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-AMN- --Date--- --Sender--------- --Subject-----------------------------------
2628  18-Jul-91 jimv@ucrmath.ucr. Traveller Tales - 4 of 5 << Howdy folx... the
2629  18-Jul-91 wew@naucse.cse.na Jaymin's utilities << Has anyone successfully
2630  18-Jul-91 Simon Anderson    PIGS (sorry, Profits) IN SPACE.. << On Starsh
2631  19-Jul-91 Adrian Hurt       Re: More planetary defenses << From: bolo%gar
2632  19-Jul-91 "Robert S. Dean"  Re: (2630) PIGS (sorry, Profits) IN SPACE.. <
2633  19-Jul-91 Carl Fago         Re: (2629) Jaymin's utilities << > Date: Thu,
2634  19-Jul-91 "Robert S. Dean"  Starship Economics Again << Welcome to Crazy 
2635  19-Jul-91 Rob Miracle       Re: LIBDIST.ZIP << >Date: Thu, 18 Jul 91 10:3
2636  19-Jul-91 "Robert S. Dean"  How Many Ships? << Steve Higginbotham posted 
2637  19-Jul-91 "Robert S. Dean"  Hovercraft? << Terrible thing happen to peopl
2638  19-Jul-91 "Mark Power"      Re: (2626) Combat rules << > > Striker does t
2639  19-Jul-91 Cynthia Higginbot re: Starship Economics << Simon Anderson writ
2640  19-Jul-91 Cynthia Higginbot Price of Unrefined Feul << In the course of d

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

Archive-Message-Number: 2628
Date: Thu, 18 Jul 91 09:12:39 PDT
From: jimv@ucrmath.ucr.edu (jim vassilakos)
Subject: Traveller Tales - 4 of 5


   Howdy folx... the verbose Vargr is back with yet more...

                       Traveller Tales

        being an encapsulated history of future time

               Copyright 1991 Jim Vassilakos
                 (for whatever it's worth)

            F.I. 0-1481  *  The First Imperium


   0-129   Age of Reckoning
 129-137   The Reign of Blood
 137-461   Athena's Imperium
 462-467   The Little Empress
 467-483   Emperors of Doomsday
 483-1120  The Dim Time
1120-1484  Quest for Solidarity



0-129  Age of Reckoning

The mutant rebellions of the 33rd century combined with the
contempt of an educated population for the corporate state set
the stage for the formation of the First Imperium under Admiral
Draconius. However, as the great stellar estates returned to
their corporate masters during the economic recovery, tensions
resurfaced, forcing the inevitable settlement of accounts between
a once enslaved population, corporate management, and the man who
would be emperor.
   Draconius was crowned in A.D. 3516, also the year zero of the
new calendar, during a symbolic ceremony in which his young
empress-to-be, then a palace slave, was accorded the right of
king-maker as a gesture of defiance against the lesser nobility.
The gesture was not taken lightly, as during the Emperor's
marriage four years later, an attempt was made on his life,
killing instead his bride-to-be. Not knowing upon whom to
retaliate, Draconius seized the opportunity to execute each and
every member of the noble families while all were present and had
nowhere to flee. The exercise in Draconian justice made the
archaic roots of his name all the more meaningful as he
personally executed the last of his corporate rivals.
   Claiming the wealth and power of his victims via the Imperial
fleets, Draconius mercilessly slaughtered all opposition to his
absolute rule. He indiscriminately butchered entire planetary
populations in the name of his beloved empress, and by the middle
teens, the pervasive anarchy which threatened to consume the
Empire had been successfully quashed. The process of
decentralization began anew, as Draconius called to the upper
echelons of his fleets for his most loyal and capable officers.
To these individuals, he invested the titles of nobility. Large
fiefs and governorships were distributed arbitrarily, in a
fashion which best suited the Emperor alone without consideration
for the regions or peoples to be held subject.
   By the early 30's (F.I.), the new order was intact and
functioning. Perhaps to test the bureaucratic machinery,
Draconius began the issuance of royal edicts, the first calling
for an accelerated program of expansion. Production levels were
driven upward to meet the increasing demand, and the median
standard of living rose to all-time highs since the turn of the
Terran millennium making Draconius the most popular and effective
leader in historical memory. No one would foresee that within a
century, his face would become virtually unknown.


