Brandon replied to me: > > If piracy is a serious issue in the region, why not use > > properly armored hulls? > > Because then the ships can no longer turn a profit -- they have to add > more maneuver drives to cope with the added wight, which also cuts into the > space available for the hold, so the ship becomes more expensive and > generates less revenue.
The same could be said for mounting weapons, or those 140 stons of external cradles on your tug. If you assume that you never run without cargo, consider how much armor you could buy with a single unitary hull and no cradles. > Anyway, a smart pirate doesn't want to fight a ship -- it lowers it's > value and might damage something really expensive inside. Without a credible threat, the trader won't stop to be boarded. > In CT, streamlining didn't cost 20% of your internal volume and That really hurts, yes, but remember that this debate started with ordinary hyperdrives. > unstreamlined ships still had some wilderness refueling capability. > > Brandon A 10-ton skimmer might need a few dozen passes, but it can refuel a misjumped ship. It doesn't take that much weight or volume. Regards, Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
