We need considerably better manufactory capability. We intend to rely on drones. Gotta be able to build them. Same goes for mining. Any major damage or combat will need drones and major repairs. We need a dedicated refinery and smelters. I recommend ship being a 400m long so we actually have room.
Well, the size is probably negotiable. There's probably some argument to be made for effective miniaturization in the space future, and it really makes no difference RP-wise if it's 400m long and 75% filled with manufacturing equipment or 200m long and 50% filled with manufacturing equipment, you're getting 100 meters of meatspace regardless (one-dimensional simplification made for ease of use).
Also, in terms of combat, getting ahead of ourselves, fit the first.
Also, royal we. What are the drones for?
Science, biolabs and isolation chambers, chemlabs and storage, engineering labs and bays, archeological labs and storage abd isolation chambers, other things. Need all of those. This is a science based endeavor.
Getting ahead of ourselves, fit the second. This runs under the assumption that we'll find life and/or culture. First priority is reestablishing contact with home and/or going back the opposite way, and implicitly finding out what happens when one enters an event horizon. If we cannot return and cannot make contact, this serves as the most effective indicator that no more money is to be devoted to Dark Star exploration, since information obtained on mission has absolutely no practical use in that event. Plus, lab equipment is stupidly expensive and not to be squandered on suicide missions.
Isolation chambers for crew. Can't let outbreaks have the chance to spread if there are any or if someone goes nuts.
Automatic doors with central overrides.
We need functional weapons. That's mandatory.
Getting ahead of ourselves, fit the third. Absence of life on other side is entirely possible. Also, robots are like functional weapons in many ways if murder of crew is needed.
We need shielding and better armor. Raise width to 80 meters.
What for? Space combat? In this case, getting ahead of ourselves, fit the fourth. Radiation shielding already extensive.
Redundant systems are needed.
Power has a solar array redundancy, not sure how you'd make a redundant life support system (spare delivery method?), could get a redundant AI from third party (the Independent Synthetic Intelligence Guild, for instance) in case the first one goes nuts, fabrication and mining systems too huge to add redundancies for, and redundant systems as a whole sound expensive, wouldn't you agree?
Finally, if there is indeed life (intelligent life, even) on the other side, much of the ship can probably be improved afterward to deal with this with improved manufacturing capacity should contact be impossible to establish and return is equally impossible.
GM notes: Here's why the gravity thing isn't just annoying fluff. I'm not going to play this like "you forgot to sleep in your centrifuge bed this turn, now your eyes are filling with fluid." At the start, we can assume that everything's working and people are doing what they need to do for their health. But if something should knock out the centrifugal gravity, then the people who will be hindered by that will be hindered, and so people not hindered by it may have to pull double duty, help the others out, etc. That's how these details enrich the RP.
Ship notes: Mostly looks good, but here are some things
- Antimatter is a bit hard to come by. Fusion reactors (and propulsion) would make more sense.
- FTL comms aren't a thing, except FTL snail-mail due to FTL drives. Which is only really FTL over interstellar distances.
- More lab types would be good. Since we seem to have so many biologists, a biology lab at least would make sense. The chem lab can probably be expanded into a general materials lab, which would also be good for archeology (for instance).
- Engineering can probably be combined with Manufactory.
- Crew's quarters can also probably double as their isolation chambers.
- Presumably a life-support system that can recycle everything indefinitely as long as it has power could be made. It would need to have said materials available for recycling, though, so ship damage could disable/disrupt it and require replenishment of chemicals.
If FTL comms aren't a thing, that's a bit troubling, since that considerably lessens chances of this being a successful expedition and raises the issue of why someone would finance this. That leaves return as the only possibility of success and potential utility of results, which may very well not come to pass at all. Why FTL and no FTL comms, though? One would think that if you solve the former, seemingly much more difficult problem, the latter would be simple to do.
Anyway, if you can't return from the other side, no point in further exploration if you don't have FTL comms is the logic I'm going with here, since the fruits of your labors will never be reaped and you're unable to get any form of feedback. Can't see a semi-wise investor agreeing to this kind of scheme, at any rate. Hm. Without FTL comms I don't see how a galactic society is in any way practical and how one would coordinate a multi-government exploration project. Or even how an interplanetary government could possibly work unless it's the interplanetary equivalent of city state unions.
Biology lab might be getting ahead of ourselves, fit the fifth, due to potential absence of life. To have a biology lab, all you need is a bunch of relatively simple glassware, a centrifuge if you're feeling fancy, some mechanical pipettes and a few crates of biochemical reagents. Maybe a fridge and an adjustable oven. Don't need dedicated space for much of that. As for biologists coming along, they're getting ahead of themselves, fit the sixth, though galactic gods bless the poor old space fodder.
I don't see how it'd be possible to recycle
everything, given that a system that runs with no losses is practically impossible. But if you say that works, okay. More life support for the space fodder.
I'm not sure what you mean by Engineering, though. You mean the section in video games where there's lots of pipes and access tunnels? That's kind of implied, I suppose, since most systems should have redundant maintenance access points for organics. Or do you mean a room where all the engineers get together and talk about plans and systems and stuff? That could really be anything, then.
As for antimatter, you could presumably collect some from magnetospheres, where it's known to accumulate. In minute quantities, of course, so yes, probably better to have an antimatter-initiated fusion reactor as the power system of choice.
We really need cargobays.
Cargo bays, I would say, are whatever's left of the space on the ship when all else is accounted for. Should probably assume they're 90% full on departure. Manufacturing storage should be separate and empty on departure, and integrated into fabrication bay.
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Topic: The Dark Star (space game) - Planning thread (It begins! Link on latest post) (Read 84476 times)