09-09-2015, 11:37 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Canada
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[Spaceships] Using two smaller ships to simulate a larger ones
Heyas! Okay, this is another in my series of Dumb Questions Based Off Of What Are Probably Bad Variant Designs To Begin With, but in my various mucking around with things, I was curious if anyone had any thoughts (official or otherwise) on doing things like using two 'ships' to construct was is in essence a single larger vessel. From the design standpoint it seems technically pretty easy (for engines you'd just add up the total thrust and dV for both and divide by 2, power points could be shared, armor would be as per normal and in combat they could be treated as two ships flying in close formation for attacking etc).
That said, I know it's still probably a bad idea for reasons I can't immediately see myself, so I thought I'd ask folks what they thought, or if they had a better way to deal with it (I know that there's the SM X.5 rules for example which keeps it all treated as a single vessel). |
09-09-2015, 11:48 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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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.
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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. |
09-09-2015, 12:15 PM | #3 | |
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Canada
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Re: [Spaceships] Using two smaller ships to simulate a larger ones
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The blowthrough thing is a problem I definitely hadn't thought of... gonna have to think about that one. Thanks! |
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09-09-2015, 01:40 PM | #4 |
Join Date: Oct 2008
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Re: [Spaceships] Using two smaller ships to simulate a larger ones
If I wanted a "in between" ship size I would just interpolate the values. That would work much better with no(or less) weird effects.
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09-10-2015, 05:32 AM | #5 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Binghamton, NY, USA. Near the river Styx in the 5th Circle.
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Re: [Spaceships] Using two smaller ships to simulate a larger ones
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I think that the biggest advantage of using the extrapolation method is that all ship designs still look the same - they all have exactly 20 systems.
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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; 09-10-2015 at 05:38 AM. |
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