An interesting quote from MGT core
Well, that's cutting life support costs in half from the Cr2000 per jump rule, which is not a bad thing (Especially if the cost of a starship passage goes down with it ). But 'occupied or not'? What happens to the food and air and water that doesn't get consumed? Does it spoil? Evaporate? Get tossed out the airlock? And does 'occupied' include the possibility of double occupancy? And what about food for high passengers? Are they content to eat 'rather spartan' meals? I've often thought that any high passenger who elects to travel by free trader might well have to take what's offered, but I remember old discussions where people insisted that unless the free trader offered high passage level accomodations and food, "they" just wouldn't assign any high passengers to them.MGT CRB p.138 said:Life Support and Supplies: Each stateroom on a ship costs Cr. 2,000 per month, occupied or not. This cost covers supplies for the life support system as well as food and water, although meals at this level will be rather spartan. Each low passage berth costs Cr. 100 per month.
Be that as it may, high passengers travelling by regular liner will want to get quality food. Is that going to be reflected in the cost of the ticket?
BTW, does Cr2,000 per month translate as Cr600 per trip, starport to starport? After all, such a trip takes 8-9 days from the time the passenger embarks till he disembarks.
It seems to me that for any game that involves keep-track-of-income-and-outgo resource management, any single cost for life support is going to be inapplicable to every situation. The cost of 30 days non-stop in space IS going to be significantly different from the cost of 9 days in space-jumpspace-space. And when we're talking about thousands of credits, the difference is going to be big enough for PCs to care about. So what happens when they stumble across a really good deal on a container-full of military MREs and buy them all for a pittance? How do you figure out how much they save on life support costs while the supply lasts?
Hans