Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 034

Ok, I need to move cargo around to make sense of all of this. I need to Hopper to hold 7 characters, 10 fuel units plus 5 Life Support Units and 3 Repair to clear space in the main bay. The U-bots is being placed in Engineering. That leaves 9 CU in the Cargo Bay.

I intend to sell off all of the extraneous gear on Imperia. Option one, I can jump directly there or take the slower route risking trouble in the Palatek system. I think I will spend one more day on Regari and have Ratchet swap the Tech Level 1 guns on the Hopper with the TL-3 Guns. I can also shop for more items.

I get a roll for Star Ship guns. They cost 200 per TL and they are Tech Level 5. If I buy them, I have a problem with storing the old ones. I buy them, because now I am looking for trouble. By mid-day, I sell my extra hopper guns for 30 secs. Sad, but necessary. I now have 8 CU in the Cargo Bay because I have an extra set of Ship’s Guns.

1 Antelope starship with TL-5 Guns. I owe 118,300 secs. in principle.
1 TL-1 Ship’s Guns.
1 Hopper with boat guns, TL-3.
2 CU Status unit in Cockpit and Engineering, 8 1 CU Status units in Crew Quarters and 1 1 CU unit in Gunnery.
10 Fuel Units in the Ship’s Boat.
12 Repair units,
14 Life Support Units, 5 in the Ship’s boat.
1 U-bot in Engineering,
7 PS-bots, 1 per character,
6 Heavy Hand Weapons for sale, 4 for characters use,
205 Side Arms for sale,
13 U-suits, 7 for the crew, 5 for sale.
and the ship is fueled with 6 hypercharges.

I have 2,561 secs.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 033

Alternate Hopper Designs

I forgot to buy hypercharges, yesterday. So let’s make those 10 rolls. 

11, 10, 10, 6, 5, 4, 5, 4, 5, and lucky #7. I’m able to refuel in the last hour of the day at a cost of 1,500 secs. Nothing else looked tempting, except the Pilot/Navigator and Engineer crewmen. I'll pass.

1 Antelope starship, which I owe 118,300 secs. in principle.
1 Hopper with boat guns, TL-1.
1 set of boats guns, TL-3.
2 CU Status unit in Cockpit and Engineering, 8 1 CU Status units in Crew Quarters and 1 1 CU unit in Gunnery.
10 Fuel Units (in Ship’s Boat).
12 Repair units,
14 Life Support Units,
1 U-bot,
7 PS-bots, 1 per character,
6 Heavy Hand Weapons for sale, 4 for characters use,
205 Side Arms for sale,
13 U-suits, 7 for the crew, 5 for sale.
and the ship is fueled with 6 hypercharges.

I have 3,531 secs. left over.

If you like the ships above, I have them stat'd out here.
I also have a generic drawing of all three for any sci-fi campaign, plus a double sized Blockade Buster. The Blockade Buster also has stats for Star Smuggler. And finally, I am working a completely different ship. This one is far to large for Star Smuggler, but would be great for Traveller or Star Frontiers.

Generic Starship and Small Craft Deckplans

As promised, here are some generic deck plans for the Blockade Buster and associated Boats. The Orbiter Bay can hold a Hopper class boat, an Intercept or a Fast Boat, but the Boat Bay is limited to Hoppers, Interceptors and Fast Boats.

I designed these ship's boats with the idea that the Orbiter is 20% bigger than the Interceptor or Fast Boat. The Fast Boat has more fuel than the Interceptor, but the Interceptor is quicker and more agile than the other two.

Starship Deck Plans for Hopper Alternates (Star Smuggler)

I came up with three alternates for Ship's Boats. One is a completely new product, an Orbiter, which takes up 50 CU inside a 60 CU cargo bay. It really not a good choice for the Antelope, but it can be done.

The Orbiter is roughly 25% bigger than a Hopper Ship's Boat. It is able to carry a skimmer. This ship is big enough to provide it's own Life Support just like a Starship. Even though it has enough cargo space for guns, there is no way to mount them due to the wing configuration. It is always unarmed.

The second ship is a regular sized Hopper, but reconfigured for longer trips. It does not provide Life Support, so some cargo will have to be used for that.

The third ship is called an Interceptor, because... well, it's an interceptor. It has integrated guns. They can be upgraded or downgraded, but never removed. It has a dedicated space for Fuel and Life Support Units. These spaces can't be used for other things, just like the gun space.

Each and every one of these ships have the ability to break out of gravity wells. See r214b. The Orbiter must use it's cargo for fuel to escape, while the other two ships can do it with just their fuel tanks. The Orbiter has a max power of 15, the Fast Boat has a rating or 16 and the Interceptor has a rating of 20.

In order to boost to a speed of 20, the Interceptor must purchase external fuel tanks on the planet is is leaving. Each tank holds just enough fuel to break orbit from that planet and are jettisoned on take-off. These tanks can be purchased for standard price 500 each and are available from ground based areas which offer offer Hypercharges (eg. e025). These tanks are extraordinarily dangerous and can only be stored on a planet or on a military vessel, like a carrier. They are never available at space stations.

All three of these items can be purchased or sold from e034 or e035. They can never be found in the Ruins.

Prices are:

Orbiter, e034. 1800 secs. base price. e035 is 2400 secs.
Fast Boat, e034. 1000 secs. base price. e035 is 1500 secs.
Interceptor, e034. 2500 secs. base price. e035 is 5000 secs.

Starship Deck Plans for Antelope Alternates (Star Smuggler)

A few weeks ago, I brainstormed an Antelope-class starship alternate. I inked out a Buffalo-class starship. I really didn't like how it looked, but did like some of the ideas.

Last night, I busted out the Wacom Tablet and gave it another go. It turns out I am really not good with either Inkscape or a Wacom Tablet and had to resort to mouse and keyboard. However, the results were nice. I came up with one new design I call a Blockade Buster, which is designed to fight and fly. It is more than twice the size of an Antelope-class starship and has a couple of different options for cargo and ship's boats.

First, the ship. The Antelope-class has 126 CU of space. The Blockage Buster has 256 CU of carrying capacity, but some of it is limited. The Boat Bay, Cargo Bay 1 and turrets are identical to those of the the Antelope-class.

However, the Blockade Buster has two turrets. Engineering, and Pilotage is twice the size of the Antelope's. There is a Bay for an orbiter, which is a larger shuttle that can carry a skimmer. The Cargo Bay 2 is specifically designed for consumables. It can hold one skimmer and has 36 racks for any type of consumable unit, such as Life Support, Repair or Fuel. In the corner is space for 4 Utility Suits. There is a locker for weapons near the officer's quarters. On the opposite side of the ship is a large suite of rooms for crew quarters. The Blockade Runner holds 12 hypercharges.

Special Rules for this ship: There are no hidden storage places. Cargo Bay 2 cannot be reconfigured to hold other items, the racks are a part of the hull. The ship has no installed Stasis Units. This ship has 12 hits.

If you would like to incorporate this into Star Smuggler, I have pricing and other information here to mix into e001 and e036.

Next post, we'll look at the Alternate Hopper Class Boats. I will also post some generic deck plans for any game system.