04-26-2018, 08:34 PM | #11 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Binghamton, NY, USA. Near the river Styx in the 5th Circle.
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Re: [Spaceships] Paying more for better system?
Another way to get varying levels of system performance is to use the rules for Smaller SM Systems from Spaceships 7 and just install some partial systems. Many systems do have a better performing version; Force Screens have Light & Heavy; FTL Drives have Super FTL Drives; Reactionless Drives have Standard, Hot, Super, and Subwarp. Other systems have non-linear upgrade options; rather than having a "better performing" system you simply switch to a better performing system of a similar type. You might go from a Fission Reactor to a Fusion Reactor to an Antimatter Reactor. Or from a Chemical Rocket to a HEDM Rocket. Or from a Fission Nuclear Thermal Rocket to a Fusion Rocket.
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Eric B. Smith GURPS Data File Coordinator GURPSLand I shall pull the pin from this healing grenade and... Kaboom-baya. |
04-26-2018, 08:55 PM | #12 |
Join Date: Jan 2015
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Re: [Spaceships] Paying more for better system?
Thanks you all for the replies, I'm a little short on time today but tomorrow I'll have more time to read and consider all these suggestions more carefully to give a proper feedback.
Skimming through it, I particularly like ericbsmith's idea, using standard reactionless drive while cruising to avoid being detected by hostiles and switching to hot when the fight starts seems to be a great advantage. I wanted the 4th book for the fighters and mechas but apparently I should get 7 next. I wish SJGames sold their lines in bundles with discount. |
04-27-2018, 12:02 AM | #13 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Binghamton, NY, USA. Near the river Styx in the 5th Circle.
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Re: [Spaceships] Paying more for better system?
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).
Spaceships 7 is definitely the best expansion of ship systems, although probably half of them are "weird" tech that you're not likely to use unless you're doing a "weird" tech game - orgone and mana engines, Skystone for airships, that kind of stuff. The other half is still outlier tech, but more generally useful to Sci-Fi; it also repeats the rule for Smaller SM Systems from Spaceships 4, which is one of the most useful rules expansions given the diversity it adds to creating spaceships. Two other resources to consider are Pyramid #3/34 and Pyramid #3/40. #3/34 includes a rules expansion for realistic ground vehicles - Wheels & Tracks, Screw Propellers, Gasoline Turbines, etc. Pyramid #3/40 includes an expansion for Mecha & Robots which greatly enhances the rules from Spaceships 4. If you plan on making Mecha a central part of your game then it's well worth picking up. Pyramid #3/64 also includes a few other expansions for Age of Sail/Steam Tech.
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Eric B. Smith GURPS Data File Coordinator GURPSLand I shall pull the pin from this healing grenade and... Kaboom-baya. |
04-27-2018, 07:35 AM | #14 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Austin, TX
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Re: [Spaceships] Paying more for better system?
I'm coming a little late to the discussion, but
As a general rule, a Fine component has +4 CF and 20% better performance than a standard component. A Very Fine component has +19 CF and 40% better performance than a standard component. A Cheap component has -0.2 CF and has 75% of the performance of a standard component. If a ship has multiple components of the same quality, sum up their performance modifier before rounding down. So a SM+7 streamlined ship at TL9 with 3 front armor locations could do: * TL8 metallic laminate for $900K and dDR 15 * TL9 cheap advanced metallic laminate for $1440K and dDR 16 * TL9 advanced metallic laminate for $1800K and dDR 21 * TL9 fine advanced metallic laminate for $9000K and dDR 25 * TL9 very fine advanced metallic laminate for $36000K and dDR 29 Cargo holds, control rooms, defensive ECM, engine rooms, external clamps, open spaces, Some components should have special rules: * Control rooms can have Fast, Genius, High-Capacity, or Slow computers, as per Ultra-tech p 23. As the computers are only part of the control room, the relevant CFs are +4, +124, +0.1, and -0.2, respectively. * Sensor Arrays can be Fine (Sensitive) or Fine (Long-Ranged). Sensitive arrays add +1, or +2 for Very Fine, to skill rolls to use the Sensor, while Long-Ranged arrays increase their Active Sensor Range by +1 or +2 for Very Fine. * Fine ramscoops begin operation at 1600 mps, and Very Fine ramscoops being operation at 1450 mps. * Reaction engines can be either Fine (Accel) for a 20% improvement in acceleration or Fine (Efficient) for a 20% improvement in delta-V. Same for Very Fine and Cheap, but 40% improvement and -25% decrease, respectively. An engine can be Fine or Very Fine in one category or and Cheap in the other. * Soft landing systems add their quality bonus to Piloting checks during at Atmospheric Landings (Spaceships p 40). * Stealth Hull systems subtract their quality bonus from opposing checks to detect the sip. * Weapon systems can be: ** Fine (Accuracy) at +4 CF and +1 sAcc, or Cheap (Accuracy) for -0.2 CF and -1 sAcc. ** Fine (Power) or Very Fine (Power) at +4 or +19 CF for +1 damage per 2 dice or +1 damage per die, respectively, or Cheap (Power) at -0.2 CF and -1 damage per 2 dice. Fine and Very Fine powered weapons also require 1.2 and 1.4 PPs, respectively. ** Medium, secondary, and