What ships do you need?

[Olschoolgamer]

I ahve been thinking about ship design in Traveller, I have been playing alot of EvE online lately, and what ship would a space faring culture need.
Besides the most common military vessels the list could be quite long.
My question is what non-Navy ships have you designed for your campaigns to fit everyday needs for your Traveller societies.

 

[salochin999]

When I first played Traveller years ago the ships fitted my picture of the setting so I didn't design new ships (apart from a few naval ones) whereas since getting back into it and generating a new picture of the 3I which is a mixture of big ship and small ship universe I've come up with a lot.

high volume, long distance trade between alpha systems
(more specialized between freighter and passengers)
- large (5K dtons) J1 freighters for non time critical goods
- medium sized (3K dtons) J3 freighters for premium goods
- medium sized (3K dtons) J3 passenger liners
- mega freighters (500K dtons) between capital and the sector capitals
- large passenger liners (?K dtons) between capital and sector capitals
- large low berth colonist ships from the core worlds to the periphery (c. 10,000 low berths)

utility
- subsidized ferry ships which carry a J1 ship over a J2 or J3 gap

scouts
- 400 dton mother ships
- 200 dton specialist ships: fuel ships, supply ships,medical ships etc
(basically scout exploration originally Type S but as tech developed becoming more like age of sail exploration with a flotilla of ships with the type S relegated to couriers, dangerous recon and odd jobs in explored space)
- 200 dton J3 away team ships (mission ships, same role as I used to use type S for but less smelly, use type S for park ranger duties instead)
- specialist type S, lose "mission ship" elements like the excess state rooms and grav and have a modular equipment bay instead, make it more of a one or two crew ship.

commercial
- commercial versions of the scout away team ship

official ships
- imperial yachts, various sizes including very large, very high quality transport for nobles on imperial duty
- private version of above for nobles who are independently wealthy enough to afford it

There's more which I forget at the moment.

(The specific sizes and Jn numbers are quirks of mtu, the main thing is the relative differences.)

 

[Matt123]

I confess to being more interested in the military campaign, but commerce, fleet resupply, fleet maintenance and disaster response have featured strongly IMTU.

Disaster response
- hospital ships
- troop ships, used to move troops and engineering equipment

Commerce (non standard types)
- Fuel shuttles, ranging from ships dipping into oceans to ships transporting fuel to the main planet from the nearest Gas Giant. If no Gas Giant, perhaps ice harvesters.
- Emergency in-system ships. Medical, Rescue
- Revenue ships. Customs and Excise
- Diplomatic inter-system ships (often commerce related)
- prison ships
- In-system miners, on outlying planets or in the belts. Add in services for mining outposts, shops, repairs facilities, etc.

 

[Quint]

Let's see here, to be truthful I've been focused on military stuff - but ignoring specifically Naval ships...

-Troop Transports (transport whole units and all related equipment)
-Hospital Ships (Large and Small)
-Marine Assault Ships (Bringing the Hammer Down)
-Commando Ships (Stealthy, Fast, Insertion)

When it comes to commercial ships...

-Luxury Passenger Liners (Ultra-High Passages)
-Cruise Ships (essentially mega-Safari Ships)
-Obscure, Purpose-Built Scientific Ships (Sundivers, Quanta Seekers, etc)
-Ore Processing Ships (Big Mobile Smelters & Processors)
-Fuel Tenders

That's what I've been thinking about currently...

D.

 

[Timerover51]

I have worked up a Jump-3 600 dTon Subsidized Merchant for worlds that are Jump-3 from everyone else, and which do not have either an "A" or a "B" category starport.

The Scouts really do need a 400 to 600 dTon streamlined ship for supporting a planetary survey team of 15 to 20 persons along with some vehicles for carrying out more comprehensive surveys of planets.

Then there is a need for a better system of small craft design to make them more affordable, which I am working on.

I have designed a 15 to 25 ton mass grav cargo carrier that I will be posting for cargo hauling in the atmosphere of Thin to Dense atmosphere planets.

I do not get into military space ship design at all. I am working on a better water-going ship design sequence. That is not going at fast as I would like.

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

Bunches.

