Campaign Play Comments And Aids

Exactly why the various versions of the Commercial Freighter Network (CFN) were added in Sky Marshal #2 is generally beyond me. The old Imperial Freighter Network (IFN) certainly was confusing, but then the CFN rules are also both complex and confusing. Regardless of why it was set up as it is, the Government Pool of the CFN is there to be used.

So what good is the Government Pool? Well, besides increasing the available shipping capacity for an empire, it earns money. The following two tables list the rates of return and pay back periods for freighters and liners assigned to the Government Pool. Obviously, the shorter the pay back period, the quicker a ship will make money.

A quick look will show that, if you are going to build ships for the Government Pool, you want to build the Freighter FT4. It will give you the best return for the investment. Liners should not be built for the Government Pool on a for-profit basis. Liners, when built, should be for hauling personnel, notably troops. All computations assume the ships have a speed of 4. Ships with other speeds are not considered here.

Freighters

Freighter	TL	H	Cost	Maint.	Income	Net	Pay Back	ROI (%)	Rank
FT0	1	4	34.6	2.7	3.0	0.3	115.3	0.87	8
FT1	1	8	56.4	4.3	7.0	2.7	20.9	4.79	5
FT2	1	11	78.0	5.9	10.0	4.1	19.00	5.26	3
FT3	1	14	100.5	7.6	13.0	4.4	22.8	4.38	7
FT4	1	21	151.0	11.4	20.0	8.6	17.6	5.70	1
FT5	2	31	226.3	18.6	30.0	11.4	21.6	4.63	6
FT6	3	42	356.8	24.7	41.0	20.3	18.6	5.39	2
FT7	5	57	432.0	33.9	56.0	22.1	20.5	4.89	4

Liners

Liner	TL	Q&Qs	Cost	Maint.	Income	Net	Pay Back	ROI (%)	Rank
FT0	1	3	51.6	3.9	3.0	-0.9	Never	-1.74	7
FT1	1	6	104.4	7.8	7.5	-0.3	Never	-3.58	8
FT2	1	9	138.0	10.4	12.0	6.0	86.3	1.16	4
FT3	1	11	178.5	13.4	15.0	1.6	111.6	0.90	6
FT4	1	17	281.0	21.1	24.0	2.9	96.9	1.03	5
FT5	2	26	421.3	31.6	37.5	5.9	74.8	1.34	3
FT6	3	35	568.0	42.6	51.0	8.4	70.0	1.43	1
FT7	5	48	791.0	59.3	70.5	11.2	72.4	1.38	2

Notes:

1. Ships used on the above lists are the best designs as described on the Commercial Ships Comparisons page. Ships of size FT4 and below are Atmospheric Capable.
2. Freighter. A ship designed to carry cargo. It includes only the minimum systems necessary for a ship to handle cargo. It does not mount Cargo Handling Systems, Pressers, or Tractors.
3. Liner. A ship designed to carry passengers. It includes only the minimum systems necessary to handle passengers.
4. H. When determining the Net for a freighter, one Hold (H) is ignored in accordance with the practice by the Starfire Assistant program, which subtracts one (1) from the number of Holds on a commercial freighter (presumably to allow for the ship's own maintenance requirement). While I disagree with this implementation of the program as unsupported by the rules, it is used here for consistency with that common piece of game support software.
5. Q. When determining the Net for a liner, one Q or Qs is ignored to allow for the ship's own crew.
6. Pay Back. The pay back time does not include the time required to build the ship.
7. ROI. Return On Investment (Net / Cost).

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Updated 19 September 2000.