129-137  The Reign of Blood

Before the murder of his empress-to-be, Draconius fathered a pair
of paternal twins, Paulo and Athena. The brother and sister were
considered as the two separate halves of their father's double
personality, the former: sinister, evil, rash, and prone to
tantrums, the latter: quiet, reserved, careful, and thoughtful. 
   Over the years, Paulo grew impatient with his father's rule.
He desired mastery of the galaxy for himself, and in 129, he
murdered his father, seizing the crown and marrying his sister,
Athena. Rebellion broke out almost instantly as Paulo had carried
out his plan without a strong network of conspirators, yet the
ruthlessness with which he crushed the revolt dwarfed Draconius'
cruelty. This policy of terror and intimidation would
characterize the short remainder of his rule as Paulo lapsed into
a guilt-ridden paranoia which drove him finally into an obsession
to eradicate the memory of his father.
   Paulo ordered that all the images of his father be destroyed;
anywhere the name "Draconius" was written, it was erased.
Anywhere his father's memory lay, he would put its keepers to
death. Soon, even if he heard that the name "Draconius" was so
much as whispered on such a planet, all its inhabitants would be
killed. Paulo used all the powers he could bring to bear to seek
out and destroy all who would oppose him in his quest. 
   In a short time, Paulo had canceled every edict his father had
ever decreed, erased every statement, undone every deed,
destroyed every concrete memory he could find of his father.
Soon, he believed, even he would forget of Draconius. 
   Paulo's reveled in courtly games of pain and death to relieve
a moment's pressure from the enormous task he had undertaken. He
spent long hours developing new tortures of the mind which he
tested on his chosen mate, Athena, and administrated the Office
of Emperor only where it would accomplish his ultimate goal of
erasing the name of his father. 
   Despite his repeated attempts to impregnate his sister in the
earlier part of his reign, Athena never bore him any children,
nor allowed any of her ova for use in an artificial womb. This, a
testament to her own psionic prowess, confounded Paulo with the
greatest anger, and in a fit of rage he abused her to such
extremes that she fell into a sleep of eight years from which
even Paulo and all the Empire's sciences could not resurrect her.
He ordered her ova surgically removed, but during the operation
her life signs ceased until Paulo and his doctor's retreated. 
   This apparent threat of suicide kept Paulo at bay until the
final year of his reign, when losing patience with her game he
fell upon her pushing her to decide between birth and death,
nevermore allowing her to linger in that nether state she had
created through her Psi talents. For those eight years, Paulo
butchered nearly half of the Empire's population, and yet
rebellion seemed a distant hope at best. Paulo grew madder by the
day, until the hour of Athena's awakening when she bore him a
baby boy. 
   Seized with joy, he resolved to allow her the tradition of
naming the newborn child. She uttered but one word, "Draconius,"
which caused him to plunge into uncontrollable spasms of anger
and fear. Observing her opportunity, she ordered him restrained
and sedated and put him on Psi inhibitors to control his mental
powers. That day, the people rejoiced, as Athena became Empress.


137-461  Athena's Imperium

Athena's first act of office was to order Paulo exiled to the
most remote planet in the Empire where she built a prison
especially for her brother. Continually drugged, Paulo now seemed
as helpless as the infant Athena had borne him. Due to the
strange circumstances of its birth, however, the baby Draconius
was greatly feared by the remaining population, and in a gesture
of sacrifice, Athena had her only son exiled to a distant corner
of the Empire and placed on agathic inhibitors to forestall his
development into maturity. The population was placated for the
time being, and Athena began her rule, instituting several edicts
toward the amendment of the Imperial political framework.
   The first of these edicts involved the creation of a Senate of
Nobles who would enact laws with the consent of the Empress. This
proved of tremendous importance, as it ended a long era of
arbitrary legislation and provided the foundation for a firm
legal code. The second of these edicts involved the creation of
the Imperial High Court to interpret law in "cases of magnitude"
for the better consistency of justice. This proved extremely
valuable in centralizing legal authority.
   Over the three centuries of her rule, Athena continued her
father's program of expansion, though not nearly at the rate her
father had forecast. She viewed Terra's ties to the outer worlds
as already over-extended. Strangely enough, however, she
continued to enforce Paulo's will that her father not be
remembered. Over the period of a century, the effort proved
effective with respect to the common citizen, however, an
underground historical society eventually formed which preserved
the memory of Draconius.
   Athena finally consented to marriage in 449, bearing two issue
to the Archduke of Deneb during the following year. Both children
died shortly after birth, and rumors of an assassin within the
Imperial palace circulated among the populace. Athena ordered the
palace psi-shielded and sent a secret communique to Paulo's
prison ordering that her brother be executed. By means unknown,
Paulo escaped only hours before the receipt of the message, and
Draconius mysteriously disappeared a short time later.
   Fear of Paulo swept through the masses, and Athena ordered the
suppression of psionics to counter the panic; however, her
actions were too slow in coming, and rebellion ensued from the
Siri (psionic class). For a short period, a movement called the
"Draconian Front" challenged the Imperial Right of Suppression,
borrowing its name from the centuries old censure as a show of
defiance against the Empire.
   Lacking the ability to survive direct battles, the front
relied on piracy and sabotage as its primary arguments, harassing
Imperial shipping and communication routes during the early 50's.
However, it lacked the momentum of a full-scale rebellion, and
was soundly defeated at the battle of Aranruth in 456. The
Empress rejoined her husband later that year and bore a daughter
in 457 on the world of her victory. She stayed until 461,
refusing to venture into the spacelanes until she was finally
persuaded by her longing for Terra. There, the Empress and the
Archduke both perished in a surprise attack by pirates.


