[Long] Re: [OFFICIAL] Freighters/Merchants question....

Ok, started this earlier, put it in draft queue, and it's been 'like
Topsy'.

As far as disperse forms, including 'string' ships, there's room for all
possibilities. If you're not worried about tight manuevers, mostly the
concern of military and ships working through cluttered areas, such as
asteroids, dense manufacturing space, etc., swinging a string around to
apply breaking pressure for the arrival might be ok.

I see someone came up with a ship that's the Valley Forge, but in
keeping
with my idea of more densely populated backbone.

We may be somewhat limited as to how much variety Jon can squeeze into
his
line, but shouldn't be with our imagination.

>Personally, I think that freighters should be massive;  they have to be
to
make them economically feasible.

There's been some discussion that small, rare, specialized cargoes might
be
more lucrative than regular bulk, or dispersion of cargoes to outlying
regions would require smaller delivery systems. Also, you can argue that
FTL, in some universes, increases in cost exponentially with size.

I think there's 'room' for huge super-cargo ships, and scrabbling
private-morgaged-to-the-eyeballs concerns.

My own post-corporate-wars Texaco Free Traders inherited (plundered and
escaped with) ships either built from huge bulk fuel (Hsub3?) carriers,
or
the engineering sections to be 'flown on site' to be finished where the
fuel is gathered.

For anybody interested, the 'capitals' are built from aircraft model
drop
tanks, w/ the pylons acting as 'sails', formerly all crew areas, now
command. The largest ships are cobbled together, with some pylons used
as
connectors, giving you, as I described in 2001:
***
My Texaco (TFNS) super-carriers, yet to be assembled, are a little over
four inches, and in three equal, large pods. However, my fluff is that
they
are converted merchant hulls tied together, light and fragile and BIG.
***

The engineering sections were referred in 2001 to as:
***
As an aside, I'm claiming the AMT/Ertl Droid Fighters for Texaco
Freetrade
zone Naval Service Deep Space Flotillas, not that that stops anybody
from
other uses. ;->=
***

If you think of the wing pods as sections from the skin of the drop
tanks,
you can imagine them as the pumps and other fuel handling machinery, and
thrust and FTL engines, transported to where the relatively simple tank
sections would be manufactured and added.

These without added tank sections would be all engine and machinery; I
figured they'd be fast, and the corp-heads would claim that the
equipment
could be used to power weapons. 'No really, the class 4 beams were
created
out of molecular separation units and standard APU's. Would we lie?'

To finish out the units, I included repair and replenishment ships from
the
central parts of the droid fighters. Really crappy picture:
http://dje.nebraska.edu/FRRD_kitchen_adjusted.jpg

This particular build is too fragile for play or transport; in a game,
I'd
use one with the frame collapsed, and the upper structure flush with the
ship. I just liked it as proof-of-concept.

Oh, yeah, don't ask for stats; every set I've tried is just
embarassing...

>I also like the modular look, so long as it's done right.  I don't
think a
freighter would look anything like >the Valley Forge from Silent
Running;
too much wasted space.

I always assumed that the Valley Forge could have had more and better
cargo
pods crammed along the backbone.

Space is never wasted; space is big. Really big. So big that... Oops,
never
mind.

However, that's quibbling; manufactured material in the framework IS
wasted.

The_Beast