Geo Gelinas provided the following guidelines for MT - TNE vehicle
conversion on GEnie, figured some of y'all might find it usefull.
MAD GEO'S QUICK AND DIRTY GUIDELINES FOR CONVERTING MT VEHICLES TO TNE
STANDARDS
The release of Technical Architecture is tenetively scheduled for late
summer. When that is released, a more accurate vehicle conversion
system can be devised. In the mean time, I offer the following means
for Traveller referees to obtain more vehicles for use in their
campaigns.
TL - Use straight from the vehicle you are converting.
Size - Multiply the vehicles displacement tonnage by 14 for
size in kiloliters. Also list the displacement tons.
In parenthesis next to displacement tons is the size
code for the vehicle which can be found in TNE page 324
center column, I will list it here for convenience.
Sizes are displacement tons not gross weight.
SM - sub-micro - less than 1 ton.
MC - micro - 1 - 9 tons.
VS - very small - 10 - 99 tons.
SM - small - 100 - 999 tons.
There are sizes above this, but very few vehicles, other
than starships, would fall in that catagory.
Weight - List the vehicle's empty and loaded weight in metric
tons (spelled tonnes to differentiate between them and
English wight tons.)
Power - List the type and output of the vehicle's powerplant.
The conversion here might get a little sticky. If your
vehicle has a fusion power plant, it will now use almost
no fuel. However, most vehicles are using fuel cells.
You might consider giving your vehicle a MT fuel cell
instead. Also, if the vehicle is a grav vehicle, it
will use reaction mass. Here is where you can use all
that fuel that was being used for the fusion power
plant.
Maint: (Maintenance) - this represents the number of hours a
week that needs to be spent maintaining this vehicle.
Striker gives the following list of maintenance points
requirements (note: some have been adjusted):
Wheeled Vehicle 5
Grav Vehicle 5
Air Cushion Vehicle 6
Tracked Vehicle 8
Aircraft 12
Computer 1
Fire Direction Center 5
Nuclear Damper 12
Point Defense Fire Control 12
Indirect Fire Control 10
Direct Fire Control 6
ECM, Radio, or Radar Jammer 5 each
RDF, Radar, Ladar, or Map Box 5 each
EMS array 10
Communicator (any type) 1 each
Night Vision Device 1
Meson Gun 10
Point Defense Weapon 12
Laser, Plasma Gun, or Fusion Gun 5 each
Mass Driver or Tac Missile Lchr 3 each
CPR Gun or MRL 2 each
Anti-personnel Weapon 1 each
Add up the above points and divide by 5 dropping
fractions. This is an approximate maintenace number.
Rugged use vehicles would generally require more,
perhaps as much as twice as much.
Controls: For the computer model, look up the TL of the
computers installed, this becomes the model number.
Computers used by grav vehicles or aircraft are called
flight computers. Computers used by spacecraft are
called standard computers. No name is given for
computers in ground vehicles, perhaps "vehicle computer"
will serve. If the computer is fiber optic, add the
notation "Fb (fiber optic)" in the text. List the type
of controls.
Commo: In TNE, the commo ranges are roughly compatible to
those in MT, but seem to be in decimal multiples of 3.
It probably has to do with 1/10 of a light second (30,000
km) being 1 starship combat range band. Change the "5"
in commo ranges to "3". List all communcators.
Sensors: In TNE, the listed sensor range is the Short Range.
The sensor's extreme range is 8 times that number.
Ranges seem to be "3" number for the most part.
Therefore recommend using the following as ranges for
sensors:
MT Range Active Sensor Passive Sensor
Distant 300 meters 150 meters
V. Distant 3 kilometers 1.5 kilometers
Regional 30 kilometers 15 kilometers
Continental 300 kilometers 150 kilometers
Sensor more powerful than this are generally only
employed on Starships, which seem to have the following
sensor ranges.
