Jump Tenders - A Different Approach

[liveware (OP)]

Why not put the jump drive in a separate ship?
...

Actually, yeah, why not?
In fact, replace the jump drive on the Pegasus with a tractor beam.
Now build a space station with the jump drive (and nothing else), and tow it with the Pegasus.
This makes the Pegasus quite a bit smaller, which means you can use a smaller jump drive--probably more than enough weight savings to offset the tractor beam.
And you gain the option of ditching the jump drive for increased speed in an emergency.

I considered the space station approached but decided I wanted a ship instead because it would be easier to manage. Once my empire grows it is likely that I will start placing commercial jump stations all over the place, in which case your suggestion will become a better option than it is for me at present. Currently I am equipping all of my commercial ships with jump drives because I don't have a huge amount of interstellar transport demand as of yet, and most of my in-system demand is accounted for with mass drivers. As I start to establish more extrasolar colonies, my demand for interstellar transport will rise and make commercial jump stations more appealing.

One of the overall design goals for the Cetan + Pegasus was to allow them to launch very long range attacks against distant enemies without any intermediate friendly infrastructure in place.

[skoormit]

I considered the space station approached but decided I wanted a ship instead because it would be easier to manage. ...

Honestly, I'm not seeing much downside to the space station approach.
There exists some size threshold above which a self-jumpable multi-purpose ship (i.e. has a significant mass fraction of components other than engines, fuel, and jump drive) is slower and less resource efficient than the same ship with a tractor beam instead, towing a jump station.
I'm not sure exactly where that threshold is (and it will vary based on tech, armor, etc.), but it has to be far less than 200kt with your parameters.
Especially since you will be saving a lot of armor on the jump station. And you can leave the station on the safe side of the jump point, so in any situation in which it would come under attack, it would probably have been destroyed even with the armor, as part of the Pegasus.

[liveware (OP)]

Stations cannot be scrapped or upgraded, which is another reason I'm not a fan of stations at present. Once deployed they can never be repurposed.

[liveware (OP)]

The final addition to the Cetan fighter wing is the Barracuda-BT, a boarding transport capable of ferrying colonial marines across the void of space to do battle with the enemy directly:

Code: [Select]

Barracuda-BT class Fighter      500 tons       18 Crew       155.5 BP       TCS 10    TH 235    EM 0
23525 km/s      Armour 4-5       Shields 0-0       HTK 2      Sensors 2/2/0/0      DCR 0      PPV 0
Maint Life 7.37 Years     MSP 118    AFR 10%    IFR 0.1%    1YR 4    5YR 57    Max Repair 117.50 MSP
Troop Capacity 100 tons     Boarding Capable   
Lieutenant    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 0.6 days    Morale Check Required   

Chaimberlin-Sherman Internal Fusion Drive  EP235.00 (1)    Power 235.0    Fuel Use 864.87%    Signature 235.00    Explosion 25%
Fuel Capacity 17,000 Litres    Range 0.7 billion km (8 hours at full power)

Chaimberlin-Sherman Thermal Sensor TH0.2-2.2 (50%) (1)     Sensitivity 2.2     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  11.7m km
Chaimberlin-Sherman EM Sensor EM0.2-2.2 (50%) (1)     Sensitivity 2.2     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  11.7m km

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction

Each Barracuda-BT carries a Colonial Marine Boarding Squadron:

Code: [Select]

Colonial Marine Boarding Squadron
Transport Size: 100 tons
Build Cost: 44.2 BP
1x Colonial Marine Lance Corporal
1x Colonial Marine Supply Cache
19x Colonial Marine Prefect
1x Colonial Marine Legionnaire
1x Colonial Marine Praetorian
1x Colonial Marine Myrmidon

#############################
Colonial Marine Lance Corporal
Transport Size (tons) 10     Cost 0.36     Armour 24     Hit Points 24
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.045     Resupply Cost 0
Headquarters:    Capacity 37

