Class E Starport

[Gadrin]

Interesting comments all. You may consider all of them stolen.

IMTU, the only real difference between nearly all Class E ports and a Class X "port" is that fact that the Class E port has been surveyed and had a beacon installed. Nothing more.

Right, and I'd say the word "survey" has qualified the area around
the landing spot as being able to support starships of moderate
size (from those who are worried about sinking under weight).

D Poor quality installation.
Only unrefined fuel available. No repair
or shipyard facilities present. Scout
base may be present.

E Frontier installation.
Essentially a marked spot of bedrock
with no fuel, facilities, or bases present.

X No starport. No provision is
made for any ship landings.

While E specifically mentions "bedrock" it's probably either ground
that can take the weight of a 200 to 400 ton ship or that has been
modified to do so by the survey team.

I've looked into adding a certain mineral mixture and "cooking" the
surface (of course the strata underneath is really the key) but saying
the cooking (plasma or fusion) does the trick. For the area, both above
and below ground.

Central Supply Catalog from T4 mentions construction foam and how
easy it is to work with, so I'm thinking depending on the hardware
the team has brought with them, they basically fill molds to handle
the underground/above ground components of the beacon and port
computer and either bury them or simply leave them above ground
to mark the spot.

Upgrading from E to D is simply another trip by leaving a heavy duty
set of tanks at the site, or doing more construction and modifying
the area to support an underground tankage. After seeing umpteen
gas stations torn up and rebuilt in my lifetime, it's something that
can probably be done in days, routine "jump and pump" ops

>

 

[Jame]

"E - Frontier Quality Installation. Essentially, a bare spot of bedrock with no fuel, facilities, or bases present." [SM:36]
​

Hum... the beacon isn't even mentioned; apparently that came later. We all do agree that even Class E starports need beacons, right?

All this screams "unmanned" to me, although I wouldn't say a few exceptional Class E starports couldn't have a hotdog stand or the equivalent (Manned p.d.q. when the locals hear a ship approaching). Or perhaps a vending machine.

What you describe is what I'd expect from a Class D or possibly a bare-minimum Class C.


Hans

My Class-D is a bare-minimum Class C - i.e. no refined fuel, minor repairs only and no small craft manufacturing (unless the world is industrial, and if that's the case it should be a class-C). My class-E is a bare-minimum class-D, i.e. a landing field with a beacon/radio which is manned, no fuel, no repairs other than what the locals have (ayuh, wea got suhm pahts foa yoa shep - noa, instahlashun cahsts extra) - in my not-humble opinion (IMNHO), it means that anyone with a port that's not X is going to put some effort into it.

I think I disagree with canon on this (on the other hand, I also am adamant that Class-C ports have refined fuel and can build small craft).

 

[Blue Ghost]

One of my big pet peeves is with the starport type designations; i.e. type A, B, C and so on. I mean, that's not really "real world Traveller" parlance, is it? No self respecting starship crew says "There's a type A over at System-Y, we should go there", right? That's more rules lingo than anything else.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

Is it any different to a "4 star" hotel?

 

[far-trader]

I'm pretty sure I've seen it somewhere in canon ages ago (but still haven't come across it since) that it is pretty much exactly like "4 star hotel" and "3 wrench garage" and "5 fork restaurant" ratings one finds in various travel guides from motor clubs.

That is, the UWP in the game is nothing more than a short hand system of travel advisory put out by the TAS for it's members (and copied by others for non-members) and available through the Library program on ships or at starport kiosks throughout Charted Space.

So yes, I find it perfectly reasonable for a character in Traveller to say "Arglebargle has a Class A starport, we should head there and get our annual maintenance done before something breaks down for good."

In the meta-game use it is just meant as a starting point to be more fleshed out as desired and required, within the guidelines stipulated.

 

[Blue Ghost]

I guess there's a logic to that. Whenever I've travelled I rarely look at the ratings. I tend to go by reputation, and if I don't recognize the name then I look at how many stars/forks or whatever there are.

I guess if I was a TAS member, or relied on second hand info gleamed from TAS reccomendations, then .... *thinking here* ... I guess I might give the ratings a cursory glance. I think only if I was totally unfamiliar with the region of space would I bone up via a travel guide.

