Brainstorming Boughene/Regina (SM 1904)
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From an Imperial point of view, the Menorb cluster (County of Menorb) is kind of a piece of work. Menorb has a high human population, but apparently their culture is static -- it's the Vargr minority population that's active and innovative. Pixie has an Imperial Navy base but almost nobody who isn't stationed at the base lives there. Yres has a decent population and TL-9 but a hostile environment, and is balkanized.
Looking at Boughene's Importance and Economic extensions, the big thing that kills it is the Efficiency factor (-3 out of a range of +/5*) it requires external subsidies to exist, and revenues from its production (such as it is) leave the system. The sources of the subsidies are obvious: the Scout Base and the corporate headquarters of General Products.
This suggests that infrastructure maintenance is effected by rotating modules back to Efate for overhaul, rather than intrinsic manufacturing/refurbishing capability. General Products likely shut down any production capability here after it lost ownership of the station, to deny the new owners a revenue source. The problem with that is the starport is Class A, which by definition can construct starships.
EDIT to add:
So if the subsidies are to keep the Corp. HQ and the Scout Base, what's everyone else doing there? It's not like it's some fantastic recreation spot, or there's a major industry to support. But someone's (several someones, actually) paying to keep an extra few hundred thousand people there anyhow! Why?**
*it's an unmodified flux roll (1D minus 1D).
** The real answer is that the Economic Extensions were generated well after the rest of the UWP, without looking at either the UWP or the canon description of the place. But I'm trying to reconcile all this (and the cultural extension seems a little out of place as well, but I'll get to that).
Looking at Boughene's Importance and Economic extensions, the big thing that kills it is the Efficiency factor (-3 out of a range of +/5*) it requires external subsidies to exist, and revenues from its production (such as it is) leave the system. The sources of the subsidies are obvious: the Scout Base and the corporate headquarters of General Products.
This suggests that infrastructure maintenance is effected by rotating modules back to Efate for overhaul, rather than intrinsic manufacturing/refurbishing capability. General Products likely shut down any production capability here after it lost ownership of the station, to deny the new owners a revenue source. The problem with that is the starport is Class A, which by definition can construct starships.
EDIT to add:
So if the subsidies are to keep the Corp. HQ and the Scout Base, what's everyone else doing there? It's not like it's some fantastic recreation spot, or there's a major industry to support. But someone's (several someones, actually) paying to keep an extra few hundred thousand people there anyhow! Why?**
*it's an unmodified flux roll (1D minus 1D).
** The real answer is that the Economic Extensions were generated well after the rest of the UWP, without looking at either the UWP or the canon description of the place. But I'm trying to reconcile all this (and the cultural extension seems a little out of place as well, but I'll get to that).
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Spinward Flow
SOC-14 5K
At least it isn't Louzy/Jewell/Spinward Marches ... that place is a real piece of work!
Agreed.
Boughene has a tremendous opportunity if it can just become more efficient.
The sources of that inefficiency can be various and sundry ... from long supply lines (reaching all the way back to Efate, in all honesty) to petty corruption (I mean, seriously, we've got a self-perpetuating oligarchy here, when was the last time one of those WASN'T corrupt at various levels?) to simple "terrain factors" like the fact that the economy is based upon resource extraction but the in-system resources aren't all that easy to access/extract/refine/transport along the supply chain to markets willing to buy them.
It's a bit of a conundrum.
The subsidies from the IISS and General Products are almost certainly helping to "blunt" any impetus for reform of the economy so as to clean up any corruption within it for the betterment of all (in other words, things aren't "bad enough" to drive needed reforms).
Let's just say it fits together reasonably well in order to tell a coherent story about the system.
Enjoy.
Shifted down from my previous post, since I think you responded to it before I added this to it:
So if the subsidies are to keep the Corp. HQ and the Scout Base, what's everyone else doing there? It's not like it's some fantastic recreation spot, or there's a major industry to support. But someone's (several someones, actually) paying to keep an extra few hundred thousand people there anyhow! Why?**
** The real answer is that the Economic Extensions were generated well after the rest of the UWP, without looking at either the UWP or the canon description of the place. But I'm trying to reconcile all this (and the cultural extension seems a little out of place as well, but I'll get to that).
So if the subsidies are to keep the Corp. HQ and the Scout Base, what's everyone else doing there? It's not like it's some fantastic recreation spot, or there's a major industry to support. But someone's (several someones, actually) paying to keep an extra few hundred thousand people there anyhow! Why?**
** The real answer is that the Economic Extensions were generated well after the rest of the UWP, without looking at either the UWP or the canon description of the place. But I'm trying to reconcile all this (and the cultural extension seems a little out of place as well, but I'll get to that).
Bad answer, because I've read too much of SCP Foundation fanfic: Canon says there's an Ancients Artifact inside the gas giant. The bad answer is that it's been investigated and found to be both indestructible and inaccessible. It was also found that it "hides" (either with some magic-tech cloaking device or merely by descending into unreachable depths of the gas giant's atmosphere) when it detects people approaching it. So, the extra people on the space station are there (unsuspectingly) to "scare" the artifact into hiding itself!
Too much suspension of disbelief needed, though. I want a better one -- maybe the station owners leaning forward toward economic self-sufficiency? They're already most of the way to the next population code level...
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This sorted out how Imperial governance (the Knight) sees their role compared to how the Station Executive Board sees theirs.
