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On Sun, 10/26/14, xxxxxx@comcast.net <xxxxxx@comcast.net> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [TML] Original CT LBB's scoutship vs CT HG scoutship?
 To: xxxxxx@simplelists.com
 Date: Sunday, October 26, 2014, 3:11 PM

[NOTE; MUCH 'SNIPPING']

 PHIL;

 Only, in the end, as in yours, the
 upgrades
 never happened.

 >Tom
   The contractor
 made money and the government got stuck with the product.
   Of course another reason is that the IN
 decided to build the next
 generation
   so they didn't care about the obsolete
 Plankwells.
 >

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PHIL [new];

I always had the impression that the 'Plankwells' were one of the latest designs.
It is mentioned that they've been in combat & I'm thinking that that must've been the 4thFW so they maybe they are old after all. Guess it depends on how often the IN puts new design into production?
Anyway, at least according to Mongoose (in the version of CT's 'Fighting Ships', the 'Plankwell' did finally get upgraded w/ capital class meson screens.
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 PHIL

 It seems to me that the A'Nova or a
 similarly equipped vessel, could deploy
 it's 'sail' while it's inbound,
 thus it would already have some 'juice' in
 the j'capacitors before it, or any other
 vessel, could otherwise begin
 refueling.

 Thus a scout ship equipped w/
 something similar could actually be prepared
 to jump sooner than one w/o a
 'sail'.

 And then
 there's also the very real possibility, if there are no
 gas giants
 present in the system,  that the
 vessel may actually have to make planetfall
 in order to refuel .  In that situation,
 having a 'sail' could make a
 critical difference. (note; I do believe that
 there are systems, though
 very,very few,
 w/o either
 GG's or 'water',
 where the only refuelling option is at a facility. 'A

 'sail' could be very handy
 in such a system)

 Also, consumption of fuel for jumping also
 depends on what version of the
 rules you
 are using.
 The original rpg rules & the
 5thFW boardgame used the original rules that
 required vessels to
 use *all*
 their jump fuel to 'energize' the jump drives, no
 matter how long
 the actual jump was.
 Hence, any  time a vessel jumped, it used up
 all it's jump fuel, no matter
 what.

 CT LBB5 HGv1 introduced the
 'jump governor' which allowed a vessel to
 calculate it's fuel usage
 as if it's J-drive were the same
 'number' as the jump distance. Hence, a
 vessel w/ a J4 drive could
 make, w/o refuelling, four J1's, two
 J2's or any combo that added up to
 exactly four.
 Now that really
 introduced a whole lot more flexibility into the rpg as well

 as, if used (I don't
 believe it was ever actually put into the
 rules), the above board game.

 Personally, I would've preferred to have
 Trav stick w/ the original rule but
 by the
 time I got into it,
 the jump governor had
 already been introduced, leaving me to conclude for
 quite some time that the
 fuel
 usage rules in the 5FW boardgame were  introduced by the
 game designer
 to simplify the game,
 rather than actually mirroring the earlier
 rules set.

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 >Tom
   Phil are you referring to the Annic
 Nova's *canopy* as the 'sail'?

   From JTAS 1 page 30 under
 Maneuver, Acceleration, or  Evasion the Annic
   Nova uses the two 40-ton pinnaces not the
 *canopy* which "collects
 radiated
   solar power and stores it in the
 accumulators on the drive deck." Fully
 charged
   accumulators store
 enough power to charge the J-2 capacitors, the J-3
 capacitors,
   operate life
 support, and handle all other internal power requirements.

 JTAS 1
   page 17 states
 that the Annic Nova appeared near the worlds Heya (0802)
 and
   immediately jumped out
 of the system. The next sighting was at Kinorb
 (0602)
   where the Annic Nova
 stayed nearly five weeks before jumping out of the
 system.
   Then the Annic Nova
 arrived at  Dentus (0601) once again immediately
 jumped out
   of the system.

   Off the top of my head the
 Annic Nova  arrived off Heya and had enough
 power
   for the jump to
 Kinorb. Apparently a number of factors combined together

 that
   the Annic Nova
 took almost five weeks to recharge the accumulators
 allowing
   the ship to reach
 Dentus. Apparently there is a program running that
 causes
   the Annic Nova to
 jump immediately under certain conditions like five
   scout/couriers on an intercept course, which
 is what happened.

   The
 only traditional fuel carried on the Annic Nova is in the
 fuel tanks
 of the two
  
 40-ton pinnaces.

   That
 being said then a scout/courier, provided that accumulators
 are fully
 charged would
  
 be capable of jumping into a system, look around, and jump
 out without
 needing to gather
   and purify jump fuel. However, when the
 accumulators don't have enough of
 a
 charge to
   run the jump drive the scout
 has to hang out for one to six weeks
 recharging.

  
 My understanding of jump fuel usage from either edition of
 LBB 2 and LBB 5
 has been only
   the amount of fuel needed to make a jump was
 used. A ship with a J-5 drive
 making a
 one
   parsec jump used 1/5 of the fuel.
 Sadly, Fifth Frontier War falls into the
 same category as
   Imperium
 and Interstellar Wars of having them, reading the rules, and
 not
 playing them.
   Which
 is why I don't recall the Fifth Frontier War jump fuel
 usage
 requirement and I would
   probably have ignored the rule anyway.

   Unfortunately, HG 2nd
 edition did away with most of the optional stuff
 like the jump governor.
   Of
 course the second edition also did away with the 10-ton bay
 which I had
 used on a design
   I was working in spite of not knowing how
 get the weapon rating codes.

   The jump governor was to make LBB 2 1st
 edition ships compatible with LBB
 5 1st
 edition. With the
   release of the 2nd
 editions the fuel usage  issue went away and the LBB 5
 HG 1st edition jump
   governor
 got the boot too.
 >

 I think I've covered everything, but then
 again probably not.

 Tom
 Rux

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PHIL [new];

We actually had this discussion on the TML a while back wrt jump fuel usage.

Some guys who purchased the original LBB's right when they first came out positively affirmed that the original rule was that a vessel consumed *all* it's jump fuel whenever it jumped. No matter where it went.

In my case I actually read LBB5 HG 2ed *first* as the original first three LBB's were 'on order' at my favored local shop.
I pretty much preferred to use HG for building ships so it took my a while to pick up on the differing jump fuel usage.

And, yes, I did mean 'canopy' when I wrote 'sail'. (guess I was thinking of the old 'Sunjammer' sci-fi books)

I was thinking that a suitably equipped scoutship could deploy the thing as soon as it arrived insystem & then by the time a suitable refueling point was reached, it'd already have been charging for a while.
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