Type S3 Far Scout/Courier

[Grav_Moped]

The Type S3 Far Scout/Courier is the TL 13 implementation of the Type S using High Guard components. It is capable of Jump-3 and 2G, and has an onboard fuel refinery for its 33Td tankage. The computer is a Model/3. In all other respects it is identical to a standard Type S (4 staterooms, air/raft, 3Td cargo).
It costs MCr58.65, 52.767 in quantity.

The primary reason it is not as common as the Type S is that it's significantly more expensive. If LBB5 designs are allowed to use LBB2 standard hulls, this saves MCr8, and the cost is then MCr50.63 (MCr45.567 in serial production).

Some examples of this type have 10Td of their fuel in demountable tankage. When removed, the ship has 13Td of cargo space but only has fuel for Jump-2.

This design can also be the result of refitting LBB5 drives into a used Type S Scout/Courier*. The cost of the refit (MCr18.75) is offset by reselling the original equipment Scout/Military-grade drives, so the net cost is only MCr34.28 plus the original ship. (While the drives are old, they can use unrefined fuel and thus are worth the list price.)

Type S3 Far Scout/Courier TL 13
100Td, Jump-3/2G/Pn=3

Tons   MCr    Component/Notes
----  -----   --------------- 
      11      Hull, Cone (Conf:2)
      (But see note, below) 
 20    0.5    Bridge
  3   18      Computer Model/3
  4   16      J-3 Jump Drive
  5    3.5    2G Maneuver Drive
  6   18      Pn=3 Power Plant (TL-13)
 30           Jump Fuel
  3           Power Plant Fuel
  5    0.03   Fuel Purification
 16    2      4 Staterooms
  1    0.1    Hardpoint
  0    0.5    Double Turret (unarmed)
  4    0.6    Air/Raft
  3           Cargo
----  -----
100   58.63 (52.767 in quantity)

Note: If LBB5 designs are allowed to use 
LBB2 standard hulls, this saves MCr8.
Cost is then MCr50.63 (45.567 in qty.).

*This technically isn't allowed by the TCS "Refitting Ships" Rules (p.34). Read literally, almost the only upgrade it allows is to replace a power plant with a more-advanced version. Interpreting it to mean that the total size of the drives can't be increased, rather than that of the individual components, enables this particular refit. This interpretation (drive bay size can't be increased) is how LBB2 handles the issue.

 

[Grav_Moped]

As a side note: J3 is possible at TL-12 under High Guard. The reason this version is TL-13 is because that allows the power plant to be small enough so that all drives fit into the 15Td drive bay of the LBB2 100Td standard hull, and the fuel processor to be small enough that it (plus the additional tonnage of the Mod/3 computer) still doesn't impinge on the 3Td of cargo space.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

If you refit it, just keep the M-Drive? That leaves enough space for a TL-12 PP.

I would never allow selling a used drive for new price after decades of hard use.

 

[Grav_Moped]

If you refit it, just keep the M-Drive? That leaves enough space for a TL-12 PP.

I would never allow selling a used drive for new price after decades of hard use.

House rule for not mixing drive types. Mix 'em if you want to.

These are the scout/mil drives that don't need a fuel refinery onboard. That's worth something, because its not otherwise available for any price. Also, they're periodically rebuilt to zero time since major overhaul.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

These are the scout/mil drives that don't need a fuel refinery onboard. That's worth something, because its not otherwise available for any price.

Worse, it's standard, just present the right end-user certificate to unlock that functionality.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Worse, it's standard, just present the right end-user certificate to unlock that functionality.

Nope. They're qualitatively different because LBB2 says they're different. It's not a feature available for purchase (really, it should be but until LBB5 it's not), merely designated by canon ship descriptions or allowed by referee fiat. Same deal with sensors, too.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Nope. They're qualitatively different because LBB2 says they're different. It's not a feature available for purchase (really, it should be but until LBB5 it's not), merely designated by canon ship descriptions or allowed by referee fiat. Same deal with sensors, too.

The Scout and the Free Trader has the exact same drives. One can, by Referee fiat, safely burn unrefined fuel, the other cannot.

It's below the level of detail of the LBB2 system, as so much else...

 

[Grav_Moped]

The Scout and the Free Trader has the exact same drives. One can, by Referee fiat, safely burn unrefined fuel, the other cannot.

It's below the level of detail of the LBB2 system, as so much else...

Yes and no.

It's below the level of detail in the rules (there's no mechanism to buy the better equipment) but they are explicitly not identical because the rules state that one kind needs refined fuel and the other kind does not.

 

[Grav_Moped]

There is a Sword Worlds version of this. It is TL-12, and does not include an Air/Raft or space for one (having 3Td cargo only). The hull is a prolate spheroid, and cannot be a LBB2 standard hull because the power plant is too large for the 15Td drive bay.

It costs MCr8.43 more than the TL-13 all-LBB5 version (Differences: delete Air/Raft, add 3Td of power plant and 1Td of fuel processor due to the TL drop).

 

[Condottiere]

From the military standpoint, the Suleiman class has long since been obsolete.

If there was a rationale to keep them around, I haven't spotted it in the literature.

