Shipboard Systems (WIP version)

Data File Updated: Wednesday, July 22, 2026

Warning: this is an incomplete work-progress entry that is currently just a cleaned-up pastiche of notes and forum posts, presented here for reference. Please pardon the mess.

About the Shipboard System Profiles

This is the "back-end system" counterpart to the Weapon Profiles article. However, it's a bit more rough and lacking in statistics, etc.; even though it uses some game terminology, the old sim document it's based on is way out of date. I think it can be useful in terms of just describing the system, so rather than wait until I have the time to bring it fully up to date, I've just cleaned it up a bit. Such numbers which remain in it should be viewed with some skepticism.

Power Systems

Primary and Auxiliary Power

In most cases, primary power is provided by the ship's engines, and most systems (including weapons) are parasitic off this power. Given the fantastic energies required to push these starships along at 30g, I think that the energy requirements of most conventional beam weapons are going to pale by comparison, and so I'm assuming that as long as a ship has main power, a proper warship can probably accelerate at the maximum capacity of its drives and still have energy to fire all of its available weapons.

Most ships will have auxiliary power reactors for use when the mains are offline or unavailable due to damage or maintenance.

Accumulators

Because of the large power requirements of the jump drive, the core of any starship is a large bank of capacitors for storing energy.

The power stored in accumulators can be used for other purposes, and the accumulators are frequently tied into the main deflector screen system. In Loroi vessels, the accumulators are built into the Wave-loom device.

Heat Management and Cooling

Starship powerplants, drives and weapon systems generate a terrific amount of heat, and managing this heat is often a key limiting factor in acceleration endurance and rate of fire of weaponry. In addition, Taimat fuel must be stored at very low temperatures to maintain containment, requiring sophisticated and redundant cooling systems. Most vessels use a combination of heat sinks, heat reclaimers and external radiators to manage this heat.

Loroi cooling systems involve large external structures, including the large engine struts and dedicated cooling vanes. Umiak vessels have more sophisticated heat sinks and heat reclamation systems that allow their ships to recapture and reuse some of this heat, increasing endurance and reducing the amount of vulnerable external structures required.

Reactor Types

Taimat (Type-A Fuel)

Taimat (also referred to as "Type-A" fuel) is an artificially-produced form of exotic matter with physical properties similar to Helium-4. It is unstable, and can be induced to decay on demand, which releases gamma radiation and a small mass of subatomic particles. The energy efficiency of Taimat decay is less than but close to that of a matter-antimatter annihilation. Taimat is less expensive to produce than antimatter, and easier to store; it can be kept stable as long as it is stored at very low temperatures.

Taimat is fairly stable if supercooled to a superfluid state, but will start to decay if allowed to boil, and if you strike a nucleus with the right kind of particle, several of the nucleons will annihilate each other. So if you raise the temperature of the Taimat in an enclosed chamber, you can get a sustained chain reaction. If there's loss of containment and the fuel boils into open space, there will be decay and radiation but probably not a chain reaction. But if there's loss of containment or an unregulated flow within the implosion chamber of the reactor, there could be a runaway chain reaction and an explosion. Torpedo reactors are probably to do this on purpose: when triggered, the chain reaction is allowed to run up the fuel injector and into the fuel container.

Because of the danger of radiation (both from the normal operation of the reactor as well as the possibility of fuel venting), Taimat-powered engines are often constructed in nacelles that can be kept at a distance from the inhabited portions of the ship. The notable exception to this is Umiak vessels, whose ships have extensive internal radiation shielding.

Antimatter

A matter-antimatter reaction involves the collision and annihilation of a particle and its antiparticle, resulting in conversion to gamma-ray energy of the entire mass of the fuel. As such, antimatter represents the highest possible energy density of any fuel, but it is very expensive to create and dangerous to store and transport, as it must be kept from contact with normal matter. Since the development of the less-expensive and safer Taimat process, very few races still operate antimatter reactors. Some antimatter is still produced, primarily for use in weapons.

