What sort of starship flaws can you think of?

[Aramanthus]

Alright everyone! I'm about to start working on some fun Golgan starships. What sort of flaws can a ship that manufactured in masse by the cheapest manufacturers?

To start it off.


Leaky reactor! A fair dose of radiation for the crew who work near it.

[taalismn]

Windows Republik software---Random system crashes and incompatibilities...

Exclusivity of Systems....The hardware will only work with genuine Golgan parts or Naruni systems...that means trying to mount a laser weapon made by another manufacturer will take much longer, involve modifying much more than just the turret, and cost a lot more. Small craft bays will only accommodate Golgan-designed ships or Naruni designs...Your Bishido Katana wouldn't find compatible service connections or be able to use the automated docking approach protocols...

Non-Standard wiring...the Golgans use a basic numeric system that differs from the majority of the cosmos, and their wiring codes are wholly non-standard....Mechanics must take a specialization in Golgan systems or else take twice as long to diagnose and repair problems...

Substandard Materials---The hull is alright, but somewhere along the line the contractor cut corners on internal fixtures....high density plas-dec has been replaced with low-cost fiberboard that actually rots, or powders in microgravity when hit(filling the air with dust and particles). Fire-retardent materials have ignition temperatures that are less than CCW or TGE standard.

Fire Control Systems---Fire Control chem-sprayers exclusively use a chemical perfectly safe to Golgan/amphibian physiologies, but which is poisonous to most others...Because of the set-up, the fire control system can use ONLY this chemical....

[Aramanthus]

Good one Taalismn! Please keep them coming. I'm going to try and come up with a table for all to use once I post all of the Golgan fleet I'm planning on posting.

[KLM]

For my part, once the Golgan Republik was as influental
and solid, as the CCW. It was their buerocratic ability,
(coupled with their above human intellect!) that made this
empire possible and for a good deal of time, running
efficiently.

In "my 3 galaxies", the cargo containers were standardised
by the Golgan Bureau of Standards, about a millenia ago.
Their starships - well, a few of them - were and are as
outstanding and lasting, as the Hunter destroyer or the
Dwarven Iron ships.

So, for my part, their ships do not have "inherent" flaws
as such. They might have been designed and manufacture
to be disposable (as many soviet/russian designs), but
that was a known and accepted feature, not a bug.

However... Well, they are stuck with an aging fleet,
designed - long ago - for expansion, and with the
acceptance of heavy lossess. Now, they are in the
process of retrofitting those assets with NE stuff, for
a more "zero-loss oriented" strategy. The ships' age,
more importantly the substandard maintenace, the
always reduced budget, and the more buerocratic
(pun intended) than efficient design/development
of incorporating NE hardware causes problems.

On the other hand, CA ships - due to the lack of
industrial background and sufficient R&D, are more
prone to such faults.

The "leaky reactor" flaw for example is - of course -
a leaky reactor. But it wasn't leaky when it was
manufactured - in my grandpa's time. But since then
it was supposed to have 10 maintenace cycles, instead
of the 6, it had in reality... Well, running it over 70%
efficiency means that we are leaking coolant.
Not into the engineering room, thought, "just" into
space - leaving a trail of vapor.

Adios
KLM

[Roscoe Del'Tane]

Prepare for SPAM Posting!

Poor swivel mounts: The mounts for external weaponry are placed in such a way (or have poor A.I. control) that they are in danger of hitting the ship/other turrets. Every time the turret is used, roll 1d100. 95-100 means weapon strikes the ship.

Mismounted Engines: The ships engines are misaligned. Reduce speed by 10%, and no bonuses to dodge apply.

Heavy Energy Drain: The energy weaponry(or shelds) on this ship draw too much power. The range is increased by 10% (or damage is increased by one die, sheilds have an extra 15% damage buffer), but each time they are used there is a base 5% chance of blowing a fuse. If you blow a fuse, all power to that portion of the ship is out (even things like life suport and lighting), and takes 2-3 hours of work to fix. Hope you can hold your breath. To fix this problem completely will take 3-4 weeks of constant work, and equivalent to half again the weapon/shield system.