tertiary batteries can by Very Fine (Compact) for +19 CF which lets them mount an additional +40% guns per battery. ** Secondary and tertiary batteries can be Fine (Compact) for +4 CF, which lets them mount an additional +20% guns per battery. Any system that can be partially uninstalled for cargo space (habitats, weapon batteries, etc) should adjust the Uninstalled value by the opposite of the quality bonus: installing a single weapon system in a Very Fine (Compact) Tertiary Battery should not allow a ship to carry more cargo in that space than a cargo space could carry. Putting this all together on the Star Flower (Spaceships 1 pp 6-7) as a customized variant with maximum performance: Front Hull 1 Very fine diamondoid armor (dDR 24) $200M 2-5 Cargo holds (200 tons capacity) $0 6 Very Fine (Sensitive) tactical array $200M [core] Control room with fast computer (C10): $10M Central Hull 1 Very fine diamondoid armor (dDR 24) $200M 2, 3 Very Fine Habitats (17 cabins total capacity) $40M 4, 5 Cargo holds (200 tons capacity) $0 6! Very Fine (Power), Very Fine (Compact), Fine (Accurate) Medium battery (2 100 MJ Improved UV Lasers, 1 100 MJ anti-particle cannon and 1 10 MJ VRF improved UV laser) $264M Rear Hull 1 Very fine diamondoid armor (dDR 24) $200M 2, 3! Very Fine hot reactionless drive (4.8 G accel) $120M 4, 5! Very Fine stardrive (FTL-2.4) $400M 6 Engine room $300K [core] Very Fine fusion reactor $200M Final price $1634.3M, nearly 37x as much as a stock Star Flower. Compared to the stock Star Flower, it has 2.4x the acceleration in vacuum, 1.5x the velocity in air, and 3x as much armor. Where the stock Star Flower has a dinky 10 MJ laser with sAcc 0, Range S/L, RoF 1, and 4d dDmg, this version sports twin 100 MJ Improved UV lasers with sAcc 1, Range L, RoF 2 and 10d+10 dDmg, a 100 MJ anti-particle cannon with sAcc -2, Range S, RoF 1, and 10d+10 dDmg, and a 10 MJ Improved UV laser with sAcc 1, Range S/L, RoF 200, and 4d+4 dDmg. Of course, that's taking the proposed system to extremes. But having a Dark Horse free trader (Spaceships 3, p 7) with Fine Super Reactionless engines would give the PCs a vehicle that's just a little better than the competition without completely breaking the bank.
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Read my GURPS blog: http://noschoolgrognard.blogspot.com Last edited by mlangsdorf; 04-27-2018 at 11:07 PM. |
04-27-2018, 07:52 AM | #15 | ||
Join Date: Oct 2008
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Re: [Spaceships] Paying more for better system?
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Also a soft landing system could conceivably give a bonus to landings with it. Ramscoops(if you allow them to work), could have difference in how low velocity they can start working based on quality. |
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04-27-2018, 09:24 AM | #16 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Austin, TX
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Re: [Spaceships] Paying more for better system?
Sorry, weby, you did propose the same idea and I missed it.
Edited the post to include your suggestions.
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04-27-2018, 06:13 PM | #17 | ||||||
Join Date: Jan 2015
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Re: [Spaceships] Paying more for better system?
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Does Pyramid #34 contains strong armors for SM+4 ground vehicles? Like better steel armor that allows it to match the DR of MBTs? Quote:
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? |
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04-27-2018, 06:34 PM | #18 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Binghamton, NY, USA. Near the river Styx in the 5th Circle.
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Re: [Spaceships] Paying more for better system?
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Note that an M1 Abrams weighs in excess of 60 tons, which puts it between SM+5 and SM+6 in the Spaceships rules (right around SM+5.5 if you use my optional rules in the Design Spreadsheet). Even the Sherman Tanks were in excess of 30 Tons, which pegs them at solidly SM+5 by the Spaceships rules. While they might be physically more like SM+4 by their length, Spaceships uses an abstract of mass to determine a vehicles SM. All gun damage types and damages are listed on the tables on p. 67 and 68 of Spaceships.Damage for all Conventional Guns and Conventional Missile Warheads is the Base Damage and can be multiplied for relative velocity (see p. 61). This is explained in the Combat System.
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Eric B. Smith GURPS Data File Coordinator GURPSLand I shall pull the pin from this healing grenade and... Kaboom-baya. Last edited by ericbsmith; 04-27-2018 at 07:17 PM. |
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04-27-2018, 07:03 PM | #19 | ||
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: [Spaceships] Paying more for better system?
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As for damage type, I don't think Spaceships ever actually states what damage type conventional projectiles deal, but I'm pretty certain it's meant to be crushing.
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GURPS Overhaul Last edited by Varyon; 04-27-2018 at 07:30 PM. |
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04-27-2018, 10:45 PM | #20 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Binghamton, NY, USA. Near the river Styx in the 5th Circle.
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Re: [Spaceships] Paying more for better system?
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