Protected Installations

[robject]

I'm probably making this harder than it really is. So I'll try to answer my own question, using some of your suggestions.

The estate of this baron is an orbital planetoid. I know, I didn't tell you this to begin with, because I figured it was a distraction. But, it is information. The planetoid is not m-drive-equipped, but it orbits a secondary world he oversees.

Thus it is more like a small starport than a ship, so it has starportlike features:

Premium Hangars.
Inexpensive Hangars.
Traffic Control Complex.
Guest Suites. This includes a small staffed kitchen, a couple of multipurpose rooms, public gardens.
Security. A central station and a number of manned posts; everything is "wired".
Defense Establishment. Anti-ship missile launchers. Armed surface-to-orbit capable smallcraft, for both defense and transport.
Administration and Offices, for official nobility business.

I've heard mention of a Panic Room, and it makes perfect sense, BUT I have problems understanding how to use it in a game -- I just can't see how it would work if the players are attacking. The defenders retreat into the Panic Room, and that's that. Not satisfying. Alternately, the Panic Room is a starship, which the players secure as soon as possible, and then the Big Cheese walks right into their trap -- perhaps walks right into their hail of gunfire. Not satisfying.

 

[Reban]

Okay so the first word is Onion.


Onion as in layers of defense. You'll need sensors that can monitor starship traffic just like a normal starport but also sensors with a fine enough resolution to detect man sized objects approaching or close to the surface. If I wanted to sneak on I might coast down in a vacc suit or drop off the hull of an authorized ship as it docks. PEMS should work but pressure and heat sensors with laser trip wires near airlocks and entry points should be the next layer. Roving patrols or drones could patrol the surface too.

Once you get inside, airlocks make ideal checkpoints. As well as checking identity, airport style scanners might be built into the lock.

the idea of a panic room is to buy time. If someone invades your home you retreat there to remove yourself from harm while help is on its way (you need an alarm with automated response to call the police).

If you want a panic room on your asteroid fit it with independent life support and full controls for all security and engineering functions for the base. One guy controlling gravity air and light everywhere can make it uncomfortable for invaders. Plus you can have him appear via the asteroids internal comms network baiting the invaders. You also need a distress beacon and a back-up to call for help. Who "help" is is up to you, local navy, imperial navy or passing ships.

The idea of a panic room / life boat is good. If I was attacking and wanted to kill or kidnap I'd find out as much as I could before going in. If I knew about the life boat I'd send in a disposable team of mercs to panic the home owner into abandoning via the life boat and as it exists I'll grab it with a bigger ship or just blast it.


Looking at your base there are two ways to take it: by assault or by stealth. Assault will attract attention of people on the planet or in orbit and the cavalry might arrive sooner than I accomplish what ever it is I need to. Stealth means getting someone, or a small team aboard. Probably best to get someone aboard under cover as a member of staff and have them plant a virus or take control of the base security. Once I have remote control I'll send a ship into one of the docks and reinforce with more men or load whatever it is I'm stealing/kidnapping aboard.

Hope that helps.

 

[atpollard]

I haven't read this topic from the beginning, so sorry if this has been mentioned or is off-topic, but a significant part of the home/office of any public figure is the rooms that support large public gatherings. You might need to host a dinner party for 400 guests ... you need a gathering area for 400, a dining area for 400, a commercial kitchen able to feed 400+. You will want to be able to greet and welcome your guests as they arrive and make their arrival as pleasant an experience as possible.

All of that adds up to a lot of public spaces close to the surface with easy access ... a security nightmare ... but the alternative of treating each of your high ranking guests to the equivalent of multiple airport scans and a strip search as they pass through check points, is social and political suicide.

The onion analogy was a good one. At the outermost level (ignoring space based defenses), you need an easy access equivalent to a convention center or four-star hotel lobby/meeting rooms. One level in from that you can place your staff and offices. One level in from that you can place your personal living spaces. One level in from that might be your panic room - Fortress of Solitude.

