"Navigational Deflectors" in Traveller?

[scott]

As I've been looking at ship designs for Traveller, I've been wondering -- how do the ship-design rules (CT or GURPS in my case, but any of them) account for the hazard of a fast-moving ship striking in-system rocks and other debris? From what I can remember, Star Trek ships had "navigational deflectors" to deal with this, but I can't recall seeing anything similar on Traveller ships that would deflect or destroy hazards like this. Are we assuming that the hulls are built to take these impacts (which could be extremely energetic), or is there some sort of deflector or shield that I've missed?

(BTW -- I've tried to sketch out a few non-streamlined ships--liners, ferries, etc.-- but if I include some sort of bulb of armor at the bow, they start to look really unfortunately phallic. )

 

[far-trader]

Yep Traveller has something very similar to ST's navdef, iirc, unless it was pure house-rule on our groups part. I know we did it, and then much later I think I found out from others that it was in fact already in the game. I think it was in the CT adventure about asteroid prospecting (name escapes me, back in a few to fill this in and maybe details).

Our house-rule was a hull field (active as long as the drives were powered) that eliminated the risk of small particle damage, reduced larger particle damage, you had to avoid bigger things. Coupled with the exceedingly low odds of hitting anything and generally low velocity of travel in normal space of most ships it was enough. The same hull field also provided radiation shielding.

 

[far-trader]

Hmmm, nope not finding it right now. Have to look some more later. Maybe someone else recalls it better (if it wasn't just a house-rule after all)...

(BTW -- I've tried to sketch out a few non-streamlined ships--liners, ferries, etc.-- but if I include some sort of bulb of armor at the bow, they start to look really unfortunately phallic. )

Oh yeah, been there done that, bought the t-shirt

In fact...

http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=25120

 

[mike wightman]

It's in the CT boxed adventure Beltstrike.

 

[far-trader]

Yeah, I thought that was where it was Mike (who has my back again as he's the one istr informing me our house-rule had some canon to it here on these boards)...

...but this time I decided to have a quick look through the booklet and I couldn't see it

I'm sure I've even seen it quoted (by you?) since. Do you know the section or page I can look to? Thanks

 

[scott]

Oh yeah, been there done that, bought the t-shirt

In fact...

http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=25120

Hah! Yep--good to know I'm not the only one. I'm going to go back to drawing disc-shaped, wedge-shaped, and flying-wing-shaped craft.

 

[scott]

And thanks for the lead on the system covered in Beltstrike. I don't have that one, but it's at least good to know that there's some assumption that the power system and hull include a deflection system. No more bulbs.

 

[far-trader]

Hah! Yep--good to know I'm not the only one. I'm going to go back to drawing disc-shaped, wedge-shaped, and flying-wing-shaped craft.

Heh, I went through a period where even trying that they seemed to evoke subtle sexual innuendo

I dug deeper and found the reference(albeit very brief) in BeltStrike copyright GDW 1984:

...referring to radiation risks:

(Ships under power are not affected - part of the M-drive generates a low-power screen against radiation and meteorite impact- but a power failure during approach within about a million kilometers of the gas giant would be fatal.)

Bifrost (a space station, orbiting the gas giant) suffered a massive power failure in 1098; collapse of anti-radiation shielding resulted in the deaths of nearly 200 people.

 

[scott]

Great--thanks, Dan! Now I can go back to drawing non-suggestive designs. I hope.

 

[far-trader]

You're welcome scott, and good luck on the drawing

Also from BeltStrike, related to the above, in case it comes up for anyone looking at this:

re VaccSuits(tm) and radiation:

A character who works more than 3 hours in radiation per week takes 1 D points of damage against endurance; this is a permanent reduction.

 

[mike wightman]

Easy - page 2 of the first adventure Lodes of Adventure:

This gives extensive natural shielding against the dangerous radiation which is found this close to Bowman Prime. (Ships under power are not affected - part of the M-drive generates a low-power screen against radiation and meteorite impact - but a power failure during approach within about a million kilometers of the gas giant would be fatal.)

