			    TRAVELLER Digest 417

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) Various.
	by toad@ugcs.caltech.edu (Benjamin Lane)
  2) Bioengineering on Vland
	by "Upton, Django" <DUpton@vtrnntov.telecom.com.au>
  3) Re: TRAVELLER digest 415
	by library@dss.gov.au (DSS Library)
  4) ASMs (was Virus deaths)
	by tek@FICUS.CS.UCLA.EDU (Ted Kim (Random Dude))
  5) Re: TRAVELLER digest 415
	by Sir George Anonymous <lcdavis@mailbox.syr.edu>

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Date: Thu, 14 Sep 1995 17:00:19 -0700
From: toad@ugcs.caltech.edu (Benjamin Lane)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Various.
Message-ID: <199509150000.RAA28630@pride.ugcs.caltech.edu>


First, in response to Muirs' message in issue 414 about sensor locks 
of missles for point defence purposes - with AEMS and LIne crews you had 
a 98% chance of lock, while PEMS only gave you 40%. well, remember, if
the missiles already have locked on you and are going to hit, it doesn't
really matter if you go active. Low power on the AEMS, yes, but if I 
was in command in such a situation, I think I'd say "light 'em up, Ensign."

Second, some logistics questions (so to speak); I've heard mentioned a few
times that a lot of homemade software is available on the Net... I for 
one would love to get my hands on some, so does anyone know which of the
various packages are the best? I'm thinking vehicle /starship construction,
character generation, but above all - database programs and world UDP 
lists. especially something with search functions, as I frequently find 
myself asking questions like: "find all the atm=6, hyd=5-9, uninhabited 
worlds in this sector... " any and all help would be very much appreciated.

Third; are there any systems out there in charted space that contain 
unusual celestial objects such as Black Holes and Neutron Stars? currently
they appear to be common enough that one would expect at least a few in a 
region the size of Charted Space. I have an idea bouncing around in the back of my mind ( read: future paper ) and woudl like to see if it;s already been
done.

Fourth; are RICE papers something that you can just write and post, or
are the in some sense 'official'? 

thanks for your time,
cheers,
/ben

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Date: Fri, 15 Sep 95 10:04:00 EST
From: "Upton, Django" <DUpton@vtrnntov.telecom.com.au>
To: tml <traveller@MPGN.COM>
Subject: Bioengineering on Vland
Message-ID: <3059EDAA@msmailv0.telecom.com.au>


Joni M Virolainen <jonimv@evitech.fi> writes:

 -----------------------------
About bioengineering.

I think that those worlds that support human kind life forms (like Vland)
have naturally occuring life forms that have similar biochemistry to
Earth's creatures biochemistry.
 -----------------------------

Actually Vland has very different native life that is in general poisonous 
to humans.
The early Vilani were taught (by grandfather or ancient robots, I forget 
which) a few techiques for converting native lifeforms to food.
The Vilani who had this knowledge ( and expanded it ) known as Shulgii (sp?) 
were a very important part of society with some equivalency to a shaman but 
much more important.
Get hold of a copy of Vilani & Vargr for more info.

 ---------------------------
It is really hard to say what kind of effect life forms with different
kind of aminoacids etc. can cause in human's system. Probably nothing,
but it can also cause severe allergy or poisoning.
 ---------------------------

Vilani & Vargr has some info (I think). Also 2300AD has info and rules for 
that system for use on one of it's more hostile planets.

Django.

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

Date: Fri, 15 Sep 1995 18:13:50 -0500
From: library@dss.gov.au (DSS Library)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Re: TRAVELLER digest 415
Message-ID: <199509160113.SAA15357@babylon5.dss.gov.au>

Dear Folks -

I've been away sick for over a week, so I apologise for the lateness of these
replies.

1. REGINA AS CAPITAL

In digest 395, Alvin Plummer asked:
>[Note: why isn't Efate, rather than Regina, capital of the subsector?  Any 
>Regina historians out there?]

- settled earlier ("settled by 75, only 15 years after the first Imperial
settlements in the Marches") Supp 11: Library Data (N-Z), GDW, USA, 1982.
Efate was settled AND incorporated into the Imperium by c. 300 but was not
considered on the "main links and branches". The end of the Main in that
direction was only considered "major" by the c. 400 map;
- more stable (higher law level, nont as close to the frontier);
- better environment (does this help? maybe Regina used to be more populous than
Efate, and "F8" only caught up later?)

A lot of the reason for the Regina subsector is that:
- it was the first one ever published (Adv 1: The Kinunir, GDW, USA, 1979).
- you can tell that the Marches was NOT randomly rolled. In one interview, Marc
Miller said that they used a modified method of rolling up the systems, but then
modified them to suit. It is my belief that the Spinward Main was _created_ to
allow for low-jump adventurer ships to still have heaps of places to go.
- an explanation is given as to why this end of the Marches was preferred over
the rimward end: the embryonic Sword Worlds presented a barrier to movement.

2. HUMAN-SIZED ROBOTS

To Jerry Alexandratos:
_Book 8: Robots_ has the following data:

URP  Vol (l)  Weight (kg)  Notes
1      10       1.0        Chassis Type b; infant human torso size
5     100      10.0        Chassis type III; adult human torso size
6     150      15.0        Chassis type IIIb; large torso size

Chassis size was used to calculate hits as well.

