Topic: Alternate Vessel/Vehicle Hull System

[arakish]

As said in this post in this topic, here is the CAF/HAT system my SFRP group and I use.  Of course, our universe is also different than that of the SM: Privateers.

VMass = Vessel/Vehicle Mass.  VVolume = Vessel/Vehicle Volume.  Vessel and vehicle are used interchangably throughout our VCG system.  More often, the term "vessel" is used.  VCG = Vessel/Vehicle Construction Guidelines.

Construction Armor Framing

Required system.  CAF Mass = (VMass) × 0.005.  CAF Volume = (VVolume) × 0.005.  CAF Cost = (CAF Mass) × 10,000.


Hull Armor Type

HAT		Material		Tech Level		Volume Factor		Cost Factor		Notes
XXI		Steel		12		0.02		1
XXII		Reinforced Steel		14		0.03		1.5
XXIII		Titanium		15		0.02		1.5
XXIV		Reinforced Titanium		15		0.03		2
XXV		Crysteel Alloy		17		0.02		3
XXVI		Reinforced Crysteel Alloy		17		0.03		4.5
XXVII		Fullerene		19		0.01		8.5		SD
XXVIII		Reinforced Fullerene		19		0.015		15
XXIX		Super-Fullerene		21		0.01		30		ICE
XXX		Collosium		24		0.04		50		TSE & UHF
XXXI		Trilanium		25		0.03		75		KC only
XXXII		Dilantium		26		0.02		100		KC only
XXXIII		Laquadrium		27		0.01		125		MI only
XXXIV		Medicium		28		0.005		150		MI only
XXXV		Neutronium		29		0.001		200		MI only

SD = Snekra Dynasty.  CIE = Confederacy of Idorian Emirates.  TSE = Terran Star Empire.  UHF = Urgon Hegemonies Federation.  KC = Khryshyn Concordium.  MI = Magellan Invaders.

I know I did not have to include the Notes column.  However, the way I pulled the data out into my default text editor (HTML-Kit), I just left it.  I have a customized toolbar I created for HTML-Kit which allows me to insert BBCode tags.

Furthermore, HAT XXXIV automatically gives a +10 DB and -1 CHPR.  HAT XXXV automatically gives a +20 DB and a -2 CHPR.  These are cumulative with any Superior Construction Techniques.

Although the material for HAT XXXV is listed as Neutronium, it is not neutronium as found in neutron stars.  I believe nothing can be constructed from that stuff, except neutron stars.  My reasoning is fairly simple.  Even if you could remove some mass from a neutron star, that mass would explode to full size since the gravity no longer exists to keep it collapsed.  Even if you could make sheet plates from that stuff, you would have to have unimaginably powerful fields/shields to make it retain its shape.  And if you can generate fields/shields that powerful, you would not need that stuff since such fields/shields would make your vessel practically invulnerable.  We even had one member who wanted to call HAT XXXV "invulnerite."  But he got voted down in favor of neutronium.

Otherwise, all other factors are the same as in SMPVM.


Superior Construction Techniques

Superior Construction Techniques can include many techniques such as compressed lamination (most common), honeycomb lamination, reactive ablation, amongst others.  These techniques come in three different effects of increasing a hull's resistance to damage.

The most common technique applied is the CHPR (critical hull penetration reduction).  This specifically helps to prevent the vessel from suffering cataclysmic hull penetration due to weapon's fire.  However, it will not prevent hull penetration if the weapon fire is powerful enough.  For example, supposed a weapon achieved a G critical and you have a -5 CHPR, then you would still suffer a B critical.  Furthermore, your vessel would still suffer the hits damage.  Each critical level over the CHPR has a 10% chance of reducing the overall CHPR by 1.  In the above example, the chance of the CHPR -5 being reduced to -4 would be equal to 20%.  This simulates that with enough pounding, a vessel can still suffer catastrophic damage.

The defensive bonus (DB) does not apply to preventing the vessel from being hit (does not add to Maneuverability and/or Evasion), rather it reduces the effect of the weapon's fire itself.  However, this basically still amounts to a penalty to the weapon's OB.

The Hits addition is self-explanatory.

DB		Hits		CHPR		Cost
+5		+10%		-1		4
+10		+20%		-2		8
+15		+30%		-3		16
+20		+40%		-4		32
+25		+50%		-5		64

Each effect is purchased separately.  For example, if a +10 DB, +10% Hits increase, and a -2 CHPR, then the total cost multiplier will be ×256 (8 × 4 × 8 ).


A Further Note

When we looked over the SMPVM VCG, we noticed that CAT XI Material = Steel.  Yet on page 8, Section 3.3 Arms and Armor, Tech Level 12 states "Steel hulls replace wooden ones."  If this is so, then why does CAT XI have its Tech Level as 15?  Even at Tech Level 13 we were building tanks.  Exceptionally crude ones, but we were still building tanks.

