"sci-fi Traveller" city and starport maps

[Jak Nazryth]

I am gearing up for my game tomorrow evening and was preparing some city maps. My group is about to get into the thick of the first official adventure in the capital city on Pavabib.
I started looking around my old Traveller stuff for down-ports attached to towns and cities when I decided to use a more terrestrial resource.
Google Earth is great for printing out "spy photos" of cities and towns in orbit. The cool thing is that you can turn off all the labels and titles so that you end up with a simple image of roads, city girds, buildings, airports (or down ports in this case) etc... and choose any city or town around the world.
I also zoomed in to specific neighborhoods and areas of interest that my players will need to explore. Everything is either sizable city, neighborhoods, beach resort areas, airports, etc... and put my new color printer to the test. The printed "spy" images turned out brilliantly!
My only worry is that my chosen city in question has an air force base near by. (and yes, it is clear as a bell, nothing appears to be blacked out)
I saved and printed it in the overall "wide shot" of the whole metroplex area in question, but I'm too chicken to zoom in, "save image as pdf" and print an image of an active air force base! The last thing I want is homeland security knocking on my door during my Traveller game! lol.
Hopefully I shouldn't have anything to worry about, but... just in case... I'm staying away from the base....
Do I need to be worried?

 

[phavoc]

If you were able to retreive them off the public internet, they would not be considered treasonous material.

Well, the jack-booted thugs of the fatherland might say otherwise, but fortunately caselaw and the constitution haven't been totally taken over.

 

[GypsyComet]

Most have been on public topo maps for decades, so their location is hardly a secret. "The enemy" already has images at least as good, and unless they catch something "interesting" on the tarmac, there is nothing particularly revealing about such photos. Since they put up most of the sats taking the pictures, they already know when those pictures are being taken.

That said, I like using small rural airports as models for small C and D ports.

 

[far-trader]

Yep, I wouldn't be worried, heck you can find Groom Lake on Google Maps and zoom right in to... just a sec, someone is at the door...

 

[far-trader]

...just kidding

...and the server chooses now (the last half hour) to be slow/busy/down for maintenance, just after I post the above set-up but before I can add the punch line. Better late than never?

I've also done this (used google maps and such images). I found a nice shot of a small desert city with irrigated fields around it. It was perfect for a backwater starport. The circular irrigation plots make nice ship landing pads and the surrounding desolation screams poor low pop settlement.

 

[Captain Jonah]

That wasn't a server slow down, it was all the hack programs investigating you that swamped the local pipe and slowed you down.

Never ever mention that place that should not be named, the secret alien search programs spot you and next thing you know there are search programs all over you and dodgy looking types in dark suits watching you :lol:

 

[alex_greene]

Never ever mention that place that should not be named, the secret alien search programs spot you and next thing you know there are search programs all over you and dodgy looking types in dark suits watching you :lol:

What, Disneyland?

 

[rust]

Do I need to be worried?

This would be rather bizarre, since potentially hostile foreigners like me
have a wide choice of excellent satellite images of each and every part
of the USA, from US controlled satellites as well as those of other coun-
tries, like for example French and Russian ones, and most have a much
better resolution than Google Earth.

 

[Jak Nazryth]

lol.
I was pretty sure there was nothing to be worried about.
The area in question is Tampa Bay Florida.
The base is MacDill Airforce base. (Its the base on the southern tip of the peninsula south of down down) It is the headquarters for the entire southern command of U.S. forces (or at least it was a few years ago)... thus the overly cautious concerns. 8)

Tampa is what I'm using as the capital with Tampa International as the main Down port and highly regulated since off-worlders are strictly regulated do to Pavabib politics (1950's tech religious autocracy). I'm using MacDill is the main military base for Pavabib. The "holy city" is across the bay in Staint Petersburg with "Tropicana Field" as the primary temple/church (It is the huge round structure near the interstate). There is a small airport just off downtown Saint Pete which is the private port for official church business.

 

[SSWarlock]

Do I need to be worried?

This would be rather bizarre, since potentially hostile foreigners like me
have a wide choice of excellent satellite images...

As do potentially hostile local citizens. Not that anyone who's hostile really needs a satellite map, as the recent riots in in the UK prove. It all depends on the desired target(s), I suppose. And don't forget the street maps and tour guide books freely available from most city government tourism departments. At least they are in the U.S.

 

[SSWarlock]

Interestingly, practically all the details of U.S. air force bases are missing from Google. Yes, you'll see an outline of the main runway but no buildings. Example: Offutt Air Force Base, Omaha, Nebraska

Edit: And compare the Google map of MacDill AFB to the one located at http://media.defenseindustrydaily.com/images/GEO_MacDill_AFB_ESRI_Schematic_lg.jpg

 

[Jak Nazryth]

Funny, if you go to google earth right now nothing has been blanked out.
And I've been to several air-shows on that base. The area's blanked out are rows of hangers that I've been in when looking at static displays.

 

[atpollard]

The blacked out area at McDill is where they are repairing the damage after the UFO crash landed as seen in this image:

http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=27...49518057736414&lvl=20&dir=0&sty=h&form=LMLTCC

PS: Check out the 'Birds-Eye View" option of the buildings (don't forget to rotate the north arrow, too).

 

[Jak Nazryth]

NICE....
I remember those lights that night.
I just thought I had consumed one to many adult beverages during the annual gasparilla parade. :wink:

 

[Chernobyl]

The blacked out area at McDill is where they are repairing the damage after the UFO crash landed as seen in this image:

http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=27...49518057736414&lvl=20&dir=0&sty=h&form=LMLTCC

PS: Check out the 'Birds-Eye View" option of the buildings (don't forget to rotate the north arrow, too).

That's new pavement, not a blacked out area. Looks like they were installing a new drainage system based on the grates in the image. Rain in Florida gets pretty severe.

 

[Jak Nazryth]

My office was about 4 miles north of the base. This part of Tampa floods very easily in a hard downpour because it is so low and flat. A new drainage system makes plenty of sense.

 

[atpollard]

The blacked out area at McDill is where they are repairing the damage after the UFO crash landed as seen in this image:

http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=27...49518057736414&lvl=20&dir=0&sty=h&form=LMLTCC

PS: Check out the 'Birds-Eye View" option of the buildings (don't forget to rotate the north arrow, too).

That's new pavement, not a blacked out area. Looks like they were installing a new drainage system based on the grates in the image. Rain in Florida gets pretty severe.

You do realize that I was making a joke?

On a serious note, many areas have limited resolution for security reasons.
Rather than looking at a nearly deactivated McDill AFB, try viewing Cape Canaveral on Florida's east coast or the submarine base near Key West.

 

[Jame Rowe]

Most have been on public topo maps for decades, so their location is hardly a secret. "The enemy" already has images at least as good, and unless they catch something "interesting" on the tarmac, there is nothing particularly revealing about such photos. Since they put up most of the sats taking the pictures, they already know when those pictures are being taken.

That said, I like using small rural airports as models for small C and D ports.

Look for a place in Massachusetts called Beverly Airport; this may not be its actual name, but it'd make an excellent D class port.