Im not sure the setting could handle such a radical change in technology
I guess it won't, but, as you say, if it works for him, enjoy it
Im not sure the setting could handle such a radical change in technology
Im not sure the setting could handle such a radical change in technology, but hey.. to each his own. If it works for you, go for it!
Several years ago, I read an easy rule of thumb for fleet sizes in Traveller: 1000 people can support (not necessarily build) 1 displacement ton of warship. An empire on a war footing could double this, one that is peaceful could have it.
If this is increased to 1 dton per 10000 people in 2300, to reflect the high unemployment and greater rarity of ships, I think this gives a better base than the official numbers.
This would be a good starting point, for MgT 2300AD.
Some of the discussion was about classical 2300AD, and on it there was Little (if any) in equivalence to the Traveller dton as to compare ships...
the original order of 34 vessels have grown up to a family of nearly 600 ships
So, there are about 600 ships of the Anjou class only, making posible that the total ship count is quite higher tan what we were discussing here...
So, there are about 600 ships of the Anjou class only, making posible that the total ship count is quite higher tan what we were discussing here...
A fairly advanced vessel, the ISV-5 has only been in production for ten years. There are hundreds in use in all corners of human space, including a shipment of thirty copies delivered to the American Space Force at Ellis.
The Commercant-class drop cargo carrier is a design common in the French Arm. There are literally hundreds of tbe ships in service, virtually all owned and operated in the private sector
Now virtually all passenger li er operations have at least one Marseilles class ship in their inventories, and orders for new vessels keep several Earth shipyards in constant busin
Even within the Invasion Sourcebook which is the root of a lot of the "rare ship universe" (as opposed to the "plentiful ship universe" in parts of the Ships of the French Arm and the original rules)* you have this odd part describing privateering against the Kafers during the war. There's a line that "every transport lost hurts the Kafer war effort a little."
...no, I'm sorry it's not "a little." If the Kafers have numbers of ships as described in the Invasion fleets, we'll assume that the fleets listed have three times the number of transports compared to the fleet itself (the actual proportion would probably be less - the Kafers are the archetypal aggressor military, so are likely to sacrifice logistics in favor of sharp things that hurt.) Assuming this, for example, Task Force Zulu has 30 warships (18 battleships and 12 cruisers). If we assume there's three times as many transports, that's 90 transports. Each transport lost is more than 1% of logistics train. Even 5 transports lost is going to slow down the Kafer advance noticeably.
* Which is like 2300's version of the "Small Ship Universe" vs. "Big Ship Universe" of Traveller I suppose.
Even within the Invasion Sourcebook which is the root of a lot of the "rare ship universe" (as opposed to the "plentiful ship universe" in parts of the Ships of the French Arm and the original rules)* you have this odd part describing privateering against the Kafers during the war. There's a line that "every transport lost hurts the Kafer war effort a little."
...no, I'm sorry it's not "a little." If the Kafers have numbers of ships as described in the Invasion fleets, we'll assume that the fleets listed have three times the number of transports compared to the fleet itself (the actual proportion would probably be less - the Kafers are the archetypal aggressor military, so are likely to sacrifice logistics in favor of sharp things that hurt.) Assuming this, for example, Task Force Zulu has 30 warships (18 battleships and 12 cruisers). If we assume there's three times as many transports, that's 90 transports. Each transport lost is more than 1% of logistics train. Even 5 transports lost is going to slow down the Kafer advance noticeably.
* Which is like 2300's version of the "Small Ship Universe" vs. "Big Ship Universe" of Traveller I suppose.
How do we feel about this Official-ish article on ships in 2300?
It was published in 2300AD Resource, and states that there are approx. 3,300 Interstellar Ships in 2300AD, compared to a total of 10,000 spacecraft of all types in human space.
The 10,000 figure includes everything from Cutters and Spaceplanes to the over 220 Astral-class Bulk Carriers in service on intersystem runs.
20% of that 3,300 figure is 660 military starships of all kinds.
See that this last sentence may be argeable or missleading... Are fighters counted among those military ships or among the 2/3 that are small crafts or interplanetary vessels?
See my own Steer Wheel Warp Frame and Barges design (of course, unofficial). Is it counted as a single ship or as 9 (one frame and 8 shouttles)? Or even as more, as there can be several extra shouttles in some regular ports of call? And in the case of the auxiliary carrier, it has 36 fighters too, are they counted aside, or the whole combo counts as a single one?
This seems ... low.
For all of the other colony worlds, their combined population is thus 1.2 Billion. If we consider that roughly 70% of civil interstellar ships (an arbitrary figure, but a sensible one IMO) are assigned to Earth-Tirane shipping, that's 792 ships servicing the outer colonies' 1.2 Billion in some sort of capacity. One ship per 1.5 Million people.
As an aside, right now there are 2 spacecraft and 6 people in orbit for 7 Billion people. I recognize 2300 is more advanced, but the rocket equation is still very much in effect here. Space is expensive. Uplifting troops is expensive. Resources are scarce and there needs to be a reason besides the great thirst for exploration to send human beings beyond the surly bonds of Earth.
For comparison, over 50,000 large merchants ply the waters of Earth. They can do so because fuel is plentiful, because the water is the perfect medium for movement of large objects in a single container, launching requires literally dropping the hull into water, and next to zero space must be dedicated to life support. Construction is done with large cranes by sections, dropped and welded into place. By comparison, launching a starship requires putting every single piece of its construction into orbit with rockets, which are not cheap, assembling it in the most inconvenient environment possible (Zero-Gravity) without any of the simplicity of gravity, and then filling it with hydrogen fuel which does not exist or even sustain well in a vacuum.
Sure, if the colonies never export resources to the core or import manufactured goods from the core. And if people never come to the world or leave it.
Sory, but one ship per 1.5 million is still way too low. Should be closer to 1 ship per 15,000 people.