Loading cargo time
- Thread starter EricPaq
- Start date
far-trader
Mongoose
The simple answer is about 1 week 
One rather thinks the quality and TL of the starport would be a factor in addition to the nature of the ship and the cargo. A high TL port will have all sorts of anti-gravity dollys and maybe even robots for moving cargo while some ships might be able to do it themselves - big freighters might not, being dependant on the port facilities like modern container ships and bulk carriers but the free traders follow more the tramp steamer paradigm so would need to be able to load themselves at rough ports out in the boondocks.
I rather like the idea of a big freighter connecting up to some sort of lifting system that will unload her quickly and easily, some sort of overhead track system perhaps.
I think a lot of cargoes would be palletised and/or containerised, the fun question is whether or not there would be a single specification for them? I rather think there would be.
I rather like the idea of a big freighter connecting up to some sort of lifting system that will unload her quickly and easily, some sort of overhead track system perhaps.
I think a lot of cargoes would be palletised and/or containerised, the fun question is whether or not there would be a single specification for them? I rather think there would be.
far-trader said:The simple answer is about 1 week
for your whole cargo bay (load and place containers, tie-down, balance weight loads, etc, etc) divided by 7 for tons per day. (lager ship larger bay, more cargo handlers more tons perday)...lots of local manual labor on low tech worlds and lasser ports, getting more automated as you move up the scale but the effect (and time) remains fairly constant.
but theft is more likely when things are manually loaded (it 'fell off' the starship) :wink:
the K.I.S.S. way... 8)
IMTU
Mostly I agree with you about loading times, as long as the ship stays the same that will limit what can be done. Changing the ship though, that changes everything - compare the old fashioned way of doing things with dockers and cranes with a container ship.
The degree of mechanisation will be interesting, I can quite easily visualise a high TL planet where it is still done largely manually for any one of a myriad of social reasons whereas the next one along might have as much as possible mechanised. A good way of passing on local flavour.
Stealing from the real world the Liverpool dockers were notoriously militant and generally bolshie and once got embarrassment money for unloading a cargo of toilets. Apart from this cultural and religious factors can complicate things nicely - leave the PCs with a cargo of perishable Maguffin berries and dockers who will not touch them for religious reasons - nor allow anyone else to.
There was a story about a reefer whose refrigeration plant had failed mid-voyage with a cargo of Australian beef. By the time she docked the cargo was rotten and the ship stank - and the smell would not go away so the ship was eventually scuttled. An exaggeration I think but maybe something that could happen to the PCs, perhaps the hold stinks? One suspects that exposing it to vacuum for a while might cure this.
Stealing a story from my father some of the dockers might stowaway in the hold (let us hope it is pressurised). Depending on what he planet is like or when they are discovered they might be shot at the edge of the port hardstand or give a crewman a nasty shock. This leads into questions of what security and sensors are like for the ship and the ports, the former part of which certainly deserves it's own topic - and I think it has one somewhere here.
Long ago my father was a junior engineer on banana boats, fast reefer transports carrying bananas cross the Atlantic, fast enough to have run alone during the war with more important cargoes. A couple of stealable ideas:
Practical jokes. A hand of green bananas lifted from the chilled hold and kept behind a steam pipe in the engine room until nice and black then presented to the cargo master, telling him an entire hold was like that.
Whoops. A green engineer inspecting the hold collects a lot of bugs and spiders chilled and fallen to the deck when the cargo was chilled. In the hot engine room he opens the jar - and the revived insects and spiders boil out to become a curse in the bilges.
One week. Oh it is not a bad call for game purposes, it gives PCs a chance to wander around and get in trouble while still imposing a deadline.
The degree of mechanisation will be interesting, I can quite easily visualise a high TL planet where it is still done largely manually for any one of a myriad of social reasons whereas the next one along might have as much as possible mechanised. A good way of passing on local flavour.
Stealing from the real world the Liverpool dockers were notoriously militant and generally bolshie and once got embarrassment money for unloading a cargo of toilets. Apart from this cultural and religious factors can complicate things nicely - leave the PCs with a cargo of perishable Maguffin berries and dockers who will not touch them for religious reasons - nor allow anyone else to.
There was a story about a reefer whose refrigeration plant had failed mid-voyage with a cargo of Australian beef. By the time she docked the cargo was rotten and the ship stank - and the smell would not go away so the ship was eventually scuttled. An exaggeration I think but maybe something that could happen to the PCs, perhaps the hold stinks? One suspects that exposing it to vacuum for a while might cure this.
Stealing a story from my father some of the dockers might stowaway in the hold (let us hope it is pressurised). Depending on what he planet is like or when they are discovered they might be shot at the edge of the port hardstand or give a crewman a nasty shock. This leads into questions of what security and sensors are like for the ship and the ports, the former part of which certainly deserves it's own topic - and I think it has one somewhere here.
Long ago my father was a junior engineer on banana boats, fast reefer transports carrying bananas cross the Atlantic, fast enough to have run alone during the war with more important cargoes. A couple of stealable ideas:
Practical jokes. A hand of green bananas lifted from the chilled hold and kept behind a steam pipe in the engine room until nice and black then presented to the cargo master, telling him an entire hold was like that.
Whoops. A green engineer inspecting the hold collects a lot of bugs and spiders chilled and fallen to the deck when the cargo was chilled. In the hot engine room he opens the jar - and the revived insects and spiders boil out to become a curse in the bilges.
One week. Oh it is not a bad call for game purposes, it gives PCs a chance to wander around and get in trouble while still imposing a deadline.
Infojunky said:
To use my group's latest loading. They have 5 tons of mail, 23 tons of basic electonics (hand computers) and 49 tons of freight.
It was at the high port of Regina. And they were letting the high port to load their cargo.
Reading over the thread, I'm thinking of doing average 4 days.
An admin roll with effect of 6+ will reduce to 2 days, effect of 1-5 will reduce it to 3 days, effect -1 will be 5 days, effect of -2 to -5 will be 6 days, and effect of -6 or less will be 7 days.
far-trader
Mongoose
That sounds well reasoned Eric. I'd also allow Bribery (If I slip the dock master an extra Cr___ then they may prioritize me). And of course some ports won't be affected by Admin or Bribery (there's nobody there to work through, you're on your own) and other skills might apply (Leader maybe, for organizing and supervising some locals to do the work). Anyway, it sounds like you have a good solid Ref grasp of it
Greg Smith
Mongoose
klingsor said:
A few years ago the UK government wanted to fine lorry drivers for unknowingly bringing illegal immigrants into the country. Some planets might have tougher penalties.
