What's your goto tech?

[CordwainerFish]

*Now with Less Zhodani Mind Control!!!

(ahem) Guidance. Mind Guidance.

 

[Condottiere]

Just came across a shop that sells used Japanese and American clothing, for what I presume is a song.

Since I was pressed for time, I picked a dozen tee shirts to regenerate my wardrobe for eight bux, and the quality of the cotton was a lot better than my current washed out remnants.

So, presumably, you can export higher teched second hand goods to lower teched worlds.

 

[ross]

I am working through a set of assumptions currently that would functionally create a second setting. I believe the mental gymnastics necessary to get to the Third Imperium as previously in canon make any meaningful changes in retroactive continuity impossible. That’s why when things like wafer jacks etcetera are added they make no sense and actually break the setting. As an example, lifespan, education, automation, networking, anagathics, and so on.

Hell, I’m still working through why all Traveller starships are constructed like WW2 u-boats and not even modern nuclear warships. That’s probably going to be the next nugget I’ll work on.
Happy Travelling!

 

[Vormaerin]

I have no idea what the constraints on ship building would even be in Traveller given there is artificial gravity, lifters, and space magic thrusters that barely use fuel. Dunno if the interior deck design makes any sense or not. It elides a lot of things, so in that sense it isn't going to be "realistic".

But that's way, way, way down the list of things I personally consider an issue

 

[Condottiere]

There are ways to simulate artificial gravity, besides the creation of gravitons.

Outside of jump drives, gravitational based manoeuvre drives are the magic lubricant, that keeps everything moving smoothly.

Reactionary rockets aren't really an issue, until you get past lunar orbit.

 

[actionman]

I absolutely hate SF where you need to keep looking up how to pronounce the characters names. It destroys immersion.

I felt that way when I read someone's Traveller fiction and he kept using UWP's in character dialogue. When he asked for feedback, I told him it made things difficult. Of course he responded with well MWM did it in AotI. Page 1 Rule 1, never believe someone when he says he wants feedback.

...it might accurately reflect nuances that would take too long to detail.

And that is an effective use of something like that. It would be nice if more refs put the kind of thought into the issue that you have. The vital difference is that you included it as an aid to the players' and characters' understanding of their environment, a symbol with concentrated meaning, and not because it was oh so funny.

 

[Vormaerin]

What names you can pronounce is pretty culturally associated. I run a lot of modern or near future games on plain old Earth and since I frequently run stuff set in other parts of the world than the US/UK, I have a couple players who can't remember any NPC's names because they are not European. Even in written form.

But, yeah, sometimes folks use entirely fictional words that you have no idea how to pronounce because there's no language they are based on. I usually just ignore that, but I can see how it would be annoying for many.

 

[MasterGwydion]

What names you can pronounce is pretty culturally associated. I run a lot of modern or near future games on plain old Earth and since I frequently run stuff set in other parts of the world than the US/UK, I have a couple players who can't remember any NPC's names because they are not European. Even in written form.

But, yeah, sometimes folks use entirely fictional words that you have no idea how to pronounce because there's no language they are based on. I usually just ignore that, but I can see how it would be annoying for many.

My table usually ends up with a shorthand. They give each NPC a name, regardless of what their real name is, and use that name to represent the name they can't remember. Perhaps I shouldn't say each NPC as they have done it to PCs as well...lol...

 

[Condottiere]

Scarlet Blouse.

Crimson Topp.

Lady Rose Jersey.

Waisatsu Aka.

 

[tytalan]

No, it definitely does not. My other question is with a significant TL 15 presents on any world, why wouldn’t it raise the overall tech level? Technicians have to be trained, and that training has to be maintained. Equipment has to be manufactured, and more importantly maintained.
Just the understanding of physics alone, make this a foregone conclusion.

