Re: Size Class Escalation -- How high in Mass?

--- devans@uneb.edu wrote:
> 
...
> So, it depends on the universe. The construction
> rules don't seem to support the contention that
> bigger weapons and ships are unnaturally harder
> to construct than equivalent mass in smaller ships.
> If this were the case (and you're welcome to make
> it the case in your universe) where's the evidence?
> ***
> 
> Unfortunate, but true, for the rules. In the 'real
> world' of course, there
> is increasing cost for increasing size. Bridges,
> buildings, ships, become
> more difficult and more expensive, though admitted
> not always as fast as
> the increasing 'value'.
> 

Be careful with real world examples because there
are two kinds of costs associated with big projects.
There's the cost of building things on a large scale
and there's the cost of building bigger than they've
ever built before.

Let's say we lived in a land with a LOT of bays
and some company had built 5 copies of the golden
gate bridge so far. Well, it's still a big bridge,
but they know how to build them and it's not like
they haven't done it before. 

On the other hand, let's say you've never built any
bridge as big as the golden gate and you're building
it. In this case you're always running into problems
of proper parts not being available, engineering not
scaling up, and so on. You're running into problems
noone else has ever solved before. That makes it a
lot more expensive.

Maybe the first time anyone in the FT universe built
an SDN, there were a lot of "hmmm... they don't make
a whoosit that big, we'll have to have it made
special." After a certain number had been built, 
they would no longer be exploring new territory, so
the cost would drop.

At this point in the FT universe, I would think that
building ships of this size is, if not easy, at least
a well known problem domain and would present no
SPECIAL problems.

If I then build a 350 mass ship (and see my web site
cause I am toying with the idea), THEN maybe there
would be a surcharge to reflect the special problem
you get every time you plunge into unexplored
problems.
Not from a military standpoint maybe, but definitely 
from an economic one. If you're just going to 290
mass maybe it's a small surcharge. If you're going
to 350 maybe it's bigger. If you're going to 600,
maybe it's a huge surcharge because every step in
the construction is probably going to uncover some
intractable problem noone has ever faced.

Just an opinion of course, I'm not a naval architect.

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