Looking through the information I was able to gather on Life Support costs/space I came to the conclusion that the language used in the Travellers Handbook is unclear.
The part I am talking about is on page 348, in the section also talking about life support costs.
In the ship design section the book lists various accomodation options for officers, crew and passengers. Specifically that a Stateroom could house 1/2/4 passengers and a small stateroom could handle half of that number.
What I want to do is split up the costs/space of the staterooms to get a way to build larger structures (barracks for example) for life support accomodation.
In the stateroom (4 dTon) allowance
1.5 dTon Living space Beds/Desks/Storage
0.5 dTon personal fresher
0.5 dTon Life Support Machinery
1.5 dTon Corridors and Shared Areas
For small staterooms (2 dTon) you don't even get a fresher
0.25 dTon Life Support
1.00 dTon Living Space
0.75 dTon Corridors and Shared Areas
From my reading of the Life support rules I am assuming that a small stateroom can support one person easily, 2 people with minimal reduction in life support, and 3 people at half effectiveness. Likewise a full Stateroom can support 1 person in comparative luxury, 2 people easily, 4 people with minimal reduction in life support, and 6 people at half effectiveness.
So adequate life support, purely for the machinery involved, supports 10 people per dTon - at ABSOLUTE maximum, if a ship is on this level of life support a stowaway is a big problem. 8 people per dTon is safer. 6 people per dTon is probably what you should look for for active (Ship Troops for example) crew.
So from this lets build a barracks module for grunt troops.
Platoon (1 Lt, 4 Sgt, 20 Pvt)Barracks:
4dTon Officers stateroom - As Stateroom
4dTon NCO small staterooms - As Stateroom
4dTon Grunt Life support
2dTon Fresher (*4)
10dTon Bunks + Footlockers for 20 Grunts
2dTon Kitchen
4dTon Hall
Or about 30 dTon. No exercise space. No internal power, though I suppose a 1/2 dTon generator as part of the life support wouldn't be out of place. The platoon is also unequiped except for small arms and flexible armors.
The advantage of this cargo module is you can dump it on a hotile planet as a temporary base of operations and as a portage device, allowing the unit to travel in cargo space. Permanent ship troops would probably use 2 grunts per full stateroom, and one officer per stateroom, just to allow some breathing space for the trigger happy marines.
The only other mention of Life support and people space is in the description of the Patrol Cruiser. This ship has 20 staterooms and a crew of 20 and is described as crowded. This doesn't mesh very well with another craft that has a crew of 6 and 4 staterooms, but isn't noted for a lack of space, so I am putting that reference to the side for the moment.
If you make it just a barracks module:
10 dTon Bunks and Storage for 20 troops
4 dTon Life Support
2 dTon freshers
Gives a nice compact 16dTon module. There will be extra space taken up with storage for food and plain rallying out areas, and officer ranks will be taking up Staterooms elsewhere. There will need to be additional training and breathing space unless the troops are very commited. If the baracks is used for pure ships troops (rather then transported army) then this would be less of a big deal. I am going to assume another 4dTon of cargo space for Food and other renewable supplies. This makes a nice round 1 person per ton.
Where am I going with this?
A 10,000 ton medium Capital ship has a suggested ship troop complement of between 30 and 300 ship troops. I am going to also go to 3000 troops (assault force size) for my own personal interests.
At minimum troops (30) there would be 30 Staterooms used for the troops in all single occupancy quarters. Attached to this area would be a training hall of whatever space was available.
This I am using as a base point. I am ssuming a 500dTon training/equipment area for the moment.
At a moderate troop strength (150) one of the staterooms is single occupancy (Mr Officer4 (O4) or so), 9 are double occupancy (the rest of the officers) and 20 are quad occupancy and there are 3 basic barracks modules in the cargo space, though not all at full capacity, leaving 440 dTon of space for training and equipment.
At full capacity (300) there are more single occupancy quarters (multiple O4+). The rest of the staterooms will have officers, and high ranking NCO's packed in like sardines. The grunts will all be in barracks modules (12 modules, 240 grunts, 240dTon) halving the available space for equipment and training which is down to 260dTon.
With 3000 troops on board the ship may not have enough carrying capacity. The staterooms are packed with officers (4 in each stateroom) there are officers in barracks modules and there is 2880 dTon of barracks crammed into every available space on the ship. There will be no space available anywhere on the ship.
Done as low berths (4per ton) with quad occupancy staterooms (for officers/bodyguards etc) the ship only needs 220dTon past the training area.
