 May 3, 2009 - 11:23am | Influenced by the KH:Vector design spreadsheet, but following more canon rules and simpler, yet another starship design spreadsheet. Does use elements from Kveldulf 's ExpandedShip Design (for engine efficiency / ADF calculations),KH:INT (Rob), and Shadow Shacks house rules for additional systems. Does provide for the design of Military, Paramilitary, and Civilian ships, with most of the details of the expanded rules, from weapons to computer. Includes an example of the Assault Scout and Destroyer. All of the system data is in a separate (included) spreadsheet for reference / modification / use in different ways. Implemented in OpenOffice 3 (I'm on a Mac), so cross-platform. Let me know what you think. (And I still think the design of stuff like this is evil; I need to learn a simple, cheap, cross-platform database development platform, but that's more initial work....) Edit: made link clickable. |
May 3, 2009 - 11:31am |
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May 3, 2009 - 12:33pm |
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May 3, 2009 - 11:35am | Any recommendations on ADF generation for military ships appreciated.... Came out fine for Assault Scout, Destroyer slower than Canon.... Frigate even more so.... Why the sheet includes an override option (not used for the above.) |
 May 3, 2009 - 12:18pm | IMO, simple formula's are better than complex ones that tend towards realism. Also, if you ship posting could you put each item on a seperate line? For example; Berths: Cabin:Crew(2) Dbl Cabin:Crew(2) Quad Cabin:Crew(8) Storage Class(8) oh... and Welcome Back!  |
May 3, 2009 - 12:43pm | Just posted 0.8.1: Increased efficiency of Size B Military engines. Removed 1 Universal Air Doc from Frigate. Now ADF correct for Frigate & Destroyer. Added sheet for Frigate. Minor change to design spreadsheet for ADF calculations. Simplicity: aye, simplicity is good. I was trying to get something relatively close to canon. Don't always go together.... ;-) And, um, German heritage: it's in the contract that we over-engineer.... FWIW, for the 'Basic' stuff we had discuss a long time ago, if one excludes computer or non-military equipment, one can actually do something with thrust, space, mass in a way that is simpler than this.... As for putting things on an individual line, um, I need to figure out how to embed newline characters..... Column U, row 32+ is where there are the lovely Spreadsheet formulas to concatenate the strings to create the list for the summary information. Just need to put in CRLF equivalent (although then less readable within the form, but probably looks better when pasted... |
May 3, 2009 - 12:32pm | PS I've been lurking -- got sick of design spreadsheets, esp on my old computer. Faster computer now, and less burnout..... |
May 3, 2009 - 5:31pm | IMO, simple formula's are better than complex ones that tend towards realism. Also, if you ship posting could you put each item on a seperate line? For example; Berths: Cabin:Crew(2) Dbl Cabin:Crew(2) Quad Cabin:Crew(8) Storage Class(8) oh... and Welcome Back! Appears to be a current limitation in OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=35913) And I wondering on the thoughts of others, as seems like most ship listings don't put items on their own line: gets long... |
May 3, 2009 - 7:24pm | Creator's Discretion. :-) Here is a robot stat block, our creatures, ships and vehicles will have similar type of blocks. (Items on separate lines). I believe Bill knows a way to export the robots we make to a stat block. :-0 http://dorkswithdice.com/frontierspace/files/FS_samples/SampleRobots.jpg Also, besides your spreadsheet do you have a step by step process someone could follow to create a KH ship? |
May 3, 2009 - 10:25pm | I've tried to keep this one close to canon, so I follow the basic steps as laid out in the Knight Hawks rules, as well as the Knight Hawks Quick Reference Booklet. I don't know if you've heard of the Star Frontiersman, but they have them at http://starfrontiersman.com/downloads/remastered.... ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) I did put an outline in the Ship_Design.ods spreadsheet on the 'Design Steps' tab. I do need to make a pass at updating it to reflect the current version of the spreadsheet and have more details on the formula's used.... Or is that not what you are asking, as I think you know that, and I'm being dense as to what is being asked.... I think I need to think about and request a poll on ship design for what folks are interested in.... * As close to canon as possible (I think I'm relatively close, primarily 'changing' things that don't exist, such as rules for military & paramilitary ships) * Something close to 'Frontiers of Design' using just space M^3 * Space & Power only (something else I mocked up a while back for 'Basic Boargame' rules, although did add a bunch of weapons. For me, 'basic' == ignore computer or other non military parts of ships.) * Something combining M^3, Power, Thrust, Mass (like KH:V) |
May 3, 2009 - 10:56pm | What I think are the key diffs from canon: * MHS tries to accommodate creating military & paramilitary craft. Canon (pg. 45 in Remastered Knighthawks PDF): 1. Sum of MHS (Weapons & Defenses) 2. 1/2 Hull size 3. Step 1 divided by step 2 4. Step 3 - 1 Total of #4 is what is removed from ADF/MR (guess can include as much non-military stuff as you like on that HS:1 ship... Or is it in an eratta or mentioned elsewhere in the rules?) In this sheet: 1. Sum of MHS (Weapons & Defenses + 1/2 other items MHS) 2. 1/2 Hull size 3. Step 1 divided by Step 2 4. Step 3 - the Efficiency rating of the ship Civilian ships have an efficiency of 1 (so, technically, they can cary less than canon.... Hmm, I didn't pay attention to that, so, um, may need to address....) Instead of a fixed efficiency based on canon ships, as was done by Kveldulf (in 'Expanded Starship Design by Kveldulf from http://www.majestic-worlds.com/fnn/publications/FNN-AC-1/additional-rules.html, I did it by engine, having civilian, paramilitary, and military engines, each with different efficiency ratings. Civilian engines give a flat efficiency of 1 Paramilitary & military engines based on size: Paramilitary A: 1 Paramilitary B: 3 Paramilitary C: 5 Military A: 4 (plus a simple multiplier for # engines) Military B: 11 (plus a simple multiplier for # engines) Military C: 10 (Trying to match canon is a bear...) And they, of course, increase costs, +50% for paramility, +100% for military engines.... 2) Which leads to the second difference -- can't mount military engines on a civilian hull; would tear it apart (ignore the science, go with it.) Basically, if one decides to build a military ship, the hull & engine all cost more. Paramilitary costs more as well. 3) Ship Hullpoints are based on hull reinforcement, ranging from stripped (few HP) to Super Heavy |
