Quote:
Originally Posted by Rupert
Minor overloading is probably not going to do much other than reduce acceleration and possibly mess with handling. Major overloading might strain the structure around the cargo hold and damage the wall and floor plating, especially if the spaceship does things like fly through atmospheres and land on planets. All cases will attract the ire of those entities in charge of ship registration, certification and, of course, of the Health & Safety people.
I'd require a Freight Handling check every week or so of operation in which the ship manoeuvres (constant acceleration wouldn't count, nor would just drifting, etc.) with a penalty for being seriously overweight. Failure would result in a minor problem (a minor repair required, something coming lose and causing a minor injury, etc.), and a critical failure causing something more severe (loose cargo crushing someone and causing broken bones, etc.). I admit my motivation for such things is as much to stop PCs getting 'free' load capacity as a desire for realism.
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PC's won't really be getting free load capacity; it's just necessary to determine what the volume of a standard ton of hold is. They can only carry so much volume.
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)