Spaceships…

[briansommers]

On page 12 about armor

There is US dDR and a SL dDR
What does the US and SL mean and where is it referenced in the book?

[Varyon]

US means UnStreamlined, SL is StreamLined. I believe these are stated back in the initial design portion of the sequence (when you decide if you want your spaceship to be streamlined or not), but I'm away from my books at the moment and can't check for an exact page reference. Streamlined objects have a larger surface-area-to-volume ratio than do unstreamlined objects, hence having lower DR (a given mass/volume of armor is spread over a larger area, thus making it thinner).

[mlangsdorf]

Streamlined versus unstreamlined is specified under "Spacecraft Hulls" on p 9. The effects of streamlining is set out under "Armor Systems" on p 10, which includes explaining the abbreviations US and SL.