462-467  The Little Empress

Christine of Aranruth assumed the crown of Empress at five years
of age, almost a full year after the death of her mother and
father in an act of spacelanes piracy. Prior to her ascension,
various dukes of the Deneb clusters, all nephews and cousins of
the late husband to Athena, formed a grand alliance and waged a
siege on Terra in anticipation of the power vacuum soon to
result.
   The ransom of Christine in 462 provided the Terrans with a
golden opportunity for home rule. Thus, crowning the young
Christine as Empress gave the Terrans the legal authority to
summon their defense. Once reinforced, the Royal Navy drove back
the rebels in a gallant victory, but the winds of anarchy were so
easily quieted. As various dukes attempted to win favor and
influence over the young empress, competition to control the
Empire through Christine serving as its puppet figurehead led to
open hostilities among the nobility. This, in turn, resulted in
Christine's assassination in 467. She was ten years old.


467-483  Emperors of Doomsday

Before the young empress could even be accorded a proper funeral,
the vacuum of authority left in her wake swept in all the worms
of the muck. Over the following sixteen years, no less than
forty-seven individuals proclaimed themselves autocrat of the
Empire. Each new wave of invaders brought forth a new noble,
admiral, or crackpot opportunist to power. To capture Terra was
to rule the Empire, yet as the entirety of the 1st Imperium
swiftly collapsed into desperate anarchy, numerous duchies
announced their separate independence. Finally, during the Battle
of Doomsday, F.I. 483, 3999 by the old calendar, Terra was
destroyed.


483-1120  The Dim Time

As humaniti entered the fifth millennium, the psychic blow of
Earth's destruction carried with its passing an air of
misanthropy. Although without focus, the war continued in
sporadic outbursts for well over century.
   Finally, the economy of the Empire became so depleted and
ravaged by internal war, and the political system so fragmented
and disarranged that no true Empire could be said to exist.
Within the core worlds, a long depression ensued, in which key
industries fell apart, the caste system was destroyed, and
communication and transport between the stars came to a near
standstill. However, near the rim, colonization still continued
and new states were built from the various duchies, kingdoms,
domains, and governorships which remained.
   Humaniti slowly re-established itself during the final
centuries of the Dim Time, however, it was so politically
fragmented that the more powerful states squabbled amongst one
another for greater power and prestige, leading once more to
outbreaks of armed conflict. An interworld trade language soon
arose among the merchant class, facilitating exchange and
communication, and many national leaders found their authority
waning as merchants flocked to the least aggressive and least
trade-restrictive of their counterparts abroad. Since trade
wealth and privateering were still considered paramount to a
state's prestige and defense, there was a concerted movement on
the part of all nations to cease their hostilities and to renew
their ancient bonds.


1120-1484  Quest for Solidarity

As nation states became tempered by the economic realities of the
age, the ceaseless forces of political centralization countered
the peace ethic inherent to a re-developing interstellar
community. Ultimately, neither force could defeat the other, and
in 1120, a solution was discovered with the first of several
arranged marriages which would eventually rebind the Empire and
make it once again whole.
   Over the next three and a half centuries, the route to power
was clear. As the fragments of the first Imperium steadily
coalesced into ever more powerful states, political leaders
became increasingly concerned that their progeny should one day
rule all of human space.
   The mergence was completed with the marriage of Prince
Frederick of Omicron and Princess Anastasia of Sol in 1484,
coinciding with the sixth millennium celebrations scheduled over
the entire year. The young couple was paraded before the media,
announcing a new era of peace and prosperity as their families
continued to hold the real power behind the scenes.


           _   /|
           \`o_O'
             ( )     <---  jimv@ucrmath.ucr.edu
              U            ucsd!ucrmath!jimv (uucp)
          Aachk!
        Phft! Ftp!

Imagine Bill the Cat as an Aslan... hmm..... evil thought.


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

Archive-Message-Number: 2629
Date: Thu, 18 Jul 91 10:38:19 MST
From: wew@naucse.cse.nau.edu (Bill Wilson)
Subject: Jaymin's utilities

Has anyone successfully been able to unpack these?  I think the libdist.zip
file is corrupted on the server.


- - -- 
Let sleeping dragons lie........                    | The RoleMancer 
- - --------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Wilson (wew@naucse.cse.nau.edu | ucc2wew@nauvm | wilson@nauvax)
Northern AZ Univ  Flagstaff, AZ 86011

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

Archive-Message-Number: 2630
From: Simon Anderson <cse426@cck.coventry.ac.uk>
Subject: PIGS (sorry, Profits) IN SPACE..
Date: Thu, 18 Jul 91 21:14:37 WET DST

On Starship Economics, and the problem of how to make a profit in space :

> Steve Higginbotham writes 

> In fact, that analysis  can  be  applied  to  EVERY  merchant  ship  ever
> designed  for  MT. Virtually all J-3 ships will tend to suck up money for
> generations. MOST J-2 ships will also. Given  that  the  J -2  ships  are
> primarily  passenger  ships,   with  adequate stewards, they can come out
> slightly ahead. They don't come out ahead of  the  savings  account,  but
> that  is  someone  else's  problem.  J -1 ships will mostly make a little
> money. They even make more money than a savings  account.  Not  quite  so
> much as most Money Market accounts, but, again someone else's problem. 

