INET# Document Id: UX00a.BUX0121938
Item    1530822                 92/12/05        23:17
From:   WILDSTAR@MOENG2.MORGAN.EDU@INET#
Sub: TML Nightly - NOT!

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Date: Sat, 5 Dec 92 23:17:29 EST
From: wildstar@moeng2.morgan.edu (Derek Wildstar)
Message-Id: <9212060417.AA01938@moeng2.morgan.edu>
To: wildstar@moeng2.morgan.edu
Subject: TML Nightly - NOT!


Traveller Mailing List --- NOT! (MegaTML: adventure in the Shattered TML)

TML-NOT! is just me, Wildstar, forwarding mail to the list of TML
subscribers.  If you want me to forward mail for you, just send it to me
and let me know you want it forwarded.  If you want me to stop sending
you this stuff, let me know and I'll take you off my list (will not
affect you status on the real TML when it comes back).

==========

From: Hans Rancke-Madsen <rancke@diku.dk>
Subject: Re: Traffic and Jump Capability
Date: Fri, 4 Dec 92 23:32:27 MET

[Wildstar writes:]
>Use drop tanks so that you jump with full fuel tanks. Then make an immediate
>jump again, so that you cover two parsecs in about two weeks. Although this
>costs slightly more (the cost of the drop tanks), it is a workable solution.

It would only cost the drop tanks if they jumped from an uncivilized star
system. Any organized system would collect and reuse drop tanks. A small
fee should do it.

>I have always assumed that the jump governor was there! I assumed that any
>jump (even a sub-parsec "microjump") would take 5% fuel to initiate the
>jump, plus 5% fuel per parsec traveled.

That sounds reasonable. I think I'll switch to that interpretation. Does
that mean that a micro-jump should only cost 5% fuel?

>The passengers, cargoes, and freight available to a tramp freighter at a
>world depend on the population of that world; (as per normal MegaTraveller
>rules). The more people there are, the better the chance that someone wants
>to go or ship something somewhere that the scheduled ships can't take it
>(probably because they are full, or there is no profitable regular run
>through the destination, although see below).

But the more people there are, the greater chance that there will be enough
to make a regular route profitable. But I agree that this bit is wide open
to interpretation.


      Hans Rancke
University of Copenhagen
     rancke@diku.dk
------------
        "A  subsector  official  pompously states that the
        subsector  armed  forces  have  four Kinunir class
        ships in service,  each with enough troop strength
        to put down any military operations that threathen
        the peace of the Imperium."

                        ---Adventure 1, The Kinunir

==========

Last time, I mentioned a Vargr corsair leader and gave his UPP.  So far,
Scott "2g" Kellogg, Steve Higginbotham, and Kelly St. Clair have gotten
the answer.  I'll post the answer next time, but here is another hint:

Quote: I am theenking of a fiendishly-clever type plan...

(Thanks to Kelly for the hint!)

==========

From: cdr@kpc.com (Carl Rigney)
Date: Fri, 4 Dec 92 18:55:11 PST
Subject: Re:  TML Nightly - NOT!

OH no!  It's The TML Rebellion!

The Shattered TML, with half a dozen people setting up their own rogue lists?

:-) :-) :-)

--
Carl Rigney
cdr@kpc.com

[Hey, wait a minute!  Let's see: I didn't kill engrg.uwo.ca's hard disk,
 so that means I'm not Dulinor.  I haven't cut myself off from the rest
 of the list, so I can't be Norris or Vland.  I guess that makes me
 Margaret, Antares, or Daibei... or Lucan (shudder).  ;)     ---Wildstar]

==========

Date: Fri, 04 Dec 92 18:20:22 -0600
From: "Steve Higginbotham" <p00206@psilink.com>
Subject: drop-tanks and micro-jumps...

Hans Rancke-Madsen:
>It would only cost the drop tanks if they jumped from an uncivilized star
>system. Any organized system would collect and reuse drop tanks. A small
>fee should do it.

I see that you've learned a thing or two from TCS-watching :-)

>That sounds reasonable. I think I'll switch to that interpretation. Does
>that mean that a micro-jump should only cost 5% fuel?

That's certainly how it works when *I* do it...

>But the more people there are, the greater chance that there will be enough
>to make a regular route profitable. But I agree that this bit is wide open
>to interpretation.

I tend to agree with Wildstar here.  The more there is, the more there
will be that leaks through the cracks.  But, as you say, there is plenty
of room for arguments either way.  In actual practice, I tend to play it
your way, Hans, so that the PC-types are encouraged to stay out on the
frontiers.  But to do that, I have to force a lot more worthwhile cargos
out of your basic backwater than the Traveller rules call for....

