Evyn replied to me: > Warships scale on what weapons they need to carry to fight other Warships.
Weapons, sensors, and supplies, plus hull speed, but the principle is right. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hull_speed > In the days of sailing ships most ships could functionally be either > merchantmen or war ships this changed with technology. Today your average > merchant ship is much larger than most warships. Aircraft carriers being > the > exception, but functionally they are very specialized cargo carriers. > > So think in terms of how big a weapon is needed to get the job done. If I can build a weapon system that can kill targets of any size, with a hit probability that is relatively independent from the target size, I would only need the smallest ship which can carry this weapon. There would still be factors like speed, range, loiter time, and possibly additional weapons for planetary strikes, if this anti- ship weapon cannot deal with surface targets. * VE51 has the FTL radar at TL?, so make that available. * VE39 explicitly makes the minimum size for hyperdrives optional. By default, there is no minimum size. Say the setting-specific details of the hyperdrive allow entries and exits anywhere "in space" (i.e. above the atmosphere), and fairly precise navigation at short range. Imagine a hyperspace torpedo at a ton or so, which will hit and destroy any ship unless the target ship "dodges" into hyperspace itself. A one-ton weapon can thus neutralize a missile boat, a destroyer, or a battleship. If the number of attacks exceeds the ability to dodge (possibly because the power cells run out) the target can withdraw from the battle on the last hyperspace entry. If they miscalculate, they die. The missile boat might be 100 tons and carry ten missiles. The destroyer might be 200 tons with 20 missiles and more endurance. A light cruiser adds a boarding party for commerce protection or raiding, and a heavy cruiser and a battleship add ground attack weapons. Any gaps in this reasoning? > Yet if battleships are that large, > > why not carry a backup crew, and a company of marines, etc.? > > > > Are they needed for the mission? That is the other big thing about > warships, > they have defined missions. I want additional roles for my warships. If it was just to kill other warships, games might get boring. I want the warships to "go on patrol" or even "go exploring" as well. > Couple of ideas cost could increase with the size/performance, i.e. twice > the engine four times the price. Or you can go with the classic Traveller > solution where larger engines require higher tech levels. Many Traveller editions gave higher drive speeds for higher TLs, but not necessarily larger hulls. Regards, Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
