15 hours ago, Truite said:

Cargo to passenger cabin conversion:
Base modifier:
Add passenger capacity to the ship. This counts living space as well as added supplies and survival system extensions of the ship.

Adding 1 to 5 passengers = 15 Encumbrance points per passenger
Adding 6 to 19 passengers = 12 Encumbrance points per passenger
Adding 20 passengers = 10 Encumbrance points per passenger
Modification options : None
Hard point required: None
Price: 100 credits per encumbrance point converted.

I’d increase the cost per encumbrance point converted. Maybe not 1000 credits per point converted, but certainly a lot more than 100. Maybe 500 would be a good compromise? Then there are other variables like where the conversion is being done (core world super mega starport versus outer rim grassy field), who is doing the conversion (are they paying someone, or doing it themselves), if they’re hiring someone then what quality of person/people is doing the work (better craftspersons will produce better output faster, but at a much higher rate), etc…. There’s also the issue of how much time it takes to do the conversion.

Yes, this means you could spend more money doing a conversion on a cargo ship than it cost to buy the ship in the first place, but I think that is actually a reasonable outcome. Consider the people who buy a $10,000 used Honda Civic and then spend $50,000 on parts alone to fix the thing up and turn it into a proper “rice burner” street racer!

1 hour ago, bradknowles said:

(better craftspersons will produce better output faster, but at a much higher rate)

or take MUCH longer due to the meticulous nature of the expert ship modifier, just ask anyone who has had a high quality panel shop respray their rice burner!

First, thanks for the constructive feedback!

The spirit behind this option is to allow a 5 player party to choose a ship with a crew+passenger capacity of 4 without having to shove the droid PC into cargo space :p. I want to allow flexibility, for a price.

In my mind, 100/encumbrance was the material price. I should double that in the attachment description.

I agree that low availability might multiply the cost as the DM sees fit when you're in the outer rim territories or other type of barren space.

IMHO 500/encumbrance is overkill: the current price is on the same range as the Cargo Pod custom attachment from KOENSAYR AD·15 MODULAR MULTl·ROLE STARFIGHTER (special modifications p.62). Each Mod (1000 credits) on the cargo pod adds 2 passengers on the multi-role starfighter. At 200 credits per encumbrance, the current price is 6 times that already.
When I imagine a technician installing this attachment, I see him buying one ore more extra escape pods, disassembling them to install them on the ship as part of the existing life support system, buying some beds and basic furniture and making some refitting of the cargo bay, probably setting up an airtight indoor wall to cut existing cargo space in half, and probably a couple of extra doors to allow access the cargo and the existing crew quarters. I don't think escape pods are that expensive and I consider the conversion as something technically non-challenging as long as the existing life support systems are not overloaded by the modification.

I looked up the star wars d20 system, 1 escape pod with a passenger capacity of 8 costs 1200 credits. Given that, I would modify the price as follows:

Price: 2000 credits per 10 passengers added (rounded up), plus 200 credits per encumbrance point converted.

That's 5000 credits to add the first passenger, and 44000 credits to convert one of the 4 cargo bays of a HT-2200 to passenger transport.

What do you think?

EDIT: Issues to address: maybe the attachment should be more expensive on smaller ships. Also, adding 1 passenger on a YT-1300 costs the same as adding 1 passenger on a YV-560, regardless of the ship's consumables. I don't want to use a complex equation for price calculations, but maybe the consumables duration should affect the price?

Should the rule change for capital ship modifications?

5 hours ago, Truite said:

The spirit behind this option is to allow a 5 player party to choose a ship with a crew+passenger capacity of 4 without having to shove the droid PC into cargo space :p. I want to allow flexibility, for a price.

Why not? It’s only a droid. It’s not like it needs to breathe or eat or poop or anything.

Heck, you could just shove it into a closet.

5 hours ago, Truite said:

IMHO 500/encumbrance is overkill: the current price is on the same range as the Cargo Pod custom attachment from KOENSAYR AD·15 MODULAR MULTl·ROLE STARFIGHTER (special modifications p.62). Each Mod (1000 credits) on the cargo pod adds 2 passengers on the multi-role starfighter. At 200 credits per encumbrance, the current price is 6 times that already.

Yeah, but you’re comparing against a well-known module that is pre-made for a specific ship. Doing custom work is always going to take more time and money.

5 hours ago, Truite said:

When I imagine a technician installing this attachment, I see him buying one ore more extra escape pods, disassembling them to install them on the ship as part of the existing life support system, buying some beds and basic furniture and making some refitting of the cargo bay, probably setting up an airtight indoor wall to cut existing cargo space in half, and probably a couple of extra doors to allow access the cargo and the existing crew quarters. I don't think escape pods are that expensive and I consider the conversion as something technically non-challenging as long as the existing life support systems are not overloaded by the modification.

You don’t take a porta-potty and use that as the basis for doing an “extra space” conversion on an 18-wheeler semi, and I don’t think that taking escape pods and using them as the basis for an “extra space” conversion on a starfreighter makes any sense, either.

I think you’ve got a valid and useful core idea. IMO, the most important thing is figuring out the right narrative explanation for how doing this kind of conversion works, and I believe that is likely to lead you to a reasonable pricing scheme for the work to be done.

