			    TRAVELLER Digest 154

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) Collapse Casualties	by bonn0015@flipper.itlabs.umn.edu (STEVEN M BONNEVILLE)
  2) Blasters in White Dwarf	by Hugh Foster <100326.446@compuserve.com>
  3) Re: Star Destroyers et al.	by CyHiggin@aol.com
  4) Virusizing non-Human Homeworlds	by CyHiggin@aol.com
  5) Re: Star Wars	by CyHiggin@aol.com
  6) Elite starmen	by Alvin Plummer <alvin.plummer@sheridanc.on.ca>
  7) Real Engineering problems	by KELLOGG@thorin.uthscsa.edu
  8) GDW QUESTIONS	by john.bogan@asb.com
  9) RE: CHARTED SPACE	by john.bogan@asb.com

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Fri, 6 Jan 1995 00:35:41 -0600
From: bonn0015@flipper.itlabs.umn.edu (STEVEN M BONNEVILLE)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Collapse Casualties
Message-ID: <199501060635.AAA00793@landshark.itlabs.umn.edu>

DEATHS DUE TO THE COLLAPSE in the Third Imperium

An Initial Estimate.
----------------------------------------------------------------

Vincennes/Vincennes  1122 A899AA6-G    Hi In Cp           113 Dd
Mora/Mora            3124 AA99AC7-F  A Hi In Cx           112 Im
Trin/Trin's Veil     3235 A894A96-F  A Hi In Cp           101 Im
Lintl/Vestus         0503 B739AEE-F    Hi Cp              404 Dd
Dekha/Vincennes      1128 C100A9A-F  S Hi Na In Va        210 Dd
Lilad/Zeng           1135 C447AAE-E    Hi In              824 Dd
Neumann/Gazulin      3105 B876AA9-D  N In Hi              123 Dd
Fornice/Mora         3025 A354A87-C    Hi                 202 Im
Deneb/Usani          1925 B537ADD-C  N Hi In Cx           610 Dd
Pikha/Zeng           1633 B738A86-C    Hi                 612 Dd
Beaxon/Gulf          0439 D88AA99-C    Hi Wa           A  923 Dd
Askigaak/Star Lane   0629 E549AA8-C    Hi In              901 Dd
Ashasi/Inar          1618 E9D5AA8-C    Hi Fl              621 Dd
Porozlo/Rhylanor     2715 A867A74-B    Hi                 201 Im
Giikusu/Dunmag       2316 E647ABC-B    Hi In              105 Dd
Junidy/Aramis        3202 B434ABD-9  W Hi                 310 Im
Kryslion/Pax Rulin   2002 D483AA9-9    Hi                 520 Dd
Borlund/Lamas        1406 E454AAA-9    Hi                 701 Dd
Louzy/Jewell         1604 D322A88-8    Hi Na In Po        110 Im
Rethe/Regina         2408 E230AA8-8    Hi Na Po De        323 Im

These are the twenty Denebian worlds with population codes of A
during the 1120s, from the DGP sector files.  They contained some
780 billion or so inhabitants, about 78.6 percent of Domain's
population of around 992.3 billion.

As an experiment, I decided to see how bad it would have been if
the Virus had gotten a chance to collapse these twenty worlds.
At the end, some guesses will be made about the size of the post-
Collapse Imperial population.

Only the steps which affect population were completed.  To get a
"average" estimate, die rolls were fixed.  All rolls of:
  d10 ==  5
  1d6 ==  3
  2d6 ==  7
  3d6 == 10
Worlds with TL from 0-8 lose no population multipliers.
Worlds with TL from 9-A lose one.
Worlds with TL from B-D lose two.
Worlds with TL from E-G lose three.

----------------------------------------------------------------
WHAT IF? In the Domain of Deneb.

The numbers in parentheses are in people killed.

The following six worlds are killed utterly:

Deneb/Usani   (60 billion)            Deneb sector capital.
Pikha/Zeng    (60 billion)
Lintl/Vestus  (40 billion)
Rethe/Regina  (30 billion)
Junidy/Aramis (30 billion)
Louzy/Jewell  (10 billion)

Actually, some of Junidy's 28 billion get a reprieve; about 14
billion citizens of Junidy are native sentients, the Lleweloly.
The environmental restrictions shouldn't apply to them; their
population reduction should really be figured only be tech level
reduction and done separately from the human population.  The
Lleweloly, using this system, get reduced to 5 billion.  All of
the humans die.  The calculations that follow incorrectly assume
everyone died.

