
-------- TML Message #1018 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 1018
From: ("Mark F. Cook") markc@hpcvss.cv.hp.COM
Subject: Mortgage that Starship!!
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 90 14:02:39 PST


This one ought to draw some interesting comments.

I'm about to start up my traveller game with all-new PC's that my players
just generated.  Out of the entire group, two of the PC's have starships
(a class-S for the retired scout PC, and a Far Trader for the retired
merchant PC).  Now this is where it gets interesting.

The scout PC is assumed to have his ship as a loan of indefinite duration,
but the merchant PC is assumed to have acquired his via purchase or some-
such (the rules are not specific about this).  However, the rules DO say
that he also acquired a 40-year mortgage to go along with the ship.  They
do not go into detail about how this should be managed.

Let us assume that the merchant acquired a USED Far Trader (list price:
MCr. 41.07) and that after initial depreciation and down-payment, that
he is left with MCr. 20.535 (50% of the original price) to amortize over
a 40 year period.  I also assume quarterly, rather then monthly, payments
(since being in a position to drop off a check at the mortgage-holding
financial institution on a monthly basis may be difficult for a ship
that could be anywhere within a 50-or-so parsec radius).

Given these assumptions, let's used the information from "Starship
Purchase" (pg. 89, MT Imperial Encyclopedia) to generate an amortized
loan payment schedule and see what happens.

After all of the numbers given, the book says that the final cost to the
new ship owner (principal and interest) should be 220% of the original
purchase price.  For the used starship (above), that would be MCr. 45.177.
Reverse calculation of a 40-year amortized loan with that amount as the
ultimate total gives us an interest rate of 4.63%.  The quarterly payment
turns out to be Cr. 282,496.92 (every 3 months).  This is a lot of cash!

If we assume that this is reasonably accurate, then the question is: Can
the PC actually expect to generate enough income to make the payments and
still have enough left over to live on?  Notice that we haven't even touched
on the issues of crew salaries, annual maintenance costs, fuel, and general
upkeep.  These will be considered later.

According to specs. in "Supplement 7: Traders and Gunboats", the ship can
carry 7 High/Mid passengers, 4 in Low Passage, and 46 tons of freight.  If
we assume best case (7 High Psg, 4 Low Psg, and full cargo hold) then we
have Cr. 10,000 x 7, Cr. 1,000 x 4, and Cr. 1,000 x 46.  This represents
a potential maximum of Cr. 120,000 per week.  So assuming this PC is Super-
Trader, and could accomplish this week after week, we have a revenue
potential of MCr. 1.44 per quarter, before expenses, and not considering
port time for freight transfer, refueling, etc.  After deducting the
quarterly mortgage payment, we're left with MCr. ~1.158, before expenses,
as profit.  So much for best case.

Now, let's try something more realistic.  Assume 50% of the time is spend
in port, refueling, haggling for freight and passengers, etc.  Further
assume that, on average, the ship is only operating at have capacity for
cargo and passagers.  This reduces the gross quarterly income to Cr. 360,000
(again, before expenses).  Deduct the quarterly mortgage payment, and we're
left with Cr. 77,503.08 to cover 3 months worth of expenses.

Now, let's look at what it costs to run this starship.

First, there's fuel.  In 12 weeks, this ship will jump 6 times and burn
45 days worth of maneuver and powerplant fuel (based on the 50% active
assumption).  The ship has a jump-2 drive but we'll assume that only 1/3
of the jumps are jump-2; the other 2/3 are jump-1.  This means that total
fuel consumption for 4 jump-1 and 2 jump-2 trips (based on ship design
from MT Referee's Manual) is 1,620 kliters, at Cr. 35/kl., works out to
cost of Cr. 56,700.  For the powerplant, which uses (1.107 kl./hr. x 24 hrs.
x 45 days x Cr. 35/kl.), we have a total maneuver & powerplant fuel cost of
Cr. 41,844.60.  Add these two together, and we get a total quarterly cost
of Cr. 98,544.60.  Oops!  We've already exceeding our available cash!
Therefore, the ship must rely, at least partially, on refuelling from
natural sources (gas-giants or water-worlds).  Let's assume 50% of the
fuel is acquired this way.  Now, our quarterly fuel bill drops down to
Cr. 49,272.30.  Let's hope the ship doesn't wear out prematurely from all
of that atmosphere skimming :-).

