Starship equipment and operating costs!

By Desslok, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

Since about once a week we get a post asking "How much does X cost on a starship", I thought I'd type out all the ship based costs from Galaxy Guide 6 and present them here. Also, seriously - go track down a copy of that book. You wont regret it!

MUNDANE COSTS:

Docking fees

These vary from spaceport to spaceport, but most spaceport Standard class or larger charge 50 credits per day. A busy Imperial Class spaceport might charge 150 credits a day

Standard Maintenance and restocking:

Standard restock includes replenishment for all fluids - water, lubricants, coolants and oxygen. Also included are basic proteins for autochefs, but not luxury items like fresh food or liquor.

Cost is a flat fee depending on the total crew and passenger capacity of the ship times the "consumables" in days (10 x Total capacity x Consumables)

Fuel

Spaceports can equipped with fusion generators that recharge fuel cells. At the slowest rate of charge, this costs next to nothing, but if called upon to recharge quickly, the costs increase rapidly. The following costs reflects most Standard Class star ports. It is likely to be cheaper at better class ports and more expensive at more primitive ports:

Charging Rate - Cost per cell

Trickle (1 cell/day) - 5 credits

Standard (1 cell/hour) - 10 credits

Fast (4 cells/hour) - 50 credits

Emergency (20 cells/hour) - 500 credits

Most stock light freighters are equipped with 50 fuel cells. Additional Fuel Cells: 500 credits each. One cell of fuel is used for:

* Entering Hyperspace

* Six hours in Hyperspace

* One month realspace operation

* One hour combat maneuvers

* One hour atmospheric flight

EQUIPMENT

Hyperdrive

1/2 - Not available to civilian ships, 30,000 on the black market plus 2,000 instillation costs

x1 - cost: 15,000 Credits.

x2 - cost: 10,000 Credits.

x3 - cost: 7,000 Credits.

x4 - cost: 4,000 Credits.

x5 - cost: 2,500 Credits.

It is possible to remove the backup hyperdrive and sell it (price: 800 credits), gaining additional cargo space

After every twenty hyperspace jumps, the ship should have a complete overhaul and tune-up, with certain components replaced. Cost: 1,000 credits (GM discretion as to what effects failure to maintain the engines might be, perhaps a 3% chance of hyperdrive malfunction for every subsequent jump)

Sensors

Electro-Photo receptors: 300 credits

Full spectrum transceivers: 500 credits

Dedicated energy receptors: 600 credits

Crystal Gravefield Traps: 3,000 credits

Hyperwave Signal Interceptors: 2,000 credits

Life Form Indicators: 800 credits

Sensor Jammer - 1,500 credits

Sensor Decoys - 1,000 credits

Weapons

Blaster cannon - 1,000 credits

Laser canon - 1,500 credits

Heavy Laser canon: 3,000 credits

Turbolasers: 9,000 credits

Light Ion Canons: 1,000 credits

Medium Ion Canons: 1,500 credits

Heavy Ion Canons: 3,000 credits

Proton Torpedoes

Firing system: 2,500 credits

Torpedo load: 800 credits each

Concussion missiles:

Firing system: 3,500 credits

Missile load: 500 credits each

Fuel converters:

Solid Fuel Converter: 8,000 credits

Fuel Scoop: 15,000 credits

Solar Converter: 12,000credits

Miscellaneous

Concealed Cargo compartments: 200 credits per five ton capacity

Hidden Cargo compartments: 400 credits per five ton capacity

Scanner Resistant Cargo compartments: 1,000 credits per ton of cargo capacity

Automatic Cargo Jettison: 1,000 credits

Tractor Beam: 8,000 credits

Passenger conversion: 400 credits per additional passenger added

Refrigeration Equipment: 100 credits per ton converted

Escape equipment: 1,200 credits per pod

Replacement Navigation Computer: 2,000 credits

Environmental Converters: 4,000 credits

Edited by Desslok

Nice. By chance, does it cover how man fuel cells are used each time, such as hyperspace jumps and normal sublight drives?

