Traveller-digest     Thursday, December 19 1996     Volume 1996 : Number 774



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

The following topics are covered in this digest:

Famille Spofulam KMA-1 "Meatgrinder" Autoshotgun
Starship Construction
Barnyard fowl in the far future
Re: Hull Shapes...
FF&S Programs
Re: Starship construction figures
Cold?
B1 to B2
On errata for T4
Re: Last TNE novel
Binders
IISS Anthem
Re: What would happen if ....
Jumpspace and Psionics
The Last Hardback
Roderick's Ships
Re: Strength of Aslans and Domain (and now Vargr)
Re: Starship Construction
SSDS bugs....
Re: TCS construction times, HG ship design
Re: Hull Shapes...
Radiation and its nasty things...
Re: I'm not anti-Foss...I'm pro-Choice :-)

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 00:18:43 -0500
From: rellio@po-box.mcgill.ca (Roderick Darroch Elliott)
Subject: Famille Spofulam KMA-1 "Meatgrinder" Autoshotgun

First, the Press Release:

"Sylea, Day 15 Year 00:

        We here at Famille Spofulam Armaments are pleased to introduce our
KMA-1 Autoshotgun.  Affectionately nicknamed the Meatgrinder by our design
bureau, the KMA-1 is a simple, short-range, brutally efficient weapon
designed for anti-piracy defensive use by starship crews, or riot control
by police forces.

        Measuring a short 89 cm overall with the telescoping,
shock-absorbing stock extended and a compact 70 cm with it folded, the
KMA-1 boasts a cyclic rate of 300  Imperial Standard 18mm ETC shotgun
shells per minute, fed from a 22 cm-diameter drum with a 26-round capacity.
It may also be fired in semi-automatic mode.  Its fully loaded weight is
9.25 kilograms.  The forestock may be supplemented by a removable side or
bottom-mounted "broomstick" foregrip, to help manage the considerable
recoil.

        With its 32-cm barrel (a longer-barreled variant is in the final
stages of testing), the KMA-1 is clearly not effective at long ranges; its
optimal range is 15 m; beyond that, the relatively low muzzle energies and
rapid spread of shot due to its short barrel decrease its effectiveness.
However, given its vocation, this will not often be a consideration.

        Manufacturer's suggested retail price is 1650 Cr.  Spare drums are
150 Cr."

Second: T4 stats:

Name:
KMA-1 "Meatgrinder" Autoshotgun

Damage: 4.   TL: 12.    Range: Very Short.  Shots: 26.   Mass: 9.25 kg.
Price: 1650 Cr.


Third:  Thanks to Ross Coburn for running it through FF&S based on my
initial sketches.  Here are his design comments, and the FF&S numbers, for
those who are interested:

>
>Here it is, and its the only copy so don't lose it:
>
>ETC select-fire (1/3 per pull of the trigger) shotgun, 12-gauge, 18.5x70mm.
>(etc is electro-thermal chemical,and means a far more efficient way of
>burning the round down the barrel. You're welcome.)
>TL 12
>
>Length: 71/91cm (stock folded/extended).  Barrel is 32cms, which is half
>optimum, resulting in roughly 25 per cent waste energy. Receiver is 34cms.
>
>Weight Loaded: 9.2148kg.  believe it.
>Unloaded Magazine weight 1.303kg
>weight, each round 56.5grams
>
>Recoil, single shot: 2.27 (!!! and that when it weighs 20lbs!)
>Recoil, rapid-fire: 3.4
>
>Price: 1646.7cr, 150cr empty drum, .565cr/round
>
>Short Range (and forget anything beyond that with 12-gauge!): 15m (barely)
>
>Damage, 12-gauge: 4
>Damage, solid slug: 5
>
>By the way, muzzle energy works out to something like 5,503.5, compared to
>7,338 with 64cm barrel.  Geez.
>
>Yes, it's evil.  And heavy.  And expensive.

