Bulk Hauler

1. About the Bulk Transport

Massive, mostly automated, transports that ply the spacelanes. Bulk transports are slow, unweildy, and often anchent having been in the ownership of one faimly or cartel for generations. Because of this it is hard to find any one standard design, however recently relativly cheap bulk haulers have become avalible to large corporations and goverments via a civilian company that sunk resources into mass-producing them.

Bulk haulers are large... So large that they are built far away from gravity in the dead-space between the stars to prevent the metal from warping untill they are done. The ship it's self looks like nothing more then a long stick, with hundreds of thousands of bulbious cargo-holds attached. It's used for one of two things... Regular supply runs, and "gypsying" The Gypsie craft are usualy the independent ones, while the supply runners are typicaly company owned. Old bulk haulers are typicaly retrofitted as new technology comes out, that being cheaper then building a new one

Bulk haulers have wide a wide bridge at the fore. This bridge contains the living quarters, and hydroponics, and rec-room, and command area. To the aft is the engine room, and the parts/maintnence storrooms, as well as the minor replacement parts manufacturing rooms. Because of this the front and aft are large, and slightly bulbious, with a long stem between them to which the storage containers are attached. The containers are roughly clyndrical, with rounded "tops" and "Bottoms".

The semi-mass production methoid involves grabbing a small rock/iron planitoid, about the size of pluto or a large rock/iron moon, dragging it out into intersteller space, and cracking it apart for resources. This will give you enough resources to make several bulk haulers (Concidering that bulk haulers are roughly cylindrical in shape, and are mostly hollow). Bulk haulers' design has not changed much since they were invented, with the most changes being internal and having to do with increased mechination, reducing the nessecary crew.

2. Dimensions and Crew Compliment
Type: Cargo Hauler
Engine: Ion drive
Generator:
Manfucatuer Civilian companies. Most recently Raumschiffhersteller
Production: By-order/semi-mass produced

Crew: 158-600
Maximum Occupants: 1,200
Appearance & Interior: Depends on the vessle. When factory fresh the inside is starkly metalic, with everything bargin-bin and bulk. The cargo holds are sold seperatly, and are specialy outfitted for their needs... 3rd class passenger, 1st class passenger, solid goods, liquid goods, gasious goods, military goods, smuggling....

Length: 1 megameter 621 miles
Width: 50KM 31 miles (Not including cargo holds) only 20KM 12 miles along stem
Height: 50KM 31 miles(Not including cargo holds) only 20KM 12 miles along stem
Mass: Roughly 45 exagrams, roughly 5*10^13 tons

3. Performance Statistics
Top Speed (STL): .87C takes a long, long, long, long, time to reach this speed mind
Acceleration (0-60mph): 0-60 in 1.36 seconds. 2G roughly 19.61 meters per second squared 64.35 feet per second squared.... This is not manuvering acceleration, but main drive exceleration. Manuvering aceleration is 1G roughly 9.80 meters per second squared 32.17 feet per second squared
Thrust 8.9*10^2 petanewtons 1*10^14 tons
Top Speed (Aerial): N/A
Top Speed (Water): N/A

Range (Distance): 300-350 Light years
Lifespan: 7,000-7,250 years

4. Vehicle Systems

Air conditioning: Keeps the air inside from getting overly hot via large heat radiators, and other systems, ranging from the old to the new. Air purifiers too

Hydroponics: To keep the crew alive and fed, as well as to help purify the air

Machine shop: A small robotic factory designed to produce spare small parts to help fix up the ship. It can't do large repairs, and it can't do complex jobs, but it can make small parts for replacement

Gym: For keeping fit. It has equipment for various sports, weightlifting, gymnastics, and acrobatics

Rec Room: Video-games, Holo-movies, board games, cards, dice... Stored and used in this room

Library: Mostly a computer core with information on it that can be acessed within the ship, some owners install hard-copy books and bookshelves here too.

Crew quarters: For sleeping. Typicaly racks of bunks and small lockers

Officer quarters: Rooms for two people to share, and rooms for four to share, they have more privacy then the bunks

Captin's quarters: The most private room in the ship. The stuff inside is of whatever quality the captin decided to buy for his/her self... Usualy little better then what the crew and officers have.

Medical center For dealing with broken bones, illness, and anything else that might spring up. Usualy rather small, some captins pay for better medical centers, and hire better medics.

Automation/computer The bulk hauler, being mostly automated, has a rather powerful computer. It's no A.I. but it could give a dog a run for it's money.