This  is the problem everyone seems to be having with interstellar trade,
it's just too difficult to make a profit with the given freight costs. 

> Cynthia has just suggested that passenger/freight fees could	be  raised.
> Possibly.   In   a   normal  economy,  doing	so  would  encourage  local
> development of resources, rather than  interstellar  trade.  More  people
> would  stay  home,  and ships would be in worse shape than ever. Besides,
> there are indications that the Imperium regulates passenger/freight  fees
> to the existing levels. 

Well,  if  we  can't change the fees, maybe we should look at the problem
from a different angle :  A  highly  skilled  crew  can  make  reasonable
profits on speculative trade... 

> As to the suggestion that the starships  operate  by	spec  trade  rather
> than	 freight  consignment,	this  IS  possible.  It  is  also  possible
> (probable, in fact) that  the  smart	investor  will	buy  the  stuff  up
> WITHOUT  pouring  money into a starship, and ship it as freight. Let some
> other fool lose money by buying a ship. There will always be	idiots	who
> go  broke  doing  this, who can be milked by an alert investor. Note that
> in the case of a  subsidized	route,	the  government  is  the  idiot  in
> question,  and  the  populace  is  the  entity  being milked by the alert
> investor. 
> Therefore, most investors will NOT invest in a starship, which will  lose
> them	gobs  of  money, but rather make use of someone else's starship (so
> someone else can lose gobs of money, while  you  MAKE  gobs  of  money ).
> There  is  every indication (from the tables) that only a small ship (400
> tons or less) can make any significant amount of  money  by  spec  trade.
> Significant  in  terms of starship payments. If there was that much money
> to be made, Tukera would get an exclusive contract, and the profit  to  a
> starship owner would vanish.

The  assumptions  behind  this  is  that  there's  an unlimited supply of
starships available to transport your cargo wherever you want it  to  be,
but  given  the  costs  and  risks involved, no-one is going to be stupid
enough to run any such ship, let alone a plentiful supply of them. 

> The  upshot  is  that no ship will ever make enough money to convince the
> buyer to buy it. So either there are NO ships,  or  the  government  buys
> and  runs  them  all, to the detriment of the private sector (read: PCs).
> Or we lower ship costs. Which we did. 
> 					--- Steve & Cynthia Higginbotham

Somewhere in the Starship Operators Manual (I  think ),  there's  a  line
that  may  help  explain  this dilemma - It refers to the *reason* anyone
would be operating a starship in the first place, and says (paraphrased )
that  the  large  company ships don't make their profits on cargo, but on
transporting goods for their parent companies. 

Looked at that way, the large companies use large starships because  they
can  get  cargos  cheaper  on some other planet, their passenger space is
used for moving their executives and employees, and  they  just  use  the
'standard'  freight and passenger charges to fill up unused spaces, which
wouldn't be making them any profit empty. 

The same thing goes for small starships - Ok, so  It's  cheaper  to  have
someone  else  move the cargo on their starship, but they aren't going to
have a starship in the first place unless they're  intending  to  make  a
profit on it themselves by moving speculative cargo's.

This  means  there  can be lots of smaller free and far-traders shuttling
back and forth, only taking regular freight when they can't  find  enough
speculative  cargo.  The  free  traders  are  there because the planetary
governments want people who haven't got access to their own  starship  to
have a chance to make some money too - then they can tax them :-)

As  Steve  says,  there  are  NO ships, at least none that are willing to
carry your freight at a worthless 1000 Cr/ton :

"You want the stuff shifted, get your own ******** starship !"

Unless, of course, I've missed something in the rules about how  easy  it
is to find someone to move your freight for you (sigh). 

That's  the  way  I've  always  seen Traveller trade working, but I can't
explain the passenger spaces  found  in  the  'standard'  designs  (small
traders)  though -  it's  easier  to  make a profit by converting it into
more cargo space,  given a highly skilled  crew.  Anybody  else  got  any
ideas ?

> P.S. Does anybody remember the cheap "standard" hulls from Old  Traveller
> Book 2? And the cheap A & B jump drives? Where did those go? And why? 

Yes, I remember them - much cheaper if you  could  fit  what  you  wanted
into them. I guess they just didn't fit with the new design rules.
 
Personally,   I'm   all  in  favour  of  making  the  starships  cheaper,
especially the computers - Price/size per tech level, like  the  rest  of
it. 
				Simon Anderson

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

Archive-Message-Number: 2631
From: Adrian Hurt <adrian@cs.heriot-watt.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: More planetary defenses
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 91 10:06:43 BST

From: bolo%garfield.cs.wisc.edu@cs.wisc.edu (Joe Burger)
Adrian Hurt wrote:
> >The whole assumption in this discussion is that for some reason, the attacker
> >can not/does not want to destroy the defender totally in this manner.  (Why
> >was such a tactic never used during any of the Frontier Wars, by the way?)
> >Otherwise, if the attacker finds himself faced with an unbeatable defence
> >at any stage, he can just give up, take off and nuke the planet from orbit.
> 
>   Wars have been fought for many reasons, but history often tends to
> show that the underlying causes of the conflicts are often economic.
> The other reason can probably be summed up as "ethical" reaons.
> A better way to examine most warfare in the imperium might be to
> consider it as economic warfare.

