To dovetail from another thread about a lower-tech world operating higher tech gear, what is the view that you have on the logistical supply chain in Traveller?
The TL of a world is, at least as I have always seen it, a rough amalgam of what the world can locally produce and support. However, as we've seen here in reality, that doesn't necessarily translated to anything that makes logical sense. In the previous thread I mentioned that Ethiopa, a relatively low-tech and poor nation, operates 787 Dreamliners, one of the most advanced civilian airliners there is. And we've all seen the B movies that have tinpot dicators with tanks and fighter jets and helo's that they cannot design or build locally.
In the future we are supposedly going to have advanced CAD/CAM machines, automated processing plants, highly advanced addative technologies (i.e. 3D printers), and all that fun stuff. If we take our reality and project it into the future, a TL5 world isn't going to be bereft of high-tech gear. Some local rich guy or offplanet company is going to be tooling around the skies in their grav vehicles while others drive 1950s style auto's and trucks. They may be hauling TL15 cargo containers on a TL5 steam train. While the planet can't build it, there's nothing saying they can't maintain it - with adequate tools and training - and have a sufficient level of spare parts on hand that they can weather the potential weeks of delays in getting parts.
With the time delay associated with jumps, obviously they can't go online to Amazon and order a TL-13 flux capacitor (1.21 gigawatts model) and expect it to be drop shipped them with a week. There IS going to be some delay in the order for the part getting sent, then processed, and then shipment arranged. But that's where normal shipping is going to come into play. Very few worlds will be totally excluded from traders. The more excluded they are, the more likely someone is going to show up because the market will be demanding goods that can't be produced locally. Plus a certain level of regular resupply is going to occur just like today where warehouses drop-ship X number of things to customers based on previous usages and standing orders. Very specific items, or very expensive ones that don't break that often should be the type that nobody is going to keep a spare of, and it would be those things that have a long delay.
But, getting back to the changes in production technology, just how much could be produced, in limited quantities, locally? Say a TL-5 planet consumes 100 TL-10 widgets a year, all of which are imported. Do you see the possibility of an enterprising merchant importing the necessary machinery to produce, say 1 widget a month, and he takes advantage of the time differential and can demand a premium, or not, for having a widget in stock as opposed to the next monthly shipment? Is that a reasonable assumption to make?
Do you think it breaks or alters the Traveller trading and TL paradigm (as fragile as it can be)??
The TL of a world is, at least as I have always seen it, a rough amalgam of what the world can locally produce and support. However, as we've seen here in reality, that doesn't necessarily translated to anything that makes logical sense. In the previous thread I mentioned that Ethiopa, a relatively low-tech and poor nation, operates 787 Dreamliners, one of the most advanced civilian airliners there is. And we've all seen the B movies that have tinpot dicators with tanks and fighter jets and helo's that they cannot design or build locally.
In the future we are supposedly going to have advanced CAD/CAM machines, automated processing plants, highly advanced addative technologies (i.e. 3D printers), and all that fun stuff. If we take our reality and project it into the future, a TL5 world isn't going to be bereft of high-tech gear. Some local rich guy or offplanet company is going to be tooling around the skies in their grav vehicles while others drive 1950s style auto's and trucks. They may be hauling TL15 cargo containers on a TL5 steam train. While the planet can't build it, there's nothing saying they can't maintain it - with adequate tools and training - and have a sufficient level of spare parts on hand that they can weather the potential weeks of delays in getting parts.
With the time delay associated with jumps, obviously they can't go online to Amazon and order a TL-13 flux capacitor (1.21 gigawatts model) and expect it to be drop shipped them with a week. There IS going to be some delay in the order for the part getting sent, then processed, and then shipment arranged. But that's where normal shipping is going to come into play. Very few worlds will be totally excluded from traders. The more excluded they are, the more likely someone is going to show up because the market will be demanding goods that can't be produced locally. Plus a certain level of regular resupply is going to occur just like today where warehouses drop-ship X number of things to customers based on previous usages and standing orders. Very specific items, or very expensive ones that don't break that often should be the type that nobody is going to keep a spare of, and it would be those things that have a long delay.
But, getting back to the changes in production technology, just how much could be produced, in limited quantities, locally? Say a TL-5 planet consumes 100 TL-10 widgets a year, all of which are imported. Do you see the possibility of an enterprising merchant importing the necessary machinery to produce, say 1 widget a month, and he takes advantage of the time differential and can demand a premium, or not, for having a widget in stock as opposed to the next monthly shipment? Is that a reasonable assumption to make?
Do you think it breaks or alters the Traveller trading and TL paradigm (as fragile as it can be)??
