More [Spaceships] of the [Solar Patrol]

Stormcrow · 06-24-2009, 11:11 AM

Although Quadrone's conversion of Tales of the Solar Patrol spaceships for GURPS Spaceships was well considered, I have had the nagging worry that some of the numbers don't work out to the relative power levels of the original. I spent a great deal of time working out a custom Hull Size Table, various custom system tables, and whatever else was necessary to bring the Spaceships system in line with the reality-breaking values in Tales of the Solar Patrol. (I was especially excited when, after calculating the cost of the Audie Murphy–Class Patrol Ship with the custom rules, it came out exactly the same as the original!)

Ultimately, however, cargo space did me in. There was either way too much or way too little. It may seem a small detail, but it made me realize that the whole thing probably wouldn't be better able to capture the feel of the original any more than the standard Spaceships system would. Therefore, I abandoned this tack and decided to try to build ships using as few custom systems as possible.

Here are some of my results. The actual numbers weren't important; the relative effects of those numbers were. The biggest issue was the effectiveness of weapons on a nega-barrier. Tales constantly mentions how only the awesome power of atomic guns are able to penetrate a nega-barrier, but the numbers in the text don't bear that out. If two patrol ships were fighting each other, for instance (say, one is controlled by the Mind Masters of Mars), their atomic guns do 10d×5(4) burn against the nega-barrier's DR of 550. The minimum possible basic damage is 50, the average is 175, and the maximum is 300. A corsair's lasers (8d×5(2) burn) do min 40, ave 140, max 240. Not much difference against a nega-barrier after all (and the armor divisor has no effect against a force screen). At first I tried making atomic guns one output level stronger than lasers, but test battles showed that to be too strong, so I ended up making atomic guns the equal to standard lasers (except for the armor divisor of 4), and making Tales lasers one output level weaker. This seems to bring the right balance of offense versus defense.

Here I present some ships as I have designed them, adhering as closely as possible to the Spaceships rules, while maintaining the playable balance presented in Tales. Please comment on anything that strikes you.

Note: where Tales mentions a “spinal” weapon, it means mounted on the top of the ship, not a spinal battery weapon. Once I figured that out, everything started to fall into place.

Stormcrow · 06-24-2009, 11:12 AM

Audie Murphy–Class Patrol Ship

My priorities here, besides replicating the guns, engine, and power, were to get the right amount of habitat space, to account for the lifeboat, and to get the right kind of cargo. Given the sleek, cylindrical designs of Solar Patrol ships, and that pulp spaceships usually have a pressurized cargo hold in which stowaways can hide, cargo hold systems were inappropriate. Since I also needed a lifeboat, and such things are usually launched from hangar bay systems, I decided that the hangar bay is a very general-purpose kind of hold. I also wanted the sickbay, lab, and some accommodations (especially for VIPs) to be in a protected core system.

This ship has a 1,000-ton (SM+8) streamlined hull and is 50 yards long.

Front Hull
[1–2] Advanced Metallic Laminate Armor (dDR 20).
[3–4!] Major Battery Weapons (two 300 MJ fixed-mount atomic guns*).
[5] Multipurpose Array (level 8).
[6] Control Room (C5 infomat†, comm/sensor 6, four control stations).

Central Hull
[1–2] Advanced Metallic Laminate Armor (dDR 20).
[3!] Major Battery Weapon (300 MJ atomic gun turret).
[4] Hangar Bay (30 tons capacity, holds three one-ton lifeboats‡).
[5] Habitat (briefing room, captain's office, crew lounge, and mess hall).
[6] Habitat (four cabins and ten tons steerage cargo capacity).
[core] Habitat (two-bed sickbay, Science! lab, and two cabins).

Rear Hull
[1–2] Advanced Metallic Laminate Armor (dDR 20).
[3] External Clamp.
[4] Engine Room (one control station and one workspace).
[5!] Electron Drive§ (2G acceleration).
[6!] Nega-Barrier¶ (dDR 100).
[core] Tesla Coil** (five Power Points).

The ship has a gravitic vector (artificial gravity and gravitic compensator) and wings. The crew may include the captain, pilot, astronavigator, and chief tactical officer on the command deck, the chief engineer and a technician on the engineering deck, and a medic on the crew deck. Additional personnel may be assigned for scientific or military missions. The ship may be assigned as few as three crewmen.