Twitchy Handling: Controls are off ever so slightly, but cause significant problems. Each combat roll are done at -1, and each piloting roll at -5%.

Corrupted Life Support: The systems that should provide brathable atmosphere, but provides foul atmosphere (think a realy foul rotten egg f@rt for whatever the species) regularly. Every hour, roll 3d20 for when the blast occurs, the rank smell lasts 5 minutes before dissipating. The smell is not enough to be fatal or even damaging, but is distracting(and horrific) enough to cut all combat bonuses by half, and reduce APM by one.

Lead Foot Accelerator: Vehicle has only two speeds, full throttle acceration, and dead engine. cannot be fixed short of dismantling the entire propulsion system and rebuilding it from scratch.

Twitchy Sneaker: All stealth systems have a limited lifespan of 2d4x10 minutes before requiring a 2 hour recharge/cool down time. Note: Players are NOT to know haw much time they have on each activation, let them sweat it out. Trying to go over the limit for more than 1d4 minutes blows it out, has to be completely re-installed at 1.5 times the listed price (have to remove the old system, which is hard work).

Poor fuel efficiency: This ship burns 4d6+10% more fuel than the standard model do to some engine hiccup. Good news on this is, the ship gets a speed boost equal to one half the fuel penalty.

Agressive Radar signiture: NO stealth systems can be intalled on this ship, and it has a +10% chance of being detected by enemy scanners.

Substandard System Performance: One system (can be anything that is not vital to ship performance) works at 3d6+10% below what it is supposed to. No matter how many times it's checked out (even by master mechanics/technicians) it comes back as performing perfectly, at least until it's used outside of the spaceport/testing facility. (I've had this happen to me too many times to count, and it still bugs the crap out of me whenever it happens.)

Crossed Wires: Things just don't work the way they are supposed to. So pulling the trigger on a gun may just launch the ejector seat, or innititate a fuel dump. Only one crossed wire per time this is chosen; and it works both ways, so selecting the ejector seat/ fuel dump will fire the gun.

Fuel Bloackage: By some twist of fate, each time this vahicle accelerates, there is a 5% chance that it doesn't get enough fuel (or too much), and the engine will stall. Requires 2d4 minutes for the engine to cool down or drain of excess fuel before it can safely be started again. Trying to start it before this period will carry a a 5% chance for each minute left of blowing the engine out (rendures it to one fifth the normal speed class for that class, and FTL is straight out) and crippling the power plant (half fuel left is burnt up restarting the engine).

More as I can think them up. I'm sure I can come up with a few more with some thought.

[Rallan]

Unaerodynamic: the ship was designed and built with the assumption that it would only ever be used in outer space. No thought whatsoever has been put into streamlining or aerodynamics, since they'd just add to the cost without doing anything to improve performance during normal use. This will lead to serious speed penalties due to drag when operating in an atmosphere, as well as penalties on all actions more complicated than a gradual ascent or descent. For particularly badly designed ships, this could go beyond just penalties to speed and movement and into the realm of being an actual hazard, with the vessel at risk of being dangerously buffeted and destabilized during violent storms.

[glitterboy2098]

Bad Ergonomics: "basic golgan control set up in this fighter. throttle on the right, steering on the left. weapons are fired by this rocker switch on the throttle, and the sheild controls are in front of the control stick. you'll have to let go of the stick to modify them, if you don't want to go in a dive and spin every time. life support controls are mounted behind your seat, they're very pressure sensitive so don't go flailing around in here. your radar screen is down between your legs, as is your weapon status screen. the HUD is beamed directly into your eye's, so try not to move your head too much."

the controls of this craft were not designed for easy of use. switches and screens are placed at poor angles, too far from a seat, poorly labeled, or are too small to use properly without mistakes. even the race the craft was designed for find it poor design. 5% to all skills, -20% if not the intended race.

[elecgraystone]

Nonstandard equipment: Some of the equipment has be 'salvaged" or parts have been retrofitted from another ship design. Any rolls with that equipment result in a -2 or a -10% do to substandard performance.

