"Mechanical Machinations - An alternative Starport Classification idea.

[MasterGwydion]

Hey all! This post was actually caused by My frustration with the innate inaccuracy of the system Traveller uses for defining starports as well as how writers have entirely mangled the system worse, by having some system UWP Codes for Law Level referring to the Highport, the Downport, or both, as opposed to the UWP being only about the Mainworld itself. Take Vorito in the Trojan Reach for example. 1098 Vorito has a Class-A Starport that gets blown up. Vorito is listed as being TL-A, or TL-10 with a Class-E Starport. The write up on Vorito says that only the Highport was attacked and destroyed. That same write-up, also states that by 1111, the Vorito new Highport will be complete and the Tech Level of the world at the time will have regained a TL-13. This is only one of the issues I have had with the current system and misuse of that system by writers.

I just did this up last night, so it is pretty rough, but here is My idea.

Starport USP – Universal Starport Profile
Class – ((Trade + Shipyard + Services + Recreation + Law Level + Security)/6) + (TL-Polity Standard Starport TL)) Aslan TL-11, 3I TL-12, Zhodani TL-12, Vargr TL-10, K’kree ?, Hivers ?
A 12+
B 9-11
C 6-8
D 3-5
E 2-1
X <1
Trade Dtons/month
0 0-9
1 10-99
2 100-999
3 1,000-9,999
4 10,000-99,999
5 100,000-999,999
6 1M-<10M
7 10M-<100M
8 100M-<1G
9 1G-<10G
A 10G-<100G
B 100G-<1T
C 1T-<10T
D 10T-<100T
E 100T-<1P
F 1P-<10P
G 10P-<100P
Shipyard
0 Nothing! You are out of luck
1 Scrap Pile
2 Scrap Pile
3 Hull Repairs, no shipyard
4 Hull Repairs, no shipyard
5 Hull Repairs/Component Repair, mobile repair rig
6 Hull Repairs/Component Repair, 2Dton shipyard, repairs only
7 Hull Repairs/Component Replacement/Build Small craft, 20Dton shipyard, 1Dton max
8 Hull Repairs/Component Replacement/Build small craft, 200Dton shipyard, 10Dton max
9 Hull Repairs/Component Replacement/Build Starships, 2,000Dton shipyard, 100Dton max
A Hull Repairs/Component Replacement/Build Starships, 20,000Dton shipyard, 1,000Dton max
B Hull Repairs/Component Replacement/Build Starships, 200,000Dton shipyard,10,000Dton max
C Hull Repairs/Component Replacement/Build Starships, 1,000,000Dton shipyard,50,000Dton max
D Hull Repairs/Component Replacement/Build Starships, 2,000,000Dton shipyard,100,000Dton max
E Hull Repairs/Component Replacement/Build Starships, 5,000,000Dton shipyard, 250,000Dton max
F Hull Repairs/Component Replacement/Build Starships, 10,000,000Dton shipyard, 500,000Dton max
G Hull Repairs/Component Replacement/Build Starships, 20,000,000Dton shipyard, 1,000,000Dton max
Services
Level of skilled service-sophonts available at the Starport (Service Level/3=Max skill level available
Recreation
Average SOC the Starport caters to (How expensive is it to party and/or do “business” in the Starport) Increase the average price of goods due to higher quality by the percentage listed on pg.66 of Book 8: Dilettante.
Law Level – ½ of the Law Level UWP (What’s illegal)
Security – Other ½ of the Law Level UWP (Level of surveillance/enforcement)
Tech Level
Highport Minimum – 7
Downport Minimum - 3


Do this for the Highport and the Downport separately, then average them together for the "generalized" Planet Starport Code, Class-A through X. I have gotten rid of all of the crap about "spaceports" It was always an artificial distinction that were functionally no different then Class-C, D, or E starports.

What do you guys think? Steal it if you want to. This goes for Mongoose Publishing also. If it is good enough to steal for a future book, go ahead and steal it. lol

 

[RogerMc]

What about world pop?

Pixie for instance has a class A starport but only pop 3 (all of whom I assume work for or around the starport and naval base...) while Ruie has starport C and pop 9.

Is Pixie really going to see more trade than Ruie?

 

[Condottiere]

It could, depends on the trade.

It could be an entrepot.