FFS modifications
Battledress & Fuel Cells
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Date: Thu, 25 May 1995 10:05:20 +1200 (NZST)
From: adou01@cs.auckland.ac.nz (Andrew Richard Doull)
Subject: Battledress & Fuel Cells
Somewhere along the line, my previous message to this digest got mangled about
10% into the document. If this message does not successfully get 100% through
the second time, could people please mail me if they want the listing of battle
dress designs which use fuel cells rather than batteries.
Battle dress designs
Someone asked me about battle dress designs using fuel cells. Here are the
statistics for such designs. The following table gives design statistics
identical to those in the basic Fire, Fusion & Steel book, extended up to
TL 17. They are fully powered up to their maximum mass, which also gives
their listed fuel consumption (However, see fuel consumption note below).
Note in all cases except TL 10, excess power is generated which may be used
for other purposes, but decreases the listed endurance. At TL 14+,
doubling the size of the fuel cell provides enough input energy to power
one shot every 10 phases of the meson gun listed on the David design
submitted to this list earlier. The difference between the total mass and
maximum mass (listed as ExcessM) may be loaded with any equipment desired,
without overloading the frame or fuel cell. In fact, in TL 12+ designs,
the fuel cell provides enough power to overload the frame up to 30%, but
this also reduces fuel endurance.
TL SM AV AM MW FCM End FC FM TM MM TMcr
10 0.23 4 0.042 0.0059 0.0118 10 0.0018 0.017 0.3014 0.42 0.1140
12 0.1 6 0.054 0.0032 0.01 10 0.0008 0.008 0.1721 0.23 0.1453
12 0.2 12 0.108 0.0056 0.01 10 0.0014 0.014 0.332 0.4 0.2105
14 0.05 8 0.036 0.0042 0.01 100 0.0008 0.084 0.18 0.3 0.2169
14 0.1 16 0.072 0.0081 0.01 100 0.0016 0.162 0.3444 0.58 0.2637
17 0.04 10 0.03 0.0050 0.01 100 0.0010 0.100 0.1808 0.36 0.2674
17 0.08 20 0.06 0.0098 0.01 100 0.002 0.196 0.346 0.7 0.3145
AV: Armour Value
AM: Armour mass (tonnes)
MW: Required MW (mw)
FCM Fuel cell mass (tonnes)
End Endurance (hours)
FC: Fuel consumption (kl/hour)
FM: Fuel mass (tonnes)
TM: Total mass (tonnes)
MM: Maximum mass (tonnes)
TMCr: Total cost (credits)
TL ExcessM ExcessMW
10 0.1186 0
12 0.0580 0.0043
12 0.068 0.0019
14 0.12 0.0108
14 0.2356 0.0069
17 0.1792 0.0125
17 0.354 0.0077
ExcessM: Excess mass allowed.
ExcessMW: Excess mw allowance.
Some actual designs
These designs are optimised for their listed mass.
TL SM AV AM MW FCM End FC FM TM MM TMcr
10 0.23 8 0.084 0.0124 0.0248 12 0.0037 0.044 0.3518 0.3518 0.1711
12 0.1 7 0.063 0.0102 0.0137 12 0.0026 0.030 0.2247 0.2247 0.2032
12 0.2 13 0.117 0.0125 0.0167 12 0.0031 0.037 0.3886 0.3886 0.2684
14 0.05 24 0.108 0.0112 0.01 48 0.0022 0.107 0.2928 0.2928 0.2872
14 0.1 40 0.288 0.0149 0.01 48 0.003 0.143 0.5585 0.5585 0.3606
17 0.04 42 0.138 0.0120 0.01 60 0.0024 0.143 0.3492 0.3492 0.3497
17 0.08 72 0.408 0.0168 0.01 52 0.0034 0.174 0.6895 0.6895 0.4532
These designs include: Mass MW MCr
EMM 0.01 0.001 0.0005
Decoys (5) 0.005 0 0.05
WSV equipment 0.0001 0.0001 (12+) 0.005
Laser (3 km) 0.002 0.005 0.0012
Radio (30 km) 0.0002 0.001 0.0003
Total 0.0173 0.0071 0.0570
TL 10 armour instead uses an Image Intensifier scope. Electromagnetic
masking is rated for 1 cubic metre, which exceeds the maximum volume the
armour is ever likely to occupy.
Because the laser communicator uses so much power, it is usual to have a
weapon which uses input power equal to the 0.005 MW plus any excess MW,
which prevents the laser communicator being used simultaneously. This is
typically a squad level gauss weapon. Additionally, many designs will not
use decoys, because of their expense and mass requirements. The listed
number of decoys is individual decoys rather than one shot of decoys of
every type.
No Laser
TL ExcessM ExcessMW Excess MW
10 0 0 0.005
12 0 0 0.005
12 0 0 0.005
14 0 0.0038 0.0088
14 0 0 0.005
17 0 0.0055 0.0105
17 0 0.0007 0.0057
Fuel Consumption Note
Fire, Fusion & Steel does not give any rules concerning determining fuel
consumption beyond the cryptic "Given in kl/hour per MW of output". There
are at least two possible ways of handling this.
* Fuel consumption is determined from maximum output only. This is the
least realistic and most inefficient. However, for nuclear powerplants, it
is probably sufficient.
* Fuel consumption is determined from required output. This is the most
efficient, and nearly realistic. Determine two states of fuel consumption,
per 4 hour period. Firstly, determine the kl/hour consumed by all
continuously running systems except that required for the transmission
(Movement) and multiply by 4. This is the operational fuel consumption.
Then determine the kl/hour consumed by the transmission (Movement) and
multiply by 2. This is the travel move fuel consumption. Don't forget
that up to two travel moves may be made per 4 hour period, also that travel
move is computed at half maximum speed. Additional one shot systems such
as anything requiring a homopolar generator may either be rated for maximum
shots, and have fuel set aside for their use, or have a listed fuel
consumption per shot. This is (input MJ /3600) * Kl/hour.
* Twilight: 2000 implies that many powerplants, in particular, the fuel
turbines used by the M1A1 tanks, consume large amounts of fuel even when
idylling. Determine the minimum output from the minimum powerplant volume
as listed, and determine minimum fuel consumption in kl/hour. Multiply by
4 to determine minimum consumption per 4 hour period. The following table
gives the minimum consumptions for chemical power plants.
Minimum
TL Description MW Kl/Hour Kl/Period
3 Early steam 0.025 0.005 0.020
4 Steam 0.03 0.0045 0.018
5 Int Comb 0.015 0.003 0.006
5 Steam turbine 0.35 0.0525 0.210
5 Imp Int comb 0.004 0.001 0.004
7 Gas turbine 0.25 0.075 0.300
8 MHD turbine 0.60 0.12 0.480
The above battle dress designs have a fuel consumption based on their
required power usage, not their powerplant maximum output. With point 3,
use the following minimum fuel cell consumptions, which also gives fuel
consumption for maximum output if the design is rated this way.
Minimum
TL Description MW Kl/Hour
7 Fuel cell 0.005 0.0015
12 Fuel cell 0.0075 0.001875
14 Fuel cell 0.015 0.003
16 Fuel cell 0.0175 0.0035