These six worlds managed to stay HiPop:

Beaxon/Gulf          (86 billion)
Porozlo/Rhylanor     (10 billion)
Vincennes/Vincennes  (7 billion)
Mora/Mora            (7 billion)      Domain and sector capital.
Trin/Trin's Veil     (7 billion)
Neumann/Gazulin      (6 billion)

Porozlo is a twin to Earth, and suffered the least relative damage
of any of the worlds I collapsed; they lost half the population.
They are only world from the list to stay at population code A.

Beaxon was a waterworld of 90 billion.  They lost 86 billion
because of that, and even so managed to stay HiPop.

The 1139 "Rape of Trin" in the official history "only" killed 3
billion.  Average case and even best case calculations for
Trin's collapse are worse than this, so being in the protected
Regency must have helped.

Note that, except for Beaxon, at one percent population growth per
year, these worlds would mostly have recovered their population
losses by 1200.


The remaining eight worlds on the list were left with between
thirty and fifty million inhabitants, except for Lilad/Zeng,
which was left with only three million out of 80 billion.


In total, nearly 753 billion people died; almost 96.5% of
the original population.  (With the correction for Junidy, the
figures are 748 billion fatalities, 95.8% of total.)

Assuming this data is applicable to the Domain as a whole,
where a trillion Imperial citizens survived, without the
Quarantine less than 40 billion would have been left; 80
billion in 1202, at one percent recovery per year.

----------------------------------------------------------------
Applying this experiment to the "official" Imperium:

The pre-Collapse Imperium had a population of roughly 15.77
trillion, according to DGP.  Subtracting the trillion that
live in the Regency, we get 14.77 trillion.   The remaining
calculations assume that the twenty Denebian population-A
worlds can be taken as representative of the entire Imperium.
Since the number of worlds sampled is small, the following
calculations may be off.  Hopefully, the extrapolated casualty
rate is too high.

Fourteen and a quarter trillion people died just in the Imperium
in the Collapse if these numbers are representative of the whole.
Including the pre-rebellion Solomani Confederation could bring
this number as high as twenty trillion, and that just covers
Imperials and former Imperials.

Half a trillion survived in the main body of the Imperium.  Their
average tech level will be around five.  If the survivors adopt
a one percent growth rate, they can repopulate the Imperium in
just under 340 years.  Pocket empires aren't accounted for.

In the Regency, a trillion survived, their average tech level
around twelve, with an effective naval tech level of 15/16.

  Steve Bonneville
  <bonn0015@gold.tc.umn.edu>


------------------------------

Date: 06 Jan 95 04:44:18 EST
From: Hugh Foster <100326.446@compuserve.com>
To: <traveller@MPGN.COM>
Subject: Blasters in White Dwarf
Message-ID: <950106094418_100326.446_BHG74-1@CompuServe.COM>

>>Blasters were detailed for CT in the UK White Dwarf
magazine many years ago (well before it became a Games
Workshop advertising  booklet).<<

Hey, yeah, I remember. I've got that somewhere! It also
included the Anagun, which fires a hypodermic stun syringe
which can drill through battledress - a good way of
capturing armoured idiots intact. The problem I always saw
with the blaster was that it was atomic powered - illegal
in the Imperium.


------------------------------

Date: Fri, 6 Jan 1995 11:16:47 -0500
From: CyHiggin@aol.com
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: Star Destroyers et al.
Message-ID: <950106111644_521876@aol.com>

From: Alvin Plummer

>I spent a few hours last night designing an rough skeleton of the
>Death Star and the Star Destroyer (well, a Super Star Destroyer:
>a Star Destroyer is only about 1 milion Disp).

>First, I had to extend the hull table to accomodate these monsters...