*-------------------------------------------------------------*
| Roderick D. Elliott... rellio@po-box.mcgill.ca              |
|                        elliot_r@lsa.lan.mcgill.ca           |
*-------------------------------------------------------------*
| "...an imperfect plan implemented immediately and violently |
| will always succeed better than a perfect plan."            |
|                        -Gen. George S. Patton.              |
*-------------------------------------------------------------*

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 00:23:27 -0500
From: Thad Coons <104765.503@compuserve.com>
Subject: Starship Construction

        Various people have objected to some of my ideas on starship
construction on various grounds. I don't have CT or TCS, so I must
apologize for any incorrect conclusions about their contents.
        Likewise, I don't have any large military ship designs except MT
Fighting Ships. What other sources are there? (TNE Battle Rider, for one,
maybe?)
        I will admit at once to a bias in favor of game history as written,
but that has nothing to do with my views on military economics.
The conclusions of Hans et al. on whether the Vargr could have successfully
invaded Corridor or the Aslan the Domain of Deneb, or any particular world
within them could easily be correct. I like their attempt to consider what
is militarily and economically plausible within Traveller. and as Hand
says, any changes in starship economics would indeed affect both sides.
        Apparently TCS gives a figure for ship construction capacity in
Tons per population. While this is a useful first approximation, it is only
that, and apparently at least some of Traveller's designers recognized it.
There are several benefits to measuring the shipbuilding capacity of a
world in MCr per thousand people (or whatever) instead of Tons per thousand
people. 
        First, the varying effects of government, budget, population size,
tech level, etc, some of which TCS apparently uses, can still be accounted
for. 
        Second, a natural consequence is that large, heavily armed,
armored, and powered ships are fewer in number (because they are more
expensive) than figures based solely or even chiefly on tonnage would
indicate. That agrees with my "arm waving" based on intuition and analogy
with the pre-stellar Terran military, and it's my chief difference with
Hans and company. I hope I'm not alone in feeling the way I do about it.
        Third, it allows actual ship prices to be used in estimating a
world's naval capacity. It matters not whether those prices are derived
from CT, MT, TNE, or T4; from published sources or private design, or
whether the ships are Imperial, Vargr, or United Federation of Planets :-).
There is no need to assume an average cost.
        Fourth, measuring shipbuilding capacity in MCr per capita fits
better with such things as naval budgeting and economic models for those
who would like their SF economies to be as well thought out as their
starship designs. 
        Fifth, it's no harder to figure capacity in MCr than it is to
figure it in Tons.

Thad Coons
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Sapience/


   

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

Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 21:41:18 -0800 (PST)
From: Craig Berry <cberry@cinenet.net>
Subject: Barnyard fowl in the far future

> Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 16:42:54 -0800
> From: "Douglas E. Berry" <dberry@hooked.net>
> 
> >3) Crew rooster (usual and minimum)
> 
> Woah!!  Did I miss a table in SSDS or something?

This clearly relates to the M:0 Scout having not a bridge, but rather a
cockpit.  Or perhaps it's an M:1200 inclusion...starship crews were forced
to jettison their Virus-infested alarm clocks, and...well, you get the
picture.

Now, off to design the CV Foghorn Leghorn.

- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
   |   Craig Berry - cberry@cinenet.net
 --*--    Home Page: http://www.cinenet.net/users/cberry/home.html
   |      Member of The HTML Writers Guild: http://www.hwg.org/   
       "Every man and every woman is a star."

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

Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 22:28:25 -0700
From: "Edward Swatschek" <edjs@mindlink.net>
Subject: Re: Hull Shapes...

> From:          Dane Johnson <danger@visi.com>
> Date:          Wed, 18 Dec 1996 11:02:58 -0600 (CST)

> 3.  Needle -- A pointy wedge.  Star Destroyers from the Other Game...

I think of it more as a narrower/pointier cylinder.



- --
Edward Swatschek - edjs@mindlink.net

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

Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 23:02:51 -0800
From: NODUI@worldnet.att.net
Subject: FF&S Programs

Has anyone made any programs to use in Fire, Fusion and Steel?  I'm
mostly looking for something to put ships together with.

Jon Souza
NoDUI@worldnet.att.net

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 09:38:35 +0100 (MET)
From: Hans Rancke-Madsen <rancke@diku.dk>
Subject: Re: Starship construction figures

Robert Flammang writes:
>>From: Thad Coons <104765.503@compuserve.com>
> 
>>I just went through the TL-15 ships in MT Fighting Ships of the Imperium,
>>and it appears that the average cost used in TCS is a truly gross
>>oversimplification. Among TL-15 ships, Tankers cost around .1-.2 MCr/T;
> 
>TCS does not use nor give an average cost per ton. Such averages will vary
>from campaign to campaign; but there will be /some/ average in every
>campaign.