Nuclear Fusion

A fusion reaction produces energy by fusing atomic nuclei of hydrogen or helium. While this is an energetic reaction, it requires more fuel per unit of energy than antimatter or Taimat, and so it used for primary propulsion mainly by races that lack the technology for more advanced reactors. Fusion is still used as auxiliary or utility power generation by several fleets. Unlike some other powerplants, a fusion reactor requires energy input to sustain the reaction, and quits cold when this is interrupted.

Propulsion Systems

Inertial Compensation

Because of the space-time warping effects of jump drive, some kind of inertial compensation is required to prevent the ship and crew from being torn apart by gravitational tidal stresses during the transition from real space to hyperspace and back. The additional benefit of this requirement is that this inertial damping field can also be used to mitigate the stresses of regular acceleration on the ship and crew. So, acceleration is typically only limited by available power rather than the structure of the ship or the G-tolerance of the crew.

Inertial Dampers

Inertial dampers do have a minimum energy requirement, and so are impractical to operate on a typical warship much smaller than 65m, or an unarmed shuttle much smaller than 50m. The additional power needed for jump drives means that most jump-capable vessels are at least 150m in length. Most small craft (including fighters and most shuttles) will not have inertial compensation, and must either restrict their acceleration to a level that the passengers can handle, or use some other acceleration mitigating mechanism. Larger small craft that do use inertial dampers will have reduced range due to the increased energy requirements.

Artificial Gravity

Artificial gravity is a by-product of the inertial damping system. Any difference in strength of the local inertial damping field between two points is has the same effect on the occupants as if it were a gradient in the gravitational field, as long as the system is within an accelerating frame of reference. This force is felt in the direction of the gradient rather than in the direction of acceleration, which means the direction of experienced acceleration can be different from the direction of actual acceleration. This allows decks to be aligned with the long axis of the ship for best use of space, instead of having to be aligned perpendicular to the long axis of the ship, with decks stacked like a skyscraper.

Liquid Breathing Medium

Since the Loroi operate combat small craft with acceleration performance in the ~40G realm, fighter crews must find an alternate method to accommodate the G load. Loroi pilots do this using fluid-filled hardsuits and a liquid breathing medium.

Because fluids are not compressible and forces applied to them are distributed as an omnidirectional pressure, a pilot immersed in a fluid-filled rigid suit feels the acceleration as pressure rather than a directional force against the seat. This protection is limited by the differential density of body tissues, and so the compressibility of air-filled cavities such as the lungs and airway must also be filled with a liquid breathing medium  with a density similar to water to allow protection beyond about 20 G. A pilot totally immersed in liquid, with liquid inside all body cavities, will feel little effect from extreme G forces because the forces on a liquid are distributed equally, and in all directions simultaneously. However effects will still be felt because of density differences between different body tissues (such as between bones and soft tissue), so an upper acceleration limit still exists, but it is in the hundreds of G's.

The exoskeletal Umiak have heavy bodies with highly varying tissue densities, and so experience poor G-tolerance in general and do not gain much benefit from using a liquid breathing medium. Accordingly, the Umiak do not operate combat craft smaller than gunboats about 70m in length, which have sufficient power to utilize inertial dampers.

In most cases, the main engines of a starship are independent reactors tied to one or more drive units. In some cases, such as chemical rockets or plasma bottle drives, the power source and the drive are essentially one. Most primary starship drive mechanisms produce high-temperature, radioactive thrust components that make them unsafe to operate in atmosphere.

Drive Systems

Ion Drive

Also called an ion thruster or plasma thruster, this is a large class of thrusters in which a electrostatic or electromagnetic field is used to accelerate charged particles (usually plasma) out of the drive aperture, creating thrust. The power source is usually electrical and supplied by an external reactor. There are a variety of possible propellants (sublimated solid, liquid, and gaseous), which must be carried in addition to the reactor fuel. Many ion thrusters use toxic propellants that are not suitable for operation in atmosphere, but some plasma thrusters can operate safely in atmosphere.

