[CT-LBB2] Type-M Jump Tug

[Golan2072]

The Fidanza-class, Type-M Jump Tug was inspired by a certain tug with 7 crewmembers mentioned in this thread.

Using a 600-ton hull, the Fidanza-class, Type-M Jump Tug is built to tow up to 2,400 additional tons of external cargo through normal space and jumpsace. It has Jump Drive-Q, Manoeuvre Drive-Q and Power Plant-Q, giving it 1-Jump-5 capability and 5-G acceleration. Note that actual performance varies according to the cargo towed; the above data is for the ship without towed cargo; performance is 1-Jump-3 and 3-G acceleration for a towed cargo of 200-400 tons, or 1-Jump-1 and 1-G acceleration for a towed cargo of 401-2,400 tons. Fuel tankage of 350 tons supports the power plant and provides up to 1-Jump-5.

Adjacent to the bridge is a computer Model/5. There are 7 staterooms and 7 Low Berths. No turrets are installed, but there are 4 tons reserved for fire control. The ships carries a 20-ton Launch. Cargo capacity is 12.5 tons. The hull is streamlined.

The Jump Tug requires a crew of seven: Pilot/Captain, Navigator/Comms, Medic/Science officer, and four Engineers. The ship costs MCr416.85 and takes 24 months to build.

 

[samuelvss]

I like this! It's like the old Jump Ship in Traders and Gunboats. I always saw a greater need for these type of ships than ever existed in most ships put out there.

 

[Golan2072]

Thanks!

 

[agorski]

Why is it streamlined? While towing anything, the combined ship probably wouldn't be streamlined.

 

[Golan2072]

The combined ship, no, but the tug could detach itself and go planetside if needed.

 

[dean]

Why is it streamlined? While towing anything, the combined ship probably wouldn't be streamlined.

Add a refining plant and this also could be useful to allow refueling between loads.

 

[aramis]

The combined ship, no, but the tug could detach itself and go planetside if needed.

Long as the op costs per cargo ton stay below the no-profit-margin line, streamlining is worth it as it opens more markets and safer repairs. And hull costs are pretty low, overall.

 

[Mithras]

It has to be streamlined .. see .. its the only way to get onto a world, get your pilot infected with an alien parasite, then lift off to space again!

Thanks Golan. The Nostromo was one of the first ships I tried to design all those years ago (and subsequently lost!). Mind if I borrow?

 

[Golan2072]

It has to be streamlined .. see .. its the only way to get onto a world, get your pilot infected with an alien parasite, then lift off to space again!

Thanks Golan. The Nostromo was one of the first ships I tried to design all those years ago (and subsequently lost!). Mind if I borrow?

Feel free to do so

 

[fredofmars]

I don't see anything about a jump net installation. Are you assuming the cargo is in non-powered hulls that are hooked to the main ship, or did you imagine jump nets? If you meant to use jump nets, there's an article in TAS (available from SJG) from several years ago that details how to design jump nets into ships.

 

[Mithras]

I don't think a Book 2 design needs to concern itself with jump nets, weren't they a MegaTraveller innovation?

I don't see anything about a jump net installation. Are you assuming the cargo is in non-powered hulls that are hooked to the main ship, or did you imagine jump nets? If you meant to use jump nets, there's an article in TAS (available from SJG) from several years ago that details how to design jump nets into ships.

 

[Dragoner]

CT Supplement 9, page 22, "Special field cables attached to the rear of the ship extend the ship's jump field to include this additional cargo."

Though the jump ship can also handle pods according to the description.

 

[Selandia]

Jump tug

I use jump tug IMTU for high volume lines

In the optimum set-up, a liner service using jump tugs have the JTugs arrive/depart at jump point (area would a beter term given the approximative exit point) with a) manoeuver tug hauling dumb lighter (as the modern LASH Sealand tried ) b) self propeled lighter (spaceships) or a mixture of both. The manoeuver tug(s) serves also as service ship with a replacement crew and supplies. He may also ferry fuel if that is not done by an optimised tanker service.

The economic of it is for the expensives JDrives to stand iddles as little time as possible, and not 50 % of the time as the basic economic of book 2 - one week of jump time and one week of transit to planet, for 2 jumps a month - suppose. By the same process, High G engines would not stand iddles in jump time as a jump tug would need bare minimum G to reposition after a jump and the release of its lighters. High speed courrier would not need to move jump fuel at the same high M as priority cargo. Fuel could be moved by M1 tanker trying to acheive as much economy of scale as possible. Even with a full day at each end for turn around, the JTug system beat the standard multi function liner.