I got those figures from a quick browse through _Supplement 9, Fighting Ships_.
They are propably not optimized. My own fleets were built at TL 12 and are
buried somewhere at home in any case. So I fell back on the official 
Traveller background material. 


      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

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 00:21:49 -0900
From: "William F. Hostman" <aramis@lunatic.asylumbbs.com>
Subject: Cold?

>>designed for the periods of extreme temperature fluctuations one gets in
>>the temperate zones of the world(as I found out today...Brrrrr. 28 degrees
>>(F) as I rode in to work. Yes, I know, I'm just another whining desert
>>rat, so shut up already ;-)
>
>        Try -5 degrees F, plus a few knots or so of wind chill... <G>

- -5 F? that's moderate temperature round here... try -20 F (Yes, 20 below)
BEFORE wind chill.

OB Traveller: just some references based upon personal experience on how to
judge relative temps (Sorry bout the F references, that's the only scale
I'm not metric-comfortable in (yes, pun intended)).
+35 F	Snow will "stick" -- stays visible on ground
+32 F	water will freeze
+15 F	Snow starts to Crunch when you walk on it
+ 0 F	Snow starts to squeak when walked upon
- -10 F	Facial hair collects frost after short duration (15 minutes+)
	exposed Skin feels "tight"
- -20 F   facial hair collects icicles after duration (30 minutes+)
	Seldom need to worry about frost on vehicle windows at this temp or
	lower
- -30 F	Snow ceases to squeak, goes back to crunching; still air stings
nose and
	eyes almost instantly
- -40 F	problems with eyes freezing open or shut (I've had it happen at -35F)

The "501 Scale", or "how long until testicles go numb in briefs and bluejeans"
paraphrased from an old "tourist brochure" from Fairbanks Alaska.  Adjusted
to personal experience. Assumes my End=6, as does subjects.
32 F	2+ hours if active
15 F	1 Hour if active, 20 minutes if not
0	30 minutes if active, 15 if not
- -5	20 minutes if active, 12 if not
- -10	10 minutes.
- -15	about 5 minutes
- -20	about a minute
0 F	about 45 minute

One other cruel thought/reminder to gm's: the biggest health risk from
"extreme" cold (-10 C or colder, according to EMT training in Alaska) is
DEHYDRATION!!!

It means that you lose moisture with every blink, breath, and word...

and your spectacles catch enough to get hard to see through at those temps,
too!

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 10:29:07 +0000
From: Andy Lilly <a.s.lilly@nortel.co.uk>
Subject: B1 to B2

Message received; will amalgamate ideas and report back via CORE comms
system after Cleon's Holiday.

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 03:27:00 -0500
From: Joe Block <jpb@miamisci.org>
Subject: On errata for T4

I'd really like to see a Acrobat file with only the T4 pages that are
revised in it - that way, we could download the file, print it out, and
paste the paragraphs that are changed into the book.

Joe Block <jpb@miamisci.org>
PGP 2048bit-Fingerprint: F8 A2 A5 15 56 42 9B 16  3F BD 57 0F 8A ED E3 21
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin, 1759

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

Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 22:18:32 -0500
From: "Christopher Weuve" <chrisweuve@usa.net>
Subject: Re: Last TNE novel

Robert Beck said:
> So, for those who are fans of  TNE and the novels, this is what he 
> could tell me on that: 
>  
> >I know nothing of the status of third TNE novel, but I believe 
> >a manuscript was in the hands of the publisher (who still exists, and 
> >may decide to publish it). 
>  
> Well, it's nice to know the manuscript was completed. I might try to 
> snail mail the publisher of the novels and see what they have to 
> say. Thanks to Loren on this and the other questions I posed to him. :) 

When I asked Dave Nilsen about it six months or so ago, IIRC he said that he 
thought he remembered that the author was suffering from writer's block and 
the publisher wasn't sure they were interested anyway.  I called the publisher 
and asked them about, and they said they hadn't decided.  I VERY politely 
asked them to print it.