Inefficiency is not always bad on a micro level. Take the Space Launch System (nominally using legacy Space Shuttle components, but so far massively behind schedule and over-budget) for example. Funding is mandated by Congress, as are the missions. As a means to provide orbital launch capability, it's been... remarkably ineffectual, especially in contrast with what SpaceX has accomplished. On the other hand, it's created a plethora of well-paying technical jobs in places that aren't generally thought of as hotbeds of high technology. If you're a Senator or Congressperson from one of those states, or part of the industries located there, it's working quite well for you.
On a macro level, it's sub-optimal at best. If what you want from space program funding is payload to orbit and beyond, it's been a terrible investment in hindsight. (It does establish a redundant capability, which is useful in the event that something goes wrong with the primary vendor -- the problem is that SpaceX was meant to be the backup.) To be fair, the original project pre-dates SpaceX's general kick-assery so at the time they didn't know.
In Boughene's case, what this means is that the Executive Board might want to reduce the level of inefficiency (aiming to increase Efficiency from -3 to -2), but not shake up the general system that's keeping them well-off and in control. The Knight wants to reverse the Efficiency coefficient's sign -- that is, turn the station and system into a net producer rather than a drain on Efate and other systems because that's better for the Imperium. It's also a heck of a lot more difficult and risky than tinkering around the edges.
Letting the station population expand well beyond the minimum needed to keep the corporate headquarters and scout base going is a significant part of reversing the sign. There needs to be a large base of workers available when the station starts the transition to self-sufficiency (indigenous extraction and processing industry, and shipbuilding), but until then it's been mostly make-work. . . for generations. But the Third Imperium thinks in the long term, by nature. Part of that is the Vilani influence, and part is the scope of the Imperium itself: its OODA (Observe-Orient-Decide-Act) Loop is up to a year long for issues on the frontiers -- and that's what's considered snap decisionmaking!
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Spinward Flow
SOC-14 5K
Think of it this way.
All of those speculative cargoes I mentioned above that would be cheaply sourced at Efate (Industrial price modifier to buy, favorable) for sale at Boughene (Industrial price modifier to sell, favorable) would be a source of arbitrage in the classic buy low/sell high kind of merchant prince sort of way. Since Boughene is Non-industrial and unable to produce a lot of those items through its domestic economy, there's a tremendous opportunity in supplying those items from Efate "on the regular" because Boughene is going to have an almost permanent demand for those items.
Well guess who gets to control "most" of that trade via the routine cycling of Starport Modules (loaded with Cargo Modules) to and from Efate?
Duh ... the oligarchs of course!
So the oligarchs essentially get to skim off the arbitrage pricing of buying low at Efate (Industrial) and selling high at Boughene (Non-industrial) and the differential between those prices functionally work as a "tax" (of sorts) for supplying the goods to citizens at Boughene, because the oligarchs (in effect) control a lot of the supply while the demand will essentially never stop for parts (until Boughene expands enough to develop its own local industrial base that can supply those items).
Note that adding another Jump Tender and cycling more tonnage per month to/from Efate would, in effect, increase the volume of trade between Boughene and Efate in such a way that could reduce the relative scarcity of supplies being transported into the Boughene system. That in turn could then have a rather measurable impact on the Efficiency of the economy.
Another factor that could get trade moving more favorably would be if Louzy, Efate and/or Menorb were to invest in Subsidized Liners to service the 10 systems within 3 parsecs of Menorb as a localized service. Being able to source life support consumables for transport to Yres, Pixie and Boughene could be potentially lucrative (and necessary) over the long haul to replace losses over time.
All of those speculative cargoes I mentioned above that would be cheaply sourced at Efate (Industrial price modifier to buy, favorable) for sale at Boughene (Industrial price modifier to sell, favorable) would be a source of arbitrage in the classic buy low/sell high kind of merchant prince sort of way. Since Boughene is Non-industrial and unable to produce a lot of those items through its domestic economy, there's a tremendous opportunity in supplying those items from Efate "on the regular" because Boughene is going to have an almost permanent demand for those items.
Well guess who gets to control "most" of that trade via the routine cycling of Starport Modules (loaded with Cargo Modules) to and from Efate?
Duh ... the oligarchs of course!
So the oligarchs essentially get to skim off the arbitrage pricing of buying low at Efate (Industrial) and selling high at Boughene (Non-industrial) and the differential between those prices functionally work as a "tax" (of sorts) for supplying the goods to citizens at Boughene, because the oligarchs (in effect) control a lot of the supply while the demand will essentially never stop for parts (until Boughene expands enough to develop its own local industrial base that can supply those items).
Note that adding another Jump Tender and cycling more tonnage per month to/from Efate would, in effect, increase the volume of trade between Boughene and Efate in such a way that could reduce the relative scarcity of supplies being transported into the Boughene system. That in turn could then have a rather measurable impact on the Efficiency of the economy.
Another factor that could get trade moving more favorably would be if Louzy, Efate and/or Menorb were to invest in Subsidized Liners to service the 10 systems within 3 parsecs of Menorb as a localized service. Being able to source life support consumables for transport to Yres, Pixie and Boughene could be potentially lucrative (and necessary) over the long haul to replace losses over time.
Boughene can't plausibly populate itself out of "non-industrial" status (needs Pop 7 to just become "pre-industrial") within a century. Well, if they actively recruited immigrants, they might -- but that'd really push the station's capacity growth limits.