Advanced Genetic Enhancement
Boarding Combat
Jungle Warfare
Mountain Warfare
Rift Valley Warfare
Non-Combat Class

Vendarite  0.03   
Development Cost  18

#############################
Colonial Marine Supply Cache
Transport Size (tons) 10     Cost 4.88     Armour 24     Hit Points 24
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.61     Resupply Cost 0
Logistics Module - Small:      Ground Supply Points 100

Advanced Genetic Enhancement
Boarding Combat
Jungle Warfare
Mountain Warfare
Rift Valley Warfare
Non-Combat Class

Vendarite  0.4   
Development Cost  244

#############################
Colonial Marine Prefect
Transport Size (tons) 3     Cost 1.46     Armour 24     Hit Points 24
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.18     Resupply Cost 0.25
Light Personal Weapons:      Shots 1      Penetration 8      Damage 8

Advanced Genetic Enhancement
Boarding Combat
Jungle Warfare
Mountain Warfare
Rift Valley Warfare

Vendarite  0.12   
Development Cost  73

#############################
Colonial Marine Legionnaire
Transport Size (tons) 5     Cost 2.44     Armour 24     Hit Points 24
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.31     Resupply Cost 1
Personal Weapons:      Shots 1      Penetration 15      Damage 15

Advanced Genetic Enhancement
Boarding Combat
Jungle Warfare
Mountain Warfare
Rift Valley Warfare

Vendarite  0.2   
Development Cost  122

#############################
Colonial Marine Praetorian
Transport Size (tons) 6     Cost 2.93     Armour 24     Hit Points 24
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.37     Resupply Cost 1.3
Improved Personal Weapons:      Shots 1      Penetration 19      Damage 15

Advanced Genetic Enhancement
Boarding Combat
Jungle Warfare
Mountain Warfare
Rift Valley Warfare

Vendarite  0.24   
Development Cost  146

#############################
Colonial Marine Myrmidon
Transport Size (tons) 12     Cost 5.86     Armour 24     Hit Points 24
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.73     Resupply Cost 6
Crew-Served Anti-Personnel:      Shots 6      Penetration 15      Damage 15

Advanced Genetic Enhancement
Boarding Combat
Jungle Warfare
Mountain Warfare
Rift Valley Warfare

Vendarite  0.48   
Development Cost  293

As designs near their finalized forms, the Terran Mercantile Guild begins retooling it's shipyards for production of a retaliation force.

[Ulzgoroth]

Stations cannot be scrapped or upgraded, which is another reason I'm not a fan of stations at present. Once deployed they can never be repurposed.

Can't they, if they're small enough to fit in a shipyard?

A station that just houses your carrier's jump drive should always be small enough to fit in the shipyard that built the carrier.

[liveware (OP)]

Stations cannot be scrapped or upgraded, which is another reason I'm not a fan of stations at present. Once deployed they can never be repurposed.

Can't they, if they're small enough to fit in a shipyard?

A station that just houses your carrier's jump drive should always be small enough to fit in the shipyard that built the carrier.

True. I was assuming a large station similar to my extant 500k ton refueling station, which is sitting useless in Terra orbit as no sorium gas giants remain in the Sol system. I suppose it's a possibility and may offer more maintenance savings than my existing approach, however I consider the existing fuel and maintenance savings I am already getting with my commercial carrier compared to my previous military carrier to be sufficient to justify the expense of the commercial carrier.

I am curious if a single Cetan will be enough to deal any damage to my current NPR foe. If it is not, I will probably adopt a station/tractor ship approach instead and build a much larger non-jump carrier.

[Ulzgoroth]

What stops you from towing your monster station through stabilized jump points to Sorium in another system?

[liveware (OP)]

What stops you from towing your monster station through stabilized jump points to Sorium in another system?

My refusal to stabilize jump points 

[Ulzgoroth]

What stops you from towing your monster station through stabilized jump points to Sorium in another system?

My refusal to stabilize jump points 

That's got to make colonization a howling nightmare.