Next, we have life support for 3 crew members, 1/2 of 7 High/Mid passengers,
and 1/2 of 4 Low passengers (we will assume for the sake of the merchants
wallet that none of the freight requires life support).  The Imperial
Encyclopedia says that each stateroom requires Cr. 2000 of support per
2 week trip, and each Low berth requires Cr. 100 per usage.  If we assume
that the crew-members consume life support equal to 1 Mid psg. passenger,
(say, 80% of 1 High psg. passenger), then for each 1-way trip we use
(High Psg=Cr. 2000 x 0.5 x 3.5) + (Mid Psg= Cr. 1600 x 0.5 x 1.5) + (Low
Psg= Cr. 100 x 2) for a total of Cr. 4,900.  We assume no LS is used while
a ship is in port.

Then there are crew salaries to worry about.  For a Far Trader, the crew
consists of 1 Bridge crew-member (Pilot), 1 Engineer, and 1 Medic/Steward.
If we assume that the pilot is the owner, then we must only pay the Engineer
and the Steward.  Given the "skill levels" recently posted by METLAY (which
are pretty good definitions, IMHO), the Engineer and Steward are probably
both level-2 for purposes of salary determination.  For these levels (and
assuming the Engineer achieved O-3 in the Merchants), the salaries should
be Cr. 1950/mo. for the Engineer and Cr. 1000/mo. for the Steward.  Quarterly,
this would be Cr. 8,850.

The annual maintenance fee cannot be avoided, if the ship is to keep flying.
This amounts to 0.1% of the cash price of the ship annually (Cr. 20,535,
in this case), which works out to Cr. 5,133.75 per quarter.

Finally, we have berthing costs.  This includes landing fees, handling costs,
facilities use charges, and other miscellaneous starport expenses.  The
average cost is Cr. 100 for the first 6 days in port, plus Cr. 100 for each
additional day beyond 6.  If we assume that the ship is in port 50% of the
time, the we have 6 weeks at Cr. 200/week, or Cr. 1,200.

So, the bottom line is Cr. 49,272.30 for fuel, Cr. 4,900 for Life Support,
8,850 in salaries, and Cr. 1,200 in berthing fees, which works out to a
total of Cr. 64,222.30.  Out of Cr. 77,503.08, we are left with Cr. 13,280.78
for quarterly profit, or Cr. 53,123.12 per year.

Before taxes, but that's another story.

        Mark F. Cook

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

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

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-------- TML Message #1019 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 1019
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 90 18:15:29 -0500
From: (wilson m liaw) macgyver@cis.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Well



	Ok, so we have DGP's permission. But there is a problem, most of the
stuff on there are not from DGP, but from writers that's on GEnie. For those
files, you'd have to ask them as well. Since DGP can't act on behave of them.

			Mac

If you ask me, and you haven't, it's yet another can of worms. (grin)

			Mac "the Canopener" Liaw :)

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-------- TML Message #1020 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 1020
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 90 18:16:02 hst
From: (Gregory Hara) ghara@wiliki.eng.hawaii.edu
Subject: SCUBA


Greetings,
  I am pleased at the various discussions no this mailing list, and I hope
you can help me.  How do you handle characters who are in the water ?
There is no swimming skill, or snorkelling skill ?  I had a group of
mercenaries attack a shore line installation (radar tracking) in advance
of an invasion.  They parachuted into the water and SCUBA dove to the radar.
I used STR, DEX,& END but is there a better way to handle this situation.

Thanx in advance,
Greg Hara

Inquiring Minds Want To Know !!!!


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-------- TML Message #1021 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 1021
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 90 09:35:59 EST
From: (Fiver Toadflax) 09nilles%cuavax.dnet@netcon.cua.edu
Subject: Scuba diving and stuff


Greg Hara asks if there is a better way to handle scuba diving and such.

I don't know if my suggestions will be of any help or not, but, I seem to
recall something in the Double Adventure Night of Conquest about swimming,
and also in two JTAS issues.  One was an Amber Zone (It was also in the
Best of JTAS 1) and also the issue(around 23 I think) that gave suggestions
and equipment for use in Striker.  Maby that could help.

Tis the best I can give ya....

