Overview
Starships in the Eight Worlds were comparatively low-tech, more like
hypersonic aircraft with limited space capability than the vessels of
Star Trek or Star Wars. Think of something like the Space
Shuttle with a fusion reactor and hyperdrive tucked away in the cargo bay.
This tech level was chosen because it was easy to relate to. We can
instinctively guess how reaction drives or gigawatt x-ray lasers will
behave, without having to invent an arbitrary and inconsistent set of rules
for magical new technologies. This might not be the case for anti-gravity
devices, matter transporters, or simple and reliable computer operating
systems. It was also chosen because rocket ships are fun.
An Eight Worlds starship contains the following subsystems:
- Hull -- The aeroshell, atmospheric drives (thermal turbojets
powered from the fusion reactor), landing jacks, and VTOL lifters, if any.
Structure -- the rivets, girders, and whatnot that hold the ship together
and keep it from folding up under acceration -- is more closely associated
with the drives. For this reason, it is included with the Engineering
Plant rather than the Hull.
-
- Engineering Plant -- The fusion reactor and power convertor,
fusion drive, structure, and hyperdrive.
- Fuel System -- Fuel tanks along with the refiner and scooper,
if any.
- Weapons -- Various forms of lasers, along with a limited
number of missile and warhead types.
- Shields -- Large capital ships, which are easier to hit due
to their larger silhouette, may carry shield generators. These are very
expensive in terms of power and weight.
- Lifesystem -- Bridge (usually armored, and large capital
ships may have more than one), staterooms, coldsleep berths, autodocs,
food converter, air and water recycling, and the ship's supply of
chocolate.
- Avionics -- Includes everything from sensors to computers.
This is a huge can of worms, and it will take me some time to transcribe
all of the relevant rules.
These systems are desribed in greater detail in the section on
technical background below.
Units and Currency
The Eight Worlds uses the metric system. Most weights in the
construction tables below are given in metric tonnes (1000 kg, abreviated
1 Tn). Prices are in
Eight Worlds currency and
should be assumed to be in Ducats (D) unless otherwise noted.
How Can Freelance Starcrew Afford All This?
They can't. But like all vehicles, starships decline in value, price,
and reliability with age. Prices below are for new ships, listed as
Grade One by an underwriter. Grade Two ships are approximately 1/3 the
price of Grade One, abd correspondingly less reliable. Grade Three ships
are 1/10 the priice of Grade One -- the equivalent of a used car with
150,000 miles -- which makes them just barely affordable to free-lance
starcrew. Grade Four ships exist, and occupy roughly the same rule as a
rusted-out pickup truck on cinder blocks in front of the trailer home.
They may serve a valuable decorative function, but no one with any sense
of self-preservation would consider actually flying one.
Technical Background
Drives
In normal space, ships use fusion-powered reaction drives. These consist of
linear fusion reactors, partially open at one end, that burn a
deuterium-deuterium or deuterium-tritium plasma. Efficiency is low
compared with ship's electrical power plant, but the combination of modest
temperatures, high throughput and ready availability of the relevant fuels
makes this design particularly well suited to heat a reaction mass.
Specific impulses are high -- comparable to ion drives -- but unlike ion
drives there are no space charge effects to place an upper limit on thrust.
Acclerations typically range between 2 and 4 g's, though higher values can
be achieved by sacrificing such luxuries as hyperdrives, life support
systems, armor, and sanity.
Drives are generally lumped together with structure,
since a ships that produces 800 tonne-g's (8 M-NT) of thrust will require
a structure that can withstand this load whetrher it be a 400-tonne packet
accelerating at 2 g's or a 200-tonne corvette accelerating at 4 g's.
Some barbarian cultures skimp on structure to reduce weight -- accepting
the risk that the ship might break up to achieve additional acceleration.
They are a source of amusement and concern to their neighbors.
Fusors
Ship power comes from their fusors. These consist of magnetic confinment
devices that burn a proton-Boron plasma at high temperature to produce
energetic charged particles that can be directed through an MHD generator
to yield electrical power. Power levels are much smaller than they are
for the reactors used in the drive systems reactors, are the necessary
boron isotope (B11) is compartively rare, but efficiency is
significantly higher.