Enabling some export production from the Class A Starport is possible. They have a lot of the necessary knowledge base and infrastructure just by virtue of being able to maintain the station itself (this is from canon characteristics of the station that don't necessarily fit into the extended worldgen results).
Increasing trade is very possible. They could take up building Type Ms and R2s (they definitely have the TL for it, and the starport class says they have the capability even if it's unused) and run/maintain them directly. They'd be taking a loss on operations, but their economic inefficiency means that the excessive costs would be redistributed into the local economy as wages and dividends (and of course tariffs and port fees and whatnot are profit to the station). This could be ongoing, or a new initiative at the point the PCs enter the situation.
Also this means some trade with the Vargr. They're already a gateway (via the link to Kinorb-Dentus-Pandarin) but more direct links into spinward Uthe could be profitable but would require J4 capability (or a detour through Yres) to bypass Pixie because the Navy probably wouldn't approve.
Or maybe set up a captive outpost at Pixie? The Navy really won't like the additional exposed threat/attack surface, but it's easier to interdict if needed.
Enabling some export production from the Class A Starport is possible. They have a lot of the necessary knowledge base and infrastructure just by virtue of being able to maintain the station itself (this is from canon characteristics of the station that don't necessarily fit into the extended worldgen results).
Increasing trade is very possible. They could take up building Type Ms and R2s (they definitely have the TL for it, and the starport class says they have the capability even if it's unused) and run/maintain them directly. They'd be taking a loss on operations, but their economic inefficiency means that the excessive costs would be redistributed into the local economy as wages and dividends (and of course tariffs and port fees and whatnot are profit to the station). This could be ongoing, or a new initiative at the point the PCs enter the situation.
Also this means some trade with the Vargr. They're already a gateway (via the link to Kinorb-Dentus-Pandarin) but more direct links into spinward Uthe could be profitable but would require J4 capability (or a detour through Yres) to bypass Pixie because the Navy probably wouldn't approve.
Or maybe set up a captive outpost at Pixie? The Navy really won't like the additional exposed threat/attack surface, but it's easier to interdict if needed.
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Do they own the Jump Tenders, or are they controlled out of Efate? More reason to buy a second set of their own, along with adding the ability to handle a massive population influx at some point.
Because if they pull that lever, things are going to get bonkers at the station. It means tripling the population, and the station has a very homogeneous culture right now.
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Also, there's probably fairly extensive trade with Feri. Unfortunately, relations between Boughene and Feri are a little touchy right now, seeing that the Feri local government just tried to kill the Knight of Feri and their Imperial counterparts didn't intervene...
It's all been carefully hushed up though, so they can pretend everything's all civil-like and stuff.
It's all been carefully hushed up though, so they can pretend everything's all civil-like and stuff.
Spinward Flow
SOC-14 5K
There's multiple problems with attempting to increase the population too quickly.
First of all, they simply don't have the habitat capacity to support and sustain 17x the current population of 600,000 to get past the 10,000,000 mark. Also, once they do stop being a Non-industrial world their economy will shift rather dramatically such that resource extraction might not be able to remain the foundation of the society due to economic diversification.
However, going from 600,000 to 1-1.2 million is certainly a "doable" thing over a 10 year time horizon (basically retain 40,000-60,000 inbound immigrants per year for a decade). That would involve a 10% per year growth rate (not including birth rate/death rate factors) in the population count. Given how many the nearby vicinity within 3 parsecs of Boughene with population codes of 9-A, such immigration shouldn't be all that difficult to attract given the right incentives ... and a commensurate push to expand the population capacity of Boughene Station (up to and including building a second separate station!).
The only way Boughene Station can survive is based on interstellar trade. The population isn't large enough (code: 7) to diversify the economy enough into selfish sufficiency in which a sustainable "domestic" in-system economy can meet the needs of the entire population without the need for trade to keep the party going.
Build, sure.
Subsidize ... with what revenue?
Subsidized Liners might be able to turn a profit for the subsidizing government (read: oligarchs) if they're permitted to haul external cargo (limiting them to Jump-2 performance instead of their full Jump-3) so as to increase their trade flow even more than just merely their internal cargo capacity.
Jump-2 is all that is needed between Boughene and both Efate and Feri.
Jump-3 can be used to reach Louzy, Alell, Enope and Kinorb.
If limiting the Subsidized Liners to type A/B starports only (so as to avoid potential pirates) then Efate, Alell, Yres, Uakye, Pixie, Boughene, Feri and Kinorb become the logical (8) systems to include in a subsidy arrangement centered on Boughene.
I figure the oligarchs own the Jump Tender (because if they didn't they would essentially become a government code: 6 as a Captive Government). Without control of the Jump Tender there IS NO path to independent local control. The Jump Tender is what makes it possible for Boughene Station to continue to exist as an independent state member of the Third Imperium.
Lose control of the Jump Tender and suddenly ... somebody else is calling the shots.
So ownership and control of the Jump Tender is the keystone linchpin that makes Boughene Station "work" at all.
Remove that and you don't have control of much, long term.
Simple redundant backup in case something goes wrong would be incentive enough, I'm thinking.
Sure ... you can "make it work" with a single Jump Tender, but that's an "all eggs in one basket" kind of thing. As soon as the Jump Tender gets taken out, the music STOPS in the game of musical chairs and Boughene Station begins its decline and people start being forced to abandon the place.
The Fifth Frontier War (and the siege of Efate) would completely disrupt Boughene's supply chains and market access to Efate, in addition to being a potentially ripe target for military occupation by the Zhodani and/or Vargr Fleet(s).
