Talon Brightmane said:
As to actual design, I tend to seperate passenger and crew areas as much as possible. Cargo space is accessible from passenger areas, usually through iris valves (for security). I rarely use manual hatchs in my designs because they take too long to secure. I can see them in internal areas around engineering or on the inside airlock door, but secure access points should be iris valves for quick lockdown.
I often look at Traveller deckplans with a sense of despair ... some people have already noted that many of them simply make no sense at all ... but I think its worse.
It is some of the inherent assumptions that people make before they even start doing the layout.
I mean, as I have said elsewhere, the Imperium is an 1100 year old trade based state ... frankly, the chance of major league pirates still existing, even on the verges, is simply ... nonexistent.
No chance whatsoever.
Nil. Zero.
Why?
Well, for the same reason that Piracy became more or less a thing of the past with the end of the age of sail ...
Coal.
Steamships could outrun sailing ships for the most part, or, certainly, outmanoevre them ... but steamships needed coal.
This meant they had to buy it somewhere, by and large, most of the time.
Which meant that Pirate
bases had to be fixed ... and fixed bases could be identified and destroyed easily by the major (and even minor) powers.
If the pirate tried to use regular ports for refuelling ... well, if the port's
owners tolerated it, then they were soon pressured (by diplomatic notes or a "goodwill" visit from a gunboat ... or squadron) not to.
Piracy ended. Quickly.
Sure, there are pirates in the here and now ... guys with short range outboard powered small craft and AK-47's and the like, for the most part, who take craft going through a few choke points like the Red Sea off Somalia or the Malacca straits. Which has more to do with the lack of any real government to pressure in the former case and the lack of any real governmental will to do anything about it in the latter.
Now, in a Trade Based 1100 year old Imperium ... the same situation will apply.
And any "independent" worlds or small Interstellar states who support piracy ... well, unless there's a damn unusal reason for them surviving the last 1100 years, they
stopped supporting it
long ago.
Ergo, there is, for probably 99% of the Imperium, no such thing as piracy in any real sense (unless you believe Imperial tax collectors and customs officials are "pirates" :lol
.
Even on the margins, it is unlikely in the extreme for the same reason. It benefits no-one ... not even the Imperium's opponents ... so they will likely have as much reason to suppress pirates as the Imperium will ... certainly over the course of 1100 years.
The only exception will be where it isn't Piracy, but low level economic warfare or "commerce raiding", which is something else entirely.
But even that cuts both ways ... if the Zhos are handing out "Letters of Marque and Reprisal" to random private shipowners to attack Imperial ships then the Imperium will, if it doesn't declare war, at least do the same thing ... offer Letters of Marque and Reprisal to their
privateers. So, not very likely.
The only place where it may happen semi-regularly is along the border with the Vargr extents. Which always makes my head hurt ... there's no way the Imperium would put up with it if it is as common as is sometimes implied (or as some people seem to
think it is implied) ... not for 1100 years.
The Vargr extents would be quickly gobbled up and put under Imperial administration ... and quislings (in the nicest possible sense) like Brzzk (?) would, possibly, end up in charge, but with Imperial forces making damn sure no charismatic newcomer would have a snowball's chance of overthrowing them or going off raiding for the hell of it.
Sorry, not gonna happen.
Then, I suppose, there's the question of hijacking ... within the Imperium, except in very unusual circumstances, it isn't viable and simply won't happen often, if ever. There simply isn't anywhere in an 1100 year old interstellar state that will certainly welcome a 'jacked ship and "rebadge" it ... not on a regular basis. It's too risky.
On the margins? Yeah, slightly more possible ... but if it is regular, then the Imperium gets pissed and finds out who is doing it and ... stops it. Dead. Often literally. So, not really. Not on any large scale or regular basis.
Political hijackings? The Ine Givar?
Yeah, again, possible. But these guys are doing it to make a political point, and aren't imperium wide anyway. So, again, limited frequency, and nowhere really to run.
How's this relevant to ship design, you ask?
Easy.
With no
pirates you don't have to design the ship for anti-pirate measures.
So, just like modern merchantmen, if they have passenger cabins, they're likely in the main superstructure with the officer and crew accommodation and eat with them in the officer's mess. They may be on a separate deck, but will have access to the same facilities as the officers do ... if there's a lounge, it serves both, for example; if there's a gym, likewise and etc.
Sure, they'll discourage the passengers from going anywhere near the engine room and holds, and, probably, from being in the radio room unless they are sending a message and the like, but, no, for the most part, they don't segregate them.
Now, if the ship serves
only those parts of the world noted for piracy
and carries a lot of passengers, cheaply, steerage-class (probably in the holds or on deck in the open), in effect, then they
may have the access to the main superstructure walled off behind wire (razor and/or barbed) for security. Or not.
However, even that would be a retrofit.
So, in Traveller class merchant class tramp vessels there isn't likely to be any segregation between crew (or, at least, officer) facilities and those used by the passengers. There is no economic rationale for it ... except, perhaps, barely, on some specific known "trouble" runs ... and that would be handled by ad hoc measures, I would guess, rather than Imperium wide design changes.
However, no-one is going to allow the passengers easy access to the cargo bays even if Piracy and Hijacking is rare to nonexistent. Any access will likely be through crew country, not the other way around. And the same goes for access to the enginerooms.
YMMV, of course, but the "standard" traveller response simply never made any sense to me. And still doesn't.
Phil
Author, Space Opera (FGU); RBB #1 (FASA); Road to Armageddon;
Farm, Forge and Steam; Orbis Mundi; Displaced (PGD)
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Email: aspqrz@pacific.net.au
