Hey,

My players just got their hand on a Mass Conveyor after a great "luck dice" rolled 10 and they survived a 2h struggle in the Obidian Emporial auctioning from it.

They have charged the group's seneschal (my NPC) on retrofitting it so it is able to work alone(and ferry their past endeavors' commodities around the expanse) and without an escort if possible, and committed 10PF to it (which I am using to consider 15SP for ship supplemental components).

Any suggestions?

For now I only have planned for 2 luxury passenger's quarters, +2 Cargo Holds, Trade bridge, extra armor plating but I don't know what could make it truly secure nor have much ideas on what to use to keep morale high (without having to drug the crew).

Regards.

Work alone without an escort = weaponry. And you aren't realllyyy using the rules for acquiring ship components correctly... Also note that lots of components can only have one of them..

You should download the latest of this to help you out:

http://www.mediafire.com/?rrzcb3ir74cib

What are the components already on the ship?

it gets 4 Main Cargo Holds by default
I am building it like this (not using strict acquisition rules for the components) because not necessarily they are acquiring the components right now
the ones that would take longer to get or refit should be considered to have come from the previous owner

So do you want:

1.) What it starts at, before the players get it?

2.) What it will be like, after the players get it and spend SP on it?

3.) Both of those?

I was considering building a trap.

Jury-rigging one of the Cargo Holds into a Hangar full of Shark boarding ships, installing a grapple macrobattery and investing in combat servitors.

Mars macrocannons on both the other slots.

I imagine that a pirate would like to take that ship by boarding and not by exploding it so the resources inside neither the hull is lot.

What do you think?

I want both, a final project. ; )

What can you tell us about the people who it came from?

I think that auspex scans prevent it from being a trap without a bunch of crazy exotic gear, and you really, really, really, really want it to be used for it's primary purpose: carrying cargo. Anything to detract from that is a problem...

Here's what I would have it as:

Lathe 1 Drive
Miloslav warp Drive
Good Power Emergency Gellar Field
Commerce Bridge
201b Augur Array
Voidsman Quarters
Mezoa or Stygies Macrocannons
Flak Turrets

And that's about it... of course, you could, if you wanted to do something tricky, add a Jamming System to hide it from scans, and if you want more armor, you should take:

Reinforced Interior Bulkheads
Armor Plating
Excess Void Armor
Reinforced Prow
Field Bracing

I have an NPC ship in my campaign that is a deep-void mobile shipyard that salvages vessels and either keeps them for itself or sells them on at excessive profit to other Rogue Traders. It doesn't appear very well armed because it isn't - although it does have a small supply of Atomics to surprise anyone that thinks it isn't dangerous. It still wouldn't function well in and of itself, but as part of a fleet conducting salvage it's invaluable.

Essentials

Lathe Pattern Class 1 Drive , Strelov 1 Warp Engine, Warpsbane Hull, Exploration Bridge, Vitae Pattern Life Sustainer, Deep Void Auger Array, Clan-Kin Quarters

Supplementals

Extended Supply Vaults, Murder Servitors, Arboretum, Auxiliary Plasma Banks x2, Ship Stores, Medicae Deck, Salvage Systems, Spacedock Piers, Fire Suppression System, Hold Landing Bay

If you want ot salvage vessels, you want things like:

Spacedock Piers

Manufactorum

Salvage Clamps

Small Craft Repair Dock

Crew Reclamation Facility

Ship's Stores

Extended Supply Vaults

Laboratorium

Hold Landing Bay

Supplementals
Spacedock Piers*
Auto Temple*
Laboratorium*
Brig
Trophy Room*
Salvage Systems*
Manufactorum*
Arboretum

Weapons
Stygies-Pattern Macrocannons
Stygies-Pattern Macrocannons
Stygies-Pattern Macrocannons

Essential
Mezoa-Pattern Theta-7 Drive
Miloslav G-616.b Warp Engine
Gellar Field
Single Void Shield Array
Commerce Bridge
Clemency-Pattern Life Sustainer
Clan-Kin Quarters
M-100 Auger Array

thx for all the feedbacks

Why do you have a Theta-7 Drive? You can't improve the speed or maneuverability of a Universe.

I don't think the Mezoa-Pattern Theta drive is worth it on a Mass Conveyor. One of its rules is that its speed absolutely cannot be increased, so all you're doing is gaining 4 power and 5 maneuverability, but sacrificing 6 space and making your ship incredibly easy to cripple for that drive. My build uses Auxiliary Plasma Banks which admittedly have the slight incredibly dangerous risk of fire, but that's why it also included a Fire Suppression system

Why do you have a Theta-7 Drive? You can't improve the speed or maneuverability of a Universe.