The revenue from subsidized merchants is more than the freight fees. Ship overhaul costs are also revenue for the corporation (at the very least, they can get it at "wholesale rates"; at best, it's putting unused capacity to work) and on top of that it's taxable income to the shipyard workers.
It's better if they can get the worlds on the route to chip in to buy the ships, of course.
It's better if they can get the worlds on the route to chip in to buy the ships, of course.
The thing that I'm still kind of struggling with (not very hard, but it takes a little work) is figuring out how much of the station is the corporate headquarters.
At the time of the executive buy-out 200 years ago, it'd be a fair assumption that the (approximately) 30,000 residents were there for the corporate headquarters, the Scout Base, the Starport and its token shipyard facilities, and that they were sufficient to support all of those activities.
What's changed about the economy of the system and the region that it can now support 20 times that many people?
The Scout Base could have started as a remote assignment, where personnel were expected to not have their family along. As the station grew, it became a permanent station (pun not intended but I'll let it go) -- Scout tours of duty at Boughene were extended and Scouts were allowed to be accompanied by their families. Some retired there. Wouldn't be surprised if it's also family housing for the Naval personnel stationed at Pixie, too.
The General Products headquarters probably hasn't gotten much bigger than it was 200 years ago. I'd guess it's way out here for tax or accounting reasons.
The starport has grown a bit since the takeover, almost all of it in the cargo handling and warehousing section rather than the shipyard component. Formally, at least -- there is a latent construction/repair capability comprised of the station maintenance staff and equipment. They're not being used efficiently yet can still keep up with ongoing maintenance requirements -- so with some reorganization and re-direction, they could be repurposed to work on starships.
Perhaps it started as a naval base, and the scouts took it over when the local squadron was relocated to Pixie.
At the time of the executive buy-out 200 years ago, it'd be a fair assumption that the (approximately) 30,000 residents were there for the corporate headquarters, the Scout Base, the Starport and its token shipyard facilities, and that they were sufficient to support all of those activities.
What's changed about the economy of the system and the region that it can now support 20 times that many people?
The Scout Base could have started as a remote assignment, where personnel were expected to not have their family along. As the station grew, it became a permanent station (pun not intended but I'll let it go) -- Scout tours of duty at Boughene were extended and Scouts were allowed to be accompanied by their families. Some retired there. Wouldn't be surprised if it's also family housing for the Naval personnel stationed at Pixie, too.
The General Products headquarters probably hasn't gotten much bigger than it was 200 years ago. I'd guess it's way out here for tax or accounting reasons.
The starport has grown a bit since the takeover, almost all of it in the cargo handling and warehousing section rather than the shipyard component. Formally, at least -- there is a latent construction/repair capability comprised of the station maintenance staff and equipment. They're not being used efficiently yet can still keep up with ongoing maintenance requirements -- so with some reorganization and re-direction, they could be repurposed to work on starships.
Perhaps it started as a naval base, and the scouts took it over when the local squadron was relocated to Pixie.
Spinward Flow
SOC-14 5K
DERP.
I have made an error of assumption on the availability of the Jump Tender and its capacity for transits, which then has knock on effects for the capacity of Boughene Station itself.
Let's start with the map.
The primary "route of concern" for the Boughene Station Jump Tender is between Boughene and Efate to be running station modules to/from Efate for annual overhaul maintenance and to deliver exports of raw materials extracted from the Boughene system to fund operations of Boughene Station. Boughene may be politically included in the County of Menorb but economically speaking Boughene is functionally a "colony producer" for industry on Efate.
My original assumption was to simply have the Jump Tender do this:
Such an operational cycle would necessarily mean that the Jump Tender would be capable of transporting 12-13 Starport Modules per year to Efate for annual overhaul maintenance ... hence why I set up the assumptions for Boughene Station to have 10 type B Starport Modules (maintenance only) and 3 type A Starport Modules (maintenance and construction) with the type B Starport Modules almost completely occupied with performing rotating maintenance of the 500 Secondary Modules (habitat, commerce, industry, research, cargo, fuel, etc.) which then makes up the rest of Boughene Station. With 13 Starport Modules in total and 1 Starport Module "unavailable" on a rotating basis for transit to Efate for annual maintenance, that then left 12 Starport Modules "available at all times, of which 10 would be involved at all times in rotating annual maintenance of the 500 Secondary Modules, consuming their supply of services permanently. This in turn would then leave 2 Starport Modules "available" for interstellar support services, giving the "starport" at Boughene a 2x 20,000 ton capacity for shipyard services.
So ... on a 1 month round trip cadence with the Jump Tender, 12-13 Starport Modules could be supported indefinitely ... so long as the Jump Tender "stays with" the Starport Module sent to Efate for annual maintenance.
With me so far on the logistics constraint?
But then I started thinking that such an arrangement might be decidedly suboptimal.
Why?
Because it has the Jump Tender "sitting around" for 2 weeks out of every 4 weeks "doing nothing" at Efate simply waiting for the annual overhaul maintenance cycle on the current Starport Module to complete before hauling the (freshly cleaned) Starport Module back to Boughene.
