Re: GURPS Spaceships Design Spreadsheet
 

I'm not seeing this, either in my current test version or in the last Release Candidate. Can you send me a copy of that sheet so that I can take a look at it (zip it up, so it doesn't blow up any e-mail servers)


I hadn't realized that Vorkosigan had Spaceships Stats in it or I'd have added them sooner. Am I correct in assuming that other systems use the standard cost/mass/acceleration/etc?

Re: GURPS Spaceships Design Spreadsheet
 

A (hopefully) quick question.

I whas fooling around a bit with the very useful intermediate hull sizes and found a possible error.

Shouldn´t engine rooms be possible to install in SM +9.5 hulls?
I can´t select it in Open Office.

Oh,

Also, hi all, first post on this forum for yours truly :)

Re: GURPS Spaceships Design Spreadsheet
 

Considering that Workspaces kick in at SM+10 yes, Engine Rooms should be available at SM+9.5

Re: GURPS Spaceships Design Spreadsheet
 

Hmm,

2 workplaces and 3M cost seems to to be the most reasonable scaling.
Any chance of getting it added to the next version of the spreadsheet?

Speaking of additions, might it be possible to have coolant added as a fuel type?
The rules for exposed radiators on page 31 of SS1 mentions Coolant Tanks which simply are standard fuel tanks filled with coolant.

There´s of course the possibility to choose "other fuel" and change that to coolant when you save the output in another document.

I´m a bit compulsive about these things (professional hazard, I work as a programmer) though so I figured I would ask :)

Re: GURPS Spaceships Design Spreadsheet
 

Both will be in the next update.

I was getting close to releasing the next update, but now that I've started working on the Vorkosigan rules it'll be a while longer.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Design Spreadsheet
 

I see that External Clamps have ratings in tonnes (equal to hull mass of the ship for normal, 1/3 hull mass for Small). However, I'm not sure that makes sense:

First, I see by RAW a Small clamp is merely limited to grabbing ((Ship SM)-3) sizes of object, while a normal clamp simply has no limit; I don't see the mass indicator.
Second, mass doesn't tell us much, because we don't know the maximum tolerated acceleration, and thus the force with which the clamped object 'pulls back'. Keeping hold of 3-tonne object at 1G is quite easier structurally than doing it at 10G! (Also, having maxMass == myHullMass results in never, ever being able to slowly tug a larger ship.)

Re: GURPS Spaceships Design Spreadsheet
 

No problem, there's a number of nifty components in the Vorkosigan Saga.
That book was my first introduction to the Gurps Spaceships design system.

Speaking of nifty, there's a ship in the last issue of Pyramid (3/55) that has a mixed battery (a medium battery and twenty tertiaries in this case).

I don't know if the author was inspired by this excellent spreadsheet but mixed batteries are a very useful idea.

Thanks for all the work you have put into this.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Design Spreadsheet
 

Loving the spreadsheet. Such hard work and effort for the benefit of the community is highly commendable. This thing is an awesome effort. Many thanks!

A couple quick questions . . .

Small-system weapon batteries -- don't they just use one lower SM? I selected a small-system secondary battery for an SM+14 ship and it said I had only 3 weapon mounts at SM+14 instead of 10 at SM+13. Unless I'm doing something wrong or reading the rules wrong, both of which are very possible! I'd rather have 10 at SM+13 if that's possible, RAW.

Nuclear dampers -- which are a variant of force screens -- I'm not sure I'm clear on their radius. SS7 talks about the smaller systems force screens being "very inefficient." I'm not sure if force screens are one SM smaller and bestow only 1/3 of the dDR or just be one SM smaller. Just making sure.

Thanks a lot!

Re: GURPS Spaceships Design Spreadsheet
 

Yes... and no. A SM-1 Major Battery is the same exact size as a SM+0 Medium Battery mount. The problem is, in a ship that uses both, it gets very confusing as to which you're talking about when you're filling out the weapon table below. It also means keeping track of two completely different quantities of Weapon Battery for every size category instead of one, which gets very messy. So, yes, by RAW a Smaller SM Battery is supposed to have the same "name" but realistically if you have 4 weapons all the exact same size why would you say "These three are Medium mounts and that one over there is a Smaller Major Mount." Never made any sense to me.


That's not going to happen. Weapons take up far too much of the code in the sheet as it is, and there's no way I'm going to redesign it at this point.


AFAIK the special rule for dDR, using 1/3 of their listed dDR, trumps the general rule of using using the stats of the Smaller SM version of the Force Screen. This makes particular sense when talking about Armor, where 1/3 the armor weight over the same volume means it will have 1/3 the thickness; and in GURPS armor thickness is linearly proportional to it's DR.

Re: GURPS Spaceships Design Spreadsheet
 

Two more wishlist items:

1. The Auxiliary Craft panel on the Design table sheet is not working... at all. All I see are the headings lines for Saved and Official ships.
2. Could you please add an "Unshielded" option to fission reactors, air-rams, and reaction engines? It doubles the power or thrust delivered by removing shielding, making the hull section a bit "hot" ("Hazardous Drives and Power Plants" SS7 p.23).