Singularity Errata

[Condottiere]

You might want someone who doesn't take ratatouille literally.

 

[MasterGwydion]

someone buying a Luxury berth is NOT going to put up with a mere robot cook thank you very much!, thats the sort of second rate service you expect from a high-passage

Then they are definitely going to need to increase the price of Luxury Passage to cover celebrity chefs.

 

[Terry Mixon]

Just curious since Stewards do the cooking and cooking for 10 people doesn't require anymore cooks than cooking for 1 person, so I figured that the crew reduction may apply to them as well.

It does not.

 

[Condottiere]

If you're rich enough, and paranoid, you bring along your own personal kitchen staff, and food taster.

 

[Terry Mixon]

This is probably a weird nitpick, but I think the luxury passenger prices are too low.

Here's my math...

If each luxury stateroom requires 12.5 tons for the room and common space, 2 tons storage, 5 tons for a private steward cabin and common space, you're using 19.5 tons per luxury cabin.

If you compare other options, high staterooms end up average 9 tons each (assuming 1 steward cabin for every 10), High passage is 6 tons (plus steward every ten) standard is 5 tons per passenger, basic is 2.5 tons per passenger, low berth is .5 per passenger and requires 1 ton power for every 150.

Let's imagine a 100 ton passenger module featuring nothing but the tonnage required for the above accommodation, doing a jump 1 transit every two weeks. We'd see the following hypothetical returns...

1.

• 198 low berth passengers at 700cr/jump is 277,200cr/month - 19,800 life support = 257,400cr/month
• 40 basic passengers at 2,000cr/jump is 160,000cr/month - 60,000 life support = 100,000cr/month
• 20 standard passengers at 6,500cr/jump is 260,000cr/month - 40,000 life support = 220,000cr/month
• 15 high passage at 9,000cr/jump is 270,000cr/month - 40,000 life support** - 4000 wages* = 265,000cr/month
• 11 high staterooms at 12,000cr/jump is 264,000cr/month - 46,000 life support** - 2,000 wages* = 216,000cr/month
• 5 luxury staterooms at 20,000cr/jump is 200,000cr/month - 44,000 life support** - 15,000 wages* = 141,000cr/month

(*wages are 2 level 1 stewards for high passage, 1 for high staterooms and the 5 level 2 stewards for luxury passage)
(**life support costs include steward rooms and steward life support where applicable)

Despite requiring significantly more time, space and attention, luxury passengers provide a much smaller return on investment than even standard passenger fare, and High Stateroom fare, which should be more profitable than the High Passage rate, ends up falling under it. Lets see what it gives us at the other jump levels...

2.

• 198 low berth passengers at 1,300cr/jump is 514,800cr/month - 19,800 life support = 495,000cr/month
• 40 basic passengers at 3,000cr/jump is 240,000cr/month - 60,000 life support = 180,000cr/month
• 20 standard passengers at 10,000cr/jump is 400,000cr/month - 40,000 life support = 360,000cr/month
• 15 high passage at 14,000cr/jump is 420,000cr/month - 32,000 life support** - 4000 wages* = 368,000cr/month
• 11 high staterooms at 20,000cr/jump is 440,000cr/month - 46,000 life support** - 2,000 wages* = 392,000cr/month
• 5 luxury staterooms at 33,000cr/jump is 330,000cr/month - 45,000 life support** - 15,000 wages* = 270,000cr/month

3.

• 198 low berth passengers at 2,200cr/jump is 514,800cr/month - 19,800 life support = 851,400cr/month
• 40 basic passengers at 5,000cr/jump is 400,000cr/month - 60,000 life support = 340,000cr/month
• 20 standard passengers at 14,000cr/jump is 560,000cr/month - 40,000 life support = 560,000cr/month
• 15 high passage at 21,000cr/jump is 630,000cr/month - 32,000 life support** - 4000 wages* = 578,000cr/month
• 11 high staterooms at 27,000cr/jump is 594,000cr/month - 46,000 life support** - 2,000 wages* = 546,000cr/month
• 5 luxury staterooms at 44,000cr/jump is 440,000cr/month - 45,000 life support** - 15,000 wages* = 380,000cr/month

4.

• 198 low berth passengers at 3,900cr/jump is 1,544,400cr/month - 19,800 life support = 1,524,600 cr/month
• 40 basic passengers at 8,000cr/jump is 640,000cr/month - 60,000 life support = 580,000cr/month
• 20 standard passengers at 23,000cr/jump is 920,000cr/month - 40,000 life support = 880,000cr/month
• 15 high passage at 34,000cr/jump is1,020,000cr/month - 32,000 life support** - 4000 wages* = 984,000cr/month
• 11 high staterooms at 37,000cr/jump is 814,000cr/month - 46,000 life support** - 2,000 wages* = 766,000cr/month
• 5 luxury staterooms at 62,000cr/jump is 620,000cr/month - 45,000 life support** - 15,000 wages* =560,000cr/month

5.