Spacecraft Table
PILOTING/TL6+3 (HIGH-PERFORMANCE SPACECRAFT)
TL: 6+3
Spacecraft: Patrol Ship
dST/HP: 70
Hnd/SR: −1/5
HT: 13
Move: 2G/0.1C
LWt.: 1,000
Load: 31.2
SM: +8
Occ: 12ASV
dDR: 20
Cost: $167.5M

* Atomic guns are like standard lasers, except they have an armor divisor of 4.
† There are no computers, only infomats. These use the Electro-Mechanical Computers design switch.
‡ See Life Pods in GURPS Spaceships Designer's Notes.
§ Electron drives are equivalent to TL11 hot reactionless engines.
¶ The nega-barrier is a light, adjustable TL12 force screen.
** The Tesla coil is equivalent to a total conversion power plant.

Stormcrow · 06-24-2009, 11:14 AM

Jovian Sky-Scourer

Priorities here were to make the ship offensive and capable of working in packs; defense was not a priority at all (this is mentioned in Tales). I decided that since the Overlord's ships have atomic guns, they must have Tesla coils (the only technology the Overlord is specifically denied is the electron drive, though he doesn't seem to have nega-barriers either). I still needed another type of engine that would produce 2Gs, however. Since there is mention of “fissionables” in Tales, my guess is that once Tesla coils were discovered, nuclear energy production technology never advanced again, and atomic fission is the main kind. It also seems that Tesla coils aren't used as a permanent, emplaced power source, since the book mentions that the first Belt colony had to convert a Tesla coil until they could get their atomic power running. Therefore, the Overlord's ships will use nuclear saltwater rockets. Plenty of acceleration, and plenty of delta-V for patrolling the Jovian system, but not enough delta-V to cruise confidently around the Inner System. And it's volatile. Exactly what we need.

The ship has a 300-ton (SM+7) streamlined hull and is 60 yards long.

Front Hull
[1] Advanced Metallic Laminate Armor (dDR 7).
[2!] Spinal Battery Weapon (300 MJ atomic gun*).
[3] Multipurpose Comm/Sensor Array (level 7).
[4] Control Room (C4 infomat†, comm/sensor 5, three control stations).
[5] Habitat (two bunkrooms).
[6] Habitat (one cabin and five tons steerage cargo).

Central Hull
[1] Advanced Metallic Laminate Armor (dDR 7).
[2–6] Fuel Tanks (75 tons uranium-enriched saltwater)**.
[core!] Spinal Battery Weapon (central hull).

Rear Hull
[1] Advanced Metallic Laminate Armor (dDR 7).
[2–3] Fuel Tanks (30 tons uranium-enriched saltwater)**.
[4] Nuclear Saltwater rocket (2G acceleration).
[5] Engine Room (one control station, one workspace).
[6!] Spinal Battery Weapon (rear hull).
[core] Tesla Coil‡ (five Power Points).

** The combined rocket fuel provides a total of 21 mps delta-V.

The Sky-Scourer has a gravitic vector (artificial gravity and a gravitic compensator) and wings. The command deck is occupied by the commander, pilot, and astronavigator, a gunner occupies a station at the atomic gun, and an engineer and a tecchnician work in the Engine Room. The ship usually carries relief crewmen for maximum efficiency.

Spacecraft Table
PILOTING/TL6+3 (HIGH-PERFORMANCE SPACECRAFT)
TL: 6+3
Spacecraft: Sky-Scourer
dST/HP: 50
Hnd/SR: −1/5
HT: 13
Move: 2G/0.1c
LWt.: 300
Load: 6
SM: +7
Occ: 10ASV
dDR: 7
Cost: $54.6M

* Atomic guns are like standard lasers, except they have an armor divisor of 4.
† There are no computers, only infomats. These use the Electro-Mechanical Computers design switch.
‡ The Tesla coil is equivalent to a total conversion power plant.

Stormcrow · 06-24-2009, 11:36 AM

By the way, I also took the time to work out the travel table for the Jovian system.

Code:

Moon     Orb. Rad.      Orb. Vel.       Orb. Per.        G      Esc. Vel.
----     ---------      ---------       ---------       ---     ---------
Io       0.0028 AU      10.8 mps        0.0048 yr       0.18    1.59 mps
Callisto 0.013 AU        5.1 mps        0.046  yr       0.13    1.52 mps
Europa   0.0045 AU       8.5 mps        0.0097 yr       0.13    1.26 mps
Ganymede 0.0072 AU       6.8 mps        0.020  yr       0.15    1.70 mps

I converted these statistics from Wikipedia, but I haven't done any reality-checking on them.

