Roadhouse-class Waystation [AU: Vela Corridor]

[Retry]

Code: [Select]

Roadhouse (Waystation)
Mass: 99,000 tons
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Advanced)
Introduced: 2700
Mass: 99,000
Battle Value: 7,799
Tech Rating/Availability: D/E-X-F-F
Cost: 497,497,500 C-bills
Fuel: 10,000 tons (100,000)
Safe Thrust: 0
Maximum Thrust: 0
Sail Integrity: N/A
Heat Sinks: 93 (186)
Structural Integrity: 1
Armor
     Nose: 69
     Fore Sides: 57/57
     Aft Sides: 49/49
     Aft: 31
Cargo
Bay 1: ARTS Fighter (12) 4 Doors
Bay 2: ARTS Small Craft (2) 1 Door
Bay 3: Cargo (57751.0 tons) 5 Doors
Dropship Capacity: 2
Grav Decks: 1 (250 m)
Escape Pods: 0
Life Boats: 30
Crew: 15 officers, 50 enlisted/non-rated, 25 gunners, 10 bay personnel, 36 BA marines
Ammunition: None
Notes: Equipped with 1 Booby Trap, 1 Smart Robotic Control System (SRCS), and 390 tons of standard aerospace armor.
Weapons: Capital Attack Values (Standard)
Arc (Heat) Heat SRV MRV LRV ERV Class
Nose (117 Heat)
1 Naval Laser 45 70 5(45) 5(45) 5(45) 5(45) Capital Laser
4 Large Laser 32 3(32) 3(32) 0(0) 0(0) Laser
15 Small Laser 15 5(45) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
FRS/FLS (117 Heat)
1 Naval Laser 45 70 5(45) 5(45) 5(45) 5(45) Capital Laser
4 Large Laser 32 3(32) 3(32) 0(0) 0(0) Laser
15 Small Laser 15 5(45) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
ARS/ALS (117 Heat)
1 Naval Laser 45 70 5(45) 5(45) 5(45) 5(45) Capital Laser
4 Large Laser 32 3(32) 3(32) 0(0) 0(0) Laser
15 Small Laser 15 5(45) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point Defense
Aft (117 Heat)
1 Naval Laser 45 70 5(45) 5(45) 5(45) 5(45) Capital Laser
4 Large Laser 32 3(32) 3(32) 0(0) 0(0) Laser
15 Small Laser 15 5(45) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) Point DefenseThe Roadhouse-class Waystation is a Star League era deep space station.  A SRCS drone, the Roadhouse could be carried to an uninhabited system via manned jumpship and then activated to serve as an unmanned supply station, requiring little more than occasional refueling after deployment to keep them in service.

The Roadhouse is minimally armed for anti-meteoroid protection and to discourage casual piracy.  Each arc has a single NL-45 to discourage Pocket Warships from attacking, while a quad Large Laser battery and fairly sizeable small laser battery provides some protection against fighters and missiles.  A few ARTS bays with drone shuttles and fighters are also aboard to round off the defense, which during the Star League would most frequently be filled with BlackWasp drones.  If all of these measures fail to protect the Roadhouse from hostile action, a booby trap will detonate to prevent any adversary from getting important cargo aboard.

Roadhouses were quietly introduced by the Star League in 2700, and placed in key strategic locations in minimally inhabited and uninhabited zones.  Stations placed around the Zenith and Nadir points were usually simple rest stops, with their cargo bays loaded with basic consumables like fuel, water, oxygen, and nonperishable foods for Star League fleets in the region.  Better hidden were the stations positioned deeper within the system, in orbit around planetoids or in asteroid belts.  Outside prying eyes, these stations instead housed more substantial stockpiles war material, including ammunition, armor plating, spare parts and even entire assembled Battlemechs.  Most of these stockpiles were located near problematic Periphery worlds and were picked clean by Aleksandr Kerensky's forces during the initial years of the Amaris Civil War.

The Roadhouse-class outlived the Star League and remains in use as of the Dark Ages.  After the collapse of the 1st Star League, Comstar managed to find the codes to activate any remaining Roadhouse stations they came across, and also gained the design plans, enabling them to make new ones.  Roadhouse stations were highly useful, being deployable in key spots to increase the effective range of the Explorer Corps.  The Clans, who likewise took a few Roadhouse stations along with them on their Exodus and never lost the technology to build them, built and deployed these waystations as infrastructure to support their invasion of the Inner Sphere.  Similarly, the Republic of Crossroad retained the Roadhouse and uses them to extend the range of patrols.

