Docking Collar
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Description[edit]
In the broadest sense, a Docking Collar is a standardized structure that can be used to connect to the Docking Collar of another spacegoing vessel or space station, allowing for the transfer of data, power, supplies, cargo and passengers between the vessels involved.
Beyond this defining function, the concept of a Docking Collar in the BattleTech universe notably also includes Kearny-Fuchida field conducting (KFFC) capabilities which enable a DropShip to safely attach itself to a JumpShip so that the JumpShip can move both of them to another star system by means of its Kearny-Fuchida FTL jump drive. Successfully tested for the first time in 2458 with the DropShip Nimbus III, coupling DropShips to a JumpShip in this way made the previously utilized Dropshuttle technology obsolete and has become the standard, and almost exclusive, method of FTL travel.
A regular Docking Collar costs 10,000 C-bills in construction. It does not require extra mass to be allocated during construction, being an integral part of every DropShip's structure by default.
JumpShip Hardpoints[edit]
Docking Collars on JumpShips are typically called Hardpoints, or occasionally JumpShip Collars, to differentiate them from the regular Docking Collars on DropShips. They differ from regular Docking Collars in that they include Kearny-Fuchida field conducting (KFFC) booms and other special equipment to ensure that the JumpShip's jump field completely extends to and encompasses all docked ships. JumpShips typically have several Hardpoints, enabling them to jump with several DropShips (up to 9 on the civilian Monolith class and up to 25 on the Potemkin class troop cruiser). It is not possible to dock more than one DropShip to a Hardpoint; see also Multiple Docking Collar System.
Hardpoints can only be installed on ships featuring a KF Drive Core, though not all jump-capable ships feature Hardpoints. A jump-capable vessel can have one Hardpoint for every 50,000 tons of total ship mass, rounded up.
Hardpoints have a base cost of 100,000 C-Bills and have a mass of 1,000 tons each. They also dramatically increase the cost of the Kearny-Fuchida Drive Core to which they belong.
Notes[edit]
- The construction rules assume that all DropShips automatically have at least one Docking Collar because they need to dock with JumpShips for interstellar travel; accordingly, no mass is indicated for DropShip Collars.
- Unusually, the K-1 DropShuttle (built as a Small Craft under the construction rules, not a DropShip) is explicitly described to be able to make use of JumpShip Hardpoints. This is a carryover bit of fluff from the early days of BattleTech, and is incompatible with the revised and updated rules for FTL travel as they have been established since. See K-1 article for details.
- According to the BattleSpace construction rules, DropShips massing over 60,000 tons required a second Hardpoint on JumpShips, which means they could not be carried by JumpShips with only one Hardpoint. This ruling has been abandoned in newer rulebooks that take precedence over BattleSpace. It was supplanted after a fashion by the Large DropShip quirk.