100d limit

[CordwainerFish]

This comes up enough it seems like it could go into a book as a chart some day. Not just the formula, the actual bottom line numbers by planet size and M-Drive rating.

Chart? Do we not all have slide rules?

 

[MaxTac Transfer]

Chart? Do we not all have slide rules?

Slide rules? You get slide rules?

We still have wax tablets and a stylus for that...

 

[MaxTac Transfer]

I'm new to this game. Times based upon accelerating and decelerating make sense for going from, say, planet to planet; but why should a ship slow down at all when moving towards the 100d point to make a jump? Would not continuously accelerating ships require a different table than those on page 163 of the current version?

In at least some editons (TNE for example) your movement vector is kept through the jump. That can be convenient if you plot your jump in a way it points in the "right direction" in the target system (more so in TNE where the sublight engine used fuel). And not so great if you either do the calculation wrong or it points in the wrong direction.

Since many cargo ships use a cheap (as in Skill 0 or Skill 1) astrogator who does the job part time (as well as flying, using the sensors and operating radios) doing a "zero vector"(1) jump is safer for most cargo ships. And since "river cargo barge in space" is the base scenario for Traveller that is what the basic rules provide

(1) Yes movement of the system with the galaxy etc etc.... - as DigrizJB said science FICTION for me as well

 

[Condottiere]

It's a sandbox.

All you need is a stick.

Or your flinger.

 

[WHULorigan]

Chart? Do we not all have slide rules?

Slide rules? You get slide rules?

We still have wax tablets and a stylus for that...

So, my Computer Model 0/bis takes a hit.
Does that mean all the beads slid off my abacus?

 

[MaxTac Transfer]

So, my Computer Model 0/bis takes a hit.
Does that mean all the beads slid off my abacus?

Yes. That is why the XBoat system still uses physical media sorted by Hivers

 

[Neo-Otyugh]

I still have a real calculator on both my desks! Thanks for the background. I think...I'll use the 'zero vector' rule unless it's a chase situation. Then I can provide the great battle of the astrogators to emerge facing the best heading. How often do astrogators get to do anything more heroic and interesting than screw up? So I'll still need the continuous acceleration travel abacus when that time comes.

 

[AndrewW]

We still have wax tablets and a stylus for that...

We shall take those away and replace them with stone tablets and a chisel.

 

[MaxTac Transfer]

I still have a real calculator on both my desks! Thanks for the background. I think...I'll use the 'zero vector' rule unless it's a chase situation. Then I can provide the great battle of the astrogators to emerge facing the best heading. How often do astrogators get to do anything more heroic and interesting than screw up? So I'll still need the continuous acceleration travel abacus when that time comes.

A yes, the famous Kettle run. Good astrogators can do it in 9 Parseks...

 

[Neo-Otyugh]

Exactly! L3-37 does all the astrogation heavy-lifting, while Han gets all the credit.