
-------- TML Message #910 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 910
Date: Fri, 2 Feb 90 13:08:34 -0500
From: wrgate.wr.tek.com!uunet.uu.net!tnc!m0068@tektronix.TEK.COM
Subject: Psionics help


To: uunet!dadla.wr.tek.com!traveller
From: m0068@tnc.UUCP (Stephen D Smith)
 
Subject: Psionics
Organization: personal mailbox at The Next Challenge BBS
 
      Hello,
 
      I'm new to the list, and playing MegaTraveller, (four
months for both), and this is my first posting. 
 
      I have a question about psionics, basically are there
any sources that give good hints, suggestions, etc., on the
use of them in MegaTraveller? I've found the rule books to
be more tantalizing than useful.
 
      I'll explain my reason for asking. I rolled up a
character, got a good psionics rating and a *SPECIAL* ability.
The GM came up with material psychogenesis, the creation of
matter/antimatter via psi. To make a long story short I'm
*retiring* the character as she unbalances the game.
 
      As an example; the ship the party was travelling on
was being pursued by a much larger pirate vessel that could,
and probably would, stomp us into atoms. I simply created a
milligram of antimatter directly in front of the pirate ship.
Need I describe what the matter\antimatter explosion did to the
**HYDROGEN** fuel?
 
      Another example; the party was captured by the bad guys.
After waiting a while the bad guys attempt to interrogate the
party individually. The interrogator, in what is obviously a
torture chamber *politely* asks my character in a chair
directly under a devices with lots of blades and stuff. I
refused, he insisted, I refused, he starts to press a red
button, I placed a thumb sized piece of sodium in the center
of his brain, he dies horribly and yuckie.
 
      The GM agrees with my decision to retire my character. So
I'm trying to find information on psionics and their uses. Any
one out there have any??
 
      Thanks in advance for info, pointers, or hints.
 
            Stephen D Smith   USENET: m0068@tnc.UUCP
                              BIX: sdsmith
- --Name = STEPHEN SMITH  Mailbox # = 68

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-------- TML Message #911 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 911
From: d9bertil@dtek.chalmers.se (Bertil Jonell)
Subject: Re: World Builder
Date: Fri, 2 Feb 90 12:09:46 MET DST



> I was attempting to "detail" a few systems within the spinward marches,
> looking at interesting (read hi-tch, low law, etc...) worlds in particular.
> and I came up against the small problem of the large number of M5+ type V
> stars in the marches.
> 
> These stars, you might notice - have no habitable zones!  they all end up
> as -141 iceballs, even the rich ones, or the agrarian, or etc.
> 
> Is there a good distance (below orbit 0, presumably) to put these worlds.
> Or Are al these worlds really iceballs? (I was perturbed to find that some
> already published non-iceball worlds turn into iceballs under world-builder.)

The big determinig factor (besides the primarys luminocity and the distance to
the primary) for the temperature is the worlds Albedo, (ie the factor of how
much of the energy that the world recieves that is reflected off it).

Ye olde "Scouts" had a quite good system for determining albedo by determinig
the proportion of different kinds of terrain on the planets surface. Totally
unworkable by hand but perfect on computer. 
The percentage of clouds and their reflectivity had the single largest
influence on the albedo, and the percentage of clouds was given by Atmosphere
and Hydrographics. But tailoring the reflectivity of the clouds one could 
achieve pretty much any surface temperature.
(and make some doubletalk to the players like: The clouds on Ruie seems to be 
very dark, probably tainted by dust or pollution...:-)

In the example of Ruie (which I did some weeks ago) even this was not enough,
and I had already fudged the greenhouse factor. In the end, I had to put it 
in an orbit about 80% of orbit 0. (orbit -0.2? :-) to give it an temperature
above zero.

If anyone is interested I have an Excel worksheet (for the Mac) that produces
a temperature worksheet if given some basic input about the world.
(a real hack but it workes). I'll try to post it if anyone is interested.
(It has one drawback, it uses the luminocity figyres from "Scouts", and
WBH has totally different figures (probably adapted to the system it uses
for determining temperature.))