Ion thrusters are flexible and efficient, with a high specific impulse and the ability to operate continuously at very low power. They are used extensive on small system craft and as secondary maneuvering thrusters on larger craft with more sophisticated main drives. Ion thrusters are the main drives on Humanity's starships; each engine nacelle couples a fusion reactor with two to four ion drive nozzles, and can achieve accelerations for cruiser-sized vessels in the realm of 5-6g, though with limited fuel endurance.

Plasma Torch

Also known as a "plasma bottle", this type of engine combines the reactor and drive into a single unit, enclosing the high-energy plasma created from a fusion or Taimat reaction in a magnetic field and blasting it out of an aperture, creating thrust. A basic plasma torch has higher thrust but lower efficiency than a typical ion drive, and it can often use the production of the reactor as propellant instead of having to carry a separate supply of reactor fuel and propellant. There are a number of variants that use electrostatic or electromagnetic "afterburners" to increase the velocity of the plasma, or other more exotic methods (see below) to increase the efficiency of the drive.

Floater Drive

The Floater drive (named after the Pipolsid, who developed it) is used with several variations by most of the Union nations. It combines the principle of the plasma torch with the effect of inertial damping fields. The system uses a Taimat reaction to drive a small amount of propellant through a "Floater Field" (usually generated by large vanes projecting from the engine outlet) which has the reverse effect of an inertial damping field; it accelerates and temporarily increases the inertia (and therefore the effective reaction mass) of the propellant. This dramatically reduces the amount of propellant that must be carried by a ship, and greatly increases its endurance. The field vanes can also be used to vector the thrust to increase rotation rate of the vessel. Loroi cruiser-class vessels using twin Floater Drives can typically sustain acceleration in the 26-30g realm for extended periods of 100 hours or more. The chief drawback is the vulnerability of the drive vanes, which can be easily damaged.

Plastron Field

The Umiak counterpart to the Floater Drive works on the same principle in reverse, lowering the inertia of the vessel itself rather than increasing the inertia of the propellant. The Plastron Field is a modification to the inertial damping field that encloses the whole ship, reducing its effective mass and allowing for higher acceleration. It also has the secondary effect of reducing the effect of collision (and the kinetic component of weapons) on the hull while the field is active. Umiak vessels using Taimat plasma bottle drives and the Plastron Field typically have a lower maximum acceleration (in the 25-28g realm for most cruiser-class) but are more fuel efficient than equivalent Floater Drives, allowing for greater endurance. The drives also have fewer vulnerable external structures, and add to the structural integrity of the full (both against acceleration stress and kinetic impacts).

Illusion Drive

Historian vessels use a mysterious drive technology that appears to be completely reactionless, requiring no propellant at all. It seems to directly convert energy into momentum. Little is known about how this drive operates or what powers it; the Loroi who first witnessed in in action described it in their report as the Torein Periadi ("Illusion Drive").

Chemical Rockets and Cold Gas Thrusters

Still used for some applications such as short-range missiles and boosters for larger Taimat-powered torpedoes.

Atomic Rockets

Fissionable materials are often in short supply once a civilization has reached its starfaring phase, and so are often used in other applications.

Maneuvering Thrusters (Verniers)

Although vessels can maneuver to a certain degree through thrust vectoring or differential thrust of the main engines, fine maneuvering control is usually achieved through dedicated reaction control thrusters located around the hull. Thrusters are used in tactical combat mainly for pivots and docking maneuvers. Thrusters can also be used for minimal propulsion, but this is not relevant in the tactical scale. At longer timescales, maneuvering thrusters can be used to limp back to base. 

