12-14-2017, 12:14 PM | #11 |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: Overloading a Spaceship, and volume (Spaceship rules)
Not so for delta-V unless the reaction mass fraction is initially at the low end. You could lose more than that if you're benefiting from high fuel fraction.
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I don't know any 3e, so there is no chance that I am talking about 3e rules by accident. |
12-14-2017, 01:45 PM | #12 | |
Join Date: Dec 2017
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Re: Overloading a Spaceship, and volume (Spaceship rules)
Quote:
The fundamental issue I'm seeing is that Size Modifier is a function of volume, whereas Spaceships works by mass. The more I look at it, the more I realize that there should only be a need for significant extra reinforcements if the ship spends time in a gravity field, at a different orientation than its direction of flight. (Land on her jets, then nose over so the ship is in a gravity field normal to its direction of thrust.) Handling should indeed take a penalty. As for health and safety; I'm sure that plenty of ships have reason to haul extra heavy cargo. In the days of tramp freighters, a ship might haul lumber one way, and heavy machinery the other. (Setting has no artificial gravity, but does have total conversion. The super total conversion drive isn't quite AS super; providing 10 G's instead of 50, and requiring 1 Power Point per G of thrust) |
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12-14-2017, 06:22 PM | #13 | ||
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: Overloading a Spaceship, and volume (Spaceship rules)
Quote:
In my setting interstellar and interplanetary cargo haulers don't land, so they aren't streamlined and don't need a fairing. They aren't aircraft so they don't need a fuselage, and they aren't watercraft so they don't need a hull. You just stack cargo containers on the front and unfurl an umbrella-like meteoroid bumper in front of that. Except for cargo that needs to be transported in pressure or to which you need access during the trip volume is unconstrained. Quote:
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12-14-2017, 06:29 PM | #14 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Overloading a Spaceship, and volume (Spaceship rules)
Realistically, in deep space the main effect is loss of acceleration and delta-V, unless the loading is off balance or dense enough to poke holes in the cargo deck, and even that isn't a significant issue as long as you stick to low performance spacecraft.
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12-14-2017, 06:57 PM | #15 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Binghamton, NY, USA. Near the river Styx in the 5th Circle.
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Re: Overloading a Spaceship, and volume (Spaceship rules)
The major effects are much as people have already described.
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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; 12-14-2017 at 07:00 PM. |
12-14-2017, 07:45 PM | #16 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Wellington, NZ
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Re: Overloading a Spaceship, and volume (Spaceship rules)
That's only true if their cargo isn't very dense. If, on the other hand, they're trying to haul off as much gold and platinum as they can carry volume isn't really important, while how much extra mass they can load in is.
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