                 Dave

+-----------------------------------------+
|          09nilles@cua.bitnet            | Money Talks.
|  09nilles%cuavax.dnet@netcon.cua.edu    |    Mine Only knows how to say bye
| uunet!cua.bitnet!09nilles@uunet.UU.NET  |
| Fiver.Toadflax@f329.n109.z1.FIDONET.ORG | Peace through superior firepower
+-----------------------------------------+

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-------- TML Message #1022 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 1022
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 90 10:49:20 EST
From: (Greg Givler - Product Assurance) givler@cbmvax.commodore.COM
Subject: Re:  Mortgage that Starship!!



>This one ought to draw some interesting comments.

Yes it should, and would you send followups to me for inclusion in the
now dormant TRADE & COMMMERCE Digest. my address is givler@cbmvax.commodore.com

>I'm about to start up my traveller game with all-new PC's that my players
>just generated.  Out of the entire group, two of the PC's have starships
>(a class-S for the retired scout PC, and a Far Trader for the retired
>merchant PC).  Now this is where it gets interesting.
>
>Let us assume that the merchant acquired a USED Far Trader (list price:
>MCr. 41.07) and that after initial depreciation and down-payment, that
>he is left with MCr. 20.535 (50% of the original price) to amortize over

[Lots of good stuff deleted.]

Please send followups to me, as I will will edit them and make it much
easier to digest. Pun intended.
 

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

Thanks for the input, maybe we can get the digest going again. Also 
does any one have any interest for part 2 of the speculative trade system
that we were working on back in Sept?

Greg

- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Greg Givler                        | Q-Link: GregGivler
Analyst - Systems Evaluation Group | CompuServe: Greg Givler 76702,647
Commodore Product Assurance        | GEnie: G.Givler
215-431-9100                       | The NET: givler@cbmvax.commodore.com
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Wild Whores couldn't keep me away!" -- George Francisco
"That's Horses, George" -- Matt Sikes -- Alien Nation --  Fox Broadcasting --
===============================================================================


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-------- TML Message #1023 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 1023
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 90 10:00:03 EST
From: (Paul Dale) wrgate.wr.tek.com!uunet.uu.net!munnari!batserver.cs.uq.oz.au!grue@tektronix.TEK.COM
Subject: ~m


hiya,

>I've got access to a macintosh and the standard macintosh compression programs
>and chalmers has a direct net-mac link. I am willing to offer my help.
>(If the files mentions "binhex4.0" or "stuffit" or "packit" they are definately
>packed on a mackintosh)

I've also got a mac and am willing to help (may be a little far to send
the stuff).
I'm also will to write programs for the mac (with interface etc). If the
system generation people would liuke some help, I could probably find some
time :-)

If the file ends with a 'hqx', '.sit' or a '.pit' then the file is
likely to be binhex/stuffit/packit format respectively.  If it isn't one
of them it still might be MacBinary format (which used to be a kind of
standard use by some deranged souls).


							Pauli
seeya
SNIF

Paul Dale               | Internet/CSnet:            grue@batserver.cs.uq.oz.au
Dept of Computer Science| Bitnet:       grue%batserver.cs.uq.oz.au@uunet.uu.net
Uni of Qld              | JANET:           grue%batserver.cs.uq.oz.au@uk.ac.ukc
Australia, 4067         | EAN:                          grue@batserver.cs.uq.oz
                        | UUCP:           uunet!munnari!batserver.cs.uq.oz!grue
f4e7g4Qh4++             | JUNET:                     grue@batserver.cs.uq.oz.au

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-------- TML Message #1024 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 1024
From: ("Mark F. Cook") markc@hpcvss.cv.hp.COM
Subject: Re:Mortgage that Starship!!
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 90 8:55:55 PST


>So, the bottom line is Cr. 49,272.30 for fuel, Cr. 4,900 for Life Support,
>8,850 in salaries, and Cr. 1,200 in berthing fees, which works out to a
>total of Cr. 64,222.30.  Out of Cr. 77,503.08, we are left with Cr. 13,280.78
>for quarterly profit, or Cr. 53,123.12 per year.

Oops!  I left out the annual maintenance fee!  That was calculated as...

>The annual maintenance fee cannot be avoided, if the ship is to keep flying.
>This amounts to 0.1% of the cash price of the ship annually (Cr. 20,535,
>in this case), which works out to Cr. 5,133.75 per quarter.

So, the actual total is Cr. 69,356.05.  This leaves (77,503.08 - 69,356.05)
or Cr. 8,147.03 net profit per quarter.

