Traveller-digest    Thursday, September 23 1999    Volume 1999 : Number 1119



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

The following topics are covered in this digest:

software data formats
Re: More Art 
Re: Merchant Ship Question
Bug fixed Re: [BITS] Website Update 22/9/99 
Re:  GDW Sign
3257th Philosophy Battalion (the Descartes Demons)
Slightly OT: Religion
Re:  Personal income tax for PC's (somewhat long)
Re: My Circle Sea PBEM campaign
Re: Name Suggestions
RE: Calling Peter Trevor
Re: Time Dilation
Re: Foreknowledge of Jump Exit Timing
Re: Time Question(s)
Re: [Off Topic] Jagannath?
Re: Personal income tax for PCs
Limit of planetary authority (Was: Income tax for PCs)
RE: Personal income tax for PC's (longish)
Merchant Ship Question (was re: More at Beowulf Down...)
Re: One question answered, another asked...

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

Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 22:09:29 -0700
From: "B. Mallory" <bmallory@earthlink.net>
Subject: software data formats

To All,
     Thanks for all of the help in bringing me up to date with the
current state of Classic Traveller software.  I would like to share an
approach to sharing data between programs.  I hope that something
general enough to be usefull can be developed.
  The example character file given below is sprinkled with comments that
start with a '#' that would not be required in the file and should be
ignored by any post processing software.  It is my hope that others may
find something usefull in this example.  The intent is to provide
something that a human can read and edit while being able to be parsed
and edited by a program.  Please let me know what you think of this
example.


# Character data
# version 0.10
# There are five data types. Examples of each type follow.
# IDENT:type        "string"
IDENT:NAME          "Alexander Lascelles Jamison"
IDENT:TITLE         " "
IDENT:SERVICE       "Merchant"
IDENT:RANK          "Captain"
IDENT:HOMEWORLD     " "
IDENT:HOMESUBSECTOR " "
IDENT:HOMESECTOR    " "
# STAT:type base, modified
# STAT:AGE chrono, physiological
STAT:STRENGTH        6,     7
STAT:DEXTERITY       8,     7
STAT:ENDURANCE       8,     9
STAT:INTELLIGENCE    c,     c
STAT:EDUCATION       8,     9
STAT:SOCIAL_STANDING 9,     9
STAT:AGE             35.00, 35.00
STAT:PSI             0,     0
# DIVIDEND: "item", quantity, term_in_years, last_access_age, roll
# DIVIDEND: "High Passage", 2, 0.16, 35.0, 1+
# DIVIDEND: "Telepathy",    1, 0.08, 35.0, 8+
DIVIDEND: "Cash", 4000, 1.0, 35.0, 1+
# SKILL: "name", level, tech_level
# SKILL: "psi_talent", level, n/a
SKILL: "Dagger",      1, 12
SKILL: "Cutlass",     1, 12
SKILL: "Vacc Suit",   1, 12
SKILL: "Pilot",       2, 12
SKILL: "Body Pistol", 1, 12
SKILL: "SMG",         1, 12
SKILL: "Electronic",  3, 12
# ITEM: name, quantity, tech_level, for_future_use
# ITEM: "Cash", on_account, tech_level_required to access, cash_on_hand
ITEM: "Dagger",               1, 12,   0
ITEM: "Cutlass",              1, 12,   0
ITEM: "Body Pistol",          1, 12,   0
ITEM: "Body Pistol ammo", 10000, 12,   0
ITEM: "ship name",            1, 12,   0
ITEM: "Cash",             33000,  7, 200

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

Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 01:17:55 -0400
From: "Keven R. Pittsinger" <jamstar@accesstoledo.com>
Subject: Re: More Art 

> On 09/20/99 at 12:05 PM,  Bruce Johnson <johnson@pharmacy.arizona.edu> said:
> 
> >Well, I'll work on it. My _next_ project is the fabled 'Mae Lee', of
> >Eris' Akus Moby PBEM campaign.
> 
> You mean the flying brick?  It's going to look like a boxy minivan
> with a pair of penguin wings sticking out the sides.  <g> I know
> you'll do a good job on it Bruce, but you'll *never* make it look
> pretty.