 

[Rupert]

The Type-S is not, and never has been, a military design. The IISS finds them useful for a lot of roles, and so many of them have been made, used, abused, lost, found, etc. that parts for them and the skill to repair them from almost nothing can be found almost anywhere.

 

[mike wightman]

Try making a TL9 jump 2 runabout in any other version.

 

[Spinward Flow]

From the military standpoint, the Suleiman class has long since been obsolete.

If there was a rationale to keep them around, I haven't spotted it in the literature.

The Suleiman class is NOT a military combatant.
It is a paramilitary reconnaissance, exploration, survey, courier and "grunt work" support asset.
The class persists because it's "good enough" to do the job and it is astonishingly CHEAP to build, maintain and crew. That means that you can mass produce them (by the millions! ) and there will almost always be "work for them to do" somewhere, reducing the demand for more expensive platforms to fulfill those mission roles. It's literally a "quantity has a quality all of its own" kind of deal.

Furthermore, because the class design IS "so obsolete" ... there are no military/technological "secrets" in its design and engineering that can yield an (enduring) advantage to an adversary if one of these starships gets lost, stolen or otherwise "goes missing" for reasons various and sundry.

The Suleiman class is to the IISS what paperclips are to paper.
Useful. Cheap. Plentiful ... and quite often NECESSARY to do the work that needs to be done.
No one raises a tremendous stink about it if any of them turn up missing (just buy more).

Furthermore, since the Suleiman class is "so ubiquitous" AND perceived as being "obsolete" from a military standpoint, they aren't exactly "threatening" to anyone. You can't exactly conduct "gunboat diplomacy" with one, for example. However, that sheer level of "boring commonality" then creates the opportunity for screening (or "plausible deniability" if you prefer) all kinds of covert activities.

"We weren't SPYING on this region! We were just conducting a survey to update our navigational records! Honest!"
"We aren't SPIES! We're prospectors scanning for resources that we can stake a claim to for extraction by a mining concern."

 

[Condottiere]

It's too expensive for private ownership, too small for commercial utilization, and about as much chance of combat survival as a pigeon in a room full of hungry Aslan.

The only reason it's still around is because it's the most iconic starship silhouette in Traveller.

There's no shortage of personnel, technological level fifteen is classified, twelve is pretty much ubiquitous.

Sector wide communications, you probably want minimum jump factor three, subsector commuting, you could probably make do with jump factor one, if time is not an issue.

The one item that is essential, is a suitable, off the shelf jump drive.

And, in this case, is the ten tonne alphabet jump drive type Alpha.

Current rules state that the minimum default jump drive volume is ten tonnes.

Of course, there are two different paths possible.

One, install it on a two hundred tonne hull.

Two, downgrade to a Venture drive.

 

[Grav_Moped]

It's too expensive for private ownership, too small for commercial utilization, and about as much chance of combat survival as a pigeon in a room full of hungry Aslan.

The only reason it's still around is because it's the most iconic starship silhouette in Traveller.

It's still around because it's what you get when you stick the smallest standard drive into the smallest jump-capable hull. In other words, it's an artifact of the LBB2 design rules. A nice artifact, but still an artifact.

If I were starting from a clean sheet of paper, the rules would include "1/2-A" drives that'd give factor-1 performance in 100Td hulls, and an alternate "standard 100Td streamlined hull" built around a matched set of those drives, just because there's always a market for the minimum viable product (by definition). LBB2 does not do that, though, so you get the Type S.

 

[kilemall]

It's still around because it's what you get when you stick the smallest standard drive into the smallest jump-capable hull. In other words, it's an artifact of the LBB2 design rules. A nice artifact, but still an artifact.

If I were starting from a clean sheet of paper, the rules would include "1/2-A" drives that'd give factor-1 performance in 100Td hulls, and an alternate "standard 100Td streamlined hull" built around a matched set of those drives, just because there's always a market for the minimum viable product (by definition). LBB2 does not do that, though, so you get the Type S.

You could use the 1/2 A for small craft too.

 

[Condottiere]

Ex post facto, ten tonnes became the jump drive module default minimum volume.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Ex post facto, ten tonnes became the jump drive module default minimum volume.

In Mongoose and T5.

HG2 puts the minimum at 2Td (J1 in a 100Td hull), if you go that way. But then their power plants vary in size by TL and it's another game.

I'm still inclined to think that the LBB2 tables are point cases of the underlying fictional physics. That is, that while you might only be able to buy "letter drives" off the shelf, you can have intermediate-sized drives custom-built at Industrial-class worlds with the right TL, but maybe it also takes a good enough starport. Getting spares, unless there's a large market for your oddball drives (the Size 1/2-A would be one such) might take a while.

 

[spYke]

Has anyone else considered that unrefined fuel makes little sense? Hydrogen is hydrogen, isn’t it? At best it’s a big “coffee filter” contraption and it would make sense that it higher tech levels. It would be functionally included or unnecessary.

 

[casquilho]

Has anyone else considered that unrefined fuel makes little sense? Hydrogen is hydrogen, isn’t it? At best it’s a big “coffee filter” contraption and it would make sense that it higher tech levels. It would be functionally included or unnecessary.

I always figured "refined" meant they filtered out the non-Hydrogen from the source. So, water was split, and the Oxygen pulled out for example.