Jump Drive Generator

See FTL Tech. A jump drive consists of the jump field generator and a set of accumulators to store enough power to operate it, as this power requirement usually exceeds the on-demand output of a ship's powerplant. The jump field breaks the "surface tension" of spacetime with enough energy to propel the ship into hyperspace; the power required for this increases with the mass of the vessel, requiring more accumulators and a higher-rated generator. Once in hyperspace, the faster-than-light journey is ballistic and requires no further power or navigation. There is a minimum power requirement to create this entryway into hyperspace, regardless of the mass the ship, so there is a minimum size requirement of a jump-capable starship in that it must be able to generate this minimum power. As such, the smallest practical jump-capable starship is usually a corvette or frigate about 100m long. See Weights and Measures: Scales.

Tugs and Gunboat Tenders

A mothership or tug can tow vehicles into jump as long as it has enough power. For a dedicated 300m 125kt Umiak type-G gunboat tender carrying four 2.4 kt 75m light gunboats is about a 10% increase in jump mass. But vehicle mass increases with the cube of length, so a large 120m heavy gunboat weighs in at around 6 kt. For the same tender to carry two of these heavy gunboats is a 40% increase in jump mass. Towing a single 150m 17 kt light destroyer would be an 80% jump mass increase.

Dedicated tenders are armed and follow the rest of the fleet into combat, but they can't be as well-armed as pure combat cruisers; the more daughter craft it has to tow, the less well it can fight itself. Many ships with tow linkages aren't dedicated tenders, just regular warships with linkages and extra fuel storage, and can't really handle much extra jump mass. So there's a point past which the fact that the daughter crafts' engines are not contributing to the power required to jump the increasing mother-daughter total mass starts becoming a real problem.

As gunboats get up into the 120m range, you either need to have it towed by a larger, dedicated tender, or you need to give it its own jump drives so it can jump separately and use its own engines to relieve the increasing mass burden. Some of the larger Umiak gunboats do have their own jump drives, but still need to dock with a mothership to resupply and give its crews a break.

Once you get up into the 150m range, you're a full-fledged frigate and you really need to have your own jump drive. As we discussed some time ago regarding the feasibility of salvage vessels, it's one thing to carry small vehicles into jump with you, but when you're talking about another full-size starship the power requirements get pretty daunting.

Defensive Systems

Deflector Screens

Defensive screens electromagnetic fields designed primarily to deflect charged beams, such as blasters and plasma weapons. Screens may deflect a shot altogether; failing that, the screens will absorb a portion of the damage of the shot before it penetrates to the ship. Penetration may overload the screen generators and reduce screen effectiveness, as will direct damage to the generators. Defensive screens are usually weakest in the rear quarter of a ship, because of potential interactions with the drive exhausts.

Charged particles that penetrate the screens can get trapped inside the magnetic field, which can lead to overloads and damage to the screen generators. So, as screens are repeatedly penetrated, they tend to lose effectiveness.

Screens do not function in atmosphere or dense clouds of gas/dust, as they will become overloaded by plasma that becomes trapped in and energized by the field. This will happen quickly in a typical planetary atmosphere, but builds up over time in a more rarified dust cloud. The trapped plasma can be released by shutting down the screens and allowing the plasma to dissipate (during which time the vessel will be vulnerable, and may take damage from the released plasma). Screens are affected in a similar manner by most engine exhausts, therefore must be designed to allow the drive plasma to escape; because of this, the defensive strength of the screens is greatly reduced directly behind the ship near the drive outlets.

Being electromagnetic, defensive screens

only protect with 50% (round up) of their strength against Screen-Piercing weapons (such as lasers and kinetic weapons). Any damage that penetrates the shields is resolved next against armor. Screen strength can be restored over time by damage control measures.

Screen generator cells are grouped together to protect portions of the ship. In Loroi vessels, the forward deflectors are usually housed in the prongs, and the aft generators are usually housed in the engine nacelles. Loroi vessels typically have stronger screens in the forward section than the rear. Umiak vessels usually more even deflector coverage, though they are still vulnerable in the rear around the drive outlets.

The screen generators are generally tied into the same accumulators that feed the jump drive.