It's a trader, Eris.  It doesn't *HAVE* to be pretty in order to be loved.  <grin>

Keven

- -- 
tc++ tm+ tn t4- to ru++ ge+ 3i c+ jt au st- ls pi+ ta+ he+ so- vi zh sy
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                     Science-Fiction Adventure
                                                     In Reavers' Deep

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

Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 15:43:53 +1000
From: david.d.jaques-watson@centrelink.gov.au
Subject: Re: Merchant Ship Question

Dear Folks -

Michel Vaillancourt replied to my query:
>>BTW, does someone have an algorithm for calculating whether a trader can
>>break even?
>
>        I have worked one up that calculates the "Return On Investment"
>(ROI) of a vessel per annum.  Its based on a pretty straight-foward set of
>calculations.  If you wish, I can post the algorithm here or mail it to
you.

Thanks! Unless it's an actual spreadsheet - or hideously long - I think it
would be appropriate to post it here for everyone to see (any serious
objections?!?).

What are the numbers based on? The original CT trade rules, the Merchant
Prince/MT rules, or the new G:T Far Trader rules?
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------
David "Hyphen" Jaques-Watson        Beowulf Down (Tavonni/Vilis/SM 1520)
http://www.tip.net.au/~davidjw                       davidjw@pcug.org.au
"I file things in historical order, with a hashing algorithm of gravity"
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------
REQ'D DISCLAIMER - material & opinions contained within are solely those
of the author and do not necessarily represent, in whole or in part, the
position of Centrelink or any other Commonwealth Government agency.
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 08:21:50 +0100
From: SD Mooney <dom@cybergoths.u-net.com>
Subject: Bug fixed Re: [BITS] Website Update 22/9/99 

Terry Mixon <tlmixon@yahoo.com> writes:

>- --- SD Mooney <dom@cybergoths.u-net.com> wrote:
>
>> BITS - British Isles Traveller Support
>> http://www.bits.org.uk/
>>
>> Is proud to announce.....
>
>Suddenly a strange man leapt out of a passing air raft and
>shouted, "Hold everything!"
>
>> - 101 Starships for GURPS Traveller Release 4
>
>The link you have on the archive page actually points to the
>Sylea map.

Fixed.

When I find the Gremlin I'll get him.

Apologies.

Got to dash - work in 9 min.

Dom

- ----------Dom Mooney---dom@cybergoths.u-net.com------------
                       MiB - Marines in Battledress
   "Protecting the Imperium from the Scum of the Galaxy"
Rob Prior's Mac software @ http://www.bits.org.uk/ 

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

Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 23:51:03 -0700
From: "Glenn M. Goffin" <gmgoffin@pacbell.net>
Subject: Re:  GDW Sign

> From: JLAROSEE@aol.com
 
>    Well, today I traveled to the center of the universe, Normal, Illinois, 
> and stood beneath the GDW sign. After a brief reflection on all that grew

A tale well told, and I'm glad to have heard it.  Good work!

- --Glenn

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

Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 00:01:11 -0700
From: "Glenn M. Goffin" <gmgoffin@pacbell.net>
Subject: 3257th Philosophy Battalion (the Descartes Demons)

> From: "Douglas E. Berry" <gridlore@pop.mindspring.com>

> >Or how about "GURPS Traveller: Ground Ponders?"
> 
> "Sarge, is it man's nature to be evil, or are we essentially good, and
> corrupted by desire?"

I'm so glad that I wasn't drinking or eating anything while reading the
TML tonight.  Really glad.  May I forward your entire email to a few
friends?

- --Glenn

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

Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 00:16:32 -0700
From: "Glenn M. Goffin" <gmgoffin@pacbell.net>
Subject: Slightly OT: Religion

> From: igor@truserve.com
> Subject: Slightly OT: Religion

> ..how would these religions take in the new view of the universe? What
> place would aliens have in the various dogma (are they savable, or are they beyond the
> grace of god/allah/etc...). Once his role becomes known, where would Grandfather and
> the ancients fit in? What is the religious importance (if any) of Earth?

I don't think this is off-topic at all, but I think the answers depend
on the specific views and understanding of the believers that you
describe (21st century Terrans, or their descendants).  Naming the
religions to which they belong is not enough information; we need a lot
more detail.  How rigid are the dogmas to which they adhere?  What are
the tenets of these dogmas?  

- --Glenn

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

Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 00:52:14 -0700
From: "Glenn M. Goffin" <gmgoffin@pacbell.net>
Subject: Re:  Personal income tax for PC's (somewhat long)

> From: Dan Roseberry <rosebee@troi.csw.net>
> Subject: Personal income tax for PC's (somewhat long)
> 
> I apologize if this subject has been done to death.

