(Answered) Quarters Capacity Clarification

[idea weenie]

(Opposing viewpoint has verified that this is good.)

I would like to verify the number of people that can be put into a single 5-ton Steerage Quarters, 7-ton Second Class Quarters, or 10-ton First Class Quarters.

Strategic Ops. corrected 4th printing, with cover art by Pablo Aschei and cover design by Matt Heerdt, pg 160-161
" Quarters vary widely. Military vessels, which often dedicate large volumes to “critical military hardware,” tend to have cramped quarters. The Union-class of the Third Succession War is a good example. Despite being larger than this building, it crammed about thirty crewmen into a bunkroom distinctly smaller than this lecture hall."

"To compound the problem, military ships were often overloaded with additional passengers, like technicians, ground security details, command lances and so on. In such circumstances, there were not enough berths for each crewmember and passenger, so bunks were shared in rotating shifts: the “hot bunking” system, so called because your bunk was still “hot” from the last guy when you climbed into it."

"The closest civilian ships might come to “hot bunking” is to split officer-class quarters, the so-called luxury quarters, between two passengers or crewmen, effectively reducing the quarters to steerage-class."
(From this it appears that a First Class Quarters could support 2 people)

Similarly, page 137:
". . . with standard procedure providing First Class Quarters (10 tons apiece) to officers and Second Class Quarters (7 tons apiece) to enlisted/non-officer crew."
and page 138:
"For example, a standard Inner Sphere military DropShip with a crew of 9, plus 2 officers, might normally devote Standard crew quarters to its 9 crewmen and Officer/First Class quarters to its 2 officers"

From the above examples, it appears that a single five-ton Steerage Quarters could be used to support multiple people.  Other ways to phrase it are:
- "Quarters allow 1 ton of cargo provide 200 person days of life support. That's 1 person for 200 days or 200 people for 1 day. That's 6 tons for 1 person for 200 days or 6 tons for 200 people for 1 day."
- "200 person days per ton of cargo. That's plenty of life support for more than one person. And as I quoted, quarters can carry more than one person which are reduced to the next lower class. "
- "20 people stuffed into 1 Steerage Quarters."
- " Steerage Quarters (5 tons) and 1 ton of life support will last those 28 people for 7 days. That's 7 tons for a 2 week trip." (this was in reference to an Infantry Bay being able to store 28 people in it, but needing over 1 ton of Life Support to keep them alive for just one day.  It would be a total of 26 tons for a 2-week trip, 5 tons of Infantry Bay, and 21 tons of Life Support.)


The other interpretation is that it is one person per Steerage Quarters.  Fluff that would hint that is on page 160:
"Giving each infantryman a typical 5-ton steerage-class allotment of quarters, life support and amenities is a common goal among modern military ship designers, but infantry accommodations are invariably the first thing to get cut when a new spacecraft turns out to be overweight"

And page 138, the italicized construction examples:
"Though gunners and additional crew may yet be required, Joel knows about these needs already, and so assigns 54 Standard crew quarters (at 7 tons each) and 11 Officers’ quarters (10 tons each) to the design, for a total of 488 tons in quarters ([54 x 7] + [11 x 10] = 488 tons)." (this was for a vessel that had a minimum requirement of 65 crew)

"Kate decides to spend 140 tons on 20 Standard crew quarters (20 quarters x 7 tons per = 140), and 40 tons more for 4 officer quarters (4 officers x 10 tons per)." (this was for a vessel that had a minimum requirement of 24 crew)

"The quarters for these minimal crew needs will thus weigh 2,513 tons in Standard quarters (359 crew x 7 tons per), plus 720 tons in Officers’ quarters (72 officers x 10 tons per)." (this was for a vessel that had a minimum requirement of 431 crew)

These italicized examples seem to say that each person requires their own Quarters.


The question is:
Can a single 5-ton Steerage Quarter support more than 1 person, even with multiple tons of Life Support (1 ton/200 man-days) available?


(My personal opinion is 1 Quarters is required per person, and no more than 1 person per Quarters.  If you want to put 2 people in Steerage Quarters then it is 10 tons needed, as each person will need their own Steerage Quarters.  But I want to get proper clarification.)