It also doesn't help that loading and unloading the starport modules probably doesn't happen in zero time (docking a 100,000 ton starship to a 50,000 ton non-starship for transport can take some maneuvering time) and transits from 100 diameters away to the mainworld is also not going to happen in zero time (especially at Boughene, a moon of a gas giant) and refueling operations are not going to happen in zero time ... I think you can see where I'm going with this. An assumption of 4 weeks per round trip from Boughene to Efate back to Boughene will very likely take longer than 4 weeks (28 days). For one thing, jump duration varies from 150-175 hours ... and if you include 16 hours of routine drive checks after jump that's then 166-191 hours (168 hours = 7 days, 192 hours = 8 days).
So a much more reasonable assumption is 1 day to dock/load and maneuver to the jump point, 8 days of jump plus drive maintenance, 1 day to maneuver to the mainworld in order to undock/unload. In other words, a 10 days per jump operational cycle.
10 days per jump operational cycles amounts to a total capacity of 36 jumps per year (365 days per year).
Considering that the Jump Tender itself will need to be taken offline for 2 weeks of annual maintenance itself, that necessarily reduces the availability of the Jump Tender down to 350 days per year (discounting 1 day for the annual holiday every year), and to build in some "padding" into the schedule for unanticipated delays in the scheduling, let's call it 320-330 days per year are available for Jump Tender operations.
320 / 10 days = 32 jumps per year
330 / 11 days = 30 jumps per year
336 / 12 days = 28 jumps per year
So, just to be kind to the logistics people who are going to have to keep these plates spinning all the time, let's call it an 11 day jump cycle with 30 jumps per year by the Jump Tender. That then means 15 jumps to Efate and 15 jumps to Boughene every year for "regular service" with an "extended stay" at Efate by the Jump Tender for the Jump Tender's own annual maintenance cycle ... and there are 35 days remaining past the 330 days allocated which is sufficient for a standard 2x 11 days plus 14 days in drydock (total 35 days, oh hey lookee here...). That then makes for a total of 16 complete round trips per year between Boughene and Efate as a maximum cadence.
However, in order to make that 16 round trips per year (including the annual maintenance of the Jump Tender) "work" the Jump Tender is going to need to "leave" Starport Modules at Efate and essentially "round robin" them for deployment to Efate for annual maintenance.
Remember the assumption I was making above?
Having the Jump Tender do this:
Now, with 16 round trip cycles like that per year, staggering the "swap" of Starport Modules at Efate every 22 days (so as to give the Efate shipyard a little "squoosh factor" on when they get started after drop off before they start the 14 day/2 week overhaul procedure) Boughene Station would be capable of supporting 16 Starport Modules (instead of merely 13) per Jump Tender ... which is where things get interesting.
With an extra 3x type A Starport Modules added ... so 6x type A and 10x type B ... Boughene Station would have construction capacity (type A) for a combined 120,000 tons of starship(s) ... which, incidentally, is enough for Boughene Station to not need to export their annual maintenance needs to Efate anymore ... since they would be capable of maintaining Boughene Station "organically" with in-situ resources and still have sufficient capacity to service external trading demand for services.
Boughene Station (and the system as a whole) would still be classified as Non-industrial and in need of imports of PARTS (electronic, mechanical, cybernetic, computer, machine per the speculative cargo table in LBB2.81) ... but would have sufficient Starport Modules to be able to "build and maintain" their Starport Modules (and all other Secondary Modules) entirely in-system using the available Starport Module capacity to maintain EVERYTHING.
In other words, with just a few more Starport Modules, which Boughene Station would be capable of supporting on an annual overhaul maintenance rotation to Efate ... Boughene Station would be on the verge of a "breakout" situation in terms of long term sustainability.
Meaning, that if the Fifth Frontier War hadn't happened (to set Boughene Station back) it's entirely possible that with just a little more investment by the oligarchs in control of Boughene Station that the station would have been well positioned to grow and expand into the future. Such an expansion would have increased the demand for labor, raised the standards of living and put Boughene on track to growing into a population code: 6 in less than 10 years after 1105.
I have made an error of assumption on the availability of the Jump Tender and its capacity for transits, which then has knock on effects for the capacity of Boughene Station itself.
Let's start with the map.
The primary "route of concern" for the Boughene Station Jump Tender is between Boughene and Efate to be running station modules to/from Efate for annual overhaul maintenance and to deliver exports of raw materials extracted from the Boughene system to fund operations of Boughene Station. Boughene may be politically included in the County of Menorb but economically speaking Boughene is functionally a "colony producer" for industry on Efate.
My original assumption was to simply have the Jump Tender do this:
- Jump-2 from Boughene to Efate with Starport Module plus 2 Cargo Modules (1 week)
- Remain at Efate waiting for annual overhaul maintenance of Starport Module (optional, plus 2 Cargo Modules) to be completed (1 week)
- Remain at Efate waiting for annual overhaul maintenance of Starport Module (optional, plus 2 Cargo Modules) to be completed (1 week)
- Jump-2 from Efate to Boughene with (maintained) Starport Module plus 2 Cargo Modules (1 week)
Such an operational cycle would necessarily mean that the Jump Tender would be capable of transporting 12-13 Starport Modules per year to Efate for annual overhaul maintenance ... hence why I set up the assumptions for Boughene Station to have 10 type B Starport Modules (maintenance only) and 3 type A Starport Modules (maintenance and construction) with the type B Starport Modules almost completely occupied with performing rotating maintenance of the 500 Secondary Modules (habitat, commerce, industry, research, cargo, fuel, etc.) which then makes up the rest of Boughene Station. With 13 Starport Modules in total and 1 Starport Module "unavailable" on a rotating basis for transit to Efate for annual maintenance, that then left 12 Starport Modules "available at all times, of which 10 would be involved at all times in rotating annual maintenance of the 500 Secondary Modules, consuming their supply of services permanently. This in turn would then leave 2 Starport Modules "available" for interstellar support services, giving the "starport" at Boughene a 2x 20,000 ton capacity for shipyard services.
