General What Makes a Scout, a Scout
- Thread starter Rigel Stardin
- Start date
Rigel Stardin
SOC-13
whulorigan
Per CT: Sup7-Traders & Gunboats, p.16:Surplus Scouts yes but, not on Scouts still in the IISC employment/leased. There is also a psychological reason for have a Common Area on all ships. It is so the crew doesn't isolate themselves from one another and develop mental issue. If everything you need is in your room why leave right? As pointed out in another thread, there is plenty of space in a 2 by 2, 1.5 meter square room to put everything you ever wanted in one of those rooms.
I know my rooms are off scale to 1.5 Meters Squares. But the depiction of a bed and bathroom is there because, people need to get out of their rooms just to cook their meals. Putting everything into a Stateroom just doesn't cut it in my book unless, you're a Noble or some rich guy.
Second thing, That aft airlock bugs me. I know why it's there (because you need it to exit the ship or space walks.) but why does it sit between the drive and the Jump Drive? Which brings me to my third thing that bugs me. Are you telling me, the Scout is design to fly with thrust off center? Of course, it can be done with or without computer software, but Really?
Depending on the deck plans, I've seen or read descriptions of, the reactor is also in the engine room? Some depict the reactor as being in the 'attic' which I can believe but, you're kinda stretching reality with the dang thing in the engine room that small. People seem to forget, a Fusion Reactor works on the same principal as and Atomic one. Some sort of transfer medium is used to take the heat (Radiation) from the reactor and turn it into power, whether it be through steam or Handwavium. That stuff takes up space.
Which brings me back to being able to move around in an engine room or even a stateroom from that matter. Just cramming everything into one area makes it difficult to work on. All you have to do is look at the engine compartment of a new car. Sometimes, just to change a spark plug, you have to remove all sort thing just to get at them. Traveller Deckplans are allot like those new car engine compartment. As long as they show the floor space as being used by Reactor, Drive or Jump Drive and the occasional workstation everything is fine. But what you're really looking at is a very heavy object with many parts crammed close together, at least in my book.
So to sum this up:
Airlock between engines are a no-no in my book. (some with a grudge could start the engines up while you exit the lock. Bad day for you.)
Making Staterooms a self contain world is bad for your Mental Health.
Flying with engine off center.
Too much stuff crammed into an engine room.
AnotherDilbert
SOC-14 1K
You mean something like the Cockroach-class?
https://www.travellerrpg.com/index.php?threads/proposed-ship-mission-codes.42763/post-640285
Fill up the cargo space with demountable tanks and it can do 2×J-4, or dropping tanks 2×J-6. It can jump out, take a look, and jump back without needing to risk refuelling. MCr 650 is cheap enough for the Navy to spam them.
Rigel Stardin
SOC-13
Help!!! How many tons of fuel does a scout have? MegaTraveller list it as 515 Kliters and when I use online Calculators it's either 5 tons or 50? I think it 10 but, I don't feel that's right either? Please someone tell me the proper Fuel Tonnage.
What build rules are you using? LBB2 gives it 40Td (540m3) -- 20 for the Jump Drive, 20 for the power plant (because LBB2 has a skewed formula for power plant fuel). A LBB5 analog would have 22Td (297m3). T5 would have it in the range of 24Td (3243 if memory serves but don't hold me to that.
Rigel Stardin
SOC-13
My way of designing ship has my head in a tail spin. The scout I'm designing using my system only needs 12 tons of fuel compared to the 40/50 ton Traveller rules use. My system to figure the Fuel goes like this: 83 x 12.6=1045.8 /142 = 7.4 Light Years. I keep forgetting that the fuel load is quite different between my MTU and the OTU. But when you divide the Light Years by 3.25 it falls in the 2 Parsec range which, makes it a Jump-2. And you're getting 30 tons of cargo space (that's filling up the entire space of the cargo bay and the air/raft hanger. Yeah, my system is screwy like that...
At least, the depiction is close.
At least, the depiction is close.
The question, how much can an S class ship be automated? Certainly, there would be extensive use of unmanned drones at more advanced tech levels that could be launched in a system to do preliminary scouting and mapping before landfall. The sensor suites of the craft would simply compile the data before a large exploratory ship would enter a system. Thoughts?
It's automated enough that it can be flown by a single crewman (two if it's armed).
Drones can be quite simple and almost expendable -- 3 tons of cargo would be plenty of room for basic space/orbital-reconnaisance sats, though not planetary rovers. In practice (at least in most of the OTU) there isn't really a lot of exploration of newly-discovered planets because even in frontier sectors such as the Spinward Marches, the Imperium has already been there for hundreds of years.
This is to some extent an artifact of technology outpacing four-decade-old science fiction. Back in the late 1970s, it wasn't obvious that telescopes (optical or radio) would be able to easily find exoplanets dozens or hundreds of light years away, or that autonomous robot probes would be able to provide detailed information*. Thus the idea that you'd actually have to send people to a particular star system and have them physically look around to find out what was there.
_______________________
*Larry Niven got some mileage out of this trope -- planets that were habitable in very limited areas, but lethal outside them, colonized by sublight spaceships because the initial survey provided incomplete information.
