> > Well, if the drive and crew are so precious, give them a > > proper ship to protect them :-) > > We'll just have to agree to disagree about the FTL component having > maneuvering thrusters.
I'm trying to explore the question Eric raised. No firm goal yet, just a general devil's advocate. A) The FTL component has just the FTL drive, no STL drive at all. B) The FTL component has STL maneuvering thrusters, but not enough for long STL flights (whatever that is in context). C) The FTL component has proper STL drives as well. If you argue that it can't be A), why stop at half measures? > > Then it would be the LASH concept. Look at the deckplans > > for Traveller SDBs and their jump shuttles -- the bow of > > the shuttle encloses the stern of the SDB. > > Sure, that's how that combination does it. A jump shuttle could be > designed to connect to the commercial STL component in way that doesn't > interfere > with it's operation (other than having more mass to move). There are GURPS Traveller cutter modules with extra thrust from the module. > > The more interesting concept uses the sublight drives of > > the lighter to move the combined ship, but as mentioned > > I find it hard to explain. > > Oh, I understand what you want, I just have a different idea of how it > should be done ;) I don't think it will work, but I want to prove or disprove it. Jonathan wrote: > The key, I think, is to make the FTL component something that has > difficulty with the rigors of interplanetary travel: it might not handle > acceleration all that well, or it might degrade in some way if it's taken > away from > the jump point, or gravitational tidal effects (or stellar neutrino flux, or > some other phenomenon) might be harmful to the warp drive. Or perhaps if > the STL Drive operates on some sort of superscience basis, there's > something about it that damages the mechanisms of the FTL Drive. > > Basically, use the various techniques that are employed to give STL Drives > a niché in the setting, but apply them to the FTL Drive's integrity > instead of merely its performance. Jump points give another option. Assume that there is one jump point per system. The jump drive and power cells are 10.4% of Lwt. and it takes big power plants to recharge them. That power plant is also required for the STL drive, yet it makes no sense to haul the jump drive away from the jump point. The section which gets parked contains only the drive and power cells, so it is no complete ship. No point to give it quarters and a bridge, then. If there is more than one jump point, maybe the jump drive sections are standardized, and a trader can leave the drive at one point and rent another for the next trip. Even less reason for quarters, then. Unless some routes have enough traffic to provide "pre- charged" jump tugs with their own specialist crew. Then the power plant of the STL drive is no longer used for FTL. Back to the heighliner concept. Regards, Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
