Does durasteel/high tech metals degrade?

[tetsuoh]

I need to know if the hull and interior of a starship would still be intact on a wreck that has been left to the elements in a temperate forest for a couple millennia.

If not that's okay, but then how long could a ship sit and be salvage-able by your opinions?

[Jonos]

I saw some rules on this somewhere as I have been poking around for other things. It was a pretty detailed system based on material and exposure, etc. Seems like it was in a book about salvage but I can't for the life of me remember. I'll see if I can find it.

Edit - AHA! Found it in the Old Republic Handbook designed by Mojomoe here on the Rancor Pit Forums. Nice book!

http://d6holocron.com/downloads/books/GG16_The_Old_Republic.pdf

[cheshire]

I would suggest that it would have a lot to do with WHERE the ship is adrift. Sitting in a complete vacuum is probably going to help preserve a ship pretty well, assuming it was out in interstellar space. Also, given that starships are designed to shield against some of the background radiation and space debris, it's probably going to be a long while before it falls apart with age.

However, if it is stranded in the middle of a nebula, getting perpetually blasted by solar flares, or subjected to repeated ion storms, then it's likely to get its hull flayed over the years.

So, I guess the question is what do you need for your story, and then what sort of conditions can you create to help you achieve that story factor. I don't think there is a single condition a derelict ship is going to be in. One wreck is not likely to be the same as another.
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Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind.

[Whill]

I agree.

[garhkal]

I would say even with it being made to witstand the forces of hyperspace, flying through vaccums etc, its still metal, so should have some issues with corrosion.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[cheshire]

Ooops, yeah forest. I missed that the first time I read the post.

I would say that the outer hull should hold up particularly well, assuming it's not compromised by some other, more extreme, forces. But if the elements have had access to the inside of the ship, then that's a whole different story. I can only imagine that water or even humidity in the internal panels could wreak havoc over time. Corrosion is just one issue. The encroachment of soil and flora could be interesting at areas where the hull had been breached. Also, if roots are able to find seams in the hull plating, you can be looking at quite a lot of damage that way.
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Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind.

[tetsuoh]

Tree growing on top of it.

Cargo hold mostly sealed save a 2 foot gash on the port side of the hull that while it doesn't allow direct moisture in allowed animals in (and most notably - out - our guys had been wondering for the mast 4 sessions why bonarian lemurs could be found on this planet - and just found out they mainly inhabit this large valley, and found the ship.)

One sublight engine ripped off the port side and allowed open access to engineering through the hole it made.

I let the verpine made reactor remain intact and power up and let electricity to the ship - however most of the conduits throughout the ship have insulation that is brittle if not already crumpled away - leaving exposed wires. so they only tested to see if it was still intact and operational. And it's rotating calibrating rings were covered in moss so it could use maintenance and my act quirky once kicked into full output.

The hyperdrive is intact but damaged - an old model class 4 that was designed for long service life.

The bridge was the worst - the transparasteel windshield was mostly gone and this left the bridge open to the wind and rain.

The captain - a large gammorrean was still in his seat-but only bones. He had jury-rigged the output of 2 of the 4 stations to his command chair - which includes a piloting setup.

So not only were the bridges systems a jumbled mess to begin with - now all the computer boards are corroded and many things degraded or destroyed.

I want them to be able to retrofit this ship - but part of this test is for myself - how will they accomplish this?

This is the same group trapped on my primitive world.

They do not have the means to produce much of what would be needed for this ship namely circuit boards and electrical conduit cords - as they have no means of producing plastics or rubber at this moment. The metal work is easy as they have extra metal from other wrecks of numerous things.

They have destroyed numerous walker scale and smaller droids and a mobile command center. But I see this as only fixing part of their problem. Namely none of that is starfighter scale so in my opinion the energy conduit lines from those wouldn't be able to handle the draw necessary for the engines or hyperdrive.

Was this wrong of me? - I'm trying to get the group to pay attention to the npc's a bit more - one they ostracized is from a desert to the south and knows of a ship that crashed there, its in far worse condition and would never fly again as it got shot out of the sky unlike this once that merely crash landed but was left to rot - but I figured they could easily salvage from that what they might need. However the NPC is leary of them but sticking around because another npc - but these two are often overlooked - I figured this is a way to get them back into the groups favor.

[Whill]

[tetsuoh]

Valuable information, possible assistance in combat versus overwhelming forces - lots of things.