[idea weenie]

Update (not a bump), more information that would indicate packing multiple people per Quarter is possible:
Strategic Operations, 4th edition, p160:
-  The Union-class of the Third Succession War is a good example. Despite being larger than this building, it crammed about thirty crewmen into a bunkroom distinctly smaller than this lecture hall.
- To compound the problem, military ships were often overloaded with additional passengers, like technicians, ground security details, command lances and so on. In such circumstances, there were not enough berths for each crewmember and passenger, so bunks were shared in rotating shifts: the “hot bunking” system, so called because your bunk was still “hot” from the last guy when you climbed into it.
- Civilian ships generally give much more volume and weight for crew and passengers, especially passenger liners, and are willing to pay extra for improved air and water quality. The closest civilian ships might come to “hot bunking” is to split officer-class quarters, the so-called luxury quarters, between two passengers or crewmen, effectively reducing the quarters to steerage-class. But it’ll have much nicer brass trim than your normal steerage quarters.

(If I get other quotes that support multiple people per Quarter, should I add them to this reply or create another reply?)

[Hammer]

I would like to verify the number of people that can be put into a single 5-ton Steerage Quarters, 7-ton Second Class Quarters, or 10-ton First Class Quarters.

It is 1 person per type of quarter.

[idea weenie]

It is 1 person per type of quarter.

So a single Quarter can only support 1 person for Life-Support purposes?  If 10 people are shoved into a single 1st Class or larger Quarter (i.e. the Ultra Luxury Quarters for the Princess Dropship that are up to 20 tons/), only the first person is treated as getting Life Support at the 1 ton/200-man-days, and the other 9 people are treated as getting Life Support at a rate of 1 ton/5-man-days?

[Xotl]

One quarter = one person: that's it.  Obviously you can stuff as many people in a room as you desire, but the rules are meant to cover standard situations rather than clown-car-type ones.  Anything beyond the core is house-ruling, such as the solution you propose.

[idea weenie]

One quarter = one person: that's it.  Obviously you can stuff as many people in a room as you desire, but the rules are meant to cover standard situations rather than clown-car-type ones.  Anything beyond the core is house-ruling, such as the solution you propose.

Ah, I was thinking to use Campaign Operations page 222 to cover the extra people that the Quarter(s) and Bays were not covering. (direct quote at end)  Unfortunately this only covers aerospace, not pure-space vessels (i.e. Space Stations, Warships, Jumpships, or Dropships/Small Craft that cannot enter atmosphere and don't count as aerospace)


So the math would be:
Step 1) Total people on board
Step 2) Determine lower of Step 1 or total number of Quarters
Step 3) Value from Step 1, minus value from Step 2
Step 4) Determine lower of Step 3 or total capacity from the Bays
Step 5) Value from Step 3, minus value from Step 4

Step 2 tells how many people can be supported by Quarters.  This value times 5 kg is the daily Life Support used by the Quarters.
Step 4 tells how many people can be supported by Bays.  This value times 50 kg is the daily Life Support used by the Bays.
Step 5 tells how many people are put in the cargo bays.   This value times 200 kg is the daily Life Support used by the remaining people.
Total up these three values, and you get the Daily Life Support Consumption.

When transported in aerospace units or submarines, infantry and combat unit crews must be supplied with separate quarters (long
term) or infantry bays (for short missions). If not, use of various “consumables” (primarily air and water) is extremely high from the
vessel’s life support systems, which must draw upon emergency reserves and operate in an “open” cycle because the recycling
systems are not meant to handle personnel camping in the cargo bay. This consumption is 1 ton of food, air, water and so on per
day per 5 people, rounded up to the nearest ton. Infantry bays (and the quarters included in other combat unit bays) are hardly
a better choice, requiring 1 ton of consumables per day per 20 people. Quarters are the preferred means of transporting personnel
by submarine or spacecraft, requiring 1 ton of consumables per day per 200 people. (Large infantry units often convert cargo to
quarters and only use infantry bays for combat deployments.)