Re: [FT\DS2] Fleet and Army sizes for games

Beth Fulton wrote:
> 
> G'day,
> 
>  >Reconfigurable warships should be more expensive than standard
>  >because of the increased access points needed in the wiring,cabling,
>  >ducting,plumbing and structural systems to allow them to be
>  >configurable.
> 
> If they're dedicated modules though that slip full made and whole onto
a
> pre-existing spin, then why? The modular stuff I've got from my
"penguins
> in space" is much more along the lines of - same bridge bit and engine
bit
> always, but forward bays are interchangeable between cargo space,
weapon
> loaded and hangar bar space. They just slot in and get locked down - I
have
> fiddled with doing thresholds on the joining points and it can be very
> funny to suddenly see a row of hull boxes and a quarter of you ship
'float'
> away ;)

If the modular bit also incorporates all of the fire control, maybe.
But there is still the added costs of joints that withstand the extreme
maneuvering of the ship without letting go and still be disassembled
(which
is the hard part).

> 
>  >So a reconfigurable hull is massx2 instead of massx1, must set
>  >aside 10% of mass for accessways/connection points, and add 1 to the
>  >die for threshold and damage control rolls.
> 
> I think this is too excessive all up. Why 2xmass when they have to
have the
> extra mass as well, ducting is ducting in my view (now all the
engineers
> get free hit at Beth) and the +1 seems a bit painful if applied to all
> systems not just the interchangeable ones. But that's just me.
(taking my free hit)

2xMass cost for the hull only increases the cost of the ship by slightly
less than a third, and maybe the mass lost can be left out (as all that
is
really necessary, upon reflection is more volume).  Its not that there
is
more ducting, it is that the ducting must have accessable joints in it,
and
it has to be designed to be tested quickly and efficiently.  Fixed
config
ships only have their conduits tested once, because it is never changed
and battle damage is easy to locate.  If it has swappable modules, the 
ducting has to be tested after every swap.  From experience, H/S
integration
is expensive, time consuming, and not guaranteed to be on time or on
budget.