[liveware (OP)]

What stops you from towing your monster station through stabilized jump points to Sorium in another system?

My refusal to stabilize jump points 

That's got to make colonization a howling nightmare.

It's a challenge. An interesting challenge. I find it makes self-sufficient colonies much more valuable than they would otherwise appear.

I should use more precise language. I refuse to stabilize jump points leading to my home system. This prevents accidental NPR incursions and forces the NPR to use jump drives for invasions.

[xenoscepter]

 - I typically role-play as a confederation, so Jump Points tend to go un-stabilized by and large. In VB6 Aurora I only began construction of Jump Gates after I had a large and established economy, and even then, only out to the maximum # of jumps that civilian shipping would go to. I believe that number was four IIRC, but it may have changed for C#. If you are not familiar with a confederate model of governance, it is effectively city-states that have a weak central government. Think the Federal Government vs State Government in the American system, but reversed so that the state government was the highest authority, then the Federal. Then size up to an inter-planetary scale. Shy a glorified tyranny, it's the only system of governance I could see getting any traction on such a scale... sans Star Trek or Star Wars levels of BS-Tech and Handwavium Alloy.

[skoormit]

Stations cannot be scrapped or upgraded, which is another reason I'm not a fan of stations at present. Once deployed they can never be repurposed.

By definition, the station that contains nothing but the jump drive for the Pegasus is smaller than the Pegasus, and therefore can be scrapped at the same yard that builds the Pegasus.

And you can upgrade the station if you like. Just build a large enough yard and tool it for the new station design.
This yard will cost barely any more than you save by needing a smaller yard to build the Pegasus without the jump drive. Possibly will cost you less, given that armor is not needed on the station.

And with this approach, you can upgrade either the Pegasus or the jump station without involving the other.

[liveware (OP)]

- I typically role-play as a confederation, so Jump Points tend to go un-stabilized by and large. In VB6 Aurora I only began construction of Jump Gates after I had a large and established economy, and even then, only out to the maximum # of jumps that civilian shipping would go to. I believe that number was four IIRC, but it may have changed for C#. If you are not familiar with a confederate model of governance, it is effectively city-states that have a weak central government. Think the Federal Government vs State Government in the American system, but reversed so that the state government was the highest authority, then the Federal. Then size up to an inter-planetary scale. Shy a glorified tyranny, it's the only system of governance I could see getting any traction on such a scale... sans Star Trek or Star Wars levels of BS-Tech and Handwavium Alloy.

I usually take a more capitalistic approach and RP mega-corporations. I generally assume that it will be economic forces that encourage deep space exploration, such as the need for sorium and the other TN materials, rather than sustained trans-generational political effort. For instance, the Terran Mercantile Guild in my current campaign is essentially a multi-corporation trade union which controls a monopoly on TN technology (civilians are disabled). My current empire has been developing into something similar to the CHOAM conglomerate from the Dune universe as a result. For now, all roads lead to Terra when it comes to resource stockpiles, but I expect that will change as I develop more colonies, and I would like to ultimately found several hub planets which serve as strategic resource reserve sites. Unfortunately I stumbled on some NPR assholes who blew up my survey ship before getting any populated colonies up and running, so now I must at least establish a stable blockade of the NPR system before attempting any serious extrasolar colonization efforts.

Thus led me to the Cetan and Pegasus carriers.

[liveware (OP)]

The Terran Mercantile Guild has successfully launched the first Pegasus and Cetan carriers. The carriers have successfully completed a nesting maneuver, and the Cetan is loaded with an incomplete complement of fighters, as Guild fighter factories struggle to keep up with demand. The carriers will soon depart for their maiden voyage and shakedown cruise to LHS-471-A I, a distant world upon which a xenoarchaeology team has recently completed an excavation and restoration of an alien habitation facility. The carriers will recover the xenoarchaeology team and return them to Terra.

[Second Foundationer]

(Sorry for not answering your question after my little test, I had missed that, but you figured it out soon enough.)
So, you built them. Cool. Is your Pegasus still the original design?