Re: [GZG] Fighter Pilot Surival (wasRe: Multi-level rules sought)

I haven't seen that. When was it emailed? I did my own calculations,
drawing from the rules as written in MT. It doesn't look like Mr.
Tuffley or his legal department will kill me for posting house rule
suggestions. I'm curious to see if my calcs line up with the ones
already done. :)

1.5 Mass Factor per fighter = 75 CS per fighter (by "fighter" I mean
pilot, fighter and its support equipment)
1 fighter (assume size 4) = 20 CS
Pilot = 4 CS
Assume 1 crewman per fighter (technicians, flight deck operators, etc) =
4 CS
Now let's throw in another 20 CS for consumables, spare parts, ammo
And half a replacement pilot = 2 CS

Total = 50CS, plus 25CS of flight deck.

Sounds quite reasonable to me, since it takes some technical gear to
quickly launch and recover fighters during high-intensity maneuvering.
Size 5 fighters are also possible, and their bays might not actually
be any larger in FT terms (our calculations have plenty of wiggle room
to find 5 more CS).

OK now lets look at shuttlecraft (the ones that come free with any FT
ship). What makes them different? Well for one, they do NOT have to
launch all at once, in combat situations. So we can shave off most of
the launch/recovery gear. I shaved off my calculations.. they're below
if you're interested. The bottom line is this:

Ships in Full Thrust include a complement of utility shuttles, as
listed in MT, p18. The standard utility shuttle is a size 3,
interface-capable vehicle. It mostly carries men and stores, but it
can also fit a small vehicle. It is maintained, supplied and operated
using ships' stores and personnel. Shuttles can only be launched
during a turn when the ship has NOT expended thrust (including turns
and thruster pushes). Only one shuttle may launch per turn. You get
one utility shuttle per damage control party. When a DCP is destroyed,
a shuttle bay is lost as well, with empty bays destroyed before full
ones. Sa'Vasku do not use utility shuttles; while we assume that they
have specialized constructs that fulfill some of the same roles, these
have never been observed, if they exist at all.

(New gear opportunity: what if a race (say, the Kra'vak) used grav
catapults to place their fighters 24 mu ahead of the ship at launch?
It might cost 25 extra CS for the launch gear (and therefore 2 Mass
per fighter instead of 1.5). Similarly, you might not use specialized
launch apparatus at all; a squadron of fighters might only take up 6
Mass on a converted (pirate) freighter. It would take two turns to
launch them, but if you're staging ambushes that might be acceptable.)

***************************************
OK here's how I got to all that if you're interested.

A deluxe shuttle (the tactical interface transport, for example) looks
to be about a class 5 vehicle. There are probably a couple types, but
using DS/SG vehicle rules you could fit 20 people in a shuttle easily
and still have lots of room for secondary systems. That's way bigger
than shuttles in most other fictional sources-- so the generic
standard shuttle will be quite a step down from the TAT. So figure 15
CS (a nice size three shuttle can hold a dozen people and some gear).
Crew and maintenance is probably 8 more CS, plus 5 CS of spare parts.
38 CS, with these generous assumptions-- not that much when you spread
it out over even a small ship.

OK, let's check our math with a back-of-the-envelope calculation.
Shuttles that are assigned as part of drop capability (p15) vary in
their sizes. But take a one mass drop. 8 CS for crew, 12 CS for
consumables, 15 CS for our size 3 shuttle. That leaves 15 CS for
launch/recovery, which is about right when you consider that drop
shuttles CAN be launched or retrieved under combat conditions (and it
fits the 1.5 x mass rule). So the estimate that a 1 mass can move 10
CS to and from the planet is pretty good (it's a little conservative,
actually, but remember that you may be transporting supplies down as
well). This shuttle bay gets more consumables than the standard
because of its more demanding operational tempo. Overall, it all seems
to hang together quite neatly.

On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 7:20 PM, John Brewer <jbrewer@webtv.net> wrote:
> If each squadron has 3 replacement pilots, that's going to affect the
calculated conversion of Dirtside CS to FT Mass.  That's calculated as
16 cs for each fighter,[plus 50% for hanger space] 4 cs for each pilot's
billet, 4 cs for each ground crew's billet, PLUS 4 cs for each
replacement pilot's billet!  So, 9 FT mass is really 12 cs larger than
was previously calculated.
>
>  JBrewer@webtv.net
>
>  "Always strive to be a good person.	If you can't do that, at least
strive to be someone other than an asshole."
>

-- 
Robert Mayberry
(678) 984-5113
Robert.Mayberry@gmail.com

_______________________________________________
Gzg-l mailing list
Gzg-l@vermouth.csua.berkeley.edu
http://vermouth.csua.berkeley.edu:1337/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gzg-l