One of these days I will give them another call....

- --Chris Weuve

chrisweuve@usa.net (home)
caw@intercon.com   (work/daytime)
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Give me the strength to change the things I can, the grace to accept
the things I cannot, and a great big bag of money."  [author unknown]

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

Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 22:32:50 -0500
From: "Christopher Weuve" <chrisweuve@usa.net>
Subject: Binders

Michael Barry said:
> I wasn't suggesting that binder pages be used *instead of* books. I 
> was suggesting the binder as a format for *cheap reprints* of the 
> books. [snip]... would be priced much lower and produced pretty 
> cheaply, to capture the market segments. 

This is probably _more_ expensive, for two reasons:

First, paper heavy enough to withstand a three ring binder is _more_ expensive 
than the lighter paper used in a book.  [Alternatively you can reinforce the 
pages around the holes, but that costs money, too.];

Second, now you are talking about two different print runs on different types 
of paper, etc., which requires planning resources (finding prices, the right 
processes, etc.).

When I asked somebody in the gaming industry about it, they said that the 
three-ring punched isn't any cheaper, even without the cost of the binder.

I sorta like the binder idea, but not because it is cheaper.

- --Chris Weuve

chrisweuve@usa.net (home)
caw@intercon.com   (work/daytime)
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Give me the strength to change the things I can, the grace to accept
the things I cannot, and a great big bag of money."  [author unknown]

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

Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 11:37:04 +0000
From: "Shadowcat" <kwalsh@cube.ice.net>
Subject: IISS Anthem

Nicely done.
In my campaigns based on Earth over the years. I use "Green Hills of 
Earth" by Robert Heinlein

normally done to the tune of "Rolling down to Old Maui"
although it also works to "Gilligans Island"

The Cat of Knights and Shadows
Keeper of the Alt.Callahans WWW archives
Wargamer, Weird Herald, ADHD Advocate
http://www.ice.net/~kwalsh/callahan.html

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 15:42:52 +0200
From: Antti Lahtinen <lahtinen@ee.tut.fi>
Subject: Re: What would happen if ....

> Here is a question, 
>
> A Starship with about 300 tons of cargo space is carrying say a Far Trader. 
> The Starship is currently in Jump Space. The Far Trader powers up its 
> engines and jumps. 

        This seems to be the Traveller version of "Bonehead Manouver" (as
        seen in Babylon 5).

> What happens?

        Depends on the GM. My suggestion: Both ships experience massive
        misjump effect, and the remains of their shredded hulls are dumped
        into normal space somewhere in midjump. Maybe.


        Antti Lahtinen     :     Justice is Only a Wish of a Weak
        lahtinen@ee.tut.fi :


        Antti Lahtinen     :     Justice is Only a Wish of a Weak
        lahtinen@ee.tut.fi :

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

Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 01:12:02 +1100
From: Daniel <mrblue@blitzen.canberra.edu.au>
Subject: Jumpspace and Psionics

Hello once again Traveller friends.  Firstly, thamks for all your help on my
questions about Jumpspace.  Rodericks Caligula ship design was great.  Keep
up the good work Roderick.  I agree with Glenn Hoppe's points about the
information qualities of the digest.
  Has anyone given any thought to using Psionics for Intersteller travel?
Or even using telepathy to communicate from star system to star system?
@}---^---^-----------------------------------^---^---{@
Daniel Hadson. 
"Just wait till tomorrow, I guess thats what they all say,
  just before they fall apart."
Regret, New Order
@}---^---^-----------------------------------^---^---{@

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 16:15:56 GMT
From: Carlos Alos-Ferrer <alos@merlin.fae.ua.es>
Subject: The Last Hardback

        AT LAST! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!
        I ordered my hardback in Spetember, and it arrived today... now, at
last, I can try to understand the digests of the last months.
        Hereby I claim the Longest Wait Award by the right of assassi...
er... unbeatable patience.
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carlos Alos-Ferrer                          E-mail: Alos@merlin.fae.ua.es
Dpt. Fundamentos del Analisis Economico     Phn: (34) 6 5903400, Ext. 3226
Universidad de Alicante                          (34) 6 5903614
03071-Alicante (Spain)                      Fax: (34) 6 5903685
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 10:08:27 -0500
From: 34zbtxq@cmuvm.csv.cmich.edu (Susan M. Shock)
Subject: Roderick's Ships

