Imagine that my idea has been implemented in a space colonisation game. You are sitting in front of your PC and you launch said game for the first time. You go through the intro and tutorial, and learn how to create fleets, colonize and manage planets, and wage war. Then you come to the Research Tutorial.
The Research Tutorial shows you what your current performance levels are in all areas of existing technology. Let's say that you have transports and combat frigates, with hull models, engines, weaponry and freight allowance for each. You realize that your technology is not yet advanced enough to create stellar fighters - you need thrusters that are much smaller and much more economical. You will need to research power generators that are much smaller too. You have no capital ship designs either - for that, you are limited by hull resistance. Frigates are the biggest things you can make now because, if you try to make anything bigger, the hull will break in two.
Let us go through the technology you currently have :
Hull Technology : allows you to enclose the contents of your vessel and safeguard against basic collisions and space radiation
Stellar Propulsion : allows you to move your ship in normal space without consuming or ejecting matter
Hyperspace Motivator : allows you to blink through normal space and instantly transfer your ship to a determined point anywhere in the Universe
Power Generator : the workhorse that makes everything else run fine
With these parameters, we can already imagine the restrictions on the transport. It will obviously need a propulsion unit (thruster), a hyperspace motivator and a power generator. These elements require 245 cubic meters, or 24.5 hull points. The mass of the ships with these basic elements is already at 2,197.45 metric tons. The power requirements to do a hyperspace jump are on the order of 220 GW (rounded up). But wait, this freighter has no crew, no living area and no cargo space ! Let us admit that each function of the ship requires a crew member. So that would make one captain, one propulsion engineer and one hyperspace engineer. Each crew member will need 1 hull point for his/her room, plus one other hull point for doing his job. So that makes 6 points for crew space, bringing the total mass of the cargo ship to 2,198 tons, plus the mass of the crew implements which could be set at one ton per crew hull point (including life support), or six tons, making the grand total 2,204 tons and 30.5 hull points.
With that set, the cargo ship could theoretically use 69.5 points as cargo space, adding another 6.95 tons to the mass (total now 2,210 metric tons), but allowing for a staggering 6,950 cubic meters of storage area. Empty, the cargo ship requires 221 GW to make a jump, and makes the jump in 2,210 seconds (almost 37 minutes). With a generator rated at 2,000 GW, there is a potential for no less than 17,790 metric tons of mass to be transported. The density of the cargo will determine how much can be transported. The jump itself will take more than five and a half hours (let's make that transit time, and imagine that the ship will do a Star Wars-like jump and disappear from normal space in just a few seconds).
How fast will the cargo ship move in normal space ? If the cargo ship is at full capacity (20,000 tons), the thrusters will require 20000/1000*10 = 200 GW to push the vessel at 10 meters per second. The captain could push the thrusters to full power, requiring 400 GW to push the speed to 20 meters/second. If the ship is empty, then its mass is only 2,210 metric tons. The thrusters can deliver a much more impressive 181 meters per second at full thrust. Of course, adding another thruster unit would double the speed in all configurations, but it would diminish available cargo space and also double the energy requirements.
Given that a cargo ship jumps from loading point to delivery point (if you forget about getting into orbit), there is no real need for living quarters, nor food storage, but you can imagine that sometimes the ship will have to wait in space before being able to deliver the cargo, ergo a modicum of living space is still necessary.
We are obviously quite a way from the performance of Star Wars
vessels, with massive Star Destroyers that can move at thousands of
meters per second, and starfighters that go ten times faster. But hey,
the game is just starting, right ? There's a lot of research to do !
The frigate will be a different case entirely. While the cargo ship can content itself with minimal living quarters, a frigate is destined to be a threatening battle platform performing lengthy duties in space. Only one hyperspace motivator is needed, but the power requirements (how many generators and how many thrusters) will depend on the amount and type of weaponry, which, in turn, generate a required amount of crew. Said crew will need long-term living quarters, along with food storage, waste disposal and recycling facilities. Depending on the weaponry, ammunition may be needed, so cargo space will be a requirement also.
Let us try to imagine the configuration of the frigate. It will need weaponry if it is to be of any use, so let's define some :
Mass Driver : expels a mass at great speed, requires stress compensation in the hull
Laser Blaster : pure energy in a focussed ray
Missile Launcher : liberates a missile and loads the next one
So, what will our frigate look like now ?
With the help of a little spreadsheet, the following elements can fit in a 100-point hull :
To that, you need to add crew requirements, catwalks to access hard points and living quarters, and command areas. The above configuration counts basically 3 hull units per crew member, and there is 16 crew members. All in all, it leaves 9 hull points for cargo - essentially food stuffs and repair kits.
With this configuration, the speed of the frigate is 320 m/s max,
with a hyperspace jump power requirement that is a ridiculous 244 GW.
It is clear that the frigate could benefit from a serious reduction in
the size of the power plant, but even more of the hyperspace motivator.
After all, the frigate only has 6 operational hardpoints, 3 of which
are limited by ammunition. If the hyperspace motivator could be halved
in size, no less than 9 hull points would be gained, and another two
mass drivers could probably be added, or four more blasters, or even
another missile launcher.
Again, we are far from the menacing power of a Star Destroyer, with
its hundreds of turbolasers. Our poor frigate only has six offensive
weapons - a paltry number. But research will increase hull size
capability, allowing for more harpoints to be added and more
crewmembers to man them. Research will allow for better energy weapons,
firing more often and doing more damage, which will remove the need to
waste hull points in storing ammunition. Research will also allow for
better and smaller thrusters, allowing for the creation of one-man
blaster platforms (known as starfighters) that will zip about at speed
and make the lives of the enemy that more miserable.
So much for the theory, let's see what can really happen with the research.