14 hours ago, bradknowles said:

You don’t take a porta-potty and use that as the basis for doing an “extra space” conversion on an 18-wheeler semi, and I don’t think that taking escape pods and using them as the basis for an “extra space” conversion on a starfreighter makes any sense, either.

Point taken
How about using the AD·15 c entral chassis as a basis for raw material price calculation? There's room for 1 pilot and 2 passengers for a 25000 credit cost: roughly 8000 credits per passenger. Sound reasonable for a silhouette 4 ship. Those 3 extra passengers cost the same price as a retrofitted hanger bay for a silhouette 5 vehicle. I don't think the cost should be much higher than that unless the ship is really small to begin with. In retrospect, ships that can convert cargo space to passenger capacity are usually hard to modify, so the hard point cost should be 1 or 2 on top of loosing cargo space.
Here's take 2 on the attachment:

Cargo to passenger cabin conversion:
Attachment only available for vehicle of silhouette 3 or more and must have sufficient cargo space.
Base modifier: Converts cargo space to passenger capacity of the vehicle. This counts living space as well as added supplies and survival system extensions of the ship.
Silhouette 3 vehicles add 1 passenger, silhouette 4 vehicles add 3 passengers, silhouette 5 vehicles add 5 passengers, silhouette 6 vehicles add 20 passengers and silhouette 7+ vehicles add 60 passengers.
The vehicle looses 15 Encumbrance Capacity per passenger added.
Modification options : 2 Add additional passenger capacity (according to vehicle silhouette). The vehicle looses 10 Encumbrance Capacity per passenger added Mods.
Hard point required: 2
Price: 6000 times the silhouette in credits. 20000 times the silhouette in credits for yachts and luxury vehicles. EDIT: 4500 times the silhouette in credits for additional slave pens.

That sounds way less complicated and more balanced than what I had before.
Instead of 2 modifications options, I would go for (Silhouette-3) mods. I would also go for a cost of 1 hard points for silhouette 6+ ships but there's enough calculations already on this one.


Thoughts?

What's wrong with putting the droid into the closet? It not like he is a person … or would count to the passenger limit.

If you pay two hardpoints, you don't lose encumbrance, you gain some. and some fine quarters on top, feel free to add the kitchen bonus and luxury quarters thing as mods. Two hardpoints is a lot. You can store 5 repulsor tanks in a VCX-100 for 2 hardpoints if your mechanic is worth his salt. But I really like the basic idea. But really no need really to reduce encumbrance, rather extend the hull a little, add in the new room life support units and (as you paid with hardpoints) add some extra juice to the thrusters to compensate for the extra weight, so handling and everything stays the same.

Extra passenger numbers seem a little small, mainly for the mods and for sil 3, sil 5 and above (that includes 150m ships like a CR90 at sil 5 already)

But the base idea is really sound.

3 hours ago, SEApocalypse said:

What's wrong with putting the droid into the closet? It not like he is a person … or would count to the passenger limit.

If a 5 player party doesn't have a droid in the team, then there's a problem

3 hours ago, SEApocalypse said:

Extra passenger numbers seem a little small, mainly for the mods and for sil 3, sil 5 and above (that includes 150m ships like a CR90 at sil 5 already)

That only leaves silhouette 4, as I was afraid.

3 hours ago, SEApocalypse said:

What's wrong with putting the droid into the closet? It not like he is a person … or would count to the passenger limit.

If you pay two hardpoints, you don't lose encumbrance, you gain some. and some fine quarters on top, feel free to add the kitchen bonus and luxury quarters thing as mods.

I That would allow a Y-Wing to transport passengers an the cargo cost prevent that. My logic is that on silhouette 3 ships, allowing more passengers would overload the existing life support system, hence the low numbers. Silhouette 3 is exactly where I want it to be. Using mods for options is a bit too much micro-managing for me.
Paying just 1 Mod to convert passenger space to luxury cargo space is a bit too cheap IMHO. Although, the interior broadcast suite and/or the onboard amenities unit attachments are quite cheap, I might have overpriced the luxury option. Maybe I should change the price of luxury quarters to 8000 credits per silhouette point instead?

3 hours ago, SEApocalypse said:

...sil 5 and above (that includes 150m ships like a CR90 at sil 5 already)

The CR-90 already allows to change configuration between more passenger and more cargo, I consider this attachment to be redundant as the ship already allows to do more then the attachment allows to (same thing for a lambda shuttle or any ship that already have the option of changing 10 encumbrance for 1 passenger).

But I 100% agree the numbers are a bit too low for silhouette 5+ vehicles. Maybe my design is OK for silhouette 3 and 4 ships only. Maybe I should design another attachment for silhouette 5+ ships

4 hours ago, SEApocalypse said:

But the base idea is really sound.

Thanks! I appreciate the feedback
What would be your idea if you were to design the mod your way? (same question for whoever reads this ^^)

At this stage, all I can say is that I have recently discovered that someone much smarter than I am is working on a solution to this issue that I think will be much better than anything I could come up with.

However, since that effort is still in progress, I won’t mention any names or anything.

When the document is ready, I’m sure they will make an appropriate announcement at the time.