My first T5 ship design attempt

[dalthor]

Went thru the shipbuilding process by hand, in an attempt to build a custom ship intended for first contact missions as part of my Varan campaign.

Don't know how viable the design is, looking for feedback. I know I'm missing things - this is just a first wag.

Note that I intentionally upgraded all systems to the best possible type - that gets the QREBS bonus where possible. I also went for crew and passenger comfort, knowing that there is still more to be done.

The ship won't be near a shipyard for a while, so I intended to have decent equipment. This also reduced size/tonnage on a lot of equipment and increased efficiency on several items.

Robject, will that be something you incorporate into ACS shipyard? So far I haven't been able to plug my design in with applicable stage effects...

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Nexus class first contact vessel

NXS-HS44 Survey Experimental Special
Hull
- H: 800-ton Streamlined 50.0 Mcr Agility +0, MaxG 9, Stability +1
Hull Structure
- C: Charged Hull TL 16 Armor 32, Reflec, Ablat, Slick
Fittings - all ultimate
- E: Submergence Hull TL 16 2 tons 48.0 Mcr
- G: Folding Fins TL 16 0 tons 12.0 Mcr Agility +1
- V: Collapsing Wings TL 16 2 tons 48.0 Mcr M-drive performance +1 G in atm
- K: Landing leg w/pads TL 16 2 tons 24.0 Mcr
- Z: Lifters TL 16 0 tons 24.0 Mcr
Jump bubble AND jump grid 8.0 Mcr Selectable each jump
Adv Jump drive R Improved TL 16 22 tons 255.0 Mcr 150% efficiency, fuel x .5, Jump-4
- Jump Fuel 160 tons
Early Hop drive D TL 16 25 tons 50.0 Mcr 90% efficiency, Hop-1 (Jump-10)
- Hop fuel 9 tons
Ult Maneuver drive R TL 16 8 tons 186.0 Mcr 130% efficiency
Ult Power plant R TL 16 17 tons 147.0 Mcr 130% efficiency, fuel x .7, P-4
- Power plant fuel 46 tons 2 months
Fuel systems
- Fuel scoop TL 16 1 ton .1 Mcr 200 tons/hour
- Fuel intake TL 16 1 ton .1 Mcr 40 tons/hour (liquids)
- Fuel bin TL 16 1 ton .1 Mcr 20 tons/hour (ice solids)
- Fuel purifier TL 16 2 tons 2.0 Mcr 8 tons/hour raw to refined fuel
World Sensors
- Ult Surf LR Activity TL 16 3.6 Mcr
- Ult Surf LR Deep Radar TL 16 3.6 Mcr
- Ult Surf LR Densitometer TL 16 3.6 Mcr
- Ult Surf LR Field Sensor TL 16 3.6 Mcr
- Ult Surf LR Sniffer TL 16 3.6 Mcr
- Ult Surf LR Life Detector TL 16 3.6 Mcr
- Ult Surf LR Mass Sensor TL 16 3.6 Mcr
- Ult Surf LR Proximeter TL 16 3.6 Mcr
- Ult Surf LR Sound Sensor TL 16 3.6 Mcr
Space Sensors
- Ult Surf LR Communicator TL 16 9.0 Mcr
- Ult Surf LR EMS TL 16 9.0 Mcr
- Adv Surf LR Grav Sensor TL 16 7.5 Mcr
- Ult Surf LR Jammer TL 16 9.0 Mcr
- Ult Surf LR Neutrino Detec TL 16 9.0 Mcr
- Ult Surf LR Stealth Mask TL 16 9.0 Mcr
- Mod Surf LR Visor TL 16 1.5 Mcr
Weapons
- 2 x Ult VD B2 Beam Laser TL 16 10 tons 18.0 Mcr
- 2 x Ult VD/AR B2 Part Acc TL 16 10 tons 26.0 Mcr
- 2 x Ult B1 Sandcaster TL 16 6 tons 6.2 Mcr
- 1 x Std B1 Tractor/Pressor TL 16 3 tons 5.0 Mcr
- 1 x Ult B2 Missle TL 16 5 tons 8.4 Mcr
Defenses
- Ult Bolt-in Meson Screen TL 16 1 ton 4.0 Mcr
- Ult Bolt-in Data Caster TL 16 1 ton 2.0 Mcr
- Std Bolt-in Black Globe TL 16 1 ton 5.5 Mcr Capture power, heat; flicker; cancel
Operations
- Platoon Barracks 40 tons 2.0 Mcr 20 enlisted
Life Support
- 7 x Long-term life support TL 16 14 tons 14.0 Mcr 120 days, 70 people
Controls
- 14 x consoles TL 16 28 tons 2.8 Mcr 5 br, 5 alt br, 2 eng, 1 med, 1 load
- 2 x Model 8 bis TL 16 16 tons 152.0 Mcr
Medical bay
- Clinic TL 16 2 tons 1.0 Mcr
- Surgery TL 16 5 tons 3.0 Mcr
- Medical lab TL 16 4 tons 2.0 Mcr
Crew - 19 in separate cabins
- Captain
- Luxury Stateroom TL 16 6 tons .4 Mcr
- Spacious console TL 16 2 tons .2 Mcr
- Regular crew
- 18 x Deluxe Stateroom TL 16 54 tons 10.8 Mcr 1 crewman with fresher per room
- Common Area TL 16 24 tons
Passengers
- 28 x Deluxe Stateroom TL 16 84 tons 16.8 Mcr 1 passenger with fresher per room
- Common Area TL 16 60 tons
Emergency Capsules
- 10 x Emergency capsule TL 16 10 tons 10.0 Mcr 10 passengers, 15 days support
Vehicles
- 6 x streamlined brackets TL 16 6 tons 2.0 Mcr
- Pinnace TL 16 40 tons 20.0 Mcr
- Launch TL 16 20 tons 14.0 Mcr

Cargo/other 50.0 tons

=================================================================

The Nexus-class first contact vessel is custom-built by Destrier Shipbuilders,
based out of Dalthor's Den. Designed and Captained by Dalthor Et Magera, the
ship was built to support a large exploration and contact mission. It has a large
crew, and a Marine contingent for security and weapons support. There are control
panels throughout the ship, built into the bulkheads.