- -bertil-
- -- 
Bertil K K Jonell @ Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg
NET: d9bertil@dtek.chalmers.se 
VOICE: +46 31 723971 / +46 300 61004     "Don't worry,I've got Pilot-7"
SNAILMAIL: Box 154,S-43900 Onsala,SWEDEN      (Famous last words)      
"GOOD DEEL ON SLIGHTLY USED CRANE" Orson Scott Card 'The Abyss'

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-------- TML Message #912 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 912
Date: Fri, 2 Feb 90 18:23 EST
From: EHT%PSUARCH.BITNET@cornellc.cit.cornell.edu
Subject: NPC generator and Norton



Sorry everyone, but my mailer and I are having differences of opinion about
what constitutes a valid address, so I sent this to the list instead of
individuals.  I'll corner the system administrator and see what can be done...
P.


Peter,
   I would also like a copy of your C++ NPC generator.  I'll try it out here
and let you know what I think.
Thanx in advance.

Paul.


Leonard,
   At last!  Another Norton fan!  I haven't read Souix Spaceman yet, but
I have read most of her other books.  Although her Witch World series are
good, I prefer her books set in the era of galactic travel/Patrol/Rangers etc.
What about you?  What do you like about her writing?

Paul.

- ---------
You see me now a veteran
   of a thousand psychic wars
   I've been living on the edge so long
   where the winds of Limbo roar
And I'm young enough to look at
   but far too old to see
   all the scars are on the inside
   I don't know if there's anything left of me

- --BOC

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-------- TML Message #913 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 913
From: carson@tron.bwi.wec.COM
Subject: Spacecraft drives
Date: Fri, 02 Feb 90 16:35:48 EST


This is a repost of a message I saved from the sci.space newsgroup that seems 
relevent to the discussion of spacecraft drives.


- ------- Forwarded Message

From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: constant-boost fusion spaceships, power requirements of
Message-ID: <1989Apr10.023450.27813@utzoo.uucp>
Date: 10 Apr 89 02:34:50 GMT
References: <290@vlsi.ll.mit.edu> <1098@Portia.Stanford.EDU> <296@v7fs1.UUCP> <5849@pdn.nm.paradyne.com> <1989Mar26.003753.11770@utzoo.uucp> <17272@cisunx.UUCP> <1989Apr5.194855.4674@utzoo.uucp> <1589@attdso.att.com> <4448@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 100

In article <4448@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu> sobleski@gondor.cs.psu.edu (Mark A. Sobolewski) writes:
>><....the power requirements are not merely high, but staggering, if
>
>    For the record... I get 1 gigawatt for a 20 kilo-ton (metric) mass
>accelerating at 1g.  (P=E/t, delta(v)=g*delta(t) (1 second),E=0.5mv^2,
>20,000,000kg)  (minimum power consumption of course).

Ah, but that's for acceleration from 0 to (roughly) 10 m/s.  Do the same
computation for 1000 to 1010 m/s and you get about 10 terawatts.  Yet
obviously the same rocket hardware would do either job using the same
amount of fuel and energy.  Clearly you're not measuring what you think
you are.  What you are measuring is the amount of energy needed to do
that bit of accelerating by pushing on a fixed object.  That is, with
a catapult rather than a rocket.  The math is right, but you have to
apply it to what you're actually pushing on, which for a rocket is its
exhaust jet.

>    While not a very large ship....  It still has enough room...

Actually it's pretty sizable, I'd say.  That's the size of an Invincible-
class aircraft carrier.  For solar-system work we can build them a lot
smaller.  However, let's assume that mass for convenience.  Now, the
power requirement to expel a jet with a mass flow of (dm/dt) and an
exhaust velocity of v_exh is 0.5 * (dm/dt) * v_exh^2.  So we need to
figure out the mass flow and exhaust velocity.

Mass flow depends on how long a mission we want to fly and how much
fuel we want to carry.  Let's say we're going to the asteroid belt
and back.  In very round numbers, that's a round trip of 1e9 km.
For continuous acceleration (i.e. one half of each leg of the trip),
time = sqrt(2*distance/acceleration) = sqrt(2*250e9/10) = 224000.
That's a quarter of the trip, so the whole thing is 900000 seconds,
about 10 days.  As for fuel, if we don't want the fuel tank to
dominate the whole ship, a fuel fraction of maybe 10% is tops.
So that's 2e6 kg of fuel, giving a fuel flow of about 2 kg/s.  Clearly
fuel pumps, at least, will not be a problem.

