[Spaceships] Modular Bays and Reinforced Structure

[TheGnome]

I been kicking around the ideas of a new features for ships.

Modular Bays
Modular bays are empty ship sections that have power, attachments hard points, comm/computer connections, and other systems so that attaching a new system is relatively quick and easy. What would take days to months in dry dock may now be done at a standard repair facility with in hours. The cost however is the structural strength of your ship.

HT.........# of bays
-1..........4
-2..........8
-3..........12
-4..........16
-5..........20

Reinforced Structure
The internal structure of the ship is made of ether stronger materials and/or geometrically more sound. The lose of 1 bay will give +1 to the ships HT.

Shield Reinforcement
This is a switch that allows you to use shields to add HT to the ship instead of armoring it. For every 2.5 of dDR add +1 to HT. A Force Field system can be dedicated to this function. The system is still a high energy system.

[Ulzgoroth]

Did you intend that last one to quickly make it impossible for a ship to ever fail a HT check? An SM+7 ship would get +20 HT from a light screen. This might be less practical than the dDR, but it seems a bit much.

[TheGnome]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Did you intend that last one to quickly make it impossible for a ship to ever fail a HT check? An SM+7 ship would get +20 HT from a light screen. This might be less practical than the dDR, but it seems a bit much.

No it wasn't. I meant it to replace lost HT only. I forgot to put that in.

[TheGnome]

Revision

Shield Reinforcement
This is a switch that allows you to use shields to regain lost HP of your ship. Your ship will funtion as though it was at full HP as long as the system is powered.A force field system being used to reinforce the ship cannot be used to provide dDR normally unless it is a heavy force field. In such a case you get the reinforcement plus one normal layer of shields. All loses of HP is first taken form the ships natural HP. If your ship loses all its natural HP then the Shield Reinforcement will no longer work because there is not enough of the ship left to hold together. Also if the Force Field system is destroyed, rerouted back to normal shields, or is no longer powered then the ship may suffer greater damage from the sudden loss. Roll 3d vs the amount of HT the system was providing. If you roll equal to or under then take (SM-3)d damage.

O.k. this was thrown together and I expect it to have holes. If you see any then show them and help me plug them if you would. :)

[Ulzgoroth]

I can't decypher it. It doesn't appear to say anything about what this reinforcement does. Also, you seem to be using HP and HT semi-interchangeably, though they're completely unrelated.

[TheGnome]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

I can't decypher it. It doesn't appear to say anything about what this reinforcement does. Also, you seem to be using HP and HT semi-interchangeably, though they're completely unrelated.

Well Shield Reinforcement was off the cuff at that hour and not truly thought out I have to admit. The idea is a force field used to hold your the structure of the ship together when damaged. The ship would function normally while the system is working or until there was no longer a stable structure to hold together.

[jacobmuller]

Nice idea. A skeletal structure allowing for quick change of role - swap the modules and go from support to assault.

Force Screen reinforcement: just swap dDR for dHP on a point-for-point basis. They are the same for SM at TL11. I don't think it would hurt to allow it to go beyond replacing lost points and into reinforcing them - any dHP losses are then split between force screen and ships dHP.

Personally, I charged for External Clamps for the modular system on the freighter I statted up - otherwise the ship would be practically free. Disgustingly cheap is bad enough. Cost of the modules should be higher than their component parts too. Versatility costs.

[TheGnome]

Originally Posted by jacobmuller

Nice idea. A skeletal structure allowing for quick change of role - swap the modules and go from support to assault.

Thanks. That was my aim.

Originally Posted by jacobmuller

Force Screen reinforcement: just swap dDR for dHP on a point-for-point basis. They are the same for SM at TL11. I don't think it would hurt to allow it to go beyond replacing lost points and into reinforcing them - any dHP losses are then split between force screen and ships dHP.

Good idea thanks.

Originally Posted by jacobmuller

Personally, I charged for External Clamps for the modular system on the freighter I statted up - otherwise the ship would be practically free. Disgustingly cheap is bad enough. Cost of the modules should be higher than their component parts too. Versatility costs.

Hmm... May be on the clamp idea but I do fully like and agree on the cost of the modules. what would you say is a good markup... say +10%?

[jacobmuller]

I suppose Mark-up depends on the market. 10% might be a bit high - some of the systems and design features cost less than 10% of others. But 1% is too low to matter.

Perhaps, if everyone uses modular systems, it should be the ship that costs extra, hence my charging for external clamps, ie for a non-modular ship and a modular ship, carrying exactly the same config, the modular should cost more.