Vehicle Design

Vehicle Terms

Attributes

are traits that held in common to vehicles. E-Space</strong> vehicles have four attributes</dd> </dl> :**Faults**: are aspects of a vehicle's construction or function that limit or degrade performance.

Gifts

are apects of a vehicle's construction or function that enhance performance.

:**Traits**: are terms used to describe aspects of a vehicle's construction and function. **Conventions** The following conventions are used in this chapter:

2 lb	=	1 kg
1 yard	=	1 meter
1 meas. ton	=	1 sq. meter	=	35 cu. ft.

Note: The "average" human displaces about 2.5 cu. ft, or 0.07 tons. ## Overview E-Space transportation runs the gambit of vehicles from submarine, surface, aerial, real space and hyperspace. This chapter attempts to help the GM describe vehicles throughout the gambit. ## Vehicle Attributes Attributes describe traits common to vehicles. At a minimum, ***E-Space*** vehicles use the following four attributes:

Quality

is the overall appraisal of a vehicle. This effects how much damage the vehicle can take as well as time to repair.

Performance

measures the combined speed and maneuverability of a vehicle.

Range

measures the distance the vehicle can travel before refueling, and is used on lengthy trips. As an attribute, even a vehicle with Poor range can pull off heroic distances.

## Vehicle Gifts and Faults ### Gifts

Advanced Computer

indicate that the ship's computational capability is one level better than other ships in its technology category.

:**Armor Plating**: bestows a +1 defensive damage factor to the vehicle.

Combat Computer

indicates the ship has either an on-board combat system (three levels) or gives a +1 to a crew member's appropriate combat skill.

:**FTL Capability**: The vehicle is capable of traveling faster than light, via hyperspace.

Improved Sensors

indicate that the ship's sensory capability is one level better than other ships in its technology category.

:**Low Maintenance**: the ship is so well built that it needs less maintenance than expected. Alternatively, the ship could have self-repair capabilities.

Versatile (environment)

Normally, a vehicle adept in one environment, cannot perform in another. This gift enables the vehicle to function in another environment, but the effective Speed in that other environment is Terrible. Multiple purchases of this gift can increase either Speed or Maneover in that environment, one level per purchased gift, or enable it to be multi-versatile. The environments are

Note: aerial vehicles are assumed to have Terrible speed on land by default. ### Faults

Obsolete Computer

indicate that the ship's computational capability is one level better than other ships in its technology category.

:Obsolete Sensors: indicate that the ship's sensory capability is one level worse than other ships in its technology category.

High Maintenance

in spite of being of a certain Quality, this vehicle is prone to malfunctions, breakdowns and the like. Usually, this occurs at the least opportune moment.

## Vehicle Scale Naturally, vehicles come in a wide variety of sizes, from the bicycle to the sleeper ship. Rather than assign an attribute "Size" to describe this, the preferable method is to use ***Fudge*** rules for Scale. In FUDGE, Mass has a specific meaning: how damage affects a vehicle, which may or may not coincide with the scientific definition of Mass. It takes more star frigate launched hits to weaken a star destroyer than another frigate, for example. It may not be a quality star destroyer, but her sheer bulk means that a star frigate's phase cannons do not cause as much relative damage to her as they would to another star frigate–unless they struck a vital spot, naturally. Likewise, a VW Beetle can be of Superb Quality, but not survive being run over by an M1-Abrams tank. The difference is Mass and its related Quality. A Scale 1 Fair Quality frigate has an advantage over a Scale 0 Good Quality corsair, even though their Qualities are equal. The Scale 1 frigate is less affected by the other's damage due to his mass. Therefore, do not blithely equate Scale 0 Good with Scale 1 Fair. The default Scale in *Fudge* is humancentric, and it would be difficult to expand the Scale to cover the gigantic star ships. So, for simplicity sake, a slightly modified Vehicle Scale table is below. Note that the scale is simply multiples of three of the regular scale (i.e., vehicle Scale 3 is Scale 9 on the humancentric chart). This allows us to cleanly expand the scale to 60, truely gigantic, without keeping precise track. If Scale 4 is 12 tones, then Scale 20 is 3.4 billion tons. Scale doesn't take combat specialization into account. As an example, a submarine is Scale -6 relative to a tanker, but a submarine is more likely to win. This is because a submarine is a dedicated combat vessel, and most tankers are helpless. At any rate, if you remember to take fighting efficiency into account, you will know when not to subtract Scale from damage (or subtract only some of it) when a smaller scale vessel of higher fighting efficiency attacks a larger vessel.

Vehicle Scale Table
Scale	Tons	Comparision	Scale	Tons	Comparision
1	0.075	Human	21	270
2	0.1		22	400	MS Brane Exp.
3	0.2		23	600
4	0.3		24	900	WWII destroyer
5	0.4		25	1400
6	0.6		26	2100
7	0.9	Car	27	3100
8	1.4	Passenger Van	28	4700
9	2.1		29	7000
10	3.2	Helicopter	30	11000
11	4.8	Armored Car	31	16000
12	7.2		32	24000
13	11		33	36000	MS Colony Ship
14	16	18-Wheeler	34	54000
15	24		35	81000
16	36	Combat Tank	36	120000	Nimitz Carrier
17	54		37	180000
18	81		38	270000
19	120	Boeing 747	39	400000
20	180		40	600000

**Cost of Scale** In vehicle design terms, each step of increased Quality/Mass Scale for a player character should cost one attribute level and one gift. This is because each level of Scale includes +1 Quality and extra Mass, which is the equivalent of the Armored Hull gift. However, a generous GM may charge less. ## Vehicle Actions ### FTL Travel **Speed** and **Maneouver** relate to sub-light travel. FTL travel relies on the ship's computer to gage speed, range and maneouvering. By default, a ship's computer is rated at the technology standard established in [Technology/Computers](/technology/computers). ## Vehicle Combat **Recording Vehicle Damage**

Scratched	Damaged	Very Damaged	Incapacitated	Near Destruction
O O O	O	O	O	O

(Please hold off wiki comments until I get this fully documented.) **Note on Tonnage** There are several real-world definitions of a ton. The first is the Freight Ton, which is 40 cu. ft. The second is the Measurement ton, which is 100 cu. ft. The third is displacement ton, which is measured in long tons of water displaced. The game ton is 35 cu. ft. It is possible to quickly convert a displacement ton to the game ton by multiplying the displacement by 1.05. So, for example, the Nimitz Class aircraft carrier displaces 97,000 tons, or fills 102,000 game tons. ---- [~BenWilson](/mechanics/~ben-wilson) December 21, 2004 at 01:19 CST