I have at time done a 1200-ton former Q-ship turned Free Trader, a 600-ton Far Trader, my own ATU 100-ton Type-S Scout/Courier, several Cruisers, a couple of Tenders armed or slick, an 800-ton Brilliance class Liner, and a several other Types, but I am too lazy to boot up the Mac and check.

Oh and of course some Type-Ys since we Nobles like to travel in style. :devil:

 

[Dagrill]

I ahve been thinking about ship design in Traveller, I have been playing alot of EvE online lately, and what ship would a space faring culture need.Besides the most common military vessels the list could be quite long. My question is what non-Navy ships have you designed for your campaigns to fit everyday needs for your Traveller societies.

In my last campaign I used several MgT ship including the 'Large' (2kt) Freighter from Traders & gunboats as well as the X-Boat, A3 Fast Trader, Vulture Armed Salvage ship, Type M subsidised Liner and Type R Q Ship from the same book. I also used the 1,200t Genevieve Passenger Cruiser and Bug class Salvage hauler from Scoundrel, the 500t J4 Far Reach Scout from Scout and others (I have some old FASA & SJ deck plans).

I fiddled with the design of the Pirate Cruise & Pirate Frigate to make them more useful, as they have limited cargo capacity,

Regards

David

 

[elbmc1969]

mega freighters (500K dtons) between capital and the sector capitals

Just me, but I'd expect that you'd see smaller, faster ships making this sort of run. Given transit times, mass trade in manufactured goods doesn't seem reasonable. It's just much more efficient to have production distributed around the empire for lower shipping costs and some semblance of inventory control.

I'd expect mega-freighters to operate over very short distances. They're ideal for single-jump trade routes because you have some hope of making money by loading them with raw materials and shuttling back and forth. Same thing with air/rafts, air cars, G-Carriers, grav vehicles, or whatever you're calling them.

 

[Patron Zero]

I always held the thought that Traveller, in more the Classic-LBB materials than others, was a bit 'light' in presenting salvage-recovery ships other than the X-boat tender.

Mind not every adventure needs an appearance of a star-faring tow-truck but such would be seen at spaceports and orbital facilities as would 'tugs' or cargo handling small craft.

 

[flykiller]

most of my civilian boats are deck planned out and you can see the links below. but I actually spent far more time with the naval end, and eventually came up with a whole fleet, though just the specs and tonnages only.

 

[salochin999]

Just me, but I'd expect that you'd see smaller, faster ships making this sort of run. Given transit times, mass trade in manufactured goods doesn't seem reasonable. It's just much more efficient to have production distributed around the empire for lower shipping costs and some semblance of inventory control.

I'd expect mega-freighters to operate over very short distances. They're ideal for single-jump trade routes because you have some hope of making money by loading them with raw materials and shuttling back and forth. Same thing with air/rafts, air cars, G-Carriers, grav vehicles, or whatever you're calling them.

You're right and that's how I do it the rest of the time but for kicks I wanted Warhammer 40K style tribute ships so each sector collects tithes of unique luxury goods produced in that sector over the year and every year one of the handful of Imperial tribute ships comes to pick it all up. It's more a symbolic thing than part of regular trade. It makes no sense with my current version of the ship rules either. I just wants it

 

[elbmc1969]

An excellent justification.

See "Old Man's War," and why there's a beanstalk on Earth.

 

[TimN100]

One thing I don't think I've ever seen is a ship designed to repair damaged vessels. Ships are going to break down, and they don't always do so in systems with decent starports able to repair them and emergency craft to recover them. So there's sometimes going to be a need to send out a ship which can repair or replace a damaged Jump Drive or Power Plant in a ship in another system. Cargo space for parts, shops of various types, trained engineers - you'd need other things too, but those are most obvious.

 

[aramis]

One thing I don't think I've ever seen is a ship designed to repair damaged vessels. Ships are going to break down, and they don't always do so in systems with decent starports able to repair them and emergency craft to recover them. So there's sometimes going to be a need to send out a ship which can repair or replace a damaged Jump Drive or Power Plant in a ship in another system. Cargo space for parts, shops of various types, trained engineers - you'd need other things too, but those are most obvious.

