Starship Building Questions

[Bishop]

So, I'm working on a new character concept that involves a starship, which I currently have written up as costing about 75ep. But, I've been looking over other designs for ideas and "precedent," and now I have more questions than when I started.

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First, where is the line between "vehicle" and "headquarters-with-movement?" The starship I am contemplating is a small scout ship. I clocked it at Gargantuan, having a small, one-person living area / cockpit. For the same points, though, if I go with "headquarters," I can easily have a flying death-star sized ship according to the Ridiculous Headquarters thread. Or, more to the point, I could build the same ship, maybe a bit bigger, as a "headquarters" and save LOTS of points. What are the pros and cons of buying it as a vehicle vs. a mobile headquarters? Are there size guidelines or other considerations?

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Second, I am trying to build a "sensor suite" for it. Here is what I have so far:

Super Senses 10 (Detect Energy (Radio), Accurate, Acute, Analytical, Extended 3, Radius, Ranged) [10pp]

Super Senses 5 (Extended 3 (Vision), Infravision, Ultravision)[5pp]

The idea is that it covers a broad spectrum of energy readings, including the visible spectrum.

So, what I did was buy "Detect Energy" as a radio sense, but I also have Vision add-ons separately. (And now, I see I should have added Radius to that, too, if I'm going this way.) This seems unnecessarily duplicative, and I'd like a good way to streamline it (and save points, of course).

Could the "Detect Energy" be both radio and vision? Maybe make it Vision, but have some power feat or something that says that it is only blinded / obscured by something that blinds both radio and vision?

Also, working in conjunction with Teleport, I'd like it to see through (at least some) walls and such, with the rationale that it can detect x-rays and other wavelengths that can penetrate at least a wall or two, and with Analytical, it should be able to "paint a picture," more or less, of what the interior of a building looks like sufficient for a non-Accurate teleport. Would this work, or should I buy Penetrating?

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Third, I want a Star-Trek-Style transporter. Here is the one found on Shaen's writeup of the Enterprise:

Teleport 10 (200,000 miles, Feats: Change Direction, Change Velocity, Extras: Accurate, Affects Others [+0], Area, Selective) (52PP)

Now, the question I have about this is: what about using it to teleport back? Isn't the "Affects Others" touch only? It would seem with this construction, you could only teleport away from the ship, but not back. Am I wrong? Here is how I have written up mine so far:

Teleport 8 (Transporter)(2,000 mile range) (Feats: Change Direction, Change velocity; Extras: Affects Others, Ranged 2 (Perception); Flaws: Long Range, Limited - only to/from ship, Only Others) [18pp]

My understanding is that this will only work if the target is willing (or maybe helpless), and no attack roll would be needed due to the perception range. If the target is in the teleport radius (since it can only be to the ship) and is locked on (perceived by the ship sensors), it can be teleported. I like to save points, so if I can pull it off without the Range 2 (Perception), I'll do it in a heartbeat. I see that another solution is for the power to open a portal instead, but I kind of like the Star-Trekie-ness.

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Fourth, I wanted to add a feature that the ship could fabricate items using nanites. Nanites would be programmed to build small objects, almost molecule by molecule, given the proper raw materials. I am thinking it is basically the Workshop feature, only crafting is done entirely through programming. I have an AI with crafting skills and the inventor feat. My thought is that if the character needs something whipped up, he tells the AI to build it. (I would, then, assume that if it is something built with invention rules, he'd spend a hero point to actually use it.)

The device would also be able to generate ordinary equipment, food, etc., on a limited basis, and could make perfect copies of items that are analyzed by its internal systems. (So it could, for example, make a perfect copy of a gold coin placed in the fabricator, but wouldn't make you rich, since you'd have to have an equal amount of gold to make the copy from.) Would this work in the rules the way I am imagining it?

[Bishop]

It's amazing what a good night's sleep will do. I was knocking my brain over these questions most of the weekend, but now I seem to be thinking more clearly and I think I have most of the answers:

1) It depends on how the vehicle / headquarters is being used. If I'm flying around the city shooting at things with the blasters, then it should be a vehicle. If it's mostly a stationary base of operations, and only flies around when a plot requires it, then it's a headquarters. My scout ship is incapable of atmospheric landing, so it just sits in orbit for the most part, unless an adventure IN SPAAAAACE! requires a move, then it moves and is a base of operation there. So, I'm writing it up as a headquarters.

2) Vision and Radio are separate senses. Period. I could add Radar, and make all the enhancements sense-wide instead of just Detect Energy, and add penetrating, so it can visualize the insides of buildings to a degree. That would work pretty much like sensors in any sci-fi show, and be completely blockable by an attack on the radar sense. If I want regular vision stuff, that would have to be bought separately.

3) Still a question, though I think I'm right: as written, the Enterprise teleporter can't beam people up.

4) Of course it works that way. It's just a Workshop with a fancy name and description.

[Dr Archeville]

How is your character going to be using their spaceship? That is, how big a role will the ship have in day-to-day (or, rather, thread-to-thread) operations? A concern is that using it as a cheap (relativelY) way to get a bunch of Super-Senses and Teleport is a bit of a cheat.

[Bishop]

Well, in my character concept, his minion (the ship AI), is in almost constant contact with him and is in many ways his partner, running support from the ship.

In other words, yeah, he relies on the ship pretty heavily. My initial plan was to go with it as a vehicle, and I should go back to that.

Those freed up 10 points were nice, but I don't care much for cheese. :)