Okay, perhaps it's because it's super late and that **** Daylight Savings is affecting my brain - but man I'm having trouble parsing the Retrofitted hanger bay.

Lets assume we're building off a VX-100 freighter and we're trying to accommodate an X-Wing (for narrative purposes, we'll put it where the Phantom would dock). The text says that maximum silhouette of 2 smaller than the carrier. The VX-100 is a silhouette 5 ship, an X-Wing is a 3, so it should work right? Okay, that bit is easy.

The text goes on to say Sil 5 vehicles can carry a total silhouette of 5 - so my 3 Sil X-Wing and a 2 sil speeder bike should fit. (We'll stick it in the cargo bay somewhere). Okay, so far so good.

Then there's the mod - additional +1 maximum silhouette capacity, and you can do it 5 times. So assuming the awesome engineer makes all the rolls, the VX-1`00 now can hold up to 10 silhouettes worth of vehicles. One X-wing, three sil 2 speeder bikes and a Sil 1 Imperial Sky Swooper. This of course is putting aside that we've just invented TARDIS technology - strictly RAW, that's how the pieces mechanically fit together. But of course we're still restricted by the 3 max cap - no fitting a small-ish Star Destroyer in the Ghost's dock.

Okay, having typed all that out, my head is wrapped around this I think. But screw it, I've just spent all this time typing, so I'll hit submit so you wonderful people can tell me how smart and right I am.

No Tardis technology needed, you just add a retrofitted hangar bay. Obviously you don't just use the same small confined docking mechanic like the Ghost does for the Phantom. You build a freaking hangar for your ship and integrate it into the ship's systems to allow for maintenance. refueling and landing.

Our VCX.100 had the bow extended and widened , right back from bow till the engine section, the removed two of the original aft decks and integrated into the hangar space and energy shielding and hangar doors in the aft section. Bam, retrofitted hangar bay and a big, fat ass for our little Drake. That retrofitted hangar bay costs a small fortune and a solid amount of hardpoints, adjusting the hull to take in some fighters seems absolutely reasonable.

You're such a smart angry penguin.

Alternatively you could argue some additional docking clamps on the VX-100s belly if you want to fit more fighters and less bikes. Kinda like the Gozanti cruiser.

2 minutes ago, RicoD said:

You're such a smart angry penguin.

Alternatively you could argue some additional docking clamps on the VX-100s belly if you want to fit more fighters and less bikes. Kinda like the Gozanti cruiser.

Docking clamps are certainly a good and cheap solution, you don't even need the retrofitted hangar bay attachment in that case.

1 hour ago, SEApocalypse said:

Docking clamps are certainly a good and cheap solution, you don't even need the retrofitted hangar bay attachment in that case.

Really? I never knew that!

Near as I can tell, you are indeed both smart and right.

Probably be a lot easier to fit your head inside rather than around , just sayin'.

Is the disconnect you are having due to using the VCX-100 as your basis for comparison? Because the nature of the of the VCX-100 has been debated ad nauseam.

I'd also keep in mind that the silhouettes increase in orders of magnitude, so putting 10 total silhouette into your silhouette 5 ship isn't physically impossible since you're limited to things that are a couple orders of magnitude smaller in the first place. A couple speeder bikes don't really take up as much space as a freighter, they used total silhouette as a limit because it makes a simple rule of thumb, not because it will always add up to the same amount of actual space.

4 hours ago, SEApocalypse said:

Docking clamps are certainly a good and cheap solution, you don't even need the retrofitted hangar bay attachment in that case.

My only argument against the clamps is that I've always thought fighters strapped to the outside looked kind of ugly - so purely aesthetic.

45 minutes ago, kaosoe said:

Is the disconnect you are having due to using the VCX-100 as your basis for comparison? Because the nature of the of the VCX-100 has been debated ad nauseam.

Naw, it was just the wording of the Mod that had me baffled. The hanger could have been attached anywhere.

14 minutes ago, Desslok said:

My only argument against the clamps is that I've always thought fighters strapped to the outside looked kind of ugly - so purely aesthetic.

Our own reason for not going with clamps was purely based on the fact that ripping off a Fighter of the side by a critical hit sounds pretty good way to lose 200,000 credits worth of starfighter. And ironically our first space combat was exactly doing this to a pirate vessel which docked to its victim, blowing it off at the docking port and exposing both ships to hard vacuum, boarding afterwards on the secondary docking port.

A hangar is like having a garage, you don't need it always, but when some punks on the street start burnings cars or nature is giving you fist sized hailstones you still will be super happy to have parked inside. Once you invested in some gear and doing your maintenance in your own garage you even start saving money in general.

