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aramis
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Mission Generator and economics of ships

Fri 15 Nov 2019, 12:08

Since my party is about a week out from starting, I've been poring over the mission generator and the ships rules...

the basic facts
  • Merchant Ships cost typically well over $15 M. The lowest stock commercial is $17 M
  • Owed lease is 2% per annum, this puts the minimum lease at about $340 k
  • A "nearby star" is 15 to 40 days, depending up drive rating and specific distance. Which means 8 to 24 missions per year.
  • Mission payout for short range (1-2 Pc) ranges from 20+2d6 to 50+4d6 (min:mean:max::22:27:32:: 54:64::74)
Moving on to the more derivative ...
Assuming 1.7 Pc average (due to randomization) and minimum speed (20d/pc) that's 34 days, so just shy of 12 jobs a year, and assuming only easy ones, $27k each, $324 k a year. Which looks doable capability

There's no specific effect I've found for the amount of cargo capacity... nor for standard shipping prices nor passenger prices.

It's a good thing my players opted for a government owned ship (and the UPP, at that)
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Diego
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Re: Mission Generator and economics of ships

Fri 15 Nov 2019, 13:40

We actually start tomorrow. My players went for an M class as well but with an apollo core. So it isn't going to be a bison, instead one of seegsons last great ships before their I'll fated adventure into space habitats.

Their final bill came to some 34M, of which I reduced by 30% as this ship is going to be a second hand wreck. We named it the Ozymandias.

For trade, until FL gets on with the space truckers book I plan to use the traveller trade system. It's a little on the complex side but it means my players can start to fill their cargo holds with stuff in the hope of selling it for a profit and I have a way of generating shifting markets. To keep the spirit of the game I will roll supply check for trade routes showing how oved time markets will get saturated if they keep running the same route.
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Birdie_Sparrow
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Re: Mission Generator and economics of ships

Fri 15 Nov 2019, 23:26

This is where you take the Firefly route of some jobs are "grey" or even "black" to make ends meet... which of course leads to adventures because normal runs don't have much excitement. 

Imagine the fun when they are chartered to deliver a 1 foot square briefcase for say 750k or more....
 
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aramis
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Re: Mission Generator and economics of ships

Sat 16 Nov 2019, 02:29

My big issue is that there is no linkage to cargo space and missions. 


So, what I'm thinking... a typical mission requires 200 tons of cargo space ( 80% of full on a Class III cargo module), Which makes bulk carriage about $100 per ton. I figure the actual tonnage will vary by (2d6-7)×10 tons, and will require departure within 1d6 days...

I'm thinking of letting them panic at the numbers. But at least my group are working for communists... they don't get most of the pay, but don't pay the expenses, either... failure, however...  
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aramis
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Re: Mission Generator and economics of ships

Sat 16 Nov 2019, 02:41

For trade, until FL gets on with the space truckers book I plan to use the traveller trade system. I
Which one? CT core (Bk 1-3, ST, or TTB), CT Bk 7, MT/TNE (close to Bk 7), T4 (close to MT/TNE), T20 (close to Bk1), GT core (somewhere between vague and broken), GT:FT (totally unlike anything else Traveller, and almost unplayable except for the most devoted number crunchers), Hero Traveller (B7, MGT (not related to CT B2, B7, nor GTFT), or T5 (Distant child of Bk 5 via T4).
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Diego
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Re: Mission Generator and economics of ships

Sat 16 Nov 2019, 02:59

For trade, until FL gets on with the space truckers book I plan to use the traveller trade system. I
Which one? CT core (Bk 1-3, ST, or TTB), CT Bk 7, MT/TNE (close to Bk 7), T4 (close to MT/TNE), T20 (close to Bk1), GT core (somewhere between vague and broken), GT:FT (totally unlike anything else Traveller, and almost unplayable except for the most devoted number crunchers), Hero Traveller (B7, MGT (not related to CT B2, B7, nor GTFT), or T5 (Distant child of Bk 5 via T4).
Could have saved yourself a whole load of typing by just asking 'Which edition would you recommend'

My personal go to is Mongoose Traveller, the one by Gareth Hanrahan, I think publication was 2008.
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aramis
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Re: Mission Generator and economics of ships

Sat 16 Nov 2019, 03:17

For trade, until FL gets on with the space truckers book I plan to use the traveller trade system. I
Which one? CT core (Bk 1-3, ST, or TTB), CT Bk 7, MT/TNE (close to Bk 7), T4 (close to MT/TNE), T20 (close to Bk1), GT core (somewhere between vague and broken), GT:FT (totally unlike anything else Traveller, and almost unplayable except for the most devoted number crunchers), Hero Traveller (B7, MGT (not related to CT B2, B7, nor GTFT), or T5 (Distant child of Bk 5 via T4).
Could have saved yourself a whole load of typing by just asking 'Which edition would you recommend'

My personal go to is Mongoose Traveller, the one by Gareth Hanrahan, I think publication was 2008.
I run the COTI boards for Marc Miller. I provided some assistance to Gareth on that MGT1 Trade. (Which is what got me a special thanks in the credits). It's a worthy system, and a very reasonable approach.

I do discourage Traveller fans from just saying "Traveller" - because there are all so many editions with so many differences (and Marc is planning another one - "T8: Traveller for 8+" - a simplified game for 8+ year olds)... Besides, if you think MGT trade is complicated, you need to utterly avoid even thinking of GTFT.... 

I will note also: Traveller (except GT) assumes about Cr1000 per Ton as freight rate...  my assumption of 80% full (comparable to type R Traveller freighters using T20) and a single calss III cargo module, puts the shipper paying between $100 and $500 per ton. So, you may want to account for that. Also, the default assumption is that the real profit is in speculation, but given the FTL comms in Alien (see p. 170, right column, paragraph on Communications), speculation should not be dominant. 

As a historical phenomenon, Speculation as a percentage of operational space rapidly drops along with comm times. In-country speculative trade on the Eastern Seaboard (US/Can) dropped rapidly once the telegraphs went in; it was cheaper to order what you needed to arrive shortly before you needed it.
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Diego
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Re: Mission Generator and economics of ships

Sat 16 Nov 2019, 12:41

You can discourage what you want, but I said traveller and will simply say 'traveller' again because my recommendation was for traveller and for you to find what variant you want, not the one I typically tend to use.
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APOLLO
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Re: Mission Generator and economics of ships

Fri 27 Dec 2019, 01:25

I’ve been scratching my head over this. Running a CM-90 Corvus seems tricky as the jobs don’t pay enough given that it’s a 40 day return trip for even a nearby system. I feel like there should be a modifier for ship class size on payments otherwise I don’t see how you can run a Corvus with the job table you are given.

The only way I can think of turning a profit is salvaging components. You can salvage as many components as the hull of a ship. New they are 100k new so I imagine you sell them at half that price. But not every mission will allow salvage.
 
sathyr
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Re: Mission Generator and economics of ships

Fri 27 Dec 2019, 16:43

I’ve been scratching my head over this. Running a CM-90 Corvus seems tricky as the jobs don’t pay enough given that it’s a 40 day return trip for even a nearby system. I feel like there should be a modifier for ship class size on payments otherwise I don’t see how you can run a Corvus with the job table you are given.

The only way I can think of turning a profit is salvaging components. You can salvage as many components as the hull of a ship. New they are 100k new so I imagine you sell them at half that price. But not every mission will allow salvage.
Well the Corvus is specifically a salvage vessel, so you might be on to something.

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