			    TRAVELLER Digest 184

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) Traveller Murphy's Rules	by muskrat@msn.fullfeed.com (John Kovalic)
  2) Starships W/O M-drives	by Mark Clark <markc@brahms.udel.edu>
  3) Lego's & Traveller	by Alvin Plummer <alvin.plummer@sheridanc.on.ca>
  4) Re: TRAVELLER digest 181	by "David E. Brooks Jr" <dbj@MPGN.COM>

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Date: Sun, 5 Feb 1995 13:16:40 +0300
From: muskrat@msn.fullfeed.com (John Kovalic)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Traveller Murphy's Rules
Message-ID: <199502051919.NAA25001@fullfeed.msn.fullfeed.com>

    Okay, all you rules lawers and general New Era malcontents! I've taken
over drawing Murphy's Rules for Pyramid magazine, and I'm *dying* to pen a
Vargr or sketch an Aslan. Anybody who wants to submit a Traveller Murphy's
Rule to me or to Pyramid is more than welcome to do so - there are even
prizes for the best rules submitted, although I think the competition ends
soon.
    "What's a Murphy's Rule?", you ask? It can be anything, as long as it's
funny! I.e., a typographical errors (gee...Traveller typos...what a
concept), rules that just make no sense or are out-and-out ridiculous.
    Submit your Murphy's Rules to either Scott Haring (the Grand and
Glorious editor of Pyramid) at PyramidEd@io.com, or to me, and I'll pass
them along.

    John "Solomani Home Rule!" Kovalic
    Muskrat@msn.fullfeed.com



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Date: Sun, 5 Feb 1995 15:13:29 -0500 (EST)
From: Mark Clark <markc@brahms.udel.edu>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Starships W/O M-drives
Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.91.950205144207.6353A-100000@brahms.udel.edu>

Andrew, I like your idea about starports at the 100 D limit serving 
starships w/o M-drives.  Seems to me that this would make sense for a 
long-settled, fairly dense (population-wise) area of space that has a 
high level of interstellar trade.

As to the question of misjump, would a low berth for everybody and a 
powerful radio or other communications system to send out distress calls 
be cheaper than an M-drive?  I'm not sure, but for Classic Traveller (the 
only ship design system I can handle), it looks like it looks like a wash 
for carrying passengers, what with the cost of the extra low berths.  

What would make sense in the situation Andrew describes is L-hyd tanks -
since you have to go out and get the ships, the cargo shuttle could hang
around to grab the L-hyd tanks and tow them in for refilling.  You'd 
lower costs and be able to carry more cargo/passengers.

This is off the top of my head - it would be interesting to sit down and 
run the numbers.  Out of curiousity, how would the design changes in 
MegaTraveller and New Era impact this situation?

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Date: Sun, 05 Feb 1995 12:32:38 -0500 (EST)
From: Alvin Plummer <alvin.plummer@sheridanc.on.ca>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM, xboat@MPGN.COM
Subject: Lego's & Traveller
Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.3.91.950205123034.29795A-100000@hubble.sheridanc.on.ca>


You know, right now I miss my old Space Lego set's... I'l like to see how 
they would mesh with Striker II, and the Traveller universe in general...


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alvin Plummer
"Ah, for the good old day's..."

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Date: Mon, 6 Feb 1995 10:16:43 -0500 (EST)
From: "David E. Brooks Jr" <dbj@MPGN.COM>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: TRAVELLER digest 181
Message-ID:
<Pine.ULT.3.90.950206094107.6412B-100000@Central.KeyWest.MPGN.COM>

On Sun, 5 Feb 1995, Andrew Boulton wrote:

> This is similar to an idea that occurred to me recently. The system works
> like this:
> 
> You have a set of space-stations (well, Starports, really), at the 100-d
> limit of the main world. All interstellar traffic goes via these. Each
> station has its own tugs, fast shuttles, fuel tankers, etc. This allows
> ships to pretty much forget about a manoeuvre drive. 
> 
> When a ship jumps, the chances of a misjump are slim, (it's using refined 
> fuel, outside 100-d, jump program is very accurate (known, fixed, start
> and end points)). It will come out fairly near to one of the stations.
> Passengers and cargo can be transferred via fast shuttles, whilst tankers
> can fly out to refuel the ship - which need never actually visit the
> station, (unless it needs repairing, in which case a tug will bring it in).
> Fuel can be brought to the station either from the main world or gas giant
> using large, slow, bulk tankers (there's no hurry, and it can be refined
> en route).

Actually, in my view the computation would be no different.  Afterall,
the station is moving in orbit (around a planet, let's say), which in
turn is orbiting a star, which in turn is orbiting the galatic center
which in turn has motion relative to every other galaxy.  (Okay, you
probably don't have to worry about Galatic Relative Motion....).

It all ties in to the fact that there is no absolute frame of
reference and that stars are continually moving (i.e., there are no
'fixed' points).

You could argue that a station could provide partial computations, but
at a minimum that would require knowing the outbound vector of a ship.
Regularly scheduled flights could benefit from precalculations (their
outbound vector could easily be pre-definied), but traders,
adventurers or military craft might not.  For instance, military
spacecraft may be required to perform all calculations for security
reasons and traders may be trying to push their luck on the
100-diameter limit in order to gain an advantage over a competitor.

You could also argue that jump calculation programs already have as
much precomputed as possible, thereby making station-based
calculations worthless.

Myself?  I'd leave the jump calculation rules as-is.

-- Dave

--
David E. Brooks Jr                                    Phone: (305) 293-8100
Tantalus Incorporated/Multi-Player Games Network        Fax: (305) 292-7835
P.O. Box 2310                                        E-Mail: dbj@mpgn.com
Key West, FL 33045                                    Quote: print chr$(34);


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End of TRAVELLER Digest 184
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