Copyright (c) 1995 Onno Meyer

Here comes a ship designed with the BOB-III defined by Michael Ray. I think
design shows several (probably unintended) consequences of the drive.
BTW, thanks to Michael for his advice. I added coms, I added hardpoints and
I added point defenses (but different ones than he expected :-)

Some time ago we talked about point defenses and decided on gauss miniguns as
the best space point defense. These guns would lay a cloud of darts to
destroy missiles before they reach close range.
A BOBing missile will
- be invulnerable to realspace weapons nearly until it hits,
- have speeds in the same order of magnitude as the best sensors and
- be able to do one radical vector change during the BOB-exit.
This means a BOB missile can only be intercepted by SFTL weapons (we don't
have them yet, and it will be really difficult anyway) and by last-second
lightspeed weapons (after the missile pops out of BOB). Since the missile has
no reason to avoid a cherenkov-pulse, it can hold the max. BOB speed until
the last mircosecond. _Conventional turrets can't turn fast enough to track
them_! A realistic hit probability for a realspace point defense system is
quite close to zero, and the ship can't possibly dodge, either.
A ship in BOB might be able to evade a single missile, but the speed problem
(for sensors and guns compared to the missile) will greatly hamper the point
defense.
I guess capital ships are dead and small BOBs are heavily regulated. Good-bye
message torpedo :-(

The power usage of the startup pulse is a joke. A thousandfold increase
woudln't hurt.

The max. BOB factor depends on the max. acceleration, i.e. the thrust-to-mass
ratio. The size of the BOB depends on the BOB factor and the volume of the
craft. If I make the ship lighter (i.e. by dumping cargo, fuel or furniture)
the acceleration and the maximum BOB go up. Since my BOB didn't get any
bigger I have no increase in BOB factor. If I make the ship heavier (i.e. by
filling the cargo holds), the max. BOB drops but the BOB drive is still the
old one. This causes a lot of bookkeeping for the players.


BOB Fighter Mk.I v0.3 (TL 10)

        This is a starfighter optimized for deep space operations - it can't be
    used in the atmosphere at all. While this reduces the flexibility, the cost
    savings (expecially in the fuselage) are enormous.
        In addition to ship-killer missiles in the bay and on the hardpoints,
    it has a xasercan (ver|imp|6d*30(3)|8|20|40 mi.|80 mi.|4|200 KWh) for space
    combat and ten assault xasers (ver|imp|7d(2)|0|20|2 mi.|5 mi.|8|0.5 KWh) as
    point defense. The primary sensors are SFTL 'radars' with ranges between a
    lightsecond and a lightminute (depending on target size).
        The ship uses default TL10 tech [Dec. 93 errata sheet] with the BOB and
    the SFTL tech proposed by Michael Ray.
    
    Structure:  8,000 cf advanced light body (HT 2,500), max. load 100 tons,
        sealed body, four skids (DR 100A, HT 209), vertol lift system, advanced
        controls.
    Propulsion:  Twin 50t reactionless drives (DR 5, HT 1,200) with a BOB drive
        (factor 100, DR 5, HT 400, idle current 80 KW).
    Power:  Two 55 MW fusion plants (DR 5, HT 175), ten 0.25 KWh superconductor
        loops (DR 5, HT 4) and 10 MWh rechargeable power cells (DR 5, HT 30).
        Excess power 1,394 KWh.
    Accomodations:  Four cramped quarters, no windows.
    Crew Requirements:  Pilot, gunner, scan operator and com operator, plus up
        to four backup crewmembers.
    Armor:  3,000 points ablative armor, F6/500AR B6/500AR R6/500AR L6/500AR
        T6/500AR U6/500AR, regenerates 1% per hour.
    Cargo:  None, but 31.298 cf maintenance access.
    Accessories:  40 dischargers, compact fire extinguisher, impr. IR cloaking,
        laser sensors, two 8-person full lifesystems, rad shielding, radical
        stealth, two advanced extreme-range thermographs (scan 27, DR 3, HT 20,
        electronics), two adv. LR xadars with rangefinder (scan 27, DR 3, HT
        20, electronics), adv. LR MAD (scan 21, DR 3, HT 50, electronics), two
        VLR SFTL sensors (scan 45, DR 3, HT 60, electronics), four ALLTVs, four
        HUDWAC with pupil scanner/virtual panorama, mini-lock, opt. midgetcomp
        (C4, DR 3, HT 2, electronics), two opt. gen. mainframes (C8, DR 3, HT
        60, electronics), dual controls, three INS (DR 3, HT 6, electronics),
        four neural interface jacks, four secure long-distance radios (DR 3, HT
        4, electronics), two secure medium SFTL coms (DR 3, HT 6, electronics),
        four IFF, eight EM coms, four neutrino coms (DR 3, HT 3, electronics).
        Programs: Database (147.5 GB recognition guides and maps), datalink,
        sensor operation (C8, skill 21 or +10), 11*gunner (C6, skill 16 or +6),
        tactical vehicle operation (C7, skill 19), 11*targeting (C6, +9).
    Weaponry:  Ten autostabilized assault xasers in cyberslaves, autostabilized
        heavy xaser cannon (DR 5, HT 150) in a front cyberslave, 160 cf weapons
        bay and six hardpoints.
    
    Statistics:  Cost $36,000,000, design mass 92 tons, max. payload 8 tons,
        current load 8 tons, loaded mass 100 tons, size modifier +6, radar
        signature -6, IR signature +5, acoustic signature N/A.
    
    Ground, Water and Air Performance:  None.
    Space Performance:  Realspace acceleration 1 G, virtual BOB accel 100 G.