At two weeks a jump for standard ships, 14 ships will maintain a daily departure schedule from each end. At 8 days a jump (7 in J space +1 turnaround) 8 Jtug with 14 Mtug (7 at each end) will do the same

of course, streamlining and fuel scoop are not used in that scheme.

Selandia

 

[Cryton]

Its a perfect ship for an Imperial Repo-man.

 

[fredofmars]

I don't think a Book 2 design needs to concern itself with jump nets, weren't they a MegaTraveller innovation?

As previously noted by Dragoner, jump nets are a CT thing, but weren't fleshed out until the article in JTAS a few years ago.

http://jtas.sjgames.com/login/archives/2002/02.05.html

You need to be a JTAS member to access the article unfortunately.

 

[Jame]

Its a perfect ship for an Imperial Repo-man.

Hah! This would have been SO useful for my group's last campaign.

 

[mike wightman]

As previously noted by Dragoner, jump nets are a CT thing, but weren't fleshed out until the article in JTAS a few years ago.

http://jtas.sjgames.com/login/archives/2002/02.05.html

You need to be a JTAS member to access the article unfortunately.

That's for GURPS Traveller, not CT. Now while the two are similar in some ways it's like quoting MT material as CT - it isn't.

The concept of a jump tug can also be seen in CT supplement 7 Traders and Gunboats with the jump sled that is attached to a SDB to give it jump capability.

Now the jump net concept is introduced in Supplement 9 Fighting Ships which is a High Guard based supplement, not a CT LBB2 based ship design supplement. So it could be argued that jump cables/nets exist only in a HG ship paradigm OTU

 

[rancke]

Now the jump net concept is introduced in Supplement 9 Fighting Ships which is a High Guard based supplement, not a CT LBB2 based ship design supplement. So it could be argued that jump cables/nets exist only in a HG ship paradigm OTU

No, there's at least one other universe where jump nets exist: The one where everything described in any Traveller version happened, unless it would create a paradox, in which case it didn't happen (or Marc Miller says it didn't happen, in which case it didn't happen either). Or in other words, the universe I refer to as the OTU.


Hans

 

[fredofmars]

That's for GURPS Traveller, not CT. Now while the two are similar in some ways it's like quoting MT material as CT - it isn't.

The article explicitly gives design parameters for several Traveller versions: CT, MT, TNE, and GT.

 

[robject]

Now the jump net concept is introduced in Supplement 9 Fighting Ships which is a High Guard based supplement, not a CT LBB2 based ship design supplement. So it could be argued that jump cables/nets exist only in a HG ship paradigm OTU

That argument is insufficient. It is clear that LBB2 was never intended to provide the full range of design options needed to flesh out the OTU, even back in the late 1970s.

Collectors aren't in LBB2, and yet the ANNIC NOVA "is" an LBB2 design. Also, its computer is LBB2, and yet rules for it are not specified in LBB2.

Similarly, military ships in LBB2 are capable of jumping with unrefined fuel with no penalty, and yet there is no guidance on how to design this into our ships. It's a trivial issue, but plainly LBB2 is not intended to be the end-all be-all of ship design... and the fact that the OTU has exceptions to the rule means LBB2 is not enough.

More evidence: TTB, page 61, on smallcraft:

The small craft cabin is a small, one-passenger state- room for use on longer duration voyages.

A small stateroom? I want that in LBB2. It's not there.

And where do I complain about the Lab Ship and Safari Ship? How much does that lab space cost? Or those capture tanks? Are they "free"? And is the trophy lounge just open space, or does it cost the same as a stateroom? Or half a stateroom? And does it give me a +DM to getting my ship contracted out by some wealthy dandy? NO?? Then what's the point? Seems that a luxury lounge could attract more wealthy passengers. Wouldn't that be an interesting addition to the rules?

How about the Scout? Doesn't it have a machine shop in the back, 10 tons? How much did THAT cost? Or is that free as well? And... those military ships have better sensors than civilian craft, right? So how much do those cost, and what do they displace?

And... isn't the Xboat a Book 2 design? OK ok, it's grandfathered in. So it predates the latest LBB2; in other words, they knew it existed. And yet they didn't provide rules for it. So it can't ever be replicated? What sort of usefulness is that? ...for that matter, its computer storage banks can't be replicated either. Come on. Just tell us that they're a bank of Model/1s or something. That would be trivially easy, understandable, and useful to us.

None of this is a show-stopper... for individual referees.

It's horrible for the game, though, because it could have inspired dozens of published design variations.