On 31May2022 1329, Richard Aiken - raikenclw at gmail.com (via tml list)
wrote:
> Not in this case, I think. You are assuming that OTU ship costs are as
> cheap as possible for the stated functionality, that there is
> therefore room for them to increase and still remain"reasonable." On
> the other hand, I see them as far more expensive than need be, if one
> is willing to accept a less-than-clinically-paranoid mindset regarding
> risks.

For what it's worth, I reverse engineered a Free Trader in TNE/FF&S
(because it's what I'm most familiar with, and gives finer detail than
Book 2), so see where all the money went.

The majority went into drives and power plant (about 70% of the cost).
The other main cost was the electronics (specifically the computers and
the active sensor, even though it's cruddy). Changing from HEPlaR to
Thrusters made the price even higher (FF&S thrusters are *expensive*),
but doubled the cargo bay making the cost per ton of cargo space about
the same. Everything else (hull, controls, life support, comms, fuel
purifiers, etc.) come to about MCr5.

This tells us that making the ship more cheaply and skipping safety
features won't actually save much money  - you're skimping and cutting
corners on the parts that are already cheap.

For example, making the hull out of mild steel instead of crystaliron
only saves about Cr20,000.

Mind you, a modern container ship prices suggest a 2,000 DTon J-1, M-1
Traveller cargo ship would need to cost about MCr5 to be the same
equivalent price - but then a container ship doesn't need life support
and doesn't need to be able to survive flight and entry. A free trader
should cost rather more than 10% of this (because scaling costs
generally favour larger vessels), so maybe MCr 10 - the price you get if
you drop the cost of engines, powerplants, computers, and sensors by a
factor of ten.

If we look at aircraft, a fairly cheap cargo plane for capacity is the
747-400F, which runs about about $30 million for 140 tons capacity. A
free trader at this price/cargo ratio would cost (allowing for
conversion of tons mass to displacement tons) about $300 million. For a
TL-10+ buyer looking for a starship the equivalent in buying power would
be more like MCr 500.

Compared to aircraft Traveller's base prices look very reasonable (but
then the spaceships live an easier and less weight-conscious existence).

Dropping prices under the 'a few megacredits for a new ship' range
starts making them cheaper than cars and light watercraft, which seems a
bit cheap to me.

--
Rupert Boleyn <xxxxxx@gmail.com>