[gurps] Re: Tinker's Starship? = Fleet Tender!!!

[Troy Guffey]

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Troy Guffey wrote:
> Setting:  A vast federation/alliance/empire with worlds of
> differing tech levels from about TL6 - TL13.
>
> The ship:
> TL13 Important items:  Enough armor and weaponry to make pirates
> give second and third thoughts to attacking.  Cargo capacity about
> that of a supertanker, with additional space devoted to a
> nanofactory tank big enough to build a TL8 naval destroyer inside
> the tank, plus
> several smaller ones of differing capacity.  A genius,
> high-capacity megaframe computer with lots of storage space for
> templates.  Most of the cargo space is devoted to carrying rare
> elements (such as rhenium down to titanium).  They also have
> several chrysalis machines.
>
> The business:
> Going to various lower tech worlds to build items that they cannot,
> or at least not easily.  The "host world" supplies common materials
> like iron, carbon, etc.  Also, performing biotech transformations. Then 
> move on to the next world after a period of time.
>
> QUESTION:  Is this a viable business?  Is it more viable if it is
> restricted or illegal to give those lower tech worlds the tech? Does it 
> need more cargo space for rare elements?  What would it
> take to make it viable?

I just realized something:  There's another name and business for
such a ship.  Fleet Repair Tender.  It travels with fleets of
military vessels to help repair them after heavy battles.  Pure
military ships would have less space for repair facilities as they
would want to devote the mass and/or volume to engines, generators,
weapons, and defenses.

- - --
Troy Guffey
ICQ: 1978644
AIM:  Pax214
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