Stormcrow · 06-24-2009, 01:43 PM

Corsair

Lightly armed and armored, a typical corsair (there are many possible variations) is intended to frighten unarmed merchantmen, haul cargo, and evade pursuit, not fight the Solar Patrol. The ship has a 1,000-ton (SM+8) streamlined hull and is 50 yards long.

Front Hull
[1] Advanced Metallic Laminate Armor (dDR 10).
[2!] Medium Battery Weapons (two 30 MJ fixed-mount lasers* and 15 tons of cargo capacity).
[3] Control Room (comm/sensor 6, four control stations).
[4–6] Cargo Hold (150 tons capacity).

Central Hull
[1] Advanced Metallic Laminate Armor (dDR 10).
[2] Habitat (six bunkrooms).
[3] Habitat (two cabins, mess hall, ten tons steerage cargo).
[4] Hangar Bay (30 tons capacity, holds three lifeboats†).
[5–6, core] Cargo Hold (150 tons capacity).

Rear Hull
[1] Advanced Metallic Laminate Armor (dDR 10).
[2] External Clamp.
[3–4] Cargo Hold (100 tons capacity).
[5] Engine Room (one control station and one workspace).
[6!] Electron Drive‡ (2G acceleration).
[core] Tesla Coil§ (five Power Points).

A corsair has a gravitic vector (artificial gravity and gravitic compensators) and wings. There are usually at least eight crewmen, including the captain, gunner, pilot, and astronavigator on the bridge, an engineer and the engineer’s mate in the engine room, plus two more men for boarding other ships. There are often quite a lot more of these.

Spacecraft Table
PILOTING/TL6+3 (HIGH-PERFORMANCE SPACECRAFT)
TL: 6+3
Spacecraft: Corsair
dST/HP: 70
Hnd/SR: −1/5
HT: 13
Move: 2G/0.1c
LWt.: 1,000
Load: 457.8
SM: +8
Occ: 28ASV
dDR: 10
Cost: $84.4M

* Lasers in Tales of the Solar Patrol output at one category lower than standard.
† See Life Pods in GURPS Spaceships Designer's Notes.
‡ Electron Drives are equivalent to TL11 hot reactionless engines.
§ Tesla coils are equivalent to total conversion power plants.

06-24-2009, 11:11 AM	#1
Stormcrow Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Ronkonkoma, NY	More [Spaceships] of the [Solar Patrol] Although Quadrone's conversion of Tales of the Solar Patrol spaceships for GURPS Spaceships was well considered, I have had the nagging worry that some of the numbers don't work out to the relative power levels of the original. I spent a great deal of time working out a custom Hull Size Table, various custom system tables, and whatever else was necessary to bring the Spaceships system in line with the reality-breaking values in Tales of the Solar Patrol. (I was especially excited when, after calculating the cost of the Audie Murphy–Class Patrol Ship with the custom rules, it came out exactly the same as the original!) Ultimately, however, cargo space did me in. There was either way too much or way too little. It may seem a small detail, but it made me realize that the whole thing probably wouldn't be better able to capture the feel of the original any more than the standard Spaceships system would. Therefore, I abandoned this tack and decided to try to build ships using as few custom systems as possible. Here are some of my results. The actual numbers weren't important; the relative effects of those numbers were. The biggest issue was the effectiveness of weapons on a nega-barrier. Tales constantly mentions how only the awesome power of atomic guns are able to penetrate a nega-barrier, but the numbers in the text don't bear that out. If two patrol ships were fighting each other, for instance (say, one is controlled by the Mind Masters of Mars), their atomic guns do 10d×5(4) burn against the nega-barrier's DR of 550. The minimum possible basic damage is 50, the average is 175, and the maximum is 300. A corsair's lasers (8d×5(2) burn) do min 40, ave 140, max 240. Not much difference against a nega-barrier after all (and the armor divisor has no effect against a force screen). At first I tried making atomic guns one output level stronger than lasers, but test battles showed that to be too strong, so I ended up making atomic guns the equal to standard lasers (except for the armor divisor of 4), and making Tales lasers one output level weaker. This seems to bring the right balance of offense versus defense. Here I present some ships as I have designed them, adhering as closely as possible to the Spaceships rules, while maintaining the playable balance presented in Tales. Please comment on anything that strikes you. Note: where Tales mentions a “spinal” weapon, it means mounted on the top of the ship, not a spinal battery weapon. Once I figured that out, everything started to fall into place. Last edited by Stormcrow; 06-24-2009 at 11:24 AM.