It's a perennial, but not quite done to death.  

In my Traveller Universe, the Imperium does not tax citizens.  The
Imperium collects something from its member states.  It may collect
money, but maybe materials or draftees or something else instead; it
depends.  This process is much like tribute, as known on Terra for much
of its history.  The process is also not unlike medieval European
lord-vassal relations.  The member states get almost total autonomy, the
protection of the Imperial naval/military establishment, and access to
the interstellar marketplace.  In return, they pledge allegiance to the
Emperor, allow the Imperium to build a starport, grant extrality there,
allow Imperial forces to use the world and system, and pay something.  

Member states levy taxes as they see fit.  The 11,000 worlds of the
Imperium probably have 110,000 variations on tax regimes.

Every citizen of the Imperium is a citizen of some member state, and
subject to taxation according to the laws of that member state. 
Imperial law and policy (remember, it's really not a government of laws)
prevents member states from causing serious harm to interstellar
commerce and the peace of the realm.  This includes harm caused by
excessive taxation.  

The PCs gallivanting around the Imperium making money may have reporting
obligations to their home worlds.  Their home worlds may lose track of
them completely.  The Imperium may or may not help the home worlds find
their citizens.  (It depends a lot on how much tax revenue is at
stake.)  

I started this essay by saying that the Imperium does not tax citizens. 
"Citizen" is a term of Imperial law that means a sophont with Imperial
citizenship.  Corporations are not citizens.  The Imperium does tax LICs
and other organizations with Imperial registration.  

- --Glenn

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

Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 10:25:00 +0200 (MET DST)
From: Tommy Grav <tommy.grav@astro.uio.no>
Subject: Re: My Circle Sea PBEM campaign

On Sat, 18 Sep 1999, Andrew Moffatt-Vallance wrote:

>At the beginning of the year I started a pocket empires PBEM game (the
>Circle Sea campaign). Unfortunately real life events intervened and
>effectively killed it (my very sincere apologies to all the players).
>
>However now, my life has got a little less hectic (I've finished my ECE
>diploma and got a lot better at time management) and I am thinking
>about restarting it. Unfortunetly in the meantime, I suffered two very
>major computer crashes and have lost most of my data on it. So I have
>two polite requests. Would the players please contact me if they are still
>interested and if you still have any of the files, could you please send
>them to me. Thanks heaps.
>

Heck yes, still interested and your stuff is still sitting her
on my computer if you need it

>
>Andrew etc
>http://users.netaccess.co.nz/amv/
>    Listening to way too much Dave Brubeck
>

Tommy Grav
- -------------------------------------------------------------
tommy.grav@astro.uio.no     http://www.uio.no/~tommygr/  
Institute of Astrophysics, UiO, No  
IMTU tn++t4+tg+ ru+ge++ !3i jt+au+st+ls hi++dr-so++zh-sy-sw++ 
 

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

Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 09:24:57 +0100
From: Phil Kitching <postmark.design@btinternet.com>
Subject: Re: Name Suggestions

In the competition for obscure titles:

	GT: Third Draft

(it's a CT char gen reference)

Phil Kitching
- --
  http://www.btinternet.com/~salvo/
  Postmark Design Bureau, Emerging Technologies Division.
 "Microwaving half-baked ideas from across the Galaxy"

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

Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 10:05:02 +0100
From: "Trevor, Peter" <Peter.Trevor@rb.cwplc.com>
Subject: RE: Calling Peter Trevor

Nick Bradbeer wrote:
> Peter - If you're receiving this mail, I've got the spreadsheet
> data you were interested in at GenCon, but I've lost your email
> address.

Cool.  You have a choice ...

work: peter.trevor@rb.cwplc.com
home: ptrevor@rctrevor.com
alt:  ptrevor.trisen@zetnet.co.uk

Hmmm ...  any  chance  of  getting  the  current  draft  of  your
Traveller variant of Full Thrust?  I did enjoy it!



> I'm going to have to unsubscribe from the TML for a week to
> avoid having my mailbox swamped when I get back from holiday,
<snip>

Enjoy.



Regards PLST
"I think I am, therefore I am (I think)."

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

Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 01:36:19 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Time Dilation

In mail you write:

> Depends on your definition of significant, I suppose.
>
> Wouldn't the time that passes inside a quickly moving object compared to the 
> outside (meaning relativistically stationary) something like this?
>
> I = O * sqrt(1- (v squared / c squared))
>
> If you use c as "1", and v as some percentage of c, all you should need is a 
> calculator that can do a square root and multiplication.