Hyperdrives
Hyperdrives are magic. I don't know how they work. If I did, I'd be
running a world-wide shipbuilding empire rather than a web site! From a
functional standpoint, they consist of a power-conditioning system, the
Mass Transfer Stage, into which one feeds energy to charge the
Hyperdrive Core. Once the core is charged, you push a button,
a 'hyperdrive envelope' forms around the ship, and it is ejected from
ordinary space into some other form of reality. At a predetermined time,
which may range from seconds to days, the 'envelope' collapses, dumping
power back into the Hyperdrive Core, from which it flows through
the Mass Transfer Stage to the Hyperdrive Radiators
from which it is radiated away as heat. A during a typical 'jump', the
drive is charged for 30 minutes to 3 hours and the ship spends 1-10 days
in hyperspace, during which the ship may travel between 3-30 parsecs (pc)
depending on its level of technology and the skill of the navigator. The
time to emerge from hyperspace is comparable to the charging time. During
this interval, the ship is blind, unable to manuever, and produces an
enormous and easily-detected heat signature. The tactical implications
should be obvious.
Time passes in hyperspace at the same rate as in normal space, subject to
the considerations of special relativity. This suggests that it would
theoretically be possible to use a hyperdrive as a time travel device it
one could jump far enough, but the distance required -- on the order of
thousands or millions of parsecs -- is far in excess of anything that can
be achived with Eight Worlds technology. In practice, two
considerations restrict most jumps to 30 pc or less. The first involves
the distribution of interstellar matter along the planned route. If this
is not accounted for properly, a 'misjump' will occur. The effects of a
'misjump' range from amusing to disastrous. Second is related to the
nature of the hyperdrive envelope. In theory, this should collapse
prematurely, with catastrophic effects, if the ship radiates any energy or
leaks any mass while in transit. In actual practice, the small amounts of
leakage that occur during a few days of transit don't seem to cause
problems, but transits longer than a week or so consitute an appalling
risk.
No one is quite sure what hyperspace looks like. The experience appears
to be random and subjective, for different observers on the same jump can
report subtly different things. Over the centuries, a vast mythology has
developed that relates the patterns seem in hyperspace to the fortunes of
a mission. Legend has it that once in a million jumps, the pattern will
suggest a Roadrunner cartoon in which the Coyote catches the
Roadrunner. This is thought to be an omen of terrible import.
Lifesystems
A ship's lifesystem is good for 3-4 weeks. If the system is not
recharged with a fresh supply of oxygen at this point, mold begins to
grow on the walls, the air begins to smell, the water becomes stale and
slimy, and life becomes increasingly unpleasant. Somewhere beyond this
point, life ends. It would in principle be possible to build
lifesystems that could last much longer -- indeed, this is common for
space stations, asteroid mining operations, and the like. But such
capability would be expensive, heavy, and entirely unnecessary for an
ordinary starship given that a typical hyperspace transit lasts only a
week.
Laser Weapons
Ships are armed with various forms of lasers, because nothing else really
works. The technology, wavelength, output time, and duty cycles, and
operating principles of laser weapons can vary widely. A standard laser
cannon -- coloquaially reffered to as a 'tube' -- has an output of one
Gigwatt, and its range is limited by diffraction effects to 50,000 km or
less. Ships are sometimes rated by number of 'tubes' in much the same
fashion that vessels during the Age of Sail were rated by number of guns.
Myth, legend, and the mass of ambiguous records that survive from the
Imperial Era suggest that standard Imperial laser cannon was a gas-dynamic
infra-red laser with a beam diameters of a meter or so, built using
advanced manufacturing technologies that have since been lost. Modern
Eight Worlds vessels use free-electron x-ray lasers to achieve comparable
performance.
Durring the past 50 years, the
standard 1-cm laser cannon has been supplemented by so-called 'long's
of significantly higher output, beam diameter, and range. This has made
possible the development of large capital ships. At the other end of
the spectrum, several worlds have developed light long-wavelength 'laser
carronades' suitable for use on small non-hyperspace-capable vessels such
as gunboats and fighters. These new technologies -- and the unlooked-for
surprises that have accompanied their use -- have done much to destabilize
Eight Worlds politics.
Missile Weapons
Like torpedoes in WW-I, these don't work very well... except when they
do. I'll write about them later.
Airframe
This page contains tables for mass, cost, and characteristics of components
of the Airframe, including Hull, Shields (if any), Engineering Plant,
Lifesystem, Weapons, and Miscellaneous. These ship construction tables apply
to any type of high-tech aerospace vehicle, and have been used to design
everything from large capital ships of 50,000 tones or more to light ships,
auxiliaries, missiles, gunboats, fliers, and flying backpacks. Though those
flying backpacks were stretching things a bit.