But, wait!  Perhaps I'm too generous with the annual maintenance fee.
Afterall, as a car gets older, it's maintenance costs go up, not down.
Why not assume the same for a starship?  Lets just use the original price
as a calculation base, instead of half the original price.  This would
double the amount shown above (Cr. 10,267.50, instead of Cr. 5,133.75),
so by subtracting the second half (Cr. 5,133.75) for the net, we get
an actual net profit of Cr. 3,013.28 per quarter.  Again, before taxes.
I don't know about you, but Cr. 1,004.43 per month sounds kinda' slim
to me.

Later,

        Mark F. Cook

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

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

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-------- TML Message #1025 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 1025
Subject: [Personal mail - deleted]
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 90 11:48:21 PST
From: (James T Perkins) jamesp@metolius.WR

[I sent some personal mail to the list by accident.  It got out to the
instant folks, but I'm suppressing it for the digest folks.  Don't worry
- - it wasn't anything hot & heavy :-) -- James]

-------- TML Message #1026 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 1026
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 90 13:31 EST
From: METLAY@vms.cis.pitt.edu
Subject: re SCUBA



Greg:

One big plus of the Traveller skill system, expanded upon by the
MegaT task system, is that the skill choice is open-ended. If you
need a SCUBA skill, make it up. Add appropriate tasks, and you're
set! I think the real problem is that there's no way for characters
to have such skills in retrospect, but that can be fudged if you're
clever.

metlay

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-------- TML Message #1027 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 1027
From: wrgate.wr.tek.com!reed.UUCP!oresoft.uu.net!richard@tektronix.TEK.COM (Richard Johnson)
Subject: How many level-7's
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 90 11:50:20 PDT



In this tome I beat the `level 7' horse completely to death.
I look at it from a bunch of different angles to come up with what
we, as ref's and players, already knew:

	Level 7 skills are hard to get, but not impossible.
	And of course it costs the character something to get there.



In the process, I got some insight into levels, probabilities,
sector population, character generation, and task difficulty.

Now that you've all been thoroughly warned, if you want to hear my
answer to Bertil's question about how may Pilot-7 folks are in the
Marches, read on. 

(sorry this is so long)
	Richard Johnson

===========================================================
Part 1: Tasks and Probability:

I made up this nifty little table to show me how easy it really is
to achieve certain tasks:

#	likelihood	 +1		+2		+3		+4		+5		+6		+7

3+	35/36		always	*		*		*		*		*		*
4+	33/36		35/36	always	*		*		*		*		*
5+	30/36		33/36	35/36	always	*		*		*		*
6+	26/36		30/36	33/36	35/36	always	*		*		*
7+	21/36		26/36	30/36	33/36	35/36	always	*		*
8+	15/36		21/36	26/36	30/36	33/36	35/36	always	*
9+	11/36		15/36	21/36	26/36	30/36	33/36	35/36	*
10+	 6/36		11/36	15/36	21/36	26/36	30/36	33/36	35/
11+  3/36		 6/36	11/36	15/36	21/36	26/36	30/36	33/
12+  1/36		 3/36	 6/36	11/36	15/36	21/36	26/36	30/
13+	---			 1/36	 3/36	 6/36	11/36	15/36	21/36	26/
14+	---			---		 1/36	 3/36	 6/36	11/36	15/36	21/
15+ ---			---		---		 1/36	 3/36	 6/36	11/36	15/
16+ ---			---		---		---		 1/36	 3/36	 6/36	11/
17+ ---			---		---		---		---		 1/36	 3/36	 6/
18+ ---			---		---		---		---		---		 1/36	 3/
19+ ---			---		---		---		---		---		---		 1/

Note that this chart leaves out one important item: the 1/36 chance
that you will get a critical bumble. (oops, `funble' :-)
									 (aargh, I did it again!)

MT Task levels (fer reference an' those who don't know yet):

	Simple ==  3+  --> 35 in 36 you succeed (with minimal skill)
   Routine ==  7+  --> 7 in 12 you succeed with minimal skill
 Difficult == 11+  --> 1 in 12 you succeed with minimal skill
Formidable == 15+  --> don't try this at home, kids!
Impossible == 19+  --> only genius nerds need apply

This told me that there probably IS the rare, gifted, and neurotic
individual who can dream the impossible dream (level 7) and out of
those a select handful you hear about (like Nobel laureates) - the
one who rolled 12 at the right moment after years of training.

