Reynard said:
Not every article must super detail a game phenomenon or spell out every die roll. The general description is enough to make its point and give enough clues for referees to create a situation and any, if any, die rolls. Thing is, it's been part of Traveller for a long time.
That's true, and I don't expect that. But some things do indeed require clarification. Using your example above the rules could state "Lasers cause damage via energy at a distance". But how much damage? At what distance? The whole point of having a rule set is defining things in non-ambiguous terms. IF it's simply meant to be informtional reference and isn't key to game play, then I agree with your position. I think the debate here is more centered along the lines of whether or not being able to retain your vector and speed upon exit from jumpspace in your arrival system is possible, or not. This actually can radically effect encounters as well as PC actions. If you've been boosting the entire time to the 100D limit you have a lot of G-turns behind you. Being able to bring those into your arriving system can drastically effect your travel times.
The other issue here is that this was written as a JTAS article, as many new rules and interpretations were from CT. It's been relatively ignored since then in the various versions, and it's also been raised as a question in the various versions since then. Because a rule re-write is underway it does make sense to have the discussion now and try to resolve it one way or another. Personally I'm in favor of reducing ambiguity whenever and whereever possible.
Reynard said:
I'm using information from Book3: Scouts. According to it, you jump that far away because "...this allows maximum chance of *avoiding uncharted bodies*, minimal interference in system scanning and maximum discretion if the system is inhabited." A jump is fairly accurate but with little to no knowledge about a system, you don't jump in to it blindly. It's the scout service in the beginning that map data for all other vessels to use a system while ships in general help update a system as their sensors sweep within. That's why ships in known systems have little to fear NORMALLY when they calculate a jump into known systems.
Read Scouts, has all the info about system survey.
I did find the section in question:
Entry into a new system is typically made at much greater distance than a typical system jump. The default entry point is above the system’s orbital plane (ecliptic) in the Oort region (typically 50,000 AU from the star); this allows maximum chance of avoiding uncharted bodies, minimal interference in system scanning, and maximum discretion if system is inhabited.
Only the MGT Scouts book specifies a 50k AU entry point. It's not in CT, or MT, or TNE (but jump shock is here!). But the rest of the paragraph is the same thing that I mentioned. This is a rather moot point, as the Imperium is explored and stellar cartography data exists on pretty much all of the surrounding space (where else did TravellerMap get it's cartography?). Still, a scout ship could easily come in much closer to get a better read on the system. But yes, being that far out pretty much guarantees you won't be spotted.
Reynard said:
Again about the precision of jumping and why you don't exit in the center of a target location, this is from Sector Fleet: "There is still variation in emergence, however. Using a linked Jump reduces variation in time to about an hour either way in most cases. Position variance is minimal. This means that fleets can Jump en masse and be ready for combat at the far end, but a fleet emergence is still an exciting time for all concerned, as vessels emerge in the wrong order, on slightly different vectors, and dispersed in time by up to 2 hours. The variance is greater for large fleets. A single vessel and her escorts are likely to emerge all together. Larger forces are not."
Right. But Sector Fleet ISNT't MGT canon. If you read it closely you'll see that it was never updated to bring it in line with MGT universe - for example jump grids are still in there. That section you are referencing also talks about all naval ships being equipped with Squadron Jump systems. Nowhere else, book wise, is this system referenced. There's no civilian mention of it - Sector Fleet obviously being a purely naval supplement - so one could argue that this, too, is not canon for the MGT universe. But since it got the MGT publishing label slapped on it, by default it becomes canon. So between the lines I treat it as pseudo-canon, or something that has some interesting ideas, but I don't go too far down the rabbit hole because it's easily going to break something else.
Reynard said:
Yes , even with squadron jump engines, it's a bad idea to think you can attack a target with a full fleet at the moment of exit. The first ships to emerge would alert the enemy who would have initial superiority of firepower then would wait for each group of ships to follow. Reminds me of the end battle in the Wing Commander movie.
First... ugh... a reminder of just how terrible Wing Commander the movie was. People were walking out it was so bad. Das Boot in Space!!!
The idea of more than two ships jumping in tandem and arriving more or less at the same time is something that really does need to be addressed. We can't use the idea of specialized, and apparently, purely naval jump navigational systems because PC's wouldn't necessarily have them or be able to always travel with one. And really, it comes down to computer processing to determine that. It's fine to keep some of the vagaries of jump space and attach them to multiples of ships. But just how many? Should it be 1hr? 3hrs? Can you do something to reduce it?
Sure, it also makes sense for naval forces to jump and arrive distant to the defenders so the attackers can gather their forces, organize and move out. On the flip side you give defenders time to rally. And wonder if the arrival is a feint or not. I would assume most fleet actions are going to take place near something worth fighting over. Fighting in the middle of nowhere doesn't make much sense if you are a defender since you can utilize any defenses you might have. Maybe if you have to worry about the enemy indiscriminately bombarding your planet from orbit, but that would trigger 3I intervention, and it would seem that none of the sophont races are terribly eager to glass an enemies planet from orbit. So that option is more or less off the table.
Reynard said:
There is no problem with velocity and jumping in Traveller. It has been established for decades and game mechanics and gameplay has developed around it as seen above.
Actually, there is. Because it
hasn't been defined in the printed rule sets. The only reference I am aware of is the JTAS article from CT. And as I mentioned up-thread it would be nice to resolve this ambiguity with a few sentences once and for all - or at least for MGT-2. Then once we know the parameters we can play with the rules as we see fit.