Tech Level is more a matter of infrastructure than knowledge and there are many reasons for lack of infrastructure. Some earth examples are the various religious groups around the world that limit technology and infrastructure, lack of resources (it takes resources to acquire resources), political (you don’t want local capabilities to produce a military to fight your off world merc force) and that’s just a couple off the top of my head. Unfortunately in many of these cases higher tech trade goods are either illegal or limited to the elite. This is one of the reasons that I don’t believe in a universal Starport Tech Level it just doesn’t make sense for so many reasons

 

[tytalan]

CT Book 2 never even bothered with TL of ships aside from limiting what options were available, and even after High Guard was released it remained the default way you built civilian ships. Drives were standard models, not custom percentages of hull. Hulls were normally standard models with specific engineering section sizes - anything outside of that needed a custom hull that cost a little more. The TL of a starport did not affect what it could repair. It wasn't spelled out, but it was implied that standardisation ruled and you could get parts for anything at any Starport C or better. Probably manufactured at an industrial hub and shipped out to the repair facility, but isn't that just like real life?

Actually CT left the effects of TL mostly up to the GM with the only restrictions being on starting equipment. That said most GMs and at least a few TAS stated that Starports construction and repair was limited to the TL of the world. In real life your shipping and more importantly your communication turn around times are zero to a fraction of those in Traveller which is another thing that was reflected better in CT than in current versions.

As for Regina it was not recon as much as it was corrected since even in some of these CT books it’s TL was 15

 

[tytalan]

I can buy and use cellphones in Bangladesh, even though they are not inventing or building them there (unless someone else built a factory there, but I'm not aware of that happening). The same is going to be true of every world in the Imperium that isn't interdicted or way off the trade lanes. Might only be one or two cellphones per community instead of nearly everyone having one in their pocket, but they'll be available. The same will be true of most planets in the imperium. Most of the community might use solar powered EV tractors, but that doesn't mean that the there isn't an imported mini-fusion plant running some of the essentials in town.

This is a false comparison Bangladesh is still capable of having and supporting Cell towers for your cell phone. Shipping those phones is vastly cheaper and take a lot less time that shipping enough Cell Phones, Cell Towers, Power Plants, Maintenance people, Maintenance equipment, Spare Parts, and the vast amount of other required equipment to support your Cell Phone. Shoot there are vast areas in Europe and the Americans that don’t have the infrastructure to support Cell phones. The logistics of just supporting your few cell phones is staggering but now you’re adding farming equipment and other stuff that requires infrastructure to maintain and support.

You break one part that normally doesn’t break and you’re waiting a minimum of 3 weeks to get the spare and that’s if it’s the next system over any farther and it could be months, there goes this season/years crops. The truth of the matter is no world is going to rely on technology they don’t have the infrastructure to support because unlike the earth you can’t call the manufacturer and have them overnight a critical part. A farmer or miner is not going to be able to wait for weeks or months get the support they need. Even in the real world in the remote areas people rely on what they can either produce/repair locally or within a days travel.

 

[tytalan]

Consider that if most worlds have fabricators which can produce the finished products, delivering feedstock would allow worlds to fabricate what they need locally, on demand so to speak, rather than ordering from a world which can produce them and waiting for the shipment. Also shipping finished goods would be less space efficient in the holds of cargo ships than feedstock which would probably have standardized container shapes. For example, is shipping an air raft in a cargo container with its packing material more space efficient than shipping standardized blocks/containers of feedstock in the same amount of cargo space? It would depend on the details, the destination world's fabrication capability, and the math. Worlds would of course have greater demand for finished products they can't produce locally, but worlds with robust fabrication capability would prefer feedstock, IMO. Why should they pay for finished products with the added cost of transportation, when they can buy the feedstock cheaper and produce the finished goods in their own fabricators? Even then it would come down to feedstock elements that the destination world doesn't have locally. It would be cheaper to import scarce feedstock elements and produce available feedstock elements and finished products locally.

but it's all just thoughts, none of this is defined.