Juryrigged repairs: whoever fixed and repaired the ship in the past had thier own unique way of reapiring the ship. All repairs take twice as long and have -15% minus to rolls unless the original mechanic is doing the repairs. If the new mechanic has worked with the systems for at least 6 months or has be instructed by the old mechanic, The repair time drops to just 1.5 times the normal repair time and the minus drops to -7%.

Quirky: This ship has many quirks that make piloting/crewing it interesting if you are not use to them. You may have to kick or hit the drive to go into FTL, aim the guns off center or ignore the warning light "because it ALWAYS turns on when the ship docks, ect. All this adds up to a -20% or -4 to all ship activities until the quirks are figured out. Every full month of using the systems reduces this minus by 5%, to a minimum of -5% or -1.

[glitterboy2098]

Millennium Falcon Syndrome: see= All the above

[taalismn]

Dangerous Waste Disposal System---The ship's environmental waste management system uses natural vaccum to assist in the low-energy movement of gases, solids, and liquids...Normally a series of baffles and filters catches the majority of recyclable materials before they can vent to the outside. but the system is prone to potential failure....every 1,000 flushes, there's a 5% chance of a significant leak in cabin pressure...or serious injury to somebody using the facilities....

Expensive Tools---Due to Golgan bureaucratic mismanagement, tools and parts bought from Golgan contractors can cost 50-200% more than open market...Usually not a problem out in the Three Galaxies where cheaper substitutes are avilable, but in a Golgan port where import tariffs and local market protection make sure only Golgan companies can sell, a buyer has few choices....Otherwise known as the 'THousand-Credit Toilet Seat Syndrome'.

Bugged---The ship is part of a Golgan military intelligence scheme to randomly ships for surveillance in hopes of acquiring useful info...The craftsmanship in the concealment of the surveillance equipment, both internal and external, is excellent, with only a 1% chance of anything being suspected of being anything other than redundant or inelegant circuitry, but every time the ship passes in range of a Golgan listening outpost or patrol ship, the surveillance gear will download its logs on where the ship has been and what's gone on aboard it to Golgan milintel.

[Aramanthus]

LOL Those are great! Please keep them coming!

[KLM]

Golgan (or Zebuloid) ergonomics:
Displays are dispersed all over the cockpit, since
the above species have a much broader arc of
wiev.
To make matters worse, displays make use the full
spectrum of the Golgan racial "super sight". Ie. engine
overheating sight is in infrared.

Adios
KLM

[taalismn]

Golgan (or Zebuloid) ergonomics:
Displays are dispersed all over the cockpit, since
the above species have a much broader arc of
wiev.
To make matters worse, displays make use the full
spectrum of the Golgan racial "super sight". Ie. engine
overheating sight is in infrared.

Adios
KLM

Likewise, all audio systems have subtones or broadcast on accoustic frequencies that are eitehr too low or too high to be haerd comfortably...or at all...

Having been so great in the past, the Golgans saw fit to assert THEIR standards as THE standards for spacecraft and systemry, since it was going to be used in theri domains...Having(with a nod to KLM) standardized cargo pod design, they saw the adaptation of outside standards(however long established) as caving in to the dangerous aliens outside...besides, it would also make it that much more difficult for external threats to use Golgan hardware and facilities against their creators in the event of invasion(the Russians have the same philosophy with their rail guages...). That is a major flaw when taking Golgan-spec ships outside Golgan space...

[Aramanthus]

Please keep them coming. It's great to read them!

[KLM]

Having been so great in the past, the Golgans saw fit to assert THEIR standards as THE standards for spacecraft and systemry,

(...)

(the Russians have the same philosophy with their rail guages...). That is a major flaw when taking Golgan-spec ships outside Golgan space...

As for Russians: while their rail gauges are different, their
planes can be filled by western fuel and facilities.

As for Golgans: On the contrary - at least in "my 3 galaxies". Golgan
standards ARE the standards - but they are kinda like modern Italy
compared to ancient Rome.
Roman achievements are all around us (and of course, a good
deal of them were actually adapted from other cultures), even
the space shuttles' booster rockets diameter can be traced back
to the days of that ancient empire.

http://www.astrodigital.org/space/stshorse.html

Yet, the Golgan Republic is a tired, crumbling, second league power.