Unfortunately, this table doesn't really talk about acquiring
skills, only using them.  For a level 7, the formidable is *almost*
routine, but the impossible is still nearly impossible.  The way
this character operates makes the typical work assignment look
trivial - and to this person it is.

So this told me that level 7 is at least reasonable in game terms.
It does not violate any obvious game balance considerations but does
stretch them a bit.  I had to look elsewhere for skill aquisition
information.


===================================================

Part 2: How long does it take to get level 7?

How much effort is required to get that much skill?  Well, aside
from forgetting about level 1 and 2 in about three other fields (in
our world quite an accomplishment in itself!) because of the maximum
levels rule (not > int + ed)...

How 'bout the AT rules? (not in original Traveller - AT's allow
characters to `get credit' for self-study and for experience.)  You
roll at the *beginning* of the adventure:

	to add a level roll = difficult (11+)
						DM's = + int/5, #of AT in that skill
							   - level of skill attempted

	No more than 2 AT/year are allowed.

Let's say you got pilot 3 in flight school and you're now 22.
Further, let's say you choose to ignore other important fields so
you can become a starship test pilot.  And lets also say you ALWAYS
roll 10+ (not too likely, but this IS a fantasy :-).  Finally, let's
suppose your INT is 15.  

Year 1: +2 AT, +3 INT, -4 level = +1 DM  you roll 10+  for Pilot 4
Year 2: +2 AT, +3 INT, -5 level = 0 DM you roll 10 no skill
Year 2.5: +3 AT, +3 INT, -5 level = +1 DM you roll 10 for Pilot 5
year 3: +1 AT, +3 INT, -6 level = -2 DM you don't even try...
year 4: +3 AT, +3 INT, -6 level = +1 DM gets you Pilot 6
year 5: +2 AT, +3 INT, -7 level = -2 DM you don't try now either
year 6: +4 AT, +3 INT, -7 level = 0 DM 10's not enough
year 7: +6 AT, +3 INT, -7 level = +2 DM gets you Pilot 7

REMEMBER: this seven-year plan is for the incredibly gifted and
supremely lucky (1/12 chance at rolling a 10+).  The `average'
character will take, just on rolls, seven times this long to get
there == 50+ years!  (Your mileage may vary, depending on how often,
game time, each adventure takes.)


Let's look at this another way.  It takes roughly 3 months to get a
level 0 skill.  If you double the time for each augmented level, it
will take 6 more months to get level 1 (9 months total).  It will
take:

	1 year	level 2		(~2 yr total)
	2 year	level 3		(~4 yr total)
	4 year 	level 4		(~8 yr total)
	8 year	level 5		(~16 yr total)
	16 year level 6		(~32 yr total)
	32 year level 7		(~64 yr total)

Which actually agrees pretty closely with the figures I got from
using the AT method.

Again, just on time, it doesn't seem that level 7 is inordinate.
Really hard to get, and costly in terms of a social life and other
(probably needed) skills, but not out of line.

So finally, I asked myself "How probable is it that someone *would*
have a level-7 skill?"

===========================================================

Part 3: Enormous numbers:

I said to myself: "strictly by chance, how likely is it that someone
will have a skill level-1?"  There's about 160 skills listed (if
memory serves me), and and `average' character will have 20 levels
(10 INT + 10 ED).  {Yes, you're right - I picked these numbers to
make things easy...}  Thus there's a 1 in 8 chance of a particular
character having a particular skill.  I used this value as a base.

This is not good procedure for a number of reasons, but I simply
extrapolated the 1/8 chance to the seventh power.  This says that
roughly 1 in 2.4 million folks have a level 7 is something.  This
"feels right" to me, looking out at our wonderful world.

Since characters are usually outstanding in some respect (or they
wouldn't be much fun to play), I don't feel that it's terribly out
of line for a character to devote his/her/its time and energy to
being a `nerd' for that one shot at glory.  Characters like this can
pretty much write their own ticket, and they do.  But they pay for
the ticket with years of antisocial behavior.

==================================================

Part 4:  Finally an answer...

OK.  Now I can answer Bertil's question: `how many pilot-7 folks are
there in (some region of space)?'  A LOT!  Just try to find them,
though.  

If there's ~10^13 people in a sector, even extremely low probability
events are numerous.  Since the probability of level 7 is about 
1 in 5*10^6 (I halved it, since characters are `great' people anyway) 
and the population is 10^13, we can guess that there's a couple of
million level-7 somethings hanging around the Spinward Marches, more
close to Capital.