EMS ACTIVE EMS PASSIVE VESSEL TYPE
3,000 km (0) 150,000 km (5) Civilian
30,000 km (1) 180,000 km (6) Small Military
300,000 km (10) 240,000 km (8) Military/Survey
For Active EMS, these probably represent Planetary, Far
Orbit, and Extreme Orbit (a new range for Active
Sensors). For Passive EMS, these probably represent
Extreme Orbit, Interplanetary, and Interstellar.
Select an sensor strength appropriate to your vehicle's
purpose.
For Densitometers list type of penetration (HI or LO)
and penetration depth.
For Neutrino sensors list the TL.
Other sensors should be listed, by name, TL if
applicable (ie multiple levels available), and range if
one is available for conversion.
Also list any Avionics by TL if applicable.
Life Support: Basic Environment - Heat, Lights
Basic Life Support - Sealed Environment
Extended Life Support - Extended Life Support
Air/Lock - Note if Vehicle has one or more
TNE lists Pressurized which roughly equates to
the old Striker Overpressure. Since MT did
not have Overpressure, this might apply to
Basic Life Support rather than sealed
Environment. It's your call.
Load: List the vehicles load in tonnes. This is cargo only -
it does not incluce fuel weight. For the weight of
cargo, assume 1 metric ton per kiloliter.
Crew: List the number of crew members. If the crew involves
more than a driver, list the crew positions in
parenthesis.
Passengers: List the number of passengers the vehicle was
designed to carry.
Fire Control: These seem to range from +1 to +4. If you have
a high tech vehicle, it will probably be +4. TL's less
than 8, and "export" models seem to have lower FC's.
Use your judgement.
Stabilization: Basic, Good, or Advanced. TL's 5 or 6 can
have Basic, 7 can have Good, 8+ can have Advanced. Grav
Vehicles automatically have Advanced.
Armament: List types, numbers, and mounts of each weapon the
vehicle has.
Ammo: List the type and number of rounds available for all
weapons on the vehicle.
Travel Move: Multiply the vehicle's max speed by 4 for the
number to the left of the slash, its cross country speed
by 4 for the number to the right of the slash.
Combat Move: Divide the above numbers by 8.8 for combat
movement. Adjust to reasonable looking numbers. If
the vehicle is a grav vehicle or aircraft, divide this
number by 10 and round to the nearest whole number to
give the number of 10 meter squares per combat turn.
Fuel Capacity: List the vehicle's fuel capacity in -liters-.
Multiply -kiloliters- by 1000 to convert to liters.
Fuel Consumption: List the consumption per hour of operation
in liters of fuel. Also list the vehicle's endurance in
hours.
Here you will have to be a little subjective. Fusion
power plants use very little fuel, consequently their
consumption does not need to be listed. For other
vehicles, use the consumption rate as derived from MT.
For reaction mass, use the following:
For vehicles which are unstreamlined, divide the
vehicle's loaded weight by 4 to determine mass/hour
required. If the vehicle is streamlined divide the
vehicle's loaded weight by 8 to determine mass/hour
required. If the vehicle has an airframe, divide the
vehicle's loaded weight by 16 to determine mass/hour
required.
<Note: the above figures are extrapolated from the only
two examples of fusion powered flying vehicles in TNE.
I did not take into account actual speed. I postulate
that contra-gravity provides the lift and fusion rockets
provide the thrust. If you feel you have a more
workable system to determine reaction mass, by all means
use it, and post it for the benefits of othes.>
COMBAT STATISTICS:
Config: At present, TNE only includes three types of
configurations - Standard, which have no notation;
Small Turret - abbreviated ST, and Turreted. The
speeder, which is the closest TNE offers to an
aircraft is stanard configuration. If you have a
aircraft designed using COACC, and have T2K2
available, you may wish to treat it as an aircraft
according to that system.
Susp: Refer to the first page of the TNE vehicles for
the abbreviations of vehicle suspension types.
