[Vorkosigan] Spacecraft Design Errors

[Tzeentch]

-- I'm checking the Vorkosigan spacecraft designs and coming up with a few errors (and lots of inconsistent style). Below are some of the things I've found in the first two designs alone - I'd appreciate a double check in case I missed any subtle differences between Spaceships and Vorkosigan.

Ariel (Vorkosigan, p. 203)
Front Hull
[4] Armor should be dDR 15, not 10.
[5!] 1GJ plasma cannon (style)
[6] Half-size hangar bays get the full launch rate?

Central Hull
[1] Armor should be dDR 15, not 10.
[2-4] I don't see how it makes any sense to have 3x Control Rooms and not use a Larger System. I can only assume the bonus +2 Complexity is some house rule or a rule I missed.

Rear Hull
[4!] 1GJ tractor beam (style)
[5] d-V is incorrect. As the drives are high thrust the delta-V is 5,000. Seems to be a carryover from an earlier design.
[6] ARmor should be dDR 15

Performance
HT should be 13, not 14
Move is 6G/5,000 mps
Load is 81.4 (75 tons cargo, 6.4 tons occupancy)
Occupancy is 64ASV, not 62ASV - 15 bunkrooms (60) + 2 cabins (4)
ddR is 15
Cost is $384.15M

Antimatter Reactor 60,000,000
Sword-Swallower (Vor) 30,000,000
Force Screen (Vor) 30,000,000
Advanced Metallic Laminate Armor 6,000,000
Major Battery 15,000,000
Half-Sized Systems 150,000

System
Advanced Metallic Laminate Armor 6,000,000
Control Room 6,000,000
Control Room 6,000,000
Control Room 6,000,000
Engine Room 1,000,000
Habitat 3,000,000
Necklin Drive (Vor) 100,000,000

System
Antimatter Thruster (Vor) 30,000,000
Antimatter Thruster (Vor) 30,000,000
Antimatter Thruster (Vor) 30,000,000
Major Battery 15,000,000
Fuel Tank 1,000,000
Advanced Metallic Laminate Armor 6,000,000

Belt Freighter (Vorkosigan, p. 203)
Front Hull
[5] Control Room should be C8, comm/sensor 8
[6] I asssume it means a minifac fabricator.

Central Hull
It has a duplicated slot [4]. Given the rest of the design its clear that there should only be [2] External Clamp and [3] is the Smaller System.
[4!] Delete the cargo from the Major Battery. Tractor beam is 300MJ (style)

Performance
Hnd/SR is 0/5
HT is 13
Cost is $199.43M

Metallic Laminate Armor 3000000
Metallic Laminate Armor 3000000
Metallic Laminate Armor 3000000
Fission Reactor 10000000
Control Room 6000000
Habitat 3000000
Smaller System
Major battery 6,000,000.00
Force Screen 3,333,333.00
Cargo -

System
Metallic Laminate Armor 3000000
External Clamp 300000
External Clamp 300000
Cargo Hold 0
Cargo Hold 0
Cargo Hold 0
Engine Room 1000000

System
Metallic Laminate Armor 3000000
Antimatter Thruster (Vor) 30000000
Antimatter Thruster (Vor) 30000000
Antimatter Thruster (Vor) 30000000
Antimatter Thruster (Vor) 30000000
Antimatter Thruster (Vor) 30000000
Fuel Tank 1000000

Artificial Gravity 3000000
* The "much older" variant is Hnd/SR -1/5 and $196.43M (not much of a cost break)

[omeyer]

Originally Posted by Tzeentch

-- I'm checking the Vorkosigan spacecraft designs and coming up with a few errors (and lots of inconsistent style).

Regarding style, I'd cut them some slack. Spaceships is supposed to be quick and dirty, after all. So let's look at the numbers.

Originally Posted by Tzeentch

Ariel (Vorkosigan, p. 203)
Front Hull
[4] Armor should be dDR 15, not 10.
[5!] 1GJ plasma cannon (style)
[6] Half-size hangar bays get the full launch rate?

• Spaceships and Vorkosigan, p. 187, agree that it should be dDR 15.

• Spaceships, p. 6, gives the weapon power and the mount, but one could argue that that is only necessary because it is a mixed cargo/weapon system. The style in Vorkosigan certainly differs from Spaceships 3, but who is to say which is more canonical?

• Technically, 1/2-sized hangars are not allowed at all, since they do not appear in the p. 185 list of half-sizeable systems. 1/3-sized hangars would be legal, of course, and without ambiguity on the launch rate.
  Spaceships 7, p. 4, does not list them, either, but Vorkosigan predates Spaceships 7.

Originally Posted by Tzeentch

Central Hull
[1] Armor should be dDR 15, not 10.
[2-4] I don't see how it makes any sense to have 3x Control Rooms and not use a Larger System. I can only assume the bonus +2 Complexity is some house rule or a rule I missed.

The difference between one larger control room and three normal ones could be:

• Number of control stations: They do not triple with every step, so more control rooms give more consoles. The Ariel writeup lists 18 consoles, three times those of a SM+9 control room, not the 10 consoles of a single SM+10 room.

• The damage effects could be different for three systems -- the flag bridge (tactics room) can be hit and leave the main bridge operational.

• Having separate control rooms allows different factions to seize them and fight for control of the ship ...

