Introduction

Tired of not being able to use a 175MW stutterwarp, and settling for a 180MW? Look no further.

Basic Equation

Base Size = cuberoot (power) *10

Where the power is the power being feed into the drive. This is also the indictor for tantalum consumption (see below)

Tech Level Variations

For OC:

Volume (cubic meters)= Base Size * 1
Mass (tons)= Volume * 1.3333
Cost (MLv) = Volume * 0.3

For NC/ OM:

Volume (cubic meters)= Base Size * 1.25
Mass (tons)= Volume * 1.125
Cost (MLv) = Volume * 0.75

For NM:

Volume (cubic meters)= Base Size * 1.35
Mass (tons)= Volume * 1.125
Cost (MLv) = Volume * 1.25

Note that there is one typo in the SW table, a 300MW OC drive masses 88, not 68.

Tantalum

The cost of the drive does not include the cost of the tantalum. Tantalum is simply too rare to allow people to own, instead governments probably operate a leasing system, whereby the corporation (or individual) owns the ship, but not the tantalum coils, which remain government property. The operator is contracted to a particular trade route, and pays rent on the drive. In return, the operator gets a starship without having to fork out the market price for stardrive grade tantalum (bearing in mind that the price is what the market can bear, and every government and corporation will be chasing a scrap of tantalum, this is tens of billions of livre per starship).

These are based partially on hard statement (The Inca's having 4 ships), tantalum information (with interpolations for colonial production), and the actual transport requirements of nations. Some nations have transport deficits, they can't carry all their colonies trade (Manchuria for example), some have some minor excesses (Germany, France, UK), and America has a large excess of about 170 ships, which are used to carry foreign nations trade, hence America as the "Teamsters of the Chinese Arm".

Of these starships, approximately 20% are warships (all classes from fighter and warp equipped cutter upto fleet carrier), approximately 20% are non-military ships operated by governments directly, around 50% are operated by Major Corps (generally in the name of a particular government, so Sequendi operates Manchurian ships, Trans-Indi British ships, Trilon American ships etc.). The remaining 10% of these ships are chartered out from governments to individuals, or wholly privately owned (basically Pirates).

Sources

2300AD and supplements
2300AD Star Cruiser: Naval Architects Manual
Great Game Rules
US Department of Mining (RW Canadian Tantalum Reserves used, = 15 ships)