---Steve

==========

Date: Fri, 04 Dec 92 18:03:09 -0600
From: "Steve Higginbotham" <p00206@psilink.com>
Subject: Re: Traffic and Jump Capability

Derek Wildstar:
>Steve Higginbotham <p00206@psilink.com> writes:
>> I've gone YEARS without even a hint of piracy, and not cared at all.
>
>I like to use pirates, so it's important to me.

Whatever.  I like the IDEA of pirates.  But if I can't think of a way to
make them profitable, I won't use them.  And the only pirates that are
profitable are guys like Piper's "Space Viking" (who had an 8,000,000T
(Traveller ton) ship, plus a couple of thousand soldiers, plus a WORLD
(or three) for support purposes.

>That was tried before - does anybody besides me have a set of rulebooks
>labelled "Traveller: 2300"?  As I remember, this approach generated quite a
>bit of backlash then, and I don't expect that it would be different now.

Yeah, I remember it.  I enjoy playing it now and then, but it's NOT
Traveller, and doesn't do for a Traveller fix when I need one...

>Use drop tanks so that you jump with full fuel tanks.  Then make an immediate
>jump again, so that you cover two parsecs in about two weeks.  Although this
>costs slightly more (the cost of the drop tanks), it is a workable solution.
>Cargo capacity isn't impaired.

This requires an extra week, which cuts into the profitability of a Free
Trader pretty significantly.  You can only make 25 trips per year
normally, and stretching some of them into three week hops will hurt the
bottom line no end.

>For an unscheduled tramp freighter, being tied to drop tank availability is
>rather restrictive, don't you think?  If the drop tanks are unavailable for
>some reason, then the J-2 ship becomes a more expensive version of the J-1
>ship.

Personally, I think that drop tanks should be available EVERYWHERE!  It
took less than 10 turns for everyone in my TCS game to see the need for
stockpiling drop tanks in multi-million ton quantities.  I doubt
seriously that you will see many worlds in or around the Imperium
without a drop tank supply (at least, not if market pressures are
allowed to come to bear on the problem), any more than you'll see
merchants refueling at gas giants, or buying refined fuel at the
starport - GDW may think that that is normal, but anyone trying to make
a living will learn better REAL QUICK!

>I have always assumed that the jump governor was there!  I assumed that any
>jump (even a sub-parsec "microjump") would take 5% fuel to initiate the jump,
>plus 5% fuel per parsec traveled.

So have I, and I see you use the same system for micro-jumps that I do -
5% fuel.  I also allow ships to be built with only interplanetary range
jump-drives:  1% of the ship's displacement is required, and this allows
you to jump 20,000 AU or so...

For the most part, I liked your analysis of Imperial regulation of
trade, though I don't think that the Imperium actually cares whether
competition is there.  I think the Megacorporations run things to their
benefit when it comes to "Imperial Regulations"....

---Steve

==========

Date: Sat, 5 Dec 92 22:10:21 EST
From: wildstar (Derek Wildstar)
Subject: Re: Traffic and Jump Capability

Hans Raancke-Madsen writes:
> It would only cost the drop tanks if they jumped from an uncivilized star
> system. Any organized system would collect and reuse drop tanks. A small
> fee should do it.

Something I never thought of!  Thanks!

> Does that mean that a micro-jump should only cost 5% fuel?

I'd say so: 0 to about 0.49... parsec for 5%, 0.50 to 1.49... for 10%,

> But the more people there are, the greater chance that there will be enough
> to make a regular route profitable. But I agree that this bit is wide open
> to interpretation.

Well, I did figure in population; Lo Population is -1 to traffic, and Hi
Pop is +2; (in addition to other modifiers, like In, which also depend
on population in part).

Although I didn't design the trade and commerce system, I'd guess that
the theory is that scheduled common carriers are capable of meeting 99%+
of the population's needs.  The more people there are, the more
probably that someone needs to ship something by a tramp freighter.

You do have a point, though.  A tramp freighter's best pickings should
be on worlds which are almost, but not quite, large enough to be
attractive to the big carriers (and not so small that they can't fill a
hold with cargo bound all in the same direction).

On the other hand, an independent trade speculator's best purchases are
going to be on a popoulous world with a great variety of products in
mass production.  The trader would be looking for overstock, excess
production runs, and recently-discontinued items to buy cheaply.  And
haul all of these goodies back to the kind of world described in the
paragraph above.

I think this is going to have to be a referee-generated thing; I can't
think of a good rule of thumb that covers most (let alone all) of the
cases (I'm open to suggestions here, folks).  I think that the traffic
generator is OK, but some thought needs to be put into freight hauling
and cargo speculation with a tramp freighter.

It seems to me that the most profitable way to operate would be on a
series of shuttle runs, back and forth, from these large-enough but
unprofitable for the large scheduled carriers, to the centers of trade,
industry, and government.

wildstar@moeng2.morgan.edu
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                 Science-Fiction Adventure
                                                         in the Far Future
**********
END