Each table lists the mass in tonnes, cost in D or F, and any
supplementary information for different sizes and ratings of a particular
class of component. Thus, a conventional (streamlined) hull for a 1200 tonne
light cruiser weighs 24 tonnes and costs 60 D (roughly the cost of an
F-22 Raptor), while each one of its five tri-mount laser turrets weighs 7
tonnes, costs 6.5 D, and draws 3 Power Units -- 1 tonne and 0.5
D for the turret itself and 2 tonnes, 2 D, and 1 Power Unit for
each of its three tubes. The letter 'N' refers to Power Units, Thrust Units,
or Energy Levels. Thus, a fusor that generated 3 Power Units (enough to
power one tri-mount laser cannon turret) would mass 33 tonnes and cost 12
D.
A Note on 'Streamlining': The hull table below provides infomation
for a conventional 'streamlined' hull, consisting of aeroshell, thermal
protection system (heat shield), lifters, and landing jacks. 'Belly-landing
gear' consisting of additional lifters, better streamlining, and improved
landing jacks, adds atmospheric capability and allows use of more 'rustic'
landing zones, but cost an additional 50% in mass and price. 'Unstreamlined'
hulls are possible, cost nothing, and are good for nothing.
Hull and Aeroshell
| 10 |
0.2 |
-2 |
0.2 |
0.1 |
| 20 | 0.3 | -1 | 0.4 | 0.2 |
| 30 | 0.4 | -1 | 0.6 | 0.3 |
| 40 | 0.5 | -1 | 0.8 | 0.4 |
| 50 | 0.6 | -1 | 1 | 0.5 |
| 60 | 0.7 | -1 | 1.2 | 0.6 |
| 80 |
0.9 |
-1 |
1.6 |
0.8 |
| 100 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| 200 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| 400 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 8 |
| 600 | 3 | 0 | 12 | 18 |
| 800 |
4 |
0 |
16 |
32 |
| 1200 | 5 | 1 | 24 | 60 |
| 1600 | 6 | 1 | 32 | 60 |
| 2000 |
7 |
1 |
40 |
60 |
| 3000 | 9 | 2 | - | - |
| 4000 | 11 | 2 | - | - |
| 5000 |
13 |
2 |
- |
- |
| 7000 | 16 | 3 | - | - |
| 10,000 | 20 | 3 | - | - |
| 14,000 | 25 | 3 | - | - |
| 16,000 |
30 |
3 |
- |
- |
| N | N2/3 | - | N/20 | N/30 |
(1) 'Surface Area' -- how many standard
laser cannon turrents a ship can carry
(2) 'Silhouette' -- Targetting modifier.
Small ships are harder to hit.
Shield Generators
| 1 | 4 | 8 | 3 |
| 2 | 30 | 18 | 3 |
| 3 | 60 | 40 | 3 |
| 4 | 100 | 60 | 3 |
| 5 | 160 | 96 | 3 |
| 6 | 220 | 156 | 3 |
| 7 | 320 | 260 | 3 |
| 8 | 460 | 420 | 3 |
| 9 | 632 | 564 | 3 |
| 10 | 850 | - | 3 |
| 11 | 1125 | 978 | 3 |
| 12 |
1432 |
- |
3 |
| N | 0.8N3+50 | 60N2+42 | 0.01M |
(1) Shields work like silhouette but in reverse,
making a ship harder to hit.
|
|
Engineering Plant
| |
Mass |
Price |
Mass |
Price |
Mass |
Price |
Mass |
Price |
| 0.1 |
3.5 |
1 |
5 |
1 |
1 |
0.1 |
5 |
5 |
| 0.2 |
5.5 |
2 |
6 |
2 |
2 |
0.25 |
10 |
5 |
| 0.5 |
8 |
3 |
7.5 |
3 |
3 |
0.5 |
15 |
5 |
| 1 |
13 |
4 |
11 |
4 |
6 |
1 |
20 |
5 |
| N |
10N+3 |
4N |
10N+2 |
4N |
6N |
N |
20N |
5N |
(1) Mass and cost of Fusor includes mass and cost of the Convertor.
(2) Generally, Drive and Structure go together, and N units of thrust will require
N units of Structure, but it's possible to skimp on Structure to save mass,
improve performance, and risk death.
