Traveller-digest            Sunday, 21 July 1996        Volume 1996 : Number 276

(R)1996. Traveller is a registered trademark of FarFuture Enterprises.
All rights reserved.

The following topics are covered in this digest:

         1. Re: Realism
         2. Re: Realism
         3. Re: Lots of Cultural Models
         4. Re: Assorted
         5. Re: F-16 Engines
         6. Re: Fighters in SPACE
         7. Re: FAQ list
         8. Re: Building Failures and stuff
         9. [none]
        10. Your various requesests
        11. MIT Library
        12. Re: [T96#268] E-Zine Name
        13. BL Panels Freed from Font!
        14. Autoprobe
        15. e-zine Names
        16. Black Curtain
        17. unsubscribe
        18. Re: F-16 Engines
        19. mispronounced names

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

From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Date: Sun, 21 Jul 1996 02:03:07 PST
Subject: Re: Realism

In mail you write:

> On Thu, 18 Jul 1996, Tom Ellis wrote:
>
>> Oh, by all means, I agree completely.  I just always found it to be a neat
>> idea....BOOOM....OFF WE GO.
>
> I would imagine it would be more like "Here we go!"  BOOOM...SPLAT.
> How many G's would a directed nuclear detonation impart?

That's why you've got one *hell* of a shock absorber system between the
pusher plate and the rest of the ship. It smooths out the blast into a
"surge". The actual acceleration depends on how many bombs per time
unit you use.

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

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

From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Date: Sun, 21 Jul 1996 02:47:44 PST
Subject: Re: Realism

In mail you write:

>         Point being that all these failures were quite predictable, but some
> negligent greedhead builders cut corners, knowing full well that this could
> happen, and people died.  Same would go for cold sleep capsules and the
> like.  Relating this to Traveller, I'd think that Law Level on the planet of
> origin ought to have some sort of effect on the reliability of gear...

However, the reliability will go back *up* (at least partially) at the
low end of the scale. Why? Because if something fails, the friends and
relatives of the guy it failed are going to walk up and shoot you!

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

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

From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Date: Sun, 21 Jul 1996 03:10:23 PST
Subject: Re: Lots of Cultural Models

In mail you write:

> Well...I don't see them that way.  I play the Aslan as a variation on
> Cherryh's Hani.
>
> So...who are the Romans?  The Incas?  The Byzantium Romans?  The
> Vikings?  The Ottoman Turks?  The Zulu?  The Mongol Hoard?  The
> Polynesians?  The Greeks of the City states?  The Persians?  The
> Bedouin Arabs?  The Caliphate Moslems?  The Egyptians?  Etc. Etc.

You forgot the Aztecs and Maya (two related, but *very* different
cultures), the "Mound Builders", and various other semi-cilivized to
civilized inhabitants of the Americas. 

Then there are various African cultures, like the folks who built
Zimbabwe (the city, not the country). Ditto for all the near and far
Eastern cultures you don't hear about that much.

> Notice I completely left the out Franks, Germans and English?  <g>
> Most of us are more familiar with certain european cultures, but there
> are a wealth of other models available to play with.

Hell, the Slavic cultures alone are different enough to surprise most
folks.

> And then there are the aliens!  <g> CJ Cherryh's Hani, Stsho, KNNN and
> Kif, for example. 

And the M'ri (Faded Sun trilogy), and the various aliens in some of the
Union & alliance books. And of course you get things like Gehennan
humans. Human physically, but *very* alien mentally.

> Niven's Puppeteers, Kitzi, Moties and Outsiders,
> for another.

Gordon Dickson had some decent aliens in some of his books. And for
real fun, read some of Hal Clement's books and borrow the aliens.
Personally, I'd like to see the look on someone's face when you launch
a flight of fighters with Mesklinite pilots (they consider 200-300 gees
to be "normal", and don't mind 700-1000). Who needs thrust
compensators? :-)

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

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

From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Date: Sun, 21 Jul 1996 03:00:01 PST
Subject: Re: Assorted

In mail you write:

> There are considerable examples of influences from Niven's 'Known
> Space' Aliens (right down to the line in 'Hivers' that says 'The
> Hivers are not the Puppetters!" Aslan, Solomani, Hivers and the
> Ancients all have fairly visible influences from the Kzinti, Niven's
> future Earth, the Puppeteers, the Outsiders and the Pak Protectors
> (at least I think...).

