I'm also drawn to a simplified version of FFS armoring rules, with the given caveats:
(1) At the stated TL, starship hulls have inherent armor based on the materials technology of that TL. Similarly for smaller craft. In other words, you don't need to worry about armor volume calculation until you want to up-armor your ship.
(2) To simplify things (?), armor is added in percentages of hull volume, with a factor increase based on the hull material. I suppose.
(3) To simplify things further, a ship has a "mass allowance" equal to 10% of its hull volume in tonnes (is 10% too small?). Tables only list values to be noted against the mass allowance; for every multiple for which that value is exceeded, ship agility or maneuver (or whatever) degrades by 1.
Follow up with some fancy hull materials table (accessorize, accessorize...), and voila, you've got... something or other. Maybe nice, maybe not.
Caution! SWAG table follows.
</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">Unit volume of armor = 1% hull volume
Toughness = AF increase per % hull volume
Mass = tonnes toward mass allowance per displacement ton of armor
Base (free) starship armor = 2 x Toughness
Base (free) small craft armor = 1 x Toughness
Base (free) vehicle armor = Toughness/2
Material Mass Toughness MCr/ton
Laminate/7 8 2 4
Ceramic/8 4 6 6
Crystalliron/A 3 10 8
Superdense/C 1 20 10
Hullmetal/G 2 40 100
Example: Joe Darrian builds a TL16 200t trader 50
years before the Maghiz.
Its base armor is 80 (2 x TL16 toughness).
Its mass allowance is 20 (200 tons/10).
He decides to add two units of armor,
bringing the armor value up to 160.
This displaces 4 tons, costs MCr400, and
adds 8 mass-tons to the ship's mass allowance.
Joe decides that Hullmetal is too expensive, but
it sure is effective.</pre>[/QUOTE]For some reason, I prefer to take a more fiddly route where one can pick and choose between various materials, with a tradeoff of toughness and mass (or whatever those two qualities are) depending on the nature of your vehicle, a la FFSx. Although mass is always a problem if you're like me and don't use mass calculations...
I like the idea of Agility, but except for High Guard I think it's not a meaningful term. However, it sounds like a nice stat for a starship UPP.
After all this, there needs to be a mapping of armor to weapon penetration or whatever. In other words, if a typical TL12 trader has an armor factor of 40, then the typical TL12 laser has to have a penetration value of somewhere around 40. And if you're playing MegaTraveller, it has to have a greater pen than that, I think.
You know, it might be nice to tie armor values to laser ratings at normal range... in other words, a rating 40 laser can penetrate factor 40 armor. That might scale nicely.
(1) At the stated TL, starship hulls have inherent armor based on the materials technology of that TL. Similarly for smaller craft. In other words, you don't need to worry about armor volume calculation until you want to up-armor your ship.
(2) To simplify things (?), armor is added in percentages of hull volume, with a factor increase based on the hull material. I suppose.
(3) To simplify things further, a ship has a "mass allowance" equal to 10% of its hull volume in tonnes (is 10% too small?). Tables only list values to be noted against the mass allowance; for every multiple for which that value is exceeded, ship agility or maneuver (or whatever) degrades by 1.
Follow up with some fancy hull materials table (accessorize, accessorize...), and voila, you've got... something or other. Maybe nice, maybe not.
Caution! SWAG table follows.
</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">Unit volume of armor = 1% hull volume
Toughness = AF increase per % hull volume
Mass = tonnes toward mass allowance per displacement ton of armor
Base (free) starship armor = 2 x Toughness
Base (free) small craft armor = 1 x Toughness
Base (free) vehicle armor = Toughness/2
Material Mass Toughness MCr/ton
Laminate/7 8 2 4
Ceramic/8 4 6 6
Crystalliron/A 3 10 8
Superdense/C 1 20 10
Hullmetal/G 2 40 100
Example: Joe Darrian builds a TL16 200t trader 50
years before the Maghiz.
Its base armor is 80 (2 x TL16 toughness).
Its mass allowance is 20 (200 tons/10).
He decides to add two units of armor,
bringing the armor value up to 160.
This displaces 4 tons, costs MCr400, and
adds 8 mass-tons to the ship's mass allowance.
Joe decides that Hullmetal is too expensive, but
it sure is effective.</pre>[/QUOTE]For some reason, I prefer to take a more fiddly route where one can pick and choose between various materials, with a tradeoff of toughness and mass (or whatever those two qualities are) depending on the nature of your vehicle, a la FFSx. Although mass is always a problem if you're like me and don't use mass calculations...
I like the idea of Agility, but except for High Guard I think it's not a meaningful term. However, it sounds like a nice stat for a starship UPP.
After all this, there needs to be a mapping of armor to weapon penetration or whatever. In other words, if a typical TL12 trader has an armor factor of 40, then the typical TL12 laser has to have a penetration value of somewhere around 40. And if you're playing MegaTraveller, it has to have a greater pen than that, I think.
You know, it might be nice to tie armor values to laser ratings at normal range... in other words, a rating 40 laser can penetrate factor 40 armor. That might scale nicely.
