Re: Alien Ship Design

Brad sagt:
>>>Or better yet, having ships that are naturally modular in design
>>>(intended to fragment due to battle damage to facilitate escape/combat).
Ich sage:
>>Which would require heavy redundancies, raising cost and reducing effieincy
>>of systems.  Each module would have to have it's own drives, computers, and
>>controls.  As a craft design it would be a real mess to handle.  It *IS*
>>covered by the MegaTrav design system, but I think between Rob Dean and me,
>>we've only done about 3-4 such designs (Low tech staged rockets & spacecraft)
>>The reason we've produced so few is that they are a royal pain.
Rob sagt:
>Yes and no, Scott.  Part of the reason is that they are annoying, and
>another part is that there isn't much use for them in adventures, since
>I'm nowhere near running a Hard Times campaign.

Yes, but the question was about high tech modular designs (TL 15 I assume)
And there, the modular designs might be more usable, but they would be more
costly because of the heavy redundancies involved.  This makes merchant
ships more expensive (plus, they couldn't enter atmosphere anyway).  And
while Ten 10-ton fighters might be joined together to get a 100 ton ship
with 10 turrets, it would be more vulnerable than it would be as individual
components.  Weleded together, one hit would wipe out the 10 fighters at
once, while individually, it would take 10 such hits to take out a squadron.

So, from neither mercantile nor military point of view, does it add up.

He:
>I think you were one of the people they were talking about when they mentioned
>underwear being too tight. (-:

It's not my fault I'm crazy.  :-P

Scott 2G Kellogg