STARSHIP CONSTRUCTION 101

I've always found the MHS rules to be, well, stupid, and the ones offered in the pair of Dragon magazine articles to be lacking.

Over the years, I've developed a starship construction system loosely based on the construction rules in the Traveller supplement High Guard, where each hull starts out with a total volume, with each component added to that frame subtracting from that total.

HULLS

Starship hulls are rated in size according to the table below:

The number of structure points a starship has is equal to (Hull Size ×100).

Changing Structure Points: Starships can add to or subtract up to 50% from their total Structural Points. Additions or subtractions either add to or take up a percentage of the ship's total volume equal to the percentage added to or removed from the ship's total SP.

EXAMPLE: A fighter with 100 SP elects to subtract 50% of its total structural Points from its frame. The fighter will only have 50 SP, but now has 47.1 cubic meters of total volume to use for additional systems and weaponry,

Hulls cost (HS×50,000) credits to construct at a Spaceship Construction Center. All SCCs are Class I, located in orbit around any world with an H population code.

VOID ENGINES

Starships use Void engines to travel both interplanetary and interstellar distances.

A Void engine consists of two parts:

Antimatter Pion Drive

The antimatter pion drive annhilates matter and antimatter to generate power and thrust.

Hydrogen is continously accelerated iinside the acceleration chamber at relativistic speeds, the acclerator benifiting from superconducting materials to generate anti-hydrogen from hydrogen more cheaply, quickly and efficently than was previously possible.

The hydrogen and anti-hydrogen are then annhilated upon anti-hydrogen creation inside the annhilation chamber, with a combination of thermopiles and gamma-particle collectors- fiber-optic filaments of lead crystal doped with lathanide filaments which convert the gamma particle's energy into usuable electricity-with the resulting pions being directed by the engine's magnetic, containment coils through the exhaust chamber, where they are then expelled to provide thrust.

The Void Field Generator

By the time a ship accelerates to a velocity of 3,000 km/s(1% c or 12,000,000 km/hour), its Void engine has generated enough power to engage its Void field generator.

The generator energizes lathanide thermopiles embedded into the skin of the ship to create a field which warps spacetime around a ship, creating a pocket continuum where the ship's relativistic mass is reduced to and maintained at zero, allowing for travel at light speed and beyond.

When the generator goes online, the ship disappears in a pulse of heat and radiation-harmless in space, but making for a pretty light show-the alternate spacetime created by the Void field being called the Void.

The largest Void engines manufactured generate 12,000,000 SEU of power per second(or terajoules), with 99% of the power generated going to thrust and the creation of the Void field, the remaining one percent going to power the ship's energy weapons and other systems.

Time Dialation And Void Travel

A ship in the Void expiriences time-dialation, roughly fifteen seconds passing in warpdrive for each day in normal space.

All ships in the Void travel at the same rate-one light-year per day, translating to a rate of over 300 times the speed of light.

Hazards Of Void Travel

The Void field still interacts with normal space, meaning that solid objects of sufficient density impacting with the outside or the inside of the Void field interface(including another Void field) can disrupt the Void field and completely destroy the ship.

This allows for the mining of known interstellar routes, the mines in question having proximity fuses which detonate upon detection of the heat and radiation pulse resulting from ships in the Void changing the density of local space-time as their Void fields interact with normal space.

It also means that a starship cannot use its weapons, subspace transceiver or subspace lidar while in the Void, since solid objects or other Void fields striking the inside of the Void field interface will destroy the ship.

VOID ENGINE SIZES AND COSTS

Starships require (HS/5) engines(minimum 1) in order to maintain a stable Void field geometry.

MANEUVER JET

Starships use maneuver jets for atmospheric flight and maneuvering in both atmosphere and normal space. The maneuver jet system is a single plasma jet engine connected to thrust vectrals located throughout the spaceframe.

The maneuver jet system requires 0.5% of the ship's total volume per point of MR, and costs 25,000×(0.5% of ship's total volume per point of MR).

CREW SPACES AND LIFE SUPPORT

Crew Quarters: 5 cubic meters per crew member, which includes corridors, common areas and control spaces as well as actual quarters.

Life Support: Base of 2 cu. meters plus 0.5 cubic meters per crew member, which includes provisions and artifical grav generators, as well as breathable air and climate controls.

Crew Spaces Cost: 300 credits per crewmember.

REQUIRED CREW

Minimum: Equal to Hull Size

Recommended: Equal to (Hull Size+1/battery weapon+1/missile system+marines+1 medic/ 3 crewmembers.

PASSENGER ACCOMODATIONS

Passenger accomodations include life support and artificial grav for the passenger spaces.

