--- On Wed, 10/17/12, Onno Meyer <[email protected]> wrote: > From: Onno Meyer <[email protected]> > 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.
Sandcasters are relatively cheap weapons. The external cradles are required by the tug to do it's job -- carry another ship through jump. There are other ways of connecting the two ships, but I preferred the external cradles overall for this design. > If you assume that > you never run without cargo, consider how much armor you > could buy with a single unitary hull and no cradles. Without the cradles, how do you propose the tug attach to the ship iy carries? > > 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. That's why pirates _will_ fire on a ship if they must. They also need to set the standard that if the ship surrenders immediately, the crew and passengers will be unharmed, while if the ship resists, no mercy will be shown. > 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. An orbital refuelin station still makes more sense, with the tug not servicing systems without one or a highport. The tug doesn't have the free volume for a skimmer without severely compromising performance. The 200 ton lighter could fit it in, but would mean the lighter can no longer turn a profit. The 400 ton lighter, which has a wide profit margin, could afford one in space and lost revenue. Brandon _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
