Hi,
I'm not fully sure I understand what you mean by "fussy" with regards to bays.
"Fussy" is a reference to the special rule that you cannot count bay tonnage in determining the maximum number of turrets. I didn't want to have an easy to forget rule like that, so I slightly reduced the number of weapons in each bay.
...For reference a sphere 5000dt in volume would be about 25.3m in radius and would have a surface area of 8112 sq m (I believe). thus these bay openings would account for about 35% of the surface area of the sphere and 50% of the total internal volume.
Since LBB2 does not have surface area, I chose to also ignore it. I'm really not interested in adding surface area to the rules.
Beyond the questions on volume and area requirements there is also a question on how the weapons are powered as so many weapons on one hull raises questions on what their power draw must be.
Not for me. I assume that the power plants on the ship are sufficient to power whatever the ship is capable of mounting. LBB2's starship design system hits a sweet spot for me -- it's detailed enough to be engaging, yet simple enough to be enjoyable. I have no interest in recreating Fire, Fusion and Steel, GURPS Vehicles, or any other gearhead tomes.
One thing I have always tried to do in Traveller, is that even if I am using one set of rules, if I can't find an answer in them, I will try and see if I can find something in other Traveller rule sets, other non-Traveller rule sets, or even something analogous from present day that I can use as a model to do a sanity check with and try and come up with something I can use in the system that I am using.
That's fine, as long as your underlying assumptions are clear and reasonable. Of course, we might well differ on what a "bay" is, for instance.
PS. Looking back over my posts I realize that I may have left something out in the discussions. Basically, there are two things that concern me about the BB Virginia class concerning the bays and it may not be clear from my previous posts. First, the BB Virginia appears to have 25 100dt bays on a 5000dt hull, which is at least 5 times as many as you might expect under other rule sets, which led to my comments on how much volume and hull surface area these items will consume. The other issue is that the ship mounts a full array of 50 turrets. In general, most Traveller rulesets allow for 1 turret per 100dt of hull, they make reductions to this if other weapons are also fitted. For example, I provided a formula derived from LBB5 previously, and in GT:IW they just assume that a 100dt bay will displace 10 turrets, while a 50dt bay would displace 8 turrets.
I am far more interested in whether the Virginia class *acts* like a battlewagon in the game. It does -- it will obliterate an armed merchantman of equal tonnage in combat. Its combat power is comparable to a carrier force of similar displacement. The carrier is more flexible, but costs more. This is exactly what I wanted.
As for the physics, well, I just don't care too much about that. If it becomes necessary, I can rationalize an explanation. For instance, the idea of a laser "turret" is rather quaint. It seems to me that a laser "lens" is what we might really see. And while a weapons "bay" takes up 100 tons, it could well be that only a small amount of surface area is required.
For the ship sizes in question in this thread I could maybe almost kind of see some merit in the argument about not wanted to reduce the number of turrets just because a bay is fitted if a limit of 1 bay per 1000dt were used, but the combination of a full 50 turrets and 25 100dt bays just seems so unbalanced to me, not to mention the issues I noted about powering concerns. Anyway, just some thoughts/clarifications etc I wanted to add [End Edit]
I think you're getting too hung up on terminology. I chose "bay" simply because it was a familiar word. Whatever it is, it's the mechanism by which a starship dedicates tonnage to weaponry. I'm just not worried about what physical form that takes. Maybe they are "bays" in the High Guard sense. Maybe they're "Space Cruiser Yamato" style turrets. Or something else entirely. What's important to me is how the system works in the game. rationalization is easy and can come later.