COMPUTERS

Computer costs assume 200 function points' worth of programs per computer.

One computer is required for each major ship's system(piloting, astrogation, engines, one for each weapons system, etc.), plus a master computer(or mastercomp) to coordinate the efforts of all the ship's other computers.

All ship's computers are linked together in an optically-wired intranet.

Typical Computer Programs

Mastercomp: Alarm, Lockout, Installation Security, Datalink, Robot Management, most non-specialized computer programs.

Piloting Computer: Piloting, Evasion, Beam Cannon, Targeting

Astrocomp: Astrogation(Interstellar), Astrogation(Interplanetary), Astrophysics, Astronomy, Astrocartography, maps of the Frontier and each of its systems.

Engine Computer: Void Engine, Damage Control, Robot Management

Gunnery Computer(per battery/missile weapon): Battery Weapon, Missile Guidance, Targeting, Vehicles(Remote)

Defensive Computer: Defensive Systems, ECM, Decoy Guidance

Each computer takes up 0.1 cubic meters and costs 200,000 credits.

COMMUNICATION AND DETECTION EQUIPMENT

Subspace Radio: The subspace radio uses Void engine technology to grant a laser beam imaginary relativistic mass, allowing it to exceed the speed of light by a factor of one billion, allowing for instaneous transmission of data and messages between planets, ships in normal space and between star systems no more than 100 light years apart.

The subspace radio comes in a regular size for most starships and a smaller, shorter-range(1 light year maximum range) unit for small craft(Hull Size 1 ships only).

A subspace radio unit takes up 3 cubic meters of space(0.01 cubic meters for the small-craft unit). Both units cost 20,000 credits.

Holoprojectors: Holographic projectors for use with workstations(see below). A single holoprojector takes up 0.5 cubic meters of space and costs 100 credits.

Workstation: A computer workstation is a terminal allowing access to the ship's intranet. It also serves as an intercom unit, using built-in speakers to relay voice transmissions.

A workstation takes up 0.05 cubic meters of space, and costs 100 credits.

Subspace Radar: A subspace radar unit is a lidar system boosted to FTL speeds using Void engine technology. Detection of any object is instaneous out to a range of 10 light years(20 AU for the small-craft unit, see below).

Like the subspace radio, a subspace radar unit comes in two sizes, one for most starships, and a smaller one for small craft

A subspace radar unit takes up 5 cubic meters of space(0.05 for the small-craft unit). Both units cost 10,000 credits.

Energy Sensors: A series of passive sensors designed to pick up emissions in the electromagnetic spectrum, from long-wave radio to cosmic rays. Regular energy sensors can pick up EM radiation(including heat and radiation pulse accompanying the interface of a Void field with normal spacetime) out to a range of 300,000 kilometers, while small-craft energy sensors are restricted to a maximum range of 15,000 kilometers.

Standard energy sensors take up 20 cu. meters of space, while small craft energy sensors take up 0.05 cu. meters of space. Both units cost 200,000 credits.

Camera System: A series of small image-intensifying cameras able to see in nearly every part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

A set of 350 cameras, built into the ship's spaceframe, is sufficent to cover the needs of most starships, and takes up 7 cubic meters of space, while a pair of such cameras suffice to provide a fighter with a 360-degree view of the space around it, taking up a total of 0.01 cubic meters of space. Camera systems, regardless of size, cost 15,000 credits, most of which is installation and calibration cost, rather than the cost of the actual cameras themselves.

Skin Sensors: Embedded into a starship's spaceframe, skin sensors act as proximity warning devices, alerting the crew to craft at point-blank ranges, as well as to hull breaches and probable intrusion attempts.

A standard set of skin sensors includes (HS×200) sensors and takes up (HS×10) cubic meters of space, while a fightercraft is equipped with a single skin sensor, taking up 0.05 cubic meters of space. A set or a single sensors costs the same: 1,000 credits times the ship's hull size, most of this figure being, again, installation and calibration costs rather than the actual component cost.

ECM: A standard suite of electronic countermeasures include a radar window generator and a white-noise broadcaster, amongst other systems designed to suppress electromagnetic emissions and confound enemy sensors.

An ECM suite takes up 50 cubic meters of space and costs 80,000 credits.

Decoys: A series of small missiles with smaller-scale ECM suites designed to fool enemy sensors into believing they are the ship which launched them.

Each decoy takes up 4 cubic meters of space and costs 10,000 credits.

EMERGENCY EQUIPMENT

Escape Pod: Referred to by spacers as "creet buckets," escape pods are single-person escape craft, with enough life support for a tenday, an emergency subspace radio. and a small plasma jet system with enough fuel to thrust at ADF 1 for ten hours.