Yeah, they do. Hang on - ah, here we go:

One cell of fuel is used:

* Entering Hyperspace

* Six hours in Hyperspace

* One month realspace operation

* One hour combat manuvers

* One hour atmospheric flight

Yeah, they do. Hang on - ah, here we go:

One cell of fuel is used:

* Entering Hyperspace

* Six hours in Hyperspace

* One month realspace operation

* One hour combat manuvers

* One hour atmospheric flight

Thank you!

Hey, my pleasure!

This is great. Thanks.

Does everyone you talk to seem to agree with this? Or is it from an official source?

It's from a sourcebook from the old West End Games system called Galaxy Guide 6. So, official for an old system, but probably a good starting point for this system if you're looking for prices

Yup, Galaxy Guide 6: Tramp Freighters - AKA the most used sourcebook on my entire shelf. Eventually FFG is going to come up with their own information, but for the moment these prices serve as a pretty good starting point.

Edited by Desslok

What would we have done without WEG's sourcebooks...... :rolleyes:

Yeah, they do. Hang on - ah, here we go:

One cell of fuel is used:

* Six hours in Hyperspace

That doesn't seem right; for a x2 Hyperdrive (available to PCs), going across the galaxy can take a month. The math on that means: I did the math wrong, I thought you had to rebuy cells, not recharge them.

24hr a day / 6 hours per cell = 4 cells per day

4 cells per day X 35 days per month(star wars calendar) = 140 cells per month aka trip across the galaxy.

If it only comes stocked with 50, you're not going to make it even on half that trip. And that would put the cost of the trip at 140cells x 500 AurebeshSans-Serif_credit.png = 70,000. That seems a bit high for fuel alone.

BUT in the interest of nerdiness; I'm going to go check the costs of what Han Solo charged Obi Wan for a trip from Tatooine to Alderaan. I'll be back.

Edited by Digiblade

I want to say 10,000

I am going to hand wave refueling. Maintenance and fuel are boring. Just like I don't track arrows in D&D.

Han did charge 10,000.

*editted as google failed, (Obi Wan offered 17,000, this actually changes my conclusion)

Alderan is in the Core, Tatooine is in the Outer Rim.

The time for that trip, as listed in EotE book on p247 says Between Regions is 3 days to 1 week (a galactic week is 5 days)

They have to cross more than a few regions (Outer Rim, Mid Rim, Expansion Region, Inner Rim, Colonies into the Core), so we'll just go with Across the Galaxy and say 1 to 3 weeks. This is before the Hyperspace Drive is calculated. The Falcon had an upgraded 0.5 engine, so this reduces the time between 3 days and 8 days (rounding up on days & remember 5 days in a week)

These are calculations are incorrect, see my next post.

So, at max, the trip would cost the Falcon (in fuel cells alone):

8 days x 4 cells per day = 24 cells per day

24 cells x 500 AurebeshSans-Serif_credit.png = 12,000 AurebeshSans-Serif_credit.png

At minimum:

3 days x 4 cells per day = 12 cells per day

12 cells x 500 AurebeshSans-Serif_credit.png = 6,000 AurebeshSans-Serif_credit.png

But let's reverse the math, to find out what Han planned for a profit margin vs bragging how good he is.

10,000 AurebeshSans-Serif_credit.png trip / 500 AurebeshSans-Serif_credit.png per cell = 20 cells used

20 cell trip / 4 cells per day = 5 day trip with a 0 AurebeshSans-Serif_credit.png profit.

So, in order to make a profit, Han would HAVE to make the trip in 4 days or less.

Han would be a Smuggler Pilot/Scoundrel, meaning it could easily have the skills needed plot an astrogation course well enough. But it's banking on a lot, especially with Han having money owed to Jabba, he'd want as much of a profit as possible, and remember; Han has to make a return trip (counter argument is that he could get more work on Alderaan, it is a Core world, but work is not garrenteed)

So this does in theory work out, but in practicality it fails. Especially when you factor in costs other than just fuel cells. Thus, I'm concluding, I was correct, and the fuel cell prices are too high.

