Vector movement

Some of you may not know it but I keep doing updates to the rules, maps, datacards and design system on a regular bases, just download the Intercept bundle here. Quite a lot of updates have accumulated without andy update posts but I will try to summarise the most recent changes below. To see what version you have simply look at the headings row of the design system for version date. I always update Ship.xls and Data.xls in tandem.  You can see the version of the Data.xls where you see the Ship.xls version number.  To update your designs you need to copy each column labeled Edit from your old design and paste* it into the new Ship.xls, then close the old design and save Ship.xls as the old designs name overwriting it. When you paste it is much safer to do the Paste->Paste values to ensure that you won’t overwrite and formatting.

Thrust
All kinds of thrusters now correctly reports their actual thrust, the two values are Loaded / Unloaded performance. The Mtrl type field now goes from 0-3 with ever decreasing masses for most of a ships components. If you find your designs too low in acceleration and delta-V you should increase your material types to lighter but more expensive versions.

Sun factor
There is now a light yellow field for the Sun factor. It should be easy to recalculate Vis(Hull) and IR(Hull) for other values of the Sun factor but now you can simply enter the value you want in the yellow box. Sun factor is +6 in the life zone of a solar system and goes up by 1 for each orbit inside and down by 1 for each orbit outside down to Sun factor 0. Mercury is +8, Venus is +7, Earth and Luna is of course +6, Mars is +5, Asteroid belt is +4, Jupiter and its moons are +3, Saturn and its moons are +2, Uranus and its moons are +1 and Neptune and its moons are 0. Pluto isn’t even a planet but as its orbit is never much closer than Neptune it is always 0 in Sun factor. Ships in Planet shadow subtract the Sun factor from Vis(Hull).

Living space
Living space and Life support determine the quality of life for the crew past the endurance of its crew stations. More living space per crew member means longer trips without physical or psychological effects. This is mostly here for roleplaying uses but if you design your own ships for competitive play make sure yiu stipulate the expected trip time requirements, ships using Jump drives should have at least one week endurance as this is the time the ship spends in hyperspace. Note that the Closed Lifesupport option requires lots of room for the green house but that entire volume is also treated as Living space and this is reflected on your ship designs.

Living space and crew comfort table

• 1 m3 per crewmember Cramped 1 day cruise
• 2 m3 per crewmember Normal 1 day cruise
• 5 m3 per crewmember Roomy 1 day cruise
• 10 m3 per crewmember Cramped 1 week cruise
• 20 m3 per crewmember Normal 1 week cruise
• 50 m3 per crewmember Normal 1 month cruise
• 100 m3 per crewmember Cramped 1 year cruise
• 200 m3 per crewmember Normal 1 year cruise
• 500 m3 per crewmember Roomy 1 year cruise

Well, that is all for this update, more to come regarding the rules changes later (when I will also document the polar plane gravity sling stealth manuver sometimes called the Marre Red).

This entry was posted on April 8, 2013 at 00:51 and is filed under Design system, Intercept, Rules, Traveller. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.