Adios
KLM

[DhAkael]

Ummmm... really don't give two drens about the Golgans.
*shrug* seriously, they don't inpsire or interest me...and they have absolutely no impact on the Tri-Galactic cluster.
Ergo; they are a dying race and culture..so everyone just ignores them, or swats them outa the way.
At BEST I'd have them as a background 'flavour text'; as in "You see a fairly standard sub-standard battlecrusier getting the tar beaten out of it by a Kreegohr friagte..before you can even think of rendering assistance, the ancient obsolete battle crusier gets blown to component atoms"

[KLM]

*shrug*
Tastes differ. For my part, the Republik will continue
to disintegrate except if someone tries to invade them.
In that case, the Republik might awaken from its apathy,
again showing the 3 Galaxies, why they were able to
be a superpower.

Adios
KLM

[DhAkael]

*shrug*
Tastes differ. For my part, the Republik will continue
to disintegrate except if someone tries to invade them.
In that case, the Republik might awaken from its apathy,
again showing the 3 Galaxies, why they were able to
be a superpower.

Adios
KLM

That sorta plot device I can respect
As for me..have too many other power blocks to deal with in my campiagn(s) so...
I'll leave the Republik to other minds

[taalismn]

*shrug*
Tastes differ. For my part, the Republik will continue
to disintegrate except if someone tries to invade them.
In that case, the Republik might awaken from its apathy,
again showing the 3 Galaxies, why they were able to
be a superpower.

Adios
KLM

They're simultaneously dangerous and clownish figures....like the French army in WW1 or Italy in WW2...pompous, pretentious, and full of mustard, but organizationally buffaloed by their own bombast...but with a few bright lights still burning here and there...

In terms of sci-fi, they remind me of a Stanislaw Lemian cosmic bureaucratic boondoggle...comedic in their absurdity, but still capable of crushing the unwary...

[Greyaxe]

Ummmm... really don't give two drens about the Golgans.
*shrug* seriously, they don't inpsire or interest me...and they have absolutely no impact on the Tri-Galactic cluster.
Ergo; they are a dying race and culture..so everyone just ignores them, or swats them outa the way.
At BEST I'd have them as a background 'flavour text'; as in "You see a fairly standard sub-standard battlecrusier getting the tar beaten out of it by a Kreegohr friagte..before you can even think of rendering assistance, the ancient obsolete battle crusier gets blown to component atoms"

Just wait for Phase World spaceships....very exciting stuff about the golgan.

[taalismn]

Ummmm... really don't give two drens about the Golgans.
*shrug* seriously, they don't inpsire or interest me...and they have absolutely no impact on the Tri-Galactic cluster.
Ergo; they are a dying race and culture..so everyone just ignores them, or swats them outa the way.
At BEST I'd have them as a background 'flavour text'; as in "You see a fairly standard sub-standard battlecrusier getting the tar beaten out of it by a Kreegohr friagte..before you can even think of rendering assistance, the ancient obsolete battle crusier gets blown to component atoms"

Just wait for Phase World spaceships....very exciting stuff about the golgan.

I've already placed reservations for a complete Arm Battery of Singularity Guns in anticipation...the last thing I need is a much of paranoid Romano-Soviet-styled amphibian BEMS feeling uppity around my turf...

[DhAkael]

...the last thing I need is a much of paranoid Romano-Soviet-styled amphibian BEMS feeling uppity around my turf...

-ahem-

Do ray mi fa so la tee doh!

Buwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!

Gotta remember that line!

[taalismn]

actually it should say 'bunch', not 'much'...
I'm getting absent-minded early in my old age...can't all be gremlins of the keyboard....


More Flaws:

*Inconsistant Air Pressure---The ventilation system maintains a less than constant pressure...not enough to cause the bends, but certainly enough to make ears pop, doors stick, and result in the occasional 40-50MPH windstorm inside the ship...blowing loose debris around and maybe small animals, children, and crewbeings.

*Visual Displays---Visual display blinkers are designed for Golgan eyes...and they can handle bright, strobing lights that would chisel the optical nerves of other beings...Try looking into LED headlights in your rearview mirror for a similar effect.