Just my initial thoughts.

 

[Hemdian]

IMTU, the only real difference between nearly all Class E ports and a Class X "port" is that fact that the Class E port has been surveyed and had a beacon installed. Nothing more.

IMTU I follow the definition offered by Marc Miller on the Zhodani Core Route website (I've quoted the relevent part on this thread). Basically, starport X does not mean "no starport", it means "no one allowed in". So starport E includes everything from "no starport" to "a beacon and hut". In other words, a completely uninhabited system would get the UPP "Ennn000-0" (where 'n' is any valid number).

 

[Blue Ghost]

But that doesn't really sync with the rulesbook does it? I don't have it in front of me, but I'm almost certain that X meant no landing facilities whatsoever, and nothing more. The forbidden part was designated by an AMBER marking, or so I thought.

 

[atpollard]

But that doesn't really sync with the rulesbook does it? I don't have it in front of me, but I'm almost certain that X meant no landing facilities whatsoever, and nothing more. The forbidden part was designated by an AMBER marking, or so I thought.

But think about the implications of a world with no place flat enough and stable enough to land a spaceship (a painted rock outcropping is the minimum requirement for class E).

Why are there NO landing facilities? On most worlds, "Go Away Imperial Dogs" is the most likely explanation. The Amber/Red Zone means an Imperial 'Blockade'.

 

[Jame]

But think about the implications of a world with no place flat enough and stable enough to land a spaceship (a painted rock outcropping is the minimum requirement for class E).

Why are there NO landing facilities? On most worlds, "Go Away Imperial Dogs" is the most likely explanation. The Amber/Red Zone means an Imperial 'Blockade'.

Well, IMTU (And I Must Stress That MY!!!), an X class is any planet with a bare space of rock, so I suppose that MY X-class includes a lot of OTU E ports. :smirk: That's why IMTU (Same Qualification As Before!!!), an E-class port is a lesser D port without fuel and most kinds of D-quality repairs.

 

[Easterner9504]

From LBB #3

Red travel zone usually indicates that a major danger exists within the system.
This danger may be disease and the world is quarantined. The system may be
involved in a war, and surface or space battles may be probable. Red travel zones
are also used to show a government edict prohibiting entry to the system or world.
This may be to protect a local civilization which is s t i l l developing and not yet
ready for interstellar contacts, or to protect valuable resources until the government
can mine them.

Description

A Excellent quality installation.
Refined fuel available. Annual maintenance
overhaul available. Shipyard capable
of constructing starships and
non-starships present. Naval base and or
scout base may be present.

B Good quality installation.
Refined fuel available. Annual maintenance
overhaul available. Shipyard capable
of constructing non-starships
present. Naval base and/or scout base
may be present.

C Routine quality installation.
Only unrefined fuel available. Reasonable
repair facilities present. Scout
base may be present.

D Poor quality installation.
Only unrefined fuel available. No repair
or shipyard facilities present. Scout
base may be present.

E Frontier installation.
Essentially a marked spot of bedrock
with no fuel, facilities, or bases present.

X No starport. No provision is
made for any ship landings.
------------------------------------------------------------------

So Red doesn't mean interdicted, it just usually does. Allemagne is Red but no one stops you from going there to be eaten or stepped on by "silicon dinosaurs"

Shionthy is Red but I'm unaware of a rule against going there, I recall miners live there. You just risk BOOM when visiting.

 

[far-trader]

I think Shionthy got it's "upgrade" to Interdicted by the IN in an adventure supplement.

 

[rancke]

I think Shionthy got it's "upgrade" to Interdicted by the IN in an adventure supplement.

It's more a clarification than and upgrade, but yes. It's mentioned in a library data entry in Beltstrike.

Note that Andor and Candory are interdicted, but both have Class C starports (presumably trades with each other), Droyne merchant ships from Andor are allowed to go wherever they want (There's one mentioned in Merchants), and licenses to visit Andor appear fairly easy to get (At least the adventure in Droyne involves the Droyne PCs tracking down three different ships that all visited Andor at the same time).


Hans

 

[Thunderbolt]

Late comer to the discussion...

