Arumi/Ship Building
Ship Building
Proposed process for Arumi's ship building, based on Convention Book: Void Engineers (CBVE) pp 88-93 (The Shipyard: Voidcraft Creation)
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 robot that looks like an R-series Astromech Droid.
So, the very first step will be to construct that robot. It won't have AI or anything like that. It will functionally be akin to a true real-world 'robot' used in manufacturing. 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 robot 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
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 3, +4 due to Prime 4, Matter 4, +0 due to being assured coincidental from being in a Sanctum, -1 from unique focus, -1 to -3 from researching lore first, -1 from extra time spent on each step. Difficulty: 3 or 4 depending on success level of research. 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.
Classical Propulsion System
CBVE p.90 also 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.
Conventional drive should be incredibly straightforward for an Etheric Doctor of Applied Physics, but she will still need a focus to create it. The hyperdrive will require a new focus for its creation as well, but will be more difficult.
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 3, +3 due to Prime 2, Matter 3, +0 due to being assured coincidental from being in a Sanctum, -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.
Hyperdrive Core
This step is mechanically very similar to the previous, but IC it's a tougher and more technobabble-laden nut to crack.
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 3, +4 due to Correspondence 4, Spirit 3, +0 due to being assured coincidental from being in a Sanctum, -1 from unique focus, -1 or -2 from researching lore first, -1 from extra time spent on each step. Difficulty: 3 or 4 depending on success level of research. Target: Same as Structural Reinforcement Procedure.