So ... on a 1 month round trip cadence with the Jump Tender, 12-13 Starport Modules could be supported indefinitely ... so long as the Jump Tender "stays with" the Starport Module sent to Efate for annual maintenance.
With me so far on the logistics constraint?
But then I started thinking that such an arrangement might be decidedly suboptimal.
Why?
Because it has the Jump Tender "sitting around" for 2 weeks out of every 4 weeks "doing nothing" at Efate simply waiting for the annual overhaul maintenance cycle on the current Starport Module to complete before hauling the (freshly cleaned) Starport Module back to Boughene.
It also doesn't help that loading and unloading the starport modules probably doesn't happen in zero time (docking a 100,000 ton starship to a 50,000 ton non-starship for transport can take some maneuvering time) and transits from 100 diameters away to the mainworld is also not going to happen in zero time (especially at Boughene, a moon of a gas giant) and refueling operations are not going to happen in zero time ... I think you can see where I'm going with this. An assumption of 4 weeks per round trip from Boughene to Efate back to Boughene will very likely take longer than 4 weeks (28 days). For one thing, jump duration varies from 150-175 hours ... and if you include 16 hours of routine drive checks after jump that's then 166-191 hours (168 hours = 7 days, 192 hours = 8 days).
So a much more reasonable assumption is 1 day to dock/load and maneuver to the jump point, 8 days of jump plus drive maintenance, 1 day to maneuver to the mainworld in order to undock/unload. In other words, a 10 days per jump operational cycle.
10 days per jump operational cycles amounts to a total capacity of 36 jumps per year (365 days per year).
Considering that the Jump Tender itself will need to be taken offline for 2 weeks of annual maintenance itself, that necessarily reduces the availability of the Jump Tender down to 350 days per year (discounting 1 day for the annual holiday every year), and to build in some "padding" into the schedule for unanticipated delays in the scheduling, let's call it 320-330 days per year are available for Jump Tender operations.
320 / 10 days = 32 jumps per year
330 / 11 days = 30 jumps per year
336 / 12 days = 28 jumps per year
So, just to be kind to the logistics people who are going to have to keep these plates spinning all the time, let's call it an 11 day jump cycle with 30 jumps per year by the Jump Tender. That then means 15 jumps to Efate and 15 jumps to Boughene every year for "regular service" with an "extended stay" at Efate by the Jump Tender for the Jump Tender's own annual maintenance cycle ... and there are 35 days remaining past the 330 days allocated which is sufficient for a standard 2x 11 days plus 14 days in drydock (total 35 days, oh hey lookee here...). That then makes for a total of 16 complete round trips per year between Boughene and Efate as a maximum cadence.
However, in order to make that 16 round trips per year (including the annual maintenance of the Jump Tender) "work" the Jump Tender is going to need to "leave" Starport Modules at Efate and essentially "round robin" them for deployment to Efate for annual maintenance.
Remember the assumption I was making above?
Having the Jump Tender do this:
- Jump-2 from Boughene to Efate with Starport Module plus 2 Cargo Modules (1 week)
- Remain at Efate waiting for annual overhaul maintenance of Starport Module (optional, plus 2 Cargo Modules) to be completed (1 week)
- Remain at Efate waiting for annual overhaul maintenance of Starport Module (optional, plus 2 Cargo Modules) to be completed (1 week)
- Jump-2 from Efate to Boughene with (maintained) Starport Module plus 2 Cargo Modules (1 week)
- Load Starport Module 1 plus Cargo Modules 1+2 onto Jump Tender, maneuver to Jump Point, Jump-2 to Boughene, maneuver to Boughene, undock Starport Module 1 plus Cargo Modules 1+2 at Boughene Station (11 days)
- Load Starport Module 3 plus Cargo Modules 5+6 onto Jump Tender, maneuver to Jump Point, Jump-2 to Efate, maneuver to Efate, undock Starport Module 3 plus Cargo Modules 5+6 at Efate Shipyard (11 days)
- Load Starport Module 2 plus Cargo Modules 3+4 onto Jump Tender, maneuver to Jump Point, Jump-2 to Boughene, maneuver to Boughene, undock Starport Module 2 plus Cargo Modules 3+4 at Boughene Station (11 days)
- Load Starport Module 4 plus Cargo Modules 7+8 onto Jump Tender, maneuver to Jump Point, Jump-2 to Efate, maneuver to Efate, undock Starport Module 4 plus Cargo Modules 7+8 at Efate Shipyard (11 days)
Now, with 16 round trip cycles like that per year, staggering the "swap" of Starport Modules at Efate every 22 days (so as to give the Efate shipyard a little "squoosh factor" on when they get started after drop off before they start the 14 day/2 week overhaul procedure) Boughene Station would be capable of supporting 16 Starport Modules (instead of merely 13) per Jump Tender ... which is where things get interesting.
With an extra 3x type A Starport Modules added ... so 6x type A and 10x type B ... Boughene Station would have construction capacity (type A) for a combined 120,000 tons of starship(s) ... which, incidentally, is enough for Boughene Station to not need to export their annual maintenance needs to Efate anymore ... since they would be capable of maintaining Boughene Station "organically" with in-situ resources and still have sufficient capacity to service external trading demand for services.
