Hello everybody,
I have finished the last of the 100-ton freighters, and the comments
by David and Johannes got me thinking about bigger ships.
Containers:
* Internal or external carry? If they are sealed against vacuum, an
external rack may be the easy way to carry them, and to get rapid
turnaround times in port. (There are in-universe reasons why that
might be less important, see below.)
* External carry could be hardpoints, external cradles, or tractor
beams. Hardpoints are 5% of the container mass, cradles are 10%,
tractors are 10% plus power plant. And if you divide the same
volume into multiple smaller hulls, the armor and structural
mass goes up, too. A container ship could pay a hefty mass
penalty, compared to a bulk transport. How bad is it? Only a
few designs will tell ...
* A few large containers would give a tug plus barge look-and-feel.
As an extreme, the ship could haul a single container, larger
than itself.
* At "low interstellar" TLs (TL10-12), external containers could
make surface landings impossible. On the other hand, it could
be a good idea to separate surface-to-orbit and orbit-to-FTL
craft, anyway. At 0.2 parsec per day, it could take months or
years in hyperspace, and why haul big STL engines along for
that ride?
* By the way, such a time scale makes it pointless to save a few
hours in port. After months in hyperspace, the crew deserves
some shore leave, the ship might require maintenance, etc. And
for the GM, that gives plenty of adventure hooks.
* On the other hand, cargo in sealed containers with standard
shapes has advantages even if it is carried internally. Think
cargo containers for aircraft vs. containers on (wet) ships.
Crew Size:
* For game reasons, I prefer ships were the players are the
entire crew. The 3E rules as written give big and expensive
ships high maintenance requirements, but that could be
solved by a house rule, by simple-minded robots, by
microbot swarms, or at higher TLs by living metal.
* A small crew in a large ship gives adventure hooks, too. The
Nostromo in Alien is one option, the Destiny of Stargate
Universe is another -- a big ship could have sections that
haven't been entered for decades, centuries, millenia.
Family Ships:
* Johannes mentioned the idea of families on board, with plots
based on the dynamics within the crew. Who needs an Alien if
the Old Man is just as scary, and refuses to retire in peace?
* When we talk about families, does that mean a generation ship
where people are born, raised, live and die? It doesn't have
to be a ship which spends centuries between ports, as in the
usual sublight generation ship meme. You could have a
situation where voyages take a year or two, and a 'triangle
trade' takes a decade. Would you leave your family at home
that long? Cf Cherryh's merchanters in the Alliance/Union
universe.
* How large is the crew? If each ship is one closed society, you
need a decent gene pool. If different ships meet and there is
an exogamy tradition, each individual crew can be smaller.
* What is the minimum size to retain technology? Are the kids
taught by apprenticeship, or is there a college/university?
How many students, how many faculty?
* There could be family ships where young professionals are hired
at a port and live on a ship until retirement. Children would
be born, and raised on the ship until they go to a boarding
school college in port. The ship might have a primary school
teacher or two, and crew take turns at teaching middle school
classes (the astrogator teaches maths, the engineer teaches
physics, the commo officer teaches languages, etc.).
* Is the ship trading to support the family, or does it carry
the family to allow trade? Cf the Stargate Atlantis episode
Travelers.
I think there are enough permutations to come up with a few
interesting ships.
- The crew could be small and in hibernation during the
flight (Alien), large enough to raise kids, but still
integrated with the larger galactic society, or an
encosed, isolated society.
- A few big containers carried externally, many smaller
containers carried externally, smaller containers
carried internally, or breakbulk cargo internally.
- The ship could be easily capable of surface landings (TL13+)
or dependent on shuttles (TL11-).
- Armed or unarmed? If it is technically a sovereign nation,
the ship has to take care of itself. By contrast, if the
ship is registered on a planet, the government could take
a dim view on civilian armed starships.
Any suggestions?
Regards,
Onno
PS -- I presume you recognized the Light Transport Mk.III.
Any predictions what I'll do for Mk.VI and Mk.V? :-)
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