Getting started with MegaTraveller

[Ishmael]

The design sequences can be complicated due to the weird joining of 2 mostly non-compatible game and combat systems... Striker and High Guard.
If you keep that in mind, its not that difficult although some classic ships will require some tricks to make.

IMHO, the computer rules are broken, but relatively easy to fix although the official errata went a different route than I.

The only must haves are the Ref's Companion and a copy of guns,guns,guns.
The Ref's Companion has a section for mass combat which brings rules from the Striker miniature game including command and control and morale rules ( I once even made a civil war miniatures game using it long ago ).

I disliked the COAAC design rules and even the wet navy rules were over simplified imo concerning hulls and thrust and performance. COAAC dogfighting rules were disappointing as well, but then I was really into SPI's Airwar in those days, so take my opinion of it with a grain of salt.

Get Pocket Empires if possible for worldbuilding. It can give insights into reasonable economic outputs and trade volumes between worlds whereas the old fashioned TCS/Striker budget rules were simplifications/abstrasted almost to the point of uselessness.

The rest of the books are nice, but ultimately just fluff.

 

[aramis]

I've still to find SOM, Hard Times, refs companion and World Builders for a decent price. There seem to be quite a few in the US but the postage is pretty high. How good are the scans of the pdfs on the likes of Drive-Thru Rpg?

The DTRPG scans of PM, HT, RC, RM, FSotSI, COACC are all pretty good. The OCR is decent.

 

[Vargas]

For me the breadth of stuff covered in MT, especially with the add-ons from COACC and articles from Challenge, is both one of the strengths and weaknesses of the game, in that may of the rules are adequate for giving somewhat generic concepts of what might be possible but at the same time may make it difficult for you to try and recreate something that you believe should be possible.

That was my difficulty with COACC. I've been an airplane nut all my life and I found the design process was unable to produce meaningfully different stats for an F-4 and an F-16.

 

[atpollard]

That was my difficulty with COACC. I've been an airplane nut all my life and I found the design process was unable to produce meaningfully different stats for an F-4 and an F-16.

Is there a meaningful difference?
They have similar cruise and top speeds.
The F16 appears to use a lighter 'frame' material that allows the weight saved to be carried as more weapons.

The biggest difference that I saw was in the weapons that could be bolted on (beyond the obvious cosmetic differences).

[But I am not an "airplane nut" and may simply be missing something important.]

 

[PFVA63]

Hi,

I suspect it may vary a bit depending on the version of the aircraft you are talking about, but Wikipedia shows the F-4 as being a 2 seat aircraft about 1/3 bigger in weight (62,000lb vs 42,000lb), longer (63ft vs 49ft 5in) and faster (Mach 2.23 max vs Mach 2) in comparison to the single seat F-16, while the F-16 has a notional Thrust to Weight ratio a bit above 1.0 in comparison to the notional Thrust to Weight ratio for the F-4 of 0.86 loaded (or 0.58 @ its max take-off weight).

Though in general, to me at least, rather than specifics about actual numbers and such its just that there doesn't necessarily seem to be enough differentiation in any given period.

 

[McPerth]

I guess it's quite difficult to reflect in the game all the minor changes that make an airplane better than another in real world and those mínimum inprovements so relevant in real world but so small at Traveller scale.

RM (page 23) gives us TL5 as circa 1930 and TL6 as circa 1950. According to this, all WWII will enter in TL5 (IIRC CT gave it as TL6). Most changes in the airplanes in WWII would be used with the same parameters (of course, the upgrading of gunning, from MGs to 20 mm cannon, and the appearence of the jet engines will be depicted, but few more will). An F2 Bufalo wil lbe quite equal tan an F4 Wildcat, and the differences were quite felt in real world.

Same will happen with tanks, ships, etc... Until the change is worth a full TL, the change is seen as nearly irrellevant, even though it can well be decisive in real world.