More HG design questions

[Gatsby]

Hey, Gearheads, can anyone help with some canon answers to these questions???

Answers are to help me design a Excel Spreadsheet that is VERY VERY comprehensive (i.e. printable to a Canon ImpNavy form plus extra info print-out, print-out to card form, TCS compatible, Striker add-ins for Jump-troops, Book 2 design, Small craft design, etc....):

1) What is up with Magazines? I know that, by Book 2, a single launcher holds 3 shots (missle or Sand) and B2 also gives the rates and reload times....but anything else????

2) What is up with the Squadron Code (i.e. the LAST digit in the USP)? Any definiton of squadrons or what the code number stands for????

3) If you want a Frozen Watch, you are supposed to allocate 1.5 times your required crew and troops in Low Berths. Are there any requirements for LBs when you elect NOT to have a Frozen Watch? Can you put in Emergency Low Berths to fulfill the requirement? What is the definition of required crew - is it any differnet from crew needs given in Book 5?

Still need more opinions on:

1) What is the RATE of operation of a Fuel Purif Plant? (i.e 2 tons/hour?)

2)1) If ship is 100 tons, armor (a) is value zero, and formula says (at TL-15, for example) '1+1a as percentage of ship'. Then, is Armor 0 = 1 ton ( I assume it is hull structure)? Or is it negated due to no armor?

 

[J]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Gatsby:

1) What is up with Magazines? I know that, by Book 2, a single launcher holds 3 shots (missle or Sand) and B2 also gives the rates and reload times....but anything else????
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

In HG you forget reloads and just keep firing. That's second edition. In first edition you had missile magazines, but I don't have a copy of first edition

2) What is up with the Squadron Code (i.e. the LAST digit in the USP)? Any definiton of squadrons or what the code number stands for????

It's the number of fighter squadrons carried.


3) If you want a Frozen Watch, you are supposed to allocate 1.5 times your required crew and troops in Low Berths. Are there any requirements for LBs when you elect NOT to have a Frozen Watch? Can you put in Emergency Low Berths to fulfill the requirement? What is the definition of required crew - is it any differnet from crew needs given in Book 5?


If you choose not to have a frozen watch you do not need low berths. You can't use emergency low berths for frozen watch. The rest of it I'd have to read HG to find out (I can't remember off the top of my head)


Still need more opinions on:

1) What is the RATE of operation of a Fuel Purif Plant? (i.e 2 tons/hour?)


Dunno, have you tried looking in the Starship Operators Manual (DGP)?


2)1) If ship is 100 tons, armor (a) is value zero, and formula says (at TL-15, for example) '1+1a as percentage of ship'. Then, is Armor 0 = 1 ton ( I assume it is hull structure)? Or is it negated due to no armor?

If you want no armour you don't have to install anything. so 0 armour = 0 tons.

J.

 

[Gatsby]

So far, after averaging all the various Travellers and sizing it up for HG:

1) Magazines: a missile turret holds up to 3 launchers, a 100 ton bay has 10 launchers, and a 50 t Bay has 5 launchers. A turret holds 7 missiles per launcher, a bay holds 10 missiles per launcher.
A magazine can be either a 'turret magazine' or an empty bay. A 'turret magazine' weighs .05 tonnes per missile. An empty 100 t bay holds 2100 missiles, an empty 50 t bay holds 1050 missiles - both the bays tonnage is allocated by the empty bays rule ala HG.
A gunner may load from the reserve or magazine and fire in the same turn (15 to 30 minutes). It takes a dedicated loader to bring in a missile from a non-magazine, at a rate of one missile per five minutes.
This DOES limit the ship's rounds of fire for HG, but they can always have at least 7 rounds (turrets) to 10 rounds (bays) without magazines.
Further notes on Sandcasters, later.

2) Seems that the squadron code is just a hexidecimal number equal to the number of squadrons on board. But, what the H#ll is the make-up and rules for a squadron???