*Hangar Bay Doors---Hangar Bay doors crank open twice as slowly than they should, and there's a 10-20% chance of the motors burning out or the doors freezing(usually halfway through openning/closing) during emergency/combat conditions. Either manually force them open/shut or hope the explosive bolts aren't faulty as well....

*Decaying Armor----The ship's outer hull materials are starting to decay/debond...Every time the ship enters atmosphere or lifts off, there's a 25% chance of the ship losing 10% of its hull MDC as it flakes/falls off...Note that the ship cannot lose more than 40% of its MDC(basic structure), but the lost/ablated MDC must be replaced. This is especially true of older ships

[Aramanthus]

They sounds good! Please keep them coming!

[taalismn]

*Bad Landing Gear---The landing bay well doors tend to jam in either the open or closed positions, or else the landing gear themselves crack and warp, leading to the ship landing awkwardly(takes 1d6 MD damage) or joins the 'nose wheel club' and the 'belly scrapper union'....The ship can still lift off from its 'ground sucking' position, but requires a piiloting skill roll at -15%, and the ship takes 1d4x10 MD from buffeting and its own improperly positioned engine efllux.
If the pilot knows his gear are going bad, he can attempt landing with the same skill penalty(-15%) to make uber-controlled 'soft' landings favoring the gear, but eventually the problem is going to have to be dealt with directly...

[Aramanthus]

What about packed to the gill will vermin in every nook and cranny that the Golgans don't use.

[Aramanthus]

I need this near the top too!

[taalismn]

*Gravitic Ripples---The artificial gravity doesn't fail, but it does 'flicker' at a rate almost indiscernable to human senses...however, the body can pick up on it with increasing inner ear nausea, a tightening(or loosening) of the bowels, and a growing sense of raised hackles and anxiety with no clear cause....on long duration missions, this tends to degrade crew performance in minor ways(as well as causes a run on the sick bay's supplies of digestive aides and anti-nausea drugs...).

[Aramanthus]

That's a good one!

[KLM]

Faulty sensor grid:
The sensor system has a (few) blind spots. It is comparable
to a missing right rearwiev mirror in a car - usually makes
no difference, but a full 360 degree scan neccessitates the
turning of the whole ship and attackers can try to exploit
them.

[taalismn]

*Bad Emission Control---The ship's drive systems throw out inordinate amounts of electromagnetic, gravitonic, radiation-, or chemical 'noise' that increase the ship's sensor signature and increase the chances of the ship being detected on long range scans by as much as 50-300%(triple the effective range at which the ship can be detected). Worse yet, the same emissions will affect the ship's own sensors, effectively creating patches of 'white noise' interference through which the sensors cannot fully work, if at all....

[Roscoe Del'Tane]

Ambient Noise: Ship has an annoying habit of emitting high-pitched, nearly inaudible whines constantly, and if people in the area stay in the area for more than 1d4+2 minutes, they develop severe headaches (-1 to all combat rolls, -3 to initiative, and it persists for 1d4x10 minutes after they leave the area). Aspirin and other medication doesn't help, neither does psychic or magic healing, only leaving the affected area helps.

Cramped corridors: Somebody had a brain-fart when building this ship. The corridors are all 15% shorter/thinner than what should be normal than the species.

Warped Ammo-Feed: Weapons on this ship that require physical amounts of ammo have a smaller bin, resulting in less ammo, reduce max amount of ammo by 2d6+10%. If this is rolled for a missile launcher, one row could be miss-bored (doesn’t accept the same size missiles as the rest), or have that row completely unable to fire missiles at all (they load just fine, and go active, but simply wont fire).

Inappropriate Sound Effects: Some yahoo, some putz, some yo-yo, has put in sounds for things that wouldn’t normally be there. These can be as simple as doors opening with odd sounds, to things making just plain unfortunate noises (the sounds of somebody screaming every time the Captain’s chair swivels, a toilet flushing whenever the comm. lines are opened). Apparently some worker had a vendetta against the company he works for, and added all these ‘extra’ features for no extra charge. Trying to trouble shoot these things are all done at -40% (quality work done to sabotage this ship), and even if found, takes 3-4 days to remove the devices (REAL quality work done) and costs 3-4,000 credits to remove each device. Each sound effect will have 2-3 devices that cause the sound, each on every well hidden, some concealed within other, most essential dingus’s.