One group of mine has a wayfarer. Tbh we just use the hangar bay to allow them to launch their fighters. Otherwise I'd say it could still store the fighters but not in a way that would allow them to launch in mid-flight.

Also, stuff like speeder bikes and walkers I only factor into the encumbrance rules and not into the hangar bay as they would just need storage space.

1 hour ago, GroggyGolem said:

One group of mine has a wayfarer. Tbh we just use the hangar bay to allow them to launch their fighters. Otherwise I'd say it could still store the fighters but not in a way that would allow them to launch in mid-flight.

Also, stuff like speeder bikes and walkers I only factor into the encumbrance rules and not into the hangar bay as they would just need storage space.

We rule the the hangar bay attachment gives the ship a hangar bay with all the advantages that come with it, landing mid-flighting, starting, re-arm. re-fuel, re-pair (scnr). Meanwhile, if we have a guest for example, we put the bikes into boxes and put them into storage, this means they are not avaible with a single move maneuver and one lets ride incidental, but that is the price for storing temporary two extra Miy'til starfighters or some hover tanks or whatever in that hangar. Usually the bikes are ready to literally jump the ship.

So I guess our groups handle this exactly the same and as intended.

One thing to keep in mind is that not all cargo space might be accessible with an assembled walker or spaceship and disassembling a AT-ST or AT-AT into something which can be stored in some cargo bays might take some time, meanwhile it would be rather quick with something like speeder bikes. Though cargo containers and docking clamps might be your friend here. Just transport your walkers in underbelly cargo containers, bring them via your freighter to the place you need them and roll out the party from there. The big plus to this is that some large containers look less like a target and should provide at least some minimal protection for the cargo inside.

A VCX-100 is a fairly bad example for a retrofitted hangar, as it is an extremely small sil 5, and the known interior layout doesnt seem to support having enough space to land a fighter internally, and the exterior dosent seem to have anywhere to stick a hangar externally.

1 hour ago, korjik said:

A VCX-100 is a fairly bad example for a retrofitted hangar, as it is an extremely small sil 5, and the known interior layout doesnt seem to support having enough space to land a fighter internally, and the exterior dosent seem to have anywhere to stick a hangar externally.

Well, the only vehicles we have are the X-Wing, a Land Rover. We had the top aft modified to accommodate the X-Wing, so it can slip in where the Phantom docks. The Range Rover we just hand waved until now - but with the addition of the "hanger", we can justify some maintenance space and support equipment for it.

EDIT - Oh, and I forgot the sweet vintage Space-Harley. But it's a classic in mint condition, so it doesn't get taken out too often.

I ended up tossing the rules for the attachment completely and using a house ruled version.

I think everyone has made great points here. The most important thing to remember is that this is an attachment to your starship. You're not just rearranging the cargo hold with this. You're literally attaching a hangar bay. Best example of this is the modified CR-90 Corvette, FarStar. Note, also a silhouette 5 ship.

23 hours ago, Tweedledope said:

I think everyone has made great points here. The most important thing to remember is that this is an attachment to your starship. You're not just rearranging the cargo hold with this. You're literally attaching a hangar bay. Best example of this is the modified CR-90 Corvette, FarStar. Note, also a silhouette 5 ship.

Aaaand now I want one for any of our games...very pretty and well-done.

And I just noticed the nose-down X-Wing...makes Landings a little rough I'd guess...or they'd have to launch the X-Wing first?

Of course, that ship carried far more than a total of 10 Sil of small craft.

36 minutes ago, GandofGand said:

Aaaand now I want one for any of our games...very pretty and well-done.

I believe I've also seen a deck plan that goes with it.

25 minutes ago, HappyDaze said:

Of course, that ship carried far more than a total of 10 Sil of small craft.

They got a special permit to take the attachment twice. Though far more is kind of funny as the picture shows you space for about 3 X-Wing in that hangar. How they managed to store 12 fighters and a shuttle and some planetary attack crafts on that thing is … a little puzzling. That's right, they squeezed them in like puzzle pieces.

Cutaway simulation of the Farstar landing process:

9 minutes ago, Desslok said:

Cutaway simulation of the Farstar landing process:

ROFLMAO...Yeah that looks about right...8D

25 minutes ago, Vorzakk said:

I believe I've also seen a deck plan that goes with it.

Yeah I found out its in the Darkstryder Campaign stuff which I believe I have as a .pdf at home...need to remember to look...

For a good example of what a Retro-fitted Hangar on a too-small vessel may look like;