Now, what about exhaust velocity?  There are roundabout ways to
compute that, but thrust = (dm/dt) * v_exh due to conservation of
momentum, so we can do it fairly directly.  Thrust to push 20e6 kg
along at 1 gee will be about 200e6 newtons.  (We assume a constant
thrust; in practice one would throttle back a bit as the ship burned
off fuel, to keep acceleration constant, but that complicates the
arithmetic no end and does not affect the result much.)  So v_exh =
200e6/2 or about 100e6 m/s.  The numerate reader will have gone
"gulp!" on seeing that number, since it is about 1/3 of the speed
of light.  Clearly spaceship Invincible's engines are going to be
a pretty remarkable piece of engineering.  But we press on...

We now have the numbers we need.  Assuming 100% efficiency and no
losses whatever, spaceship Invincible's fusion generator output needs
to be 0.5 * 2 * 100e6^2 = 10 petawatts.  The numerate reader is
having a terrible coughing fit at this point.  For the innumerate:
a petawatt is a million gigawatts, and the entire power output of Earth,
right down to cooking fires, is a small fraction of *one* petawatt.
Clearly, Invincible's generators are, um, impressive pieces of
engineering in their own right.

Clearly 100% efficiency is optimistic.  Let's say it's only 99.99%.
Then Invincible's cooling system has to dissipate a mere terawatt
of heat.  (The numerate reader's coughing fit returns.  A terawatt
roughly equals the electrical power generation of North America.)
The easiest way of cooling something is with flowing fluid; radiating
heat into space is much more hassle.  Assume we use water; it's cheap
and available in quantity, and it's a good coolant.  Melting from
ice and boiling to steam both introduce hassles, so let's say our
input is water just above freezing and output is water just below
boiling.  That's a temperature rise of about 100 C.  The heat capacity
of water is roughly 4200 joules/kg/C, so each kilo absorbs 420e3 J.
So to carry away 1e12 W, we need about 2400 tons per second.  Oops.
Spaceship Invincible has a *bad* cooling problem.

What's more, the numerate reader, having recovered from his coughing,
observes that since E=mc^2, boosting the fuel to 1/3 of the speed of
light requires converting about 5% of its mass to energy (we speak
sloppily here for clarity; physicist readers will please keep quiet).
No wonder the power requirement was massive.  The n.r. goes on to
observe that fusion simply doesn't convert that big a fraction.
Invincible's power requirement just cannot be met by fusion, period.
Antimatter might do; Invincible would need to burn about 50 grams
per second (remember that each gram annihilates its own mass in
normal matter).  Optimistic fans of antimatter propulsion think that
straightforward application of current technology might perhaps get
antimatter prices down to $1M/mg.  Invincible's operating costs will
then be fifty billion dollars per second.  I don't think even DoD
can afford to fly this spaceship.

I could go on, computing things like radiation output from the power
system, size of heat radiators, etc., but the numbers all come out to
be preposterous.  Not just difficult, but beyond current abilities by
so many orders of magnitude that straightforward extrapolation of
today's technology won't do -- breakthroughs will probably be needed.

The moral of the story is, don't get intoxicated by the possibility of
easy fusion.  It may give us the solar system, but it will not give us
1G constant-boost spaceships.  They are fundamentally hard to build;
still better technology will be needed.
- - -- 
Welcome to Mars!  Your         |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
passport and visa, comrade?    | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu

- ------- End of Forwarded Message


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-------- TML Message #914 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 914
Date: Fri, 2 Feb 90 19:56:27 EST
From: (Andrew Salamon) salamon@sun.acs.udel.edu
Subject: E-PBM, turn 0.1


Greetings to all,

Turn 0.1, play mode on
**********************************
Etienne approaches the other members of the Transport team.  He is
dressed in a one-piece flight suit with many pockets.  The rank and
squadron insignia have been removed, but there are several mission
patches still on the suit.  Most of them can be recognized by most
sapients as being major battles that  were fought by the Imperium in
recent years.  Etienne is a little over 6ft and about 165lbs. [sorry, I
will convert to metric next time :(]  He has hair that used to be brown
but has been bleached by the sun, he also has a very dark tan.  He wears
mirrored sunglasses often, even indoors.  There is an empty blade sheath
at his right hip.

	Bonjour, as our gracious host said I'm Etienne.  I'm afraid
	those on high haven't condescended to brief me on my duties yet.
	Have any of you heard anything?  What is the Alcyon, is she just
	a transport, or is she armed?  Which one of us is the poor soul
	who gets to join the command team?  Who is navigator?

