I'm asking for folks opinions:

We know pretty clearly that a Pilot-1 (or maybe Pilot-0) can navigate a small ship (100-200 ton for sure).

Do you, in your view, prefer to have higher Pilot level requirements for larger tonnages?

Arguments against some sort of scaled pilot level for larger ships:

a ) Where do you draw the boundaries? (If you count the big ships, you'd have to go logarithmic or something)

b) What is harder about directing a large ship than a small? Is piloting not as simple as typing in coordinates or picking a destination with a track ball and clicking 'fly to here'? (For open space)

Arguments for some sort of scaled pilot level for larger ships :

a) Bigger ships have more momentum and more inertia and can cause much more damage with even a brush against anything else, so the need to h ave them piloted by the better pilots is just good sense from an insurance/liability/public safety perspective (so maybe a Pilot-0 can pilot a Plankwell, but maybe he ought not to...)

b) Bigger ships may be comparable to bigger airplanes - you are managing more engine nozzles, managing trim on a much bigger ship, and not being as nimble (I'm avoiding 'agile' as that may not be the same), and there may be a lot more controls, readouts, etc. which a pilot used to flying a 100 ton scout might find overwhelming... much as the cessna pilot finding himself behind the wheel of a 767 might have some issues... the boat may well behave in a different way and that could cause trouble...

What do you prefer?

Do you envision a larger ship with a group of pilots contributing? Or does the Plankwell have only one pilot?

(A lot would depend on how you want your TU to look)

My small craft query is this:

I can build a 90 ton cargo shuttle or a 95 ton fast system tac boat....

How different, from the perspective of piloting, is a 95 ton 'small craft' vs. a 100 ton scout courier? 

Should 'Small Craft' exist as a skill or should it just be Pilot? (Arguably, in any controlled space, the Pilot would have to do the same job in the 95 ton ship as the 100 ton ship)

I've always found the magical 100 ton breakpoint as a strange reason to have a different skill required.

What do you think makes small craft deserving of being distinct from Pilot?

TomB

--

“The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law.” ― Aristotle

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