Step 3: Power Plant

The heart of any ship is its power plant. It takes vast amounts of power to drive a ship through space, energize its weaponry and defenses, and supply heat and gravity. An under-powered ship may have dozens of deadly weapons, but no capacity to get them to the fight or employ them all once it’s there.

The ship’s power plant supplies one of the three basic commodities you’ll want to keep track of as you build your ship: Power. (The other two commodities are hull points and money, in case you forgot.) Many systems require a specified amount of power to function, so you’ll want to make sure that you know whether or not your ship has enough power points to make everything you deem important work at the same time.

Power plants are rated by how many power points they produce per point of durability. For example, if you’re building a 10-durability fighter, you might decide to install a mass reactor of 3 durability. This generates 7.5 power points for the ship (round up to 8), and costs 600,000.

Some power plants can’t be miniaturized past a certain point and are unavailable for minimal installations. This is expressed as a minimum size for the power plant. Some power plants may also have a maximum size, indicating that the technology just isn’t suited for extremely large applications. However, you can get around the maximum size limitation by installing multiple small power plants—power from all sources counts for the ship’s total.

Since you’re the designer, you can decide whether multiple durability points spent on your power plant make up one big power plant, or several small power plants scattered around the ship. The advantage of several small plants is that your ship is somewhat more resistant to damage—it’s hard to knock out all of your power at one shot. However, it’s more expensive to build a ship this way.

For example, one large mass reactor capable of generating 10 points of power requires 4 durability points (each durability point provides 2.5 points of power). This installation costs 100,000 for the reactor, plus 100,000 for each of the four durability points associated with the reactor—a total of 500,000.

If you bought this as four one-durability mass reactors, you’d pay the base cost times four, plus the durability cost again, for a total of 800,000. Note that some power systems are difficult to enlarge, and have a relatively high cost per durability point, while other systems can be easily scaled up and have a low cost per durability point.

Table 5-3: Power Plants

Tech: The technology track necessary to produce this power system. Pow: The amount of power produced by a power plant of 1 hull point. Fractions round normally, so a 2-hull point antimatter reactor (3.0 power produced per hull point) produces 6 power points. Base Cost: The cost for each separate power plant installed. Cost/Hull Point: The cost for each hull point of the power plant, cumulative with the cost for each new plant. Min Size: The smallest power plant possible, in hull points. Max Size: The largest power plant possible, in hull points. Fuel: Whether or not the power system requires additional fuel tankage. Fuel Cost: The cost per hull point of fuel purchased. Efficiency: The number of power-days that can generated by 1 hull point of fuel. For example, one hull point of fuel provides 200 power-days for a fusion generator of 1 hull point size, or 20 power-days for a fusion generator of 10 hull points.

Fuel Tanks and Refueling

At higher Progress Levels, most power plants require refueling only at infrequent intervals. Their fuel is either inexhaustible or needs to be replaced only when the entire ship is overhauled. However, many PL 6 power plants require fuel tank in addition to the power systems proper.

The amount of fuel a ship carries is up to you, but the major consideration here is endurance. In other words, how long can the power plant operate on one tank of fuel? This is measured by the fuel tank’s total power-days. If a fuel tank holds 100 power-days, it can operate a power plant that generates 1 point of power for 100 days, 2 points of power for 50 days, 20 points of power for 5 days, and so on. If your design calls for 10 power points to run its major systems, it’s a very good idea to purchase multiple fuel tanks (or one big one) so that your ship will operate for at least a couple of weeks without refueling.

Power Systems

With the possible exception of the quantum cell, a power generation system doesn’t create energy. Instead, it transforms energy from one type to another, more usable, type. A steamship’s boiler transforms the energy stored in the chemical bonds of its fuel oil into heat energy, which is then transformed into kinetic energy through a turbine. Similarly, a fission or fusion generator converts the energy of atomic bonds into heat energy which is then transformed into electricity, or some other easily used energy form.

Most of these power systems actually carry fuel of one kind or another, even if no fuel tank is required. A fission generator doesn’t need thousands of gallons of water, but it does need some amount of uranium or plutonium which is consumed over time. The duration of a typical plant and its refueling costs are addressed in each power system description.

Solar Cell (PL 6) The solar cell converts light and heat energy from a nearby star into shipboard power through large banks of highly efficient photovoltaic cells and heat exchangers. Within 1 AU (150 million kilometers) of a Sol-type star, the solar cell’s power generation capacity increases by 50 percent; similarly, at a distance of more than 5 AU from a Sol-type star, the solar cell’s power generation capacity drops by 50 percent.

For example, a cruiser equipped with 40 durability points of solar cells normally generates 40 points of power; this increases to 60 power points in the inner portion of a star system, and drops to 20 power points in the outer portion of a star system. Note that particularly bright stars (class O, B, or A) extend the range of high-efficiency and power drop-off to 2 AU and 10 AU, while very small stars (class K and M) change these figures to 0.5 AU and 2 AU.

