EDIT: TABLES IN ALL BUT THE MOST RECENT POST BY ME IN THIS THREAD MAY BE SLIGHTLY INACCURATE
(I'm catching errors as I go, but I fear that the edit window on the earliest posts may expire before I'm done.)
Anyhow...
I'm running spreadsheets to figure out baseline minimum cargo costs per parsec, based on what ships are available (by TL and distance from their shipyard). I'm starting with LBB2(81), but will also do LBB5(80).
I'm pretty sure someone else did this long ago.
This is a work in progress.
Design Brief:
Ships will have the following ratings:
- Jump Drive, Power Plant, and Computer vary by Jn, but are the minimum required (least expensive) for the designated Jn. Maneuver is always 1G.
- There is only one turret; triple, with a laser, missile, and sandcaster.
- Hulls are streamlined (LBB2).
- Crew is as per LBB2 rules for all LBB2 ships and those LBB5 ships 1000Td and below. (I'm having some questions about the definition of "Extremely large starships" on p.16, and what salaries the extra personnel filling out the 10 crew per 1000Td are paid. Right now, I'm assuming it's 4000+Td and Cr3500/Mo -- but am open to suggestions.)
Assumptions:
- The owners of the ship are financing it themselves; payments are 1/240 of the ship's cost per month for 480 months with no down payment. Return on investment comes from the loan, not profits on the cargo.
- Jumps are on a 2-week cycle (two jumps per month) as described in LBB2. Every Jump consumes the required Jump fuel plus half the monthly powerplant fuel requirement.
- Crew is Skill-1 except for "Chief [$position]s" who are Skill-2; the 10% pay increase for that position reflects the higher skill level and does not stack on the skill level premium.
- Crew is in single 4Td staterooms.
- Fuel is always refined, costing Cr500/ton. Where unrefined fuel is unavailable, a risk premium will be added to the cargo rate to cover misjumps. (I'll probably come back at this with LBB5 onboard fuel refining to see if it's worth installing.)
- I'm ignoring berthing costs. Partly because they're a rounding error by comparison to everything else, but mostly because I didn't code it into the spreadsheet and I'm too lazy to go back and fix it.
Plausibility:
Is anyone actually going to build these ships? Probably not, since these are minimally-armed pure cargo carriers. In the "'real world", they'd have a lot more weaponry -- mostly lasers and sandcasters. And they'd probably have passenger accommodations as well (which I'll address later).
Essentially, these ships set the floor for cargo rates. The only way to build anything more cost-efficient (with LBB2 alone) is to drop the streamlining and the turret, and allow double-occupancy for the crew. The former adds surface-to-orbit ferry costs, plus the costs of escort ships; the latter wouldn't be done in normal commercial use under rules as written.
This is for Jump-1:
Observations:[REVISED]
The big surprise was that for Jump-1, the 600Td standard hull dominated everything else at all TLs for cost-efficiency even with 50Td wasted.
Wrapping the first version in a spoiler since it's wrong.
I'll continue with higher Jns and distances, then wrap it up for LBB2 with a summary of lowest cost-to-distance by available Jn and TL.
(I'm catching errors as I go, but I fear that the edit window on the earliest posts may expire before I'm done.)
Anyhow...
I'm running spreadsheets to figure out baseline minimum cargo costs per parsec, based on what ships are available (by TL and distance from their shipyard). I'm starting with LBB2(81), but will also do LBB5(80).
I'm pretty sure someone else did this long ago.
This is a work in progress.
Design Brief:
Ships will have the following ratings:
- Jump Drive, Power Plant, and Computer vary by Jn, but are the minimum required (least expensive) for the designated Jn. Maneuver is always 1G.
- There is only one turret; triple, with a laser, missile, and sandcaster.
- Hulls are streamlined (LBB2).
- Crew is as per LBB2 rules for all LBB2 ships and those LBB5 ships 1000Td and below. (I'm having some questions about the definition of "Extremely large starships" on p.16, and what salaries the extra personnel filling out the 10 crew per 1000Td are paid. Right now, I'm assuming it's 4000+Td and Cr3500/Mo -- but am open to suggestions.)
Assumptions:
- The owners of the ship are financing it themselves; payments are 1/240 of the ship's cost per month for 480 months with no down payment. Return on investment comes from the loan, not profits on the cargo.
Justified because I'm seeking the price floor for cargo. This could also be approached from a perspective of collecting no interest on the loan, but seeking a profit margin per ton of cargo per Jump that covers the cost of capital.
- Crew is Skill-1 except for "Chief [$position]s" who are Skill-2; the 10% pay increase for that position reflects the higher skill level and does not stack on the skill level premium.
- Crew is in single 4Td staterooms.
- Fuel is always refined, costing Cr500/ton. Where unrefined fuel is unavailable, a risk premium will be added to the cargo rate to cover misjumps. (I'll probably come back at this with LBB5 onboard fuel refining to see if it's worth installing.)
- I'm ignoring berthing costs. Partly because they're a rounding error by comparison to everything else, but mostly because I didn't code it into the spreadsheet and I'm too lazy to go back and fix it.
Plausibility:
Is anyone actually going to build these ships? Probably not, since these are minimally-armed pure cargo carriers. In the "'real world", they'd have a lot more weaponry -- mostly lasers and sandcasters. And they'd probably have passenger accommodations as well (which I'll address later).
Essentially, these ships set the floor for cargo rates. The only way to build anything more cost-efficient (with LBB2 alone) is to drop the streamlining and the turret, and allow double-occupancy for the crew. The former adds surface-to-orbit ferry costs, plus the costs of escort ships; the latter wouldn't be done in normal commercial use under rules as written.
This is for Jump-1:
Code:
Tons Cost/Jump per
TL Tons Drives Payload Cost/Jump Ton Payload Notes:
9 600 C 403 261494 649 (600Td standard hull beats 800Td custom, even with 50Td wasted)
10 1000 E 798 561147 708
11-12 2000 J 1609 1070897 666
13-14 3000 Q 2421 1665261 684 (Bridge size & XO+staff raise costs)
15 5000 W 3973 2704647 681 (Mandatory minimum crew size rule consequence)The big surprise was that for Jump-1, the 600Td standard hull dominated everything else at all TLs for cost-efficiency even with 50Td wasted.
Wrapping the first version in a spoiler since it's wrong.
The first surprise was that for Jump-1, the most cost-effective LBB2 ship was Tech Level 11. I expected it to be a larger, higher-tech ship. However, the command/staff requirements above 1000KTd, and the mandatory minimum crew size for "extremely large starships", kill off economies of scale from the fixed power plant fuel allocation -- at least for J-1.
The highest cost per ton per Jump is about 10% higher than the lowest. I expected a wider variation, but figure it'll show up at the higher Jump numbers/distances with their smaller ships.
The highest cost per ton per Jump is about 10% higher than the lowest. I expected a wider variation, but figure it'll show up at the higher Jump numbers/distances with their smaller ships.
I'll continue with higher Jns and distances, then wrap it up for LBB2 with a summary of lowest cost-to-distance by available Jn and TL.
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