Designing a space station

By mwagner626, in Rogue Trader Gamemasters

Is there anything out there to help me design a space station. I know there is the wayfarer station in the books, but it only gives a little glimpse into the ability to design my own to use in a campaign. I also found a basic utility on the forums (from bobh) but it didn't have as much detail as I was hoping for. I'm really wanting to design it from the ground up and am trying to think what components should/could go on it. I realize that it is a whole lot bigger than a single vessel and the space and power requirements will be different. Any ideas on where or how to start?

(Oh and bob if you read this, your utility is great, I just want to know how you figure out all of your numbers to. I'm a math guy I like to know how you get the power and space that you had.)

Alright I spent some time going over the Wayfarer station. I'm guestimating that a space station is around 15x the size of cruiser and using some guess work (and extrapolating from similar components) I came up with the following:

Space 78/80
Power 47/50


power space
Genatorium +50 13
Multpile VSArray 14 4
Vitae Pattern LS 6 4
Stationmaster Bdg 2 2
(based of similar structures in the core book)
mars pat macro 4 2
mars pat macro 4 2
starbreaker lance 6 4

civitas decks 3 5
civitas decks 3 5
civitas decks 3 5
(based of the crew quarters in the core book)
Docks 13 28
(basing it off the spacedock piers BK 40)
Hydroponics 3 6
(i am basing it on the arbortoreum ItS 160)

totals: (47) (78)

I think it looks decent but I am open to some feedback as well as ideas to convert other components to space port use.

I made this HERE

it's not complete with weapons yet but ill get there some day and start adding other features.

Thanks, it looks good.

On ‎8‎/‎31‎/‎2011 at 5:39 AM, bobh said:

I made this HERE

it's not complete with weapons yet but ill get there some day and start adding other features.

Have you ever completed it? If so, could you post it as a Blog or Discussion here or at https://warhammer40k.wikia.com ? Whatever site/service you linked is taken over by malicious adware it seems. So you have the only copies.

On 8/29/2011 at 1:14 AM, mwagner626 said:

Alright I spent some time going over the Wayfarer station. I'm guestimating that a space station is around 15x the size of cruiser and using some guess work (and extrapolating from similar components) I came up with the following:

Its crew is 10k, + 80-100k inhabitants on payload/support = 90-110k total. That's in cruiser to battlecruiser range. And mass 22 Mt, in light cruiser range, which is sensible (it needs much less reinforcements, and the armor shape is much closer to the sphere).

Accordingly, most generic components (lifesupport, sensors, etc) should be standard cruiser grade stuff. Only lifesupport is any likely to be redundant (then it would be 1x in each of 3 decks), but between the way it's listed, and for a bog standard orbital port we can reasonably assume it's not the case. Just standard lifesupport + hydroponics

Quote

civitas decks 3 5
civitas decks 3 5
civitas decks 3 5
(based of the crew quarters in the core book)

Hard to tell, because these are split to 3, so each would take 30-40k of people: above frigate, but below light cruiser size. However, they are unlikely to be better than Clan-Kin Quarters on a cruiser. Which would take 2:5 in total — all extra space would be due to redundancies. But then, they are built as decks rather than squeezed along the hull. 2:4 each at most , more likely 3:6 total.

Quote

Docks 13 28
(basing it off the spacedock piers BK 40)

Mobile base type "Spacedock Piers" are attached to a side of the vessel that undergoes significant acceleration, thus installing those includes multiple solid connections to the ship's structural elements, the part to which other ships are docked are "deployable", and everything else is probably inside.

Space station docks are the opposite case: made for negligible acceleration, permanent and sticking them out as extensions of the station's own beams is an entirely reasonable approach. I would therefore give them same power requirements (at least when in use), but since they are mostly external, space requirement at most equivalent to Cargo Hold and Lighter Bay (for transport/support facilities), which would drop them to 7:2. And it doesn't have a whole lot of grav plating that probably consumes power in larger holds.

More likely 7:1 when working (used to tractor into mooring/unload/load/repair ships) and 1:1 when inactive (no ship docked, or just serves as a glorified corridor with airlocks).

Availability/Cost may be Scarce (1 SP) like typical holds, because it's mostly a bunch of structural members with some cables, cranes etc.

For variants with heavy duty repair facilities Very Rare (3 SP) like Salvage Systems is sensible, but a basic cargo hub with extra airlocks and power couplings is only comparable to a basic hold.

Quote

Hydroponics 3 6
(i am basing it on the arbortoreum ItS 160)

Arboretum merely doubles ship's endurance time. Hydroponics decks give unlimited endurance time food-wise (and extra lifesupport capacity, of course). That's probably the greatest sink of "unaccounted" hull space.

Also, in case it serves mainly as the orbital port for a colony, the optional component most likely to eat those 3 space units left is Cargo Hold and Lighter Bay.

Edited by TBeholder
costs

So far I am aware of:

Wayfarer Station, RT CRB p210
The Bulwark- p76 of Frozen Reaches
Port Wander- there is a large section describing the port in Into the Storm but I'm not sure about combat stats. Defences are on p240

derelict station (very basic) stats- p15 of Stars of Inequity

I have all of these books except for Frozen Reaches. I will be comparing the stats of these examples of Space Stations, and trying to figure how they relate to BFG's Space Stations. I will try to establish some baselines for converting from BFG to RT, by comparing RT ships with their BFG stats.

Once I have this framework for reference, I can post my notes, as well as RT conversions for the Blackstones and Ramilies from BFG to RT.

Wayfarer is closest to "Space Station" (with guns, lances and small craft), but has Turret Rating too low.

Orbital weapon platforms are smaller and very specialized. And even Orbital Dock is more modest (except turret rating, too).

Edited by TBeholder