Boughene Station (and the system as a whole) would still be classified as Non-industrial and in need of imports of PARTS (electronic, mechanical, cybernetic, computer, machine per the speculative cargo table in LBB2.81) ... but would have sufficient Starport Modules to be able to "build and maintain" their Starport Modules (and all other Secondary Modules) entirely in-system using the available Starport Module capacity to maintain EVERYTHING.
In other words, with just a few more Starport Modules, which Boughene Station would be capable of supporting on an annual overhaul maintenance rotation to Efate ... Boughene Station would be on the verge of a "breakout" situation in terms of long term sustainability.
Meaning, that if the Fifth Frontier War hadn't happened (to set Boughene Station back) it's entirely possible that with just a little more investment by the oligarchs in control of Boughene Station that the station would have been well positioned to grow and expand into the future. Such an expansion would have increased the demand for labor, raised the standards of living and put Boughene on track to growing into a population code: 6 in less than 10 years after 1105.
Spinward Flow
SOC-14 5K
First of all, it's been some 280+ years since then.
Second of all, the Scout Base itself would necessarily mean that the Boughene system (as a whole) would get the necessary extensively detailed survey scanning to locate and find "most" of the easily accessible resources within the system. Those Scouts need a lot of hours for their proficiency training, after all, and the Boughene system is "hostile enough" to present a challenge to green crews so they can't afford to get complacent about their survey tasks. Also, Boughene is something of a crossroads nexus in the XBoat Network, so there is going to be plentiful work for the Communications Office in the system too. In addition to the gas giant in the system (which Boughene is a moon of and Boughene is a satellite of the moon) there are 11 other planets in the system, so plenty of work for the Exploration Office in addition to the Survey Office.
And that's not even counting long term interest in monitoring the Ancient Site (which you claim is a facility deep in the atmosphere of the gas giant).
In other words, there's plenty of "frontier work" for the IISS to do in the Boughene System ... because even after 300 years, the IISS still would not have fully detailed accounts of every single world in the system. They may have preliminary scans and surveys of every world, but there would remain plenty of research and prospecting opportunities all over the system on the many additional worlds (and their rings and moons!) aside from the gas giant that Boughene and Boughene Station are orbiting.
And I figure that during the last 300 years there have been boom and bust cycles of prosperity when a prospector and/or a researcher uncovers a "lucky strike" somewhere that has a ready market in any of the nearby systems (with Efate, Menorb and Feri being their main markets). So essentially the population would have waxed and waned through various rushes of "gold fever" over the years, with a new strike happening every so often to "keep the party going" on Boughene Station as a resource extraction economic hub.
So the simple answer to the question of what changed is that as resources get discovered (especially those previously overlooked by earlier surveys), new opportunities and new fortunes can be made. That in turn has drawn a fair number of "belter" type prospectors to the system who engage in prospecting all over the system. Supporting those operations has turned Boughene Station into a "frontier mining town" home base for a lot of people who call Boughene home, hoping to get lucky someday.
Be sure you aren't double-counting shipyard space for both construction and maintenance.
That's fair, but only goes so far. It's a single station (per canon), not a Belter community scattered across the system -- but maybe it should be. I'm trying to avoid tinkering with canon (and authoritative non-canon) information, but some of this stuff just doesn't reconcile easily.
This is in part because it wasn't created with intent to be reconciled...
We're talking about a population on the order of Sacramento (metro) or Fresno, CA.
Long Beach (Los Angeles County) has a population of about 470,000 but it includes oil refineries, aerospace, and most of the busiest cargo port in the United States by volume (once formerly a major shipyard and naval base). On the other hand, I don't think it has a -3 Efficiency coefficient...
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Could be something like Singapore, the government evolves policy to cater for whatever commerce they predict is going to prevail, whether industrial, service or financial products.
Spinward Flow
SOC-14 5K
Don't worry, I cross-checked just to be sure ...
Well, let's take the example of the Regina system.
Population codes of all other worlds/moons in the Regina system are:
1, 3, 2, 1, 2, 6, 5, (Regina itself is 8), 1, 4, 2, 2
According to Traveller Wiki, Regina itself has a population of 700 million.
If we assign midpoints to the other worlds (so a population code: 1 = 50) for convenience of conversation, we then wind up with a population of:
50
5000
500
50
500
5,000,000
500,000
700,000,000 (Regina)
50
50,000
500
500
Add them all together and you get 5,557,150 offworld from Regina ... which is a little less than 1% of the system's total population.
If you take the same approach and assumptions to the Boughene system, just as an example of extrapolation, you wind up with some 6000 people scattered around the rest of the system.
However, I would argue that the 1% offworld from Regina condition is substantially a function of the fact that Regina is a Rich world (A788899-C) with "plenty" of habitat area on the moon. Compare and contrast that with the Glisten system where 60% of the population lives in the inner/main planetoid belt while 40% of the population lives in the outer/secondary planetoid belt, with both belts hostiing populations of over 1 billion each (total system population is more like 8.32 billion).
So there is certainly "room" in the Boughene system for other facilities to have been built. It's just that the "largest" population center is Boughene Station (probably because "started first, stuck around since then" factors).
Spinward Flow
SOC-14 5K
Something to consider ...