Another option is this: humans are about 90% water. Now, in the metric system,
1 cubic centimetre of water weighs 1 gram. OK, so I am 85 kg, therefore you
can say I am approximately 85 kg.

This should at least give you a ball-park figure, Jerry.

3. NUCLEAR MISSILES

To Roger Myhre:
The one question that no-one has answered is this: can you really shoot down all
those missiles?

Way back in the first edition of Harpoon, they gave a real-life example of four
Libyan attack boats vs a US destroyer. The Libyan's fired 4 missiles and the
destroyer had to shoot them all down. The destroyer's defences were
"rolled-back" almost to the ship. I think that in real-life the closest missile
came with 9 km, in the game it was 4 km (or something like that; I think that
the designers were trying to prove that Harpoon was very realistic!?!).

However, in the game, shooting down the missiles was still based on a random
roll - it could be different each time. And what would happen if the Libyan's
had been able to field 2 more (or 4 more!) ships - the destroyer would have
been toast!

In the case of missiles vs a destroyer, I agree that the range is small, the
target is big, and the missiles are far more manoeuvrable than the ship.
However, I have ALWAYS played missiles as more manoeuvrable than ships, with
much higher accelerations available. That is they can still intercept a
target which is dodging. Merrick's BR rules state that KKM's must have g-turns
equal to the target's evasion g-turns PLUS any DM's the target gains due to
success on the evasion task. This rule alone will make KKM's a poor weapon vs
military ships. However, contact missiles against traders make a much better
case; traders generally have poor manoeuvrability and weaponry.

Having said all this, I should say that the real reason I am not happy with
nuclear missiles because they are so against all Traveller "history". The
Imperial Rules of War negate all use of nukes, and I was dissappointed that
TNE went away from this and more towards 2300 AD, despite it being more
"realistic".

- Hyphen
  (David Jaques-Watson)


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

Date: Fri, 15 Sep 95 01:32:30 PDT
From: tek@FICUS.CS.UCLA.EDU (Ted Kim (Random Dude))
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: ASMs (was Virus deaths)
Message-ID: <9509150832.AA15747@penzance.cs.ucla.edu>

Thanasis Kinias <tkinias@asu.edu> writes:
> As an aside, regarding the Phalanx analogy, someone posted that it
> has to stop Mach 1-3 missiles.  Virtually all current-generation
> ASMs are subsonic cruise missiles like Harpoon or Exocet.  As
> Phalanx can engage starting at about 0.8 nm (c. 1400 m), it has
> about 5s to engage a 1000 km/hr target.

I think its a bit of strech to say "virtually all" are subsonic.
There are quite a few current Russian supersonic missiles which the
USN was quite worried about during the cold war.

There is the air-launched Kh-22 (AS-4) carried by Backfires and the
KSR-5 (AS-6) carried by Badgers.  Also, there is the ship launched
P-35 (SS-N-12) on Slava class cruisers, the P-500 (SS-N-19) on Kirov
class cruisers and the P-80 (SS-N-22) on Sovremenny class destroyers.

All of these are probably Mach 2.5+ missiles (maybe higher in terminal
dive).  Phalanx and similar systems might have 2 seconds or less of
engagement time.

-ted

Ted Kim                     Email: tek@ficus.cs.ucla.edu
UCLA Computer Science Dept. WWW:   http://www.cs.ucla.edu/ficus-members/tek/
3564F Boelter Hall          Phone: (310) 825-7307
Los Angeles, CA 90095       FAX:   (310) 825-2273

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

Date: Fri, 15 Sep 1995 10:09:31 -0400 (EDT)
From: Sir George Anonymous <lcdavis@mailbox.syr.edu>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Cc: Multiple recipients of list <traveller@MPGN.COM>
Subject: Re: TRAVELLER digest 415
Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.91.950915100319.10156A-100000@gamera.syr.edu>



On Thu, 14 Sep 1995 traveller@mpgn.com wrote:

> From: Joni M Virolainen <jonimv@evitech.fi>

> I think that those worlds that support human kind life forms (like Vland) 
> have naturally occuring life forms that have similar biochemistry to 
> Earth's creatures biochemistry.
> 
> It is really hard to say what kind of effect life forms with different 
> kind of aminoacids etc. can cause in human's system. Probably nothing, 
> but it can also cause severe allergy or poisoning.

IIRC from Cogs and Dogs (IDHIIFOM) wasn't the biochemistry of the indigenous 
life on Vland completely incompatible with the humans transplanted there 
by the Ancients?  The proto-Vilani culture had a separate class of people 
who specialized in the production of edible food.

Of course, I may be misremembering something from another game.



>>>  Sir George Anonymous  <<<

**************************************************************************
**                                                                      **
**  The Imperium is not a supernatural force.  The Imperium is not an   **
**  exhibit in a museum.  The Imperium is us.  And the Imperium isn't   **
**  over until we say it's over.  - Norris Aella Aledon 1125            **
**                                                                      **
**************************************************************************

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End of TRAVELLER Digest 417
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