[Spaceships] Biological Ships: Food Consumption

[scc]

OK, Spaceships says that a ton of food provides 500 man-days, that is it will feed a man for 500 days, or 500 for one. But neither that, nor 7 says hows much food an organic ship will consume to stay alive.

I'm guessing that such a figure would be in how long a Cargo Bay packed full of food would last it.

Note that I'm talking about how much food the basic organism needs to survive, I'm assuming that any high-powered systems have somewhat separate power arrangement's using standard power systems, but electricity from a nuclear reactor won't keep a space bug alive

[vierasmarius]

According to Biotech, larger (natural) creatures will consume proportionately larger but less frequent meals. The weight of each meal is multiplied by the cubic scale, ie mass (so a creature x10 the size eats x10 as massive a portion) but the frequency is divided by the linear scale (the same creature eats half as often, for an overall increased consumption of x5). In Spaceships, this can be simplified to consuming x2 / x5 / x10 the mass of food per +1 / +2 / +3 SM. Assuming the ship's consumption is equivalent to a giant humanoid of the same size (a big assumption in itself) that means an SM +6 ship would consume 100 man-days of food per day, or one ton every 5 days.

However, I don't think the living ships of SS7 are intended to consume food like other life forms. A single power plant would be sufficient to provide all of their energy needs. I might use the above consumption rules for a ship that's undergoing significant physical changes, like maturing to the next SM or repairing major damage.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by SS8:8

Requires Nutrients: Current bioships require nutrient sup-
plements to function properly. If they are not fed they are
unable to heal, and starvation results in the craft falling apart
(reduce HT by one per day of starvation). Nutrient requirement
is one man-day times ST; nutrients cost and mass the same as
human food (GURPS Spaceships, p. 47). For example, a ST
100 bioship requires the equivalent of 100 man-days of food
per day (which would cost $200 and mass 0.2 tons). They
should be stored in cargo.

Note that this limitation does not reduce the price of ships on which it is present.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Note that this limitation does not reduce the price of ships on which it is present.

I really don't remember anything much from volumes 7 and 8, but I'd presume that a living spaceship has some self-repairing capability, starkly above and beyond what a non-living spaceship would have at lower TLs. If so, that might well balance out the food requirements, so that there's no need to reduce the monetary cost of the ship.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

I really don't remember anything much from volumes 7 and 8, but I'd presume that a living spaceship has some self-repairing capability, starkly above and beyond what a non-living spaceship would have at lower TLs. If so, that might well balance out the food requirements, so that there's no need to reduce the monetary cost of the ship.

There is, about 10% of MaxHP per day, as with normal character. However, this is an upgrade that costs $20k per tonne of the spaceship.

[scc]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Note that this limitation does not reduce the price of ships on which it is present.

Thanks. I don't have SS8 because I'm not interested in TS.

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by scc

Thanks. I don't have SS8 because I'm not interested in TS.

The rules in that book are particular to the TS setting. I don't think SS7 assumes that biological ships even need to eat at all. That said, if you do want consumption to be a factor, the SS8 rule should work fine. Interestingly, it uses a much slower scaling than one would assume based on the mass of the ships.

[scc]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

The rules in that book are particular to the TS setting. I don't think SS7 assumes that biological ships even need to eat at all. That said, if you do want consumption to be a factor, the SS8 rule should work fine. Interestingly, it uses a much slower scaling than one would assume based on the mass of the ships.

Bioships, as in living organisms, would need to consume organic matter to grow or repair itself, and personally I can see a nuclear pile making it's internal reactionless drives work, but it wouldn't provide energy to it's basic functions

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by scc

Bioships, as in living organisms, would need to consume organic matter to grow or repair itself,

....and the bioship example in Bio-tech covers this. Anything actually built as a character would. You might have to adjust it with Reduced Consumption to get the answer you _want_.

[Varyon]

That SS8 figure seems... off. A living spaceship probably isn't going to need to burn as much energy staying warm as a human (it's cold in space, but you don't lose heat all that readily) and isn't going to be burning calories moving around (its drives do that for it), yet a human-sized (SM 0, ST 20) bioship is going to consume 20x as much food as a human (or 80 lb/day). As the ship weighs 200 lb, that means it's eating 40% of its body mass every day.

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

There is, about 10% of MaxHP per day, as with normal character. However, this is an upgrade that costs $20k per tonne of the spaceship.

SS7 has two options, one that's 1% MaxHP per minute and $200k/ton and one that's 1% MaxHP per day and matches your price. Extrapolating, that's around $22k/ton for your quoted rate. One can argue that a bioship should get this for free (although simply stating every bioship has it and charging full price is still appropriate, depending on setting).