Need Help on "Semi-Hard" Classic SF Spaceship Design

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Reaction drives? That's not the idea I got. I always assumed no fuss/no muss Reactionless. Those "fuel" limits are more likely ased on the old misusndertanding about how fast nuclear power plants burn fuel i.e. on a scale of years and not days.

Functionally, I might have to go with reactionless drives, despite the fact that there are plenty of passages in the books about thermal and other effects from drives and all sublight spaceship maneuvers follow Newtonian physics.

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Very specifically, there are no felt G-forces. If the super-low G insectiod Dr Prilicla can go on ambulance calls there's nothing a human would even feel. Pricla's personal G-field device would seem to have a whole ship version.

I've assumed gravitic compensators for all ships. Felt G-forces exist, but they are low. Prilicla and members of other extremely low-G species operating in 1-G wear two personal Antigravity belts/gravitic compensators in addition to anything built into the ship.

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

The heavy beam weapons of the big ships appear to be Force Beams from UT. Those didn't make to spaceships officially but ISTR once calcluating them to be dDam2 and R2 but with no Armor divisor. This should match the stats for TL10 Lasers and Force beams in UT.

Functionally, this might be the best way to go, but they're specifically described as being tractor-pressor beams in the books and can be used at lower settings for peaceful purposes.

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Obviously there's at least some sort of FTL comms. Specificaly the low information "distrtess signals" the ambulance ships respond to.

I've got this one well in hand. FTL radio has penalties beyond a given range, with increased penalties for smaller radios in addition to their inherently shorter range. Modifiers for Time Spent give a bonus, based on resending the message over hours or days.

Distress beacons are standard shipboard equipment and give massive bonuses to be detected as long as they last.