In my games npcs always have a place - and I greatly enjoy playing them - however note that in my game - every character in existence acts as if they are a player character and is given the same stat and skill availability - not like a normal npc - they are people to - I have full living worlds and many times the npcs in my games serve as valuable contacts, friends, family, or romantic interests to the PC's.

most of my players like this fact and how diverse I make things.

At the moment one of my players has a squire that is an npc (like a cohort or companion from dnd) - that npc's romantic interest is the one who made a bad choice that lead to the imperials learning of their location but informed others who could help of them being captured and possibly executed. which lead to a rescue by some npcs and 1 of my pcs.

she is from the southern desert and witnessed a ship go down in the desert the night the fighting broke out in space over their world and then she was captured by imperials when she investigated an imperial escape pod.

a lot of them have similar slightly roughed out backstory.

The npcs aren't a problem really - its just that lately they have been overlooked because of a bad choice that lead to npc follower taking her side over the pc's (well 3 of them anyway)

My concern was if my thought process on them finding supplies to repair the ship was too much.

I know now its not - as one of my players just talked to me about getting two others to agree to a similar plan once we start back up. Which gives me her "in" as one of them still trusts her.

so I guess that part isn't a concern anymore.

If this ship is worth it or not - is though - because I designed it to actually be a reward for this adventure - which is coming to close soon before we start on the next "Chapter" - It's supposed to be big enough to haul all of them and them to each have quarters of their own - with a few rooms to spare - and well as a nice cargo hold - and be decent if not incredibly outdated, so their is room for upgrading.

After this chapter one of my PC's will be retiring from the campaign and even has his own idea on how to do so - he's the big gunner with the railgun - who has a number of prosthetics and is kind of old - he is an ex imperial commando - and plans to have his character tell the players of how his prosthetic heart is far beyond its service date - but plans to sacrifice himself so it can be implanted in the body of one of the local primitives who he has come to have feelings for, a young boy whose life he saved and returned to his mother - but who reminds him greatly of his own son whom he lost.

The boy has a weak heart and has had fainting spells in the past, and proven his courage by standing up to three stormtroopers when the pc was shot - before the other pc's arrived to step in.

This will happen once he is successful with repairing the medical droid they will find in this ships wreckage.

The player himself threw me for a loop when he told me his character hits the ground after an emp grenade thrown at some imperial droids inadvertantly caught him in the blast. He then reminded me of his full list of prostectics and asked if I wanted him to roll their resistance to the damage to see if he got back up after they kicked back in. He thought that he might end up hanging his character up earlier than he had planned. The heart survived but he lost the use of his left arm until it was fixed and his left eye fried permanently, so he ended up wearing an eyepatch.

That is the impact the npc's often hold in my games. Its just how my gm style and my players have come to do things.

[Pel]

So this new ship is a bit of a fixer upper. That should probably figure into your campaign for a while after they get it spaceworthy, unless some of your players can manage Heroic space transports repair rolls.

Since this ship is wrecked, why do the players want it? Wouldn't it be easier just to steal another one that actually flies or buy transport off that world? I only bring it up because it seems to me your players might need a motivation to actually keep this thing around and resist the temptation to trade it in at the first opportunity. Something along the lines of "Yeah, it's a deathtrap, but it's OUR deathtrap".

Not trying to dictate your campaign, just curious as to their dramatic motivation.
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Aha!

[tetsuoh]

They are trapped on a primitive world currently in its middles ages.

Two of my pc's joined in after we started are even playing as the race from this world.

if they agree to trade it in - this is little I can do - but they will have incentives to keep it.

It belonged to a gamorrean captain - and he made sure it was built tough.
(It did crash land on a planet and only tear up instead of implode.)

[garhkal]

With all that damage you described, i can see them needing MORE than just some repair parts. I forsee a major yard period. Even getting the engine in, imo would require at least a full repair bay to get installed. And where will they get the cockpit covering replaced?
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[tetsuoh]

Mining facility they destroyed had transparasteel plates and other items in storage at a warehouse awaiting construction of other parts of the facility.

So they already have some parts - including environmental controls (this planet is low oxygen and the plant overseer wanted confort in his complex - and it had ready made living quarters habits already dropped in.) - that they could return and scavenge.

Which reminds me that they can go there for parts as well that I hadn't thought of.

[tetsuoh]

[Mojomoe]

Oh hey, yeah!

That's exactly what I made it for. Mayhaps some enterprising individual will come along and do a more thorough workup of, say, different materials and their degradation multipliers. Say, durasteel degrades at 0.9 of standard, but laminasteel degrades at 1.3. Dunno.

Glad it helped!