Most Profitable Jumpship?

[Iracundus]

If reactor charging at the same rate as a sail does the job just as well, then why even have a sail?  A sail would even be slower given the need to spend time deploying it.  As it is, charge times could be cut by the sail deployment time, if the drive is being charged by the reactor at the same time as the sail is being deployed.

There has to be some rationale as to why sails are used at all.

[kato]

There has to be some rationale as to why sails are used at all.

The fuel costs of fusion charging are completely abysmal. For scale, an original Aquilla - without a sail - could only go five 15LY jumps without refuelling. Install a sail, even have it cut into the fuel reserves, and that same Aquilla can trace a jumproute in excess of a thousand light years...

[Daryk]

Kato has it right... fuel consumption for drive charging is non-trivial, especially for smaller JumpShips.

[Orin J.]

What if the governments were subsidizing them with the intent of them being in private hands to begin with? i mean on the one hand they need to take census, collect taxes, maintain lines of communication and just generally remind people who's rule they're under but keeping that going yourself is....expensive, so why not provide loans in exchange for emergency commandeering and requiring a certain minimal amount of government contracts?

That keeps the various worlds in circulation, encourages growth on the various worlds, and since the crews will be more interested in keeping profitable over the duties they'd be held to as agents of the state, they would be helpful in developing industry that might be....er, unwilling to work with legal authorities? an isolated planet isn't gonna generate a lot of taxes, at the very least and if they happen to make some of that money selling suspiciously heavy crates of wool and flour well....if it doesn't harm the state what of it.

[Iracundus]

That is sort of what is described in Handbook: House Marik.  FWL registered ships were required to be available to transport supplies for the FWLM, which could use up to 20% or more of their cargo capacity.  The payment rates for such military duties was less than commercial rates.  In return the ship effectively gets to be its own little mini-province judicially. 

In the Death of Necromo, a Capellan Jumpship referred to itself as a State Trader.  For the more centralized states, Jumpships might be the property of State Owned Enterprises, or otherwise be on a tighter leash.  The most obvious form of control could be limiting ship maintenance and repair to those ships that have fulfilled their duties to the state. 

[Charistoph]

The fuel costs of fusion charging are completely abysmal. For scale, an original Aquilla - without a sail - could only go five 15LY jumps without refuelling. Install a sail, even have it cut into the fuel reserves, and that same Aquilla can trace a jumproute in excess of a thousand light years...

4- 10 Burn Days worth of fuel is what is stated (though, it can be worse).  If it can't hold that much fuel in the first place, then the ship is already in a bad state.

Economically speaking, yes, the "free" energy from a star only costs time.  That time is already being taken in to account for mercantile shipping.

Warships often don't have time to be so gentle on their fuel stores or pocket books, in addition, they have the fuel capacities to work with.  But then Warships have never been profitable unless you do a lot of privateering or merchant raiding with them.

[SCC]

How far back do the construction rules and costs for JumpShips go? Because if they go back to source books from when 3025 was the new hotness then we can probably say that they are unnaturally high due to limited supply.

Also ignore any fueling costs that arise for sitting on the jump point or recharging the core, the concept is ludicrous.

[Maingunnery]

I have come to see the fuel costs as, spending liquid hydrogen for cooling parts that heat up during recharging from the reactor.   

[Giovanni Blasini]

JumpShip construction rules date back to Battlespace, which was Clan Era. Prior to that, there were no construction rules for DropShips and JumpShips.

[Iracundus]

Does anyone know how often a Jumpship needs to go into a yard for maintenance and how long shipyard maintenance takes?  That would be time not spent jumping and earning money, affecting the profitability.  That plus the actual travel time to the shipyard.

[SCC]

I have come to see the fuel costs as, spending liquid hydrogen for cooling parts that heat up during recharging from the reactor.   

These fuel costs have got nothing to do with that but. There are two to concern yourself with, one is for station keeping and you need to expend it not matter what, even if you have no jump drive, and the other is specifically for recharging the drive if you aren't using sails for some reason, both are bogus.

[Daryk]

Does anyone know how often a Jumpship needs to go into a yard for maintenance and how long shipyard maintenance takes?  That would be time not spent jumping and earning money, affecting the profitability.  That plus the actual travel time to the shipyard.

Strat Ops (pages 169-175) has rules for routine maintenance that imply a yard isn't necessary, though you get a huge bonus to the check if you use one.

[idea weenie]

Economically speaking, yes, the "free" energy from a star only costs time.  That time is already being taken in to account for mercantile shipping.

The problem is that while recharging at a star is free, but the crew still expect to get paid.  You will also go through consumables, which will have to be replaced (again, needing money).  Jumpships may be safe when charging at a star, but that is not what Jumpships were built for.

[Charistoph]

The problem is that while recharging at a star is free, but the crew still expect to get paid.  You will also go through consumables, which will have to be replaced (again, needing money).  Jumpships may be safe when charging at a star, but that is not what Jumpships were built for.

But that type of expense is planned for in the operating details of the ship.  Burning 10 days worth of fuel to accelerate the recharge may not be in the planned expenses of the ship, especially if we are only looking at a difference of a couple of days between expected and actual jump in addition the increases possibility of Core failures.

Honestly, that last point is the largest expense concern that would be considered on a merchant Jumpship rather than the cost of the fuel.  Getting an extra tank of gas in the week is nothing compared to having your engine rebuilt, right?  Even worse if you have to get both because you were in a hurry.