• 198 low berth passengers at 7,200cr/jump is 2,851,200 cr/month - 19,800 life support = 2,831,400 cr/month
• 40 basic passengers at 14,000cr/jump is 1,120,000cr/month - 60,000 life support = 1,060,000 cr/month
• 20 standard passengers at 40,000cr/jump is 1,600,000 cr/month - 40,000 life support = 1,560,000cr/month
• 15 high passage at 60,000cr/jump is 1,800,000cr/month - 32,000 life support** - 4000 wages* = 1,760,000cr/month
• 11 high staterooms at 60,000cr/jump is 1,320, 000 cr/month - 46,000 life support** - 2,000 wages* = 1,272,000 cr/month
• 5 luxury staterooms at 98,000cr/jump is 980,000cr/month - 45,000 life support** - 15,000 wages* = 920,000cr/month

6

• 198 low berth passengers at 27,000cr/jump is 10,692,000cr/month - 19,800 life support = 10,672,200 cr/month
• 40 basic passengers at 55,000cr/jump is 4,400,000cr/month - 60,000 life support = 4,340,000cr/month
• 20 standard passengers at 130,000cr/jump is 5,200,000cr/month - 40,000 life support = 5,160,000 cr/month
• 15 high passage at 210,000cr/jump is 6,300,000cr/month - 32,000 life support** - 4000 wages* = 6,264,000cr/month
• 11 high staterooms at 175,000cr/jump is 3,850,000 cr/month - 46,000 life support** - 2,000 wages* = 3,802,000cr/month
• 5 luxury staterooms at 295,000cr/jump is 2,950,000cr/month - 45,000 life support** - 15,000 wages* = 2,890,000 cr/month

As you can see, the luxury and high wages offer increasingly small returns on investment as we go down the table, and soon High Stateroom returns have also fallen below the others.

To save you some math, consider the following options as a solution...

Parsecs	High Stateroom	Lux Stateroom	New High Stateroom total	New Lux Stateroom Total
1	15,000	36,000	282,000cr/month	300,000cr/month
2	Keep at 20,000	47,000	392,000cr/month	410,000cr/month
3	49,000	68,000	590,000cr/month	620,000cr/month
4	52,000	125,000	1,096,000cr/month	1,190,000 cr/month
5	88,000	200,000	1,888,000cr/month	1,940,000cr/month
6	320,000	750,000	6,992,000cr/month	7,440,000cr/month

We don't have the full rules for Liner Routes so I can't make accurate assessments on the math on that. If it's based on luxury prices, maybe increase the 16,000 rate by 1.5x to reflect the new rates? If it's based on the High stateroom rate, bump it by 1.25, but then we have the issue of the example discount rate of 16,000/parsec being more expensive than the price of an actual high ticket, so I'm not sure how that is intended to work. Is the discount rate just for Luxury passengers? Is there a different rate for High passengers?

This is all if my math is correct, of course. Just figured I'd bring it up now while things are still malleable.

I wanted to thank you again for doing these calculations and to let you know that I shared them on Farcebook with attribution. I think they will prove helpful to some folks there.

 

[Terry Mixon]

Something else I've noticed about the crew of the Venture Fortuna. The preview says Naalir can assume control of them, but they don't have Avatar Controllers. If he is assuming direct control, they need that. If he is simply using the drone interface, they are far less capable and will lose the control their advanced brains give them, thus potentially endangering the illusion of being living beings.

My reading is that an Avatar Controller/Receiver combination allows Naalir's personality to come through, including his acting skills. A Drone Controller/Receiver combination bypasses the robot's brain and turns it into an automaton without granting complete control to Naalir. A recipe for discovery. That might be the intent, but I felt it should be mentioned.

 

[Terry Mixon]

I was looking at this image and it suddenly occurred to me that the rockets would kill everyone in the bridge if fired. Oops. Also, seeing past them would be nigh on impossible. Nice art, but wholly impractical and dangerous.

 

[Condottiere]

 

[Terry Mixon]

I remember that one, too.

 

[Condottiere]

More memorable, was, when it was explained to me, that everyone in the passenger cabin was dead.

 

[Terry Mixon]

More memorable, was, when it was explained to me, that everyone in the passenger cabin was dead.

Indeed. I’ve fired similar weapons and being fried like that would be an ugly way to go.

 

[Terry Mixon]

Just downloaded the sourcebook and am starting to read. As someone else already noted in the Traveller forum, there are still art directions in the document on page 89.



Of course, the first place I went to look was to see that the faulty android build had been corrected. It has not, so I will reiterate the build you made using the official Mongoose build sheet.

Let me speak plainly. This build breaks the rules and that shouldn't happen in published works. You have the rules and the spreadsheet, so please correct this.

I've attached the spreadsheet with the broken build and a tweaked version for your consideration.

The book build.



You need to add a bandwidth upgrade to correct the error and that adds KCr50, and that drops the extra bandwidth that the book version listed it as having.

Beyond the one tweak to fix the broken build, I suggest a few minor tweaks to improve the build.

1. I set efficiency to TRUE which doubles the run time for KCr5, a no brainer.
2. I added an olfactory sensor (improved) as they need to be able to smell to convincingly act as living beings.
3. I also added a quick charger for Cr200 as they have the space and passengers might call at any hour, so minimizing downtime makes sense.

Seriously, don't publish a build that is known to be broken. Please fix this.

Here is the tweaked and LEGAL build.

 

[Terry Mixon]

In the handout, there are two #23. The upper one is supposed to be #22, the pool.

@paltrysum, how does one narratively describe a hot tub in what is basically a closet shaped like a corridor?

That area is one square by 3.5 squares. At max, it’s 1.5 meters across. There can’t be room to walk around it. Even if it feels that closet, the passengers would be crammed together.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to open it out into the pool room and just declare that room is both?

 

[Terry Mixon]

The ship has 13 crew members listed, but only 7 middle staterooms, and 3 of those might be gone at some point. Where does the Captain sleep? In one of the high cabins? I think the answer must be yes (#15) as the minimum passenger occupancy is 13.

Another problem, the handout says "The ship can carry 13–30 passengers (depending on occupancy)" but with 13 passenger cabins, the max is 26. There is no room for the additional four.

 

[chibiko]

The Embodiment Tier table on p.85 has entries for "Clone with Very Advanced brain", "Clone with Self-Aware brain", and "Android or Clone with Self-Aware brain".
I think the references to "Clone" should actually be for "Biological robot" since clones don't have robot brains (Robot Handbook, p.96).