- Jump-2 or 3 subsidized starship options:
- LBB2.81 p19 ... Type-R 600 ton Subsidized Liner
TL=11, Jump-3, Maneuver-1, Power Plant-3
Passengers=21, Low=20, 129 tons cargo, 9 crew, MCr 236.97 in volume - Rift Courier ... Type-AF 198 tons
TL=12, Jump-3, Maneuver-2, Power Plant-3
Passengers=0, Low=0, 65 tons cargo, 2 crew, MCr 89.0704 in volume - Rift X-Courier ... Type-AF 194 tons
TL=11, Jump-2, Maneuver-2, Power Plant-2
Passengers=0, Low=0, 85 tons cargo, 2 crew, MCr 74.1984 in volume
- LBB2.81 p19 ... Type-R 600 ton Subsidized Liner
- Uakye Transport Partners based out of Uakye on the Efate to Regina circuit.
- Map of star systems within 6 parsecs of Boughene:
- Starport types A+B in Imperial space within 2 jumps of Boughene:
So here's my idea.
Oligarchs at Boughene set up a Fledgling Line subsidized out of Boughene which is intended for cargo transport between the 9 star systems enumerated above (Efate through Heya) and operate in partnership with Uakye Transport Partners based out of Uakye. Since the Uakye Transport Partners are wanting to corner the market on the coreward/rimward trade volume between Efate and Regina, the Boughene company would be attempting to cover the coreward end of the Regina subsector, with the only overlap between the two companies at Efate, Uakye and Feri. Such an arrangement would allow for better transshipment opportunities from the Kinorb cluster towards Regina without putting the two companies in direct competition with each other (thereby allowing them to become partners of convenience).
With the exception of Pixie (population: 1), all of the other star systems support population codes between 5-9, which is sufficient to make a subsidized merchant route a reasonable proposition in terms of potential passenger and cargo quantities.
Efate, Alell and Feri are the population: 8-9 worlds ... while Yres, Kinorb and Heya are the population: 6-7 worlds.
Uakye and Boughene are population: 5 worlds ... and Pixie is the outlier as a population: 1 world (and usually not worth the jump transit).
In terms of jump capacity, you really only need Jump-3 to reach the Kinorb Cluster from Boughene, which in this instance winds up being Kinorb and Heya, only with Heya being 2 jumps away from Boughene. All of the other 7 star systems are within range by Jump-2 from Boughene, with only Alell being 2 jumps away from Boughene.
What this means, in terms of starships to subsidize, is that a mix of J3 Rift Couriers for the Boughene-Kinorb-Heya runs would be the preferred type, while J2 Rift X-Couriers are put to use servicing Efate-Alell-Yres-Uakye-Boughene-Feri end of the subsidy region. The rationale for doing so would be that for the price of a single J3 Type-R 600 ton Subsidized Liner (MCr 236.97 in volume production) the shipyard at Boughene would be able to construct 2x Rift X-Couriers (MCr 74.1984 each in volume) plus 1x Rift Courier (MCr 89.0704 in volume) for a total construction price of MCr 237.4672 for three starships(!) instead of MCr 236.97 for only one starship (a difference of less than 1% between the two options).
A single Type-R 600 ton Subsidized Liner devotes 84 tons to passenger staterooms, 10 tons to low berths and 129 tons to cargo capacity (total 223 tons revenue generating tons displacement) but has no fuel purification plant (so refined fuel costs at starports will be an overhead expense) and requires 9 crew.
2x 194 ton J2 Rift X-Couriers plus 1x 198 ton J3 Rift Courier devote 225 tons to cargo capacity between all three starships, which all have fuel purification plants for wilderness refueling, and require 6 crew between all three starships (unless the cargo bay is retrofitted for passenger staterooms/low berths, in which case the crew complement needs to increase).
So, basically, for almost the exact same construction cost (and annual overhaul maintenance cost) and almost the same total displacement tonnage (a 14 ton difference), the Rift X-Couriers plus Rift Courier combination allows for a better distribution of transport capacity "to where it is needed" while having lower operating costs for both crews (which are smaller and thus less expensive in salary and life support overhead) and fuel expenses (routine wilderness refueling rather than starport fuel purchases). With the ships "dispersed" to spread their capacity to different star systems (helping to ensure they are always running with full manifests!) a broader flow of trade can be established to flow into and through Boughene in a more distributed networking fashion. Additionally, since each of the Courier ships can be fitted with Mail Vaults to carry Mail Cargo to star systems off the Express Boat Network routes, offering communications services that do not rely upon the IISS and (infrequent?) visits by Scout/Couriers for interstellar courier services. And since there would be "three starships for the price of one" all going in different directions, the flow of Mail Cargo to other star systems would also be higher and more "revenue dense" than the alternative of a single Type-R Subsidized Liner providing the same services as an "all in one hull" option that can only be in one place at one time (instead of three different places at the same time).
Such an arrangement of subsidy operations funded by a Boughene oligarch patron (or a group of them together) would help increase Boughene's influence and "soft power" through an economic hegemony with Boughene's neighbors, and with the Mail Cargo option in the 2x J2 plus 1x J3 Courier starships would help cement Boughene's role as both an economic and diplomatic intermediary with influence across a lot of the coreward end of the Regina subsector. Partner up in a symbiotic relationship with Uakye Transport Partners based out of Uakye and that influence could even extend by secondhand means between Efate and Regina, helping to strengthen the ties that bind all of the Regina subsector together with the capital on the border of the Lanth subsector.
Not too shabby of an idea ... even if I do say so myself.
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