Canon bulk carriers?

[Black Globe Generator]

I was flipping through Traders and Gunboats last night, and I caught the reference to "multikiloton" bulk carriers in the section on interstellar trade. Aside from passing references, do any of the CT canon books provide stats and/or plans for the really big carriers and liners run by the megacorps? Or is it all just allusion with the details left to the referee?

 

[Black Globe Generator]

I was flipping through Traders and Gunboats last night, and I caught the reference to "multikiloton" bulk carriers in the section on interstellar trade. Aside from passing references, do any of the CT canon books provide stats and/or plans for the really big carriers and liners run by the megacorps? Or is it all just allusion with the details left to the referee?

 

[Whipsnade]

BGG,

TTA has a bulk carrier class operated by Arekut, a Tukera subsidiary that operates around the Aramis subsector. There are HG2 stats listed. IIRC, the ships are above 10K dTons and the class name is 'Hercules'.

TNE later presented the same class in FF&S1 style.

I know of no deckplans for huge bulk carriers. There were some 3rd party CT products with large liners and the like.


Have fun,
Bill

 

[far-trader]

There's the broken design(s) of the Al Morai line in the Spinward Marches Campaign book. And the Solomani bulk transport in Alien Module 6, though that's not multi-kiloton, it's just one-kiloton. I think there are others but that's all that comes to mind off the top of my head.

 

[Whipsnade]

BGG,

TTA has a bulk carrier class operated by Arekut, a Tukera subsidiary that operates around the Aramis subsector. There are HG2 stats listed. IIRC, the ships are above 10K dTons and the class name is 'Hercules'.

TNE later presented the same class in FF&S1 style.

I know of no deckplans for huge bulk carriers. There were some 3rd party CT products with large liners and the like.


Have fun,
Bill

 

[far-trader]

There's the broken design(s) of the Al Morai line in the Spinward Marches Campaign book. And the Solomani bulk transport in Alien Module 6, though that's not multi-kiloton, it's just one-kiloton. I think there are others but that's all that comes to mind off the top of my head.

 

[Golan2072]

AM6: Solomani has a single-kton bulk carrier design.

 

[Golan2072]

AM6: Solomani has a single-kton bulk carrier design.

 

[mike wightman]

The Traveller Adventure details the following ships, all Book 2 designs:

Tukera long liner type RT 1000t jump4 1G 36 passengers 130t cargo

Tukera Freighter type AT 3000t jump4 1G 1259t cargo

Imperiallines frontier transport type TI 2000t jump 2 2G 1114t cargo

Imperiallines frontier transport type TJ 2000t jump 6 6G 194t cargo

Akerut hercules class type AH 5000t jump1 1G 2911t cargo

Oberlindes lines cargo carrier type CT 1000t jump3 1G 409t cargo.

Partial plans for the Tukera freighter can be found in the CT Alien Realms adventure module.

Deck plans for the Tukera long liner are in DGP's Travellers' Digest magazine issue 4 - or alternatively the reprint of the early adventures.

 

[mike wightman]

The Traveller Adventure details the following ships, all Book 2 designs:

Tukera long liner type RT 1000t jump4 1G 36 passengers 130t cargo

Tukera Freighter type AT 3000t jump4 1G 1259t cargo

Imperiallines frontier transport type TI 2000t jump 2 2G 1114t cargo

Imperiallines frontier transport type TJ 2000t jump 6 6G 194t cargo

Akerut hercules class type AH 5000t jump1 1G 2911t cargo

Oberlindes lines cargo carrier type CT 1000t jump3 1G 409t cargo.

Partial plans for the Tukera freighter can be found in the CT Alien Realms adventure module.

Deck plans for the Tukera long liner are in DGP's Travellers' Digest magazine issue 4 - or alternatively the reprint of the early adventures.

 

[MR TEK]

I don't know about plans, but per the quick trade system on The Sharakkannik Collection, (sorry, I have to look up the web address). they list single systems with 1 million plus tons cargo per week, (Mora.) at 1259 dt as the biggest carrier, that is almost 800 ships a WEEK passing through the port.

They also get 250,000 passengers a week, so that works out to 250 ships just to carry passengers, not counting local traffic.

This does not account for traffic transiting the system either.

Admittedly this is a largish system, and many worlds will have much less traffic but many would be even bigger.

So while we have not seen to much of them, those huge ships HAVE to be there and in large numbers.

