Originally posted by Piper:
Sure they're closed, but if you override the lockout control you open another compartment to vaccuum.
Leak rates may not be that great. We can make and have made somewhat accurate guesses as to the total area of the holes encountered and 15 PSID isn't that great a differential. Explosive decompression only occurs when a compartment is really slagged and, at those damage levels, you have more important things to worry about.
No one can answer this, but consider that ships are capable of processing water and producing and storing liquid hydrogen. Pumping down and storing the ship atmosphere may be routine.
Again, yes we can. Back of the envelope caculations have been made on the TML for years now. Knowing the canonical refueling and refining rates gives us a nice 'guess-timate' regarding L-Hyd processing rates, but don't confuse the
equipment. Just because our fuel handling system can do X, Y, and Z with L-Hyd it doesn't necessarily follow that the same equipment can do A, B, and C with a ship's atmosphere. The proper equipment may not even be aboard.
Everyone keeps confusing military capabilities with civilian ones. That's apples and oranges territory.
If you think that a ship can't store and recharge it's atmosphere easily...
Can't as in doesn't have the necessary equipment aboard and/or doesn't have the trained personnel to do so.
... holding onto it for as long as possible makes sense but you're still going to lose a lot when the hull breaches and you open iris valves.
Again, not as much as you all seem to believe. Check out TNE's take on the subject.
A lot of the Escort argument is dependant on any particular universe.
Even with strict jump masking in place, the trip between orbit and jump limit is relatively short. High value targets will be better protected, not perfectly protected but better. High value targets will also travel safer routes, again not prefectly safe routes but safer.
If we're considering a war scenario merchants will go where they need to.
If they need to go some place that dangerous, they'll be convoyed or escorted. Trouble will still happen though.
Again, this is universe dependant. If you're talking multi-kiloton liners and freighters and your raiders are on the same scale than the same rules apply; if caught by a warship, they will most likely surrender on demand, assuming the raider is interested in capture rather than just destroying it.
Not exactly. Adventures for the PCs aside, commerce raiding will take the form of 20th Century submarine warfare. Like a sub, the 57th Century raider is in hideous danger, will not waste time boarding any 'captures' except in extremely rare instantances, and will 'settle' for damaging or destroying its targets. Damaging a liner and forcing the diversion of in-system assets to a rescue operation is a big 'win' for a commerce raider. Damaging a vessel and keeping it from leaving is a 'win' too.
Oddly enough considering the whines about the 'uselessness' of fighters in
Traveller, commerce raiding is one area where they shine. A tiny fighter can hurt a multi-K dTon frieghter or liner very easily and get a mission kill from a commerce raiding standpoint.
But there will be situations when a merchie will fight.
Yes of course. But that doesn't mean a merchie is
built,
operated, or
manned like a warship. That's the rub.
I have a great deal of respect for your skills and experience but this "is" armchair analysis by definition.
Not as much as you'd like to think. The math has been done on the TML and, unless the compartment is shredded (meaning you've other problems), decompression is much slower than Hollywood has taught you. Other than the issue of artificial gravity there a many real world analogs to performing damage control aboard OTU space craft. Again, TNE covers quite a few in the Player's Handbook, IIRC.
Consider: assuming the ship has a jump grid integral to the hull which is super-cooled by L-Hyd (not my idea but it has been presented elsewhere). This implies piping L-Hyd through the ship as a coolant. Shock breaks a pipe coupling and hydrogen is leaking into a compartment containig air. What's a likely scenario if this compartment takes a hit?
The hull jump grid was a poorly thoughtout idea on DGP's part and the addition of L-Hyd coolant to that idea simply compounded the stupidity. Be that as it may, if you had L-Hyd leaking into a compartment you have a
cryonics emergency and not an
explosives emergency. Liquid hydrogen at a few degrees Kelvin meeting your 20 DegC living quarters is going to be 'interesting' to say the least. Fire is the
least of your worries. I've seen liquid nitrogen accidents and that stuff is plasma hot compared to L-Hyd.
Who knows, you may have enough L-hyd in the compartment to smother any fire. You can easily add too much 'fuel' to a fire and choke it.
Again, my apologies for misreading the sparkie bit.
No need to apologize as I didn't see any gaffe on your part in the first place.
Anyway, all of this depends on the GM's needs. If she's running a cinematic campaign, she should go for as much glitz as possible. If she wants a bit more grit, she can filch a few ideas from my blathering. It's all up to her needs.
Have fun,
Bill