With a calculator, you can replace the sqrt(1-(v^2/c^2)) with
cos(arcsin(v^2/c^2)). *Much* easier. 

A good pair of test values is that .6 c has a tau factor of .8. thus
	cos(arcsin(.6))=.8

On my calculator that's:

.6<2nd><sin><cos>

> so if 10 hours happened in the "outside" reference, with someone travelling 
> at 30% speed of light, you end up with about 9.5 hours "inside".
>
> Now if you happen to be going 70% of the speed of light, you end up with 
> just over 7 hours for ever 10 that passes outside.

The trick is that it days *weeks* to hit 30% of c. 

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

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

Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 01:41:23 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Foreknowledge of Jump Exit Timing

In mail you write:

> Hi all.  A question that has probably been discussed before, but...Do
> starship crews know when they're going to exit jump?  How long before the
> event?  How precisely?  I'm not sure if there's a canonical reference for
> this (or several contradictory ones :-) but I'd like to know what you say
> in IYTUs.  It's important to a scenario I'm cooking up...

Since it's given in the official stuff that it's not possible to know
*before* you jump, and also that by dint of *much* extra calculation,
squadrons can reduce the "spread" in their exit times, it's clear that
you can have *some* effect before jump. But you still won't know
*until* you jump. 

That leaves two possibilities.

1. once you enter jumpo, you know how long until exit, but you can't do
   anything about it. 
2. you only know that you are about to exit jump shortly before
   exiting when <something> happens to the instument readings or to the
   jump bubble.

I think I've seen some misjump tables that have the time in jump being
extra long. I'm not sure if they are official. And I don't recall them
giving any indication as to which of the above is right. 

#1 is easier (in some ways) on the players. But #2 has it's points as
well. Consider a misjump that's going to last 2 weeks instead of 1. 

In case #1, you'll know it as soon as you enter jump, and have to start
conserving. And maybe you get to play the old game of "But there's only
enough air for 5 people for that long, and we've got 6 people".

In case 2, everything is ok until around day 8. At which point things
get ugly, because you won't know how much longer the ship will be in
jump. 

Both have their points. I'm more inclined towards #1.

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

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

Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 01:51:48 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: Time Question(s)

In mail you write:

> Craig Berry  writes:
>>>      I hate to step into a thread that I haven't been following,
>>And this'll teach you why you hate it. :)
>
>         I hate it when I'm right... :)
>
>>>      but here it goes: Has anyone pointed out that it is velocity
>>>      rather than acceleration that is pertinant to time dialation?
>>Sorry, incorrect.  General relativity shows that acceleration (or
>>equivalently, being in a gravity field) also causes time dilation,
>>independent of the relative-motion-induced dilation covered by special
>>relativity. 
>
>         D'uh.  Thanks for waking up my brain.
>
>>>      Even if a vessel reaches "reletivistic speed" on the way to
>>>      jump diameter, it will only be moving that fast at the end 
>>>      of the trip (By the way, even at 6G from a size A world, a 
>>>      vessel will only be moving at about 0.000046 c).
>>Quite true, and it turns out that for reasonable accelerations and trip
>>times, the GR (acceleration-induced) component is also vanishingly >small.
>
>         That works for me.  Just how much acceleration is required
>         for 'noticable' time dialation effects?

For ship's, you can use the "instaneous velocity" to figure the time
dilation at that point. Doing anything else requires using hyperbolic
functions. Which are sufficiently messy that I avoid that sort of
thing. 

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

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

Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 01:56:55 PST
From: shadow@krypton.rain.com (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Re: [Off Topic] Jagannath?

In mail you write:

>>>     Odoric reported that some worshipers
>>>     deliberately allowed themselves to be crushed beneath the
>>>     vehicle's wheels as a sacrifice to Vishnu. That story was
>>>     probably an exaggeration or misinterpretation of actual events,
>>>     but it spread throughout Europe anyway.
>>
>>No, it wasn't really that much of an exaggeration. In the town of Puri, in
>>India, there is an yearly festival, which is pretty well documented. At
>>different points in history pilgrims would throw themselves under the
>>wheels.
>
> Some Christians in the Phillipines crucify themselves in a festival. (Which
> may or may not be yearly - my Tagalog wasn't up to reading the paper, and
> my translator didn't want to talk about it much.)

