Question on Starship Maintenance

[Fulminata]

I'm looking at page 349 of the THB trying to figure out overhead for starship operations using T20. Now, math isn't my strong point, but I've run these figures a few times and can't get the numbers to match up with what the book says.

The book says that "Even factoring the cost of routine maintenance, a ship saves 20% on average on the cost of the annual maintenance."

That's fine and dandy, but annual maintenance equals 0.01% of the purchase price of the ship, while routine maintenance costs 0.0025% per month, or 0.03% over the course of the year! That means I'm paying quite a bit more by performing routine maintenance than I would if I skipped monthly maintenance and just did the end of the year stuff.

Now, I figure that a 0 was left out, and that it should be 0.00025% per month for routine maintenance (since that actually ends up with a savings of around 18 to 20%), but I didn't see it mentioned anywhere on the site or in the errata, so my question is am I missing something or not?

 

[far-trader]

Not sure if it made it into the errata file or not but the annual maintenance should maybe be 0.1% (1/10 of 1 percent) or 0.001 of the new cost. At least that's what it was in CT, though some other prices have come down by a factor of 10 so who knows.

I seem to recall the question about the routine maintenance coming up before too but don't remember how it worked out so maybe it was just me and my faulty memory.

 

[jasper]

you are right. the monthly maintenance is .0000025 of the cost of ship which cuts the yearly maintenance price in half.

 

[jasper]

http://www.travellerrpg.com/cgi-bin/Trav/CotI/Discuss/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=42;t=000107#000000

check this thread where I did some calcutations.
Or shoot us some firgures

 

[snrdg082102]

Evening all,

I've put together an MS Excel spreadsheet that I think worked out the Annual and Routine Maintenance costs. If anyone would like a copy please send me a Private message with your email address and I'll send you a copy. Two things about my spreadsheets: (1)They are all relatively basic, which means no fancy stuff like macros. I do however use the stuff already programmed in Excel. and (2) I do not protect the workbook or sheet. I have a habit of forgetting to turn the protection off when I work on the spreadsheet.

Next, I grabbed the first space vehicle I saw, which was the Launch (lifeboat) in the list of Smallcraft Designs on THB 2nd Ed. on p. 311.

Cost (C): Cr11,282,000
Annual Maintenance Cost (AMC):
C x (1/1000) = 11,282,000 x (1/1000 or .001) = Cr11,282

Routine Maintenance Cost (RMC):
C x .0025 = 11,282,000 x (.000025 or .0025%) = Cr282.05

Each month that RMC is preformed reduces AMC by 5% per month up to a maximum of 50%. To reach the maximum figure RMC must be performed for 10 months.
1 month of RMC reduces AMC to 10,717.9
2 months of RMC reduces AMC to 10,153.8
4 months of RMC reduces AMC to 9,025.6
8 months of RMC reduces AMC to 6,769.2
10 months of RMC reduces AMC to 5,641
(AMC = 5,641) + (RMC for 10 months 2,820.9) = 8,461.9 total cost for Annual & Rountine Maint.
12 months of RMC reduces AMC to 5,641
5,641 + 3,384.6 = 9,025.6 which is 20% of the AMC without routine maintenance.

At least that is how I understand the section on Rountine and Annual Maintenance.

 

[jasper]

That is correct with my numbers but since my players don't like math the total monthly 498.29
This normal mthly and mthly portion of the yearly maintenance. They basically prepaid the yearly maintenance fee over the year.
Your grant totally mthly payment would be 47+ K

 

[snrdg082102]

Evening jasper,

I'm really unclear about what is being decribed. Okay I'm really confused. Here is what I think is being said:

The Traveller party pays a portion of the annual maintenance cost monthly in addition to the routine (monthly?) maintenance cost. Using this formula the party makes a combined payment (Cr?) 47 + k monthly. (Light bulb went on after posting that 47 + K is Cr470.083.)

Using the information in the example from my earlier post here is how I think what is being said in this post means:

The annual maintenance cost for a T20 TL 9 Launch (lifeboat), THB 2nd ed. p. 311, is Cr11,282. The annual maintenance cost is cut to
Cr5,641 after performing 10 months of maintenance. Using Cr5,641 as the cost the calculated monthly payment is Cr470.0833 or Cr470.08.

Monthly Routine Manintenance costs Cr282.05.

Adding the monthly Annual Maintenance cost of Cr470.08 to the Routine Maintenance cost of Cr282.05 the grand total monthly payment is Cr752.13 and not Cr470.08.

The party still pays Cr9,025.56 or rounding up Cr9,025.6.

If I figure this correctly at least one extra math step was added to the process described in THB on p. 349. Here is my interpretation of the text, with a minimum of math:

1. Calculate Annual Maintenance cost based on the overall cost of the vehicle.

2. Calcualte Routine Maintenance cost based on the overall cost of of the vehicle.

3. Reduce Annual Maintenance by 5% up a maximum of 50% for each month Routine Maintenance is performed.

4. To determine the monthly payment for the Annual Maintenance cost divide the cost by 12

Are you sure the group doesn't like math?

Originally posted by jasper:
That is correct with my numbers but since my players don't like math the total monthly 498.29
This normal mthly and mthly portion of the yearly maintenance. They basically prepaid the yearly maintenance fee over the year.
Your grant totally mthly payment would be 47+ K

 

[Highguard]

This actually makes a lot of sence. Take for example your car: If you spend a little money every month to get the oil changed, the wear and tear on the engine is less over the course of the year so there is less damage to the engine when it comes time to do that yearly tune up.

Peace