OOOOOoops

You are right guys

anyhow, I really really liked the idea of a salvage vessel

the history I am thinking for it is:

A wealthy free-trader who would usually get his profit from running IG drops in the spinward front and eventually repurpused his ship to also assist in repairs of military spaceships damaged in the front. Eventually, due to the incredible support he provided to the IG and IN there, he received a Rogue Trader warrant of trade in recognition.

After a while he came to the Koronus Expanse for way larger profits that he had before, looking to sell his ship and use the resources to invest it on a way more flexible light cruiser recently acquired and pursue his dreams of frontier exploration & liberation of long lost humanity colonies.

After the ship got in the hands of the player's dinasty, the group's seneschal (a known xenofile, who had been exposed to the groups recent and multiple endeavors regarding xenos) invested a large ammount of cash into building a Laboratorium and also finishing the setup of salvage operations inside the ship, for the purpose of eventually salvaging defeated xeno ships for their much valuable xeno tech components.

The ship you have is probably way, way too well kitted out and valuable. Remove a bunch of those components, like the auto-temple, the brig, the arboretum, maybe the clemency and the clan-kin (make them normal)... this stuffi s way too good!

even if they sacrificed 15PF in addition to the usual tests?

After "nerfing":

Supplementals
Spacedock Piers*
Laboratorium*
Salvage Systems*
Manufactorum*
Auxiliary Plasma Banks

Essential
Lathe Pattern Class 1 Drive
Miloslav G-616.b Warp Engine
Gellar Field
Single Void Shield Array
Commerce Bridge
Vitae Pattern Life Sustainer
Voidsman Quarters
M-100 Auger Array

Weapons
Stygies-Pattern Macrocannons
Mars-Pattern Macrocannons
Mars-Pattern Macrocannons

The build that I posted came in at 102 SP I believe. It is quite a valuable ship, so finding one built exactly like that should be a challenging task (unless you have it as part of their backstory, but still be aware it's very good).

When doing ship acquisitions with my players, assuming they have satisfied me as to why they have managed to find a ship that's kitted out the way they want (in general this means no Archeotech/Xenotech or Good/Best quality components unless they make a REALLY strong case),I total up the SP and divide by 10, that's the amount of Profit Factor they absolutely will have to burn to acquire this ship. They then subtract the SP of the ship from their profit factor, and that's the target number they have to roll against. For very large ships, this will almost certainly require them to burn some Profit Factor to get it.

For example if your players had 60 PF and they wanted the Mass Conveyor that I built they would have to burn 10 of their Profit Factor (with a 20% chance of having to burn 11 due to rounding) at the beginning, and then they make an acquisition test at of 50-102, or -52 total. They'll obviously have to be burning some profit factor to acquire this ship.

So yes, they're giving up at least 16 Profit Factor to even have a chance to acquire this ship, but it is a really good ship that opens up a wide range of possibilities for them, and they've got to spend money to make money.

Yea, spending only 16 shouldn't even be CLOSE to getting them such an awesome ship. Getting good components in this game is supposed to be REALLY REALLY HARD.

Spending 16 profit factor in this example would give them a 2% chance to acquire the ship. This is also why part of it should be finding someone willing to part with such a ship since it is incredibly valuable as you've pointed out. Much easier to just go blow up some pirate raiders and take their ships.

I think he meant, 'spending 16 profit factor over a series of months and multiple acquisition checks'.

I forgot to mention they rolled a 3 in the commerce test (previous to the acquisition one) while the collective obisidian emporial people & auctioneers (+20 bonus) rolled a 87. At acquisiton they rolled a 16 if I remember it well.
The current SP sums up to 65.

I am not sure I get the calculation right, how much they would need to reduce their PF for this then?

Player`s fellowship was 54

The rules for establishing how to acquire a ship are being really conflicted because they're not well-laid out in the book so both Gavinfoxx and I have our own perspective on things. However I think we can both agree that it should be far more elaborate than one Acquisition test. Getting 5 degrees of success is good, but if you're going by straight Acquisition rules then keep in mind that they should have had to take a penalty to their Commerce test for looking for something that is Unique (-70) and that their Profit Factor acquisition suffers a penalty equal to the Ship Point cost, meaning they would have had to have a Profit Factor of at least 81 for that to work.

Before spending the 16, what is the group's pf?