3D Printing

[PsiTraveller]

Has anyone added 3d Printing technology to their Traveller Campaigns?

Different planets have different Tech levels. But if the first thing shipped to a planet was a 3D printer to make the tools needed to create a better world then a world may not have that big a trade/tech gap for long.

Imagine a Tech level 15 'Uni-Fab' with a huge list of designs in storage. World taming now involves prospecting for the raw material to feed into the processing modules to produce the material needed for the Printer to make objects. This may involve having a low tech phase while the various smelters and refineries are built, or they are Jumped into the system and brought down to the planet. Another option would be to have orbital facilities to extact the material from any asteroid belts in the system to feed the surface population.

A 3d printer on a ship could prevent events like the Firefly episode when the engine failed. No more "it's a nothing part until you don't have one" scenario.

If the Tech is advanced enough then players could have a fabricator onboard, buy raw materials and make parts to order when they get dirtside.
Or trade dries up because the only thing people need is raw materials to feed the fabricator.

Anyone played around with this idea? 3D printing, nanobot creation systems etc?

 

[robject]

Mike Wightman's Traveller group were the first to ask where the Maker tools were on their ship. What they were referring to were the systems detailed in Traveller5 for designing armor, weapons, vehicles, and so on.

They figured that those systems embodied actual fabrication units which could be on their ship. It was a very clever observation to make.

 

[Ulsyus]

The player sitting in the Captain's chair in my group asked me, when calculating maintenance costs for each leg of their journey (I was using GT FT as a guide), why they had to spend money on parts when he felt that by TL12 there'd be a series of 3d printing and nano-fabrication facilities available in the workshop they installed in their vessel.

We discussed it and decided to leave the detail out for now, not covering whether it was expensive materials to use in the printer/fabricator, or whether they were simply purchasing parts. But the question hasn't gone away, and I was leaning in the direction of giving them the Maker machine and charging them for the high quality materials required to go into it.

 

[rancke]

Different planets have different Tech levels. But if the first thing shipped to a planet was a 3D printer to make the tools needed to create a better world then a world may not have that big a trade/tech gap for long.

Which is why there has to be a reason why low-, mid-, and high-tech worlds don't have ultra-tech tech levels, since such worlds are common in Traveller universes.

My explanation is that a 3D printer has limited capacity in several ways: The size of thingys it can produce, how fast it can produce them, and what raw materials is needed for the production.

That last bit may require a bit of elucidation. IMTU ultra-tech gadgets need special materials -- alloys, ceramics, polymers, whatnots -- that have to be manufactured at big, expensive ultra-tech facilities. A 3D printer can produce, say, TL10 gadgets only if it has a supply of (generic) TL10 "raw" materials.

A 3d printer on a ship could prevent events like the Firefly episode when the engine failed. No more "it's a nothing part until you don't have one" scenario.

Which, while highly desirable from the POW of the characters, is a Bad Thing from the POW of referee and players (thoughtful players, anyway), since it precludes "it's a nothing part until you don't have one" scenarios.

A 3D printer aboard ship plus a stock of ultra-tech materials is a good thing, though. It can ground the ship for just a few hours or a few days (the time it takes to manufacture the new part) or weeks (the time it takes before a ship willing to trade shows up) or months (the time it takes to order a supply of the alloys that has run out from another world and have it delivered). Just long enough for the planet-bound adventure the referee has planned.


Hans

 

[Shonner]

Anyone played around with this idea? 3D printing, nanobot creation systems etc?

All the time.

 

[Ulsyus]

Okay, what about small Maker units in the cargo hold or machine shop being able to turn out replacement parts for J-Drive or power plant components that'll do for a period of time before they have to be replaced by properly constructed items? That way the PCs still have to have the materials and time to build the widget, but they can't rely on it for long?

I could see my group using this to avoid buying something expensive: "Just print another one for now, we'll see if this next job gets us the cash we need to get it when we get to Efate..."

 

[CosmicGamer]

Why trade? Why take side jobs? Just buy raw materials, make things and sell them. Oh, wait, everyone else can do this too so does this mean the only thing you'd ever need to trade is the raw resources?

One thing to consider is that at current TL, the short term future, and possibly longer, mass produced items via a optimized, dedicated production system with limited input and output choices are more cost effective than a universal make anything system. What are the costs of a system that can make any design possible as long as it only needs one or two input resources vs something that can pump out anything? Conductive material, an insulator, a heat conductor, lubricant...