Last edited:
If you look at CT's Imperial Fringe, the crew are sent to do a Sector ReSurvey. It doesn't say anything about adding Sensors to the ship. They just have to verify the World's UPP. It doesn't mention needing a Research Lab. Although that's a great idea.
So, you can do a Survey with a Detached Scout without any modification, from what I can tell.
The bigger problem is that The Third Imperium doesn't have a lot of un-Surveyed systems.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Since this isn't edition specific, Book Five would allow you to design that specific pick up truck aesthetic, since you can build around a twenty tonne bridge, with a one tonne jump drive, at I believe thirty three and a third tonnes; that would be one and a third gee acceleration.
Or getting a pinnace at forty tonnes, and making it interstellar, or a cutter at jump factor one.
But currently it's minimum hundred tonnes and a ten tonne jump drive.
Or getting a pinnace at forty tonnes, and making it interstellar, or a cutter at jump factor one.
But currently it's minimum hundred tonnes and a ten tonne jump drive.
Rigel Stardin
SOC-13
Scout Missions: We know they are used to verify UWP and Military Missions. But there has to be more to the IISC Mission, so consider the following scenarios.
Dispatcher at your local Scout Base giving out assignments.
"Henry, Planet Oscar has discover a rare flower that may cure the itches. Pick up a biology pallet and a mission specialist and get going. Oh, if you feel like doing it the old fashion way, you can keep the air/raft and search for it withe the Mark 1 Eyeball. Or you leave the raft behind and take a remote sensing pallet (Drones) instead."
"Paul, Planet Theta is acting up again. Grabbed an Elint (Electrionic Intellegence) pallet and off you go."
"Jack, Planet Zeta just gave us the heads up on an Ancient Artifact. Something about a Giant Ring being found, grab a material science pallet and a specialist."
"Frank? You need to verify your work. You can't take the Grand Poobah word for how many people are on the planet. Use your optics and scanner this time..."
Making the Cargo Bay 10 Tons gives allot of room for 'specialized' pallets that can be used for specialized missions.
Dispatcher at your local Scout Base giving out assignments.
"Henry, Planet Oscar has discover a rare flower that may cure the itches. Pick up a biology pallet and a mission specialist and get going. Oh, if you feel like doing it the old fashion way, you can keep the air/raft and search for it withe the Mark 1 Eyeball. Or you leave the raft behind and take a remote sensing pallet (Drones) instead."
"Paul, Planet Theta is acting up again. Grabbed an Elint (Electrionic Intellegence) pallet and off you go."
"Jack, Planet Zeta just gave us the heads up on an Ancient Artifact. Something about a Giant Ring being found, grab a material science pallet and a specialist."
"Frank? You need to verify your work. You can't take the Grand Poobah word for how many people are on the planet. Use your optics and scanner this time..."
Making the Cargo Bay 10 Tons gives allot of room for 'specialized' pallets that can be used for specialized missions.
The Seeker variant may be more of an official option in that operational mindset.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
That's an analogue for a Forty Niner and his mule.
Yes what the ship is presented as. I was thinking more along the lines of 2 staterooms plus mission gear, if doublebunking is acceptable particularly if it's just 1-2 hops then living on the planet, having that extra 8 tons plus the traditional 3 + 4 air/raft makes for a capable craft, just no passenger courier work.
Or 3 staterooms and the combination of 4 saved tons makes for a magic 11 tons, really good for mission palleting and still flexible on the crewing.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
There are possibilities to expand the living area beyond the primary hull.
And external cargo racks for ore.
And external cargo racks for ore.
I suppose so. Cuts it to J1/1G and wrecks the aerodynamics, but sure -- why not?
Spinward Flow
SOC-14 1K
Belters rarely need to worry about aerodynamics.
Terrestrial prospectors/miners needing to deal with an atmosphere will have to care about aerodynamics, but space based ones in a vacuum won't.
A 100 ton Type-J Seeker could easily mount 3x 30 ton Modular Cutter Modules externally and still have J1/M1 drive performance ... which is perfectly serviceable for belt prospector.
The Type "S" design is a Vilani ship design that has existed since the Consolidation Wars and was more relevant back then:
The stats are for GURPS, but it is a Jump 2 Needle/Wedge design.
Back in those days could keep up with its fleets. Until the Terrans finally develop Jump 3.
NOT TOO SHABBY FOR A 7000 YEAR OLD SHIP DESIGN.
The stats are for GURPS, but it is a Jump 2 Needle/Wedge design.
Back in those days could keep up with its fleets. Until the Terrans finally develop Jump 3.NOT TOO SHABBY FOR A 7000 YEAR OLD SHIP DESIGN.
Last edited:
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
By technological level eleven, you could have acceleration factor five.
I tend to imagine scoutships as being nippy.
I tend to imagine scoutships as being nippy.
Spinward Flow
SOC-14 1K
Why?
What part of the "scout ship" role prompts a necessity for high drive performance (jump, maneuver, power plant)?
The bigger the drives the more expensive the ship ... meaning fewer ships (scouts) for the same budget allocation line.