I just wanted to express my appreciation to Roderick Elliott for the SSDS
ships designs he's been posting here. I have enjoyed (and saved) every one
of them, and that bit about the Moonshine ships cracked me up. Please
continue to post these wonderful designs! Makes the list worth reading :)
                                                Allen

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 07:38:35 -0800 (PST)
From: Wes Payne <n9548326@cc.wwu.edu>
Subject: Re: Strength of Aslans and Domain (and now Vargr)

Thus spake "Edward Swatschek" <edjs@mindlink.net>:

[I don't have TCS -- waaaah!  How much of a navy does it say a planet can 
 build?]
 
> TCS defines the yearly Naval budget of a world as Cr500 x Pop * 
> GovMult, with the GovMult ranging from 0.5 to 1.5.  10 times this 
> amount is how much you can spend on your initial fleet (based on 
> maintenence being 10% of the ship's cost per year).

So, basically, a world can commit 250 to 750 credits per head, per year 
to its navy?
 
> I feel the numbers are more applicable to independant worlds, rather 
> than to the peacetime Imperium.  Member worlds leave the bulk of 
> navel defense to the Imperium, which doesn't spend nearly as much TCS 
> suggests.  The Domain of Deneb has (very roughly) 3-5000 ships in 
> it's 34 regular fleets, perhaps a similar number in the reserve 
> fleets.

The number of fleets is specified in a couple of resource which I do 
have, and I believe that the # of regular and reserve fleets is 
accurate.  However, I'm not so sure about the number of ships stated.  Of 
course, this number isn't at all informative if you don't know what types 
they are.  How many are actually line combatants, as opposed to support 
ships, for instance?

But that doesn't bug me as much as the budget figure named.  Unless the 
citizens of the Imperium, as a majority, live in more opulent splendor 
than I'd ever imagined, I don't see where they can afford such incredible 
taxes.

Consider the average Cr30,000 per year earning Imperial citizen.  
Admittedly, I'm pulling that figure straight from my keister (only one or 
two crewmembers on the ship the players run in my current campaign make 
anything near this figure, and they work on the bridge).  If we make some 
scientific wild-ass guesses about how much taxes he/she/it pays (based on 
what's 'average' for a late twentieth-century Earthling in an 
industrialized nation), we figure Uncle Cleon gets around Cr5000 to 
Cr7500 a year.  Now, we can only guess as to which percentage of this 
goes to the planetary military.  In the Yoo Ess, the military gets less 
than 10 percent of total outlays, so applying such a figure to the above 
gets us Cr500 to Cr750 paid to Uncle Cleon's military each year.  Now, 
despite what the Department of the Navy might want to tell you, the Navy 
isn't the entire military, and doesn't get the entire defense budget, but 
the figures cited above (way, way above) are perilously near the 
S.W.A.G.ged figures I just came up with.

So, I guess a planet can throw that much at their navy if they don't need 
ground forces, close-orbit defense forces or surface naval forces.

Perhaps if I owned a copy of TCS, I might find arguments based on its 
contents more compelling.

- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Wes Payne, known to you as:  n9548326@cc.wwu.edu
Western Washington University -- Bellingham, WA -- The Great Northwet!  
"What is FUN?  Why is it usually colored BRIGHT PINK, and where does
 it go when JESSE HELMS comes around?" 
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: 19 Dec 1996 16:57:10 -0000
From: "Paul Zumstein" <pzum@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Starship Construction

>        Apparently TCS gives a figure for ship construction capacity in
>Tons per population. While this is a useful first approximation, it is only
>that, and apparently at least some of Traveller's designers recognized it.
>There are several benefits to measuring the shipbuilding capacity of a
>world in MCr per thousand people (or whatever) instead of Tons per thousand
>people. 

Bravo!

Thad has some very good points here.  There are many factors that
effect the size of a military.  I would like to also add a worlds
dependence upon trade.  Just look at the British Empire of a few 
centuries ago.

