Passenger Traffic Codes

[Myrm]

In the passenger number generation table there are modifiers listed for each planetary trade code.

Two, High and Low Population, have a '-' listed for 'Current World' modifier. Does that mean on a High or Low Pop world you cannot pick up passengers or is it meant to be a zero mod, does anybody know?

 

[Golan2072]

Two, High and Low Population, have a '-' listed for 'Current World' modifier. Does that mean on a High or Low Pop world you cannot pick up passengers or is it meant to be a zero mod, does anybody know?

Almost definitely it means "no modifier" - Hi Pop worlds should have passengers (and should have a positive DM IMHO - I don't know why there isn't one, too).

 

[-Daniel-]

Two, High and Low Population, have a '-' listed for 'Current World' modifier. Does that mean on a High or Low Pop world you cannot pick up passengers or is it meant to be a zero mod, does anybody know?

Almost definitely it means "no modifier" - Hi Pop worlds should have passengers (and should have a positive DM IMHO - I don't know why there isn't one, too).

maybe that is a question worth posting to the Erata list? Should the High Population worlds have had a +?DM?

Daniel

 

[Myrm]

Might try the errata thread - I ask because a) there are other worlds with +0 listed as a mod in the same table and b) there are occasionally things like 'small traders cannot get stuff here because there is so much the big boys take over' that crop up in Traveller.

 

[zanwot]

there are occasionally things like 'small traders cannot get stuff here because there is so much the big boys take over' that crop up in Traveller.

That is what I would think is intended, a High pop planet would probably be drowned by those big players taking alkl the passengers, except for backwater/exotic destinations.
However I suspect in real life it probably does not work that way: cheap airplane companies are still better off making flights to the bigger towns (London, Paris, etc).

 

[AKAramis]

In the passenger number generation table there are modifiers listed for each planetary trade code.

Two, High and Low Population, have a '-' listed for 'Current World' modifier. Does that mean on a High or Low Pop world you cannot pick up passengers or is it meant to be a zero mod, does anybody know?

If you're talking about page 161's tables, then...

Those dashes exist in spots where the code is rendered irrelevant because the base which is being modified is that world's population.

On passenger traffic, the base value is the population of the source world; the dashes are only in the source world. The dashes for low and high indicate not just "no modifier" but "already factored."

On freight, the dashes are on destination world, and the base value is the destination world.

(Hmm. didn't this get discussed two weeks ago?)

 

[-Daniel-]

(Hmm. didn't this get discussed two weeks ago?)

May have been and it is just some of us missed it. :wink:

Daniel

 

[AKAramis]

One other key element to think about for the numbers climbing so slow:

The bigger an area's population, the more local services it can/will provide, and the less likely locals are to go elsewhere. So while there will be more passengers, the percentage of the population going somewhere drops.

For example: most people in Seward, Alaska, come to Anchorage at least once a year. Anchorage has many services unavailable in Seward. Same is true for Kenai and Soldotna. The opposite is not true, however... most people in Anchorage do not get to the outlying communities. Anchorage has the governmental offices*, and the major hospitals, and most of the big box stores. People in Anchorage see Kenai, soldotna, Seward and Homer as vacation spots. People in Kenai, Soldotna, Seward and Homer see Anchorage as a hub for big-ticket items, and a place to deal with the state goverment.

*the Capitol is Juneau, but many state agencies have their main offices in Anchorage. Anchorage is almost half of Alaska's total population.

 

[zanwot]

Actually as most people travel return (except for migrants of course), and as in Traveller if you travel via small ships you won't buy return tickets, well that cancels differences between from big to small and from small to big. Not entirely as there are issues of availability etc, but that should be mostly true.