The ship is equipped with an early hop drive, allowing hop-1. The jump drive is a
custom unit, significantly more efficient than any standard drive available.
Development of the hop drive led to the major increase in fuel efficiency for
the jump drive.

This design is the first non-experimental ship to be equipped with both drive types.

Regular crew is the Captain, 2 Pilot/Astrogators, 2 Communications Specialists,
2 Sensor Specialists, 2 Weapon/Security Specialists, 6 Engineers, 2 Medics,
1 Steward, and 1 Loadmaster, for a total crew of 19. Each crew member has a
private stateroom with a fresher.

The main and auxilliary bridges each contain five consoles - Captain, Pilot/Astrogator,
Communications, Sensors/Science and Weapons/Security. Any console may be used for
any function, with command override available on the Captain's console. The ship is
fully automated, with AI sufficient to run all systems in case of crew incapacity.

The Steward is acting platoon sergeant, and the junior Weapons specialist is the
acting commander of the platoon. Their quarters are adjacent to the barracks.

The platoon barracks is enlarged compared to the norm. The troops act as dirtside
security, man weapons posts, and act as general crew where needed. The troopers,
per their request, bunk as squads rather than have separate staterooms.

The ship supports both a pinnace and launch, with custom-fitted brackets for each.

Passenger demand is zero (0); Crew comfort is -1

 

[dalthor]

Grrrr...formatting not great. My apologies.

 

[robject]

Dalthor: yes, stage effects are accessible, but you do it by editing an item that's already part of your ship. For example, open up the sensors list or the drives list, and double click on a component. A generic item editor will pop up, allowing you to select a Stage. You can also have multiple items of that type represented by that one entry. Finally, you can edit the item's characteristics directly, which helps when there's something custom that's not available from the program directly.

 

[dalthor]

Sweet, thank you for the info!

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

Pretty good.

One, I thought you had to install DataCasters in Hard Points. And two, not sure if you can apply Stage Effects to fittings like Wings or Lifters. (I am in favor of anything being modified by Stage Effects, but I do know Rob's Shipyard App doesn't let you do that yet. Still, don't see why you can't.) And three, I would trade the Lasers with the Missiles, especially since you have the PA for Attack Range beam combat. Last, I would think about dropping the Tractor/Pressor and replacing it with the DataCaster.

 

[JFGarber]

What is the environment where contact will be taking place? It appears that YTU is a very dangerous place. Should the marines be swapped out for scientists or first-contact specialists or linguists. Should some of the weapon / defense capacity be turned into lab space?

 

[dalthor]

Actually, the replies above include part of what I am trying to figure out. I feel stage effects should affect hull fittings - stronger and lighter materials and so on. I also reverse engineered some hop fuel efficiency into the jump system, and decided I wanted both on the ship . This helps get the team from Imperial space to Varan space (the Mikhail sector) faster than straight jump 4.

As far as weapons, I erred when I did bolt-in for the datacaster. There are some changes I've already made to the design, I was mainly fiddling around with the system. I hadn't played with shipyard all that much - I wanted to "learn" the system on my own first. I could probably recoup some space. I haven't really looked at alternatives at this time...I have considered dropping missles - how would I replace expended munitions without access to bases/shipyards? Could I "build" them with a weps lab on board? Hmmmm...

The marines are for manning weapons turrets, and groundside security, more as an aside than anything else (red shirts?? lol) They are also there just in case...after all, you can't really know what to expect on a first contact mission outside known space, right?

The "passenger" staterooms are actually meant for the players, and are intended to be the scientists, linguists, and so on. Technically, that passenger space should be called the "science section." I'd thought about lab space in the remaining space and reducing common area space, but that affects morale and efficiency, which could be bad on an extended mission.

You may have noticed some non-standard sizes on staterooms - I've "created" a deluxe stateroom, 3 tons, with fresher, set up for 1 person, again for ergonomic and privacy reasons. That may become critical on an extended mission. (hint hint)

I'm moving things from Imperial space (the Deneb sector) to a new sector far removed from any Imperial (or known space) influence, so we need a fast, reliable ship with adequate provision for attack, defense, and unknowns.

In any case, trying to figure out a good ship profile, balancing comfort and utility in what is essentially an unknown area, makes for a better understanding of the system overall. Haven't done much Travelling in the last 15 years, so I'm still getting back into the swing of it - lots of changes to take in with T5.

I appreciate thoughts and suggestions. I've put some basic info on the wiki, see http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Mikhail_Sector to get an idea where the campaign is headed.

Thanks for the feedback!

Dalthor

 

[dalthor]

Oh, and I have specific (classified) reasons for the tractor/pressor; the captain knows why. <wink wink nudge nudge>.

Rob, I was fiddling with ACS - I like it. I do seem to recall that the number of consoles didn't display correctly. Then again, I was tired...and probably did it wrong.

I'll build this design there in the near future. I already know my numbers may be off in spots, so that'll help validate my numbers.

I must admit I like the "NXS" (survey experimental special) mission identifier and the resulting ship name. Must have been really tired.

Anyway, appreciate thoughts and input - I'd like this to be a viable ship design.

Ed