 April 18, 2013 - 6:30pm | Hello all, I'm trying to work out costs for some standard ships, civilian, mercenary, military etc. I'm wondering if any of you all have got some costs you go with, that haven't already been published in the SFman or Frontier Explorer. These are ones I found in the quick reference in SFman #16. East Indiaman - 1,570,000 Explorer Class Hvy Scout - 2,007,600 Jump Tug - 3,621,000 Anyone else have costs they may have worked out for their setting? |
 April 21, 2013 - 2:11pm | On the station hulls, the short answer is yes. For a HS 3 station, use the cost of a HS 30 ship, and scale up from there. That should work within the system. Of course this completely ignores the fact that HS 20 hull is 15.625 times the volume of a HS 10 hull but only costs twice as much. The hull cost should scale more proportionately with the volume but that's the way they set up the system. On other buildings, I think for a heavy duty, sealed building with life support, using the cost of space craft hulls would be a good first approximation. You still have the issue of the geometric volume increase for linear cost increase issue but at least it would be consistent. e.g. a HS 1 ship has slightly less volume than my home office (which granted is large, but still) where as a HS 2 ship is five times bigger than my entire house and only costs twice as much :). You could also just establish a standard of something like 100 cr per square meter to build it. So a "shack" of 400 square feet (roughly 40 sqare meters, the actual conversion is 1 sq m = 10.7639 sq ft.), the size of a small apartment, would cost 4000 cr. Set the rental rate at 1/20th the build cost per month and call it good. Add modifiers for stronger walls, mulitple stories, etc and you're off and running. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
 April 21, 2013 - 3:41pm | The station will need all sorts of other bits too: life support for a couple thousand, multiple generators, communications and sensors, etc... |
April 21, 2013 - 4:20pm | The station will need all sorts of other bits too: life support for a couple thousand, multiple generators, communications and sensors, etc...
For sure. I was thinking an atomic reactor - maybe along the lines of a single atomic A engine as a powerplant? |
April 22, 2013 - 4:04pm | Going by what has been penned in canon, Dramune Run is about as close as I can get to for this. The Gullwind had a bank of parabatteries that provided power for a few days, and it was "instantly" recharged any time the atomic drives were powered up. So it stands to reason that any orbital station would have something similar but at a larger scale. Defenses would probably have to be priced according to Terl's formula, cost times 10HS per station size. Hence that 1500Cr reflective hull on an assault scout would be 15K on a size3 station. The computer would be huge, a lot of lv-6 programs would be needed (after all AD lists a lot of lv-6 programs that would be used to run a city, and a space station is effectively a space city). |
 October 27, 2013 - 2:37am | Hopefully, this idea may settle this out on prices and dimensions of ships to stations, look into the front of the campaign Book Expansion Rules on page 7 and page 20, particularly the Ag ships and Ag stations, price for seeds and Nutrient Solution being ship hull size times 5 for ships and then times 10 on top of that for Ag space stations. Hopefully this helps this out on pricing and sizing of space stations to space ships. I use it to just keep things all balanced and something to go by in the books reducing the amount of issues with players on the subject because it is right there in the book black and white for the game itself. |
 October 27, 2013 - 9:17am | LOL, for the Hull Point - Military vs Civilian, just use armor. That is what I do. It was in a previous magazine. Only Militia and UPF can get it (Light - 6 HPxHS), (Medium- 7 HPxHS), (Heavy- 8 HPxHS). A HS 5 frieghter has 25 HP /Hull Points/. A Frigate has Heavy Armor and has 40 HP. Problem solved. Construction Cost Modification Table by Species - LOVED IT! As for costs of things...The ships, it is a mater of economics. How high is inflation. In my game, characters can make 100 or 300 credits per day but, they have an apartment and food, etc; to pay for. So they only have about 50 - 30% savings. Best case saving 3,000 cr a month is not a lot when compared to that shuttle you want to buy - HS: 1. 400,000 cr. So if you pay them more - yes raise the costs. IF you do not, keep the regular cost. If you make 40,000 a year in savings, that East Indiaman frieghter is going to be expensive - better pool the team's money together and go to the bank for a loan... "Second the cost of the starships is ridiculously low when compared to other items. ..." That depends on your view. You listed a fighter - a system ship. They will be cheaper than an Assault Scout at 1.2 million cr. If you need costs of living expenses, try Frontier Explorer, Issue #6, page 38 to 39. |
October 27, 2013 - 11:19am | I am not sure what you talking about at the moment but I will figure it out. I thought the discussion was on how many hull sizes were space stations compared to space ships for the cost of some defenses and other equipment. As for costs of living, I have it already into tables and scaled to fit the jobs and class of living the player wants their character to live in with it being adjustable for many aspects that can come into play with it being simplified down to 3 tables and 2 scales. I have most of the stuff you guys have hashed out done many decades ago. I just do not get in here soon enough to add my 2 cents. |
October 27, 2013 - 1:50pm | LOL, Hi Gilbert. OnceFarOff was asking about prices of ships. The conversaton then went to civilian vs military hulls and point - because that involves cost too. I was just saying, no point re-inventing the wheel if there is something already in place. :) |
 October 27, 2013 - 2:53pm | I have most of the stuff you guys have hashed out done many decades ago. I just do not get in here soon enough to add my 2 cents. Hey your never too late around here. We are always welcoming to new material that we have previously hashed. In that way we are all dralasites and enjoy the debate. I find new angles on old thought and take them all in. -iggy |
