Book 2 Ships in a Book 5 Universe
Most commercial craft in Festrian space are built around a combination of what are known collectively as Miller-Chadwick drives. All are constructed according to Imperial standard: their designs are simplified and codified so as to make reproduction of relatively high performance drives possible at lower tech levels than such worlds would be able to produce themselves. For example, tech 9 worlds on their own resources (by definition) can only achieve jump-1: the sophistication of higher-factor jumps is the difficulty, not the tonnage of ship. The Miller-Chadwick drive affords lower tech level worlds a boost: a type A drive specced out to push a 200 ton hull at J-1 can allow a 100 ton hull its 2-parsec performance.
There are problems inherent in M-C drives:
***
Even though LBB5 said that everything in LBB2 still stood, we know that's not really the case without a lot of jiggering.
Ship design IMTU is BOTH LBB2 and LBB5.
Ship combat will primarily be LBB5; hence, I'll be using LBB5's energy point restrictions.
So, packing lasers on a free trader or scout is going to have a bad effect on agility, and even then you'll only be able to power two. Even a patrol cruiser that wants to use its lasers is going to be a trifle sluggish: if it wants to be sure to catch a fleeing scout, it'll probably have to shut the lasers down and use emergency agility, relying on missiles.
Standard book 2 designs are 1 turret per battery: so the T has 2 batteries of factor 3 lasers, and 2 batteries of factor 2 missiles. Book 2 ships built specially can use larger batteries, and must at higher tonnages.
Book 5 drives are all custom-work, designed for a specific class of ship. As such, they tend to be much more efficient than the black-box, mix-and-match units of LBB2; they can also be built with integral fuel purification units.
There are problems inherent in M-C drives:
- The power plants are notoriously fuel inefficient for smaller-hull craft.
- They're finicky about refined fuel: although Imperium procures its scouts and patrol cruisers with fuel purification units integral to the drive, M-C drives as available in shipyards do not include fuel purification units.
- They're limited in size and power: few effective warships will be powered on Miller-Chadwick combos. Smaller craft, in particular, will be extremely limited in defensive armament.
***
Even though LBB5 said that everything in LBB2 still stood, we know that's not really the case without a lot of jiggering.
Ship design IMTU is BOTH LBB2 and LBB5.
Ship combat will primarily be LBB5; hence, I'll be using LBB5's energy point restrictions.
So, packing lasers on a free trader or scout is going to have a bad effect on agility, and even then you'll only be able to power two. Even a patrol cruiser that wants to use its lasers is going to be a trifle sluggish: if it wants to be sure to catch a fleeing scout, it'll probably have to shut the lasers down and use emergency agility, relying on missiles.
Standard book 2 designs are 1 turret per battery: so the T has 2 batteries of factor 3 lasers, and 2 batteries of factor 2 missiles. Book 2 ships built specially can use larger batteries, and must at higher tonnages.
Book 5 drives are all custom-work, designed for a specific class of ship. As such, they tend to be much more efficient than the black-box, mix-and-match units of LBB2; they can also be built with integral fuel purification units.
posted by Jwarrrlry at 11:19 AM
1 Comments:
I like this. Very well thought.
While there are at present no LBB5 style rules for T5 yet, I might have to consider such things as well. For MATU big ships are in the background for now and are only mentioned but never interacted with except as an Event.
By the way, I was wondering if I could ask a favor of you fellow Traveller? I would appreciate popping by my blog and giving a whirl, perhaps drop some useful comments. Would have contacted you another way, but not sure how. Either way, cool, but I think you might have interesting things to say. It is pretty rules light right now and is mostly background.
If you would you can find it here: http://tdicredoregina1910impnet.blogspot.com
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