The Ancients are almost certainly patterned after the "Forerunners" in
many of Andre Norton's books. Though I like her setup better. The
Forerunners is just a generic name for *all* the civilizations that
wandered the galaxy and becamer extinct long before even the most
ancient of the current civilizations (the Zacathans).

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

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

From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Date: Sun, 21 Jul 1996 03:46:35 PST
Subject: Re: F-16 Engines

In mail you write:

> Hi,
> I asked my Dad who works at Pratt & Whitney, (They make the 
> engines for the F-16 and several other jets) if a private
> citizen could buy an engine. He said that the Government
> paid for the R&D of the engine, so they control who can buys
> one.  That is why Arm sales to foreign countries must have
> congressional approval.  

Actually, the law gets *really* weird here. For example, I can get a
copy of any piece of software written for the government for
(essentially) free, unless it is classified. You see, the government is
not allowed to own copyrights on anything. 

So, unless they claim classification (they probably do), I can buy a
copy of the R&D data from the US Government Printing Office! And then I
can just take them to somebody else to build them.

I suspect the situation is more along the lines of the government
having an exclusive contract for the production of the engines.

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

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

From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Date: Sun, 21 Jul 1996 03:23:49 PST
Subject: Re: Fighters in SPACE

In mail you write:

> Another possible advantage, non-canonical, which should/can be given to
> fighters and certain other small craft is a higher G limit.  I know, you
> say, 6G is the limit, but consider; Big vessels with large crews have the
> need for their crew to walk around and work at full acceleration.  This
> means the (canonical) limit of 6G is a restriction of the inertial
> compensators, not the actual manuver drive (whatever that may be).  You
> know as well as I do that fighter pilots in atmosphere have been known to
> take as much as 9G for brief periods of time.

It's possible to take that kind of gee load for quite some time if you
are flat on your back. The problem in aircraft is that the acceleration
you are undergoing is mostly in the "head to foot" direction, though a
few manuevers induce acceleration in the opposite direction.

If you are in good shape and taking acceleration in a "front to back"
direction, you should be able to handle 3 gees for a *long* time, and
many could probably handle 5 gees equally indefinitely.

Fighters in Traveller *will* have you taking acceleration in this
preferred "flat on your back" position. You won't have as much of the
violent turns, though "jinking" to dodge a missile could result in
significant gee loads in odd directions. But for any sort of
*manevering*, you'll be using the main engine, which points thru your
back. 

> I would therefore postulate that a Traveller
> fighter craft could routinely accelerate at about 9G, this being 6G of
> 'compensated' acceleration and 3G of 'uncompensated' acceleration. 

I'd expect to see 12 gees as not uncommon. You'd select pilots for G
tolerance, and 6 gee flat on your back is *not* unreasonable for
drastic manuevers etc. 

> The problem now is that this makes fighters and small craft too important.
> Fighters now make critical long-range sensor platforms ("The eyes and
> ears" of a fleet or ship).  Plus, no small vessel will ever be able to
> outrun a fighter equipped unit in a straight chase.

But fighters are going to *eat* fuel like it was going out of style. So
if you have enough firepower to keep the fighter dodging, you may have
a chance. Plus, he's got to close the initial distance as well as any
initial velocity difference. 

And finally, if he uses full power to pursue you, that means that
unless he starts *coasting* at some point, he'll be going too fast to
engage you. It's kinda hard to get many shots off when you are
overtaking someone at a couple of hundred km/sec. :-)

- -- 
Leonard Erickson (aka Shadow)
 shadow@krypton.rain.com        <--preferred
leonard@qiclab.scn.rain.com     <--last resort

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

From: Paul Kestner <pjwk@erols.com>
Date: Sun, 21 Jul 1996 12:00:10 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: FAQ list

        Where do I find the FAQ list for those done to death subjects, like
meson guns ?
....
Paul Kestner  a.k.a.  pjwk@erols.com
parting remark: "The Devil hides in the details."
....