Deflector Screen Characteristics by Type

*Roll or less on 3D6, assuming an Evasion rating of 5

Overload Damage

Individual screen generator cells may overload when penetrated by enemy weapons.

Maybe overloads don't happen (or are reduced) with screen-piercing or screen-ignoring weapons.

Screens are weakened when penetrated by enemy weapons. If the damage value of an incoming volley penetrates the shields (is greater than the shield strength) then reduce the screen value by one (mark one “S” element as destroyed). This reduction is done after the screen strength has been subtracted from the damage pool. If there is not enough damage to exceed the Screen strength, then the Screen remains at its current strength. Note that in order to penetrate, at least one damage point must get past the screens. It takes 5 damage points to penetrate a screen of strength 4. Damage from Screen Splash weapons can cause an overload even if it did not penetrate the screens. This overload damage can only occur once per segment, no matter how many times the screens were penetrated or struck by Screen Splash damage.

Damage formula:
Penetrating_damage = (Shot_damage - DA) - (DR*Overload) [if < 0, =0]
Cells_damaged = Penetrating_Damage / 5
Overload = Overload - Cells_damaged * 5
DA = MAX( DA - Cells_damaged, 1)
PD = MAX( PD - Cells_dmaaged, 2)

Plasma Splash

Plasma weapons can do additional overload damage, and may cause an overload even when they do not penetrate. Probably the most straightforward way to do with is to say that Plasma Splash weapons include the DR*overload component in the overload damage? Or maybe just that overload damage is doubled.

Armor

E2.2.1 External Armor Representing the armored skin of the starship, the Armor value of a ship is equal to the number of undestroyed “A” elements on its profile. This value is subtracted from incoming damage in the same manner as Screens. Armor only protects with 50% (round up) of its value against Armor-Piercing weapons (such as particle beam weapons). Any damage that penetrates the armor is resolved next against internal subsystems.

E2.2.2 Section-Specific Armor Some warships have an internal armored belt in addition to the armored exterior skin. This is usually to protect the ship’s Core section, or the armored forward section. In this case, the “6-Core” section will have additional Armor elements recorded just inside the left bracket (ex.: “6[AAA QQ CC]”). This armor is treated just like normal armor, but protects only this system; damage to the Core system must penetrate this armor to damage the Core subsystems. All normal rules for armor penetration, ablation and hull soak still apply. Any section can have section-specific armor.

E2.2.3 Penetration and Ablation Damage Armor is also degraded by one point when penetrated, in the same manner as Screens. This reduction is after armor value has been subtracted from the damage pool. In addition, weapons with Armor-Ablating abilities further degrade armor by the specified value, whether or not the armor was penetrated.

I imagine that it's probably a composite of a carbon fiber structural framework interwoven with an insulating material, alternating with layers of a strong, conductive alloy that helps spread and dissipate heat. Different combatants at the same tech level probably use the same materials, with variations in structure and manufacturing technique (Race A's alloy of X material might be more refined than Race B's).

There's a physical limit to how much energy any material armor can absorb, so I think we have to accept that defensive screens probably represent the majority of protection and armor is a minor component.

Crew Facilities and Storage

E6.0 Internal Systems Crew quarters, cargo storage, special facilities. If we modeled control spaces (bridge), they would be here. A warship’s core often has its own armored belt. See Armor above.

E6.1 Crew Quarters (Q) Spaces for crew living. Essentially free hits from a tactical point of view. If all your quarters are lost, the crew must eventually abandon ship. 1 Q per 50 hull spaces for warships, per 25 for carriers. Extra quarters allow the ship to carry extra crew or passengers (such as troops). Note that some small ships (such as light gunboats) do not have Quarters at all, which means that the gunboat must dock and crews disembark to the mothership at the end of the battle. Roughly, a Quarters element represents living space for up to 200 people. That’s about 18 tons of person. [Crew casualties may eventually be modeled, especially as related to Damage Control. Loss of crew would represent tactical casualties, not necessarily killed.] [Optional rules could be added later to model crew casualties, operating with surplus or short crews, and crew quality (or “crew grade”). Crew Grade, if tracked, is recorded next to the size of the crew on the Ship Profile. If a ship loses all of its Quarters systems, the crew will have to abandon ship within 24 hours or crew quality will suffer (not yet modeled). See Crew Grade [F2.0] in the Optional Rules section.]

