Hotfoot Jackson
SOC-7
Messing around with X-boats at the moment. Traders and Gunboats mentions how one considered variant gave Maneuver 1 at the cost of reducing jump capacity to 3, but they were never put into production. Now I figure that they must have made a few as test models and so have been working around one of these.
Looking at the plans as in T&G (top, bottom, left, right as the plans are oriented)-
Bridge Deck- The Model 4 computer is removed, the space around the bridge now holds an avionics bay, a Model 2bis computer and 1 ton of fire control with a gunnery position.
Quarters Deck- The quarters are reduced to half size by moving the wall between them and the living area down one square. Doors move closer to the centre line. The area opened up next to the iris hatch becomes a fresher.
Three squares from the left side of the living area put a wall in with a hatch, the space created becomes hangarage for an air raft. I know this looks big, but it's no larger than the one in the Scout Ship and I want to put the Safari Ship type of air raft in, configured for two passengers and two tons of cargo.
The data bank room is stripped out, an embayment one square deep and two squares wide is created at the top of the plan to hold part of the turret mechanism, the two rooms thus created on either side (separated by a door) are, on the left, a hold for two low berths and, on the right, a hold for a ton or so of cargo.
Add a fuel scoop (opposide the turret) and a set of three spindly folding landing legs (for setting down on atmosphere 0 or 1 worlds) and we're almost done.
Now, we have 40 tons of fuel, this could be retained and give the capacity for a single jump 1 immediately after the jump 3 (though leave the tanks empty), but what I'm doing is reducing that to 35 and carving out a 5 ton cargo hold among the fuel tanks under the Quarters Deck, with a hatch under the main airlocks and accessible via the vertical shaft that runs through the ship.
Here's the question-
What I was unsure about was that odd combination power/jump/maneuver drive setup the X-boat uses. Moreso for the variant. So I'm provisionally leaving space for a small secondary power plant (3 tons) on the cargo deck for powering turrets, etc. If I don't need it I can either remove it or just have it as a small ships stores room (or a TL 15 fuel refiner). This still leave me with 2 tons of spare fuel, one for the maneuver drive, and one for the secondary power plant for four weeks operation.
What does everyone else think?
So there we have it, a natty little jump-3 ship, bit slow and cramped, but armed and with an air raft. Crew of 2, a pilot and an engineer/gunner, can take 5 tons cargo and two passengers in low berths. I was going to use it as either a Noble's runaround or as a mail ship for a small but more scattered than usual group of allied worlds. It has a tender of sorts at its home world that acts as a maintenance base, sorting office and refuelling stop, a converted 400 ton lab ship with the central spoke dock adjusted to accommodate an X-boat (the cutter now docks on the outer rim of the hull to adjacent to the docking spoke, the ship is no longer intended to spin). The lab has been replaced with additional fuel tankage, fuel refinery, cargo holds and workshops. The world hopes that it will soon be connected to the X-boat network and, unable to afford a proper jump tender has used this old lab ship. In the meantime it serves as a base for the J-3 mail boat.
Looking at the plans as in T&G (top, bottom, left, right as the plans are oriented)-
Bridge Deck- The Model 4 computer is removed, the space around the bridge now holds an avionics bay, a Model 2bis computer and 1 ton of fire control with a gunnery position.
Quarters Deck- The quarters are reduced to half size by moving the wall between them and the living area down one square. Doors move closer to the centre line. The area opened up next to the iris hatch becomes a fresher.
Three squares from the left side of the living area put a wall in with a hatch, the space created becomes hangarage for an air raft. I know this looks big, but it's no larger than the one in the Scout Ship and I want to put the Safari Ship type of air raft in, configured for two passengers and two tons of cargo.
The data bank room is stripped out, an embayment one square deep and two squares wide is created at the top of the plan to hold part of the turret mechanism, the two rooms thus created on either side (separated by a door) are, on the left, a hold for two low berths and, on the right, a hold for a ton or so of cargo.
Add a fuel scoop (opposide the turret) and a set of three spindly folding landing legs (for setting down on atmosphere 0 or 1 worlds) and we're almost done.
Now, we have 40 tons of fuel, this could be retained and give the capacity for a single jump 1 immediately after the jump 3 (though leave the tanks empty), but what I'm doing is reducing that to 35 and carving out a 5 ton cargo hold among the fuel tanks under the Quarters Deck, with a hatch under the main airlocks and accessible via the vertical shaft that runs through the ship.
Here's the question-
What I was unsure about was that odd combination power/jump/maneuver drive setup the X-boat uses. Moreso for the variant. So I'm provisionally leaving space for a small secondary power plant (3 tons) on the cargo deck for powering turrets, etc. If I don't need it I can either remove it or just have it as a small ships stores room (or a TL 15 fuel refiner). This still leave me with 2 tons of spare fuel, one for the maneuver drive, and one for the secondary power plant for four weeks operation.
What does everyone else think?
So there we have it, a natty little jump-3 ship, bit slow and cramped, but armed and with an air raft. Crew of 2, a pilot and an engineer/gunner, can take 5 tons cargo and two passengers in low berths. I was going to use it as either a Noble's runaround or as a mail ship for a small but more scattered than usual group of allied worlds. It has a tender of sorts at its home world that acts as a maintenance base, sorting office and refuelling stop, a converted 400 ton lab ship with the central spoke dock adjusted to accommodate an X-boat (the cutter now docks on the outer rim of the hull to adjacent to the docking spoke, the ship is no longer intended to spin). The lab has been replaced with additional fuel tankage, fuel refinery, cargo holds and workshops. The world hopes that it will soon be connected to the X-boat network and, unable to afford a proper jump tender has used this old lab ship. In the meantime it serves as a base for the J-3 mail boat.
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