	On a lighter note would anyone like to explore this nearby city
	(assuming our watchdogs allow us to) [a small smile]?  I plan on
	enjoying myself my last night near anything civilized.   For
	those who would like to join me, Allons-y, for the rest, Abientot.  
**********************
play mode off.

If any gentles out there have a list of equipment from MegaT already
typed in could you mail it to me?  I really just need name, price, and
weight.  Please don't go to much trouble.

Richard,
  Should we do any shopping now or wait until we reach this supply
depot?  Do our watchdogs let us go to the city?  How about that briefing
we (the transport team) were promised?

To all, how do you get accent marks on this stupid machine!!!  French
just doesn't look right without them.


Magic in my Mind                     |   /Andrew/
Music in my Heart                    |   soi-disant Bleydion op Rhys
Laughter in my Soul                  |   salamon@sun.acs.udel.edu
And...A Sword in my Fist (sigh)      | 

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-------- TML Message #915 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 915
From: (Bertil Jonell) d9bertil@dtek.chalmers.se
Subject: Re: fusors drives agility and stufflikethat
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 90 12:40:01 MET DST


"Cap'n Paul" writes:
>      In fact, to really whip a starship around (like in a few seconds or 
> so) the attitude jets have to produce a significant fraction of a 'g'.  
> And that kind of acceleration does not come cheap.  Really.  Honest.  

I agree.
I think that is what I was aiming for when I wanted to define agility as
rotational energy and speed.

Regarding fusion drives: Since the fusiondrive is supposed to be internal
and not drive around as a "simple" rocket engine, the efficienct figure of 
a few percent for the powerplants seem a bit low. 
(The last estimate was (I think!) around 250 MW /kl. Max TL15 is 18 MW /kl)
 A efficiency of around 15-20 percent would seem more appropriate. 
I don't think the analogy with a bomb is applicable here, a bomb is in the 
process of blowing up, scattering its fuel far and wide (at least in the later
stages) and a powerplant could seprate the unused hydrogene from the helium and
refeed it.

And let's hope that the powerplants continue to use a hydrogene or deuterium
only reaction. It's hard to scoop up Litium in a Gasgiant:-)

- -bertil-
- -- 
Bertil K K Jonell @ Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg
NET: d9bertil@dtek.chalmers.se 
VOICE: +46 31 723971 / +46 300 61004     "Don't worry,I've got Pilot-7"
SNAILMAIL: Box 154,S-43900 Onsala,SWEDEN      (Famous last words)      
"During the high point of the Downes Age, they put Ming the Merciless in charge
of designing California gas stations" W.Gibson "The Gernsback Continuum"

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-------- TML Message #916 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 916
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 90 01:16 EST
From: RWMIRA01%ULKYVX.BITNET@cornellc.cit.cornell.edu
Subject: Re: psionics


>      I'm new to the list, and playing MegaTraveller, (four
>months for both), and this is my first posting.

Welcome to our wonderful universe!

>      I have a question about psionics, basically are there
>any sources that give good hints, suggestions, etc., on the
>use of them in MegaTraveller? I've found the rule books to
>be more tantalizing than useful.

The Rule Book is about all I have seen.  You may also want to check out Alien
Module 6 (I think) The Zhodani.  There are also several of the small adventures
that deal with Zhodani and converslly with psionics.  If you can find back
issues of the Journal of the Travellers Aid Socitey and Challenge Magazine,
then you may find some stuff there.  (Sorry, at 12:49 in the morning after a
long day, I don't have the energy to dig through them all :-)


>      I'll explain my reason for asking. I rolled up a
>character, got a good psionics rating and a *SPECIAL* ability.
>The GM came up with material psychogenesis, the creation of
>matter/antimatter via psi. To make a long story short I'm
>*retiring* the character as she unbalances the game.

[Examples Deleted]
>
>      The GM agrees with my decision to retire my character. So
>I'm trying to find information on psionics and their uses. Any
>one out there have any??

Your GM started it . . .  I think the psychogenesis was a neet idea, I think
it may have been implemented wrong.  First of all, the creation of matter is
something that is like REAL difficult.  (Something I heard in a chemistry class
once.)  I would say making Anti-Matter would be even harder.

Now, if we look at it from the view point of your psychogenesis takes matter
and reorganizes it, then we can proceed.  Lets ASSUME your PSI level is 8 (Real
good) and that you can reogranize matter/anti-matter into a new form.  You
should have several skills that go with it.

