Ship design

A thread of 2 messages, 8 October 1991 to 9 October 1991, in the order they were sent.

#2994 Ship design

Michael A. Surman · 8 October 1991

A freind of mine has a few questions/observations to pose to
the TML. Since he only has access through me he can be
reached at this address.

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I am new to the TML and to MegaTraveller, although I have been
playing the original Traveller system since it was first published.

I have a question concerning the starship design rules.  Do special
control panel add-ons benefit from the computer CP Multiplier?
If so, then why do all the ship designs included with the system
use so many control panel units?

For example, the Type S Scout/Courier has 181 control panel units;
on a ship that can be run by ONE PERSON!  Since the ship also
has a holographic heads-up display (Which, if it gets the
multiplier, provides 3000 CPs.) why does it need so many control
panel units?  The Referee's Manual is not clear on this, can
someone clarify this for me?

One other thing.  The Encyclopedia lists the Type S as having an
emission level of faint.  From what I see in the tables the emission
level should be moderate.  The power plant is less than 1000Mw
(emission level of faint), the ship is less than 1000 tons
displacement(+1 level to moderate), and no EMM is listed leaving
a level of moderate.  Is this just a typo, or am I missing
something?

Lee Eilers
===============================
Don't try to have the last word.
You might get it.
		Lazarus Long

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#2999 Re: (2994) Ship design

Robert S. Dean · 9 October 1991 · reply to #2994

> Date: Tue, 8 Oct 91 13:09:43 CDT
> From: [email removed] (Michael A. Surman)
> Subject: (2994) Ship design
>
> I have a question concerning the starship design rules.  Do special
> control panel add-ons benefit from the computer CP Multiplier?
> If so, then why do all the ship designs included with the system
> use so many control panel units?

Yes.  As to the second half of that question, I am forced to say that I don't
know, and I haven't got my books so I can't look it up.  It's generally agreed
here, though, that one add-on per relevant crew member should be the maximum
allowed (you can only stick your head in one HUD display at a time, so more are
wasted), which means that controls are installed by :

1.  Picking the computer, which allows you to calculate crew requirement
2.  Installing enough HUDs and so forth for the crew
3.  Filling in left over CP requirments with control panels.

> For example, the Type S Scout/Courier has 181 control panel units;
> on a ship that can be run by ONE PERSON!  Since the ship also
> has a holographic heads-up display (Which, if it gets the
> multiplier, provides 3000 CPs.) why does it need so many control
> panel units?  The Referee's Manual is not clear on this, can
> someone clarify this for me?

As I understand it, a control panel is really no such thing--think of each
dial and switch in an airliner's cockpit as being a 'control panel unit.'

As to the Scout/Courier, a 32MCr ship (for example) at TL15 needs 4800cps,
so the single HoloHUD unit with the multiplier of 15 for a 1bis computer
only provides 5/8 of the requirement, leaving the rest to be filled by
those 181 control panel units (@181*1.5*15= 4000cp---but my cost was an off
the cuff estimate.)

> One other thing.  The Encyclopedia lists the Type S as having an
> emission level of faint.  From what I see in the tables the emission
> level should be moderate.  The power plant is less than 1000Mw
> (emission level of faint), the ship is less than 1000 tons
> displacement(+1 level to moderate), and no EMM is listed leaving
> a level of moderate.  Is this just a typo, or am I missing
> something?

You missed something.  (Sorry!)  Less than 1000MW is faint, but you must
be under 20 tons to suffer an increase in emission level due to size.  A
100ton ship with less than 1000MW is faint.

> Lee Eilers


Hope this is of some help to you...


Rob Dean