I had first understood the question as, what reasons would there exist for
making small ships, independent of what ships exist as well.
Do you want small ships or small crews?
As long as you simply scale down the maintanace requirements you can have
arbitrarily large ships running completly automated. Maybe you only have
crews on ships at all, if the mission of the ship is to transport the crew
to a place where the crew has something to do. Or to have someone on board
to make strategic or political decisions.
If the ships, including the freighters are all small, you need to decide
between transporting only low amounts of volume, or having lots and lots
of freighters.
Maybe worlds are ecconomically independent and only very specific items
are transported between worlds at all, so there simply is no need for
large freighters. (sort of an anti-traveller background ecconomics wise).
And you'd have passenger transport, but thats propably something few
people but the rich and beautifull do.
That would leave military ships, but propably arms races have not gone up
very far yet.
Or there simply is a maximum size for FTL travel. Perhaps you go through
gates and there is a technical limit how large a gate can be. You still
might have larger ships for various in system activities.
A weapon that destroys ships regardless of size would work, but as IIRC
you said in your opening post, one hit killers make boring play. What
you'd need would be a weapon that removes a percentage of the hitpoints at
each hit. I guess you can technobabble such a weapon, but you propably
can't take it out of vehicles but have to invent it from the scrath.
Are there area effect weapons in Vehicle? That do their damage to each
cubic meter in their effected area. And there is a minimum size for the
effected area. They could have such an effect.
What is a DSN Runabout?
Re Mutually asured destruction:
Based on the group dynamics of individuals (i know generalizing to the
behaviour of nations from that is error prone), i would say the 2 modes
(peacefull diplomacy, and total war) doctrine could work, if the player
who uses it, does have some clearly communicated, static demands, that
need to be fulfilled that they don't pull the trigger.
This is our territory, don't attack us there. Don't attempt to force us
change our internal policies. Nothing else.
If that empire would feel the need to expand it's borders, it would start
to negotiate with anyone who has a claim on the desired territory, for
what compensation they would give. If no agreement can be found, it would
not expand it's borders. No threat neither implicite or explicite
regarding any use of military force, would be made.
Same for anything else they want someone else to do.
To keep others from testing their limits with them, they need to be very
believable at their threat to actually pull the trigger.
People who are considered slightly crazy, but don't actually threaten
anyone, are usually left out of any macho pissing contests.
Contemporary and past human nations, do not seem to be able to live to
that doctrine in the long run. Sooner or later they get leaders, that give
in to the temptation, to use their military power to further political,
ideological or ecconomic agendas, they might have. And that starts a chain
reaction, that makes an ordinary military necessary.
But i consider it conceivable that either some aliens might pull it off,
or that some future social developments make it possible.
Unless everyone follows that doctrine though, you have yet again a
scenario with just some small ships.
One mans groundfloor is an other mans earthmissle
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Johannes Trimmel
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