The on-off discussion(s) about dropship design and quarters got me thinking in a different direction. So if we imagine dropships more as landing ships that are not meant for long-term habitation (or even medium term, to be honest), how to deal with that once warships are gone or if we're talking about civilian ships that were never meant to work primarily with warships.
All canon jumpship are equipped to make their own crew relatively comfortable (quarters, grav deck), but little more. That's fine for short trips of a jump, maybe two. But what about long trips? Say you're heading from New Avalon to Tharkad, you'll spend weeks, maybe months in zero gravity, cramped in what ever poor excuse for quarters you got stuck with.
So I set about modifying the Tramp. It's fluffed to operate on the fringes, probably doing longer trips among the a bit more scattered worlds of the Periphery. It has two large cargo holds, so there's room for modification.
First, I put in a total of three grav decks:
- a small one for the exclusive use of the crew (at 70 meter diameter, it will spin at roughly 5 rotations per minute, A bit too fast to be comfortable for non-spacers)
- two large ones, that at 250 meter diameter will spin at a more stately 2.6 rounds per minute. Those two are meant for the passengers aboard the docked dropships.
The cargo is cut down to a hair under 1000 tons to make room for 200 second class quarters, fluffed to be situated in the large grav decks. I imagine these to be bookable either for the whole duration of a trip or on a day to day basis. Say, one gravity deck with 100 quarters is rented out for a whole trip (say, the 17 jumps / 4 month between Taurus and Canopus), while the other deck is reserved for less well-off passengers that can't afford to spend the whole trip under gravity, but may buy a day pass once during a recharge cycle. Spend a night in a normal bed, take a walk or have a proper meal from a plate.
To accompany all those passengers, the crew was expanded by roughly 20 cabin crew. And while I was at it, I switched the weaponry to more basic large and small lasers. That would make it producable and maintainable during the Succession Wars.
So use these for long trips and Invaders, Merchant, etc. for all short traveling and trading. Anyway, that's the idea. As always, thoughts, opinions and observations welcome.
SuperTramp JumpShip
Mass: 250,000 tons
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Advanced)
Introduced: 2754
Mass: 250,000
Battle Value: 1,541
Tech Rating/Availability: D/D-E-D-F
Cost: 832,089,583 C-bills
Fuel: 500 tons (1,250)
Safe Thrust: 0
Maximum Thrust: 0
Sail Integrity: 5
KF Drive Integrity: 6
Heat Sinks: 122
Structural Integrity: 1
Armor
Nose: 10
Fore Sides: 10/10
Aft Sides: 10/10
Aft: 5
Cargo
Bay 1: Small Craft (2) 2 Doors
Bay 2: Cargo (996.5 tons) 1 Door
Ammunition:
None
Dropship Capacity: 3
Grav Decks: 3 (250 m, 250 m, 70 m)
Escape Pods: 5
Life Boats: 0
Crew: 7 officers, 33 enlisted/non-rated, 6 gunners, 10 bay personnel, 200 passengers
Notes: Mounts 137.5 tons of standard aerospace armor.
Weapons: Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat) Heat SRV MRV LRV ERV Class
Nose (20 Heat)
2 Large Laser 16 2(16) 2(16) 0(0) 0(0) Laser
4 Small Laser 4 1(12) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
FRS/FLS (20 Heat)
2 Large Laser 16 2(16) 2(16) 0(0) 0(0) Laser
4 Small Laser 4 1(12) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
ARS/ALS (20 Heat)
2 Large Laser 16 2(16) 2(16) 0(0) 0(0) Laser
4 Small Laser 4 1(12) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
Aft (20 Heat)
2 Large Laser 16 2(16) 2(16) 0(0) 0(0) Laser
4 Small Laser 4 1(12) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