If we're considering action within the Imperium, all bets are off.  There's
a thing called the Imperial Rules of War to consider.  These rules aren't
written down anywhere, because officially the Imperium doesn't approve of
any war within its borders.  Unofficially it tolerates very limited warfare
as being a quick release of tension and resolution of conflict, as opposed
to long, drawn out economic warfare - which I would define as sanctions and
other interruptions of interstellar trade, and which are even worse for the
Imperium as interstellar trade is its lifeblood.

So, the Imperium will tolerate limited warfare.  That's how mercenaries make
their living.  It doesn't tolerate excessive off-world interference - in
other words, if the invader is capable of taking on the whole planet, it
will probably have to take on the Imperial forces shortly afterwards.

I was under the impression that the invasions being discussed would either be
part of the Frontier Wars, or take place well away from the Imperium (and
probably any other large interstellar organisation).

- - -- 
 "Keyboard?  How quaint!" - M. Scott

 Adrian Hurt			     |	JANET:  adrian@uk.ac.hw.cs
 UUCP: ..!ukc!cs.hw.ac.uk!adrian     |  ARPA:   adrian@cs.hw.ac.uk

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

Archive-Message-Number: 2632
Date:     Fri, 19 Jul 91 8:50:05 EDT
From: "Robert S. Dean" <rsdean@crdec8.apgea.army.mil>
Subject:  Re:  (2630) PIGS (sorry, Profits) IN SPACE..

> Date: Thu, 18 Jul 91 21:14:37 WET DST
> From: Simon Anderson <cse426@cck.coventry.ac.uk>
> Subject: (2630) PIGS (sorry, Profits) IN SPACE..
> 
> That's  the  way  I've  always  seen Traveller trade working, but I can't
> explain the passenger spaces  found  in  the  'standard'  designs  (small
> traders)  though -  it's  easier  to  make a profit by converting it into
> more cargo space,  given a highly skilled  crew.  Anybody  else  got  any
> ideas ?
>

For merchants operating on a government subsidy, I've always assumed that there
is a government regulation requiring a certain amount of cargo space, since
free flow of people = free flow of ideas = a good thing (at least in theory).

For smaller ships, well, they are they because they have always been there since
the beginning of the game.  They do have the effect of offering a better return
on investment than cargo at 1000cr/ton, and thus might help keep you in 'air
money', and they have the pleasant effect (for the GM) of keeping the players
worried about hijackings and offering other adventure hooks.  Still, you're
quite right...a trader with the right skills would be better off without them,
and I have designed several small 'cargo only' merchants.

Rob Dean
 


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

Archive-Message-Number: 2633
Subject: Re: (2629) Jaymin's utilities
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 91 7:54:04 PDT
From: Carl Fago <carlf@agora.rain.COM>

> Date: Thu, 18 Jul 91 10:38:19 MST
> From: wew@naucse.cse.nau.edu (Bill Wilson)
> Subject: (2629) Jaymin's utilities
> 
> Has anyone successfully been able to unpack these?  I think the libdist.zip
> file is corrupted on the server.

I finally have it figured out.  Note that the server says it is "compressed
and uuencoded".  Well it is.  Rename libdist.zip (after cating and decoding
the parts) to libdist.zip.Z and uncompress libdist.zip.Z.  Then unzip
libdist.zip resulting from this and you'll find the files you are looking
for.  Threw me for a loop too.  The server apparently acts on libdist.zip
in a script and doesn't recognize or use the new filename after it is
compressed.

Hope this helps.


- - -- 
+---------------------------------------------+------------------------------+
| *-=Carl=-*  INTERNET - carlf@agora.rain.com | Time is nature's way to keep |
|             DELPHI - WULFGAR                | everything from happening    |
| Carl Fago   Portland, OR                    | all at once.    -anon.       |
+---------------------------------------------+------------------------------+


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

Archive-Message-Number: 2634
Date:     Fri, 19 Jul 91 14:56:12 EDT
From: "Robert S. Dean" <rsdean@crdec8.apgea.army.mil>
Subject:  Starship Economics Again

Welcome to Crazy Eddie's Used Starship Lot!  The Biggest Bargains in the
Imperium?  This little baby may be a hundred and fifty years old, but she
was owned by two little old lady prospectors from Glisten who never took
her above Jump-1!  

Hmmm...well, maybe not. (-8.  Still, one way of cutting down ship prices 
for players without worrying about the economy at large is to sell them
a used ship (maybe a a _very_ used ship).  The only trouble with that is
that we don't really know how much of a price break we ought to get, nor
what the likely increases in operating expenses (due to increased main-
tenance requirements) or in systems breakdowns might be.  (Unless there
is some article in an old Challenge/TD/JTAS that I have forgotten...)

