This section is more about expanding and adding in definitions and understanding of what SMPC is and how it affects your design. Note that I haven’t added any tables for this section or the previous section because those tables are in chapter two, cause it’s simpler/easier/better to have specific tables dedicated to detailing dimensions, space and mass values per frame subtype and variants across generations in several tables located in chapter 2.

System requirements - SMPC

All systems installed within a space frame have a corresponding SMPC cost.

Space
Mass
Power
Control

Your space frame’s generation and type will determine the limits of Mass and Space available to you, while the choices you make with regards to your ship’s power and computing cores will determine those resource values.

Space

Space is an absolute. Your starship is not a TARDIS, and has exactly X amount of volume and no more. That is why it is the first resource that must be considered. Each component occupies a fixed unalterable quantity of volume within the space frame. Different stages within a generation can produce variations to the cost of a component. Eg. A late stage sensor array should be more somewhat more compact OR more powerful than an earlier stage model.

Power

Your power resource is represented by three subtypes. Main - Auxiliary and Reserve. Your power resource is the SUM of all three types. Main power is generated by the warp core. Auxiliary by the fusion reactors and Reserve is your internal energy storage capacity. Power comes as

Peak - The absolute maximum your reactors can generate
Sustained - The amount your ship is rated to generate safely
Drain - A system’s energy cost

Control

As each system requires power so too does it require computer resources to adequately control it. Computer power unlike reactors can not be overstressed. However computational power can be prioritised

Capacity - Represents your computer’s resources
Load - How much it costs to run or control that system

Priority -
High - Costs extra load to run
Medium - Costs standard load to run
Low - costs reduced load to run

Mass

Each Space frame is also rated for a specific mass. While star fleet technology helps to limit it’s impact it doesn’t eliminate it as for each additional kilogram of mass placed inside a space frame there is an increased strain applied to the frame. This is why heavy variant ships are unable to land within planetary atmospheres. They are over their frames maximum mass limits.

Mass is represented the simplest of all.

Capacity - How much mass your frame is rated to handle
Cost - How much a component weighs (in metric tonnes)