3) Still not many answers, here...EmerLBs CANNOT be used for Frozen watch. But, do you NEED to have enough lowberths for 1.5 times your ENTIRE crew???

FPP) Seems the average is six hours to do a full tank. It seems to take 6 hours to fully 'skim' using fuel scoops, too. That should be considered simultaneous, I suppose.

Armor) Zero armor requires zero tons.

Any other canon-like opinions? If you need documentation for the above readings, I can supply it....

Gats'

 

[DaveShayne]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Gatsby:
Still not many answers, here...EmerLBs CANNOT be used for Frozen watch. But, do you NEED to have enough lowberths for 1.5 times your ENTIRE crew???
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The correct figure is .5 times the crew (including ships troops). So a cruiser with a crew of 500 will need 250 low berths for a frozen watch.


------------------
I am increasingly of the opinion that RPGs are by the nature of their creation subjective phenomenon. due to the interaction between game designers, game masters, and game players all definitions, rules, settings, and adventures are mutable in acordance with the uncertainty principle as expounded by Heisenburg. This is of course merely my point of view.

David Shayne

[This message has been edited by DaveShayne (edited 02 July 2001).]

 

[J]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Gatsby:
1) Magazines: a missile turret holds up to 3 launchers, a 100 ton bay has 10 launchers, and a 50 t Bay has 5 launchers. A turret holds 7 missiles per launcher, a bay holds 10 missiles per launcher.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I can see a couple of problems with the above:

1) A 50t bay with 5 launchers does not give the same usp as 5 launchers mounted in turrets, so a 50t bay must either fire different missiles, fire missiles at a faster rate or be better at guilding it's missiles.

2) If you limit shots and/or require magazines to be installed, you make missiles more expensive than they were before. Also if you make missile magazines cost tonnage and/or money you will invalidate existing designs that use missile launchers.

3) The "To Hit" roll in HG is fairly abstract, you could look at it in the following way:
HG sort of includes sensor locks in the to hit roll by using computer number. If a lock is not established the missiles would not be fired.

I prefer to allow ships to have unlimited supplies of missiles. It avoids the book keeping and avoids redesigning ships.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>

3) Still not many answers, here...EmerLBs CANNOT be used for Frozen watch. But, do you NEED to have enough lowberths for 1.5 times your ENTIRE crew???

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

You need enough low berths for 50% of your crew (including ships troups).

The idea is you can replace casualties suffered in battle. But it doesn't work properly. If you look at the crew USP table:

If we have a ship with 5,000 crew and a frozen watch of 2,500. It has a USP of 4.
The ship goes into combat and takes a crew-1 hit reducing the crew to USP 3. USP 3 gives us a maximum remaining crew of 999. Reviving our 2,500 spare crew gives a new total of 3,499 which is 1,501 short of the full ships crew.

If you change the definition of a crew-1 hit it solves the problem.

J.

 

[Gatsby]

quote: 1) A 50t bay with 5 launchers does not give the same usp as 5 launchers mounted in turrets, so a 50t bay must either fire different missiles, fire missiles at a faster rate or be better at guilding it's missiles.

*I forgot to mention: Bay weapons fire twice as fast. D'oh.

Quote: 2) If you limit shots and/or require magazines to be installed, you make missiles more expensive than they were before. Also if you make missile magazines cost tonnage and/or money you will invalidate existing designs that use missile launchers.

*The only designs invalidated are those already having magazines (I found only the Type SB Guardian Class System Defense Boat in Sup7, which I have yet to reverse engineer) and those ships that rely on 'unlimited missiles'...but still a thorny issue....must be treated as an option, perhaps? (New Traveller Geek Code: UM+/- ?)

Of the problem with the Frozen Watch - I'll go with the canon answer, as you guys have put it - and let the referees decide. I DO like the idea of changing the crew loss to a percentage or something like that.

Any other gear-heads???

Thanks so far to the forum members!

Gats'