As soon as I get comfortable with my deckplan software, I have been intening to do the mega ship plans. liners in the 5-6kt range, and bulk carriers as high as mabe 40kdtons cargo space.

Now, since cannon has not spent much time with them, but I know they are there, I envison a seperate port system. A deep port, if you will. That way these huge ships only need a simple manuver system. They would noty have to traverse the 100D limit to reach the main world, but only a docking fuling and cargo port outside the limit. They would only need to cover the max range a jump can be off by. This would create a system very similar to imnterstate trucking or trains, where cargo and bulk passengers are seperated from smaller traffic. This would be the realm of the megalines, and possably the feeder lines, but the subbies and tramp frighters of adventuring types would use the public ports closer insystem. That nicly explains the reason those ships are not detailed, and is a model that can be easily understood from modern traffic patterns.

If anyone is interested perhape a new thread to talk about designs and the ports to go with them would be in order.

mr tek

 

[MR TEK]

I don't know about plans, but per the quick trade system on The Sharakkannik Collection, (sorry, I have to look up the web address). they list single systems with 1 million plus tons cargo per week, (Mora.) at 1259 dt as the biggest carrier, that is almost 800 ships a WEEK passing through the port.

They also get 250,000 passengers a week, so that works out to 250 ships just to carry passengers, not counting local traffic.

This does not account for traffic transiting the system either.

Admittedly this is a largish system, and many worlds will have much less traffic but many would be even bigger.

So while we have not seen to much of them, those huge ships HAVE to be there and in large numbers.

As soon as I get comfortable with my deckplan software, I have been intening to do the mega ship plans. liners in the 5-6kt range, and bulk carriers as high as mabe 40kdtons cargo space.

Now, since cannon has not spent much time with them, but I know they are there, I envison a seperate port system. A deep port, if you will. That way these huge ships only need a simple manuver system. They would noty have to traverse the 100D limit to reach the main world, but only a docking fuling and cargo port outside the limit. They would only need to cover the max range a jump can be off by. This would create a system very similar to imnterstate trucking or trains, where cargo and bulk passengers are seperated from smaller traffic. This would be the realm of the megalines, and possably the feeder lines, but the subbies and tramp frighters of adventuring types would use the public ports closer insystem. That nicly explains the reason those ships are not detailed, and is a model that can be easily understood from modern traffic patterns.

If anyone is interested perhape a new thread to talk about designs and the ports to go with them would be in order.

mr tek

 

[far-trader]

Originally posted by Mr TeK:
...So while we have not seen to much of them, those huge ships HAVE to be there and in large numbers.

I'm not sure what they base those numbers on but I think they make about as much sense as the other extreme. That is that there are only about 2d6 high passengers per week at any port, the same number of middle passengers, and about twice as many low passengers, and some couple or three hunderd tons of freight at most. In which case there would be no merchants larger than a few hundred tons and very few of them to boot.

I think there is room for some common sense middle ground but nobody seems to be doing it. Instead I see numbers that have several multi-kiloton ships landing and taking off every minute.

/rant off

As for you suggestion for a thread to address the numbers and functions I think there have been a couple. Resurrect them if you can find them or by all means start another, it's a good topic.

 

[far-trader]

Originally posted by Mr TeK:
...So while we have not seen to much of them, those huge ships HAVE to be there and in large numbers.

I'm not sure what they base those numbers on but I think they make about as much sense as the other extreme. That is that there are only about 2d6 high passengers per week at any port, the same number of middle passengers, and about twice as many low passengers, and some couple or three hunderd tons of freight at most. In which case there would be no merchants larger than a few hundred tons and very few of them to boot.

I think there is room for some common sense middle ground but nobody seems to be doing it. Instead I see numbers that have several multi-kiloton ships landing and taking off every minute.

/rant off

As for you suggestion for a thread to address the numbers and functions I think there have been a couple. Resurrect them if you can find them or by all means start another, it's a good topic.

 

[Black Globe Generator]

Thank you all, especially Sigg Oddra, for your helpful replies! Most appreciated.

Originally posted by Mr TeK:
If anyone is interested perhape a new thread to talk about designs and the ports to go with them would be in order.

Go for it! I've typically used "From Port to Jump Point" from JTAS 22 for my starport traffic calcs, but I'm interested in seeing how other refs handle stuff like this ITTUs.

 

[Black Globe Generator]

Thank you all, especially Sigg Oddra, for your helpful replies! Most appreciated.

Originally posted by Mr TeK:
If anyone is interested perhape a new thread to talk about designs and the ports to go with them would be in order.