Now, those calculations were for the Millennium Falcon, and not the PC's ship; if they wanted to make the same trip in a Class 2 Hyperspace frieghter, they would have to refuel a twice, thus breaking Hyperspace jumps (start of trip fuel up, *jump* 50 mark refuel *jump* 100 mark *jump* and be left with 10 cells at the 140 mark so refuel at destination) meaning there's 3 jumps on that kind of trip alone.

That means the PCs would need a tune up every 7 trips across the galaxy, they'll likely not be doing that often (also, keep in mind,good astrogation checks extend this, by shorter travel times)

...After this, I can easily say bookeeping can get monotonously taxing. :mellow:

Edited by Digiblade

Yeah, I don't think I will keep track of every nickel and dime, but if the group seems like they have too much disposable cash I can use this to ballpark some costs to rid them of extra cash (which I don't think will happen, but just in case)

Although to be fair - if I was driving from, oh lets say Seattle to LA, I'm going to have to stop and get gas along the way. It's not unreasonable to think that someone hauling ass from Tatooine to Byss is going to need to stop over and top off once in a while.

I am going to hand wave refueling. Maintenance and fuel are boring. Just like I don't track arrows in D&D.

The one time I played a smugglers game - a hard core smuggler/shippers game - we tracked every jump, every cost, every overhead. Shockingly, it was actually fun. All the wheeling and dealing and book-keeping and "Can we afford to take this cargo here, still pay the tarriffs and have enough left over to make the ship payment at the end of the month" was actually kind of cool.

And then we hooked up with the rebellion and all that fell by the wayside.

Han Charged 17,000.

Alderan is in the Core, Tatooine is in the Outer Rim.

The time for that trip, as listed in EotE book on p247 says Between Regions is 3 days to 1 week (a galactic week is 5 days)

Of course I've come to think that the travel times are not consistent with what we see in the movies. Okay, we didn't have a lot of information to go on with the original three - but take Phantom Menace for example. Maul gets from Courscant (the inner systems) to Tatooine (the outer rim) in just a Tatooine day.

Now admittedly his craft is most likely fitted with the most bitchin' hyperdrive in the Republic, but even if we increase the travel time by a factor of 10, it's still just a week or two from galaxy edge to galaxy edge for a ship with a lousy hyperdrive.

Edited by Desslok

The movies have to keep moving, so their travel time is one wipe. The game systems have had to do their best to ret-con in things to make the movies fit, but they're not always going to be able to match everything.

There are certainly places where the West End numbers don't make sense (the pricing in some of their supplements is just bizarre) but this makes a good starting point. There are also ways to mitigate the gas price in the West End system. The Solid Fuel converter, or as we used to call it Mr Fusion, allows you to convert organic material to fuel. The fuel scoop allows one to dip into a gas giant and scoop out gasses that can be converted to fuels, or the Solar Converter, which is just what it sounds like.

As has been said, I'm sure eventually FFG will put out its smuggler book, or something similar, and have a bunch more information, but it's nice to have a basis to work off of until then.

Of course I've come to think that the travel times are not consistent with what we see in the movies. Okay, we didn't have a lot of information to go on with the original three - but take Phantom Menace for example. Maul gets from Courscant (the inner systems) to Tatooine (the outer rim) in just a Tatooine day.

Now admittedly his craft is most likely fitted with the most bitchin' hyperdrive in the Republic, but even if we increase the travel time by a factor of 10, it's still just a week or two from galaxy edge to galaxy edge for a ship with a lousy hyperdrive.

I've edited my post a bit. However, in the Phantom Menace's time would be impossible if it were just 1 Tatooine day (23 hours), as noted the fastest trip would be 2.5 days with a Class 0.5 Hyperspace Engine (the best it can be)... I rewatched that part of the movie, it was just after the sand storm; so at best the time was just under 2 days depending on the length of nightfall... this doesn't mesh. So either: The group spent more than 1 day between the sandstorm and race or Lucas did a poor job writing and directing Ep1.

