One Man Band...

Mark F. Cook [email removed] writes:

> Subject: (2050) Automating a starship?

> Here's stumper that one of my MT campaign players just handed me the
> other day.

> We were talking about the campaign and he said (paraphrased) ,"As soon as
> I get some more cash, I'm going to have the ship's computer upgraded so
> that just one person can operate the whole thing."  This stopped me cold.
> This ship currently requires a minimum crew of three: pilot, navigator,
> and engineer.  The Ref. rules say that's the MINIMUM.  There are no
> additional rules for anything like what my player wants to do.  Now,
> I can wing it and allow him to do what he wants, but I'm concerned on
> two points.

> First, what would be the most logical/least-rule-bending way to do what
> he wants?  My initial reaction is have him buy two stationary robots
> (one for engineering and one for nav.) and require a live pilot at
> all times.  My reasoning is that a 'mere' computer could never be smart
> enough (within MT guidelines) to do the jobs, and it would require at
> least some synaptic processing, hence robots.  My robot design skills
> are pretty much non-existant, but I guess this is a good excuse to
> learn how, huh?

Try this on for size.  Put in the new computer (and don't forget that you
need three of them to be safe--Dow Rieder was the one who suggested that we
should allow you to have different models of computer on one ship, fighting
as the most proficient, but control as the least proficient) and calculate
the crew values.  I don't think the MT rules require you to have a navigator,
do they?  A navigator is part of the Bridge crew, and that appears to have
a minimum of one, because you round up fractions when calculating.
Engineering also rounds up fractions.  So what I would do is calculate the
required crew retaining fractional values with the new computer.  If the total
of bridge and engineering is less than one, and if the character has pilot,
navigation, and engineering skill, I'd be inclined to let in run the ship
single-handedly.  What do you mean by "at all times"?  Are you presently
requiring three shifts worth of pilots?  If modern aircraft can fly on auto-
pilot for extended periods of time, I'd have no problem with allowing a TL9+
starship to operate on autopilot most of the time, with the human there to
override/make suggestions in an emergency.  The controls are all computer
driven anyway.  However, the robot idea isn't a bad one even if you allow a
single character to run the ship.  There will (Murphy's Law) inevitably be
simultaneous crises in engineering and navigation some day....Robots are
pretty cheap compared to the computer upgrade.


> Second, assuming that I do allow him to succeed, what effect will it
> have on game balance?  I mean, I assume that GDW/DGP put those crew
> minimums in there for a reason.  Will allowing a single person with
> Pilot-1 to fly around the Imperium in a 200 ton Free Trader screw
> things up?  My initial reaction is "No", but I feel like I'm over-
> looking some points.

I can't see that it would be a problem.  There will remain disadvantages.
There is no chance of doing any damage control during a battle, and if you
get tossed in jail on a high-law planet, no crewmembers around to bail you
out..."Bare is brotherless back".

> What do you folks think?

>         Mark F. Cook

That's what I think.

Rob Dean