DED, I knew that your rules in heretical engineering were heretical but, your write-up on mini-jumps makes sense and I agree with your take on HEPlaR thrusters. Humans are tinkerers and over the centuries improvements are bound to be made. I somehow can't picture a TL-25 Ancients starship driving around with a TL-10 thruster. So I've included both rules IMTU. I asked about the 100 ton rule because someone posted a question about it in SFRPG and it brought back memories of the first ship I designed using FF+S, a 50 Ton Coalition Scout. I'll post it tomorrow of the next day so you can have a good laugh.
Ridge Runners are designed as cargo carriers and have limited passenger capacity, they are also designed for survivability and have their vitals protected by 15 cm of superdense armor.
Designer's Notes: When I designed Ridge Runner I first looked at the J-Hawk, a fine ship in a low-threat environment, but not ideally suited for work in the wilds. First its sensors are a joke, second its turret firing arcs do not allow for shooting at perusing ships unless it turns around. Also ten staterooms for passengers seemed excessive unless you wanted to bring mercs to protect the crew during missions, and finally its cargo hold at 26.5% of its internal volume doesn't allow for much cargo. I think that a 200 ton ship is just to small for the wilds, where every nut with a gun and a ship is waiting to take a pot-shot at any passing Lancer crew.
School Tour of Ridge Runner by Engineer's Mate Victor Andropov
Upon entering berth 23 you are struck by the ship's sleek airframe design, much to pretty to haul cargo you say, don't believe it! This baby can haul over a third it's volume in cargo and still be pretty doing it.
As the crew is offloading cargo from the forward hatch the XO has asked that we enter through the starboard cargo hatch. Now in the cargo bay you look forward and see a very large cargo hatch with several people offloading pallets and containers out a very large cargo hatch, yep that hatch is double the size of a standard cargo hatch. Victor says yep that hatch is double the standard size makes loading and off-loading a snap. Actually we have three cargo hatches configured like the J-Hawk. What's that personal hatch next to the cargo hatch lead to? That goes to the EVA changing room adjacent to the airlock. Behind that bulkhead is engineering, and the access hatch to the sandcaster in the ventral turret. There are two personal hatches to ease access to engineering and the big 20 square meter hatch makes shifting bulky items in and out of engineering a breeze. Now everyone if you will step through this hatch and up the spiral stairs we can go see the most important area of the ship. What the bridge? Well I was going to say engineering but. we will be stopping by the flight deck too. Oh, the turrets too, OK. Well that door aft leads to the air raft hanger and beyond that to my home, engineering. Now if we go forward along the corridor the first two doors are to our turret controls for the two dorsal turrets. Go ahead take turns, trying your hand at the controls. No worries ma'am, there's a gunnery practise program in the controls now, no live fire. Missiles, young man, nope, at nearly two million credits apiece a small ship like ours just can't afford them, but shooting the laser is still fun. Forward down this corridor we come to the the eight staterooms for the passengers and crew. No ma'am, no worries about waking someone, when we're on Aubaine the crew is off swimming, boating and fishing. Why is the XO loading cargo, well ma'am the captain is from a desert world and he likes to snorkel, and to be fair, he's taking her out to dinner this evening. Me? I love to show off my home, -under my breath- and those four kings I drew to the captains full house just might have something to do with it. Now at the end of the corridor we come to the crew's lounge, here we have a compact galley, a dinning table and on the other side we have a 3D movie center and some comfortable chairs that are great to relax in after a hard day. And now through these doors to see what the kids seem to be looking forward to,-under my breath-although I still think engineering is better. Well kids, here's the flight deck, who wants to sit in the captain's chair, yep that's the one up front, take turns now. The one on the left is Nikki's chair, she's our sensor operator, and on the right is our XO's chair she doubles as our navigator and communications operator. OK kids, who wants to ride back to the school in our air raft, yep, five noses and ten hands. Well ma'am I never knew a kid that didn't like a ride in a convertible.
General Data
Displacement: 300 D Tons Hull Armor: 21+210
Length: 30 meters Volume: 4200m3
Price: MCr 99.575 Target Size: S
Configuration: Disc AF Tech Level: 12 (C)
Mass (Loaded/ Empty): 4436.85/ 2507.622
Engineering Data
Power Plant: 2x 115 mw Fusion Plants (38.33 mw/ Hit, 1 year
Duration, 14.503 mw excess)
Jump Performance: 2
Jump Fuel: 630m3 (45 S Tons)
G-Rating: 1 (150 mw/G), High Efficiency CG Lifters (30 mw),
22.5 Ton Thrust Ducted Fans (11.25 mw)
G-Turns: 30 (additional 16.8 Gs/ parsec of jump fuel used)
18.75m3
Fuel Tankage: 1002.5m3 (85.17 D Tons) plus 34.5m3 reserved for
Power Plant
Electronics Data
Computer: 3x TL-12 Mod St Computers (0.4 mw each)
Commo: 30,000 km Radio (1 Hex, 1 mw), 1000 AU Maser (~, 0.6 mw)
Avionics: TL-10+ Avionics (160 km/h)
Sensors: 120,000 km Active EMS (4 Hexes, 16.5 mw), 120,00 km
Passive EMS fixed array (4 Hexes, 0.15 mw)
ECM: None
Controls: 3x Flight Deck + 2x Engineering workstations
Armament Data
Offensive: 3x Turret Sockets (Loc: 10,10; Arcs: All;
Loc: 12-13; Arcs: 2,3,4,5; power drawn from reserves)
Defensive: None
Fire Control: None
Accommodations Data
Life Support: Extended (3000me, 0.6 mw), Gravitic Compensators
(3G, 3000m3, 15 mw)
Crew: 5 (2x Eng, 1x Elect, 2x Man; Optional: 2x Gunners)
Crew Accommodations: 5x Small Staterooms (0.0005 mw each)
Passenger Accommodations: 3x Small Staterooms (0.0005 mw each)
Cargo: 1848.963m3 (132.07 D Tons)
Small Craft Facilities: Minimal Hanger for 3 D Ton air raft
with launch port
Air Locks: 3
Notes
Ridge Runner class Far Traders are designed as inexpensive small freighters and were a common sight alone boarders and in hot zones were trade was necessary but encounters with pirates and privateers were possible. The larger hull allowed designers to add a third turret giving the ship overlapping firing arcs, and allowed the ship to fly away after taking damage that would kill a J-Hawk.
The following systems are protected by 15cm of internal armor: Flight Deck, all electronics, Jump Drive, Power Plant, Maneuver Drive, CG Lifters, Life Support and Gravitic Compensators.
Ridge Runners can scoop 840m3/ hour and can purify (1.89 mw)
315m3 in 6 hours.
Area (D 20) Surface Hits Internal Explosions
1 1-10: CH Hold
2-3 1-3: Ant 1-3: Elect, 4-10: Qtr, 11-20: Hold
4-5, 11,
14-15, 18-19 Hold
6-7 1: AL 1-10: Qtr, 11-20: Hold
8-9 1-5: CH Hold
10 1: Ant, 2:LP 1-4: TS, 5-8:TS, 9: Qtr, 10-20: Hold
12-13 1-2: Ant 1-2: TS, 3-10: Eng. 11-20: Hold
16-17 1-2: LP 1-10: Eng, 11-20: Hold
20 1-9: Hold, 10-20: Eng
Systems
JD 4H SSR 2h (x8)
PP 3H (x2) LS 8H
MD 3h ELS 4H
CG 1H AG 1H
FPP 3H Hanger 3h