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

From: "Stuart L. Dollar" <sdollar@goodnet.com>
Date: Sun, 21 Jul 1996 09:20:12 -0800
Subject: Re: Building Failures and stuff

On 20 Jul 96 at 21:22, Ethan Henry spewed:

> Yeah, the joke is that the last snowplow in Seattle sunk on the bridge.
> That's why Seattle drivers' brains all turn off when it snows. Those
> guys crack me up! 

I have a friend who lived down here in Arizona who moved up to 
Seattle about 5-6 years ago.  A few years ago ('91 or '92) they got 
hit by a series of big snow storms, tied the city up in knots for a 
couple of weeks...  He said that the biggest problem with it was that 
you could park all of Seattle's/King County's snow clearing 
equipment in his garage....

You guessed it, he doesn't have a garage...

> >         I wonder how you could work a micro-brewery into a Traveller campaign.
> 
> Hm. I think 'The Traveller Adventure' had a winery... maybe you could
> just sub in a brewery...
> 

That would seem to be reasonable enough...actually, the winery 
portion of the Traveller Adventure was very creative...
Microbrewed beer is the only way to go...  yum!

> OK - enough off-topic drivel. On to my Traveller related question:
> 
> The Suerrat (sp?) and the Geonee (sp?) are described where? I just
> got my hot little hands on V&V and S&A and both races get passing mention.
> They're minor human races but get no real description. They must be
> profiles in the JTAS or Challenge. Where/when/will someone send me
> a copy of the article(s)???

The Geonee are profiled in Traveller Digest #11...
The Suerrat are referenced to briefly in Alien Module #8, Darrians 
basically comparing them to the Darrians...

There have definitely been references to them elsewhere...the 2 DGP 
Alien Books, and others...but I don't know that anybody detailed them 
all that much...

Maybe somebody else can correct me?

Stu
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent" -Isaac Asimov, from "Foundation"
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This tagline brought to you by Big Ed's Taco Emporium, conveniently located next to
Bob's Pet Shop.
Stuart L. Dollar           sdollar@goodnet.com    

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

From: David Jaques-Watson <davidjw@pcug.org.au>
Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 02:24:38 +1000 (EST)
Subject: [none]

Dear Folks -

1.	OF SUBS AND CARRIERS

David C.. Broussard said:
>I doubt in modern naval warfare that a sub would get a torp shot at a
carrier.  They are too well protected.  More likely an Oscar class Cruise
missile style sub could take out a carrier. 

Hate to tell you, David, that in one of the *Kangaroo* wargames an Aussie 
Orion (non-nuclear) sub waited on the bottom, floated to periscope depth  
in the middle of a US task force, and "sunk" the Enterprise. And, AFAIK, 
they got out as well.

2.	PSIONIC AUTO MINDPROBE

This doesn't make sense to me, *unless* the PC is trying to find out what 
happened to them while they were unconcious (asleep, drugged, or 
otherwise KO'ed). You *may* allow them to attempt to retrieve memories of 
the event (mostly sounds). Otherwise, why bother?

3.	SPACE FIGHTERS

AFAIK, one big problem with numerous ships (for example, a flotilla of 
fighters), is more ITO having enough pilots to fly them. The original 
_Trillion Credit Squadron_ parameters always specified the number of 
pilots you could have available.

4.	BULDING FAILURES

The undercroft car-park at work (in Canberra) is designed with clearance
for NSW ambulances.  ...Only thing is, ambulances in the ACT are taller,
and don't fit under the door. 

5.	MINOR RACES FOR ETHAN

The Geonee are detailed in _Challenge ??_. The Suerrat - I haven't found 
a reference yet.

6.	POINTLESS HUMOUR DEPT.

Derek Stanley said:
>I always though this was a brilliant add.
                                      ^^^

Oh I don't know, 2 + 2 = 4 was always good enough for me. ;-)

Iain said:
>Is it their most holy of holies religious festival, or is it the
championship decider? 

