Re: Transport capacities

Well, I've been looking at the rulebooks again, as well as trying to
adapt
the conversion rates I was suggesting to both real world and sci-fi
examples and the numbers still seem to have some problems.  In
particular,
the tonnage rates for infantry and smaller vehicles both still seem too
high.

At this point, I'd be inclined to suggest the following conversion:
    1 DS2/SG2 capacity point = 500 kg (0.5 metric tonnes)

This conversion rate seems to work even better than my earlier idea.

For example:

Starship Troopers - An MI in full kit weighs about a ton, in SG2 one PA
infantry requires 2 capacity points.

Aliens Technical manual:

The UD-4 utility dropship has a lift capacity of 16,000 kg, this would
be
32 capacity points; enough for a size 4 vehicle.  The dropship itself is
described as having a fully-loaded mass of over 34,500 kg.  This would
be a
small size-9 vehicle with a capacity of about 43-45 points; deduct the
32
points dedicated to transport and that leaves around 11-13 capacity
available for support weapons. 

The M577 APC weighs 14,500 kg and carries up to 12 troops.  This would
be
29 capacity points or about a size 3 or 4 APC depending on the level of
armor.

So here are my latest suggestions for conversion rates:

  1 FB Mass = 100 metric tonnes = 200 DS2/SG2 capacity points

Vehicles require (size x8) capacity points plus (size x4) for each level
of
regular armor or (size x6) for each level of reactive or ablative armor.
(Note that when using this conversion rate small, lightly armored
vehicles
work out to about half the mass described in my earlier post, but
because
of the higher rates for armor, the larger and more heavily armored
vehicles
are still quite massive.)

Dropships can designed using the DS2/SG2 rules for determining lift
capacity, size and mass, then converted to FB mass units or a rough rule
of
thumb of a maximum of 120 capacity points per FB mass unit can be used
instead.

Each point of shipboard mass devoted to non-vehicle troop transport
systems
(drop capsules, transporters, etc.) should have a capacity of 40 points
per
turn for two-way systems such as transporters or 80 capacity points per
turn for one-way systems such as drop capsules.

Each element of infantry (2-5 troopers, depending on kit) requires a
lift
capacity of 4 points for regular troops or 8 points per element for
powered
armor.

Long-range transport of personnel requires 4 capacity points per person
if
in quarters or 1 capacity point per person if in cryo.

Long-range transport of infantry kit requires 1 capacity point per
element
for rifle, assault, or lightly-equipped (4-5 man) engineer teams; 2
capacity points per element for APSW, fire designation, anti-armour,
local
air defense or heavily-equipped (2-3 man) combat engineer teams.
Long-range transport of powered armor kit requires 8 capacity points per
element.  Personal kit for vehicle crews can be assumed to be stowed
aboard
their vehicles or kept in quarters.

A full platoon of Mobile Infantry from the novel Starship Troopers would
require 100 points of capacity (this assumes command elements are costed
in
with some of the line troops) for drop capsules and/or recovery boats.
This would be a mass 2 drop capsule launcher system and a dropship of at
least size 20 (slightly less than 1 FB mass).  

Long range transport requirements would be about 200 capacity points or
1
unit of mass for quarters and at least 100 capacity points for powered
armor storage.	Devoting 1 full unit of mass would give them ample room
for
storage, maintenance and spare suits as well as ammo and supplies.

Therefore the total requirement for transport of a platoon of 50 MI
powered
infantry plus command elements would be:

Troop quarters (50 men) - 1 mass
Powered armor storage	- 1 mass
Drop capsule launchers	- 2 mass
Retrieval boat hanger	- 2 mass
			 ========
  Total 		  6 mass

All this would easily fit about a corvette-class troop transport such as
the Rodger Young.  Note also, that the MI complement of a ship this size
would be about three times the number of ship's crew, which is also
consistent with what is described in the book.

A regimental transport such as the Tours would be equipped to carry up
to
twelve platoons in crowded conditions but normally carries as few as
six.
Drop capsule capacity is be sufficient to launch up to six platoons at a
time.  I was unable to determine the exact number of retrieval boats
available, so let's assume it's similar to the drop capsule capacity. 
This
gives us:

Troop quarters (600 men)  - 12 mass
Powered armor storage	  -  6 mass
Drop capsule launchers	  -  8 mass
Retrieval boat hanger (6) -  9 mass
			   =========
  Total 		    35 mass

This is a much more mass efficient design than the corvette-class ships;
which is consistent with Rico's statements about how the Navy prefers
the
big regimental transports.  Although we are not told exactly how large
such
a transport should be, we do know that they are "not big compared to a
battle wagon or passenger liner."

Eighteen such ships, each carrying a full complement of 12 platoons
would
be able to tranport an entire MI division of 10,800 PA troops plus
command
elements.

Jeff