Yes, material sciences is advancing and will do so in the future but I'd think a material specialized for one thing will probably be better at it than one that has more universal uses.

Although solutions may present themselves in the future, I do believe that at the moment there are numerous manufacturing processes and materials that can not be replaced with a 3D printer. My hydrological jack just broke.. print up a new one? How did you get the pressurized hydraulic fluid in there while printing it? Many "parts" are actually multiple things that come pre assembled. Perhaps you could print all the individual parts and do assembly adding lubricants, hydraulics and other items as necessary. When the clip in your gun is empty do you wan to be printing new bullets and loading them into a clip or just grab another pre loaded clip? In a pinch, do you want to be manufacturing and assembling something needed for the ship or just grabbing a spare part? Even with a 3D printer or mini factory, one may very well still keep spare parts on hand.

My point is that for gaming purposes, especially if using the 3I setting, you should probably consider some limitations, including things like rancke mentions.

 

[rancke]

Why trade? Why take side jobs? Just buy raw materials, make things and sell them.

Two possibilities:

1) A TL9+ 3D printer is expensive.

2) A hammer made out of ultra-gunk (TM) is as good as one with a steel head and a wood or plastic handle. But it's a lot more expensive.


Hans

 

[GypsyComet]

The license paid to the megacorp that made your drives so you can print minor replacement parts is *per print*. Remember, there are Vilani involved.

 

[Ulsyus]

Although solutions may present themselves in the future, I do believe that at the moment there are numerous manufacturing processes and materials that can not be replaced with a 3D printer. My hydrological jack just broke.. print up a new one? How did you get the pressurized hydraulic fluid in there while printing it? Many "parts" are actually multiple things that come pre assembled.

This alone is a particularly good example of the limitations of 3D printing, though a nano-assembler maker may be able to work around it given enough time. Hans' hammer analogy, plus GC's licenced limitation (ha!) also add enough brakes on the idea to reduce it to the production of particular single part components. Pieces of pipe of various types, cabling, tubing, gaskets, insulating components, pieces of varied and complex geometry but a single material, could all be worth considering for Making in a vessel's workshop (assuming it has one).

 

[Shonner]

Although solutions may present themselves in the future, I do believe that at the moment there are numerous manufacturing processes and materials that can not be replaced with a 3D printer. My hydrological jack just broke.. print up a new one?

Literally? Of course not. The 57th century will have something else of its own to use.

 

[Tikon]

70s vs Now

Because 3D printers, nanotechnology, and the internet weren't concepts in 1970's sci fi.
Which while cool, Travelercan still be stuck in that trope. While it still is fun to play in the Star Wars/Aliens/Ice Pirates milieu. Where Joe Schmoe in a ballcap, tramps around in his shampoo bottle ship, like a truck driver with hyperdrive. In order to do that you have to ignore advances in science. (Funny for sci fi right?). Like Nanotech, the Singularity, etc.
Surprisingly enough, a good RPG resource I found was Centauri Knights. A setting where colonists move to Alpha Centauri to remake it in Earth's image after the original inhabitants wiped it out in a Grey Goo attack. Sublight is the only option. And the only things that get sent on the colony ships are brain pods (when they get there they either plop them in clone bodies or cyborg ones), the latest schematics for products that will be built there in nano fabricator pods, or military equipment that they don't want their schematics on file to be stolen.
Which would take the sails out of the "buy rutabagas on planet X, and maybe sell them on planet XXX for bulldozer phasers" standard traveler trade game.
For real life space travel & colonization, being able to make your own parts would be essential. Mars wouldn't be able to wait a year for their pop tart toaster parts to come from Earth. Though maybe pop tart deliveries might make an interesting campaign.

 

[Tikon]

I think way too much effort is spent on trying to justify why the standard setting doesn't have these. Like it would be too expensive, or Villani are dumbass boat anchors to progress. But as you've said, it's the 57th century but it still has to be accessible to 30 year old guys living in 20th century Pasadena. I think GURPS Traveller said just that in their books sidebar.
Otherwise you'd be playing ascended Ancients from Stargate.
What's with the big round numbers anyway? Another hold over from trippy 70s sci fi? "Thousands of years from now, space princess and star lord take over the universe empire with the help of millenia old galactic space mollusks!" C'mon, you have to admit, a lot of sci fishows (and game modules) were basically "swashbuckling in space".