Before I start unloading MY collection of vehicle designs on y'all, I'd
like to share some thoughts on...er, modifications to, the vehicle design
systems as it stands in the MT Referee's Handbook.
Looking at the Armor Type Table, the Jump Drive Table and the Thrust-Based
Suspension Table, we notice an oddity that is not shared with most of the other
tables. That is the interesting fact that the aforementioned systems do NOT
improve in performance or anything else with tech level. Yes, you get new
types at various tech levels, but the older variants do not improve once
introduced! Apparently, a TL 15 Free Trader uses a Jump 1 drive that costs the
same, takes up the same space, uses the same power, and has the same
performance as a TL 9 Free Trader's Jump 1 drive -- except that it requires
MORE controls! How's that again??
As for Armor Types, apparently having steelworkers in an early Industrial
era factory roll out your sheet steel is just as cost-effective as having the
TL15 robotic factory fusion-smelt it out of an asteroid, or whatever...Yeah,
sure. As for Low-Power Hi-Grav and Low-Power Low Grav, apparently in 2000
years (the approximate time since the max Imperial TL was 12) NO ONE, NOT ONE
PERSON, has ever figured out how to produce said units more cheaply.
Apparently, they were introduced at the ultimate stage of refinement, with no
improvements possible (except for adding on controls as TL increases). How's
that again??
Furthermore, this non-existant one person was not able to figure out how
to build Maneuver Drive size Low-Power Grav units for shipboard use either;
they are relegated to vehicle use only. And I have some swampland on Dinom for
you. Interested?
After choking on the above improbabilities, I took out GURPS Ultra-Tech,
lifted some ideas on equipment/weapon/etc improvement per tech level, and
liberally applied pen and pencil to the more objectionable parts of the Craft
Design Sequence. I present to you my personal modifications to various tables
in the Craft Design sequence; take 'em or leave 'em as you see fit.
Armor Type Table: Basically, I halved the price mod 2 Tech Levels above
the TL of introduction. So my ATT looks like this:
Armor Type Table
UCP TL Type Wt mod Price Mod
- - -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
A 5-6 Soft Steel 1.25 1.0
B 6-7 Hard Steel 1.00 1.0
A 7-21 Soft Steel 1.25 0.5
C 7-8 Composite Laminate 0.44 1.8
B 8-21 Hard Steel 1.00 0.5
C 9-21 Composite Laminate 0.44 0.9
D 9-10 Lt Wt Composite Laminate 0.35 1.6
E 10-11 Crystaliron 0.31 1.1
D 11-21 Lt Wt Composite Laminate 0.35 0.8
E 12-21 Crystaliron 0.31 0.6
F 12-13 Superdense 0.26 1.0
F 14-21 Superdense 0.26 0.5
G 14-15 Bonded Superdense 0.14 1.0
G 16-21 Bonded Superdense 0.14 0.5
H 17-18 Coherent Superdense 0.06 1.3
H 19-21 Coherent Superdense 0.06 0.7
Jump Drives: I didn't want to tamper with the current set-up TOO much; I
ruled that the price of 3 MCr/unit applied at TL9, and jump drives cost 1.5
MCr/unit thereafter. I assume the Imperial government and the Megacorps are
artificially supporting the price at a high level; some of the published
material has hinted as much.
Thrust-Based Suspensions: Get real. Tracks, Legs (!!), and Wheels all
improve with TL; the variations on Grav should, too. I improved them by
lowering the price; you get more lift for your buck, as it were.
Thrust-Based Suspensions (continued)
TL type Price/ton thrust (rest is same)
---------------------------------------------------
11 Low-Power H-Grav 5,000
12 Low-Power H-Grav 3,000
13 Low-Power L-Grav 50,000
14 Low-Power L-Grav 8,000
Maneuver Drive: I just added the Low-Power Gravs to the Maneuver Drive
Units table. The prices are derived from the values on the table above; the
rest was worked out by calculating how much thrust one standard anti-grav
maneuver unit was putting out and crunching the numbers for the same
performance from the other grav units.
TL Maneuver Drive Units Power Volume Weight Price
- - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12 Low-Power H-Grav 13.0 32.5 19.5 750,000
14 Low-Power L-Grav 6.5 19.5 13.0 2,000,000
Oh yes, as Steve mentioned in his essay on Nuclear {fission & fusion}
powerplants last time, fission powerplant fuel consumption is strictly Twilight
Zone material. We changed the fuel consumption to 0.002 kl/YEAR of
radioactives, not kl/hour! It is close enough to the real thing to do.
The most obvious effect of the above changes is that SHIPS ARE CHEAPER!
This is much to my liking, as I always thought ships were too damn expensive
and the profits too marginal for anyone to ever justify buying one in the first
place, let alone support the level of interstellar trade implied in the
published material. There are some interesting effects in ship design in
introducing the Low-Power units; although they have a very high power-to-thrust
ratio, like standard anti-grav, the performance suffers beyond 10 diameters
from a world. You make trade-offs. For example, I have a series of very high
performance Interface fighters that use the LPLG units; more room for weaponry,
and more powerplant to run the weapons. Since these fighters are intended for
near space use, the 10 diameter limit is not important; but, you don't want to
have to use them in a deep space fight! Conversely, I have a re-working of the
old Sylea class 50-ton heavy fighter that uses thrusters; it's intended for use
as a deep-space, anti-fleet fighter. I find that it is possible to resurrect
some of the old Traveller designs by use of the power-conservative Low-Power
Grav units; just be sure you really don't high performance in deep space. For
example, merchant ships at TL 12 or higher will almost certainly mount LP-HGrav
maneuver drives; they aren't in that much of a hurry to get there, and the
savings in power plant volume and cost tends to more than make up for the
increased maneuver drive volume and cost. I re-designed the Leviathan for MT
using LPHG... and I will post it one of these days.
Oh yes, I base the control point requirements on the new, reduced costs.
More efficient designs of old technologies should reduce or at least hold
constant the amount of buttons, switches, etc, etc, etc...it certainly should
not make it more complex, as it does under the existing rules.
Next time, I start posting my ship designs!!
Cynthia C. Higginbotham