Vehicle Construction Kit: Revolutionary Vehicles

For this you would use a workshop (Quarters component, VCK p. 31, alchemy or brewing tools), or the workshop industry component for large operations.
The gp/hour is based on the crafting downtime activity in the Player's Handbook, you may need to adjust this to taste.
The main difference between a workshop and a refinery is that a workshop requires artisans, and a refinery always requires power.

Also, I will be reducing the cost of fuel in the next revision, as it seems to be too high. The new costs (pre-modern era) are, per ton, 10 gp (wood), 40 gp (coal), 200 gp (heavy oil), 300 gp (petroleum) and 600 gp (aviation fuel).

In practice the hydro generator components are heavier than simply the turbine itself. For example, for the Suneco 0.5 ton generator, you might also need the 1.9 ton water valve system, plus the weight of the infrastructure.

Roughly speaking 1 Power Point at mass i is about 12 kW, (so 120 kW at mass v), but I tried to keep things abstract since individual machines vary so much.

I will take a closer look at hydro power again when I next get chance :)

In general the main weight and expense for a hydro generator will be the dam itself that generates the massive head to allow it to generate such power, which simply isn't going to translate to a vehicle, or for that matter deal with magical water sources. As you mention the actual weight of the generator is very little, and it won't be the valves and nozzles which are massive but the building structures which get the high pressure water to that point. If that is somehow taken care of water generators will give you more power to weight that steam.

Also worth keeping in mind that a water based form of propulsion such as a paddle wheel is the same mechanism as a generator, with the power running in the opposite direction. If a paddle wheel can utilize 3 power points then a water wheel should be able to produce roughly 3 power points- probably at least 2.5 points (at 80% efficiency). Now whether 3 PP are available or not is another question. Similarly wind turbines and propellers are the same mechanism with power flowing in the opposite direction.

I'll take another look, if I get time. I was trying to balance the production rates of historical windmills (see the eight-sailed windmill example), with the gold piece values of things presented in D&D, and the D&D rules for crafting.

So, the component doesn't go into any overhead costs of industry, it just gives the value of the produced items, which is extremely generalized but based on historical brass mills, windmills, etc, complicated with the fact that D&D gp values don't translate well into real-world industrial money.
As well as the operating costs of the required power plant, the DM should feel free to impose any number of overhead costs such as worker and management wages, taxes, rent and maintenance.

Realistically these should probably have been defined (especially for mills) in terms of the weight of material that can be processed per unit of time, not for the GP value. The same mechanism smelting gold assayed at 90% metal/ore will have much higher financial productivity than the same smelter processing iron at 60% metal/ore.

I would love to have more time to research production rates for different mills and factories across the different technological eras. I did agonize about production being by gp or by weight, and in the end I decided to base it on the Crafting downtime activity in the Player's Handbook.
If I have time in the future I will create tables for the most common types of mill and factory, with specific values.
I appreciate the feedback.

I'll be looking into this again soon and taking your advice on board. I've just been looking at Winchester City Mill, which produces 50 lb of flour per hour, and the weight of the milling mechanism is about mass vi. So in terms of flour production, the gp/hour values in the book should be divided by 5.

According to RAW 1 skilled craftsman can make 5 gp worth of something each 8 hour day provided they have 2.5 gp worth of materials each day and are paid 1 gp for that day (assuming they are long term employees).

The Workshop ratio looks to be 1 skilled craftsman can make 5 sp worth of something per hour, in an 8 hour day the crafstman would make 4 gp worth of something provided they have 2 gp worth of materials each day and are still paid 1 gp for that day.

For 600 gp and a slot in a VII vehicle that is a rip off. The crafstman is better off with a much cheeper tool kit in the middle of the street. The workshop should provide some improvement over the middle of the street.

I get how trying to balance against RAW is hard, the system was made to encourage players to just go kill monsters and not start businesses or really use the tool kits with their ill gotten gains. I've been using a lot of material from DMs Guild to make a system where players can actually use their down...See more time to acomplish something worthwhile in less than a year. However every source argues a different method, all of which take so much time. So again, you have my sympathy.

Thank-you for continuing to look into this area of the game :) When designing the workshop component I made it the same price as a Quarters of the same mass but doubled the effective occupancy (since we're removing all the long-term occupancy paraphinalia). You do get a roof over your head, a fully furnished room and a storage area; it's 3 tons-worth of stuff. I'm looking now at at the buildings listed on page 128 of the DMG and currently a 1-person workshop has 1/8 the cost of a trading post - so perhaps you are correct and the cost should be reduced .. OR double the number of stations? The number of stations for a "light workshop" should also be doubled. I'll look at this again in the next revision.

I know you were looking at the industrial-era, I wonder if my notes at https://duncantiminey.wordpress.com/2024/01/16/vck-future-power-dollars/ are helpful, gp-to-dollar values taking inflation into account, from 1900 onwards. This is based on the value of gold, which was fairly stable prior...See more to 1900.

The base crew requirement remains the same, however from Early Modern onwards an artillery component can have autoloaders. This increases the cost by one-third, but decreases the crew requirement by one-third. Autoloaders do not require Power Points (they use auxiliary power included in the component).

(This is my rough estimate based on tank guns. I haven't reality-checked this against modern naval cannons yet).

I'll double-check my calculations.

The values are correct :) . Okay, here's a full explanation!

What we think of as a modern helicopter is powered by gas turbines, a component I haven't introduced yet (as I am saving it for a "modern" supplement - Revolutionary Vehicles stops at piston engines). A single aviation gas engine component produces 15 PP to 30 PP. An apache gunship for example has has 2 modern rotors and 3 gas engine components.

Early modern helicopters using piston engines require much larger engines. For example, the 1940's Vought-Sikorsky VS-300 (weighing about 1,200 lbs) uses an aero piston engine, the Franklin O-200 (about 300 lb). This is 5 components-worth of engine: at 7 PP per component, this is 35 PP. With an early modern rotor, this gives a speed of 60 mph and a Lift of 4 (pleasingly close to the real helicopter).

I included modern rotors in the base book, because it can represent a magical creation. Elemental engines give 12 PP per component, so a couple of those gives a decent...See more speed.

In other words, don't be afraid to fill up many slots with engine components! A large proportion of the weight of real helicopters is engine weight. If you urgently want some gas turbine stats let me know and I'll provide you with a beta version.

I'll also add for low-lift rotor systems (particularly the industrial variant) the intent is that you are combining it with other forms of lift, such as magical lift, or even fixed wing combinations are possible.

I noticed that flight speed has several multipliers for different factors. Do you multiply the flight speed by each multiplier, or add the multipliers together then apply it to flight speed. For example the Streamlining Levels and Size Bonus on the Propellers.

You multiply by each multiplier. For example, the Continental-Class Airship on page 17 has a base speed of 63 mph (early modern propellers with 2 Power Points). The multipliers are x0.4 (drag from gasbags), x2 (size), and x1.25 (good streamlining). Applying each multiplier in turn (63 x 0.4 x 2 x 1.25) gives you the final maximum speed (coincidentally 63 mph).