Originally Posted by Tzeentch

Rear Hull
[4!] 1GJ tractor beam (style)
[5] d-V is incorrect. As the drives are high thrust the delta-V is 5,000. Seems to be a carryover from an earlier design.
[6] ARmor should be dDR 15

Agreed.

Originally Posted by Tzeentch

Performance
HT should be 13, not 14
Move is 6G/5,000 mps
Load is 81.4 (75 tons cargo, 6.4 tons occupancy)
Occupancy is 64ASV, not 62ASV - 15 bunkrooms (60) + 2 cabins (4)
ddR is 15
Cost is $384.15M

• Agreed on HT, Move, dDR.

• Load should also include 50 tons for the hangar, but I disagree on occupancy (see below).

• I would say it is unclear if a single-occupancy cabin adds 1 or 2 to life support.

• Agreed on the cost, I think. Was the book missing the artificial gravity?

[David Johnston2]

Of course Vorkosigan started being written long, long before Spaceships, and the couple of example ships are afterthoughts that were written before Spaceships had even assumed its current form.

[Tzeentch]

Originally Posted by omeyer

Regarding style, I'd cut them some slack. Spaceships is supposed to be quick and dirty, after all. So let's look at the numbers.

-- I'm a bit of a stickler when it comes to vehicle designs :)

Technically, 1/2-sized hangars are not allowed at all, since they do not appear in the p. 185 list of half-sizeable systems. 1/3-sized hangars would be legal, of course, and without ambiguity on the launch rate.
-- Yeah I assumed this was a miscommunication from an earlier draft.

I would say it is unclear if a single-occupancy cabin adds 1 or 2 to life support.
-- I've always treated the Occ stat as maximum occupancy. Most ships are not going to run at maximum life support capacity though.

Agreed on the cost, I think. Was the book missing the artificial gravity?
--It has artificial gravity listed.

-- Thanks for the check!

(removed the flgiht deck note, was thinking of a Smaller System x3 (Control Room) design.)

[omeyer]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Of course Vorkosigan started being written long, long before Spaceships, and the couple of example ships are afterthoughts that were written before Spaceships had even assumed its current form.

That explains inconsistencies with the published Spaceships series, but not inconsistencies with itself ...

[omeyer]

Originally Posted by Tzeentch

Belt Freighter (Vorkosigan, p. 203)
Front Hull
[5] Control Room should be C8, comm/sensor 8
[6] I asssume it means a minifac fabricator.

• For a SM+9 ship, I get C8, sensors 7.

• The Habitat should have had 20 cabins. Since only 10 are accounted for, that leaves half a system, and factories are actually allowed to be half size.

Originally Posted by Tzeentch

Central Hull
It has a duplicated slot [4]. Given the rest of the design its clear that there should only be [2] External Clamp and [3] is the Smaller System.
[4!] Delete the cargo from the Major Battery. Tractor beam is 300MJ (style)

• The double clamp is actually mentioned in the color text, so I guess it should stay. Much easier to delete a cargo hold.

• Does a SM+8 force screen in a SM+9 hull get one third of the SM+8 DR or the SM+9 DR? Either way, it should be less than dDR 3,000.

Originally Posted by Tzeentch

* The "much older" variant is Hnd/SR -1/5 and $196.43M (not much of a cost break)

Getting substantially cheaper could be fusion thrusters, without the torch part.

[omeyer]

On a more general note, just how canon is the AM fuel?

Looking at Komarr, I don't recall any mention of AM fuel going off, and the Yarrow was supposed to be a non-nuclear strike.

[Tzeentch]

• For a SM+9 ship, I get C8, sensors 7.

-- Should be Sensors 8 if my printing of Spaceships is not incorrect (TL-2 at +9).
-- I just noticed that the Spaceships rules contradict Vorkosigan in computer Complexity, with the Vorkosigan ones (p. 188) being -2 Complexity across the board. This is not explained anywhere in the book (doesn't help that computers in the universe are not discussed at all either hah). Vor sensor ratings are the same as for TL10 in Spaceships though ... Might be an errata.

• The Habitat should have had 20 cabins. Since only 10 are accounted for, that leaves half a system, and factories are actually allowed to be half size.

-- Good call, the SM +6 reference might be to an older design.

• The double clamp is actually mentioned in the color text, so I guess it should stay. Much easier to delete a cargo hold.

-- Aye the color text should be priority.

• Does a SM+8 force screen in a SM+9 hull get one third of the SM+8 DR or the SM+9 DR? Either way, it should be less than dDR 3,000.

-- It appears to list the DR correctly for a SM+8 Vorkosigan Force Field (none of which match the Spaceships Force Fields I'll note :( )

• Getting substantially cheaper could be fusion thrusters, without the torch part.

-- Aye.

[cptbutton]

Originally Posted by omeyer

On a more general note, just how canon is the AM fuel?

Looking at Komarr, I don't recall any mention of AM fuel going off, and the Yarrow was supposed to be a non-nuclear strike.

In Shards of Honor, chapter 10:

"Send a ship in, set up a major matter-antimatter explosion at a midpoint between the nodes. It sets up a resonance--nothing else can get through for weeks, until it dies down."

Which doesn't really answer your question, since the explosion there might be weapon warheads rather than fuel.

I doubt civilian starships use AM fuel. But military ships might, for better performance.