Go for it! I've typically used "From Port to Jump Point" from JTAS 22 for my starport traffic calcs, but I'm interested in seeing how other refs handle stuff like this ITTUs.

 

[Ptah]

It's definitively a good topic. I use a non-canon setting (although there is still an Imperium) so for the major worlds around which I center the campaign I do trade on a world by world basis in view of the other worlds within J1-J3 as the primary direct trade partners.

I use a fair bit of detail to decide what a world needs and what it has for trade purposes. Volume of trade, trade stability and political stability dictates ship size. I use HG style for ship design, with some varaitions (e.g. lower crew size for civillian ships, dual use cargo/fuel bays), and have basically found bigger cargo ships are more economical IF you can afford the capital investment.

For example, on a trade route between a TL11+, Pop. B, world and a sparsely settled TL8-10, Pop. 7 forest "colony" world; 200,000 dton vessels are being used to transport biological products (including luxury items like wood, whole tree trunks, live animals, etc.). Smaller vessels of all sizes are being used as well.

Basically, the Pop. B world is in the process of wholescale harvesting of the forests (inlcuding everything in them) on a "sustainable" basis: complete harveting of continent 1 in 100 years, let rest for 100 years and harvest continent 2 for 100 years etc., continent 3 set as a preserve. These huge ships make economic sense in this setting as the Corp. that owns the ships also owns the rights to the land being harvested as well as the on colony world facilities, workers etc.

Of course, Corps. that could afford such ships can also afford political influence that might make the cost of operating such huge ships even more attractive due to tax breaks, price fixing, etc.

The ship size may seem astounding, but consider the volume of oil being shipped to the U.S. alone and the size of the ships, relative to the largest warships, being used to transport it, and the 200 kton may even seem a little small.

 

[Ptah]

It's definitively a good topic. I use a non-canon setting (although there is still an Imperium) so for the major worlds around which I center the campaign I do trade on a world by world basis in view of the other worlds within J1-J3 as the primary direct trade partners.

I use a fair bit of detail to decide what a world needs and what it has for trade purposes. Volume of trade, trade stability and political stability dictates ship size. I use HG style for ship design, with some varaitions (e.g. lower crew size for civillian ships, dual use cargo/fuel bays), and have basically found bigger cargo ships are more economical IF you can afford the capital investment.

For example, on a trade route between a TL11+, Pop. B, world and a sparsely settled TL8-10, Pop. 7 forest "colony" world; 200,000 dton vessels are being used to transport biological products (including luxury items like wood, whole tree trunks, live animals, etc.). Smaller vessels of all sizes are being used as well.

Basically, the Pop. B world is in the process of wholescale harvesting of the forests (inlcuding everything in them) on a "sustainable" basis: complete harveting of continent 1 in 100 years, let rest for 100 years and harvest continent 2 for 100 years etc., continent 3 set as a preserve. These huge ships make economic sense in this setting as the Corp. that owns the ships also owns the rights to the land being harvested as well as the on colony world facilities, workers etc.

Of course, Corps. that could afford such ships can also afford political influence that might make the cost of operating such huge ships even more attractive due to tax breaks, price fixing, etc.

The ship size may seem astounding, but consider the volume of oil being shipped to the U.S. alone and the size of the ships, relative to the largest warships, being used to transport it, and the 200 kton may even seem a little small.

 

[Whipsnade]

BGG,

To add to Sigg's list, MT has a 'Common Imperial Transport' in the Rebellion Sourcebook. It's statted at:

- 20K dTons
- Maneuver 1
- Jump 3
- Cargo 145,800 kiloliters
- Only 20 high passage staterooms

Convert the cargo space to staterooms and you'll have a very big liner. Convert it to low berths and you'll a huge liner.


Have fun,
Bill

P.S. IMTU, most interstellar passenger traffic is by low berth. You canmake a strong argument for it being that way in the OTU also.

 

[Whipsnade]

BGG,

To add to Sigg's list, MT has a 'Common Imperial Transport' in the Rebellion Sourcebook. It's statted at:

- 20K dTons
- Maneuver 1
- Jump 3
- Cargo 145,800 kiloliters
- Only 20 high passage staterooms

Convert the cargo space to staterooms and you'll have a very big liner. Convert it to low berths and you'll a huge liner.


Have fun,
Bill

P.S. IMTU, most interstellar passenger traffic is by low berth. You canmake a strong argument for it being that way in the OTU also.