A technique that I used in the past on planetoids concerns the 30% buffered planetoid concept: Leave the outer 30% of the world as a solid armored shell and hollow out the next 30 meters with living spaces. Then treat the core as a smaller buffered planetoid and leave the outer 30% of the smaller world as a solid armored shell and hollow out 30 meters beneath that with living spaces. Keep repeating until you get to the center. Each concentric 'buffered planetoid' has its own power and life support so any ship vs ship attack will need to defeat each layer of buffered planetoid in turn to get to the next layer of defense ... it buys lots of time for help to arrive. A 'boarding' attack will require a series of breaches and choke points and ambushes to make that a long and costly assault.

So that's my 2 cents.

 

[Reban]

And you're not doing the onion analogy wrong if you fit some spaces with tear gas dispensers. :rofl:

 

[aramis]

Rulers do NOT need banquet halls for 400. It's a nicety, but far from essential. It was during the age of "Divine Right Monarchs" that such halls became standard, but remember that that hall was also the primary living space. By the 18th C autocratic kings, it was more keeping up with the King Joneses than statecraft. Or in extreme cases, pure sybaritic pleasure and/or public monuments (Absolute monarchies era; Neu Schwanstein, Versaille, Buckingham).

Truth be told, a modern palace can be pretty small - a conference room for press conferences, doubling as a dining hall for 20% as many - say seating 40 for dinner, 200 standing for press announcements, plus apartments and offices. Many state governors have that.

Rulers often make do with shared space that they have priority for, but which is essentially civil in use, or used for other governmental functions, like training employees.

 

[atpollard]

Rulers do NOT need banquet halls for 400.

That is an argument over degrees.
The point remains that a table and service for eight with a standard residential kitchen will be inadequate. The homes of celebrities and presidents of corporations boast commercial kitchens and banquet rooms (whether for 40 or 400 is more a product of the individual).

PS. I selected 400 based upon the Astor's Ballroom of New York High Society (c. 1900) and assumed that an imperial noble might host a similar social event.

 

[aramis]

That is an argument over degrees.
The point remains that a table and service for eight with a standard residential kitchen will be inadequate. The homes of celebrities and presidents of corporations boast commercial kitchens and banquet rooms (whether for 40 or 400 is more a product of the individual).

PS. I selected 400 based upon the Astor's Ballroom of New York High Society (c. 1900) and assumed that an imperial noble might host a similar social event.

And hotels are perfectly fine venues even for nobles. ANything larger than about service for 40 goes beyond personal state use and into public spectacle and/or ostentation. Note - Most of the dozen+ mansions (and 2 friaries) I've been in have only service for 24... all have been in the pacific northwest US or Hawaii - and includes one Governor's Mansion. Most have two dining rooms - a small one for 4-8, and a large one for 16-24; an additional staff eating area also was present in about half, seating 4-6.

 

[atpollard]

Anything larger than about service for 40 goes beyond personal state use and into public spectacle and/or ostentation.

You say that like it is a bad thing.

"You don't know what is enough, until you know what is too much." - W.Blake

Bill Gates' house
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bill Gates' house is a large mansion in the side of a hill which overlooks Lake Washington in Medina, Washington, United States of America. The 66,000-square-foot (6,100 m2) mansion is noted for its design and the technology it incorporates.
The mansion is a modern design in the Pacific lodge style, with classic features such as a huge private library with a dome shaped roof and oculus. The house also features an estate-wide server system, a 60-foot (18 m) swimming pool with an underwater music system, a 2,500-square-foot (230 m2) gym, a 1,000-square-foot (93 m2) dining room, and heated floors and driveways. Guests wear pins that automatically adjust temperature, music, and lighting based on guest's preferences upon entering a room. It is also an earth-sheltered house.

OK, if bill gates only needs a dining room for 50-60 people, then 400 might be excessive in the modern age ... but then the who's who of planetary society will never be defined by who is invited to your ballroom.