>       Displacement      Kilolitres       MV            Length
>        (Millions)       (Millions)

>SSDestr   100               1,400         60 524        1 388 metres
>D. Star  6400              89,600    247 906 978       88 833 metres

It's worse than you think... according to the material put out by
West End Games for the Star Wars RPG (I consider it canonical
for Star Wars because various authors of Star Wars novels have
cited the West End stuff as sources in the same breath that they
thank their liason at LucasFilms...) the "Imperial" class Star Destroyer is
1600 m. long and the Super Star Destroyer was
8000 m. long!

That gives us 9,804,200 tons displacement for the Imperial Star
Destroyer, and 17,157,000,000 tons for the Super Star Destroyer,
assuming wedge configuration.  That's 9.8 MILLION tons for the
Star Destroyer and 17 BILLION tons for the Super Star Destroyer,
respectively!

Internals: the Star Wars universe uses a different FTL drive
concept, more akin to Star Trek's warp drive than Traveller's
jump drive.  It is much faster -- maximum speed is limited by
how well the galaxy is mapped than anything else.  On a well-
mapped route, you can cruise from the galatic core halfway to
the rim in a few hours.  In unknown space cluttered with
navigational hazards, you can take days to travel 1 parsec.
The hyperdrive is very small, and very, very cheap by
Traveller standards.  It is not terribly reasonable to try and build
a Star Destroyer under FF&S rules using standard Trav jump
drives.

Power plants are a complete unknown, though they run larger
than the jump drives.  I've seen reference to both fusion reactors
and a mysterious crystalline "power core".  Who knows?  Maybe
they use Allotropic Iron... :-)

Weaponry seems to be high-powered lasers -- combat range is
very short by TNE standards (120,000 km is considered extreme
long range for Capital Ship weaponry) -- maybe they don't have
gravitic focussing? :-)  The Death Star's weaponry is another
piece of cake entirely -- it was the product of some secret
Imperial Research Lab (read the Jedi Academy trilogy for details)
and could be anything.  The buzzwords "superphased laser"
have been tossed around -- maybe it had phasers. :-) :-)
(Interestingly, the same novels introduced the Darrian Star Trigger
in the form of an Imperial secret weapon known as the "Sun
Crusher".  Nice delivery system, too.  I want that armor for my
warships... collapsium plating, apparently).

Crew: for reference, the _Star_Wars_Imperial_Sourcebook_ lists
the crew of an Imperial SD at 37,085 crew plus 9.700 troops (the
Stormtrooper division); the crew of a SSD is 280,734 crewmen and
38,000 troops (a Stormtrooper corps).

Feasibility: 2 Death Stars are said to have nearly broken the
Imperial economy; they did divert a noticeable amount of
shipbuilding resources.  The Empire of Star Wars seems to
have *relatively* fewer shipyards capable of building Capital grade
ships than the Traveller Imperium.  It's strongly implied that only
a handful of worlds can build Star Destroyers, for instance. On the
other hand, the Empire has millions of worlds to draw revenues
from, compared to the Imperium's tens of thousands.

In any case, there are said to be 25,000 Imperial Star Destroyers
in existance, and only 4 Super Star Destoyers (of which one was
destroyed at the Battle of Endor with the 2nd Deathstar).

                                            -- Cynthia




------------------------------

Date: Fri, 6 Jan 1995 11:20:55 -0500
From: CyHiggin@aol.com
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Virusizing non-Human Homeworlds
Message-ID: <950106112053_521972@aol.com>

I propose a modification to the "Collapse Effects Determination"
rules on pp 190-191 of the TNE Rulebook.  Why should
non-human aliens that may not breathe the same air or drink the
same kind of water or even like the same weather we do have
their maximum sustainable population (MSP) based on how
Earthlike the world is?  What about minor human races designed
for the worlds they live on, like the Darrians?

For easy identification while scanning pages of
UWPs (or while letting your computer do it) of worlds  inhabited by
non-humans, I have added the following Trade Codes & Remarks:

        Hw - Home World
        Ac - Alien Colony

A Home World is mostly self-explanatory, but in the case of
Ancients transplants like the Vargr and minor human races, a
world is a "Home World" for these purposes if the race is
designed or evolved to live there better than anywhere else.
For example, Darrians are designed to live very comfortably
on Darrian; it's a Home World.  Vilani are not especially
adapted to Vland, and can't even eat the local foodstuffs without
processing; Vland is NOT a Home World.