  1.  Create Gasses (Hydrogen, Oxygen, etc)
      Level 1, 1 Point + 1 point per volume.  1 liter = 1 point, 10 liter=2
      points, 100 liter=3 points and so on.  Maybe put a cap of 10,000 liters.
      Thus at level 8, if you dumped all of your points you could create
      10,000 liters of Oxygen at standard pressure.  And expend 6 psi points.

  2.  Create Liquids
      2 points + 1 point per volume starting at 1 ml and working up.

  3.  Create Soft Solids
      3 points + 1 point per volume starting at .1 ml

  4.  Create Hard Solids
      5 points
  5.  Create Heavy Solids (Uranium, Lead, Gold, etc)

You can see how this is progressing.  Now you need task rolls for this stuff.
An example task of making anti-matter would require a Skill of 8, 8 points for
0.0001 grams, 9 points = 0.001 grams, 10 points = 0.01 grams, 11 points =
0.1 grams and 12 points = 1 gram.  The chance of success is an Impossible Task
(19+ I believe) + Skill.  Thus with an 8 Psi, one could create 0.0001 grams of
anti-matter on a roll of 11 or 12.  On a mishap, you are touching the
Anti-Matter and you and anything within 1Km is destroyed.  This puts that skill
in perspective and makes that power considerably more balanced.  Also you can
put limits on how far away you can create things and if you can create them on
the other side of a solid surface.  (A wall or Skull blocks your
psychogenesis).


Now what can we do to keep from retireing this character.  You and the GM sit
down and decide that this skill is unbalancing and you want to correct it.
During the next session, the character takes a 4mm slug from a Gauss rifle to
the head.  Some brain damage is suffered.  Full recovery happens, but the
ability is gone or drastily reduced.  Also, you could have the trama awaken
another ability to replace the psychogenesis if you just want to get rid of
that.

It also makes for some story material for the GM and it will make the players
more aware that the GM will not hesitate to "waste" a character.  Though in
this case the character recovers, but it may take a few game sessions for this
to happen.  The party could have to deal with the tramatized body for a while
on a planet where there are no medical facilities that can save her.

These of course are just suggestions, but lets try to salvage the character.

Rob
- --
Rob Miracle              | Bitnet   : RWMIRA01@ULKYVX    CIS: 74216,3134
Programmer/Analyst-II    | INTERNET : rwmira01%ulkyvx.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu
University of Louisville | UUCP     : ...psuvax1!ulkyvx.bitnet!rwmira01



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-------- TML Message #917 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 917
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 90 11:57:01 pst
From: ("Cynthia Lee [TA]") ln63w7%sdcc4@ucsd.edu
Subject: Equipment list



>Date: Fri, 2 Feb 90 19:56:27 EST
>From: Andrew Salamon <salamon@sun.acs.udel.edu>
>Subject: (914) E-PBM, turn 0.1
>
>If any gentles out there have a list of equipment from MegaT already
>typed in could you mail it to me?  I really just need name, price, and
>weight.  Please don't go to much trouble.
>
>
>Magic in my Mind                     |   /Andrew/
>Music in my Heart                    |   soi-disant Bleydion op Rhys
>Laughter in my Soul                  |   salamon@sun.acs.udel.edu
>And...A Sword in my Fist (sigh)      | 

I would appreciate it if I could also get a copy of the
equipment list...
Thanks!

Cynthia Lee
ln63w7@sdcc4.ucsd.edu

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Submissions: traveller@dadla.wr.tek.com, or uunet!dadla.wr.tek.com!traveller
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-------- TML Message #918 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 918
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 90 17:24:46 EST
From: (Chris Bartlett) cdba_ltd@uhura.cc.rochester.edu
Subject: E-PBM



	Looks like the double-blind idea isn't working out.  Maybe that's
okay ( less work for Richard, after all ;-). 

Anyway, here goes:
***************************************************

Jaron Voga looks up as Etienne De Mer approaches. Voga is a slim, short man,
height about 175 cm, massing ~70 kg.  He also wears a flight suit, but
lacking any insignia except shoulder patches bearing the emblem of the
Imperial Interstellar Scout Service and the Exploration Branch of that
service.  Brown hair graying a little at the temples, and a "spacer's tan"
from the neck up, from spending enough time in a vacc suit to get one.

