T20: Small ship versus Large ship Economics...

[GypsyComet]

TNE's approach still basically rendered one spinal "weapon" (except for the "Janus" front-and-back mount), but it was a lower power weapon with a higher rate of fire. Similar to the high ROF PD Laser Can the system allowed for (my site has one I did for my TNE game): three ton can with three laser emitters and a self-contained power plant complete with fuel. Disgusting little knife-fighting/PD turret that could be retro-fitted into just about any ship due to being self-contained.

Options like this (Janus mounts, or hot PD turrets) are more an RP thing than winning navy doctrinal design. Doesn't mean they're wrong, though.

 

[mike wightman]

TNE also allowed unlimited parallel mounts - the weapon could be no longer than 0.8xlength of the ship, but you can fit as many as you want.
In a spherical hull you can fit them in any direction desired, you could even have one (or more) per firing arc

Another way to do it would be to design a 1000-100,000t bay for very large capital ships and build a meson gun to fit.

 

[Flynn]

Sigg,

While it's possible under TNE, is it practical or cost efficient? Would a bureaucrat agree to spend money on it, compared to what else those Credits might buy?

Curious,
Flynn

 

[mike wightman]

Cost efficient or practical?

For an Imperium that can build BatRons of Tigress class battle ships then yes.

A TNE version of the Tigress would be able to threaten all the LAC, battle riders, and light cruisers sent against it.

Convert to T20 by fudging some of the design limitations of T20 and you'd get an equally fearsome beast

In a small pocket empire it would still be a ridiculous waste of resources to have "all your eggs in one basket" - so to speak.

So if I were the bureaucrat I'd go for a fleet of smaller ships over the one large one.

 

[The Oz]

Something else to keep in mind is that in TNE meson screens act to reduce the damage done by meson guns, even if the meson gun penetrates the meson screen. So meson guns lose a lot of their "one-shot-zot" capability in TNE space combat, which automatically makes bigger ships more viable since they can soak up way more damage than smaller vessels.

 

[Psion]

Originally posted by Fritz88:
BTW, besides play balance, why can't you put more than one spinal in a ship?

In Master of Orion III (which had a smidgen of inspiration from Traveller) you could.

Of course, if I had gone forth with my plan of making a T20 campaign based on MOO III, I would have had to throw that rule in there.