What would an ansible really change?

[Somebody]

Removed. No longer playing Traveller / No longer want to get close to the toxic community here

 

[AndrewW]

(1) Yes, the Vatta-Verse also has smaller ones. But those are a well kept secret that most people do not know about. And we do not build the Vatta-Verse in MgT, we borrow from it

Only kept secret initially, the secret got out and shipboard ansibles became more common.

 

[MonsterX]

That would mean a big strategic advantage for empires that had TL 14 instead of TL 13. Of course, they would probably steal or buy them, and TL 14 is common enough that someone would sell it.

You can no longer outrun the consequences of your crimes just by outrunning the speed of information.

Half the scout service would be out looking for a job.

And the Vatta's War books are excellent. I'll have to check out the other series you mention.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

1 Pc per day is about the same as a J-6 courier, 6 Pc in 7 days.

If you mean something faster, then the Imperium would be a centralised bureaucracy where all decisions are made at TrantorCapital severely limiting the scope for adventuring in the Imperium.

 

[AndrewW]

And the Vatta's War books are excellent. I'll have to check out the other series you mention.

Yup. There's also Vatta's Peace. Should try Serrano Legacy books as well same author.

 

[MonsterX]

Yup. There's also Vatta's Peace. Should try Serrano Legacy books as well same author.

Already read them all, I'm afraid. Twice. The Elizabeth Moon vein is all tapped out for me, unless she writes something else.

 

[AndrewW]

Already read them all, I'm afraid. Twice. The Elizabeth Moon vein is all tapped out for me, unless she writes something else.

Ah well. Needs to there's some unresolved stuff left over in the Serrano Legacy.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Batteltech and Renegade Legion are Boardgames with attached RPGs. There are novel tie ins to both (BT a lot more then Renegade) but they are no where close to Elisabeth Moon in quality.

The Renegade Legion universe came about when FASA lost its close ties to GDW.
You can almost see it as the FASA version of Traveller, but they chose to start with the rather excellent board games than the rpg angle.
Take a look at Leviathan and Prefect for what fleet and system level combat in Traveller could have been.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Back to the ansible - would it have the capacity to transmit wafer personality/memory data...

Dark Matter (TV series), Altered Carbon (books and TV series), Eclipse Phase (rpg), Infinity (rpg, boardgame)...

 

[Spirit of 1977]

While this ansible is quite limited compared to other examples in fiction, this would still be a huge advantage for governments and corporations in a jump drive setting. A set of worlds 1 parsec apart could suddenly have viable nearly realtime financial trading markets, along with much higher standardization of all tech. If the ansible could be connected into computer monitoring and security checks, governments would no longer need to rely upon loyal vassals to execute orders, and interstellar democracy is possible at the subsector level. That's just off the top of my head. It's a big deal.

 

[tytalan]

The Renegade Legion universe came about when FASA lost its close ties to GDW.
You can almost see it as the FASA version of Traveller, but they chose to start with the rather excellent board games than the rpg angle.
Take a look at Leviathan and Prefect for what fleet and system level combat in Traveller could have been.

Actually that’s not where the RL universe came from. The RL was originally designed for FASAs Star Wars license but they lost it before they could produce it so the created their own universe so they didn’t waste the money/time they already put in.

 

[Jame Rowe]

I'm sure there will still be something like Xboats. For "special delivery," if nothing else.

 

[AndrewW]

I'm sure there will still be something like Xboats. For "special delivery," if nothing else.

To send someone that heart shaped box of chocolates?

 

[Condottiere]

xxx.boat.com

 

[AndrewW]

That box of sweets that I got from my Aunt who got if from a cousin who got it.... (Ephraim Kishon Reference)

Don't forget the fruitcake.

 

[Jame Rowe]

To send someone that heart shaped box of chocolates?

You misspelled to send someone a tearing their heart out emotionally and THEN physically.

 

[AndrewW]

Normal ones or Aunt Gracies? The latter are "fun"

Aunt Gracies of course the diamonds are worth it.

 

[Ol'Weedy]

I am a big fan of Elisabeth Moon and her Vatta series. And I like the Renegade Legion Universe and BottleTech Universe (May the Scotch of Blake be with you)

So let us for a moment assume we introduce Ansibles. More in the style of those that are officially in the VattaVerse cross bred with the Very Large Communication Relay (VLCA) and add a bit of the BT HyperPulseGenerator (HPG). So the device looks a bit like:

• Ansibles are large (1). To large for most ships
• They use large amounts of energy / fuel per broadcast, similar to a J-Drive
• They need a shield "in the back" like a moon/asteroid
• They have a "burst and cool down" way of work
• They can not work in Jump Space
• They can not be mobile and must be aligned / aimed at the receiver rather precisely
• They are TL14-16 (2)
• They propel data packages at 1 parsek per day instead of per week
• The range is a maximum of six parsek

So huge FTL systems that is still speed limited, position fixed and likely only around in major systems. These systems will get their news faster than the low end frontier systems.

(1) Yes, the Vatta-Verse also has smaller ones. But those are a well kept secret that most people do not know about. And we do not build the Vatta-Verse in MgT, we borrow from it
(2) So resonably new to brand new technology. I would make them TL-15 so at the typical OTU timeline the stuff is around since 150 or so years (TL-15 is reached in the 900s)

In ICE's Space Master setting, they had the Tachyon Beam Dychtor (basically an ansible), but they were mostly controlled by the church. What better way to get your message across, than being the only people able to send said messages.
Whoever controlled such a network would have a lot of power.