	Greetings, Mr. De Mer.  Most people just call me Voga.  I'm afraid
that you know as much as I do about this expedition.  I for one look forward
to being out in space again, but being dirtside has its perks, fresh air
being one of them.  
	As for our duties, my specialization is in sensor systems.  I crewed
on a Donosev-class scout for awhile, so I hope the Alcyon is as well
equipped.  What of our fellow team members?

*************


Gee, this is fun!

		Chris  - cdba_ltd@uhura.cc.rochester.edu



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-------- TML Message #919 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 919
From: ("Mark F. Cook") markc@hpcvss.cv.hp.COM
Subject: Base Codes, Allegiances, etc.
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 90 16:18:40 PST


I'm fairly new to the TML and to MegaTraveller, but I think I'm a fairly
quick study.  However, I just picked up my first copy of _Travellers'_Digest_
(issue #18) and I'm confused by one of the articles.

It contains sectore maps and library data for Corridor and Ealiyasiyw Sectors,
and I'm seeing new base codes, allegiance codes, and system remark codes that
I can't find documented anywhere.

Below is a list of all the Base, Allegiance, and system remarks codes, as
listed in the back of the MT Imperial Encyclopedia, plus new ones used in
issue #18.  All of the un-documented one are tagged with question marks.

Base Codes:
        A - Imp. Naval base, co-located w/ Imp. Scout base.
        B - Imp. Naval base, co-located w/ Imp. Scout way station.
        C - ?
        D - Depot
        F - ?
        G - Military Garrison.
        H - ?
        J - ?
        M - Non-Imp. Military base.
        N - Imp. Naval base only.
        R - ?
        S - Imp. Scout base only.
        T - ?
        W - Imp. Scout way station only.
        Z - Zhodani Naval base.

System Remarks:
        Ag - Agricultural.
        An - Ancient site.
        As - Asteroid belt.
        Ba - Barren/Desert world.
        Cp - ?
        C0,C1,C2,C3,C4,C5,C6 - ?
        Cx - ?
        D1,D2,D3,D4 - ?
        De - ?
        Ex - Exile camp.
        Fl - ?
        Hi - High population.
        Ic - Ice-capped.
        In - Industrial.
        Lo - Low population.
        Na - Non-agricultural.
        Ni - Non-industrial.
        Po - Poor.
        Pr - Prison.
        Re - Reserve.
        Rs - ?
        Ri - Rich.
        Va - Vacuum.
        Wa - Water world.
        RsA - Research Station Alpha.
        RsB - Research Station Beta.
        RsG - Research Station Gamma.
        RsD - Research Station Delta.
        RsE - Research Station Epsilon.
        RsZ - Research Station Zeta.
        RsH - Research Station Eta.
        (hollow star) - Subsector capital.
        (solid star) - Sector capital.

Allegiance Code:
        As - Aslan New Lords.
        A0,A2,A3,A4,A5,A6,A7,A8,A9 - ?
                (Do these numbers refer to an Aslan clan?  If so, shouldn't
                 they range from 1 to 29?)
        Bw - Border Worlds.
        Ca - ?
        Cs - Client State of the Imperium.
        Da - Darrian Confederation.
        Dr - Droyne World.
        Fa - Federation of Arden.
        Im - Imperial.
        Na - Non-aligned (human).
        Rv - ?
        Sw - Sword World Confederation.
        Va - Vargr.
        Vf - ?
        Vg = ?
        Vh - ?
        St - ? (Strephon?)
        Zh - Zhodani.

Can somebody please fill in the blanks for me?

1.0 MegaThanx in advance,

        Mark F. Cook

USMail: User Interface Technical Support
        Hewlett-Packard - Interface Technology Operation
        1000 NE Circle Blvd.  Corvallis, OR 97330

INTERNET: markc@hpcvss.cv.hp.com
UUCP:     {cmcl2, harpo, hplabs, rice, tektronix}!hp-pcd!markc

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-------- TML Message #920 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 920
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 90 17:39:51 PST
From: ("Kelly St.Clair") kstclair@jacobs.cs.orst.edu
Subject: Re: E-PBM, Turn 0.1




>Turn 0.1, play mode on
Same here...
- ---------------------------

Nishu has just moved to stand with the other members of the Transport
team.  He wears a navy uniform of some sort:  black jacket with grey
trousers and shoulder panel.  On the breast pocket is a patch, a black  
circle with five silver stars [emblem of the Five Sisters subsector].
He has no insignia, but the uniform seems to indicate a low-ranking
officer or high-ranking rating.
Nishu himself is a large, broad-chested man.  He has brown hair, brown
eyes, and a well-kept beard.  He seems relaxed and friendly even in
this novel situation. 