Com system An internal com-system, and a com system for contacting other nearby ships/planets

Scanners For object detection

Modular Cargo system: It used to be very common, but it is much less so. Only Bulk Haulers and a few others use them anymore... A series of mechanicaly linked, specialy outfitted pods to carry various types of cargo. The idea was that you could ask that Pod be provided by cargo, and drop it off at destination to keep from having to transport extra mass, and to allow you to varry your payload.

Armor: Reinforced Titanium plating: 3

5. Weapons

Point defence lasers (1) (Optional): Some bulk haulers are outfited with several medium power lasers to discorage enemy attacks. These are just basic lasers on turrets.

Location: To the fore and aft, but not along the "stem". There are eight around the head, and eight around the rear, and then four along the shafts imediatly prior to the head and rear.
Primary Purpose: Dealing with small-time pirates, defence against fighters, mecha, missles. It's just a laser
Damage: 4
Area of Effect: Cylinder with a diameter of 1 foot, 30.48 centimeters
Range: about 5 AU
Rate of Fire: Once every 5 seconds early on in the fight. Rate of fire drops to once every 15 seconds after about ten mins of usage. (For each individual laser)
Payload: N/A

Any mecha/fighters loaded into cargo-bays that have external hatches.


Point Cost:

Computer: 100
Main Generator: 400
Point-Defense Guns: 3x24 72
Sublight engines: Speed (in c) x 100 N/A. Makes no sense! There is no max speed in non-inertialy dampened vehicles, save for the speed of light!
CFS/CDD: Speed (in c) / 100 20/100: .2
Hyperspace Drive: Ly/min*100 .5X100: 50
Environmental Systems: 1,200 (Max capacity without passenger "cargo" bays)

Total: 1822.2 +87?

'k... working on it... But the large maximum speed is if you let in accelerate continuiously for several YEARS.... it accelerates very slowly

Modded

Weapon Name (#): Detailed weapon description. Detailed weapon description. Detailed weapon description. Detailed weapon description. Detailed weapon description. Detailed weapon description. Detailed weapon description. Detailed weapon description. Detailed weapon description. Detailed weapon description. Detailed weapon description.

Location: Where on the ship or mecha is the weapon located? (Or, locations can be noted in descriptions.)
Primary Purpose: Weapon is mainly intended for what sort of operation?
Secondary Purpose: But, the weapon can also be used for this.
Damage: Usual effect against craft of similar nature.
Area of Effect: Self-explanatory.
Range: Maximum effective range.
Rate of Fire: How long between shots?
Payload: How much ammunition is carried?



Weapons on a ship are supposed to be in this format^

Be sure to calculate SR cost as well.

Modded, don't know how to set up SR....

Tried doing a SR thingy...

ahem... did the SR thingy....

um, yes, why do you need such a insanely massive vessel? Keep in mind here that this is longer than the Death Star for gods sake. What would prompt someone to spend the kind of materials this monster would require? In a setting covering such a small area of space (~30-40 Ly sphere) with such fast FTL what does it provide that a armada of smaller ships cannot? In a huge setting covering a massive area of space with much, much slower FTL (if not STL only) I could see a ship like this (albeit much, much smaller) having advantages over small ships, but I can see no area in which it has a comparative advantage over smaller ships.

Also, what are you making this out of? A ship this large would require absurdly strong materials (even for this setting) to even survive its own acceleration, seeing as I don't think the SA would see it worthwhile to donate 50k ships worth of Zesauim for the superstructure.

What we COULD use is a bunch of designs for small, privately-owned merchant and cargo runner craft that new players could grab from the start without upsetting the power balance; something small, fun, possibly rusty, not ubertech. It primarily has to serve three functions:

1) Get from point to point, and not so fast there's no opportunity for in-travel RP.

2) Serve as a fun and interesting RP environment by having a detailed interior with neat quirks and spaces to interact.

3) Have room to put COOL STUFF. That might be a shuttle, cargo, salvage, vehicles, loot, maybe captives...

I'll get to work on some smaller ships but!


You want to know why this is nessessary. Imagine a planet with about 12 billion people, and no surface farming. It's just a factory planet. How do you get enough goods and food to it with little tiny ships?

Well, if you have the raw materials and cash to blow on one of these things, you could probably afford to simply put in a space station with artificial farmland. It would be far more practical.
Also, where the fuck would you put it?
It would be impossible to land on any surface, not only due to sheer size, but also because it's probably large enough to create a mid-sized gravity well on its own, which is not something you want anywhere near your planet.