An Alien Colony is a world colonized by non-humans; the
general principle is that its MSP is based on the world's
simularity to the Home World's UWP.

Finally, note that aquatic races such as Dolphins and
Githiaskio have slightly different criteria for habitability than
we ground-pounders.

 In all cases, "native" refers to HOME WORLD statistics, and
"local" refers to the COLONY world being assessed.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
    - If ALIEN HOME WORLD, only size mods apply when calculating MSP.
    HOME WORLD is assumed to be otherwise optimal for ALIEN race.

    - If ALIEN COLONY, caculate MSP with the following mods:

         Size:  no changes.

         Atmosphere:
            - If native atmosphere is A or higher, and local
         atmosphere is different code or composition, MSP is 0.
            - If local atmosphere is one level lower density or two
         levels higher than native atmosphere, mod = -1.
            - If local atmosphere two levels lower density than native
         atmosphere, mod = -2.
            - If local atmosphere has different or opposite taint than
         native atmosphere (e.g.  tainted if native is untainted or
         sulphur taint if native has nitrogen compound taint, etc),
         mod = -1.

         Hydrographics:
         Special case:  aquatic race
            Hydro 3,4 :  mod = -1
            Hydro 1,2 :  mod = -2
            Hydro 0 :  uninhabitable (MSP is 0)

         Otherwise,
         - If local hydro code is 3+ higher OR 5+ lower than
         native hydro code, mod = -1.
         - If local hydro code is 7+ lower than native, mod = -2.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Second thing:  I have written an OS/2 REXX script that will
gobble up GENIE-format sector files (or SSV-format subsector
files) and run them thru the Collapse Effects Determination Rules.
The script is loosely based on Guy Garnett's AmigaREXX
scripts for Hard Times mods -- I stole the sector file parsing code
and ideas for 'NUKE' and 'SAVE' options from them.  Also,
the addcode and stripcode scripts will work to add 'nuke' and
'save' flags for the purpose of VIRUS processing as well.
I added a command-line flag for 'ALIEN'; whether or not to
use the Alien Home World option introduced above.

 As soon as AOL puts in ftp upload capability, I will upload it
(and the RXMATHFN.DLL needed for the pow() functions)
to wherever the current software archives are these days.
In the meantime, I can e-mail VIRUS.CMD to whoever requests
it.  You'll have to find your own copy of RXMATHFN.DLL,
though -- it is available in most large OS/2 archives, such
as Hobbes, the Hobbes mirror in Walnut Creek's archives
(ftp.cdrom.com), and probably IBM's OS/2 archive
(software.watson.ibm.com, I think).

Applicability to non-OS/2 systems: I converted the original
ADDCODES,STRIPCODES and HARDTIME scripts from
Amiga AREXX to OS/2 REXX with a minimum of difficulty,
so it should be easy enough for you Amiga users to convert
VIRUS.CMD to ARexx.  You'll have to find your own way to
handle the pow() function; I can't help you there.

Users of mainframe or Unix REXX's should be able to convert
VIRUS.CMD.  DOS users, there are commercial PC REXX
implementations out there, but I don't know if there are any
public domain ones.  Sorry if you can't use it.

                                                    -- Cynthia

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 6 Jan 1995 11:20:47 -0500
From: CyHiggin@aol.com
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: Star Wars
Message-ID: <950106112046_521913@aol.com>

 Tariq Rashid:

>Difference between Star Wars and Traveller is that Traveller
>attempts to explain and rationalize the functioning of the technology and
>to base it upon scientific principles.  Star Wars does not even make the
>slightest attempt to do that...it is Sci Fantasy and not Sci Fi.

Oddly enough, I find that the more I learn about the Star Wars universe,
the more sense it makes -- in fact, it often makes more sense than the
CT-MT-TNE universe.  I will admit that the Star Wars visionaries are a lot
more daring than GDW about what may be developed in thousands of years
at starfaring technology -- though not so daring as Star Trek...

>Will someone please tell me what the hell a blaster is anyway.

In Star Wars, a blaster is a laser.  In pre-1961 scifi, it's any handheld
energy weapon. In sloppy TV & movie scifi, it's also any handheld energy
weapon.

