Arumi/Ship Building
Ship Building Resources
The proposed process for Arumi's ship building is based on Convention Book: Void Engineers (CBVE) pp 88-93 (The Shipyard: Voidcraft Creation) with things being renamed as appropriate. No pretension is made that a large starship could be built by one person in 2 months, though.
Week 1: Preparation
One important but mundane task that will occur frequently in the building of the space ship is the precision movement and welding of heavy materials. To assist with that, Arumi will create a means of producing matter movement and heating effects, with a rather distinctly unique focus. The focus will be in the form of a construction suit akin to a "Power Loader".
So, the very first step will be to construct that suit. It won't have AI or anything like that. It will functionally be akin to a true real-world construction vehicle. It will just be a delivery mechanism for an etheric-manipulating core of sandwiched lenses of the type Arumi uses in everything else.
Once the suit focus is created, it can be used to hollow out a large expansion underground, adjacent to Arumi's existing lab. The current lab will remain in place, but adjacent to it underground with be a much larger underground hangar, nicknamed the Shatterdome.
Mechanically this leads to a two step process:
1. Create the new focus (Crafts)
2. Upgrade Sanctum from 3 to 5
Week 2: Structural Capacity
CBVE p.90 describes step one of ship construction to be the creation of the "structural skeleton, internal spaces, and core hyper-engineered systems." That will also be Arumi's first step.
The Astromech Droid will be used to put up a 'mundane' structure. Then a new procedure, with a newly created Etheric manipulation lens core (unique focus) installed into the droid, will be used to reinforce the structure at the subatomic level.
Mechanically this leads to a five step process:
1. Create the mundane structure (Crafts)
2. Put together the ship's key systems (Hypertech)
3. Research materials science to ease the reinforcement process (Science with Applied Physics specialty)
4. Create the new focus (Crafts)
5. Reinforce everything (Arete)
Structural Reinforcement Procedure: Base difficulty: 7 (+4 due to Prime 4, Matter 4, +0 due to being assured coincidental from being in a Sanctum). Modifiers: -3 (-1 from unique focus, -1 from researching lore first, -1 from extra time spent on each step). Difficulty: 4. Target: A ship sized for 5 crew berths, no additional cargo or reinforcement, requires a total of 20 successes. This number will be the used below more than once.
Week 3: Classical Propulsion System
CBVE p.90 describes propulsion systems. Naturally the paradigm is different, but the same rough sphere requirements still make sense. Conventional drive should be incredibly straightforward for an Etheric Doctor of Applied Physics, but she will still need a focus to create it.
Mechanically this process becomes:
1. Research classical propulsion theory (Science with Applied Physics specialty)
2. Create the classical propulsion initialization focus (Crafts)
3. Initialize the classical propulsion system (Arete)
Classical Propulsion Initialization Procedure: Base difficulty: 6 (+3 due to Prime 2, Matter 3, +0 due to being assured coincidental from being in a Sanctum). Modifiers: -3 (-1 from unique focus, -1 from researching lore first, -1 from extra time spent on each step). Difficulty: 3. Target: Same as Structural Reinforcement Procedure.
Week 4: Hyperdrive Core
CBVE p.90 describes propulsion systems. Naturally the paradigm is different, but the same rough sphere requirements from CBVE p.87 still make sense. Arumi wishes to be able to travel to Etherspace (aka Subspace), but her ship will NOT be able to travel beyond the barrier at the Asteroid belt when there. The hyperdrive will require a new focus for its creation as well, but will be more difficult than the one for the conventional drive.
Mechanical process:
1. Research hyperdimensional propulsion theory (Cosmology)
2. Create the hyperdrive core initialization focus (Crafts)
3. Initialize the hyperdrive core (Arete)
Hyperdrive Core Initialization Procedure: Base difficulty: 7 (3 + 4 due to Correspondence 4, Spirit 3, +0 due to being assured coincidental from being in a Sanctum). Modifiers: -3 (-1 from unique focus, -1 researching lore first, -1 from extra time spent on each step. Difficulty: 4. Target: Same as Structural Reinforcement Procedure.
Week 5: Hull and Armor
CBVE p.91 describes hull and armor layered on top of the basic structure. Primum armor is not an option. This process will be similar to that of the structural capacity step, in that conventional materials will be layered in place, and then reinforced in place with a special effect.
Mechanical process:
1. Apply mundane metals to reinforce the structure (Crafts)
2. Research the engineering of superstrong metallic structures (Science with Applied Physics specialty)
3. Create the metallic reinforcement focus (Crafts)
4. Reinforce the hull (Arete)
Hull Reinforcement Procedure: Base difficulty: 7 (3 + 4 due to Matter 4, +0 due to being assured coincidental from being in a Sanctum). Modifiers: -3 (-1 from unique focus, -1 researching lore first, -1 from extra time spent on each step. Difficulty: 4. Target: Same as Structural Reinforcement Procedure. Every additional success adds two soak dice to the hull.
Week 6: Armament
CBVE pp. 91-92 describe weapons systems. Arumi's ship will be equipped with a basic wave cannon, built per the Particle Beam (Alpha) specifications. Installation of this cannon will also require the installation of sensors and guidance systems.
1. Build sensor and guidance systems, wave cannon shell (Hypertech)
2. Research laser technology, watch Real Genius (Science with Applied Physics specialty)
3. Create the Wave Cannon Core Initialization focus (Crafts)
4. Initialize the Wave Cannon Core (Arete)
Wave Cannon Core Initialization Procedure: Base difficulty: 6 (3 + 3 due to Forces 3, Correspondence 2, +0 due to being assured coincidental from being in a Sanctum). Modifiers: -3 (-1 from unique focus, -1 researching lore first, -1 from extra time spent on each step. Difficulty: 3. Target: 8 successes.
Week 7: Additional Features
CBVE pp. 92-93 describe optional add ons to the ship. In the interests of safety, Arumi will add a cloaking device (per Active Camouflage) and for fun will add Atmospheric Flight inertial control.
Active Camouflage modifications to the hull should just be a modified version of the same kinds of Etheric Engineering involved in the hull reinforcement, so that focus should be re-usable. However the specifics would need to be researched separately.
However the Atmospheric flight inertial control would need a new focus created.
1. Research cloaking systems (Science with Applied Physics speciality)
2. Build cloaking control systems (Hypertech)
3. Apply cloaking technology to hull (Arete)
Cloaking Technology Application Procedure: Base difficulty: 5 (3 + 2 due to Forces 2, +0 due to being assured coincidental from being in a Sanctum). Modifiers: -2 (-1 researching lore first, -1 from extra time spent on each step. Difficulty: 3. Target: Half of Structural Reinforcement Procedure, rounded up.
4. Research inertial dampeners (Hypertech)
5. Build inertial dampening initialization focus (Crafts)
6. Initialize Inertial Dampeners (Arete)
Inertial Dampener Initialization Procedure: Base difficulty: 7 (3 + 4 due to Forces 4, +0 due to being assured coincidental from being in a Sanctum). Modifiers: -3 (-1 from unique focus, -1 researching lore first, -1 from extra time spent on each step. Difficulty: 4. Half of Structural Reinforcement Procedure, rounded up, gets Mach 2 atmospheric speed. Double that gets Mach 5.