That sort of thing goes in in Latin America too. Seems to be something
they picked up from the Spanish.

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

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

Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 14:50:28 +0200 (METDST)
From: Hans Rancke-Madsen <rancke@diku.dk>
Subject: Re: Personal income tax for PCs

Dan Roseberry writes:

> So you've really thrown everything at the PC's and they still survive
> that trade run/belt mining/merc ticket adventure. They did it and
> managed to make alot of credits without being rules rapists.(wow!) 

>I've gotta assume that the Imperuim is gonna want some taxes out of their
>profits. After all, the money to finance those Trillion Credit Squadrons
>and Imperial bureaucrats has to be coming from somewhere, right? The
>Cr500 tax from TCS only pertains to Navy budgets; Striker theoretically
>hinted at what I'll call a military tax with which you could calculate
>spending for all military services. Pocket Empires had a govenment budget
>and taxes which one could exptrapolate into a person owing so many Credits
>per year, but that was only for small intersteller governments which really
>can't compare to the 11,000 worlds in the Imperuim.

I'll leave Pocket Empires aside, because I haven't done any economic
analysis of it's tax structure, but the Cr500/citizen from _TCS_, if applied
to the Imperium, is enough to fund a fleet many times larger than various
canonical descriptions imply. Even the 3% that _Striker_ claims is average
for Imperial planets is too much.

As for the Imperial bureacracy, I suspect (but don't have the calculations
to back this) that the 2% of the company that you have to give to the
Emperor in order to get an Imperial charter would be enough to fund it.

Peter Trevor writes:

>The second source of Imperial revenue comes from a  business  tax
>levied on any LIC corporation (including  the  megacorporations).
>Typically a flat 5% of gross annual profits.

I don't think that a tax is necessary given that the Emperor owns a minimum
of 2% of each company (That little detail has the added effect that creative
accounting means that you're cheating the Emperor...)
 
Anthony Jackson writes:

>Hm...interesting that the Imperium doesn't interfere in tariffs, given that
>its theoretical purpose is to encourage interstellar trade.

Surely the best way to encourage trade is to have no tariffs at all? 



      Hans Rancke
University of Copenhagen
     rancke@diku.dk
- ------------
        "The referee should determine the nature of subsequent
         events based on the individual situation."
                                _76 Patrons_, p. 8

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

Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 15:18:47 +0200 (METDST)
From: Hans Rancke-Madsen <rancke@diku.dk>
Subject: Limit of planetary authority (Was: Income tax for PCs)

Jim MacLean writes:

>Anthony Jackson wrote:
>>Ian Ferguson writes:
>>>      On the other hand, if large corporations could escape taxation
>>>      simply by not setting up shop on an Imperial member world
>>>      (prefering instead to locate on asteroids, in otherwise 
>>>      uninhabited systems, or even on ships), one would expect a lot
>>>      of people and businesses dodging the tax man this way.
>>
>>Not really.  If you set up on an independent planetoid, either you're
>claiming to be another planet (in which case you owe imperial taxes, 
>like any planet) or you claim to be under the jurisdiction of another
>planet (in which case you owe whatever that planet collects).
> 
>I'm not sure of this.  I've seen many references (though I can't recall
>where) to planetary authority ending at either the edge of the atmosphere
>or the 100d limit of the mainworld.  Everything else the Imperium owns.

I really think that has to be a gross simplification. A slogan, perhaps,
but not an accurate description of the true state of affairs. Going back
to the formative years of the Imperium, we know that it often persuaded
pocket empires and strong high-population worlds to join peacefully. They
could hardly have done that if they had insisted that any colonies and
outposts these worlds owned outside their 100 diameter limits would become
Imperial property.

"The space between the worlds" is propably jumpspace, not interplanetary
space. Of course, for practical purposes the Imperium would have to have
some form of jurisdiction in interplanetary space in order to control
jumpspace, but to the extent of _owning_ everything off the mainworld? I
don't believe it.

>I don't know how this works for asteroid main worlds.

Eaxctly.
 

