HOME | DD
ILJackson β Shinobi-Class Blockade Runner
Published: 2014-07-08 20:46:23 +0000 UTC; Views: 11539; Favourites: 100; Downloads: 159
Redirect to original
Description
This Stellar Navy frigate design combines powerful engines, a low energy signature and ample cargo space into a ship meant to slip past the Imperial Consortium's lines and deliver much needed supplies and support to occupied human colonies in Cooper Sector. It also can double as a fast attack escort and commerce raider when its speed and stealth are used to go on the offensive. What's more, it has the cargo space to carry large boarding parties and to cart off captured enemy supplies.There has been some consideration to selling some variant of the Shinobi to privateers flying the Protectorate flag, but there are fears that the ship would eventually fall into the hands of pirates.
Related content
Comments: 20
Something about this is so aesthetic and makes me calm. It pops out nice and gets my attention
π: 0 β©: 0
Β Β true real true, but in desperate times.Β Desperate measures.Β Besides is to good to be confine to nly navy.
π: 0 β©: 0
Time to upgrade the Aces? Looks good, as usual.
π: 0 β©: 1
With a crew of 120...? That would involve multiple favors being called in as well as us actively recruiting among people we can actually trust. Which isn't that big of a list.Β
π: 0 β©: 0
Β Once again you make it sound as though this ship really exists. Of course there are no ships like this...are there? If there is one by some chance, sign me up...just saying.
π: 0 β©: 1
In an infinite multiverse where mathematically everything that we can imagine has happened in infinite variation, some other version of you is settling into the captain's chair right now with a warm mug of cocoa wondering what new stars you'll see tomorrow.
π: 0 β©: 1
Β I hate him. It should be me.
π: 0 β©: 1
I've seen how he builds worlds. That captain is also wondering if he will come across soul-devouring monsters.
π: 0 β©: 1
Well, everything has its price.....
π: 1 β©: 0
..Damn, my only real question is whether it has enough cargo capacity to be a decent free-trader ship?
π: 0 β©: 1
Yes, but as a military ship she runs a crew of about 120. Most free traders don't want to split profits that far so they haul smaller but have a much, much smaller crew. I'm estimating this to have a 500 ton capacity. You'd do better as a trader to have a ship with a 100 ton capacity with a crew of maybe 5-7 people and just carry rarer cargo. These have to go bulk because they sometimes carry bare essentials like food, fuel and ammo. Most free traders go with cargo that pays more per pound.
π: 0 β©: 1
Ah, I see.Β But you could really cut down on the crew requirements with fewer weapons systems, no?
π: 0 β©: 1
yes, that's definitely what a lot of that crew is for.
π: 0 β©: 1
You have to be careful with star wars. The early stuff was not scaled well. Some sources have the falcon hauling 100 tons but no sizeable cargo bay in the floor plans. This was before the rise of geekdom and the internet where people actually kept a close watch on such things.
For the crew of the frigate I start based on current technology, and reduce it, very roughly, by about a third. Then fiddle with the number based on weaponry and purpose. An Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate currently in the U.S. Navy has a crew of 176 with fewer weapon systems, and they are fairly computerized. Also remember that you have all the systems that would be present on a boat, then you have all new systems that require crew to operate, such as gravity control, FTL, and Astrophysics. Β If you're running a long cruise that requires cryogenics for all that crew, then you've just significantly increased your medical staff. Plus there's environmental control, which involves radiation, atmosphere, pressure, oxygen scrubbers. You want humans involved in ALL of that, because one malfunction with a computer and somebody's got to deal with it. Oh, and then you've got a greatly expanded IT team for these ships as well who have to be johnny-on-the-spot if there's a problem. Plus many will have light craft like shuttles, which means you have to have a mini-flight crew to work the hangar, keep the birds flying and do maintenance. Today's fighters regularly require 20=30 hours of hangar time for every hour of flight. Probably not that bad here, but a shuttle's going to require maybe 10 hours of hangar and maintenance crew time for every hour of flight time...just checking the entire thing, inch-by-inch for micrometeorite damage will take a day.Β
Then you've got to have three shifts split evenly between all systems. Remember that there is no day or night, so what you might do is have three duty shifts working, say 10 hours each, for a 30-hour cycle. Even with automation, space travel will be either crew intensive or robot and AI intensive, and you'll have a hard time getting military leaders to accept AIs making command decisions and improvising. Most commanders want guys who will go off regs when needed, who know when to follow the rules and when the rules are crappy and will get them killed...the latter is something AIs would fail at spectacularly. Even with the fuzziest logic, they're going to be by-the-book systems that don't deviate at all from the manual, even when the manual's solutions are impractical and will cause more problems, so commanders will want humans at all critical functions.
π: 0 β©: 1
One thing to keep in mind is that these ships almost never run at full cargo weight. You never saw the Serenity fully packed for example. The most you ever saw in there was about 20 tons of live cattle.
I don't know how they estimate carrying weight in the other sci-fi universes, but the way its calculated in my universe is that the weight represents if you sealed the cargo bay and filled it with water, how much could it still lift off with and move at normal speed. But in most cases, people, esp. indie traders, rarely break a third of that. The most valuable cargos tend to be smaller anyway. Often the max volume of the cargo hold and the hold's dimensions are more of an issue than weight.
π: 0 β©: 1
Yes it is a big part of it in some systems with worlds with very little ice. However, most star systems have ice somewhere, either in the form of comets or on gas giant moons, so it's almost never necessary to ship ice interstellar. The water thing is only because it's a base-line material so everyone has a common frame of reference for density/volume/weight ratios.
As for ships hopping over to get water on their own. It's the same reason you and I don't run to the river whenever we want a drink. We'd rather spend our time doing something else and let someone else make sure that there's clean water coming out of the tap for a small fee.
π: 0 β©: 0
1