Since he specifically asked about *pilot-7*, I'll divide by my
infamous 160 skills and guess that the Marches have 12,500
pilot-7's.  (and 12,500 equestrian-7's, and 12,500 etc.)

========================================================

Just to stop the question before it gets asked:

there's probably about 1,000 pilot 8's  IF they lived long enough
and about 100 pilot 9's.  It'd take over 100 years to get to 8 and
over 250 to get to 9 though...

If you account for consistently lucky rolls and for age, 
there's probably 50 pilot-8's in the Marches and probably 50 
pilot 9's in all known space who are actually young enough to fly.

I actually did finally guess on this last - the likelihoods are
really extreme and the batteries on my TL7 hand comp died!

If you've read this far, you're more serious about MT than I
thought!  :-)  Have good day.

Richard Johnson
	richard@agora.hf.intel.com
	richard@oresoft.uu.net






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-------- TML Message #1028 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 1028
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 90 14:13:55 -0800
From: ("Ted Kim (Random Dude") tek@lanai.cs.ucla.edu
Subject: Re: Mortgage that Starship



>So, the bottom line is  ... Cr. 4,900 for Life Support, ...

In one campaign, some unscrupulous starliner operators were accused of
feeding passengers watered-down "fast" drug. This slows the passengers
metabolic rate, cutting down on life support and food cost. Not a big
factor for the Trader example, but if running the Spinward Marches 
Love Boat is your business...  Not advisable to feed your crew the
same, if you want good reaction time. :-)

- -ted

Ted Kim                           
UCLA Computer Science Department  Internet: tek@penzance.cs.ucla.edu
3804C Boelter Hall                UUCP:    ...!{uunet|ucbvax}!cs.ucla.edu!tek
Los Angeles, CA 90024		  Phone:   (213) 206-8696

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-------- TML Message #1029 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 1029
Subject: Confusion in MT basic character generation...
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 90 16:27:28 CST
From: (Chris Olson) chris@ssbell.imd.sterling.COM


Well, I was working on my NPC generator (this one's in ANSI C) earlier this
week, tracking down some bugs, when I happened to re-read the example character
they give.  Basically this character is a merchant with 5 terms.  The
problem involves mustering out benifit rolls.

In the example, and in the rules in the text describing how to, they use
a base of one roll per full term served.  However, in the tables giving
details about each service, the left sidebar contains a note about figuring
mustering out benifits stating that it's two rolls per term.  Going on an
assumption that the rules and example are correct, I have used the one roll
per term rule.

What this also means is that the characters created for my campaign were
generated wrong, as we did not read the rules as we went but simply followed
the (erronous) tables.

Oh, and about the NPC generator, it creates characters in the same format
found on the last page of the basic character generation system.  It starts
out by rolling the characters stats, then the homeworld (in the shortened
format given earlier in the book).  It then picks a target number of terms
to serve (2d3) and attempts to serve them out.  It ignores the question of
anagathics, as I feel that's a real tough question for a human to decide,
let alone coming up with a simple set of guidelines for the computer.  It
correctly handles belters, bureaucrats, and nobles (notable exceptions to
the smooth flow of character generation).  It also handles cascades, items
and stat modifications.  It has a verbose mode were it describes the actions
its taking, and it allows you to choose the number of characters to create.
It also ranks the services by enlistment throw dms, and chooses from
among the highest.  I'll let you folks know when it's ready.  The only
porting problem will be to non-ANSI compilers, as I've used both the
stringize(#) and token pasting(##) abilities.  Saved typing.  I'll remove
these things on my last pass through the files...

Last problem to solve involves tech level of certain skills.  I'm getting
a lot of nueral weapon skill users from non-extreme stellar tech levels...

I'll send another message when it's ready for world distribution :-) and
if there are no objections, I'll mail it to those who ask me for it AFTER
I announce that it's ready (I have a terrible memory...).  How should I
send it to the TML archives?  By sending it to traveller-request?  Certainly
not by sending it to traveller!

Well, enough self-grandizement, later folks, back to coding... 

	chris
- -- 
     /// Chris Olson (chris@ssbell.Sterling.IMD.com)|  [My post, my opinions]
    ///       (ssbell.Sterling.IMD.com!lvkeep!chris)|"Death to the unbelievers!
\\\///                                              | Join me or die!"
 \XX/ Amiga - The computer for the best of us...    |   - Me, playing Talisman.