      Hans Rancke
University of Copenhagen
     rancke@diku.dk
- ------------
        "The referee should determine the nature of subsequent
         events based on the individual situation."
                                _76 Patrons_, p. 8

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

Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 09:47:24 -0400
From: Ian Ferguson <ian@vax2.concordia.ca>
Subject: RE: Personal income tax for PC's (longish)

Anthony Jackson writes:
>Ian Ferguson writes:
>>      On the other hand, if large corporations could escape taxation
>>      simply by not setting up shop on an Imperial member world
>>      (prefering instead to locate on asteroids, in otherwise 
>>      uninhabited systems, or even on ships), one would expect a lot
>>      of people and businesses dodging the tax man this way.
>Not really.  If you set up on an independent planetoid, either you're
>claiming to be another planet (in which case you owe imperial taxes, >like
any planet) or you claim to be under the jurisdiction of another >planet
(in which case you owe whatever that planet collects).

	This depends on some other factors:  If your 'world' is not
	an Imperial member, then you are not subject to Imperial
	taxation, but you might have to pay duties to do business in
	the Imperium.

Jim MacLean writes:
>All Licensed Imperial Corporations (LICs) have to pay Imperial taxes.  >As
for other folks homesteading the asteroids to avoid taxes, consider >this a
subsidy of out-system settlements which partially compensates for >the
dangers inherent in such enterprises (see the Sunbeard Declaration).

	This is how I see it.  If you want to do business on more than
	one Imperial world, you need a LIC.  If you do business in one
	system, you need to pay tax to the system government (usually).
	If you are doing cross-border business, there are Imperial
	duties to pay.

	A couple of questions: Why should company Q bother to get a 
	LIC? (does the Imperium active enforce a requirement? is it
	just for bankruptsy protection?) How does the Imperium tax
	LICs?

David Jaques-Watson writes:
>And if you are a ship, you must be registered at a homeport. For >instance
(from memory) Jamieson Factors is registered at Regina. My >guess would be
that megacorps (and other trans-sector companies) must >have one "homeport"
in every sector.

	I have always just assumed that larger companies follow this
	example, but independant freetraders do not.  Of course, I 
	have not really thought about it.

>I *would* be interested to hear Jim MacLean's thoughts on how
non->Imperial visitors are treated in imperial space. Does the Big I worry
>about protecting internal trade from external markets? Are there tariffs
>to enter the Imperium?? Or does revenue come from an alien starship
>paying for quarantine/spaceworthiness/whatever inspections???

	Yes, please!

Peez

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

Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 09:49:10 -0400
From: Walter Smith <SmithW@HARTWICK.EDU>
Subject: Merchant Ship Question (was re: More at Beowulf Down...)

Michel Vaillancourt wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
        Further, the ROI algorithim does not average out what battle-damage
costs need to be absorbed across the year.  The presumtion is that an
unarmed vessel will not go where it can be molested, and that few Corsairs
will take a crack at an adequately armed ship, since getting killed is bad
for the bottom line ;-).
>>>>>>>>>
How many jumps per year, and to what kind of starport is your
algorithm assuming? 

I was just thinking, as I noodled around with a Free Trader on the 
Spinward Main for an hour or so a few weeks back. I noticed that
Dinon (1811 Lanth/Spinward Marches), a necessary stop for a Jump-1
ship on the Spinward Main, had no fuel sources on-planet. The gas giant
was a week's travel away from the mainworld, costing a Free Trader
pretty much a full starport visit for that trade year. 

Unexpected repairs. Administrative delays. Crew problems - if one
guy is your Steward, your Medic, and your Gunner, can you
fly if he's sick, hurt or gets a better job offer?

I know there's no way to reliably model such things, just like Battle
Damage, but I'm wondering if small company or single-ship merchant
operations can meet the efficiency (jumps per year) of a larger line.
If a lower efficiency is expected, should it be reflected in a lower ROI?

Walt Smith

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

Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 09:07:45 -0500 (CDT)
From: Steven Bonneville <bonnevil@ima.umn.edu>
Subject: Re: One question answered, another asked...

Thomas Schoene wrote:

> Just a note: The enlisted insignia there are exactly as described in TD#14
> until you reach the senior sergeants. In TD#14, an E-7 would have one pip
> on top, and one on bottom. An E-8 adds one on the left, E-9 adds one on the
> right as well.  Senior NCOs in a unit have a sunburst instead, alone for a
> company SNCO (usually an E-7), with wreath for the battalion SNCO (an E-8)
> and with crown for the Regimental SNCO (an E-9).  Whether this can be
> sanitized and recycled is above my pay grade.

I vaguely recall that Dave Nilsen (of TNE) wrote the original article, if
the question is whether or not DGP owns it -- if true, he'd know the answer.

  -- Steve Bonneville

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

End of Traveller-digest V1999 #1119
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