Travel Times in the Third Imperium

[jscott991]

How far are the Spinward Marches from Capital?

I've been trying to figure this information for the last day or so, but I can't seem to find anything all that exact in the Spinward Marches sourcebook or on the Wiki. I read somewhere that travel by XBoat to the capital takes almost a year, but is that really right?

Would news from Capital really take 12 months to make it to the Spinward Marches? So if the Emperor was assassinated and Norris wanted to do something about it, he would arrive 2 years after the event (1 year for the news to reach him, 1 year for him to travel back)?

I tried counting hexes based on a Jump 6 drive, but the Traveller map I found was too big.

It would be nice if this information were summarized somewhere (like the Wiki). I was considering designing a scenario where the Emperor is assassinated (much like the Shattered Imperium setting) and figuring how long each Archduke would have to react.

 

[phavoc]

There's two different questions being asked here - the speed of news, and how fast it would take a person or cargo to travel.

If it's just information, then the X-boat network would be utilized. That is pretty efficient, with the X-boat routes in someplaces being jump-6. It's never been really clear if it works like the old pony express did, whereby each messenger stops in each system along the route, or if the originating system sends three separate ships to the three planets along the exact same route. In either case important messages get priority and thus would travel at the highest speeds.

The other question is one of cargo/people. In that you are typically going to see ships stopping at the major planets/ports along the way. In some cases, where the connections are large enough, you'll see some jump-6 liners travelling directly between two pairs of systems. You can look at today's airline system to see something similar. We have hub-and-spoke for probably half or more of all airline passenger travel. It's most efficient for airlines to do that in order to both utilize their planes and facilities best (and it also keeps the customer somewhat captive). But, when there is sufficient traffic AND competition, airlines will fly direct city pairs. Space travel shouldn't be any different because the same factors come into play. If, as a person, you have the money to charter a jump-6 ship, then you could travel nearly as fast as an X-boat along the network. The difference is that you have a ships crew to deal with, supplies to get, etc.

As far as travel times go, that's going to depend on the route taken. It's roughly 200 parsecs from Regina to Capital, or 33 jumps, 230 days/7 months, give or take. That's assuming a lot, and perfect jump timing. Nothing but the most important of messages would travel that sort of route with that sort of timing.

 

[F33D]

Jump 6 X-boat routess? Hmm, never saw that in any write up. Something new with T5?

 

[phavoc]

Jump 6 X-boat routess? Hmm, never saw that in any write up. Something new with T5?

More an inference than anything else. There are some routes that have multiple worlds, and it shave weeks off of message traffic to jump straight to the furthest planet along the line. I've only ever seen a J-4 X=-boat, but there's nothing to say they don't have faster ones too. I think it would be more of an exception along certain routes than the norm.

How far are the Spinward Marches from Capital?

I've been trying to figure this information for the last day or so, but I can't seem to find anything all that exact in the Spinward Marches sourcebook or on the Wiki. I read somewhere that travel by XBoat to the capital takes almost a year, but is that really right?

Try looking at the Traveller Map (Http://travellermap.com). You can zoom in and out on it, which makes for a bit easier mapping.

 

[Old timer]

Jump 6 Xboats exist, the Traveller wiki has a small article, here is the link:
http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Express_Boat/secret

 

[dragoner]

How far are the Spinward Marches from Capital?

I've been trying to figure this information for the last day or so, but I can't seem to find anything all that exact in the Spinward Marches sourcebook or on the Wiki. I read somewhere that travel by XBoat to the capital takes almost a year, but is that really right?

Would news from Capital really take 12 months to make it to the Spinward Marches? So if the Emperor was assassinated and Norris wanted to do something about it, he would arrive 2 years after the event (1 year for the news to reach him, 1 year for him to travel back)?

I tried counting hexes based on a Jump 6 drive, but the Traveller map I found was too big.

It would be nice if this information were summarized somewhere (like the Wiki). I was considering designing a scenario where the Emperor is assassinated (much like the Shattered Imperium setting) and figuring how long each Archduke would have to react.

This exact thing is discussed in "the Rebellion Sourcebook", iirc, for megatraveller, it isn't germane to mong because it seems it is perpetually 1105.

 

[F33D]

Jump 6 Xboats exist, the Traveller wiki has a small article, here is the link:
http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Express_Boat/secret

I didn't state that they didn't. I referenced never reading about J-6 x-boat ROUTES. Two entirely different animals.

 

[jscott991]

I thought I read that the Imperium deliberately kept the routes at Jump 4, while information for the government moved at Jump 6 so it could control the flow of information.

But that was at the Wiki, which also said it would take 4 years for news to make it from Capital to the Spinward Marches, which didn't make any sense to me. 7 months to a year seems to fit better.

Thanks all!

 

[F33D]

I thought I read that the Imperium deliberately kept the routes at Jump 4, while information for the government moved at Jump 6 so it could control the flow of information.