From: Hugh Foster

>> Will someone please tell me what the hell a blaster is
anyway. <<

>Answer: a device found in cinematic-style adventures, given
>to grunt guards to allow them to fire thousands of rounds
>at player characters from a range of twenty feet and _never
>hit them_!

In defense of the Stormtroopers (perish the thought!), I must point
out that young Skywalker is now known to be VERY strong in the Force.
Ever consider that someone who, with minimal training. can parry blaster
bolts with a light saber,  might also be rather hard to target by troopies
with unshielded minds?  It had to have been an untrained, subconscious
thing, but I would guess that Luke was either running where the
stormtroopers weren't aiming, or telepathically or telekinetically spoiling
their aim.  I vaguely recall from my pulp novel reading days that The Shadow
was pretty hard to plug at point-blank range, too.  Note also that Leia, who
was with him, is now known to be "strong in the Force" as well.

In short, don't try this trick with Imperial Marines -- they wear psi
shields!

                                                       -- Cynthia






------------------------------

Date: Fri, 06 Jan 1995 13:18:57 -0500 (EST)
From: Alvin Plummer <alvin.plummer@sheridanc.on.ca>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Elite starmen
Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.3.91.950106131028.9637F-100000@hubble.sheridanc.on.ca>


Steve Bonneville recently noted that only a few people in a hundred
thousand would ever serve in the Imperial Navy (or any space navy, for that
matter...).

This simple fact should greatly change the character of the
Imperial Navy.  This implies that the Navy should be composed strictly of
*the best*, ie. perfect health, very smart, quick thinking, skilled in
physics, great looking, heros of the galaxy... imagine an entire navy of
Buck Rogers types! (I shrudder to think of it.)

This ain't the Navy I know and love...

But assuming that this is the case (and it _is_ the case), then this
should be the minimum UPP for...
   Enlisted 888888-8
   Officers AAAAAA-A

Please, someone prove me wrong...


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alvin Plummer
"Preserve what we created, Norris, and remember what we stood for."
                               - Strephon, 179-1126


Reply to: plummera@hubble.sheridanc.on.ca

------------------------------------------------------------------------------


------------------------------

Date: Fri, 6 Jan 1995 16:44:37 -0600 (CST)
From: KELLOGG@thorin.uthscsa.edu
To: robdean@access.digex.com
Subject: Real Engineering problems
Message-ID: <950106164437.6021c0a6@thorin.uthscsa.edu>

Hi folx,

Not much to do with TNE-Pocket, but you might be interested:
Some observations I made a couple days ago on FF&S.

There is a science and technology show on the Discovery Cable
Channel called 'The Next Step'.  It is not my favorite by any
means, as it is more in the realm of a 'Gee Whiz!  Lookit this!'
type show than CNN's 'Science & Technology Week' and the Discovery
Channel's 'Beyond 2000' and at times looks more like a music video
than coherent reporting of something new.  They tend to say 'lookit
this' instead of 'It works this way...'

(Unfortunately there are shows that are FAR worse than 'Next Step'
in this regard.)

In any case, on Tuesday, they showed something that perhaps
everyone who designs vehicles and robots using Traveller's design
tables should look at (regardless of what system, tho this pertains
particularly to FF&S).

The story was that of the first robot war.  A public event in which
engineers designed radio controlled robots for the purpose of
running (essentually) a robot demolition derby.

There were a few rules they listed (No explosives, untethered
projectiles, acids, or lasers.  (Probably more but they didn't tell
us due to poor reporting)).  There was also what appeared to be a
weight classification (Light, medium, heavy?  (Again poor
reporting)).

The most fascinating thing about it was that, as this was their
first encoutner, no one knew what the opposition was going to look
like.  I saw a lot of stuff from what looked like a small radio
controlled car covered with nails like spikes to a large steel buzz
saw on wheels powered by a 300cc lawn mower engine.

There were all sorts of robots with all sorts of weapons with all
sorts of strategies involved.  Some relied on speed for defence,
others relied on armor.  Some had no offence at all.

The point of all of this was that while everyone out there was an
engineer, and had the same access to whatever technology they
wanted, they all produced VERY different designs based on what they
figured would work.

The overall winning design (I think it was, again poor reporting)
looked like it was built using an upside down galvanized steel
garbage can as a casemate.  On top of this were spinning arms that
had two spiked morning stars on the ends.