But again, p247 has travel times, across the galaxy is a 1 to 3 week trip based on a Class 1 engine. Each class up multiplies by that class's factor the travel time. So, as I said, 0.5 class is 2.5 days to 7.5 days, class 1 is 5 to 15 days, class 2 is 10 to 30 days, etc...

------------------------------------------

BUT I must admit, in this time, I noticed my calculations are faulty.

I was assuming Fuel Cells were used and then discarded, and you had to buy new fuel cells. This is wrong. They are like recharging batteries, so the costs are only the recharge rate .

Meaning it's more of a matter of time than costs. So to recharge 50 cells it will take 50 days at a trickle to 2.5 hours at Emergency rate.

Trickle (1 cell/day) - 5 credits = 50 days @ 250 credits

Standard (1 cell/hour) - 10 credits = 50 hours or 2 days, 2 hours @ 500 credits

Fast (4 cells/hour) - 50 credits = 12.5 hours @ 2500 credits

Emergency (20 cells/hour) - 500 credits = 2.5 hours @ 25,000 credits

I'm not fond of the power consumption being based on actual travel time (after accounting for the hyperdrive multiplier). I'd base it on the base length of the trip so that faster hyperdrives are not also more fuel efficient. I'd even consider the opposite approach of dividing the fuel consumption by the hyperdrive rating so that slower vessels are more fuel efficient. If I did this, faster ships could always elect to travel at a higher multiplier (slower) to save on fuel costs at the expense of travel time.

Edited by HappyDaze

OK so what was decided on how much fuel was used on a hyperspace jump? I gather you get more than 6 hours of hyperspace time per fuel cell.

Another question just popped to mind...(sorry for the subject change) what happens if you run out of fuel while in hyperspace? Are you stuck in hyperspace? Is that possible? or do you revert to realspace?

On the other hand, perhaps ships only do have enough fuel to get halfway across the galaxy before running out. In turn, they do have to stop in route to replenish. My car will get me from home to the next state over on one tank of gas. If I want to drive to Washington DC, it'll take several Truck Stop encounters to do so.

Why didn't the Falcon refuel in New Hope? Han tricked the ship out with more fuel cells? They did and we just didn't see it? My money is on that the travel times are overestimated in the game from what we see on the screen.

Another question just popped to mind...(sorry for the subject change) what happens if you run out of fuel while in hyperspace? Are you stuck in hyperspace? Is that possible? or do you revert to realspace?

I imagine that there are safeguards in place that revert the ship to realspace when the fuel runs out (or the cells are running on fumes), to prevent any accidental "Crap, we're stuck. Now what?" incidents..

I've edited my post a bit. However, in the Phantom Menace's time would be impossible if it were just 1 Tatooine day (23 hours), as noted the fastest trip would be 2.5 days with a Class 0.5 Hyperspace Engine (the best it can be)... I rewatched that part of the movie, it was just after the sand storm; so at best the time was just under 2 days depending on the length of nightfall... this doesn't mesh. So either: The group spent more than 1 day between the sandstorm and race or Lucas did a poor job writing and directing

Well, there's a lot more to hyperjumps and traveltimes than just raw speed. Maul probably had starmaps that were more accurate and up to date than pretty much anyone and the astrogation check was probably made by someone really, really good.

In any case it generally isn't healthy to make to close a comparison between an rpg and its source material.

In other news this thread is pure gold. I might be back with a lot of questions!

Thanks for sharing all this info!

is there a difference between docking and berthing?

I also like to think that taking well-established routes, like the Corellian Run, also speeds up travel time.

You can drive from Tampa, FL, to Atlanta on the back roads, or you can cruise straight up I-75. Same distance geographically, but I-75 is a lot faster way to go.

Well-established hyperspace routes are more stable astronomically and extremely efficient. They have been charted millions of times. They're clear of debris and random obstacles. You can fly off-route, but the nav computer has to do a lot more work recalculating every once in awhile and the ship will be told to fly slower to give enough time to avoid flying into stuff that may or may not be there.

By taking the Corellian Run with the Falcon's .5 hyperdrive, the trip definitely would have seemed extremely quick.