Nice picture as always, which conveys the E starport as it is described.

I certainly struggle with the idea that a whole planet rests on a single starport, Imperial or otherwise, especially one that is essentially some blasted rock with a bus shelter. Wouldn't commercial interest spawn a whole bunch of bus shelters and associated scorched earth near factories and population centres across the planet?

 

[rancke]

I certainly struggle with the idea that a whole planet rests on a single starport, Imperial or otherwise, especially one that is essentially some blasted rock with a bus shelter. Wouldn't commercial interest spawn a whole bunch of bus shelters and associated scorched earth near factories and population centres across the planet?

I've often expressed the opinion that it's more or less impossible for a world with a decent population and a reasonable tech level NOT to be able to provide the services of a Class C starport as an absolute minimum (This doesn't mean they can't choose not to provide them, but it takes a reason that's more powerful than the desire to make money ;-).


Hans

 

[far-trader]

Whereas I take the opposite tack, that a world with a Class E Starport, even with nice (subjective) pop and tech or whatever, has nothing anyone finds of value significant enough to warrant enough trade to justify a higher class of starport. It might be a nice place to live but for whatever reason there just isn't any traffic.

 

[Blue Ghost]

It would more likely depend on how important the system was and how much of a presence the Imperial Navy had. On some systems I would imagine regulations would be very lax. Yeah sure, it's technically "AMBER", but that was years ago after the Vegan Soccer riots, and the Starport, even though it was a Type-E, has expanded into a sprawling metrocenter with landing pads. That kind of thing.

 

[Hemdian]

Hmmm ... Shionthy X000742-8 ... system dominated by planetoid belt with quantities of anti-matter ... has a sizable belter population ...

Okay, so the belt isn't all anti-matter. I find it hard to believe that the population of belters have no starport of any kind, not even a marked patch of bedrock with a becon or a spacestation. In other words starport class X must mean no *publicly available* facilities are present. I wouldn't be surprised to find that Shionthy has effectively class C facilities for the locals to use, but since you're not allowed to go there listing it as such in the 'TAS travel guide' is superflous.

The Droyne worlds of Andor and Candory, on the other hand, suggest to me that the mainworld is interdicted but you can still travel to the system and use orbital facilities. Perhaps the Droyne there will trade with offworlders in orbit but not allow them to set foot on the planet.

Meanwhile, from Supplement 3:

Class X starports are generally indicative of Imperial (or other) interdiction; there is no provisions for starship landings, and such landings are probably prohibited.

Red Zones are generally class starport worlds (sic), deliberately inderdicted by the Imperium, or by other government units. Entry is prohibited, often with severe penalties accompanying violations.

 

[far-trader]

Hmmm ... Shionthy X000742-8 ... system dominated by planetoid belt with quantities of anti-matter ... has a sizable belter population ...

Okay, so the belt isn't all anti-matter. I find it hard to believe that the population of belters have no starport of any kind, not even a marked patch of bedrock with a becon or a spacestation. In other words starport class X must mean no *publicly available* facilities are present. I wouldn't be surprised to find that Shionthy has effectively class C facilities for the locals to use, but since you're not allowed to go there listing it as such in the 'TAS travel guide' is superflous.

Exactly. Starport type listed in the UWP is the Imperial (or other polity) Interstellar Starport. The one (or two in the case of both High and Down ports) where all Interstellar ships are welcome. Other ports (generally called Spaceports) may serve locals only or allow visitors in some cases, and they may very well be superior to the Interstellar Starport.

 

[ravells]

I've just watched the first episode of 'The Secret Life of Airports' on BBC iPlayer - charting the history of the modern airport. If you live in the UK then have a look see, the association to Traveller starports (was to me) really strong in terms of the underlying feel of different airports (like the early aerodromes where the terminal was just a tent (aka class E), to Hitler building the first 'modern' airport in Berlin. There were a bunch of Traveller adventures just bursting to get out.

Lots of attention spent on the relationship between airports as country status symbols, and then all the cities wanted their own one. The role of the airport during the age of the British Empire (tail end), people no longer knowing what the distance they were travelling was, only the length of the journey. Lots of great stuff to take away.

Can't wait for part 2!