Eric replied to me: > My original idea had the mainship with a "fast" FTL drive, and about > 0.1G STL. It also held the lab, workshop, medical bay, and staterooms. > > The crew seemed to be about 4-8, with 4-8 specialists (astronomer, > geophysicists, fist contact*, diplomat, military analyst, cipher) > > > Each dropship probably could hold 2 "crew" (pilot, navigator), and about > 20 "tons" of cargo / passenger+cargo, or sensor array (planetary survey > array, probe launcher?) > > Perhaps a set of 4 to 16-man collapsible benches would be handy in the > "cargo" versions? > > > * a freudian slip: perhaps a fiRst contact specialist instead if you > prefer.
Hello Eric, are your "tons" real tons or Traveller displacement tons? For Traveller, that sounds like 400 dtons or so, for a generic 3E technology it might be 500 stons at TL10, 300 stons at higher TLs. What TL? Hyperdrive, jumpdrive or warp? > > On a related note, what is the minimum sensor suite for a > > commercial ship? > > > > * GURPS Traveller had AESA, PESA, radscanner, one of each type, > > mounted in a sensor turret, but it didn't mention that very > > often. I prefer two each, at opposite ends of the ship. That > > leaves some dead spots, but they can be covered by another > > type of sensor, or just accepted as a minor risk. > > > > * My assumption was that bigger ships need longer to move > > out of the path of a meteorite, say, and also longer > > warning times to secure for maneuver, so they need > > bigger sensors, too. Is that justified? > > I agree. What would make military have in advantage? That > "untraceable"/50% range option for an AESA? Better sensor ranges. A civilian designer makes assumptions on the size, speed and frequency of debris, and makes a plan what they must dodge, what they can possibly handle with a laser, if any, and what the armor will hold. Those probability assumptions are for natural hazards. For a warship, you have to assume stealthy targets and evil intent rather than random chance, so you need longer ranges to get the necessary safety margin. Regards, Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