On the other hand there were some that had rams, others that tried
to flip the opponent over.  One had some sort of a spring loaded
lance in a tank turret.  One had what looked like a giant set of
vise grips.  One was made out of powered kid's big wheel, complete
with rider.  One had a buzz saw mounted on a turret that used (I
assume) Estes model rocket engines, for show mostly.

(I wonder about the possibility of using Estes model rocket engines
as offensive weapons.  You get close, fire and the things will act
like small blow torches or slow acting shaped charges.  Slam an big
E or F engine next to his armor and BLAM!)

Now that I think of it, a good body would be along the lines of a
kid's PowerWheel's jeep converted to radio control.  Large wheel
base, sturdy, decent battery capacity, large weight carrying
capacity for a weapon (say a gasoline powered chain saw).

Ok, now, think about what sort of design you might come up with...

Now...  Think about this:  Imagine someone from another culture
comes in with a design built on another planet.  With different
gravity, different technology, different requirements, different
evolution!  I think you'd get a VERY different idea of what sort of
weapon might be used in a war.

Imagine the above warrior robot design based, not on an electric
powered vehicle for small human children, but say based on a
similar vehicle for small K'kree children!

Now, FF&S was based (supposedly) on the Imperium.  But we've seen
how the FF&S designs of Imperial technology don't always favor the
grav tanks and hand guns we are familiar with.  By my reading of
FF&S rules, the TL 11 meson body pistol that I posted when FF&S
came out is quite a legal design.  Who's gonna buy a TL 12 gauss
pistol when you can have a concealable meson gun in your holster
for about 2328 credits?  Who's gonna buy a TL 15 Fusion Gun
(FGMP-15) when you can buy a Meson Gun (MGMP-11) that does as much
damage for 2527 credits?

Armor?  What is this thing you call armor, stranger?

The point of all the above rambling is:  FF&S may or may not be
realistic in its simulation of technolgy, but I really doubt that
the best designs for weapons that can come out of it are the ones
that are what we've seen for Traveller in the past.

I think it would be fascinating to see a bunch of designs come out
and see what would do best on the battle field rather than saying
"Ok, grav tanks and battle dress are the big mainstays of combat."

We already know that FF&S makes the traditional spinal mounts
useless in comparison with a spinal mounted laser!  What else is
out there?

But to get back to my original topic, I *BELIEVE* that the way the
Discovery Channel plays things is that the show on the robot arena
will be repeated on saturday afternoon at 4PM Central time.  (5 for
you EDT Yankees. :)  I strongly reccomend that the designers out
there take a look.  It was fun, and illustrates all of the above in
a REAL engineering problem that wasn't done on paper!

Scott 2G Kellogg
PS, perhaps someone who still has the address of the TML (or is it
Xboat TML?) may wish to forward it.  I retired from those a LONG
time ago, but this may be of interest to them.

BTW, George?  Can you please switch my TNE-Pocket recieving address
over to Kellogg@thorin.uthscsa.edu ?  I've lost the account that I
was recieving TNE-Pocket at.  Thanx!



------------------------------

Date: Fri, 06 Jan 95 08:33:03
From: john.bogan@asb.com
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: GDW QUESTIONS
Message-ID: <9501060833.A5339wk@asb.com>


Hans' recent WTC query reminded me of some things I was wondering
about, so consider this an open letter to Loren and GDW:

STRIKER II: (errata/clarification)

p5.  2.3 Personnel Stands,   "...(see page 00)."
            Production typo, what's the real page?  134?

       "Finally, these rules...single stand and crew stand."
            I take it the Double Size stands are the "crew stands."
            The description matches, but please don't shift terminology.

p7.  3.4 Vehicle Cards, last sentence:  "...sample vehicle unit card on
             the previous page for an example."
      The example is on the same page.

p12.  5.5 Terrain Effects and Movement.
             I know grav vehicles and grav-belted troops are counted as "flying
             vehicles" for movement purposes, but there are times when terrain
             will affect them, most obviously when moving _through_ vegetation
             rather than over it.  Some others, like buildings, would also apply
             sometimes.
             What are the movement modifiers here?

p26.  9.24 Eliminated,   "If any enemy stands are within 10 inches of it..."
        Inches?  Striker II is a metric game.  10cm? or 25.4cm?