PZ



- ---------------------------------------------------------
Get Your *Web-Based* Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
- ---------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 10:59:45 -0600 (CST)
From: Steven Bonneville <bonnevil@cs.umn.edu>
Subject: SSDS bugs....

Here's a few more minor SSDS bugs:

The text under "Select Defensive Weapons" mentions repulsors/tractors.
However, no information on these devices is provided.  (This *does*
give us a chance to bring back _High Guard_ style repulsor bays, if
we want, or to stick with FF&S and not have them.)

Black Globes are also mentioned; I don't recall if it equates them 
with the other standard term, "force fields".  However, I didn't see
any text explaining how to determine their protective value, or about
capacitor design.  This is probably a carry-over from the similarly
very poor section in FF&S.

There seems to be a problem with battery USD calculation.  Example is
the tech-12 laser.  QSDS uses a package of an MFD and several three 
ton "light laser turrets".  For an overpowered one battery turret, 
USD is 2-0-0-0; ten are 7-5-3-2.  SSDS gets 2-0-0-0 converting the
same turret, with the +1 for overpowering.  But SSDS says "once the 
weapon is converted to USD rules, multiply by number of weapons in 
the battery"; ten then are 20-0-0-0.  I think "once" in the above
sentence should read "before"; then ten are 7-5-3-2.  This is a
major bug.


Joseph "Chepe" Lockett <jlockett@io.com> (and Holst and Synof) wrote:

> CHORUS:  Though the stars be dim and winsome wan
>          And ever off so far,
>          We shall bear Sylea's flame e'er on
>          Rekindle every star.

I've been listening to too much Holst, when I can hear the IISS Chorus
trying to sing this in my head.  (Especially since the virushi counter-
tenor is annoying me -- she needs to sing out in this atmosphere.)

  Steve Bonneville
  <bonnevil@itlabs.umn.edu>

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 09:11:18 -0800
From: bmac@astro.ucla.edu (Bruce Alan Macintosh)
Subject: Re: TCS construction times, HG ship design

Michael Nutt writes

>the *best [in High Guard]
>way for a military starship to inflict damage is with a spinal mounted meson
>gun, and you can only put in one of those per hull, no matter what size the
>hull is. Also, if you look at the damage done by a really *big* meson gun
>(factor N or greater), it'll produce enough damage to put any ship it hits
>out of action until dockyard repairs can be effected, if it just doesn't
>eliminate it altogether. And hull size doesn't help *here*, either, except
>for saving you from some additional critical hits.

>Where am I going with all this? Well, contrary to the canonical "Fighting
>Ships"... I don't think the Imperium *ought* to build big DNs at all. At J3
>a wonderfully capable CA can be built on 40 ktons, and at J4, an
>equivalently capable ship can be built on about 70 ktons. Anything bigger
>should be an auxiliary of some sort, a CVA or tanker or troop transport, for
>instance. Bigger is *not* better, and is demonstrably worse, IMO. Packing
>more stuff inside a bigger hull just gives you more stuff to be destroyed by
>a meson gun hit, that's all. Your best defense is giving the enemy more
>hulls to shoot at than he's got meson guns to shoot with.

This is, of course, one of the classic High Guard design arguments (and one of the
major factors in favour of battleriders.) If you go too far with meson-gun-only
ships, particularly if you underarmour your ships, you do make yourself 
vulnerable to having your meson guns scrubbed off by missile-armed 
destroyers, of course.

It's no longer true in FFS, and hence not in T4 - FFS allows multiple parallel
spinal mounts, and the new scaling laws for armour allow big ships to carry a 
*lot* more armour than small ships, and under some circumstances allow big
ships to carry PA guns big enough to cripple cruisers, and PA guns have *much*
longer effective range than meson guns (though these advantages do go away
at higher TLs.)

Bruce

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 09:12:45 -0800
From: bmac@astro.ucla.edu (Bruce Alan Macintosh)
Subject: Re: Hull Shapes...

