[Sorenant]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

In any case, if you're seriously getting into ship design, I fully recommend the design spreadsheet, http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=62539, which supports heaps of optional rules, both published and those come up with by the spreadsheet designer, ericbsmith.

Great spreadsheet, it's pretty extensive so it may take me a while to get used to it but it definitely seems useful. Among the optional rules, I particularly like semi-abrasive DR. One particular issue I had with this is the lack of option for making ground vehicles with solid armor, the default dDR values are understandable if you consider it's for aerospace application but it's almost like a paper on a tank (HT MBT has dDR 115 on SM+4). This coupled with the fractional DR should make it possible to make TL5+1 diesel-punkish tanks with iron armor and some weird locomotion.

Originally Posted by PTTG

TL8 spacecraft are built on such thin margins that worse equipment than standard is a collossal risk, and better equipment is exceedingly hard to find (at least in space-hardened grades). In essence, an upgrade significant enough to warrant a change in statistics calls for paying full price for an upgrade to TL9. And that's before you consider that most spacecraft are bespoke.

At higher TLs, spaceflight is developed enough that there is some variation in available tech. At TL10, only cutting-edge ships are made exclusively with TL10 components. Many ships use TL9 variants. They might be extremely recent designs, but they have essentially the same performance as they did in the previous tech level.

I must admit I'm not very fun of buying High TL for the sole purpose of getting better parts for a ship. I don't mind paying more for something but High TL kinda implies your character is in general used to higher TL world, technical skills and all. Of couse I could ignore this but that sounds more like a kludge than a solution. A Perk or cheap advantage (2 points) in the line of High TL (Specific gear only) sounds nice, though.

Originally Posted by jacobmuller

I borrowed a bit from 3rd edition Ultra Tech, etc and put Build Quality guidelines in my Spaceships House Rules.
If it saves you time...
Build Quality
Overall build
<snip>

Thanks for this, I'm not sure which one of yours or mark's (below) numbers are fairer but both helps me immensely.

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

Some systems have improvements, some do not.

Take armor, for instance. Suppose you're in TL9 and you're deciding on armor for your ship. What do you choose? Easy, you say, advanced metallic laminate is the only armor available at TL9. Not so! That is just the latest form of armor available; the earlier forms are probably still going to be in use in older or less advanced ships. Consider the Star Flower-class tramp freighter on page 6 of GURPS Spaceships. It's TL11^, but it's got metallic laminate armor, which is TL8. You don't need the most advanced armor for a freighter; you go with something cheaper.

There are a bunch of systems that work this way. No, you can't improve your control room (it's just a room), but you CAN improve the communications and sensor array built into it.

The engine systems often have a list of options at the end of the text that let you improve them. For instance, a nuclear thermal rocket has an option to use water instead of hydrogen as fuel, to produce three times the thrust at a cost of one-third the delta-V.

So not every system has improvements available, but a lot of them do.

Instead of improving the already cutting-edge but "downgrading" the rest of the world is certainly interesting point of view and helpful in realistic settings. Unfortunately it doesn't help with some settings. For example, if you take Sentou Yousei Yukikaze, the world is about early TL9 yet the computer installed in the MC's plane is clealy way above the ones expected for that TL: At TL9 and SM+4 airplane, you get C5 computer while Yukikaze is at very least C7 (equivalent to TL12) but more likely C10 or so (can pilot better than aces, unbelieveable EW capability and intelligence analysis).

Originally Posted by ericbsmith

You might also consider one of several Reaction Engines for when running "hot" - a few of the superscience ones outperform the Standard & Hot Reactionless Drive on thrust, and thus make a great secondary drive for combat or short bursts (such as landing and takeoff).

I still need to get my head around delta-v and acceleration bonus before I move from reactionless drives but thanks for the suggestions. I really wish Pyramid magazines could be bought in bundles...
Does Pyramid #34 contains strong armors for SM+4 ground vehicles? Like better steel armor that allows it to match the DR of MBTs?

Originally Posted by mlangsdorf

I'm coming a little late to the discussion, but in addition to the suggestions already proposed, you could adapt I want to expand on weby's suggestion that you use the existing GURPS equipment quality rules to Spaceships and allow people to buy Fine, Very Fine, or Cheap Spaceship components.
<snip>

I really love this! It doesn't cover some edge cases like the Yukikaze I mentioned above but this is comprehensive enough for most cases. Thanks!

If I may asks another question about Spaceships, what's the damage type of its guns? Also, isn't it slightly weak? Railgun 40mm deals 6dx25 (3) pi damage while 4cm EM gun deals 6dx10 damage. Maybe damage type changes this?