Re: [FTFB] More on Fighter Bays and Hangers . . .

Hiya Sean!  
[OT]------------
Have any more Heavy Gear minis for sale <g>?  I have an officemate who
is
bemoaning the loss of RAFM as a supplier . . .
------------[/OT]

At 07:49 PM 1/11/99 -0800, you wrote:
[snip]
>This is one of the more interesting proposals I've seen in a while.
Much
>potential.

Thanks!  I see this as a real value added proposal - nothing makes
better
space opera than the loss of the launch bay right in the middle of a
hard
fought battle. :)

[snip]
>What might be another option, which would not require a redesign of
>existing ships, would be to leave the existing bays as is, and add
another
>system.
>
>Think of it as the difference between an MT missile and an SML. Make a
new
>internal bay system, which perhaps takes up less mass because of the
lack
>of integrated launch facilities, and a launch system. That way you can
try
>either design method.

OK, and one way to balance that is to make the mass/point costs of the
new
method more expensive than the 'stock' one.  More modularity = more
weight
= more cost.  That way there's some justification for the current
(non-modular) system - it's cheaper to build integrated systems than it
is
to make them modular.

How's this for a SWAG:

Hanger Space: 1.4 MASS per fighter
	      4 MASS per 3 fighters if bought in groups of 3
  point cost: Total hanger MASS x 3

Launch Bay:   4 MASS for 6 fighter hanger capacity
	      +1 MASS per additional 6 fighter hanger capacity
  point cost: Total launch bay MASS x 4

A single launch bay can normally service a single standard fighter
hanger.
If a launch bay must service additional hangers, the additional MASS
requirement represents the interconnections, fighter transport
elevators,
CCC, service areas, etc.  For example, a launch bay that services three
fighter group hangers (18 fighters) would weigh 4+1+1=6 MASS and cost 24
points.  This additional cost is irrespective of whether the fighter
hangers are separate or combined.

Launch bays and fighter hangers can be combined in any manner desired,
with
the following restriction: no single hanger can be serviced by more
launch
bay capacity than it has hanger capacity.  For instance, a single large
24-fighter capacity hanger can be serviced by one to four launch bays.
However, a 9-fighter hanger (1 full group + 3 'spare' fighters) could
only
be serviced by a single launch bay, since two launch bays have a
capacity
of 12, which is greater than the hanger capacity of 9.	Notice that
*each*
launch bay servicing that large 24-fighter hanger incurs the extra
capacity
mass penalty - if there were 3 launch bays servicing the 24-fighter
hanger,
the hanger space would cost 32 MASS and each launch bay would cost 7
MASS a
piece for a total of 53 MASS.

Each undamaged launch bay on a ship can launch a full fighter group per
turn without penalty.  The number of fighter groups (full or partial)
that
can be recovered per turn is equal to 1/2 the number of undamaged launch
bays, rounded up.

As is the case of the FTFB designs, none of the MASS figures listed
above
actually include the fighters, which must be bought separately.

===================================================================
Mark "Hauptmann" Shurtleff
  email: hauptman@sfcmd.com -or- hauptman@concentric.net
  visit the Gear Locker at http://www.sfcmd.com/HeavyGear

 Finagle's Law:
   The perversity of the Universe tends towards the maximum.
===================================================================