Star Wars: Ship Designer Quest

"Ah, Dovar, come over here." You looked up from the plate filled with some expensive-looking cookies to where your father was standing. Next to him, you saw a man with a constant scowl on his face and uncomfortable looking in his gala uniform. Somehow, you felt as if you should have had a name for the man next to your father, but you couldn't recall it as you moved closer. "This is my son, Dovar Frox. He is the head of our design department, in fact, it was his idea to form such a department! Thanks to him, I'm even aware of the need for corvettes, so to speak. My dear son, this is Quarsh Panaka. Formerly captain of the queen's guard of Naboo, he is the newly-appointed Minister of Defense from Naboo. Minister, this is my son, Dovar Frox."

"My pleasure, Minister." You smiled as you shook the hand of Minister Panaka, who returned the gesture but didn't change his facial expression. It seems he wasn't a fan of dinner parties, and you noticed how his eyes continued to scan the other guests as if he was looking for assassins. This wasn't a great surprise now that you knew who he was.

"Mister Frox. Your father mentioned you were planning on expanding Vulkan's business to military hardware. Light warships to be more precise."

You frowned a bit and gave your father a look, who only sent a smile back to you. "I was planning to come up with a basic hull with engines and a cockpit or bridge, more a case study to be honest. The idea was to use these as a base and expand from there to whatever ship the customer wishes. I noticed that most other yards only offer complete ships with few possible modifications in the configuration before shipping. CEC is known for the ease with which its ships can be modified. But that means extensive work for the customer after the purchase. My idea is that we provide the base model, and the customer then tells us what they want on the ship. It's a niche that is mostly ignored by the big companies."

"A wise decision." For the first time, you had Minister Panaka's full attention. His continuous scanning for danger stopped as he concentrated on you. "And one that will make your ship interesting for smaller forces. As you may know, my world has recently tasted war, and we don't wish to do so again. But even after this, our population doesn't wish for a major expansion of the military force. But they could agree on a limited one. How fast could you come up with this base model of yours?"

You suddenly felt your lips dry as you realized the honesty in the minister's words, even if you were surprised by his bluntness. Considering that you hadn't even started with the whole base model, you could only guess when you could come up with a prototype plan. After a moment, you answered:

[ ] "Three to four months, if we press hard." (Frame)
[ ] "Five to six months, that should give us enough time to run some simulations." (Frame and Engine)
[ ] "Seven to eight months at least, anything less and I wouldn't trust it." (Frame, Engine, and Cockpit)

"I see." Minister Panake didn't seem to be happy about your answer but accepted it. "The sooner you can present it to me, the better. I'm a representative of a larger group of planets interested in such a ship but who wish to avoid the bignames. And before you ask, I can't give you names but rest assured, we need these ships and would be happy if you could supply us with them. The sooner, the better."

---

On your face was a grin that felt as if it would split your skull at any moment. It was the biggest grin you had ever had on your face, you were sure about it. But you had a very good reason for it, and when you looked around at the other people standing around, you noticed that you weren't the only one with such a grin. All around you in the crowd, you could see others of your team grinning in the same way or doing their species' equivalent. Then your attention returned to the reason for the grin.

There on the hangar floor, stood the prototype of your freighter. It still hadn't been given a class name yet and was still simply called VSY-Mk. I (Prototype), but it was real, built by the workers of the shipyard. The construction had been approved by yourself after the final round of simulations had come up with no significant problems for the third time. Since then, some small issues had been reported and removed by the workers who put the prototype together. Now it stood ready for the first batch of test flights that had been planned.

After another moment of pure adoration for the ship you helped create, you turned to your team and clapped your hands. "Alright, people! Now that we actually have a prototype to work on, I say we take another look at the plans. I'm sure that we've overlooked some errors. I want them found and removed as soon as possible. The first test flight happens in three days, let's give the test pilot the best ship we can!"

All around you, cheers erupted from the crowd of engineers walking away in small groups or standing together, directly beginning to discuss how to improve the prototype. You turned to the two people you have heavily relied on during the projects. This was, of course, Pinagg and Shen, both of them standing nearby.

>>It pleases me to see the ship finished. Even if it is just a prototype, it still feels great to look at our work. To be able to touch it.<< Pinagg's own words were nothing more but clicking to your human ears, but the way he behaved made it clear how pleased the engineer was. He pointed towards the ship with his walking stick. >>We should concentrate on reducing the price a bit more, if you ask me.<<

"Or we could concentrate on the speed of this baby." Shen was looking at the ship with love in his eyes as he spoke up. "I know, we decided not to play with the NovaQuads, but we can do a few things to boost the top speed possible."

>>Another possibility is that we concentrate on reducing smaller errors and overall finish off the ship as best as possible. I know it might not seem like much, but the customer will be thankful when he buys the ship and doesn't need to worry about a thousand small problems that he first needs to fix. Not that the ship is full of them, as we all know. But I think you get what I mean.<<

---

Pick one option:

[ ] Reduce Cost for Advantage on a 1:3 base (#)
[ ] Push the Speed stat up for Advantage on a 1:3 base (#)
[ ] Write-in, ask me if what you have in mind is possible

A few tips here:

• Advantages and Flaws cancel each other out if not used after this post
• Generally, having Advantages is good, having Flaws is bad
• You can use all Advantages now if you wish