20.3 Drop Capsule Landings.
             Thinking grav-belts again.  Would the penalties for landing in
              rough terrain or deep water apply to grav-belted troops?
             Or be reduced in their effect?



STAR VIKINGS:

I count three characters with Aslan language skill, two free trader
captains and an RCES spy (who definitely had no contact with Aslan).

Where did they learn this?


PATH OF TEARS:

How many troops does Oriflamme have on Spencer?  Page 34
"Offensive Ground Troops" first says they have "over a dozen
divisions" but just after that says Oriflamme only has "five full
combat divisions".  It really can't be more than a few thousand
troops, and even that assumes they patched together an old
bulk freighter to use as a troop transport.  Bringing them over
in Broadswords a platoon at a time doesn't really cut it ;-)
Remember they would have started this before the Auroras
would be available to be dedicated for the Spencer operation.

WORLD TAMERS HANDBOOK:  (possible spoilers for TMLers)

p108, the Hercules-class.   I ASSUME the USL configuration is
       a typo. They were streamlined in The Traveller Adventure and
       in their own operational description in WTH.

Bootstrap Mission:
       Once the "signal" is given, the text implies Holmgren will
       arrive at the landing beach in a short while, an hour or two,
       maybe.  According to the map, the beach is about 260 km
       from Kongsholm.  This is a tech 1 society, what's he riding?
       Shadowfax?

       I detect a slight scale problem here :-/

There are no modifiers to determine the Agricultural Capacity and
Raw Materials Capacity of sea hexes.  Does this mean no modifiers,
or that sea hexes weren't considered.

Fishing provides rations, as does aquaculture.

Raw materials can be found on sea beds and underground (eg. North
Sea oil).  The ability to recover and exploit these resources would
depend on tech level.

Also, for raw materials: it says there is no usable area in glacier hexes,
but again, higher-tech settlements should have some ability here.

One aspect missing: forced agriculture (hydroponics, yeast processors,
 and such).


I know the RC Bootstrap/Colony focus of WTH led to some things
(higher tech capabilities, administrative and service sectors, repressive
governments) getting the short shrift, but an expansion of these kinds
of things might be worth doing in the future.

One thing this would allow is a "realistic" design sequence for
what I call "gigastructures": arcologies, grav-cities, space habitats,
hostile-environment cities,and such.



Ta

John Bogan

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 06 Jan 95 18:36:57
From: john.bogan@asb.com
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: RE: CHARTED SPACE
Message-ID: <9501061836.0Q5HA00@asb.com>


Stefan Matthias Aust <uunet!informatik.uni-kiel.d400.de!sma> wrote:

> In the Alien book "Solomani & Aslan", I luckily picked up 2nd hand two
> weeks ago, I found out that the "Charted Space" isn't all charted
> space but that there's more information available.  The book shows 4
> sectors below and a couple of sectors left of the "normal" map shown
> for example in the TNE rules book as charted space.

These were randomly generated by DGP so the maps would not simply
stop at the edge of charted space.  However, they also _deleted_ the
position hex numbers so that GM's would not be constrained by another
"official" bit of information.

Some fanatics (myself included) have tried to match the dot locations to
hex numbers, though.  I eventually gave up on it, but others have been
more persistent.

One of the reasons I gave up was that, being randomly generated, they
don't neccessarily match the locations of the few worlds in the "new areas"
that we DO know the location to.

Case in point: Home, the Solomani capital.  I don't have it in front of me,
but find the location hex number from the world description.  Now check
the map where that hex would be, and what do you find?  The center of
a four-parsec-wide void!

Then again, it just may be SolSec playing headgames again ;-)

Also, some of the information in Reavers' Deep doesn't match older
CT material.

> Now I've two questions: Do the other alien books also enlarge the
> charted space (I would be very interested in the Zhodani empire)

Vilani and Vargr does this with the Vargr Extents.  A little bit of
Zho space is shown.

> is there anything more than a page full of small dots available (like
> the atlas of the imperium for the emperial space)?

No (see above), except for anything persistent people have created.


John Bogan

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End of TRAVELLER Digest 154
***************************