 

[aramis]

You say that like it is a bad thing.

"You don't know what is enough, until you know what is too much." - W.Blake



OK, if bill gates only needs a dining room for 50-60 people, then 400 might be excessive in the modern age ... but then the who's who of planetary society will never be defined by who is invited to your ballroom.

The State Ballroom generally will NOT be at the residence palace. Too much risk. Tho garden parties might be.

The Residential palace probably will look not unlike a remote friary:
Residence - 8-24 bedrooms, 2x2 to 3x5m each
Offices - 8-12 offices, same size as the bedrooms
Reception - say, 5x5m security zoned room, gated desk (possibly behind glass) security entrance.
Staff hall - place for communal work, 3x5m
Library - 3x5 to 5x10m
Dining hall - 3x5 to 5x10m, plus staff of 2x3 to 3x4m
Chapel - 3x5 to 5x10m
Recreation room - 3x5 to 5x10m
Kitchen - 3x3 to 5x10m
Storage -3x5 to 5x10m
Inner or Walled garden 3x3 to 30x30m
Garage: 4x4 to 8x20m
Outer Garden, grounds, perimeter walled: up to 10x10km, security gates.
Security barracks: on the outer garden, probably for a platoon, maybe a company for larger estates.
Further grounds - probably also walled with security checkpoints. Possibly staff housing and a (private to the estate) school.

If there's a ballroom, it's probably separate from the main building, on the outer garden or just outside. Quite possibly at a government hall.

In modern and post-modern, I'd expect the grand ballroom to be at a government house, not the residence. Government house should have the 10x50 to 100x300m grand ballroom, doubling as an awards hall, depending upon what's put in, with a storage room about 1/4 the size adjacent, and quite possibly a museum, formal offices (with at least 5x5m per office, 10-30 offices for high officials), a reference library, a guard day-barracks (possibly a full time barracks, or maybe a week-at-a-shift barracks with multiple shifts' lockers).

Why put the ballroom and offices in a separate State House? Security. You never let foreigners into the personal residence. It's for family, personal friends, and your supervising dukes on progress, and perhaps imperial agents.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

The only difficulty with holding your functions 'elsewhere' is robject's clarification of his requirements: it's a planetoid or some such. Makes it a bit more ... annoying to go to a fancy public place. A ballroom at your own place might be much handier. Think of all the scanners you would have in place: seeing what people are carrying, hearing what they're saying, getting pics/holos of certain people tete-a-tete with certain other people, etc.

It's not just about holding a big party. It's about power. And that isn't just about "showing the flag".

 

[Carlobrand]

Rulers do NOT need banquet halls for 400. It's a nicety, but far from essential. It was during the age of "Divine Right Monarchs" that such halls became standard, but remember that that hall was also the primary living space. By the 18th C autocratic kings, it was more keeping up with the King Joneses than statecraft. ...

400 seems a bit excessive, but it was the custom - in England at least, I don't know about France or Spain or elsewhere - for the King to reduce his overhead by travelling with his court, visiting his various nobles at their homes both to keep abreast of distant doings and to put the burden of his court briefly on the shoulders of the visited nobles. Maintaining halls and resources adequate to that task was a necessity if a noble expected to advance himself and his family.

Whether the same would apply in the setting under discussion depends on the extent to which Traveller nobility are emulating that model. Certainly the Emperor is not showing up, unless this place happens to be within a couple months of Capital. Maybe a sector duke travels with his court, but I see those numbers in the dozens, not the hundreds.

However, such spacious banquet halls might be useful if you're orbiting a planet with a sizeable population and an equally sizeable body of rich and influential locals to impress. Perhaps this baron finds it useful to impress the local folk who look up to him (in both a literal and figurative sense). An orbiting banquet hall can be pretty impressive to the planetbound, might get you the edge you need to attract investors, low cost loans, that sort of thing.