Sounds like Melbourne on AFL Grand Final Day.  ;-)

- - Hyphen
(David Jaques-Watson)
"I file things in historical order, with a hashing algorithm of gravity".


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

From: chriscox@ix.netcom.com (Chris Cox)
Date: Sun, 21 Jul 1996 09:37:56 -0700
Subject: Your various requesests

Derek,

   Howdy, I saw you requests for info on the TML.  I have Challenge #71 and
Striker II and could send you the info as .GIFs.  Of course as Loren
mentioned you would need to have proper permission to use that infomation on
the web.  Also, I was thinking about the pocket empire symbol of yours, you
do realize  that the castle is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers insignia and
would be familiar to many Traveller players especially the American ones.
You of course can say that the insignia was choosen because your pocket
empire wanted a symbol that represents the rebuiding of civilization and the
USACoE emblem represening construction and building seemed to fit the bill.
There are of coarse those wiennies out there who will whine that there is no
way a comtemporary emblem will be used 3+ millinium in the future.  To
answer those whiners just tell them how when Terra went to the stars so did
the USACoE, who were by then called the Engineers Corps and how in some form
or other the Corps continued to operating and in fact still does.  Well let
me know if you still want me to do a picture of your pocket empires symbol
or not.  Oh, yea I think I'll try to do a bit more on the Know Space map,
kinda put it on the back burner and then forgot about it.  I think I'll do
the background and sector boarder and let you add the text, OK?
    On the movie front, rented Jonny Neumonic.  The movie has all sorts of
really cool cyberpunk stuff, wet ware, virtual reality computer interfaces,
Cyberized bodygaurds and so on, but the move was lacking in any emotiom that
Keanu Reeves could have been whacked half way through the film and I
wouldn't have cared.  Speaking of Keanu, is he really Canadian, I mean the
guys accent is so Southern Cal even in movies like Dangeous Liasions and
Dracula.

Well until later,
Chris Cox
Falcon watching on Wall Street in New York City
(chriscox@ix.netcom.com)
The Draconis Cluster Traveller page
(http://users.aol.com/yanbeck/trav.htm)


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

From: gdw.support@genie.com
Date: Sun, 21 Jul 96 17:05:00 UTC 0000
Subject: MIT Library

John H Bogan Jr

> Isn't the MIT library creeping downhill because the architect
> forgot to factor in the weight of the books?
> Another Big Oops!

This is said of a number of libraries throughout the world. Jan H
Brunvand (the premier expert in such things) believes it to be an
urban legend ("My cousin knows a guy who said that his wife's dentist
said...").

    LKW


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

From: Bri <bri@teleport.com>
Date: Sun, 21 Jul 1996 10:34:54 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: [T96#268] E-Zine Name

On Sat, 20 Jul 1996, JEFF ZEITLIN wrote:

> T::>Editorial -- "Captain's Log"
>
>  Great!
 Minor note, make it something like "Ships Log" or "Logbook", that sounds
far too star trekkish.

bri <bri@teleport.com>
The Law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich, as well as the
poor, to sleep under the bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal
bread.      -- Anatole France


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

From: "David J. Golden" <goldendj@usa.net>
Date: Sun, 21 Jul 1996 13:37:36 -0600
Subject: BL Panels Freed from Font!

        For those of you who wanted to use the predefined Brilliant Lances
control panels on my site, and wanted to create your own, but didn't have
the font I used, or a suitable condensed font:

        I've found a shareware font that comes close enough!

        So now ALL the panels I created are available, AND they're smaller!
(Embedding the font took way too much space).

        Sometime soon, I'll be putting the weapons cards and NPC cards up as
well, so you can use them.

        All you need to do is change the "Normal" Style ...
- --________________________________________________________________
   Dave Golden                           PGP Public Key available 
   goldendj@usa.net     http://www.usa.net/~goldendj/default.html

 "He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his
  enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes
  a precedent that will reach to himself" -- Thomas Paine


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

From: anwfh@orion.alaska.edu (William F. Hostman)
Date: Sun, 21 Jul 1996 12:35:58 -0800
Subject: Autoprobe

Mark Seemann:
>Will everything unconscious be revealed for her? Will she goes insane? =
>Or will she aquire spiritual enlightenment? Is it possible at all? Or is =
>there a danger for an infinite recursive loop? A finite recursive loop?

