants a whopping 80% discount for hull costs when building the hull. In addition, you get to take 10% off the price of the hull when you build it in bulk numbers. Thus, a custom hull for 100 dtons costs 10 MCr under normal circumstances, and only 2 MCr when building the prototype of a new starship class. If you build that prototype as a line of ships - the hull only costs 1.8 MCr. This is a total discount of 82% over a custom hull!
A 200 dton standard hull for a prototype grants an inital 60% discount on the hull, or if part of the "line" of ships, a 64% discount.
Same for the 400 dton hull.
The 600 Dton hull grants a 20% discount if you use a standard hull for a prototype, or a 28% discount if you have created a line on that standard hull.
My suggestion overall? Treat any prototype ship hull as a custom hull. Treat any other type of hull using the same kind of guidelines as given in book two for "class" ships. Ie, a class ship of 100 dtons gets an 80% discount, a class ship of 200 dtons gets a 60% discount, etc. In addition? I'd suggest that hulls that are 800 dtons on up, get a class discount of 10% of cost in addition to a 10% faster construction rate.
Example:
Suppose you build a prototype hull for 400 dtons. The class might be called the Pouncer class ship, and might be J3 M2 P3 (G-E-G jump engine, Manuever Engine, Powerplant) for an Engine Room size of 71 dtons. All Pouncer class hulls have 71 dton engine rooms such that if someone were to build a variant ship using Pouncer hulls, but instead, wanted to use an H jump drive, an A maneuver Drive & an H Powerplant for Jump 4, Manuever 1, Powerplant 4 - also using 71 Dtons of engineering space, they can. The GM then gets to say "Well, you see what appears to be either a Pouncer class Merchant ship, or a Hammerhead class merchant ship. Both have identical hulls as far as externals go."
If a PC wants to purchase a Pouncer class hull and use any other combination of drives within the engine room that uses 71 dtons or less, he can so do.
The GM of course can introduce any level of "standard hulls" he wants under those circumstances. Oh, one more thing for "color"? One can make a point of saying that these standard hulls are shipyard dependent. Which shipyard offers what standard hulls would depend on GM's whim. I'd suggest that each shipyard can offer 1 standard hull type for every population rating it has. Thus, a world with a TL 11 starport population 5 world - would offer a total of 5 standard hull types. It could thus perhaps have 2 one hundred dton standard hull types plus one two hundred dton hull type and 1 800 dton standard hull type. Meanwhile, at the TL 13 world with a population rating of 9, the shipyard might have a total of 9 different "standard hulls" including 2 for a 1,000 dton freighter and one for a 5,000 dton freighter - leaving 6 standard hulls that are more Player character friendly in the 100 through 400 dton range.
Something that might help individualize a GM's universe yet keep the "spirit" of the original Book 2 rules for ships.
Standard hull discounts are such that:
100 dtons grants a whopping 80% discount for hull costs when building the hull. In addition, you get to take 10% off the price of the hull when you build it in bulk numbers. Thus, a custom hull for 100 dtons costs 10 MCr under normal circumstances, and only 2 MCr when building the prototype of a new starship class. If you build that prototype as a line of ships - the hull only costs 1.8 MCr. This is a total discount of 82% over a custom hull!
A 200 dton standard hull for a prototype grants an inital 60% discount on the hull, or if part of the "line" of ships, a 64% discount.
Same for the 400 dton hull.
The 600 Dton hull grants a 20% discount if you use a standard hull for a prototype, or a 28% discount if you have created a line on that standard hull.
My suggestion overall? Treat any prototype ship hull as a custom hull. Treat any other type of hull using the same kind of guidelines as given in book two for "class" ships. Ie, a class ship of 100 dtons gets an 80% discount, a class ship of 200 dtons gets a 60% discount, etc. In addition? I'd suggest that hulls that are 800 dtons on up, get a class discount of 10% of cost in addition to a 10% faster construction rate.
Example:
Suppose you build a prototype hull for 400 dtons. The class might be called the Pouncer class ship, and might be J3 M2 P3 (G-E-G jump engine, Manuever Engine, Powerplant) for an Engine Room size of 71 dtons. All Pouncer class hulls have 71 dton engine rooms such that if someone were to build a variant ship using Pouncer hulls, but instead, wanted to use an H jump drive, an A maneuver Drive & an H Powerplant for Jump 4, Manuever 1, Powerplant 4 - also using 71 Dtons of engineering space, they can. The GM then gets to say "Well, you see what appears to be either a Pouncer class Merchant ship, or a Hammerhead class merchant ship. Both have identical hulls as far as externals go."
If a PC wants to purchase a Pouncer class hull and use any other combination of drives within the engine room that uses 71 dtons or less, he can so do.
The GM of course can introduce any level of "standard hulls" he wants under those circumstances. Oh, one more thing for "color"? One can make a point of saying that these standard hulls are shipyard dependent. Which shipyard offers what standard hulls would depend on GM's whim. I'd suggest that each shipyard can offer 1 standard hull type for every population rating it has. Thus, a world with a TL 11 starport population 5 world - would offer a total of 5 standard hull types. It could thus perhaps have 2 one hundred dton standard hull types plus one two hundred dton hull type and 1 800 dton standard hull type. Meanwhile, at the TL 13 world with a population rating of 9, the shipyard might have a total of 9 different "standard hulls" including 2 for a 1,000 dton freighter and one for a 5,000 dton freighter - leaving 6 standard hulls that are more Player character friendly in the 100 through 400 dton range.
Something that might help individualize a GM's universe yet keep the "spirit" of the original Book 2 rules for ships.