An escape pod takes up 16 cubic meters of space and costs 30,000 credits.

Lifeboat: A lifeboat holds up to ten people, with enough life support for 40 days, an emergency subspace radio, and plasma jets with enough fuel to thrust at ADF 1 for sixty hours.

A lifeboat takes up 80 cubic meters and costs 100,000 credits.

WEAPONS

Weapon descriptions can be found in the section under combat, above.

Their cost and space requirements are listed below:

Laser Weapons

Missiles: Ordinance bays in the bellies of starships house missiles, torpedos and drones(hereafter referred to as missiles); upon launch, the bay doors open, and the desired number of missiles are dropped from the bay into space, where their own engines engage to propel them forward.

The volume and cost of the bay(s) is 50% of the total volume of the missiles being stored there.

EXAMPLE: A ship is being built to hold 20 torpedos. Twenty torpedos cost 400,000 credits and take up 400 cubic meters, and the bay to hold them takes up an additional (400×0.5) 200 cubic meters, costing an additional (400,000×0.5)200,000 credits.

Thus, the bay and the torpedos together take up 600 cubic meters of space and costs 600,000 credits.

SHIP'S VEHICLES

Hangar Space: Ship's vehicles are housed in a hangar bay. The additional cost and space for the hangar bay is equal to 50% of the total cost and volume of the vehicles being stored there.

(In other words, one multiplies the total volume of ship's vehicles by 1.5 to arrive at the total space required for vehicles and the hangar bay, the same going for cost).

Typical Ship's Vehicles

Fighters: Single-person combat starships designed for interception, fleet escort and light anti-ship duties.

Bombers: Small attack starships designed for anti-ship and ground attack duties.

Dropships: Specialized troop transport shuttles holding a company-strength unit, designed both for planetary insertion and boarding.

Shuttles: Generic small utility craft used for passenger and cargo transport.

Launches: Small ship's boats designed for the movement of personnel between ships or between ships and planets.

Launches come in two sizes, a four-person size which generally serves as a captain's gig, and a ten-person size, which serves both as a generic ship's boat and a troop transport for smaller craft.

Sizes and costs are listed below; all reflect the size and cost of the vehicle and the size and cost of the required hangar bay space:

LIST OF SHIP'S VEHICLES

MISCELLANOUS EQUIPMENT

This listing includes both generic starship gear and specalized equipment for various types of craft as mining vessels, research craft and ag ships.

Digger Shuttle: A shuttle equipped for mining asteroids and uninhabitable worlds. It is equipped with a close-range(300 kilometers max.)drilling laser which can bore through solid rock.

If used as a weapon, a digger's drilling laser can do 4,000 points(400D10) of max structural damage, but is restricted to point-blank range(180 meters or less).

A digger has an ADF and MR of 1.

Held in external racks on a mining vessel, a digger shuttle takes up 150 cubic meters of space and costs 108,000 credits.

Ore Processing Lab: A shipboard facility designed to refined mined ores(and atmospheric gasses). Mining ships often have more than one OPL, so as to refine as much raw material on site as possible in a twenty-hour period.

An OPL requires 1,000 cubic meters of space and costs 100,000 credits.

Seeds: A packet of seeds for use by agricultural ships and stations. Each seed packet takes up (HS×10) cubic meters of space and costs 500 credits.

Nutrient Solution: A vat of nutrient solution provides enough nutrient to grow a packet of seeds hydroponically. Each vat of nutrient solution takes up (HS×40) cubic meters and costs 1,000 credits.

Farming Robot: A farming robot provides automated assistance in planting and harvesting crops on an ag ship or station. A farming robot takes up (HS×2) cubic meters of space and costs 3,000 credits per robot.

Solar Collectors: While solar collectors-clusters of fiber-optic filaments-can provide auxiliary power for starships, they are mainly used to gather the sunlight necessary for ag ships/stations to raise their crops.

Each solar collector take up (HS×10) cubic meters of space and costs 4,000 credits.

Probes: A probe is an small robotic missile used by military and research vessels to gather information; it is capable of both atmospheric and space flight, with an ADF and MR of 60.

A probe takes up 25 cubic meters of space and costs 100,000 credits.

Laboratory: Lab facilities analyze information gathered on site by probes and survey teams.

A laboratory requires 60 cubic meters of space and costs 100,000 credits.

Cargo Arm: A robotic arm used for loading and handling cargo; any starship with cargo capacity requires at least one cargo arm.

Each cargo arm takes up 20 cubic meters of space and costs 25,000 credits.

CARGO BAY

Any space left over can be used for the ship's cargo bay.