Re: Mammoth -> Horseshoe Crab

In <URL:news:local.spelljam> on Mon 12 Dec, jamesriley wrote:
> Thank you for your prompt assistance in the matter regarding the Horseshoe
> Crab. I worked out the hull on the shipyard construction exel file found on
> beyond the moons with minimal rigging and it gave me a total of eight
> riggers plus cook/healer and officers for a total of 14 crew, but that
> didn't tell me if it was based on shift work or if that was total required
> for one shift.

The google search said that 27 crew was the minimum, up to 90
maximum, presumably on the 1 crew per ton limit. I would guess
that your 14 crew would work for the 'day', then have a 'night',
where everyone rests and only turns out in an emergency. With
Furnace or Pump Helms you might be able to do that as long as
they are minimally supervised, possibly with two crew (one
officer, one crewman) on night watch.


>  The unseen servant expense is not a problem in FeOsphere because of the
> high technological (magicological?) level there.  As far as the unseen
> servant automation goes, I was looking at one spell for each specific task
> not general workers (e.g. upon command the unseen servants assigned to lower
> the landing gear would crank it into locking position, and another command
> would set the unseen servants assigned to hauling rigging to begin cranking
> specific pulleys they are assigned to. No thought process involved on their
> part just manual labor.) in the previous example I presume that I'll require
> 2 or 3 elite skilled bosuns to add to the crew. The google search you
> mentioned might be the same one I found, but I think that included weapons
> crews.

I am not clear how being high tech removes the expense problem -
unless people are really rich. What sort of guess were you making
about the number of individual tasks required, each of which
needs its own enchanted set of Unseen Servants? This still sounds
horribly expensive, and even with the most generous assumptions I
can't see how to get permanent enchantment of each Unseen Servant
below about 1700gp. Are you using an improved enchantment scheme
that allows you to enchant a group of Unseen Servant in a fixed
place to do a fixed task on command? What sort of spell level
equivalent is this?

I would guess that the 27 minimum doesn't include special weapons
crew.


>  I'm glad you brought up repairs, the plan also included building 12 ships
> with 9 running continuous trips and 3 in the docks for maintenance rotating
> out in sequence, but I had completely forgotten about having a repairship on
> standby. The tugs are not a problem either because I already have a
> dedicated tug class for my rockjacks to use and they are on call as needed.
> Oddly enough I based my tugs on a tradesman hull with 3 different
> engine/helm types on board each one to give them extra towing power.

Interesting. You don't anticipate the tugs also needing some sort
of protection? Do you think that raiders wont bother them?


> For insystem use I prefer the gravity drive coupled to either a
> pump or major helm.

What is used to fuel the gravity drive? A pump runs on
conventional material (though I'm not sure that I understand the
logic by which it works), and a major helm on arcane or divine
spell power.


> The bunkerage for the pumps on the H.C. class can come out of the
> excessive cargo space I built into the vessels. Since pumps run on normal
> matter and these ships will mostly haul raw materials that shouldn't be too
> big of an expense, but if you know where I can find a table that gives power
> output for material types I would like to see it.

I would be interested in this as well. Also, the (magical?) logic
by which a pump is supposed to work, and what sort of effort is
required to make a Pump Helm, compared with a conventional SJ
Minor Helm and Major Helm.


>  My players plan to let the FRN supply destroyers and frigates to escort
> duty insystem, for a convoy of 9 cargo ships my players are thinking of
> using 3 military escorts ( 1 destroyer and 2 frigates) since the military
> ships have to patrol anyway they can kill two birds with one mission. I
> personally think this is a bad idea but so far nothing in space has been
> able to stand up to the might of the FRN. The kind of bad guys that could
> possibly attack the convoy would have to be some truly dangerous monster to
> get to the cargo ships and destroy one, and even then it won't get much for
> its pain except ore and broken ship parts. The terrorists on Harpers world
> might get ahold of some kind of ship and do a suicide run just to upset the
> economy, but again that's unlikely.

Patrol is not the same as convoy duty. Depending on discipline
one (fast) raider ship might try and decoy the escort away while
the others attack the merchanters. Escorting convoys is only
going to let you catch raiders who try and attack them.

What do the raiders want from the convoy? Ore is not something
most are likely to want. Might they try fast attacks to steal the
Helms? Enslave crewmen for resale? Raiders have to effectively
think about profit as well, assuming they are not just trying to
disrupt commerce.

What about really nasty raiders with things like invisible
Flitters and a Charm capability? I could imagine a horrible mixed
force with an Ogre Magi commander, with half-kin ogres who just
have the Charm ability (or maybe something like Human Control
potions). If they have an enchanter who can make invisible
Flitters, or just put Invisibility 10' Radius on them, then they
could board a merchanter in a convoy, Charm valuable crew
members, rip-out and steal the Helm, and be away before warships
could do anything!


>  Getting back to the subject at hand, my calculations so far have come up
> with a ship that, exclusive of engine/helm, costs about 300,000 gp each with
> another 150,000 gp for enchantments and magical outfitting. For a fleet of
> 12 this is pretty workable, economics wise, for my sphere. Of course there
> will not be any profit shown for the first 3-5 years because of the nature
> of the cargo (raw iron, nickel, copper, etc. mined from the asteroid belts
> and wood and food stuffs from the planets to the processing stations) but
> these are being subsidized by the state to keep a steady reliable stream of
> materials and goods going both ways thru the system to eliminate monthly
> price fluctuations in food and balance supply and demand.

Sounds interesting!


>  FYI the FeOsphere contains 3 inhabited planets with 5 inhabited moons and 3
> asteroid belts(2 belts and a swarm) and 9 processing stations not counting
> Gibralter Base(Rock of Bral). All the rest of the celestial bodies in
> FeOsphere are uninhabitable by air breathing carbon based lifeforms.

Is there a (rough) write-up of it anywhere?


> Thank you again for your help and advice, you can be sure I will add the
> valid points you brought up to my calculations before my players get an
> answer from the Senate on the subsidy.

Glad to have helped!


> V/R FC2 Riley, James R. 
> cel: 228-249-2967
> e-mail: jamesriley@???.net
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Spelljammer Setting Discussion
> [mailto:SPELLJAMMER-L@??????.???????.com] On Behalf Of Dreamer
> Sent: Sunday, December 11, 2005 6:51 PM
> To: SPELLJAMMER-L@??????.???????.com
> Subject: Re: [SPELLJAMMER]
> 
> In <URL:news:local.spelljam> on Sun 11 Dec, jamesriley wrote:
> 
> Someone trying to do organised spelljamming merchanting.


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Dreamer
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