Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - [Spaceships] Using two smaller ships to simulate a larger ones

Ulzgoroth · 09-09-2015, 11:48 AM

Assuming they're both the same size, it's probably not too hard to deal with. It does complicate things in some strange ways, though. For instance, you could have one of the two sections destroyed or at negative HP while the other is not. And treating it as two ships creates a kind of damage blowthrough cap, and raises questions about targeting of incoming attacks.

I wouldn't recommend it, but I imagine you could do it successfully. I would recommend making the two halves as symmetric as possible...

EDIT: Your note on what to do with delta-V is not right. The delta-V of two equal-mass ships together is not necessarily the average of the delta-V of each separately.

Assuming both ships use the same type of engine (highly recommended), what you should do instead is average the number of tanks of reaction mass between the two, and then calculate the delta-V for that average. This is not the same as what you said, because for high fuel fractions delta-V is not linear in number of tanks of reaction mass.

09-09-2015, 11:48 AM	#2
Ulzgoroth Join Date: Jul 2008	Re: [Spaceships] Using two smaller ships to simulate a larger ones Assuming they're both the same size, it's probably not too hard to deal with. It does complicate things in some strange ways, though. For instance, you could have one of the two sections destroyed or at negative HP while the other is not. And treating it as two ships creates a kind of damage blowthrough cap, and raises questions about targeting of incoming attacks. I wouldn't recommend it, but I imagine you could do it successfully. I would recommend making the two halves as symmetric as possible... EDIT: Your note on what to do with delta-V is not right. The delta-V of two equal-mass ships together is not necessarily the average of the delta-V of each separately. Assuming both ships use the same type of engine (highly recommended), what you should do instead is average the number of tanks of reaction mass between the two, and then calculate the delta-V for that average. This is not the same as what you said, because for high fuel fractions delta-V is not linear in number of tanks of reaction mass. __________________ I don't know any 3e, so there is no chance that I am talking about 3e rules by accident. Last edited by Ulzgoroth; 09-09-2015 at 11:51 AM.