	Bonjour, as our gracious host said I'm Etienne.

"Glad to meet you," he says, extending a hand to Etienne.  "I'm a
 new arrival of sorts myself."

        What is the Alcyon, is she just
	a transport, or is she armed? 

"I don't think we've been told what sort of ship she is, yet.  I expect
 that she'll be at least minimally armed; these are dangerous times."

	Which one of us is the poor soul
	who gets to join the command team?  Who is navigator?

"Well, I don't know about the team leader, but I'm hoping to end up as
 navigator myself.  I've had experience in the navy as a navigator and
 sensorman."

	On a lighter note would anyone like to explore this nearby city
	(assuming our watchdogs allow us to) [a small smile]?  I plan on
	enjoying myself my last night near anything civilized.   For
	those who would like to join me, Allons-y, for the rest, Abientot.  

"Excellent idea!  Let's ask our host, shall we?"

Somewhere in here, Nishu will turn to the rest of the Transport team
 and find out what positions each is planning to fill (pilot, etc).

> Laughter in my Soul                  |   salamon@sun.acs.udel.edu

- -----------------------------
Kelly St.Clair
kstclair@jacobs.cs.orst.edu 

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-------- TML Message #921 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 921
Date: Sun, 4 Feb 90 04:20:45 EST
From: (Dan Corrin) dan@engrg.uwo.ca
Subject: Re: Base Codes



After consulting my books I found many of the bases that Mark Cook
could not find, plus a lot of extras. Sorry I can't present it as a list
as I am unfamiliar with the mailer I am currently using.

Bases:
	C - Vargr Corsair
	F - Naval and Military Base
	H - Naval and Corsair Base (Vargr)
	R - Clan Base (Aslan)
	T - Tlaukhu Base (Aslan)
	U - Both Clan and Tlaukhu Bases (Aslan)
	G - Vargr Naval, Solomani Naval
	K - K'kree Naval
	O - Hiver Outpost
	O - K'kree Outpost (Ignore last line)
	L - Hiver Federation Naval
	E - Hiver Federation Embassy Centre
	X - Zhodani Depot
	X - Zhodani Relay Station (The last should be Y)

Remarks:
	Cp - Subsector Capital
	Cx - Sector or Regional Capital
	De - Desert World
	Fl - Fluid Oceans (Not Water)
	Rs - Reseach Station
	Mr - Military Rules
	Xb - Xboat Station (Drop the s on the last one)
	Fa - Fascinating World (Hiver)
	St - Steppeworld (K'Kree)

Allegance:
	(I have no Idea what the ones you are missing are supposed to be)
	Sy - Sylean worlds
	La - League of Antares
	Ve - Vegan Autonomous District
	So - Solomani Confederation
	Jr - Julian Protectorate (I have no Idea why it isn't Jp)
	Hv - Hiver
	?? - (I couldn't find the K'Kree code)
	Hl - Hegemony of Lorean
	Dr - Droyne

	The following are Vargr allegiances, due to the chaotic nature
	of the Vargr empire, the following may no longer exist:
	Vd - Dzen Aeng Kho (Society of Equals)
	Ve - Ekhlie Ksafi (40th Squarron)
	Vg - Gaerr Thue (Pact of Gaerr)
	Vk - Kedzudh Aeng (Commanality of Kedzudh)
	Vn - Rukh Aegz (Worlds of Leader Rukh)
	Vp - Thirz Uerra (Thirz Empire)
	Vr - Gnoerrgh Rukh Lloell (Anti-Rukh Coalition)
	Vs - Saekrouth Igr (Saekrouth Dependancy)
	Vt - Thoengling Raghz (Thoengling Empire)
	Vu - Urukhu (Nation of Urukhu)

	-Dan Corrin


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-------- TML Message #922 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 922
Date: Sun, 4 Feb 90 13:44 EST
From: SYLVAIN$%DAYTON.BITNET@cornellc.cit.cornell.edu
Subject: Fuel Volume - What's not right here?


Greetings, fellow PBEMers and other folks.

I recently bought MegaTraveller to replace my "Classic" Traveller set of
materials. I like MT very much, and am very impressed with the wealth of
information contained therein.