E6.2 Cargo Holds (C) Spaces for storage of cargo, supplies and ammunition. Each hold “C” element represents storage for one “space” of cargo; groups of cargo holds can store any item of any size if there are enough holds. One cargo hold can store 1 “space” of cargo or 6 “points” of ammunition. Cargo holds can be linked to weapon mounts or hangar bays to speed reloading; these linked holds are referred to as “Magazines” and are recorded in the appropriate weapon subsystem rather than the crew subsystem. When a cargo hold is destroyed, whatever was stored inside is also destroyed, but empty holds are always destroyed before occupied ones. [Optional Rule: if a cargo hold containing live ammunition is destroyed, it may cause critical hits. TODO]

E6.2.1 Cargo Size Table CARGO TYPE CARGO SPACE ORDNANCE POINTS Crew Unit (~200 people) 1 6 Marine Unit (~100 armed troops) 1 6 Cargo Unit (~200 tons) 1 6 AMM Missile 1/36 1/6 SR Torpedo 1/12 1/2 MR Torpedo 1/6 1 LR Torpedo 1/3 2 Shuttlecraft 1 6

E6.3 Flag Facilities (Z) [This system represents extra crew and facilities for flag officers (admirals). In tactical combat, this system does not currently have a use, though it may at some point be used to generate flag “points” that can be spent on special actions. A ship is not required to have this system to be the flagship of a group. Give +1 initiative for flagship? The fleet commander is considered to be “in” this subsystem if it exists, so if it is destroyed, she may be required to make a survival roll.

E6.4 Telepathy Amplifier (Amp) A Loroi Farseer’s telepathy amplification chamber. No real tactical uses… the Farseer is mainly of use at the system and strategic level.

[TODO] Other special facilities… marine barracks, science labs, etc.

E4.3 Hangar Bays and Tow Linkages

A Hangar subsystem is a group of bays for carrying and servicing daughter craft. The daughter craft is assumed to be wholly or partially within the mother ship, and so is considered to be internal to the mother ship and can not be separately targeted. A Tow Linkage is an external attachment for towing a daughter craft. The daughter craft is outside the mother ship, and can still be separately targeted. Normally a starship must have at least one hangar (H) or linkage (G) to allow crews and supplies to get on and off.

E4.3.1 Shuttle Bay (H)

Each shuttle bay can carry one shuttle-sized in-system spacecraft (small craft). Each grouping of bays (called a Hangar) is assumed to have its own launch and retrieval system, so a ship with two groups of shuttle bays can launch or receive two groups of craft independently. Multiple grouped bay elements can carry craft larger than a single shuttle; for example, four Hangar elements (“HHHH”) grouped could carry four standard shuttles (size 1), or two heavy transport shuttles (size 2), or two standard shuttles and one heavy shuttle. A shuttle hangar can refuel any craft that can fit in it, but it does not have built-in facilities for re-arming fighters. Fighters that can fit in a hangar bay can still be rearmed with ordnance from cargo storage, using the Reloading Rules. When a hangar bay is destroyed, any craft carried inside are also destroyed, but empty bays are always destroyed before occupied ones. Launching and Recovering Craft Hangars are assumed to be able to launch all of their craft simultaneously in a single segment. Recovering craft may take longer: see Docking Phase. Cargo Transfer Some ships carry extra shuttles in cargo holds. These can be transferred to a hangar if necessary using the reloading rules. Magazines can be connected to Hangar Bays in the same way as to a missile weapon to speed reloading of spare craft. [Due to the large size of spare shuttles, there may be an additional penalty for moving shuttles from non-connected holds, representing a partial breakdown and reassemble of the shuttle required to move it through the ship’s restricted passageways.]