Your Fabricators still require infrastructure to support them. Our power plant is down and we can’t make the part to repair it without the Fabricators that need the power plant to run. We are out of material X because we had a higher then planned for demand it’s going to be months until we get resupply. You need to do the logistics math and take communication and travel time into account. Worlds can not depend on technology they don’t have the TL(ie the infrastructure) to support not when replacing a simple part takes a minimum of 3 weeks and can take months or possibly years. What happen to the population of this world? We a part that wasn’t support to break on their water supply system broke and they had neither the spare or the capacity to fabricate it, it required a rare material that they didn’t have enough in supply, so they all died of dehydration.

Off world tech devices will always be a luxury item because you are only hassled if your airraft is stuck in the shop for 6 months.

 

[tytalan]

I think it all stemmed from the idea that if TL15 knowledge is available universally and the equipment to produce it is easily transportable, why are all systems not TL15.

The knowledge is available universally at least in the imperium but the equipment need infrastructure and infrastructure in most cases is not transportable. You can’t transport roads, mines, electrical grids and the thousands of other things needs to support and maintain those factories. And you can’t rely on off world supplies for repair and parts because of communication and shipping times

 

[tytalan]

Just came across a shop that sells used Japanese and American clothing, for what I presume is a song.

Since I was pressed for time, I picked a dozen tee shirts to regenerate my wardrobe for eight bux, and the quality of the cotton was a lot better than my current washed out remnants.

So, presumably, you can export higher teched second hand goods to lower teched worlds.

Quality does not necessarily have anything to do with local tech levels. And those shirts are TL 2 goods just made with higher TL machines. Not a real situation.

 

[Sigtrygg]

and at least a few TAS stated that Starports construction and repair was limited to the TL of the world.

No they didn't not in a single CT Third Imperium setting supplement, adventure or rulebook. The High Guard and TCS limitations only apply in HG and TCS. The Traveller Adventure still has the letter drive paradigm.

In real life your shipping and more importantly your communication turn around times are zero to a fraction of those in Traveller which is another thing that was reflected better in CT than in current versions.

I agree.

As for Regina it was not recon as much as it was corrected since even in some of these CT books it’s TL was 15

Regina didn't get TL15 until TNE. It began at TL10 and was still TL 10 in LBB:6 Scouts. It was never listed as TL15 in any CT resource I can find. If you can provide an example it would be greatly appreciated as I must be missing a CT resource.
It became TL12 either due to typo or deliberate retcon in the Spinward Marches Campaign.
It remained TL12 in MegaTraveller.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Quality does not necessarily have anything to do with local tech levels. And those shirts are TL 2 goods just made with higher TL machines. Not a real situation.

How can something that has really happened in the real world not be a real situation?

 

[Sigtrygg]

The knowledge is available universally at least in the imperium but the equipment need infrastructure and infrastructure in most cases is not transportable.

At TL9 you can... at TL 9 you can send your own jump ships to get the TL15 items, you can use your TL9 ships to cheaply exploit the resources of the entire system. How do you think the British Empire build industries in every country of Empire?
Railroads, steam engines, steel making, mines, power stations, ship building...
every country that was part of Empire got railroads and infrastructure.

You can’t transport roads, mines, electrical grids and the thousands of other things needs to support and maintain those factories.

So how were they built in India, Australia, Canada... The machines to build the infrastructure were transported from Britain.

And you can’t rely on off world supplies for repair and parts because of communication and shipping times

The British Empire proves that you can build an industrial base with months of lag time.

 

[Condottiere]

During the Nineties, it was well known that second hand automobiles, however they were acquired, ended up in Russia and Africa.

Then, once the economy improved, dealerships were set up, and some investment was made to manufacture automobiles in Russia.


Currently, the Chinese took over the market, but we're back to automobiles getting smuggled in from Europe.

 

[Vormaerin]

Regina didn't get TL15 until TNE. It began at TL10 and was still TL 10 in LBB:6 Scouts. It was never listed as TL15 in any CT resource I can find. If you can provide an example it would be greatly appreciated as I must be missing a CT resource.
It became TL13 either due to typo or deliberate retcon in the Spinward Marches Campaign.
It remained TL13 in MegaTraveller.

Just to be a pedant, it is TL 12 (C).

Still a typo/retcon