Real effects of Lacoon II

Weird Harold wrote:Who said anything about Military (wedge/sail) drives or shields? The only upgrade I have been talking about is a hyper-generator capable of reaching higher than conventional freighter hyper-drives. The same Wedge, sail, and shielding as a conventional freighter will do just fine as it the higher hyper-bands that provide the increased speed.

I really doubt that. The limiting factors on hyper bands listed in David's "Universe" article is sail generator power (the alpha nodes), compensator, and drives. "Merchantmen do not normally use these bands. This represents the maximum theoretical speed for them if they did. Q-ships and merchant cruisers with reworked drives and compensators sometimes can reach these bands."

The maximum speed in a band is limited by the ships radiation and particle shields, which is why military ships can reach higher velocity than merchants.

kzt wrote:The maximum speed in a band is limited by the ships radiation and particle shields, which is why military ships can reach higher velocity than merchants.

The maximum speed may only be .4C instead of .5C but being in a higher band multiplies that by as much as 65 times. Freighters don't need higher velocity or acceleration to get the benefit of the multiplier of a higher hyper-band, they just need to reach those higher bands.

Better shields and military-grade wedges and sails would make them even faster, but moving up just one band does more to reduce transit times.

Weird Harold wrote:

kzt wrote:The maximum speed in a band is limited by the ships radiation and particle shields, which is why military ships can reach higher velocity than merchants.

The maximum speed may only be .4C instead of .5C but being in a higher band multiplies that by as much as 65 times. Freighters don't need higher velocity or acceleration to get the benefit of the multiplier of a higher hyper-band, they just need to reach those higher bands.

Better shields and military-grade wedges and sails would make them even faster, but moving up just one band does more to reduce transit times.

Minor correcting - the top speed within a hyper band is 0.6c for military rad shielding and 0.5c for commercial.

Anyway, we know that a few freighters, and (most?) passanger liners find it economical to use military grade hyper generators to access higher hyper bands. But, for whatever reasons, most freighters find it more economical to cruise in the Delta bands and avoid the extra costs involved with a hyper generator capable of accessing higher. I don't know if the economics, now that the League has lost use of the womrhole network, change enough to alter that calculation.

The biggest effect is lack of Manty competition. The League transtellar freighters can charge what they want on long duration contracts and lock out the Manties who just refuse to work, when they come back there won't be any contracts to work, when they are all locked out.

Lord Skimper wrote:The biggest effect is lack of Manty competition. The League transtellar freighters can charge what they want on long duration contracts and lock out the Manties who just refuse to work, when they come back there won't be any contracts to work, when they are all locked out.

Then the RMM would undercut the bids that are probably way overpriced anyway. Remember the RMM has the advantage of getting discounts on junction transit fees and favored star nations like Grayson and Haven probably already and will receive.