Nose Heavy: All landings are done at -20% to piloting rolls, as the nose section is several times heavier than it should be. Once in the air this is not a problem, ship is streamlined enough that it only inflicts a 5% penalty (only roll when in combat). Nose section doesn’t look any different, not longer, or thicker, it is just heavier.

Fragile Joinings: The armor plates (pieces, whatever) are not bonded together they way they should be to ensure structural integrity; each time the ship is struck there is a 1% chance that all the armor on that entire side falls off/rendered unusable until they get it bolted back on. To get this fixed, it costs 10-15% of the overall cost of the ship, and 1/3 the build-time. Probably better to just scrap the darn thing and buy a new ship.

Funky Paint Job: Whoever was in charge of painting this bird aught to be shot out of a cannon. They did a just plain horrible job. Could be stripes, plaid, polka-dots, whatever they did, ships shouldn’t look like that, and definitely not in those colors either. [Shudders]

[Aramanthus]

Those are some more great ideas. I mentioned a couple of classes of Golgan ships who had paint jobs that are way out there!

[taalismn]

*Poor Instrument Calibration....the ship's positioning system, inertial guidance, and other sensitive instruments lose time and accuracy, resulting in inaccurate navigational fixes....The final point of emergence from FTL can be as much as 2% off for every 20 lightyears travelled....Which can result in some major course deviations on long cruises....Even simple in-system navigation can be kluggy, with Piloting/Navigation rolls made at -5%...Worse yet, even in the case of an obvious screwup, the ship's navigational AI will insist that its figures are correct....The problem can be avoided somewhat by rebooting the nav computers(from uncorrupted backups) and recalibrating the instruments before every time the ship goes FTL...but that can take delays of hours(2d4) for small ships and days(4d6x10 hours) for larger vessels.


*Ornery Computer----The 'Friendly Pilot'Crew-Ship Interface' advertized in the operator's manual is more like Synthetic Golgan---charming and mellow-voiced, but obstinate, paranoid, uncooperative, and either scatter-brained or snidely literal-minded....it will either neglect to inform the crew about details(either forgot or will claim it wasn't told to inform the crew of such), argue details, and 'go by the book'---qouting obscure and often obstructing space-law with the peevish glee of an armchair lawyer...

[Aramanthus]

Those are some cool ideas Taalismn.

[taalismn]

*Sticky Controls---The Fly-By-Wire control interfaces respond like rusted hydraulics, with second-long time lags between sending a command and executing it, making the ship sluggish on response...The crew has to gorilla- wrestle the controls with a penalty of -5% to rolls, and the ship wallows with the grace of the Exxon Valdez navigating an Alaskan channel....

[Aramanthus]

Very good!


How about ......

Where the navigation system needs to be restarted every hour on the hour or else it reorients itself in a random direction. Therefore the crew would be lost until they brought up the secondaries and that takes say 2D4 minutes per 25 years old the craft is.

[taalismn]

*Tail Fins---Whoever designed this ship had a love of wings and aerodynamic surfaces....and it's not entirely clear what all the appendages really do for the ship...They look really cool to the inexperienced, but all the various surfaces and pylons add unnecessary drag to the ship(cut atmospheric speed by 20%) and give mechanics coniptions over which ones are really necessary(would require days of wind tunnel testing and simulations to redesign the entire configuration)...

[Roscoe Del'Tane]

Thought of one more, after a bad night of sleep in a new apartment.

Creepy presence: Whether or not this ship is haunted is for debate. Call it bad fung-shua (sp?), bad construction, high frequency oscillation; it just gives people the heebie-jeebies something really fierce. Ship can appear to be normal, or have something that makes it look weird (skull like sockpit windows, mouth like entry ramp, disconcerting paintjob, take your pick when making it). Any person with sensitive psychic powers will swear that somebody is watching them, somebody who disappears from their field of vision as soon as they turn to look. Roll vs. psychics once per hour (even if asleep), if they fail they will have 1d4 panic 'attacks' during that hour.

