GURPS Spaceships Series - Page 28

tratclif · 10-09-2009, 01:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dataweaver

Reading it now.

I must say, I'm surprised that the Enceladus nuclear-pulse explorer wasn't given a magsail. Spaceships clearly indicated that as a possibility, and magsails are around at TL9. And you'd save a lot on armor, as well as having a secondary propulsion system.

I'm betting this a Spaceships conversion of the Advanced Interplanetary Ship that Freeman Dyson and the rest of the Project Orion crew dreamed would be operating in the distant future of 2009.

The Palomar-class seems to be a Star Trek: The Next Generation Galaxy-class starship. The Odyssey, despite the absence of a homicidal AI, looks like the Discovery from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Any other easter eggs anyone has noticed?

dataweaver · 10-09-2009, 04:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tratclif

I'm betting this a Spaceships conversion of the Advanced Interplanetary Ship that Freeman Dyson and the rest of the Project Orion crew dreamed would be operating in the distant future of 2009.

For that, I would have preferred to have seen a TL8 design - something suitable for the Messiah from 1998's Deep Impact, and an example of what we could build right now if we needed to (politics aside).

Quote:

Originally Posted by tratclif

The Palomar-class seems to be a Star Trek: The Next Generation Galaxy-class starship. The Odyssey, despite the absence of a homicidal AI, looks like the Discovery from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Any other easter eggs anyone has noticed?

I'm not that familiar with Blake's Seven; but the quote given makes it highly likely that the Alcatraz is supposed to be the prison transport from which they escaped at the start of the show. Likewise, the Charon-Class Sleeper Ship could very well be the Botany Bay from Star Trek.

ericbsmith · 10-09-2009, 04:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dataweaver

Likewise, the Charon-Class Sleeper Ship could very well be the Botany Bay from Star Trek.

Amusingly, if it is they made a slight error. According to Memory Alpha there were 72 augments in Cryogenic sleep canisters aboard the Botany Bay (the exact amount the Charon has), but 12 more died when their canisters failed, so it had a compliment of at least 84 Hibernation chambers.

tratclif · 10-09-2009, 06:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dataweaver

For that, I would have preferred to have seen a TL8 design - something suitable for the Messiah from 1998's Deep Impact, and an example of what we could build right now if we needed to (politics aside).

This is one of the times the simplifying assumptions of Spaceships collide with physical reality. An Orion drive is something that's difficult to build small, but gets better with size. A larger ship has a bigger blast plate that catches more of the pulse bomb's blast, and larger nuclear devices are more efficient as well. So we probably could build a huge Orion Drive ship right now, but a smaller one we could not.

In my try at converting the Advanced Interplanetary Ship, I used TL8 materials and a TL10 fission pulse drive to match the ISP that the designers planned for.

David L Pulver · 10-09-2009, 08:57 PM

[QUOTE=tratclif;864392]This is one of the times the simplifying assumptions of Spaceships collide with physical reality. An Orion drive is something that's difficult to build small, but gets better with size. /QUOTE]

Note that SPACESHIPS requires a minimum DR for the rear armor, and it is easier to have a higher DR at less mass for big ships, so the performance of Orion drive vessels does tend to scale better with larger size.

David L Pulver · 10-09-2009, 08:59 PM

Other SPACESHIPS news:

I submitted the final draft of GURPS Spaceships 7 and the first draft of GURPS Spaceships 8 on Monday.

PK · 10-09-2009, 09:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David L Pulver

Note that SPACESHIPS requires a minimum DR for the rear armor, and it is easier to have a higher DR at less mass for big ships, so the performance of Orion drive vessels does tend to scale better with larger size.

That's a good point. Since the Orion drive takes up a HULL space in the Rear Hull, that only leaves 5 spaces for armor to hit the minimum dDR 50. That means the smallest ship that can do that at TL7 is an US SM +9 or SL SM +10. This drops by 1 SM per TL, which means you can't have SM +5 ships with Orion drives until TL11!

Magsails at TL9 change that, of course, but then we're talking about mag-Orion drives, which are technically different animals.

ericbsmith · 10-09-2009, 10:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David L Pulver

I submitted the final draft of GURPS Spaceships 7 and the first draft of GURPS Spaceships 8 on Monday.

All good news, though that pretty much wraps up the current plans for the Spaceships series. Might I humbly suggest a GURPS Spaceships 9: Traveller? Covering both the Interstellar Wars and GURPS 3e Eras would be nice.

Agemegos · 10-09-2009, 10:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ericbsmith

All good news, though that pretty much wraps up the current plans for the Spaceships series. Might I humbly suggest a GURPS Spaceships 9: Traveller? Covering both the Interstellar Wars and GURPS 3e Eras would be nice.

Hey! Good idea!

Langy · 10-09-2009, 10:14 PM

Agree, even if I almost never play Traveller games. Not sure how it'd go after they put together a spaceship design system specifically for Traveller: ISW, though.

Oh: And finish Vehicle Design System and Weapon Design System first!

10-09-2009, 08:57 PM	#275
David L Pulver AlienAbductee Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: In the UFO	Re: GURPS Spaceships Series [QUOTE=tratclif;864392]This is one of the times the simplifying assumptions of Spaceships collide with physical reality. An Orion drive is something that's difficult to build small, but gets better with size. /QUOTE] Note that SPACESHIPS requires a minimum DR for the rear armor, and it is easier to have a higher DR at less mass for big ships, so the performance of Orion drive vessels does tend to scale better with larger size. __________________ Is love like the bittersweet taste of marmalade on burnt toast?

10-09-2009, 08:59 PM	#276
David L Pulver AlienAbductee Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: In the UFO	Re: GURPS Spaceships Series Other SPACESHIPS news: I submitted the final draft of GURPS Spaceships 7 and the first draft of GURPS Spaceships 8 on Monday. __________________ Is love like the bittersweet taste of marmalade on burnt toast?

10-09-2009, 10:14 PM	#280
Langy Join Date: May 2008 Location: CA	Re: GURPS Spaceships Series Agree, even if I almost never play Traveller games. Not sure how it'd go after they put together a spaceship design system specifically for Traveller: ISW, though. Oh: And finish Vehicle Design System and Weapon Design System first!