 

[far-trader]

Thanks Mike

I skimmed the likely areas in it but was pre-caffeine earlier and totally forgot the search function of the pdf to find it

 

[Carlobrand]

Repulsor technology would foot the bill. If a big 100-ton bay will stop volleys of fast-moving missiles, then maybe there's some weaker, smaller version of it in common use to stop the space-rocks that are too small to be picked up in a timely fashion by your ship's radar.

 

[Dragoner]

Repulsor technology would foot the bill. If a big 100-ton bay will stop volleys of fast-moving missiles, then maybe there's some weaker, smaller version of it in common use to stop the space-rocks that are too small to be picked up in a timely fashion by your ship's radar.

Watch out you are moving into "stealth" territory.

I've always figured on the repulsor screen as well.

 

[BlackBat242]

Since CT M-drives are gravitic in nature, they simply generate a "anti-grav" field in front of the ship that pushes away small particles, micro-meteoriods, etc., as well as a lesser field surrounding the ship itself reducing radiation exposure for the occupants.


For all those using other versions of Traveller, your ships have separate systems to do the job.

 

[Gojifam58]

Amber Zone...

While it didn't give the details, I remember an Amber Zone from the old Journal that said something along the lines that the magnetic shied for micro-meteorites could also be used to block low-tech radar systems, allowing for covert ops.

 

[far-trader]

While it didn't give the details, I remember an Amber Zone from the old Journal that said something along the lines that the magnetic shied for micro-meteorites could also be used to block low-tech radar systems, allowing for covert ops.

Not ringing any bells but that I would like to find ( ...yeah, I might actually go looking even )

And Welcome Aboard Gojifam58

 

[BytePro]

Repulsors exist in HG as defensive weapons - 'large focused anti-grav projectors'.

 

[Gojifam58]

Just looked in my Journal reprints (available from Marc at FFE) and it's in Issue #4 - the famous Gazelle issue. What is states is simply that the Governments involved "have only conventional radar, which can be scrambled by a scout's defensive screens".

Trying to recall thoughts from 30 years ago, I may have adopted that these screens were magnetic in nature from an other source, maybe Star Trek. But since even the humble Scout came with these screens I just accepted that they were simply standard for space craft and therefor not thought about very much. The next time screens even came up we were talking about Dampers, Meson Screens, and Black Globes - so the Deflectors remained as simply something that came with the ship.

Thanks for the welcome. Traveller has always been good to me and the Third Imperium became a second home to me in my mind, I even gained a feel for Strephon as a person and always felt him to be a caring man who really loved his people and tried to do his best for them. This is why I avoid the Rebellion and it's petty factions, and the less said about Virus the better.

Coming here finally feels like coming home.

 

[Carlobrand]

Just looked in my Journal reprints (available from Marc at FFE) and it's in Issue #4 - the famous Gazelle issue. What is states is simply that the Governments involved "have only conventional radar, which can be scrambled by a scout's defensive screens". ...

Amber Zone, Salvage on Sharmun, by Jeff May:
The NPC retaining the adventurers has what is presumed to be a standard scout/courier. Sharmun is a roughly earthlike balkanized world, TL5 at the time they were surveyed, red-zoned for extreme xenophobia and a very delicate political situation: the planet's two major powers were on the brink of war with each other and "possessed stockpiles of atomic and conventional weapons ..." (presumably they were on the cusp of TL6, motivated by mutual hostility: US ~1946). At the time of the adventure, 25 years later, they're TL7 with "space navies with efficient M-drive ships" and colonies in other parts of the system, and "oth Sharmunese governements have only conventional radar, which can be scrambled by a scout's defence screens."

I don't recall any other mention of a scout's "defensive screens" in canon. Radar is basically radio waves; I can't think of anything that would "deflect" a micrometeor or other mass that would also have an impact on radar - at least not that would be mounted on a classic scout/courier.

High Guard rules permitted a ship to apply its computer as a negative modifier to incoming attacks. Book-2 spoke of an ECM program that could disable incoming missiles, which implies some sort of ECM system controlled by the computer. Given that the screens affected radar, "defensive screens" could refer to this ECM system rather than to a deflector system.