[Spaceships] Powering smaller systems

[Polkageist]

I looked around the forums, but I couldn't find a definitive answer to some of these questions.

If you have a high-energy system in a smaller-system type situation such as a 1/3 sized weapon, contragrav lifter or mining system is it required that they have their own dedicated 1/3 sized power plant? Or can they draw power from the ship's full sized reactor, and how much power would they draw? Would it suck up a power point (as I'm inclined to assume) or would the smaller systems be small enough to make their power draw negligible to some degree? Perhaps just add up the number of smaller high-energy systems and round to the nearest whole number, that is 1 uses no power, 2 and 3 high energy small systems would use a full power point.

Also, I noticed that the Engine room never is mentioned in any special treatment for smaller systems. Does a smaller sized engine room prevent the HT loss from the ship or is having one an full-sized-or-nothing proposition (i.e. banned from being a smaller system)?

Please, I am eager to hear opinions and facts.

[vicky_molokh]

I think power consumption should scale with mass. Unofficially, I think the scaling should be allowed in both directions (i.e. for powering larger systems too).

[Ulzgoroth]

By the book (SS7) it appears that you need a smaller power plant included in the same system.

There's no reason for this other than simplification, though. Power points are obviously proportional to mass. If you're willing to think in terms of fractional power points, that should be fine. A 1/3rd size system would use and generate 1/3rd as many points as full size. I wouldn't ever let high power systems be operated without the use of power points.

I'd think a smaller engine room wouldn't work, because if it did there'd be no reason for the larger. Of course, engine rooms do become folded in on larger ships, so maybe there's some size where you could reasonably use a less than one full system engine room. I couldn't say what size that would be though.

[RyanW]

Other than a smaller power system, you've got two options:

Simple method: Any full-sized system that contains any high-energy systems is treated as though it were a high energy system.

Complicated method: A power point can be split into 1-3 "small" power points for powering smaller systems.

Either way, if you feel generous, a single smaller high-energy system might be able to run without a power point, provided you have an operating reactor. It should probably make the Increase Power task more difficult, since you are already using up part of the safety margin.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by RyanW

Either way, if you feel generous, a single smaller high-energy system might be able to run without a power point, provided you have an operating reactor. It should probably make the Increase Power task more difficult, since you are already using up part of the safety margin.

An Engineer can carefully 'provide' a Power Point by stepping real close to the safety limit of a reactor (or cluster). Under routine circumstances, and for energies lower than one PP, this should probably be allowed without rolling.

[Polkageist]

Originally Posted by RyanW

Other than a smaller power system, you've got two options:

Simple method: Any full-sized system that contains any high-energy systems is treated as though it were a high energy system.

Complicated method: A power point can be split into 1-3 "small" power points for powering smaller systems.

Either way, if you feel generous, a single smaller high-energy system might be able to run without a power point, provided you have an operating reactor. It should probably make the Increase Power task more difficult, since you are already using up part of the safety margin.

That certainly would make things more exciting!

Anyway, Ulzgoroth makes a keen point and combining it with your simple method when everything fits into one full-sized system just calling that system a high-energy location (regardless of how many power-hungry small systems are inside it) makes it easy.

If it's a little more complicated by having small high-energy systems spread around, I could simply count up the number and use one power point for every three or fraction thereof.

@Vicky, sure for normal everyday operations no rolling would be required. It actually sounds like the sort of thing that a chronically underpowered craft design might face, with engineers cutting the corners so close that when the ship gets stressed dangerous things start to happen.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Polkageist

@Vicky, sure for normal everyday operations no rolling would be required. It actually sounds like the sort of thing that a chronically underpowered craft design might face, with engineers cutting the corners so close that when the ship gets stressed dangerous things start to happen.

A ship that must juggle power points that way for everyday operations is, IMO, a flawed design.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by RyanW

A ship that must juggle power points that way for everyday operations is, IMO, a flawed design.

It's a deliberate game design decision, to allow for the creation of ships which have more power using systems than power generation, so that the characters commanding them have more decisions to make.

[SCAR]

Actually, Power Points from Power Plants and for High-Energy (!) Systems scale 3 to 1 with SM.

A 1G Beam is a Major Battery (a single system) at SM+9, requiring 1 (SM+9) Power Point as a High-Energy System
3x 1G Beams would be a Medium Battery (a single system) at SM+10, requiring 1 (SM+10) Power Point.

We can therefore conclude that 1 Power Point at SM+10 is equivalent to 3 Power Points at SM+9.

The same SM+9 1G Beam would also be a single Smaller System in an SM+10 Hull, and would require 1 (SM+9) PP or 1/3 (SM+10) PP.

I see no problem having Power Plant power smaller systems on this 3-to-1 basis. You could also allow 3PP from smaller power plants to provide 1PP for a standard system if you wanted (although I'm not sure that would every really be worth it).

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by SCAR

Actually, Power Points from Power Plants and for High-Energy (!) Systems scale 3 to 1 with SM.

Yup. Everything I've snipped from your post is correct.