Nebandi Ru ideas

[pendragonman]

You need to make a npv calculation to compare an investment versus later income.

It's easier to compare monthly profitability.
Monthly mortgage on MCr 9.2: kCr -38.
Extra passenger, 2 jumps: kCr 2 × 8 = kCr 16
Saved salary, month: kCr 4
Sum: -38 + 16 + 4 = kCr -18.
Negative value of the investment, even in the best case (ship always full).

Make it a subbie design, delivering entire cargo pods to outlying colonies and smaller settlements.

 

[Swiftbrook]

I get something like this:

Just wondering, are your MT designs from a custom spreadsheet, accessible spreadsheet, or program?

 

[boomslang]

So far I've decided it's 1G, Jump-2, TL 13 at most, has 8 staterooms in the bow, and can handle six 30t cargo pods attached port and starboard to the main spine. So, some questions for the community. With attachable cargo pods, could this ship land on a planet? If so, what configuration would you choose? Should I add a launch, probably in a ventricle sling? Would you put crew cabins in the rear next to the engines? I'm thinking three turrets: one triple sandcaster each port/starboard on the engineering structure, and one ventricle single pulse laser under the flying bridge.

Your thoughts?

OK, a little brainstorming off the top of my head based on just the images.

Looking at it, I would not make it atmosphere-capable, primarily as a hijacking deterrent, since unstreamlined ships require support infrastructure for refueling -- an infrastructure many corsair bands may lack.

I could also envision a ship such as this serving a subsidized or corporate-held cargo route that involved a mainworld far within the Jump Shadow of its sun -- so far that travel times up/down would take the better part of a week by themselves and so the destination system has established a farport for deep-space cargo (and passenger) staging and refueling. Ships Jump in, spend a few hours at the farport, and then Jump back out again later that same day, maximizing their revenue.

Thus, the ship is fitted to carry hot-swappable cargo pods conveniently sized to be handled by Cutters, Slow Pinnaces, and Shuttles stationed at the farport and making the round trips to/from the mainworld.

Alternately, perhaps the subsidy was granted by a world with a Gov-7, and due to political gamesmanship, it was agreed that no country would provide a downport, but instead all would contribute to a highport, where each country would use its own spaceport to deliver and receive its own freight carried by the communally-supported starship. The cargo pod system simplifies the logistics of this arrangement (who gets to utilize how much shipping capacity and when, and so on), while also allowing some degree of confidentiality (or skulduggery) among the various users of the vessel's services.

A ventral Launch-as-lifeboat sounds like a good idea to me.

I would put crew cabins for the Engineering crew in the aft section, and crew cabins for the Flight crew in the forward section. If using the Balkanized world model above, intercultural conflicts would need to be prevented, or on the other hand might make a recurring, mutinous scenario hook.

I favor undergunning merchant vessels somewhat, as it makes the crew work harder and increases the temptation to corsairs. If you go with an all-expendables weapons fit of mixed sandcasters and missiles, you can reduce the computational overhead for combat situations while simultaneously creating opportunities for the crew to be hustling reloads from one end of the ship to another while under fire.

Also: why TL13? I looked at the images and my first though was TL10, maybe TL11 tops... that boxy drive section was not an aesthetic choice, but rather a practical one, to my eye.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Just wondering, are your MT designs from a custom spreadsheet, accessible spreadsheet, or program?

It's my own spreadsheet.

 

[Swiftbrook]

OK, a little brainstorming off the top of my head based on just the images.

Looking at it, I would not make it atmosphere-capable, primarily as a hijacking deterrent, since unstreamlined ships require support infrastructure for refueling -- an infrastructure many corsair bands may lack.

I could also envision a ship such as this serving a subsidized or corporate-held cargo route that involved a mainworld far within the Jump Shadow of its sun -- so far that travel times up/down would take the better part of a week by themselves and so the destination system has established a farport for deep-space cargo (and passenger) staging and refueling. Ships Jump in, spend a few hours at the farport, and then Jump back out again later that same day, maximizing their revenue.

Thus, the ship is fitted to carry hot-swappable cargo pods conveniently sized to be handled by Cutters, Slow Pinnaces, and Shuttles stationed at the farport and making the round trips to/from the mainworld.

I like the sun jump shadow idea. I was thinking about the possibility of the swappable cargo pods at some ports.

A ventral Launch-as-lifeboat sounds like a good idea to me.

I would put crew cabins for the Engineering crew in the aft section, and crew cabins for the Flight crew in the forward section. If using the Balkanized world model above, intercultural conflicts would need to be prevented, or on the other hand might make a recurring, mutinous scenario hook.

Not sure about splitting up the crew cabins. If they're not mixed in with the passengers, I'd like a ward room for them.

I favor undergunning merchant vessels somewhat, as it makes the crew work harder and increases the temptation to corsairs. If you go with an all-expendables weapons fit of mixed sandcasters and missiles, you can reduce the computational overhead for combat situations while simultaneously creating opportunities for the crew to be hustling reloads from one end of the ship to another while under fire.

I'm thinking of downgrading my weaponry to two sandcaster turrets and a single pulse laser. No missiles.

Also: why TL13? I looked at the images and my first though was TL10, maybe TL11 tops... that boxy drive section was not an aesthetic choice, but rather a practical one, to my eye.

It looks a little lower tech but you can also look at it as a design that provides easy maintenance. The main reason is the cost. It currently costs 68 MCr (discounted cost) at TL 13 vs. 80 MCr at TL 11. It's a difference of 50,000/month. I think the lower TL version would have to be subsidies where as the higher TL one could pull its own weight. Also, except for the power plant, most of the components are TL 11 so they could be fixed in many more systems.

 

[boomslang]

I'm thinking of downgrading my weaponry to two sandcaster turrets and a single pulse laser. No missiles.

With a 1bis computer, you are going to be hurting for room to run much more than the Auto/Evade, Target, Launch, and Anti-Hijack applications during a firefight, I am thinking... so I am then thinking that if you want to go with the smallest workable computer, you might also want to go with the more-likely-to-hit beam laser if you do not want to arm with missiles.

And do not forget that the sand being cast will likely interfere with the ship's own laser fire in many scenarios -- another reason to favor accuracy over damage potential.

OTOH, pulse lasers are quite handy for mining ice from asteroids in wilderness-refueling situations... which might prove useful to an unstreamlined ship.

 

[Swiftbrook]

With a 1bis computer, you are going to be hurting for room to run much more than the Auto/Evade, Target, Launch, and Anti-Hijack applications during a firefight, I am thinking... so I am then thinking that if you want to go with the smallest workable computer, you might also want to go with the more-likely-to-hit beam laser if you do not want to arm with missiles.

And do not forget that the sand being cast will likely interfere with the ship's own laser fire in many scenarios -- another reason to favor accuracy over damage potential.

OTOH, pulse lasers are quite handy for mining ice from asteroids in wilderness-refueling situations... which might prove useful to an unstreamlined ship.

A pulse laser is simply a flavor choice. It seems like most (if not all) designs have beam lasers.

I haven't looked into computer programs in MT in many many years. I'm not sure it matters in MegaTraveller, but I'll look into it again.

 

[Ulsyus]

A 400t cargo ship may do the backwater runs as an option to the Free or Far Traders. If that's the case then transferring the pods to the surface via cutter seems a really sensible idea.

If there was a high port even that option wouldn't be necessary.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

A pulse laser is simply a flavor choice.

MT: Beam lasers hits better in greater numbers, e.g. a triple turret is a battery factor 3, whereas three pulse lasers would be factor 2.
Pulse lasers do more damage (DM+2 on damage table).

For a single weapon a pulse laser is better.