Class C starport Maintenance

[Tupper]

Berens and Promise are both described as being "maintenance facilities" even though they're class C. Further, Solee and Sufren pocket empires maintain relic fleets with no class A or B star port (although these latter have naval bases). Should one interpret class C star ports in the new era of being capable of annual overhauls (can do maintenance but not construction)?

Extra for experts: what are the "major repairs" that Class C starports can perform? The text of the rule book (p243 of my "original print run" version) implies that jury-rigged repairs to major damage can only be fully fixed at A and B ports.

 

[aramis]

TNE allowed for doing your own annual maintenance. What you couldn't do was the overhauls that lowered the wear value.

Also note that Starport codes are a minimum...

A C port may also have maintenance facilities, but it's not guaranteed to have them. Might even have a construction yard.

 

[Ulsyus]

Major repairs could be taken to mean the replacement of components such as engines, hull plates, other significant elements without which the vessel is not quite spaceworthy. However getting those items is another thing. The mechanisms necessary to fabricate them may not be present at a C Class port, though this is an old concept that could be due for a review.

My players and I were discussing nanofactories and such, and the engineer (in real life) was suggesting that by TL12 he didn't think it unreasonable that most ships would have nanofactories stored in an out-of-the-way corner of the ship to create most small parts, and that the availability of such would only be limited by the size of the unit. At that point the only thing necessary would be the component materials. We're still discussing this one, so the group doesn't have a small make-anything-I-have-plans-for box available to them at this point.

 

[mike wightman]

I've mentioned this before but there's no point in letting a good idea go unshared - IMTU the makers from T5 are actual machines that can be found onboard starships and at starports.

Making spare parts is just a matter of having the design on file and having the correct raw materials.

 

[rancke]

Making spare parts is just a matter of having the design on file and having the correct raw materials.

And I suggest that to maintain some degree of scarcity, for many TLX items the correct raw materials include highly complex alloys and plastics and ceramics that have to be manufactured in a TLX manufacturing facility. That way the referee can tell the players that they are low on 'Compound 17/BX' if, for dramatic purposes, he doesn't want them to be able to make a particular spare part at a particular time.


Hans