At 08:49 PM 12/18/96 +0000, you wrote:
<snip>
>> 7.  Open Structure -- Any sort of weird splayed-out shape, like the
>> Enterprise.
>
>NO! The original Enterprise would be probably classified as a cylinder.
>Just because it has warp nacelles tacked on, doesn't make it an open
>structure, imho.
>
>An Open Structure means an open *framework* with no enclosing outer hull
>covering the entire thing. There may be enclosed parts, but an open
>structure means the framework is on the *outside*. Like the proposed
>space station Freedom, forex.
>
>-- 
>

I would say that Open Frame is supposed to be the same as the old 
dispersed structure, or any structure in which large amounts of the volume
of a ship-enclosing rectangular prism is empty (if that makes sense). FOr
example, in TNE the classic ring-shaped lab ship was rated as open structure.

Bruce

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 08:27:07 -0800
From: "Glenn M. Goffin, Esq." <sudet@well.com>
Subject: Radiation and its nasty things...

>From: Jeff & Michelle Norton <103010.212@CompuServe.COM>

>        I'm in a game/write-up and come accross a problem. Seems a valuable metal
>deposit (used for jump grids, I think lanthium(?)) is in a radioactive area and
>contaminated. 

This isn't a problem; it's an opportunity!

>Does anyone know what a nuclear damper would do to effect the area? What procedures 
>would tech 12 have to fix this mess? 

I think Striker details the use of nuclear dampers for cleaning up radiation.  (I really 
do need a second set of books for the office, so I can cite chapter and verse.)  As I 
recall, you need two radiation dampers at lower tech levels (like 12-14), which direct 
polarized damping rays at the irradiated location.  The damping rays neutralize the 
radiation, making it safe in a short time.  At TL15, you only need one damper.  I don't 
know the physics involved, but I'm sure that the many physicists on the list can help 
you there.

>What would treatment of radiation poisoning would the imperium use? 

In one of the Travellers' Digests or Megatraveller Digests is an article on treatment of 
radiation poisoning.  It seems to me that the treatment involved using a virus that 
neutralized the radiation and reversed radiation damage, but I don't recall exactly.

>        I understand army decon procedures, but they don't seem to apply. 

That is TL7-8?  They don't apply.  

- --Glenn

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

Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 08:50:42 -0800
From: "Glenn M. Goffin, Esq." <sudet@well.com>
Subject: Re: I'm not anti-Foss...I'm pro-Choice :-)

From: Joseph "Chepe" Lockett <jlockett@io.com>

>Sorry to wax so philosophical on you guys.

No apology is needed; this is, after all, a mailing list dedicated to a literary form, 
and to visions of the future.  If philosophy has a place anywhere, it's here.

>And this all comes down to: how does IG want to position Traveller?  CT

>the quest for "real science" really took hold with DGP and MegaTraveller,
>then even greater purity with TNE (viz. Chadwick & Nilsen's articles on

>People didn't like that.  And Traveller had too much at stake in the old
>paradigm (okay, I said it, shoot me now) that it had trouble dealing with
>newer science fiction tropes like cybernetic augmentation, direct brain

I think you've hit an important nerve here:  What science-fiction paradigm is going to 
sell best to the RPG crowd?  IG seems to be pursuing a hedging strategy on this point, 
but that may ultimately not be the best way to go.  Maybe IG should accept that it 
will either lose the customers who want the total hard science approach of TNE/Twilight: 
2000/2300 AD, or those who want more space opera and human conflict (as opposed to 
conflict of sophonts against the elements).  If it doesn't, it could lose all of them by 
not providing enough real science to the former, and too much burdensome technical 
detail to the latter.  I don't have an answer.  Personally, I like the flexibility of 
being able to determine how things "really" work if needed, but not having to if it's 
not important to the story.  I thought MT had the balance about right for my purposes.

>contemplating their realistic social effects.

This is really the realm of science fiction authors, which includes Marc Miller, GDW, 
IG, and -- us, the referees.  The telephone radically altered society.  So did the 
automobile.  Each had multiple levels of effects:  users' lives were changed by access 
to mobility and communication, but the economic structure of society was changed as well 
by the need to build cars and telephones efficiently (by collecting massive resources in 
appropriate locations, including metals, rubber, plastics, and workers).  What effect 
will gravitic technology have on how society is structured and on how individuals 
interact?  Jump drive?  Anagathics?  

- --Glenn

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

End of Traveller-digest V1996 #774
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