Does anybody have a system of any sort already worked out for this?

Rob Dean


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

Archive-Message-Number: 2635
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 1991 15:16 EDT
From: Rob Miracle <RWMIRA01%ULKYVX.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: Re: LIBDIST.ZIP

>Date: Thu, 18 Jul 91 10:38:19 MST
>From: wew@naucse.cse.nau.edu (Bill Wilson)
>Subject: (2629) Jaymin's utilities
>
>Has anyone successfully been able to unpack these?  I think the libdist.zip
>file is corrupted on the server.

Yes, at least the previous version.  The first problem is that their mail
server sends UUENCODE files with spaces which most mailers truncate when they
are at the end of the line.  I had to append spaces to the end (used an editor
and put a M in the last column).  Then I could uudecode it.  At that point,
PKUNZIP didn't want to have anything to do with it.  However, there is a
Windows Unzip that did process it.  I have a version that is working.

Rob

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

Archive-Message-Number: 2636
Date:     Fri, 19 Jul 91 15:13:47 EDT
From: "Robert S. Dean" <rsdean@crdec8.apgea.army.mil>
Subject:  How Many Ships?

Steve Higginbotham posted a rebuttal of the planetary invasion concept based
on the Striker budgetary levels.  Well, let's face it--Striker does not
correspond well with our only other 'official' data point, which is the
Fifth Frontier War game and the battalion counts derived from it which are
published in the Rebeliion Sourcebook.  We've seen the same problem with
regard to numbers of merchant ships in existence.

What can I say?  I'm completely puzzled, and I'm open to any suggestions
on either of these matters that anyone would like to make.  Metlay?

Rob Dean


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

Archive-Message-Number: 2637
Date:     Fri, 19 Jul 91 15:37:33 EDT
From: "Robert S. Dean" <rsdean@crdec8.apgea.army.mil>
Subject:  Hovercraft?

Terrible thing happen to people who read the rules...I just today noticed that
an air cushion vehicle is supposed to be rated exactly like a grav vehicle
at NOE...so that to get 100kph of speed you need enough thrust for 400kph.
Does this sound reasonable to anyone?  Hovercraft are quite out of my line,
although I append below the two specimens I have designed.  If you cut their
speeds to a quarter of what they are now, they will be hopelessly slow for
their cost.  Is this out of line?

Rob





Sprinter Cargo ACV TL8

     The Sprinter is designed to carry cargo or vehicles over calm water at 
high speeds.  It is comparatively expensive, and sees little actual use 
save as a high speed landing craft in various Maritime Forces.

  CraftID: Sprinter Cargo ACV, TL8, Cr7,130,225
     Hull: 14/34, Disp=15, Config=4USL, Armor=4B, Unloaded=97.7t,
           Loaded=175.7t
    Power: 2/4, MHD=24MW, Dur=20hrs
     Loco: 1/2, AirCushion=220t thrust, MaxSpeed=300kph, Cruise=225kph,
           MaxAccel=0.25G
     Comm: Radio=Continental(5000km)
  Sensors: Radar=VDist(50km), ActObjScan=Diff, ActObjPin=Diff
      Off: Hardpoints=1
      Def: -
  Control: CompMod0*2, ElecLink*160
    Accom: Crew=4 (Driver, Asst Driver, Commander, Comm Officer), 
           Passengers=10, Seats=Roomy*14, Env=Basic env
    Other: Fuel=14kl, Cargo=64kl (64tons max), ObjSize=Avg,
           EmLevel=Moderate

Akian Peregrine Hovertank TL9

     The Peregrine equips certain Akian units, primarily second line recon-
naissance.  Its speed is superior to tracked vehicles over smooth ground, and 
superior to grav vehicles at low altitude, at a cost which is competitive 
with the latter.

  CraftID: Akian Peregrine Hovertank, TL9, Cr1,255,700
     Hull: 3/6, Disp=2, Config=4USL+turret, Armor=20D, Unloaded=21.6t,
           Loaded=26.5t
    Power: 1/2, MHD=3.2MW, Dur=20hrs
     Loco: 1/2, Air Cushion, Thrust=30t, Top=156kph, Cruise=117kph
     Comm: Radio=Continental(5000), LaserComm=VDist(50)
  Sensors: 2*Headlights, AllWeatherRadar=VDist(50), AdvImageEnh, 
           ActObjScan=Diff, ActObjPin=Diff
      Off: Hardpoints=1, Weapon Stabilized to 100kph

                        Pen/         Max      Auto   Dngr
             Ammo  Rds  Attn   Dmg   Range    Tgts   Spc    Sig   ROF
12cm HV Gun  KEAP  50    34     12  Dist(22)   -      -      M     7
             HEAT  -     42     12  Dist(22)   -      -      M     7
              HE   -     20     16  Dist(22)   -      35     M     7
  2*HMG       -    600   6/3     3 VLong(1.5)  3      -      H     80