Energy Weapons
| HLG |
0.1 |
0.1 |
0.1 |
0.1 |
1 |
0.2 |
0.2 |
0.1 |
| LLC |
0.3 |
0.3 |
0.5 |
0.5 |
1 |
0.5 |
0.5 |
0.5 |
| Crnd |
1 |
0.5 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0.5 |
| Pulse |
1 |
0.5 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0.5 |
| LC |
1 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0.5 |
| [3] |
5 |
5 |
6 |
10 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
1.5 |
| [6] |
5 |
5 |
6 |
10 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
1.5 |
| [10] |
10 |
10 |
12 |
20 |
6 |
6 |
6 |
3 |
| [15] |
40 |
100 |
40 |
100 |
15 |
15 |
20 |
10 |
| [20] |
100 |
300 |
80 |
200 |
20 |
20 |
40 |
20 |
(1) The characteristics, mass, and cost of an individual gun tube
(2) The characteristics, mass, and cost of a bare tri-mount turret (singles and twins
cost correspondingly less)
Lifesystem and Miscellaneous
| Coldsleep1 |
- |
0.2 |
0.05 |
| Shuttle2 |
200 hrs4 |
0.2 |
0.05 |
| Combat3 |
200 hrs4 |
1 |
0.25 |
| Stateroom |
6000 hrs4 |
2 |
0.25 |
| Bridge (Armored) |
(3d6)5 |
10 |
0.25 |
| Bridge (Part Arm) |
(4d6)5 |
8 |
0.25 |
| Bridge (No Arm) |
(5d6)5 |
6 |
0.25 |
| Refiner |
1tn/day |
2 |
0.5 |
| Scooper |
- |
3 |
0.5 |
| Tanks |
Included with Structure |
| Batteries |
0.25 P-hr |
1 |
0.1 |
| Solid Boosters |
1 tn-g-hr |
1 |
0.1 |
| Warhead |
N(d6) |
0.04P(N-1) |
M |
(1) Autodocs weigh the same and can function as coldsleep,
but cost 500 F, and are worth every 0.1 sequin
(2) Lifesystem slot for a shuttle, boat, or lander
(3) Armored acceleration couch for a fighter or gunboat
(4) These appear to be the survival times hamsters. Humans
would not fare as well
(5) This is how much damage you take if the bridge gets hit and
your suit can't protect you. Is the saved mass worth the risk?
|
Avionics
Avionics includes sensors, computers, hardware, and software. These are
not strictly comparable to their present-day (Tech Level 8) equivalents
since they involve massively parallel distributed systems that have no
analogue in present-day techology. In particular, 'hardware' includes
a singificant amount of software while 'software' requires a considerable
amount of dedicated hardware.
Avionics is divided into 'hardware boxes' and 'software boxes'. (The
avionics suite of the Tech Level 12 corvette described
below
consists of 3 hardware boxes and 2 software boxes that mass 1 tonne).
Some of these perform essential functions without which a ship cannot
even lift. Others provide desirable functions or optional luxuries.
It is common practice to include some redundancy and duplication so that
a ship can continue to function if it takes damage.
The Avionics rules are quite complicated in practice, so explanations may
take time. After everything was said and done, avionics suites tended to
mass between 2-6 tonnes, depending on how capable they were.