CT Sup 9 fighting ships has a jump tug. It doubles as a rescue tug.

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

ISGV ELEPHANT ISLAND.

One thing I don't think I've ever seen is a ship designed to repair damaged vessels. Ships are going to break down, and they don't always do so in systems with decent starports able to repair them and emergency craft to recover them. So there's sometimes going to be a need to send out a ship which can repair or replace a damaged Jump Drive or Power Plant in a ship in another system. Cargo space for parts, shops of various types, trained engineers - you'd need other things too, but those are most obvious.

That is another ship I have floating about, the Shackleton class rescue/salvage tender. There should be a sketch or two about in the Art Gallery. Comes with a stupendously large bay, a couple of rescue tugs and of course tons of E-lows and a Medical Section.

Someday, I will have to get it in a more finished form.

 

[Patron Zero]

No intentional hijack meant but the mention of rescue/salvage tenders needing large internal bays has always mildly 'confused' about such.

I would tend to believe a vessel built-designed specifically for such a purpose would rather have a deployable 'bay' than a fixed internal compartment.

A ship so equipped to erect an atmosphere-capable work-bay in a variable size, as determined by job-situation, might offer better use of it's allotted tonnage.

Another consideration might be that a 'Swiss Army knife' tender, one compact and able to extend tool-arms, docking slips and said pressurized work-bays, could respond faster with greater range as not under the burden-restriction of hauling 'dead-space' compartments.

 

[Dagrill]

I always held the thought that Traveller, in more the Classic-LBB materials than others, was a bit 'light' in presenting salvage-recovery ships other than the X-boat tender.

MgT is quite keen on them, usually seem to be seen as used by slightly criminal types in Traders & Gunboats and Scoundrel.

Kind Regards

David

 

[boomslang]

(Lots of good stuff snipped.)

<axgrind>

Perhaps from GDW's wargamming background, Traveller tends to conceive of starships as either: a) things that haul people and goods around between starports, or b) force-projection platforms that fight each other to decide who owns the system (and thus its starport).

Traveller is desperately short on spacecraft that are not cripplingly starport-dependent. I have been importing rules and cherry-picking tech from Trav supplements literally for decades to support plausible deep-space colonization, mining, and manufacturing.

Find it, mine it, refine it, fabricate it, repeat ad infinitum. Fix something -- anything, really -- when it breaks, or else construct a new one onsite from stored raw materials. Stop by the hydroponics bays and grab a sandwich during mealtime.

In Trav, where are the massive (or at least properly-outfitted) ships that support all this? It's all "When was the last time y'all visited a Class B or better starport and laid over a fortnight for maintenance?" "Traders and Gunboats", every step of the way up and down the line.

Planets and their precious starports are the playpens where civilizations that aren't truly "spacefaring" still have to live. Bring on the "Starports? We don't need no stinkin' starports!" fleets already.

</axgrind>

 

[robject]

I've designed a few traders (one 200t far trader looks like the Millenium Falcon), a small system defense boat, various small craft ranging from TL 8 orbiters to "flying wing" gigs.

I typically stay close to the standard ship types in Traveller (merchants, touring ships, scouts), though once I designed a 30,000 ton research station.

 

[Patron Zero]

One thing that cannot be ignored is the effect of military technology and developments 'filtering' down into the civilian-commercial world, such establishing trends and setting precedents in different areas of life/lifestyle.

Best example is the Jeep, developed during WW2, giving 'birth' to the modern-day SUV which is so commonplace in parking lots and residential drive-ways of suburbia and urban settings alike.

In that way so would naval vessels contribute in both design and 'heritage' of the commercial-civilian ships that ply the spaceways. If not outright surplus decommissioned 'hulls' of support ships or defanged combat hulls now void of heavy armament and hardware.

Simply saying that in our world, particularly the third world and it's frontiers, it's military surplus trucks hauling freight and offering transport through the borderlands of civilization.

Stock ship designs of hulls produced in 'mass-quantity' such as the venerable but trustworthy Scout-Courier are proof of such, then why not the appearance and inclusion of others now operating in the private sector.