      Def: 6*Smoke, 6*Antilaser Aerosol
  Control: Comp0*1, CompLink*30
    Accom: Crew=4 (Commander, Driver, Gunner, Electronics), Seats=Cramped*4, 
           Env=basic env, basic ls
    Other: Fuel=2.8kl, Cargo=0, ObjSize=Small, EmLevel=Moderate


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

Archive-Message-Number: 2638
From: "Mark Power"  <MARK@gsb2.his.uab.edu>
Date:     19 Jul 91 11:00:15 CDT
Subject:  Re: (2626) Combat rules

>
> Striker does two things.  You get a bonus on the to-hit roll, and for every
> 2 by which the roll exceeds the required number, you get an extra hit.  For
> example, to hit with an ACR at effective range requires a roll of 8+.  If you
> fire on full automatic, you get a +2.  I roll the dice and get a 9; with the
> bonus, that's 11.  This is 3 above the required number of 8, so I score two
> hits.
>

Adrian is, of course, correct.  I've obviously spent too much time re-
reading the AHL rules and not enough time with Stiker.

> > 3) Allow multiple hits on the target, rolling seperately for each one.
>
> As I say, Striker allows multiple hits without separate rolls.  What I would
> then do is roll again for any shots that missed, to see if they hit the next
> nearest character in the field of fire.
>
Absolutely.  I don't have Striker here at work, but in AHL, after rolling at
the target, any attacks that miss the target attack everyone along the line
of sight, until it hits someone, or misses everyone.

> Striker also allows you to specify a group as a target, rather than a single
> individual.  In this case, you roll once to hit the group; any hits are
> divided as evenly as possible between the members of the group.  I don't
> recall any bonus for aiming for a cluster of people rather than a single
> person, unless you allow the one for target size - in which case a large,
> spread out group makes an easier target than the same number of people in
> a tight cluster.
>

I had forgotten this as well.  How well does it work in practice?  Some
Striker rules work better for full-scale battles than for the sort of small-
scale gun play most commonly seen in Traveller games.

Mark

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

Archive-Message-Number: 2639
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 91 15:30:02 CDT
From: Cynthia Higginbotham <cynthia@CS.MsState.Edu>
Subject: re: Starship Economics


Simon Anderson writes:

> The same thing goes for small starships - Ok, so  It's  cheaper  to  have
> someone  else  move the cargo on their starship, but they aren't going to
> have a starship in the first place unless they're  intending  to  make  a
> profit on it themselves by moving speculative cargo's.

> This  means  there  can be lots of smaller free and far-traders shuttling
> back and forth, only taking regular freight when they can't  find  enough
> speculative  cargo.  The  free  traders  are  there because the planetary
> governments want people who haven't got access to their own  starship  to
> have a chance to make some money too - then they can tax them :-)

No, that is the niche filled by the Subsidized Merchant (the ones the
Government pays for and runs).  They provide the grunt service for all those
investors without a starship of their own.

The free/far trader guys are the ones who go to the bank to ask for a loan:

Capt Helsson (free trader captain wannabe):  "Sir, I would like to borrow
MCr30 to buy a starship."

Mr. Carcharias (vice president in charge of the Loan Dept):  "Well, that's
fine.  We like to see young people go into business for themselves.  Can you
show me your business plan, please?"

Capt Helsson:  "Well, sir, I was planning on gambling on my inherent genius to
come out ahead in this operation."

Mr Carcharias:  "Hmmm...  Why don't we talk about this AFTER you can show me a
detailed plan to make enough money to pay us back.  We don't normally
subsidize trips to Vegas to play roulette."

<  later  >

Mr Carcharias:  "well, sir, it is good to see you again!  What can I do for
you today?"

< capt Helsson hands Mr Carcharias business plan.  Mr Carcharias studies it
while Helsson talks. >

Capt Helsson:  "Sir, you asked me for a business plan.  I have one here.  I
have information that the new source of pharmaceuticals in District 268 will
produce a large, steady demand for starship transportation to markets.  As you
can see, my plan is built around the idea of purchasing the drugs on site, and
transporting them to markets to exchange them for goods the producers need
<blah, blah, blah............>

< Mr Carcharias sets down plans and smiles broadly >

Mr Carcharias:  " well, that is good news.  This is just the kind of plan we
like to see before we release our money into a long term loan.  And, if your
estimates are correct, you should be able to pay the loan back within 15
years.  That really is well thought out, sir.  we shall, of course, have to
process the paperwork, which should take no more than a few weeks, but I can
assure you that your loan will be approved as written."

Capt Helsson: < rising >  "thank you, sir.  I really appreciate that.  I'll be
back to sign the paperwork as soon as it is completed."

Mr Carcharias : < also rising > "Sir, it is a pleasure.  My secretary will
call you within two weeks to finalize the agreements."

< Helsson leaves >

Mr Carcharias:  < to secretary > "Doris, can you ring up Thor Tukera for me,
please?"

