I have a thought for a possible alternative TU:

We state that it takes a fair whack of energy to open a rift in spacetime to allow you to hop to another spacetime (Jump space).

We also state that the energy equation sees the energy increase with the surface area of the rift (so a squaring of energy requirements, perhaps with a characteristic of a minimum investment to get any size open). You could toy with the specifics, to get the math you like.

You could consider using standard Traveller efficiencies and then set the jump energy required by tonnage to lead to particular limits... maybe your biggest ship is 50,000 dTons... or maybe 5,000 dTons.

Or maybe, interestingly, you tear open a hole *in front of your ship* using a field effect and then you fly into it and something as I described with the power required as a function of the surface area of the rift. This would tend to make ships in this universe that needed to jump use very long cylindrical ships (or needle) such that their widest point was a modest size.

The rationalization is that if it was easy to open large rifts in our spacetime, then cosmic event would case many more of those. As it turns out, scientificators* have discovered that the matrix of all spacetimes has a characteristic that opposes such rifts being created (hence the whack of energy) and it also makes the costs of larger rifts brutal so as to effectively allow a more very small holes than big ones.

In such a setup, ship sizes may be smaller (because the 20 mile long, 10m across cylinder better not go anywhere near any gravity well ever....).

Now if you had the 'basic energy required for any size of hole' set right and had the lesser efficacy of power plants that are small, it would preclude fighters and jump message torps.

This might satisfy the CT players who don't want ships bigger than 5,000 tons or so. 5,000 tons is still huge compared to a 200 ton PC ship. No 500K Dton massive Dreadspheres.

Another side effect of having a frontal surface area that is minimized (so you can pass through smaller jump windows) is that the optimal shape for interior volume (hence a good transport?) is the least optimal in this setting. A long rectangular prism shape might work, but you could establish structural ratio limits to limit maximum tonnage.

Tom

“The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law.” ― Aristotle

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