Requesting Landing Privileges at a Starport: Routine (6+).
This is a 1D minute task. A 6+ roll with +1 DM for skill means 1 you have 83% chance right off the bat.
If you fail (you made an error in protocol, there was too much interference, you used the wrong frequency or they took a dislike to your accent and are just being petty), you can just try again. The chance of failing it twice is less than 3%. The chance of failing it three times is 0.5% So you are all but guaranteed to make it third time.
Three tries will take a maximum of 18 minutes (but could be 3 minutes and average 10 minutes). Unless you really need to land within 18 minutes then there is no significant consequence in failing the roll so there is no point making the player roll it.
If you had checked you were using the most recent comms protocol (by using your hand dandy expert system, or doing an Admin check on the comms protocol database on your ships computer with an Admin task chain) you could reduce the chance of failure (or bring a Level 0 skill character to the same success chance as for the Level 1 character above).
If you double check everything you have less than 3% chance of screwing it up first time around, but it will take 1Dx10 minutes so you might just risk it.
First Aid: Average (8+) Medic check
This is a 1D combat rounds check. It must be initiated within 1 minute.
In this case taking extra time increases the time taken to 1D x 10 seconds and so it is difficult to see why you wouldn't by default giving you +2.
You are also required to use at least basic medical equipment. Usually this is a Medikit and it is hard to see circumstances where this wouldn't give you at least +1, but lets not assume anything.
Your chance of success is exactly as above except with Medic you don't get a redo so the consequences are higher. If you get a higher effect it restores more characteristic points, but success gives 1 point back. As a paramedic your job is to keep people alive so bringing one characteristic (END usually) from 0 to 1 is good enough to either stop them dying or bring them back to consciousness ff they had zeros in two characteristics.
If you fail and they die you didn't kill them but if you were using second rate equipment then you didn't do you best to save them.
A readily available Tl12 Medikit (+2) and an Cr300 expert system (+1) will guarantee that you cannot fail the roll. So I find it hard to believe that they would not be standard equipment for a professional Paramedic. When paramedics attended me recently there were two of them and each had a backpack of medical electronics.
Now if you are off-duty in a bar when someone gets shot you can't be expected to have that stuff (though as the expert system is microchip sized you might have it on you at all times) and, assuming you choose to offer assistance, you might be forced to make do with the very basic first aid kit they hold behind the bar (-1). In this case your chance drops to 58%, not great, but better than the unskilled barman who has only 27% chance of success. You can't be blamed if they don't make it.
Cooking a Fine Meal: Average (8+)
This is a 1D hours check. Doing it slowly will take 1Dx4 Hours. This is more nuanced. Obviously the numbers are the same as the first aid example but taking the extra time is a significant impact. However we are talking about a fine meal. This is an average task not a routine one so it is not just the daily fare of the high passengers so spending longer may not be unreasonable. Professional chefs often prepare things the day before and will check the food and remake it if necessary. You are definitely going to be using your recipe book (expert system - dirt cheap as well). There are no useful toolkits for this specified in the CSC.
The chance of success without taking longer is 72%. If I have time to remake it it can bring that to 92%. This is the same as if I took the four times a long being careful. If I had unlimited ingredients then I'd keep redoing it, but if I was preparing the only Froo Food we had on the ship I might take the extra time instead. Of course time might run out.
to maximise my chances I would be specifying using superior ingredients and negotiating a boon from my referee which will bring the baseline 72% up significantly.
Landing at a starport requires a Routine (6+) Pilot
This one is easy. As a routine task we could just say it succeeds.
It is a 1D x 10 Seconds check but it says in the task description that most pilots take their time making it 1D minutes for the +2.
We have a 97% chance of success (snake eyes to fail).
It doesn't actually specify but I would say this is a DEX check and therefore an expert system is of questionable value, maybe some sort of task cain but it would be a stretch.
If we are lucky then the ship has Aerofins which would mean we couldn't fail (and neither could a novice Skill 0 pilot).
If not we are looking at a marginal failure. The example of marginal failure on P61 unfortunately says that the ship might never fly again but that is not a marginal failure in a routine task in my opinion. It will depend on the nature of the port, but minor damage to the ship, a negative DM to tasks requiring cooperation of the port, a fine or a really nasty scrape on the paint work that puts off potential clients would all be appropriate.
Should we expect a professional to fail 3% of the time? I think that is not unreasonable even on a routine task, we often fail routine tasks because we grow complacent.
These are the kinds of things the game thinks someone with skill 1 or 2 needs extra time and probably expert computer assistance to do reliably.
Maybe you are right. It's actually harder to ask for landing clearance than to plot a 1 parsec Jump. I wonder how they manage since most ships don't even require anyone with Electronics (Comms) on the crew. Though Electronics is common enough that surely someone will have it at 0, so they don't take that -3 on top of it.
I don't actually agree with some of the task descriptions e.g. accessing publicly available data for example sounds like an Admin rather than Electronics(Computers) to me.
I suspect the answer is that these are examples. The referee (or scenario) decides on the task requirements and the examples in the book are serving suggestions.
Anyway, your argument would make more sense if the game actually produced characters with exceptional skills. But it doesn't. It produces primarily characters with skills in the 0-2 range and stats in the -1 to +1 range. So if you want your game to be about people struggling to do basic tasks, then go ahead.
I don't get this at all, but I suspect I never will since we have gone round this dozens of times.