Posted by Brigadier General Matthew Bernardin (Assistant Engineering Director) in USCM Example - Bonnaventure Conversion
Ok, so one of the comments I’ve received is that it’s hard to judge the sections independently without the whole, a whole which frankly doesn’t exist. If it did there wouldn’t be a need to present it in stages, I could just link the document and let people go for it. Design some ships, crunch some numbers and make alterations. But USCM is about halfway to there in my notes, so in leiu of that whole I’ll be doing a example conversion of an existing spec to illustrate how the process is going to work to give concrete practical examples. I’ll then update the thread as each new section of material comes out and show how it’s relevant to the just related material. But for this first post I’ll just go up to section 3.

Ok, so step One.

The Bonnaventure is obviously an early first generation space frame. This means I have access to Mk 1-3 technology

Step 2

Because she’s an early 1st generation ship, if I want to use any technology above Mk1, I’ve got to start paying some penalties, which I might want to do. Mk 3 gear however is going to be ludicriously expensive and I have a feeling I’m just not going to have the space to mount any of that, so Mk 2 at most.

Step 3

The bonnie is also obviously a primary vessel. But what subtype? Well SSSF isn’t helpful here, so I’m going to say that I think it’s appropriate that the Bonnie is a small type explorer so a Frigate. (that’s based on the NX being a medium, and the later columbia class mod to the NX being a large)

Which when I look at the spec sorta lines up. Taking the Bonnie’s stated Physical Dimensions (which we won’t alter) I calculate that the internal volume of the bonnie at 297 cubic km’s. This is about 72% the size of the NX class which I think comfortably puts it in the small category.

So next step is to choose a variant. So I don’t particularly want or think that anything beyond a plain old normal or medium is applicable here. Not for this conversion anyway, so nothing really gets modified and we move on to the next step.

– Matt