On Fri, Sep 08, 2023 at 10:51:09AM +1200, Traveller Mailing List wrote:
>
>

[ ...snip... ]
> > Book 2 designs. Even then, the Navy has logistics problems. It's
> > going to have a set of cargo hauler and courier designs that would be
> > both vastly more profitable and more capable than their Book 2
> > civilian equivalents. If the Navy ever decides to sell some of these
> > designs as surplus, one can imagine them taking over the market.
>
> Part of the problem here is a tendency to design everything at TL14-15
> when using Book 5, when TL12 is probably a better reflection of the sort of
> capability most Book 2 ships would have. That said, a fair number of Book 2
> ships don't work if you don't do this (while others end up hilariously more
> capable). And this then led to MegaTraveller, where if you didn't design
> many ships at TL15 they just didn't work, and even TL15 ships that Book2 or
> Book 5 could comfortably design ended up insanely tight.
>

I would generally agree here but for one thing. Book 5 power plants
and manuever drives are much more volume efficient than their Book 2
equivalents in both the ship's volume taken up by the drive, and
especially the volume taken up by their fuel. All that fuel volume
turns into room for cargo. IIRC this effect is so great that an 100
dTon ship designed to Type S specifications might beat a Far Trader at
the business of being a cargo hauler.

I just think that if you can convert a Type S into a asteroid "Seeker",
then you certainly should be able to convert it's manuever drive and
power plants leaving a much larger cargo hold. I'll have to work out
the cost on that.

--
Chris

      __o          "All I was trying to do was get home from work."
    _`\<,_           -Rosa Parks
___(*)/_(*)____.___o____..___..o...________ooO..._____________________
Christopher Sean Hilton                    [chris/at/vindaloo/dot/com]