| Avionics is measured in 'Boxes' |
| 1 Hardware Box -- 1 MW? |
| 1 Software Box -- 1 teraflop and/or petabyte? |
|
|
| Hardware |
2.5/(TL-3) |
0.15 |
| Software |
1.5/(TL-5) |
0.1 |
|
| Jump 1 |
1/- |
0 |
Software: HD Nav, HD Control, [Adv Autopilot] |
| Jump 2 |
2/- |
0 |
one system is required for each jumper |
| Jump N |
((N+1)/2)2/- |
0 |
|
| Hyper Nav |
-/2 |
100 F |
Sets up jump (or one can use Jump Tapes) |
| Hyper Cont |
-/1 |
10 F |
Sets up jump (or one can use Jump Tapes) |
| Adv Autopilot |
-/4 |
500 F |
As Pilot-1 Nav-2 (Reg Autopilot (-/20 Nav-1) |
| Orbital Nav |
-/1 |
100 F |
As Pilot-2 |
| Turrent Control |
1/- |
0 |
Allows computer to control one turret |
| Adv Sights |
1/- |
500 F |
Allows manual control via Gunner skill |
| Targeting 1 |
-/0.5 |
50 F |
As Gunner 1 |
| Targeting 2 |
-/1 |
100 F |
As Gunner 2 |
| Targeting 3 |
-/2 |
500 F |
As Gunner 3 |
| Evasion 1 |
-/0.5 |
10 F |
Allows 1/4 Pilot skill |
| Evasion 2 |
-/1 |
30 F |
Allows 1/2 Pilot skill |
| Evasion 3 |
-/2 |
100 F |
Allows all Pilot skill |
| Auto Evade 1 |
-/1 |
10 F |
As Pilot 2 |
| Auto Evade 2 |
-/3 |
10 F |
As Pilot 4 [(-/2: -3), (-/6: -6), (-/8: -7), (-/10, -8), ...] |
| Sensors |
1/- |
0 |
|
| Ranging Gear |
3/- |
1 D |
|
| [X Range] |
6/- |
3 D |
|
| [Adv Range] |
12/- |
9 D |
|
| X Sensors |
6/- |
1 D |
|
| Ranging Prog |
-/3 |
100 F |
|
| Spotting Prog |
-/3 |
200 F |
|
| Missile Control |
-/3 |
200 F |
|
| Jammer |
3/- |
1 D |
|
| Missile Guidance |
-/1 |
0 |
|
| Hypertrace |
1/1 |
300 F |
|
| Terminal |
0.2/- |
0 |
|
|
Examples
Two examples are provided below: a Scout and a Corvette
Singleship Scout (SS)
Equivalent to the classic 100-tonne Traveller 'Scout Ship'.
Unarmed, limited to 2 g's and Jump 2, with only the most rudimentary of
avionics, a Scout may be the cheapest possible starship. Due to its small
size and low thermal signature, a ship of this type is difficult to detect
if properly handled. This quality, combined with its low cost and limitless
range, makes these vessels perfect for mapping and reconnaisance missions by
flight crew who you don't care about very much.
Singleship Scout/Trainer (SS/TS)
| Item |
Info |
Mass |
|
Item |
Info |
Mass |
| Hull: |
100S |
|
2 |
|
Main Batt: |
- |
- |
| Power: |
(1.0) |
13 |
|
|
Shields: |
- |
- |
| Drive: |
(1.0/1.0), 2gs |
17 |
50 |
|
Bridge: |
Armd |
10 |
| Jumper: |
(1.0), J2 |
20 |
|
|
Lifesystem: |
1 |
2 |
| Refiner: |
1 |
|
2 |
|
Avionics: |
3/2 |
1 |
| Fuel/Cargo: |
44hrs |
|
33 |
|
Total: |
|
100 |
|
|
Cost: 16.9D (14.5D)1
| Full |
100 |
2 g's |
| Empty |
67 |
2.98 g's |
(1) With mass production
|
Corvette (L)
As recently as a generation ago, a 200-tonne corvette would have been
considered a significant warship, with a place in fleet combat formations,
able to hold its own against many times its tonnage in lower-tech
barbarian vessels. This may no longer be the case, but corvettes are still
an important class of ship, which serve as maids-of-all-work for escort
missions, patrols, courier service, and a wide range of scouting and
reconnaisance operations. Used corvettes make great ships for mercenaries
(or pirates). Stripped of one laser cannon and equipped with a smaller
fusion reactor, they can also carry a profitable amount of cargo. A Grade
Three vessel of this type could cost as little as 3 D, putting it
just barely in range of a party of freelance adventurers, recently
mustered out of service, who know a good loan shark.
Corvette (L)
| Item |
Info |
Mass |
|
Item |
Info |
Mass |
| Hull: |
200S |
|
4 |
|
Main Batt: |
T3 |
7 |
| Power: |
(3.0) |
33 |
|
|
Shields: |
- |
- |
| Drive: |
(4.0/4.0), 4gs |
62 |
135 |
|
Bridge: |
Armd |
10 |
| Jumper: |
(2.0), J2 |
40 |
|
|
Lifesystem: |
4/2 |
8.5 |
| Refiner: |
1 |
|
2 |
|
Avionics: |
5/6 |
2 |
| Fuel/Cargo: |
13hrs (158) |
|
31.5 |
|
Total: |
|
200 |
|
|
Cost: 49.2D (39.4D)1
| Full |
200 |
4 g's |
| Empty |
168.5 |
4.8 g's |
(1) With mass production
|
Last modified: 20 January 2010