06-24-2009, 11:12 AM	#2
Stormcrow Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Ronkonkoma, NY	Audie Murphy–Class Patrol Ship Audie Murphy–Class Patrol Ship My priorities here, besides replicating the guns, engine, and power, were to get the right amount of habitat space, to account for the lifeboat, and to get the right kind of cargo. Given the sleek, cylindrical designs of Solar Patrol ships, and that pulp spaceships usually have a pressurized cargo hold in which stowaways can hide, cargo hold systems were inappropriate. Since I also needed a lifeboat, and such things are usually launched from hangar bay systems, I decided that the hangar bay is a very general-purpose kind of hold. I also wanted the sickbay, lab, and some accommodations (especially for VIPs) to be in a protected core system. This ship has a 1,000-ton (SM+8) streamlined hull and is 50 yards long. Front Hull [1–2] Advanced Metallic Laminate Armor (dDR 20). [3–4!] Major Battery Weapons (two 300 MJ fixed-mount atomic guns). [5] Multipurpose Array (level 8). [6] Control Room (C5 infomat†, comm/sensor 6, four control stations). Central Hull* [1–2] Advanced Metallic Laminate Armor (dDR 20). [3!] Major Battery Weapon (300 MJ atomic gun turret). [4] Hangar Bay (30 tons capacity, holds three one-ton lifeboats‡). [5] Habitat (briefing room, captain's office, crew lounge, and mess hall). [6] Habitat (four cabins and ten tons steerage cargo capacity). [core] Habitat (two-bed sickbay, Science! lab, and two cabins). Rear Hull [1–2] Advanced Metallic Laminate Armor (dDR 20). [3] External Clamp. [4] Engine Room (one control station and one workspace). [5!] Electron Drive§ (2G acceleration). [6!] Nega-Barrier¶ (dDR 100). [core] Tesla Coil (five Power Points). The ship has a gravitic vector (artificial gravity and gravitic compensator) and wings. The crew may include the captain, pilot, astronavigator, and chief tactical officer on the command deck, the chief engineer and a technician on the engineering deck, and a medic on the crew deck. Additional personnel may be assigned for scientific or military missions. The ship may be assigned as few as three crewmen. Spacecraft Table PILOTING/TL6+3 (HIGH-PERFORMANCE SPACECRAFT)** TL: 6+3 Spacecraft: Patrol Ship dST/HP: 70 Hnd/SR: −1/5 HT: 13 Move: 2G/0.1C LWt.: 1,000 Load: 31.2 SM: +8 Occ: 12ASV dDR: 20 Cost: $167.5M * Atomic guns are like standard lasers, except they have an armor divisor of 4. † There are no computers, only infomats. These use the Electro-Mechanical Computers design switch. ‡ See Life Pods in GURPS Spaceships Designer's Notes. § Electron drives are equivalent to TL11 hot reactionless engines. ¶ The nega-barrier is a light, adjustable TL12 force screen. ** The Tesla coil is equivalent to a total conversion power plant. Last edited by Stormcrow; 06-24-2009 at 01:43 PM.

06-24-2009, 11:14 AM	#3
Stormcrow Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Ronkonkoma, NY	Jovian Sky-Scourer Jovian Sky-Scourer Priorities here were to make the ship offensive and capable of working in packs; defense was not a priority at all (this is mentioned in Tales). I decided that since the Overlord's ships have atomic guns, they must have Tesla coils (the only technology the Overlord is specifically denied is the electron drive, though he doesn't seem to have nega-barriers either). I still needed another type of engine that would produce 2Gs, however. Since there is mention of “fissionables” in Tales, my guess is that once Tesla coils were discovered, nuclear energy production technology never advanced again, and atomic fission is the main kind. It also seems that Tesla coils aren't used as a permanent, emplaced power source, since the book mentions that the first Belt colony had to convert a Tesla coil until they could get their atomic power running. Therefore, the Overlord's ships will use nuclear saltwater rockets. Plenty of acceleration, and plenty of delta-V for patrolling the Jovian system, but not enough delta-V to cruise confidently around the Inner System. And it's volatile. Exactly what we need. The ship has a 300-ton (SM+7) streamlined hull and is 60 yards long. Front Hull [1] Advanced Metallic Laminate Armor (dDR 7). [2!] Spinal Battery Weapon (300 MJ atomic gun). [3] Multipurpose Comm/Sensor Array (level 7). [4] Control Room (C4 infomat†, comm/sensor 5, three control stations). [5] Habitat (two bunkrooms). [6] Habitat (one cabin and five tons steerage cargo). Central Hull* [1] Advanced Metallic Laminate Armor (dDR 7). [2–6] Fuel Tanks (75 tons uranium-enriched saltwater). [core!] Spinal Battery Weapon (central hull). Rear Hull [1] Advanced Metallic Laminate Armor (dDR 7). [2–3] Fuel Tanks (30 tons uranium-enriched saltwater). [4] Nuclear Saltwater rocket (2G acceleration). [5] Engine Room (one control station, one workspace). [6!] Spinal Battery Weapon (rear hull). [core] Tesla Coil‡ (five Power Points). The combined rocket fuel provides a total of 21 mps delta-V. The Sky-Scourer has a gravitic vector (artificial gravity and a gravitic compensator) and wings. The command deck is occupied by the commander, pilot, and astronavigator, a gunner occupies a station at the atomic gun, and an engineer and a tecchnician work in the Engine Room. The ship usually carries relief crewmen for maximum efficiency. Spacecraft Table PILOTING/TL6+3 (HIGH-PERFORMANCE SPACECRAFT)** TL: 6+3 Spacecraft: Sky-Scourer dST/HP: 50 Hnd/SR: −1/5 HT: 13 Move: 2G/0.1c LWt.: 300 Load: 6 SM: +7 Occ: 10ASV dDR: 7 Cost: $54.6M * Atomic guns are like standard lasers, except they have an armor divisor of 4. † There are no computers, only infomats. These use the Electro-Mechanical Computers design switch. ‡ The Tesla coil is equivalent to a total conversion power plant. Last edited by Stormcrow; 06-24-2009 at 01:43 PM.

