Transport Capacities

Jeff Lyon made some good points:

Post 1:

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)

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.)
-----------------------------------------------------
** Okay, let's try a couple of examples I use.
Size 3 APC with twin DFFG/1 and twin SAW. Armour 2. You are telling me
that effectively this would take  8x3 = 24 + 2x4 = 8 -> 32 points
total. Fine and good. This is about 16 Metric Tons or 35,300 pounds.
Size 5 MBT with level 5 armour. This would take 60 capacity points.
This is about 30 Metric Tons or 66,000 pounds.
Size 1 hoverjeep. Armour 1. this would be 12 capacity points which is
about 6 Mt, or about 13,200 lbs. A tad on the heavy side. If it was
soft skinned, you've got 8 capacity points, 4 Mt, and about 8800 lbs.
which is still too heavy.

How about this:
We're trying to hit roughly the following numbers:
Tank - 20K to 80K kgs. (the average being 35-50K kgs)
Jeep - 1K to 3K kgs.
APC - 12K to 20K kgs. (size 3)

What conclusions can we draw? Vehicle masses do not increase linearly
with size!

I'll have to try some math to fit something to this model. A bunch of
data points and some fooling about ought to yield a better model. If
it does, I'll post it.

--------------------------------------------------------
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.

** You should be able to use in-vehicle space to store kit to cut down
on wasted space.

Post 2:

50 persons/mass unit - Crowded conditions (not uncommon for troop
transports); officers share a double occupancy cabin, ratings or
troops are
quartered four to a cabin (probably with two-shift "hot bunking").

** Is hot bunking an option for ships that have to manoevre? You need
a crash frame for all crew members and they can't be hot bunked.

100 persons/mass unit - Very crowded conditions ("normal emergency"
occupancy); all cabins and some common areas are utilized at maximum
occupancy and a strict	rotation schedule is used for "hot-bunking",
galley
access, etc.  Ships at such crowded levels would not normally engage
in
combat or high-G maneuvers.

** Same comment as my last.

200 persons/mass unit - Life boat conditions (extreme emergency
occupancy);
all available space (cabins, common areas, passageways) would be
utilized.
Life support would be strained to the limit.  Food, water and access
to all
ship's facilities would be rationed.  Such crowded conditions should
be
considered a hazard to the health and safety of all aboard.  As none
of the
redundant life support equipment can be taken off-line for routine
maintenance, long-term occupancy at these levels may result in a
catastrophic breakdown of life support systems.

** High G manoevres would kill people in this crowding level.

A ship with a "very strong (50%) level of hull integrity MAY (at
designer's
option) have sufficient mass devoted to crew quarters to satisfy the
"luxury" level of occupancy for the ship's crew and up to one element
(5
capacity points) of ship's marines per crew factor.

** And if not?

BTW, good work Jeff. Other than not being happy yet with your formula
for vehicle weighting, I'm pleased enough.