2009 book, Advanced Aerospace Construction, pg 155 onwards
Suggestions and corrections here. I figure one post for the whole section is easier.
First, pg 155, Transport Bays and Doors. The food calculations for Bay Personnel would be much easier if the Bay Personnel Table (TO, pg 202) was either reproduced here or at the very least referenced in the calculation descriptions. Finding it is not easy, as it is not in the Compiled Tables of TO either, and only found referenced in a footnote of the Transport Bays Status Table (I will post this in the TO Errata shortly).
Also, the food calculations mention a calculation for people transported in the cargo bay, but the Transport Bay table in TM (pg 239) makes no mention of Cargo, Passengers. The two closest are Cargo, Standard for Bulk Items; or Cargo, Livestock for Animals. If either is to be used, a conversion chart for how to work out the number of Cargo Passengers would be useful.
NOTE: The Errata changes the food consumption for people in cargo bays from 1 ton per 10, to 1 ton per 5. Still no mention of how many people can travel per ton of Cargo space, or if they are classified as Bulk Items, Livestock or need a new section.
Second, also pg 155, Transport Bays and Doors. This is an expansion of what Bad_Syntax has alluded to above. The text states "Designers of advanced aerospace units must assign a minimum of 1 bay door to any unit with a transport bay, to allow for entry and egress from the unit." and further on "A transporting unit's launch rate (per turn) for onboard fighters or other launch-capable units with appropriate cubicles (Small Craft, 'Mechs and ProtoMechs) is equal to twice the number of functioning bay doors associated with its launch-capable units."
The wording is a little unclear as to the mechanics. From the first part of the text, provided the Unit (taken to mean JumpShip, WarShip or Space Station) has a single Bay Door, any number of Transport Bays can make use of it. The launch rate would be limited, but possible.
The second part of the text uses the word "associated", which given certain examples is vague. It sounds like a Bay Door could be used by several Transport Bays, as in the example on pg 157, the McKenna. "An additional 16 Small Craft bays are added as well...but not assigned doors (they will simply launch through the fighter bays when needed).
The Alliance example on pg 156 also adds a wrinkle when "Joel assigns [the Bay Door] to the Front facing" as no mention of assigning Bay Doors to any facing has been mentioned.
Now, all this combined with the wordings of the Bay Door (TM, pg 209) and Transport Bay (TM, pg 239) makes for quite a mess. My solution is as follows, and I will explain with quotes. The rules can obviously be written into the text to make sense.
- Every Transport Bay MUST be assigned at least 1 Bay Door. (TM, pg 209 reads "...should have at least one bay door per transport bay.") This limits the number of Transport Bays to the maximum number of Bay Doors, avoiding designs that Bad_Syntax mentions would break the spirit of the rules.
- Every Transport Bay MUST be assigned 1 Type. (TM, pg 239 reads "...must separate any and all transport bays by type...") Add an exception that Fighters can dock in Small Craft cubicles, since existing designs make use of this mechanic already. Small Craft, however, cannot dock in Fighter cubicles. Fitting 150 tons in 200 is easy, whilst fitting 200 tons in 150 is not so much.
A rewrite of the section to differentiate between a Transport Bay and a Cubicle would help. There are plenty of instances with phrases like "An additional 16 Small Craft bays are added" which would be more accurate and illustrating if the word bays read as cubicles. A WarShip has Bays, the Bays contain Cubicles, the Cubicles contain Fighters/Small Craft.
Generic cargo could still be re-configured, and so all unused Bay Doors should be allocated to it. None of this prevents the Transport Bays being reconfigured, provided they are done so within these new rules.
A clarification on assigning a Bay Door to a facing would be useful. If we don't need to do it, excellent. If we do, then I think some explanation as to the consequences is needed. Are they likely to be damaged, and if so does that prevent craft landing/launching? Does their placement affect launching Fighters?
These changes could likely render some published designs illegal, necessitating Errata for them.