< phone rings, Carcharias answers.>

Mr Carcharias:  "Thor, I just heard a reliable rumor that there is a lot of
money to be had in a new route down in District 268.  If you could release a
few long-liners to duty there, we could make a bundle.  And, as a bonus, there
should be several nearly new merchant ships, all quite well designed,
available there in the next few months.  Quite reasonable prices, too, I
should think...  Of course I'll send the details to your office, this very
afternoon.  Good talking to you, Thor.  BTW, what is my dividend on my
personal Tukera stock expected to be this quarter?  That high?  EXCELLENT. 
Good day, Thor."

Mr Carcharias:  < to Doris >  "Please expedite that young man's application,
Doris.  We wouldn't want to disappoint him.  Or Tukera."


Notes:

	1) If a good spec trade route already exists, a major corporation will
have it tied up solidly.

	2) Ownership of the major mega-corporations is so interlocked (source:
MegaTraveller) is so interlocked, they might as well be considered to have
identical interests.  This includes Hortalez et Cie, THE major banking
interest and source of starship loans in the Imperium, as well as most lesser
banks.

	3) Purely local banks are unlikely to finance a purchase involving
removal of the borrower and the collateral some months travel beyond their
reach, which is why Hortalez is the main source of starship loans.

	4) Assuming your business plan is based on speculative trade, it will
mostly likely be a newly profitable route.  If the route continues to be
profitable, in the long run Tukera or a similar large shipping firm will
undoubtably move in and take it over.  

	5) Given: you have to explain your route to the lending agency.  Given:
the lending agency is a part-owner or is owned by Tukera or other major
shipping firm, it is not unreasonable that the lending agency might inform its
parent of any potentially profitable leads that it acquires.  A secret shared
is no longer a secret.

	6) It is also not unreasonable that the lending agency will make a loan
in spite of the fact that it knows that no profit will be made and the
starship will be repossessed.  This is because they can then sell the starship
to Tukera or whoever at a breakeven price for the bank, and at a considerable
profit for Tukera.  The only loser is the poor schmuck who got the loan.

	7) This happens in the real world.  In the U.S., we have Anti-Trust Laws
and insider trading regulations, etc to prevent this sort of thing.  However,
indications are that the Imperium does not interfere in business to that
extent, especially since the imperial family and the high nobility are
significant stockholders in said megacorporations.  Expect such scenarios to
be even more common in Margaret's Imperium.

	Again, the upshot is that, given the *present* pricing scheme, in the
Imperium, most commercial starships will be owned by the government in the
form of subsidized merchants, or government-protected in the form of
megacorporate ships.  Is this the picture of the Imperium that you want?


					--- Steve & Cynthia

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

Archive-Message-Number: 2640
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 91 15:30:43 CDT
From: Cynthia Higginbotham <cynthia@CS.MsState.Edu>
Subject: Price of Unrefined Feul

    In the course of discussing wilderness refueling, Rob Dean brought 
up the question of "Why does the starport charge to fill the fuel tank
from a hose (water = unrefined)?"  (Paraphrased).

Steve and I discussed the question and decided to share our thoughts with
you.  
	1) A free trader uses 165,000 gallons of water (tank of unrefined fuel)
at a cost of Cr 4,644.  We haven't checked local water prices lately, but
certainly running that much water through your meter would cost you a fair
fraction of that amount (more in California), ignoring taxes and connection
fees, overhead for the high-capacity water system the starport uses, and, if
it isn't water, but ammonia, that you're using for unrefined, it's cheap at
the price.

	2) Most worlds with any kind of government at all insist that you
land/dock at what's called a "Port of Entry" so local Customs & Immigration
can make sure you're not bringing in anything they disapprove of and pay
duties and tariffs on the stuff they do approve of.  In which case, the
starport has a captive clientele and will charge all the market can bear. 
This, by the way, explains why you don't just land on the beach and drop a
hose in the ocean; if you do, lots of impatient, armed people from the local
equivalent of the DEA, the Coast Guard, Customs & Immigration are going to
want to know just WHY you thought it was a good idea to bypass the legal Port
of Entry....  And, if the world's law levels are high enough, the local Air
Defense Command might use your ship for target practice.  (Remember that
Soviet version ADC that got into trouble for letting that light plane land in
Red Square?  And DIDN'T get into trouble (internally, ignoring world opinion)
for shooting down KAL 007?)

	3) On worlds with a lot of traffic (any Hi Pop world), what passes for
Traffic Control might get a little upset if you just start improvising your
own landing paths (to stray bodies of water).   So will the previously
mentioned Air Defense Command.  I don't know how it works outside the US, but
if you violate FAA regulations (i.e., ignore landing directives from Traffic
Control) they fine you heavily, and maybe revoke your pilot's license.  I
already mentioned what ADC's have been known to do.


							-- Cynthia & Steve

P.S.  If you thought to stop in the ocean and refuel on the way OUT, the
authorities might want to know who you were meeting and what you are carrying
that you had to bypass the normal Export controls....

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

End of TML Bundle
*****************

