The Bargain class appears in the standard vehicle catalog of the LSP shipyard at Lunion, but examples are seldom actually built. It was designed almost entirely for advertising purposes (Be your own boss-buy a Free Trader for under MCr32), with the primary design goal being to reduce costs as far as possible. Salespersons will attempt to sell a more capable design to any customer who holds still long enough. The Bargain class, therefore, is built with no inertial compensators on a basic streamlined box hull. To avoid throwing passengers around it was necessary to arrange the decks to be perpendicular to the line of thrust. Grav plates (a major energy consumer) have been limited to the bridge, passenger, and engineering compartments. The power plant is therefore trimmed to the bare minimum size need to support maneuver and the limited environmental package. Fuel tankage and the cargo bay have whatever pseudogravity is provided by the acceleration ship's thrusters. No backup communications ares carried, an
d the navigation radar is a barely acceptable planetary range model. The control system is not really adequate to support the installation of a weapons package. The fuel purifier is of minimum size. The thrusters provide a nominal acceleration of 1.058G at calculated load, making lift-off from an earth-sized planet barely possible. Actual loads, of course, are frequently less.
As they say in the Free Trader community "Sometimes a Bargain is no bargain..."
| CraftID: | Type A Free Trader, TL13, MCr31.76 (incl standard discount) |
|---|---|
| Hull: | 180/450, Disp=200t, Config=4SL, Armor=40F, Loaded=2456.4t, Unloaded=1215.6t |
| Power: | 3/6, Fusion=351MW, Duration=30days |
| Loco: | 4/8, Maneuver=1 (Thrusters=2600t), 4/8, Jump=1, Max=60kph, Agility=1, TrueAcc=1.058G |
| Comm: | Radio=System |
| Sensors: | EMS Active(Planetary), ActObjScan=Diff, ActObjPin=Diff |
| Off: | Hardpoints=2 |
| Def: | DefDM+3 |
| Control: | Computer Mod1*3, 2*HeadsUpHoloDisplay, 20*HoloLink |
| Accom: | Crew=4 (1 bridge, 1 engineer, 1 steward, 1 medic), Passengers=6, Staterooms=10, LowBerths=20, Env=basic env, basic ls, extended ls, grav plates (bridge, accommodation and engineering spaces only) |
| Other: | Fuel=410.4kl (1 jump-1+30 days), Cargo=1212kl (89.8t), Fuel Scoops, Fuel Purifier (13.25hr), ObjSize=Avg, EmLevel=Faint |
Author: R.S.Dean