I'd allow it... But it would reveal nothing except hidden (blocked
off/repressed) memories, and various forms of "Programming"... sort of like
zaphod beeblebrox in HHGttG... he'd prgrammed hiself, then couldnt figure
out whodunnit... autoprobe should reveal that kind of stuff

William F. Hostman

Aramis@AsylumBBS.com



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

From: anwfh@orion.alaska.edu (William F. Hostman)
Date: Sun, 21 Jul 1996 14:43:52 -0800
Subject: e-zine Names

Sombody Suggested "Captain's Log"... Captain's Log is the name of the Task
Force/Amarillo Design Bureau's "quarterly" magazine for Star Fleet Battles.
Might Cause some Confusion.

William F. Hostman

Aramis@AsylumBBS.com



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

From: hbill@primenet.com (bill hutchinson)
Date: Sun, 21 Jul 1996 17:22:48 -0700 (MST)
Subject: Black Curtain

I notice the black curtain on pg.79 in new era 001-1201 map.
What is it???? 
            
      

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

From: Chris Osborne <chrisos@earthlink.net>
Date: Sun, 21 Jul 1996 14:56:36 -0400
Subject: unsubscribe

Could someone please tell me the e-mail address to mail to to be removed 
from this mailing list?

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

From: eris@pen.net (Eris Reddoch)
Date: Sun, 21 Jul 96 14:38:37 -0600
Subject: Re: F-16 Engines

On 07/21/96 at 03:46 AM,  shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
said:

>Actually, the law gets *really* weird here. For example, I can get a
>copy of any piece of software written for the government for
>(essentially) free, unless it is classified. You see, the government
>is not allowed to own copyrights on anything. 

Mutitions Act. The US gov classifies *everything*, as a general
precaution, and then doesn't protect *anything*.  <g> Heck, if PGP is
covered under the Mutitions Act, and it is, then you know that
virtually every piece of software ever produced is also protected.
BTW, even though the Justice Dept has dropped the case against Phil
Zimmerman they still claim PGP is a resistricted technology.

>I suspect the situation is more along the lines of the government
>having an exclusive contract for the production of the engines.

It's more than that.  

Take the space shuttle and it's compenent parts as an example.  The
government has had offers to buy the existing shuttle fleet, and
offers to purchase new shuttles from other governments and from
private sources. They turned them down flat.

Eris

ps.  I ran across a piece of software yesterday while I was cleaning
out some old boxes, I can't remember what it was, but it surprised me
with "Illegal to transport or sell outside the US."  Heck it was an
inexpensive accounting program or something...maybe an old copy of
Lotus 123.
- -- 
- -----------------------------------------------------------
eris@pen.net (Eris Reddoch)    using MR/2 ICE #245
- -----------------------------------------------------------




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

From: Roderick Darroch Elliott <gpvll@hk.super.net>
Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 08:53:55 +0800 (HKT)
Subject: mispronounced names

Derek Stanley wrote:

>> 
>> Dave spells his last name "Nilsen" BTW. He's too polite to mention
>> it, most of the time, but it bothers him to see people misspell it.
>
>As a person with numerous awards and such spelt Derrick or some such fool 
>thing I'll remeber that for the future.  It drives me nuts too, I've been 
>getting pay stubbs from a company for four years every month I tell them 
>they've got my name spelt wrong and they still haven't changed it.

        Dude, I can relate.  I normally use my middle name, "Darroch", which
is pronounced much as it's spelled save for the last "ch" which is this
wierd Gaelic hard-ch deathrattle noise.  I've run into maybe three people
outside my family who can pronounce it, and as for spelling, well, lets just
say we could start a support group.


+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                         From the desk of either                       |
|                                                                       |
|    Roderick Darroch Elliott                   John Stephen Wishart    |
|                                                                       |
|                           gpvll@hk.super.net                          |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+


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

End of Traveller-digest V1996 #276
**********************************