[Note: Cost may be incorrect.  My design program did not have K-F adapters for Space Stations implemented and I don't know how that impacts the cost). 

[Lagrange]

The cost is much higher---the multiplier is 20, if I recall correctly.

There is an alternative though: A yardship capable of jumping can be used as a transport for standard stations.

This is relatively expensive, which I expect has to do with the automation, but it still makes me wonder if there is a way to make it cheaper.

[Daryk]

The multiplier for Space Stations is 5 (SO:AAR, pg. 146 refers).

[Retry]

The cost is much higher---the multiplier is 20, if I recall correctly.

Dear lord, that's far worse than I thought.  That makes the overall effective cost multiplier something like what, x100 (including the 5x for being a space station)?  Way more than even the ridiculous Dropship cost multiplier.

In that case, you could theoretically make a small 2,000 ton HPG station, have it be modular (for swift construction) and with a K-F adapter (for easy deployment without yardships), which ordinarily would seem like a worthwhile asset, but because someone didn't make a sanity check for C-Bill pricing in the construction rules the thing would cost 1 trillion C-Bills.  More than 10x more than Leviathans or Potemkins.

I think I'll choose to reject that reality and subsitute my own.

[Daryk]

I don't know where 20 is coming from... Tech Manual (page 285) says for multipliers:

ASF: 1 + Tonnage/200
Small Craft: 1 + Tonnage/50
Spheroid DS: 28
Aerodyne DS: 36

Strategic Operations (AAR) page 146 says:

Space Stations: 5
WarShips: 2
JumpShips: 1.25

Based on that, it would seem the cheapest way to install an HPG would be via an ASF...

[Syzyx]

After looking it up the cost multiplier for the Space Station KF Adapter is in fact: Full Cost x20.

Which is absolutely insane. I wonder if it was supposed to be Full Cost x2 and someone ignored it in subsequent proofs. Hephaestus Station must have cost more than the Capellan Confederation...

[Daryk]

Can you please give me the page reference?  I'm headed to bed shortly and will check in the morning.

[Lagrange]

Based on that, it would seem the cheapest way to install an HPG would be via an ASF...

If I recall correctly, a large naval support vessel has a better multiplier.

[Syzyx]

Can you please give me the page reference?  I'm headed to bed shortly and will check in the morning.

I don't have the new IO, but in the old one it's pp 105, 186, 216, and 217. Though in re-reading I discovered a misunderstanding of my own. The x20 multiplier replaces the normal x5, not multiplies it. This does make Hephaestus Station probably only worth part of the Capellan Confederation.

If you want to get real crazy, go for the Modular Space Station, that's a x50 modifier.

[Retry]

I don't have the new IO, but in the old one it's pp 105, 186, 216, and 217. Though in re-reading I discovered a misunderstanding of my own. The x20 multiplier replaces the normal x5, not multiplies it. This does make Hephaestus Station probably only worth part of the Capellan Confederation.

If you want to get real crazy, go for the Modular Space Station, that's a x50 modifier.

Okay, that's a bit different.  That reduces the theoretical K-F equipped modular HPG station down to... 200 billion.  Still more expensive than literally any warship, though.

Really, those multipliers should be less than 2x, let alone multiple integers.  Something more akin to Omni's 1.25x modifier.

[Daryk]

Thanks for the refs, and you're right about the x20 replacing the x5 for making the station jumpable.  The "cheap" HPG is 50 tons and uses up 50 equipment slots on a Support Vehicle, so I'm not sure how much cheaper it would be.

[Lagrange]

Thanks for the refs, and you're right about the x20 replacing the x5 for making the station jumpable.  The "cheap" HPG is 50 tons and uses up 50 equipment slots on a Support Vehicle, so I'm not sure how much cheaper it would be.

The multiplier for a large naval support vessel is apparently 1+tonnage/100000.

[Daryk]

That would probably have enough slots to fit one, sure... :)

[Cavgunner]

Peter Griffin voice: Roadhouse.