Fission Generator (PL 6) Also known as an atomic or nuclear power plant, the fission generator extracts energy from a controlled chain reaction of uranium or plutonium. Fission generators require heavy shielding, so small installations are very difficult. However, the technology is easy to apply to large installations. A fission generator’s fuel rods last approximately two to four years, and then must be replaced at a cost of 50,000 per hull point of the power plant.

Fusion Generator (PL 6) A fusion generator harnesses the power of nuclear fusion to create shipboard power. A containment device “bottles” the reaction in magnetic fields, since the generator’s core burns at temperatures as hot as the surface of a star. Fortunately, most fusion generators are designed to fail-safe in the event of damage. The fusion generator uses hydrogen for fuel, but like the cold fusion reactor, this is often stored as water.

Grav-Fusion Cell (PL 6) Based on a fraal device, the grav-fusion cell employs artificial gravity fields to contain and enhance the performance of a fusion reaction. It’s otherwise similar to the fusion generator.

Antimatter Reactor (PL 7) The antimatter reactor annihilates particles of antimatter to create vast amounts of power. Like the fusion generator, it requires some very careful containment procedures, and a significant portion of the generator’s output must be devoted to maintaining the magnetic fields that insulate its fuel source from its surroundings. No fuel tank is required—the antimatter and its containment device are included in the durability cost and price of the reactor. The antimatter reactor requires refueling about once per three to five years, although running at a minimal power configuration (nothing more than life support) could extend this to ten or fifteen years between fueling. Antimatter is expensive; refueling the reactor costs half the amount of money spent on the power plant at the time of its construction.

Mass Reactor (PL 7) Dark matter technology presumes that nonbaryonic dark matter may have properties unknown to 20th century science. Specifically, dark matter can undergo a decay process similar to radioactive decay in which energy is released by the transformation of dark matter to “normal matter”. The mass reactor harnesses this fantastic energy. Like the antimatter reactor, the mass reactor requires no fuel tank; the dark matter and its containment device is already included. The mass reactor requires refueling about once every six months, at a cost equal to 5,000 per hull point of the power plant.

Tachyonic Collider (PL 7) Tachyons are particles that move faster than the speed of light. The tachyonic collider slows these particles and harnesses their energy. While the collider is expensive and it doesn’t provide as much power as other power systems at this progress level, it has one significant advantage: It doesn’t require any fuel at all.

Dynamic Mass Reactor (PL 8) Basically a refinement of the PL 7 mass reactor, the dynamic mass reactor accelerates the decay process, releasing more energy than its predecessor. It’s also a smaller and safer installation. The dynamic mass reactor requires refueling once every six months, at a cost equal to 10,000 per hull point of the power plant. For example, a dynamic mass reactor of 30 durability points costs 300,000 to refuel.

Matter Converter (PL 8) This device produces energy through the total conversion of matter. Literally anything can be used as fuel. While the matter converter is expensive, it produces an immense amount of power and requires no significant fuel source.

Quantum Cell (PL 8) Harnessing the Holy Grail of energy sources—the quantum fluctuation or zero-point energy observed in vacuum—the quantum cell produces an enormous amount of energy from no fuel source at all.

Design Tip: Power Assuming you’re using an average power system—say, a mass reactor—you probably want to devote about 10 to 15 percent of your ship’s hull points to its power plant. (Fuel tanks would run another 5 to 10 percent, if necessary.) This should give you plenty of power points for all of your engines, weapons, and defenses. Under-powering a ship is a real nuisance, since you’ll have to decide which systems need to be powered during each round of combat. Providing a ship with more power than it needs is safer, since you can take damage to the power plant and not lose the ability to fight effectively, but it may waste hull space and money that could be better spent elsewhere.

Singularity Generator (PL 9) The singularity generator is an incredibly powerful device that taps the power of a small black hole. It’s not a generator so much as an extremely capacious battery, but the energy contained in a tiny black hole is staggering. Over the course of years, the singularity will shrink as it “evaporates”, or loses energy; the singularity generator must be refueled by the creation of a new black hole. A singularity generator lasts for 10 to 15 years before refueling is required. Refueling costs an amount of money equal to half the cost of the power plant at the time of construction.

Step 4: Engines

Without engines, a ship can’t go anywhere. Many small ships rely on their mobility and maneuverability as their first (and sometimes only) line of defense against enemy fire. Engine systems consume power points created by the ship’s power plant and convert them into acceleration. Like armor, engine systems are proportional to the size of the ship and require the devotion of some percentage of the ship’s hull points to reach the designated breakpoints of effectiveness.

Engine Fuel Requirements

Several engine types require some kind of fuel tanks, above and beyond the fuel requirements for the ship’s power plant. Each hull point of fuel contains a certain number of thrust-days for a 1-hull point engine; this is the number of days the engine could operate continuously on 1 hull point of fuel. Engines with 2, 3, or more hull points will burn fuel two, three, and so on times faster than the figure listed. The fuel use figure assumes more or less continuous maximum thrust. Naturally, a ship that spends three weeks drifting without firing its engines consumes no fuel at all.