I assume the factory would require processed ore?

If I were building 10 ton tanks in a factory does this mean I need 10 tons of processed ore per tank? How long does it take to build things in a factory?

It would require raw materials.  I haven't decided on the rules yet, but building things will be possible in an in-game time span (days, at most).  I'm not going to give you options that take forever to use...

Don't fret about it too much, I think I'm going to completely overhaul the rules over the weekend.  I've learned a lot from the questions that have been posed.

Wasp:
http://www.evernote.com/shard/...38ad7b1301d9469c03d1


Kepler:
http://www.evernote.com/shard/...6265803cfdc1b833c4c7


Phobos:
http://www.evernote.com/shard/...9b7aec8800871093e6f3

Wow!  That's Awesome!  The Universe has been made happy...

In reply to The Universe (msg #11):
funny how I always find myself in an aliance friendly bar on unification day

By the way, if anyone here does not use Evernote you should totally give it a look. It's free.

Is there an order you do things in?  because some thigns use the starting weight of your ship, and other things use total weight.  The rules as given, to have a ECM, a grav drive, a jump drive, and fuel all add up in some way, but as written is appears they stack.. meaning if you have any two of those thins your ship suddenly weighs near infinite tons.

What is?

You choose the total weight at the start, then fill it.  So the weight never changes.

Also, if you are curious, the link to the SRD's upon which these rules are based is on the first page of the ship rules:  http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/pdf/travdevpack.zip
This message was last updated by the GM at 22:43, Sat 05 May 2012.

And that's not how math works... :)

I think the perception was that those things added weight, and thus if you added more than one, mass did become infinite.  If the total mass it set in the beginning, I'm still confused on how the % works.

I see.  the hull that you choose is the total displacement of the ship.  So if you choose a 100-ton ship, it will displace ("weigh") 100 tons.  When a system requires, say, 10% of the hull, it occupies that much space.  So on the 100-ton ship, a system that requires 10% takes up 10 tons.  This leaves 90 tons to be allocated to other systems.  If you were to add another system that requires 5% of the hull, that system would require 5 tons of the total 100 tons.  After accounting for those two systems, you would have 85 tons left to allocate (100-10-5).

So the initial tonnage is the empty hull that you will fill with stuff.

You should check out the sample ships, I think things will make more sense.

And the mass does not become infinite - if the % values were added instead of a percentage of the empty hull, you would get a finite number.  The 2 values would sum in a (quickly converging) infinite series, but it would still result in a finite number.  This math is not what is intended, however.

Don't worry too much, I will either revise the document to be more clear, or write a new set of rules.

Just let us know when we should start considering creation. :)

So for radiation shielding. It seems odd that bumping radiation shielding from 1 to 3 costs 50% of your ships base cost, while maxing armor (+11) costs 33.66666%.  It also seems like armor itself would offer some radiation shielding.

I was thinking it would make more sense if radiation shielding made your armor apply to radiation as well, and doubles the cost of armor increase. (Since both start at 1) Ah well, just thoughts. Building a ship to see how much it will cost.

Hey guys!  Prez here!

I suppose I ought to start raising revenues to construct these vast fleets, huh?

I'm sure the citizens will love to hear this one.

Its ok, we all know the puplic loves giving you their money more than they enjoy you sending out your roving death squads, so I am sure it will be fine.

I thought exploration was the main point of this game.  If that is true why are ships with jump drives so harshly penalized?  Or did I misunderstand the intent of this game?

I would like my fleet to be based in the Susan system, please.

In reply to Ananvil (msg #25):

I'd base my fleet in Susan's system. HEY OH!

SCORE.  *High fives*

I give you the ability to travel to Alpha Centauri in 12 hours and you call sacrificing 15% of your ship to do so a "harsh penalty"...  *facepalm*

This is going to be fairly hard, nearish-future (200 years from today?) sci-fi game.  Hands will be waived in the name of fun, but certain things just "are".  The Saturn V rocket was 95% fuel and engines just to get three guys and a little rover to the Moon.  All fuel does is determine your range, and how far from civilization you can go.  Since this is such a big issue, I'll simplify how it works.  I will also make systems less dependent on each other, to make calculating easier.

The base Traveller game calls for 10% of your ship in fuel per parsec, and it is actually balanced quite well.

So, I guess this isn't obvious, but expensive FTL makes fighters and carriers viable.  Obviously, any small craft that you include will have to have carriers for them.  Another option is to build a large ship without FTL, then build a slightly larger ship that contains just a jump drive, fuel, and room for the other ship (see:  http://traveller.wikia.com/wiki/Battle_Rider).

I think people are just worried about being bogged down with Logistics.  Which makes sense for a fleet game, actually.

But there's nothing at Alpha Centauri. To get to the nearest currently known earth like planet and back, it would require 60% of the ship's weight to be fuel. That doesn't leave me a lot of room to use it as a carrier. *facepalm*

In reply to twitch1982 (msg #31):

You have to jump to a system likely to have gas giants to skim for fuel. You wouldn't be able to drive a civic across the country without refueling. The biggest problem here is that there is no gas stations along the way.