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-------- TML Message #1030 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 1030
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 90 17:20 EST
From: RWMIRA01%ULKYVX.BITNET@cornellc.cit.cornell.edu
Subject: Mac Binary vs GEnie files


Ok, it must have gotten missed in my post :-)

The files are TEXT files.  I have yet to see a binary file that wasn't
obviouslly binary from the filetype (PC .ARC and .ZOO files).  The few that are
real binary are few and far between.  All of the SECTOR data is TEXT regardless
of what the GENIE software says.

When you use X[YZ]modem to upload a file to GEnie (CompuServe, etc) it uploads
8 bit files unless you specifiy otherwise.  To GEnie, any 8 bit file is BINARY.
You can still look at them or download them via Capture or by X[YZ]modem.

The only problem that I have encountered with the files is that they are CR
delimited lines, not CRLF (PC) or LF (Unix(r)).  A simple 6 line 'C' program
fixes the problem.

Rob

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-------- TML Message #1031 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 1031
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 90 20:05:08 -0500
From: (wilson m liaw) macgyver@cis.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Re: Oops


	Yup, dating is expensive and time consuming, that's for sure. Hey,
James, sounds like you are a romantic person. I am sure your wife appreciates
that. 

			Mac "I need sleep" Liaw

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-------- TML Message #1032 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 1032
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 90 22:17:37 -0500
From: wrgate.wr.tek.com!uunet.uu.net!att!ihlpf!zonker@tektronix.TEK.COM
Subject: GDW Computers


    Had a long talk with GDW members Loren Wiseman and Frank Chadwick about
computers last Saturday.  This was mainly because Loren just got a Macintosh
at work.  From what I gathered the workshop is just about all converted
to apple products.  They like the apples because they cater to non-computer
types such as GDW, but it still lets them feel like they are doing something
sophisticated.  For example, Frank was saying that he didn't know how to get
to MS-DOS to look at an apple file, in fact he barely knows what MS-DOS is or
what it really does.  Loren is a little bit better, but then he has a tendency
to tinker with things to figure out how they work.
    As far as a USNET connection to GDW the nearest one I know of is 60
miles away at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana.  I don't
think Illinois State which is in Bloomington-Normal has a connection.

					Non Cuniculus Est,
					    Tom Harris


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-------- TML Message #1033 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 1033
From: zonker@ihlpf.att.COM
Date: Fri, 16 Feb 90 05:37 CST
Subject: GDW Computers


    Had a long talk with GDW members Loren Wiseman and Frank Chadwick about
computers last Saturday.  This was mainly because Loren just got a Macintosh
at work.  From what I gathered the workshop is just about all converted
to apple products.  They like the apples because they cater to non-computer
types such as GDW, but it still lets them feel like they are doing something
sophisticated.  For example, Frank was saying that he didn't know how to get
to MS-DOS to look at an apple file, in fact he barely knows what MS-DOS is or
what it really does.  Loren is a little bit better, but then he has a tendency

					Non Cuniculus Est,
					    Tom Harris



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-------- TML Message #1034 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 1034
Date: Fri, 16 Feb 90 11:59:43 CST
From: (Jim Cunningham) jcunning@gsliss.lis.uiuc.edu
Subject: USNEt U of I




Yes, we do have a USNET here at U of I.


				Jim Cunningham
				Traveller Relic



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-------- TML Message #1035 --------

Archive-Message-Number: 1035
Date: Fri, 16 Feb 90 12:13:20 CST
From: (Jim Cunningham) jcunning@gsliss.lis.uiuc.edu


misc



Re: Underwater thingies: See "The Undersea Enviornment" by J.
Andrew Keith. This was published by Gamelords a few years back
and might still be available in some hobby shops  and/or DGP.


Re: GDW's phone is 309-452-3632. By the way, this is also the 
combination of the safe in Research Station Gamma.


Re: Any stories you may of heard about power and phones being
knocked out in Champaign-Urbana are true. Due to a massive
ice storm, a helluva lot of people (including myself) have
been without power for several days and probably won't
get it back until next week. If you`re having any problems
communicating into this area by any means, that's probably the
reason. Trying to live a normal life for close to a week
without power of phone is not fun.


Re: Traveller novels: See the latest Traveller's Digest (#17
I think) for a little more info.


			Stumbling in the dark,

			Jim Cunningham
			Traveller Relic



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