In MT that was said. On any game material I can find, there are no J-6 routes anywhere in the Imperium except for a Rift route. So assume J-4 routes only. Special J-6 ships supposedly exist for emergency (Sector Duke level) communications.

But that was at the Wiki, ...

Ignore the wiki unless it links to an actual game material source that has the data.

 

[Condottiere]

You could assume that the Navy keeps stations that permit jump six couriers to directly route to the capital from major headquarters or fronts.

 

[Reynard]

For the normal routes, Xboats are routinely Jump 4 vessels. The Imperium has an average tech level of 12-13 which means the majority of ships will be Jump 3. This is an issue of infrastructure to support such vessels using local resources and skill pools. This is why the Imperium is not a monolithic central government. It's also why Norris ran the Spinwards just as well whether there was an emperor or not.

 

[F33D]

For the normal routes, Xboats are routinely Jump 4 vessels. The Imperium has an average tech level of 12-13 which means the majority of ships will be Jump 3.

No. Imperial X-boats are J4. The IISS & IN produce & maintain their ships at whatever TL is required. The local world TL's do not dictate Imperial gov facility TL in that system. That would be like saying that when the USN had a huge base in Subic Bay that it was the TL of the Philippines...

 

[Reynard]

Then why is the most iconic Xboat always TL 4? That's pushing the envelope but only because the Imperium, which is not uniformly TL 14, needed a greater performance but probably at a horrendously inflated price for vessels and infrastructure which is why the routes stick mostly to A starports.

 

[F33D]

Then why is the most iconic Xboat always TL 4?

Is there a new edition of Traveller that is Steam-punk ???

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Then why is the most iconic Xboat always TL 4?

Is there a new edition of Traveller that is Steam-punk ???

Space 1889.

 

[Condottiere]

To be fair, most of their jump drives are oversized prototypes, and the difference engine takes forever to calculate a jump.

 

[GypsyComet]

Then why is the most iconic Xboat always TL 4? That's pushing the envelope but only because the Imperium, which is not uniformly TL 14, needed a greater performance but probably at a horrendously inflated price for vessels and infrastructure which is why the routes stick mostly to A starports.

Jump 4 is available at TL13, which is the TL the central Imperium was attaining just as it got started a thousand years ago. The majority of civilian ships are J1 and J2, but that has nothing to do with the capabilities of the IISS. Numerically, most of their ships are 100 dtons (Scouts and XBoats), with a large population of 400 dton (Surveyors) and 1000 dton (Tenders) models filling out most of the rest of the IISS fleets. One High Pop TL13 world could, if necessary, build and maintain a significant fraction of that fleet, and there are many such worlds available in 1105.

Class A ports within the Imperium should be able to build and repair any TL ship the Imperium has, but may have to order parts and materials in from appropriate TL worlds nearby. This is one of the reasons even small ships of a type that has been built for over three thousand years (the Beowulf Type A) still takes many months to build. Go looking for a time-lapse of the Boeing factory floor building a passenger jet for most of the other reasons: lots and lots of assembly that must be right the first time.

Looking at the Traveller Map, it takes about six months along the XBoat routes to get from Capital to Vland, and another year, give or take a few weeks, to get from Vland to Regina. You can shave off a few weeks to get to Rhylanor or Mora, but not much. This is assuming the documented courier practices used by the XBoats, which use a Pony Express style hand-off of data through a Tender at each stop, reducing the turn-over times to a few hours between an incoming XBoat arrival and the data it carried heading outbound on the next courier in line.

Passenger service is another matter entirely. A J4 ship that has to do the whole run itself is going to at least double that travel time, though it may be able to choose slightly more efficient routes to shave off a bit.

 

[jscott991]

The vastly different times reported in this thread and in the various sources, encourages me to just make this information up.

 

[Reynard]

"Jump 4 is available at TL13,..."

You are actually correct. When I originally checked a source at hand's reach (MegaTraveller Referee Companion), I misread the alignment of the information. So that puts Jump 4 at the higher side of the Imperial average which explains it's use. Sorry for the mix up. I thought something sounded wrong as I read it.

 

[Epicenter]

How far are the Spinward Marches from Capital?

It's actually laid out in the Rebellion Sourcebook, page 16:

Strephon is assassinated on Day 132 in the Imperial Year 1116 (or 132-1116 in shorthand).

The Imperium's "shadow" TJ network (Jump-6) takes the most direct route to get to Regina, averaging Jump-4.64. They take an most efficient route at Jump-6, without any interruptions (for instance, they bypass Vland because that's some other TJ's responsibility). It takes them 196 days and the ship shows up at Regina on 328-1116.

The Naval Couriers also utilize higher Jump drives but pass through various naval bases, losing more time than they gain using calibration points across the Great Rift. They leave on 132-1116 and the first arrives on Regina on 342-1116 (210 days), averaging Jump-4.33.

Xboats, at Jump-4 have a lot of stops and utilize the standard Xboat routes. It takes them 357 days to arrive at Regina, arriving on 124-1117 (average Jump-2.55). This is the typical notification time for the Imperium.