06-24-2009, 11:36 AM	#4
Stormcrow Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Ronkonkoma, NY	Jovian System Travel Table By the way, I also took the time to work out the travel table for the Jovian system. Code: Moon Orb. Rad. Orb. Vel. Orb. Per. G Esc. Vel. ---- --------- --------- --------- --- --------- Io 0.0028 AU 10.8 mps 0.0048 yr 0.18 1.59 mps Callisto 0.013 AU 5.1 mps 0.046 yr 0.13 1.52 mps Europa 0.0045 AU 8.5 mps 0.0097 yr 0.13 1.26 mps Ganymede 0.0072 AU 6.8 mps 0.020 yr 0.15 1.70 mps I converted these statistics from Wikipedia, but I haven't done any reality-checking on them. Last edited by Stormcrow; 06-24-2009 at 11:41 AM.

06-24-2009, 01:43 PM	#5
Stormcrow Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Ronkonkoma, NY	Corsair Corsair Lightly armed and armored, a typical corsair (there are many possible variations) is intended to frighten unarmed merchantmen, haul cargo, and evade pursuit, not fight the Solar Patrol. The ship has a 1,000-ton (SM+8) streamlined hull and is 50 yards long. Front Hull [1] Advanced Metallic Laminate Armor (dDR 10). [2!] Medium Battery Weapons (two 30 MJ fixed-mount lasers* and 15 tons of cargo capacity). [3] Control Room (comm/sensor 6, four control stations). [4–6] Cargo Hold (150 tons capacity). Central Hull [1] Advanced Metallic Laminate Armor (dDR 10). [2] Habitat (six bunkrooms). [3] Habitat (two cabins, mess hall, ten tons steerage cargo). [4] Hangar Bay (30 tons capacity, holds three lifeboats†). [5–6, core] Cargo Hold (150 tons capacity). Rear Hull [1] Advanced Metallic Laminate Armor (dDR 10). [2] External Clamp. [3–4] Cargo Hold (100 tons capacity). [5] Engine Room (one control station and one workspace). [6!] Electron Drive‡ (2G acceleration). [core] Tesla Coil§ (five Power Points). A corsair has a gravitic vector (artificial gravity and gravitic compensators) and wings. There are usually at least eight crewmen, including the captain, gunner, pilot, and astronavigator on the bridge, an engineer and the engineer’s mate in the engine room, plus two more men for boarding other ships. There are often quite a lot more of these. Spacecraft Table PILOTING/TL6+3 (HIGH-PERFORMANCE SPACECRAFT) TL: 6+3 Spacecraft: Corsair dST/HP: 70 Hnd/SR: −1/5 HT: 13 Move: 2G/0.1c LWt.: 1,000 Load: 457.8 SM: +8 Occ: 28ASV dDR: 10 Cost: $84.4M * Lasers in Tales of the Solar Patrol output at one category lower than standard. † See Life Pods in GURPS Spaceships Designer's Notes. ‡ Electron Drives are equivalent to TL11 hot reactionless engines. § Tesla coils are equivalent to total conversion power plants. Last edited by Stormcrow; 06-24-2009 at 01:46 PM.