New 100 ton Free Trader
- Thread starter DFW
- Start date
GamerDude
Cosmic Mongoose
No not on your end after the discussions we have (too bad my access to your PM's is no longer available).AndrewW said:
But nuff' said. The truth is out there, you can't hide the truth of the signal, and you can't stop the Signal Mal, they killed me Mal. Can you believe it? With a sword they killed me.
For once Im wholly on DFW's side in this discussion. I planned out a month's timetable in freight-running for my rp (itself has two players, one the pilot/astrogator and the other the engineer, both have Gunner training for the one turret on the 100dton ship).
Anyway, here we go;
Week 1 (Day 0-7) - Jump from Planet A to Planet B
Week 2 (Day 8-15) - Landing on Planet, deliver cargo, gain new cargo. Then take off to GG to refuel. Refine fuel along the 100d trip.
Week 3 (16-22)- Jump from Planet B to Planet W/e.
Week 4 (23-30, See Week 2).
My ship is a Thrust 2 ship and it takes on average 4-5 days in a week to get to a GG from a main planet. The Jump can take place as soon as the 100d is reached, so 1-2 days on the planet sorting out cargo and leaving for the GG to Jump again works ok, at least in my games.
Anyway, here we go;
Week 1 (Day 0-7) - Jump from Planet A to Planet B
Week 2 (Day 8-15) - Landing on Planet, deliver cargo, gain new cargo. Then take off to GG to refuel. Refine fuel along the 100d trip.
Week 3 (16-22)- Jump from Planet B to Planet W/e.
Week 4 (23-30, See Week 2).
My ship is a Thrust 2 ship and it takes on average 4-5 days in a week to get to a GG from a main planet. The Jump can take place as soon as the 100d is reached, so 1-2 days on the planet sorting out cargo and leaving for the GG to Jump again works ok, at least in my games.
zero said:
Another thing to remember, based on recent observations, our solar system is NOT a model for where GG's orbit a star. Ors seems to be odd man out so far. So, might as well scrap the model that GG's are far out in the system for most places.
From: http://lpc1.clpccd.cc.ca.us/lpc/harpell/astro10/quizzes/quiz10_answers.pdf
8. All the following statements about known extrasolar planets are true.
Which one came as a surprise to scientists who expected other solar
systems to be like ours?
a) In some cases, we've found more than one planet orbiting the same star. Some of the planets orbit
their star more closely than Mercury orbits the Sun.
b) Most of the planets orbit stars that are quite nearby compared to the scale of the entire Milky Way
Galaxy.
c) Most of the planets are quite massive - much more like Jupiter than like Earth. (and closer to
their star then Earth is to the sun)
GypsyComet
Emperor Mongoose
Jupiter is pretty exciting already. Add a lot of additional energy due to being close to the primary and skimming is going to be the refueling option of the stupid and desperate. Just saying...
far-trader
Mongoose
DFW said:
At least quadruple that. It's more like losing 5 or 6 days per trip (10 or 12 days/month) when you skim a GG, for your 2G ship.
And 7 or 8 days per trip (14 or 16 days/month) when you skim a GG for a 1G ship.
Per the standard assumptions in Traveller which are that the mainworld is in the habitable zone and the gas giants are farther out. You have the trip time (some 4-5 days @2G; 6-7 days @1G); plus the added orbital trip time (1 hour) and the skimming time (8 hours) to tack on another day (you're going to have to sleep sometime right).
EDIT: oops, add another day per trip for the ship you posted with it's 24hours to purify the fuel
far-trader
Mongoose
zero said:
Certainly, for your games that's fine
However Traveller's standard assumption is that it takes a full week on the planet sorting out cargo and pax. So generally it is (if skimming GG for fuel):
Week 1 - Arrive in system at 100d from world, approach world, land and sort out cargo.
Week 2 - Leave the planet, maneuver to the GG, skim fuel (purify it option), move to 100d from GG, and jump.
Week 3 - In Jumpspace.
Repeat = 16 systems per year (with 2 weeks down for maintenance and about 4 bonus days)
vs
Getting your fuel on the world (dipping if allowed, or buying if available):
Week 1 - Arrive in system at 100d from world, approach world, land and sort out cargo.
Week 2 - Leave the planet, maneuver to 100d (taking mere hours) and jump (and in Jumpsapce for the week).
Repeat = 25 systems per year (with 2 weeks down for maintenance and about 0 bonus days)
So skimming GG over a year COSTS you 9 trading cycles. Per Traveller's standard assumptions.
far-trader
Mongoose
DFW said:
And while you're at it scrap every other rule of the game as well :roll:
You sure aren't going to have the worlds created by the system gen using your presmuptions
No, to play Traveller we have to accept certain fictions for the sake of game play. Call this one of them and don't sweat the still very early cosmological knowledge. Current presumptions could prove to be just as wrong as past ones in the future.
far-trader
Mongoose
DFW said:
Scientific info? You mistake my commentary, and apparently I misunderstand your usage of "..."straight" per the rules and customs" earlier.
Per the game, GG refueling adds about a week to merchant activity in system.
If you start down the path of only playing by science and ignore the fiction side of the game you're going to be stuck with ships with far less than 1G of acceleration, no artificial gravity, no FTL/jump, no magic radiation protection, etc. etc. etc.
...not that fun can't be had that way too. But it is a different fun, and a different game than the basic premise of Traveller. The "straight" rules as you said.
far-trader
Mongoose
DFW said:
For what it's worth I once long ago worked out an averaging and adopted an easy rule of thumb from it. I don't recall the exact averages, and the number of variables made it too wide to be strictly accurate anyway. But the rule of thumb serves well enough for guiding small Free-trader mercantile trade.
5 high passages
5 mid passages
10 low passages
500 tons of freight
far-trader
Mongoose
DFW said:
You're welcome, with the caveat that I haven't looked hard at MgT to see how close that will track with the old CT tables. I should really do that but lack the energy/desire/need at the moment (...though the interest is stirring now
)The Free Trader Type AA2 would make a nice ship for a "peddler" in my
setting, one of those lone space merchants who visit the frontier worlds
to sell their speculative goods, take orders too small for the big freighters
and carry the occasional passenger on a route rarely served by the bigger
ships.
This is not exactly the usual Traveller trade system, because it requires a
lot more detailed roleplaying than rolling dice and looking up tables, but
in my view it is one of the little things which give a setting verisimilitude.
setting, one of those lone space merchants who visit the frontier worlds
to sell their speculative goods, take orders too small for the big freighters
and carry the occasional passenger on a route rarely served by the bigger
ships.
This is not exactly the usual Traveller trade system, because it requires a
lot more detailed roleplaying than rolling dice and looking up tables, but
in my view it is one of the little things which give a setting verisimilitude.
far-trader said:You're welcome, with the caveat that I haven't looked hard at MgT to see how close that will track with the old CT tables. I should really do that but lack the energy/desire/need at the moment (...though the interest is stirring now
I searched once & found something Aramis has done regarding viability in the CT system. It would be nice to have an analysis using the MGT system. The main difference (besides ship design) I see is that MGT makes adjustments for # of parsecs shipped.
rust said:
Yes, I did it as an exercise to see what would be the smallest/cheapest ship that was likely to be "out & about" on the fringe trade routes. Whether or not it can be used by PC's is to be determined by clever (desperate?) players.