Type Damage Value Range
Wheels (1) <road> - (6) <rugged cross country>
Track 2 <light tracks> - 6 <MBT's>
ACV (4) - (8) although exceptionally large
ACV suspensions can take proportionately
more damage.
Grav Does not list a separate damage listing
Legs Not listed in TNE, recommend 1/4 to 1/3
of thickest armor value up to a maximum
value of 12.
Armor: Since TNE does -not- use uniform value armor <and
is therefore more realistic> you will have to do
some calculation here.
Step A. Find the thickness of your vehicle's armor
by looking up the Armor value on page 63 of
MT. The associated modifier is the
thickness of armor in hard steel in
centimeters.
Step B. Determine the actual thickness in the
material which composes your vehicle's
armor. Divide the value derived in step A
above by the following:
Light Composites 2
Composite Laminates 3
Crystaliron 4
Superdense 7
Bonded Superdense 14
Coherent Superdense 20
Step C. Determine the TNE armor value of the
vehicle's armor. Divide the thickness of
armor determined in Step B, by the value
listed on the Armor Equivalancy Table on
Page 298 of TNE. This will yield the armor
value of the toughest part of the vehicle,
usually the vehicle's chassis front and
turret front.
Step D. Allocate the armor proportionately around
the vehicle. A rule of thumb is to halve
the value from Step C. for the sides,
quarter it for the rear and deck, and eigth
for the belly. Armor values should be at
least 1. If the vehicle is open topped,
put the AV's for front, sides, and rear in
brackets [ ] to denote incomplete coverage.
Of course this type of armor would actually
weigh -much- less than a uniform thickness
armor. There are basically 3 approaches
you could take.
1. Ignore the difference completely
2. Find the MT armor weight and
multiply by .33 to get the TNE
weight. Subtract this value from
The MT weight to determine how
much less the vehicle should
weigh.
3. Guesstimate the vehicle's
dimensions and then using Striker
determine what the vehicle's
armor would actually weigh with
that configuration. Then
subtract this value from the MT
armor weight to determine how
much less the vehicle should
weigh.
I would only recommend the third option to
those perfectionist who have access to
Striker.
A reduced vehicle weigh will probably
have an affect on its performance. You may
wish to go back and recalculate this.
WEAPONS VALUES: Some weapons you will be able to extract
strait from TNE. Others will not be so easy. You
should first try to look through other House Rule
products to see if there is a similar weapon listed. If
so, use that weapons statistics, perhaps modified
somewhat for a higher TL. If you cannot find something
compatible, try the processes listed below.
Penetrators - Heap rounds, Keap rounds, Lasers, Plasma
and Fusion weapons. Take the weapon's greatest
penetration, to to Page 63 of the Ref's manual. Find
that number under the Armor column of the Armor Table
(Step 9). The corresponding number under the Mod column
represents the thickness in centimeters of plate steel
that the weapon can penetrate. Double this number and
round to the nearest whole number. This is the weapons
penetration at close and short range. For damage use
the penetration value. Halve the penetration for long,
and halve it again for extreme range. If the
penetration at any range falls below 1, then it is Nil
for that range and all further ranges.
HE weapons - take the MT penetration and refer to the
table below. (Note: this was derived based on relative
mass of explosive in the warhead. Higher TL HE rounds
give you more boom for your buck, and subsequently
higher penetrations, however this is factored into the
MT design process, so you don't need to adjust for TL.)
MT PEN TNE C/P Burst Radius in Meters
1 1 2
5 2 5
7 3 8
9 4 10
10 5 12
12 6 15
14 7 20
15 9 22
16 11 24
18 12 26
19 13 28
20 14 30
21 15 33
22 16 35
23 17 38
24 18 40
25 20 41
26 21 42
27 23 43
28 24 44
30 25 45
31 30 46
32 40 50
That should just about cover it. Remember, this is only a temporary,
unofficial guideline. If you have other thoughts about vehicle
conversion, please share them.