During the attacks (which never last more than 2-3 minutes), they are -2 on initiative, and -1 on all other combat rolls, and suffer -5 to save vs. Horror Factor (and they will have to save vs Shock if they fail, fail shock and they scream, void themselves, and pass out). Spending more than a few weeks on this ship will most likely (65% chance) inflict a temporary insanity of enclosed spaces/ships on them for 2d4 months.

Non-psychics (or those not sensitive to such phenomenon) only have to roll once per day, and even if they fail, they only experiencee one attack. No insanities no matter how long they stay on it. Even full-conversion Borgs and Transferred Intelligences feel the creepyness factor, and will suffer the attacks. Nothing, not exorcism, not the Sanctuary spell, nothing save completely rebuilding the entire ship will rid you of this Presence. MUAHAHAHAHA!

Something that I thought would be pretty good for people who where already paranoid about things, having to cooped up on this floating iron barge with the feeling of being watched (great if it’s the only ship off planet, and you are about to be invaded by the TGE).

[Aramanthus]

Roscoe, Great one! Please keep them coming!

[taalismn]

*Life Quarters Sprawl---The arrangement of the crew sections within the volume of the ship's interior is labyrinthine and makes no sense.....the ship's life support areas seem wrapped around the ship's heavy machinery and there are few, if any, direct routes between stations and locations...going from the life quarters to the bridge in an emergency is like running a maze and may take several minutes just to move a matter of 50 or so feet distance as the corvus flies(rather than have to run down corridors, climb up and down ladder ways, and dog/undog hatches)...Larger ships may have subjective runs of a kilometer or more, making sleeping at one's work station, rather in one's cabin, an attractive proposition...

[Aramanthus]

Very cool! I like that one. The maze of crew quarters is a very cool idea.


What about either very tiny or very large corridors on board the ship. Where the corridors are just big enough to crawl thru or else they might be way, way too big. And the rooms that are off of either are in really hard places to get to. IE near the ceiling in the extremely large corridors. And say 90 degrees on some oblique angle in the tiny ones.

[taalismn]

*Gravity Gradiants---The artificial gravity systems produce normal, tolerable, gravity levels over most of the deck(s), but on the bottom level(closest to the generators) the gravity attraction is noticeably greater, while on the very top decks(or near the ceiling) the gravity is noticeable less...Or else, if multiple decks have separate generators, being right up next to the ceiling of the lower deck, one will notice a pull towards the ceiling, from the next deck, due to insufficiently insulated/tuned gravitic 'sidelobes'.

[Aramanthus]

Oh that is a great one.


What about space anamolies that when you enter a room you end up facing the way you came in . So in order to enter certain rooms you'd have to back in.

[taalismn]

Temporal anomalies in the engine room...the guy who LOOKS like he's slacking off is really in a bubble of slow time....
Time to get the CG engines retuned....

[Aramanthus]

LOL That would be a funny one anywhere on the ship. Navigation would really hate that flaw. So would weapons and computers. Imagine a super computer that is really slower than on of those analoge devices that was the forefather of the modern computer.

[Aramanthus]

How about some sort of parasite which can survive in a vaccum and which draws space vermin like space wasps to it to harvest it for their hives?

[taalismn]

I'd think that comes under 'Monsters' rather than 'design flaws'...unless the ship's design or some aspect of its operation causes it to resemble the critter's ideal mate, or emitts a signature that emulates its own mating/feeding/challenging pheromones/radio signals, IR emissions....

[Aramanthus]

Those parasites I was refering too would be equal to space barnacles.

[KLM]

"Haunted", 2nd version:

Some poor guy tried to teleport to the ship,
and fell victim to some Temporal Raider's
"ace in the sleeve" - he arrives to the location
in some decades (instead of an instant).

The result is dripping blood from the ceiling.

Slowly....

Never, when (or where) any active surveillance
is present, be it a camcorder or some spell.

Adios
KLM