However, I have run into a problem. I was going through the craft
descriptions in the Imperial Encyclopedia, and was idly punching some
numbers to figure out jump ability and power plant fuel consumption.
I received a rude shock when the numbers didn't add up. Please let me
know if I am doing something wrong, so I can rest easy at night. :-)

For example, let's look at the give TL15 Scout/Courier design.

864 Mw / 6.0 MW per KL of power plant = 144 Kl of pp.
144 Kl of pp. * 0.009 Kl of fuel req'd per hour/ Kl of pp. = 1.296 Kl fuel/hr
1.296 Kl fuel/hr * 24 hours/day * 30 days endurance = 933.12 Kl fuel
Listed fuel size is 515 Kl. What gives?

For fun, let's try the TL15 Fighter design.

186/6.0 = 31
31 * 0.009 = 0.279
0.279 * 24 * 5 = 33.48 KL fuel
Listed fuel size is 33.6 Kl. Close enough.

What's the problem here? I tried it for some other designs, but the numbers
still don't match. Someone, please help.

Nicholas Sylvain    (sylvain$n@dayton.bitnet OR sylvain@udcps2.cps.udayton.edu)

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-------- TML Message #923 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 923
Date: Sun,  4 Feb 90 19:24:01 -0500 (EST)
From: (William Dow Rieder) wr0k+@andrew.cmu.edu
Subject: Re: Fuel Volume - What's not right here?


Nicholas Sylvain writes:

>However, I have run into a problem. I was going through the craft
>descriptions in the Imperial Encyclopedia, and was idly punching some
>numbers to figure out jump ability and power plant fuel consumption.
>I received a rude shock when the numbers didn't add up. Please let me
>know if I am doing something wrong, so I can rest easy at night. :-)

>For example, let's look at the give TL15 Scout/Courier design.

>864 Mw / 6.0 MW per KL of power plant = 144 Kl of pp.

The reason your numbers don't match is that they do not take into
account economies of scale (Ref guide - same page as power plants)
For a power plant of size 14+, output is tripled. For working backward,
any ship that has a power output of 252 Mw or more, has 1 kl of
plant per 18 Mw of plant, instead of 1 for 6 Mw.
	This makes the power plant fuel for the scout as:
864 Mw / 18 = 48 kl of plant * 0.009 = 0.432 kl fuel/hour
0.432 * 24 * 30 = 311.04 kl of pp fuel.
	Now the Jump drive fuel is 5x the jump drive volume,
or (5 + 5 * Jump number)% of the total ship volume. For a scout,
this is 15% * 1350 kl = 202.5 kl of jump fuel. (Note that this is a
change from classic Traveller).
202.5 + 311.04 = 513.54 round to 514 kl. The book lists 515 kl,
so they probably rounded seperately.

>For fun, let's try the TL15 Fighter design.

>186/6.0 = 31
>31 * 0.009 = 0.279
>0.279 * 24 * 5 = 33.48 KL fuel
>Listed fuel size is 33.6 Kl. Close enough.
	Whoever designed the fighter also forgot economies of
scale for the power plant, so you aren't the only one...:-)
	The fighter design in the book is bogus for several reasons.
The big one is that with the rules as given, it is impossible to get a 
TL 15 power plant with a 186 Mw output! For plants from 10 to 14 kl,
the output is 12 Mw per kl, so the largest output plant at that level
produces just under 168 Mw, then it jumps to 252 when you hit 14 kl.
The easiest way to fix the fighter is to give it a power plant of 14 kl,
producing 252 Mw, and it just has some spare power for Agility. The
masses given for the fighter are a misprint (the figures listed are for the
enclosed air-raft), so you will have to work out the mass. I don't have my
figures handy, but I could post my version later if you want.
	This ignores the issue of whether the amount of fuel used is
reasonable for what we know about fusion....(rant!...rave!..sorry :-)

	I have found the number of errors in the book vehicles to be
rather disturbing, especially since working through the designs is
usually the only way to catch them. If there is interest, I could post
worked over versions of the more common book ships, with notes
on power consumption, etc. similar to the the list of updated ships
that Bertil Jonell posted several months ago. Let me know if there
is interest, I don't want to take up bandwidth unnecessarily.

					W. Dow Rieder
				alias Capt. Kagariilian Grant

 	When the only tool you have is a hammer, all your problems
start to look like nails...

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-------- End of TML Messages --------

