Discounts for Technology levels, are there any?

[far-trader]

At around TL 12 or so you could also get a shovel with something like a
monomolecular edge, able to "cut" through almost all kinds of materials
with ease - needing less strength to use it for the "shove" part (and tur-
ning it into a nasty melee weapon in the wrong hands). 8)

I don't think something like that would be properly a shovel. No more than a Traveller reactionless maneuver drive could be called a horse (both being 'engines' that propel vehicles).

Your example of a TL12 'shovel' involves a paradigm(?) shift/improvement in the function/technology. It wouldn't be a simple refinement per the TL adjustment allowance but a new device with it's own introduction TL (12) and possible refinements by TL from that. In my opinion. That is the way I see the maximum improvement rule working. Anything beyond the 3(?) TL adjustment requires/implies a whole new design/invention idea without which there are no significant improvements in function or production.

 

[rust]

I don't think something like that would be properly a shovel. No more than a Traveller reactionless maneuver drive could be called a horse (both being 'engines' that propel vehicles).

True, but names tend to stick, while the definitions of the things behind
the names change far more often, depending on the development of the
technology. As long has the thing can fulfill approximately the same func-
tion, we will probably use the same or a very similar name. Just think of
the "E-Book" or the "E-Mail", which are in fact completely different from
all earlier things named "book" or "mail", but have a very similar function.