Thus, we gave HAT XXI a Tech Level of 12.  We also felt that it was not until Tech Level 14 that we learned to build Reinforced Steel Hulls.  Afterwards, we felt that once a new hull material was invented, it was not long before reinforcing it was also invented.  Thus, excepting Steel, reinforced hulls are at the same Tech Level.  We also felt that Super-Fullerene and higher hull systems automatically incorporated reinforcement.

rmfr

EDIT: Had to fix an italics tag.

[markc]

What attack tables do you use for those above XXX?
MDC

[markc]

  Besides that it looks very interesting. I have often thought that some interior construction factor during Hull construction would be good. I know that SM:P VM uses a quirk that reduces Hull Volume to get crit reduction but I would like to see some other means of doing so my self besides this.


 Thanks for sharing your ideas.
MDC

[snrdg051306]

Howdy arakish,

I want to add my thanks for sharing the construction system, a quick look I see something good. I'll take a better look later since I'm still going through the SM: P VM system.

Tom R

[arakish]

Sorry, people.  Had a major SNAFU at work.  Kept me real busy the past few days.

What attack tables do you use for those above XXX?
MDC

We use a -25 modification to OB for each level above XXX.  Sorry I forgot that.  Otherwise, use the CAT XX column in the weapon tables.

Will probably be quite busy for the next week.  Thus, I might not log in for a while.

rmfr

[arakish]

And forgot a further note.  The only reason for doubling a vessel's hull is to prevent critical penetration into the ship's interior.  If a vessel's hull is doubled, then the criticals only penetrate to the inner hull and not the interior of the ship.  However, if the critical is severe enough, it may still penetrate through the inner hull into the ship's interior.  Otherwise, you are free to interpret how criticals penetrate into a ship with doubled hulls.

Most often, only critical areas of a ship actually has doubled hulls (engines, power, etc.).

rmfr

[markc]

Thanks for the info and I thought it was going to be something like that.
MDC

[snrdg051306]

Basically the same reason for a real world partial and complete double hull construction. The real world use came about to prevent or minimize oil spills from ships involved in minor collisions or groundings. Unfortunately, major high-energy collisions or groundings have proved to be no protection at all as illustrated by the accident report of the Exxon Valdez grounding back in 1989 which concluded that even with a double hull construction, she had partial double hull, the oil spill might have been only slightly less severe.

[arakish]

Basically the same reason for a real world partial and complete double hull construction. The real world use came about to prevent or minimize oil spills from ships involved in minor collisions or groundings. Unfortunately, major high-energy collisions or groundings have proved to be no protection at all as illustrated by the accident report of the Exxon Valdez grounding back in 1989 which concluded that even with a double hull construction, she had partial double hull, the oil spill might have been only slightly less severe.

How true.  But as said, if severe enough, even double or triple hulls can still be penetrated (especially with high-energy kinetic weapons).  Think I said this, but...  Most often, only critical ship systems (energizer/reactors, MA fuel storage, etc.) usually employ double hulling, then the ship utilizes double and triple shielding.  But this usually only occurs in the big battlewagons (battleships, heavy cruisers, battle monitors, etc.).

For a further note, in our universe, kinetic based weapons tend to be more powerful against shields than the energy-based weapons.  The only difference is that as long as the ship has enough power, energy-based weapons still have ammo.  Also in our universe, kinetic weapons penetrate shields rather easily.  Although the shields do absorb some of the kinetic energy, if the kinetic energy is high enough, they will still penetrate the shields to impact the hull.  Vice versa is true of energy based weapons.  They tend to slice a hull open rather easily, but have a much harder time penetrating shields.  I'm fairly certain y'all can figure out how we handle this.  Bonuses/Penalties depending upon what each weapon type is impacting.

rmfr

[NanoEther]

Double hulls on warships are primarily used for preventing penetration of critical spaces at common torpedo depths. They often contain measures to try to disable torpedoes before they can penetrate any deeper into the ship where they will explode. They also provide 'crush' protection to internal spaces in case of a collision.

As such, they should not be a CAT, it should be an option. At the cost of Vol and Mass, Crits should be reduced. I chose crit reduction since the attack has already hit you, and the purpose of the added hull and protections are to reduce critical damage to the vessel.

Off the top of my head:  Maybe a step per hull, with additional steps of reduction possible from other options, which would result in an increase in mass. 1 step for every (Mark # of protection divided by 10), Mark # cannot exceed TL, Mass = Mk# * Vol of Multi-Hull divided by TL (probably needs a constant in here somewhere), Cost (should be expensive) Mk# * Mass of Option * 10k.