Apologies for rambling.
The part I am talking about is on page 348, in the section also talking about life support costs.
In the ship design section the book lists various accomodation options for officers, crew and passengers. Specifically that a Stateroom could house 1/2/4 passengers and a small stateroom could handle half of that number.
What I want to do is split up the costs/space of the staterooms to get a way to build larger structures (barracks for example) for life support accomodation.
In the stateroom (4 dTon) allowance
1.5 dTon Living space Beds/Desks/Storage
0.5 dTon personal fresher
0.5 dTon Life Support Machinery
1.5 dTon Corridors and Shared Areas
For small staterooms (2 dTon) you don't even get a fresher
0.25 dTon Life Support
1.00 dTon Living Space
0.75 dTon Corridors and Shared Areas
From my reading of the Life support rules I am assuming that a small stateroom can support one person easily, 2 people with minimal reduction in life support, and 3 people at half effectiveness. Likewise a full Stateroom can support 1 person in comparative luxury, 2 people easily, 4 people with minimal reduction in life support, and 6 people at half effectiveness.
So adequate life support, purely for the machinery involved, supports 10 people per dTon - at ABSOLUTE maximum, if a ship is on this level of life support a stowaway is a big problem. 8 people per dTon is safer. 6 people per dTon is probably what you should look for for active (Ship Troops for example) crew.
So from this lets build a barracks module for grunt troops.
Platoon (1 Lt, 4 Sgt, 20 Pvt)Barracks:
4dTon Officers stateroom - As Stateroom
4dTon NCO small staterooms - As Stateroom
4dTon Grunt Life support
2dTon Fresher (*4)
10dTon Bunks + Footlockers for 20 Grunts
2dTon Kitchen
4dTon Hall
Or about 30 dTon. No exercise space. No internal power, though I suppose a 1/2 dTon generator as part of the life support wouldn't be out of place. The platoon is also unequiped except for small arms and flexible armors.
The advantage of this cargo module is you can dump it on a hotile planet as a temporary base of operations and as a portage device, allowing the unit to travel in cargo space. Permanent ship troops would probably use 2 grunts per full stateroom, and one officer per stateroom, just to allow some breathing space for the trigger happy marines.
The only other mention of Life support and people space is in the description of the Patrol Cruiser. This ship has 20 staterooms and a crew of 20 and is described as crowded. This doesn't mesh very well with another craft that has a crew of 6 and 4 staterooms, but isn't noted for a lack of space, so I am putting that reference to the side for the moment.
If you make it just a barracks module:
10 dTon Bunks and Storage for 20 troops
4 dTon Life Support
2 dTon freshers
Gives a nice compact 16dTon module. There will be extra space taken up with storage for food and plain rallying out areas, and officer ranks will be taking up Staterooms elsewhere. There will need to be additional training and breathing space unless the troops are very commited. If the baracks is used for pure ships troops (rather then transported army) then this would be less of a big deal. I am going to assume another 4dTon of cargo space for Food and other renewable supplies. This makes a nice round 1 person per ton.
Where am I going with this?
A 10,000 ton medium Capital ship has a suggested ship troop complement of between 30 and 300 ship troops. I am going to also go to 3000 troops (assault force size) for my own personal interests.
At minimum troops (30) there would be 30 Staterooms used for the troops in all single occupancy quarters. Attached to this area would be a training hall of whatever space was available.
This I am using as a base point. I am ssuming a 500dTon training/equipment area for the moment.
At a moderate troop strength (150) one of the staterooms is single occupancy (Mr Officer4 (O4) or so), 9 are double occupancy (the rest of the officers) and 20 are quad occupancy and there are 3 basic barracks modules in the cargo space, though not all at full capacity, leaving 440 dTon of space for training and equipment.
At full capacity (300) there are more single occupancy quarters (multiple O4+). The rest of the staterooms will have officers, and high ranking NCO's packed in like sardines. The grunts will all be in barracks modules (12 modules, 240 grunts, 240dTon) halving the available space for equipment and training which is down to 260dTon.
With 3000 troops on board the ship may not have enough carrying capacity. The staterooms are packed with officers (4 in each stateroom) there are officers in barracks modules and there is 2880 dTon of barracks crammed into every available space on the ship. There will be no space available anywhere on the ship.
Done as low berths (4per ton) with quad occupancy staterooms (for officers/bodyguards etc) the ship only needs 220dTon past the training area.
Apologies for rambling.