E4.3.2 Fighter Bay (V)

Fighter Bays work the same as normal hangars with the exception that they are larger (1.5 times the size) and have built-in facilities for rearming fighters. A Fighter Bay may contain up to 3 points of extra ordnance per element in addition to the fighter; for example, a four-element Fighter Bay (“VVVV”) could store up to 24 short-range torpedoes (3x4x2). This extra ordnance is in addition to whatever ordnance the fighter is already carrying. Fighter Bay ordnance may be used to rearm fighters immediately; once this ordnance is used up, reloads must be brought in from cargo holds using the normal reload rules. A fighter bay can carry one fighter of any size, even a double-size heavy fighter that would normally require two shuttle bay spaces. This is for simplicity. Magazines can be connected to Hangar Bays in the same way as to a missile weapon to speed reloading of spare craft or spare ordnance. Fighter and Shuttle bays can be grouped together in the same hangar. A fighter may be stored in a normal shuttle hangar if the hangar is large enough, but reloading of ordnance must be done from cargo holds using the normal reloading rules. See: Small Craft table

E4.3.3 Starship Bay (O)

Some really massive ships (or large bases) have hangars large enough to carry an entire starship. Each Starship Bay (O) represents 20 cargo spaces, and can carry a ship of size class 1 (Corvette) or smaller. Each starship size class is three times the physical size of the previous one, so it would take three bays (OOO) to carry a destroyer, and nine (OOOOOOOO) to carry a cruiser-class ship. A starship docked inside the bay cannot move, fire its weapons, or launch its own missiles or small craft. A ship’s defensive screens are not active when inside a bay. An empty Starship Bay is still destroyed by one point of damage (it’s mostly empty space). Damage against an occupied bay is scored directly against the Profile of the occupying ship, but any defensive screens are ignored for the daughter ship, as they are deactivated. Critical engine hits are not rolled for against a docked daughter ship, as the engines are not powered up. See: Starship Size class table

E4.3.4 Tow Line (Y) and Gunboat Linkage (G)

 A Tow Line is an arm-like protrusion used for towing a smaller ship, typically a gunboat-class vehicle. This semi-rigid tether allows fuel, cargo and crews to be transferred between mother and daughter vessel. Only ships equipped with a Linkage (G) may dock to a mother ship equipped with one or more tow lines. The Umiak are primary users of these tethers for their gunboats, allowing the gunboats to be built without jump drives, extra fuel tanks or even sometimes crew quarters.

Sensors and Countermeasures

E7.1 Fire Control Sensors (R)

Currently, all ships have at least one sensor system. This represents both active sensors (such as radar or lidar) and passive sensors including passive radar and optical detectors (telescopes). At the tactical scale, any ship with at least one active sensor system is assumed to be able to detect any other ship in direct line of sight. Starships in Outsider are not at all stealthy (drive plumes and weapons fire output energy in the terajoule range), and in space there is not much to hide behind. Friendly ships can share target information, so any ship can detect a target that is in the line of sight of any friendly ship with an active sensor system (even if the first ship does not have an active sensor system). Although a ship may only fire direct-fire weapons at a detected target in line-of-sight, it may launch seeking weapons against any detected target, even if it is not in line of sight. If the sensor system is damaged, a ship may become unable to target weapons (or may incur penalties to hit). (TODO) [This may end up being like the Engines, with a series of numbers indicating current ability.]

E7.2 Jamming & Countermeasures (?)

More commonly know as Electronic Countermeasures (ECM). Not modeled yet. (TODO) [Could be something as simple as a number, compared with Sensors, and if one number is higher than the other, the represents a positive or negative modifier to hit. E7.3 Long-rage Sensors (X) These will be important at the system level for detecting the enemy, but in tactical play they are just free hull hits.

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