I've been reading some of the old TML traffic, and I noticed that a
common complaint with MegaTraveller is the starship design rules. I have
encountered similar problems also, especially where the ships in the Imperial
Encyclopedia are concerned. Has anyone noticed that the ships in the
books don't obey the construction rules? I mean, that if you try to build
similar ships, you can't get anything even close to the specifications
listed in the Encyclopedia!
The reason that I'm bringing this up again is that I think that I might
have discovered something that will make the rules and ships match. When
I first looked at the Imperiallines TJ transport in the Rebellion Sourcebook,
I thought something was really wrong with it. REALLY WRONG. Anyway, I sort
of redesigned it to suit my tastes, trying to get something like the TJ
originally given in The Traveller Adventure. The problem is that the
fuel consumption values for fusion power plants make it impossible to
fuel such a ship for the 30 days recommended for starships. I found that
if I assumed that a TL15 fusion plant consumed 0.003 kiloliters of fuel per
hour, instead of the 0.009 listed, then my version of the TJ turned out to
closely match the original version ( old Traveller ). Almost the same cargo
space, room for full sized staterooms, and enough power for inertial
compensators, an Active EMS array, and a little left over for extra add-ons.
This is with a 11,600 Mw output power plant. Also, I removed the nuclear
damper pack to save cargo space. It just seemed dumb to have a ship as
well-armed as the TJ blind because it didn't have any active sensors...
Subsequently, I've been assuming that all fusion power plants consume
0.003 Kl of fuel per hour per Kl of power plant, regardless of tech level.
It seems to work. I haven't had a chance to go over any other ships yet,
what with midterms here at the U of R, but if anyone could let me know if
my idea is applicable to the other ships, please do. One thing I'd
particularly like to know is if the design errors affect not only GDW's
designs, but DGP's ship listings as well. Could be a royal pain... :-)
Not that this has anything to do with ship design, but... Upon meeting
a female Vargr passenger, on of the PCs cracked, " Ok, so she's a dog. "
( Not in the Vargr's hearing, of course ). I thought it was funny...
Chris
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