I wish I hadn't done that...

[Hal]

When the playtest file for the Second Survey data was available, I grabbed it thinking "hey, neat, all of the various survey data from various game versions of Traveller, including GURPS TRAVELLER".

then I thought to myself, why not write a program that lets me determine world trade numbers per GURPS TRAVELLER FAR TRADER. I finally have enough smarts to write the code in VB.NET and have it reasonably useful.

Heck, I even created the spot freight market bidding screen, where I would generate a given number of tons worth of freight that would be available to be bid upon. I thought "Hmm, 300 dton's looks about right".

Then I thought "why not generate ALL of the world trading pairs whose BTN values were 6.5 or higher (basically the minimal amount of trade between worlds where the Tramp Freighters have first dibs on the freight because there are no scheduled liners (in theory) putting in for the freight.

That is when I generated some 28,616 trade pairs between worlds whose BTN were 6.5+

Then I looked at Lunion's trade volume, because I plan on starting a campaign set in that subsector. Lunion has 317 world trade partners (assuming I didn't have a bug in the programming or logic!), of which 30 had BTN values in excess of 9. Tramp Freighters would have access to roughly 9,000 dton's worth of freight between those 30 worlds. That is worth about 200 Empress Marava class ships hold when it comes to trade between those worlds - on a DAILY basis.

That in turn, implies that there would be some 1,4000 Empress class ships floating about in space just to service the trade between Lunion and its partners. EYIKES. That doesn't even include the scheduled liners who carry freight on a scheduled basis.

GURPS FAR TRADER rules are definitely something I would not want to implement without the use of a computer at the gaming table!

 

[GypsyComet]

Best to use them to get a macro-economic picture of a region, but not implement the rules themselves while at the table.

 

[Hal]

Best to use them to get a macro-economic picture of a region, but not implement the rules themselves while at the table.

Not unless I've automated it via a program and a user friendly interface! Which by the way, is how this whole thing got started. I've got the user interface built to some degree, now I have to have the data!

 

[Selandia]

Most of it is shipped according to recurent paterns and is shipped in large cargo or mixed cargo-passengers liners.

Your work is wonder for Merchant prince campaign where you are managing a fleet and can run major liners.

Only marginal excess loads, special projects or occasionnal trade imbalances (seasonnal been a major source) is likely to fall into tramping business, henceforth the bits and basket loads associated with free trading rolls.

Have fun

Selandia

 

[aramis]

Only marginal excess loads, special projects or occasionnal trade imbalances (seasonnal been a major source) is likely to fall into tramping business, henceforth the bits and basket loads associated with free trading rolls.

Neighboring world are unlikely to share the same growing season.

 

[rancke]

Neighboring world are unlikely to share the same growing season.

If someone ever actually explored the ramifications of jump masking, you'd have travel seasons when two worlds were one the sides of their respective suns facing each other and off seasons when one or the other or both worlds were masked from the other.


Hans

 

[HG_B]

If someone ever actually explored the ramifications of jump masking, you'd have travel seasons when two worlds were one the sides of their respective suns facing each other and off seasons when one or the other or both worlds were masked from the other.


Hans

But, if one world had an axial tilt and the other didn't...

 

[aramis]

If someone ever actually explored the ramifications of jump masking, you'd have travel seasons when two worlds were one the sides of their respective suns facing each other and off seasons when one or the other or both worlds were masked from the other.


Hans

But, if one world had an axial tilt and the other didn't...

And neither is likely to match to the local growth seasons...

 

[rancke]

And neither is likely to match to the local growth seasons...

Laving HG's comment aside (because I don't get it), is there any reason why anyone should expect that the travel seasons I propose would match local growing seasons? I'd think it was obvious that they wouldn't, except by pure coincidence.


Hans

 

[daltoncalford]

Growing seasons only apply if you are considering a small portion of a planet. Earth has a continuous growing season when you consider the north and south alternating their optimum growing season. The only time a growing season has any bearing is when the entire landmass is only within one hemisphere and axial tilt is significant.

 

[HG_B]

Laving HG's comment aside (because I don't get it)

Axial tilt is what creates "growing seasons" on Earth...

 

[Hal]

Growing seasons only apply if you are considering a small portion of a planet. Earth has a continuous growing season when you consider the north and south alternating their optimum growing season. The only time a growing season has any bearing is when the entire landmass is only within one hemisphere and axial tilt is significant.

A lot of factors don't generally apply because said factors are specific rather than general

That having been said, there will be some instances under which the positions of suns relative to each other will NOT ever apply with regards to blocking jumps, such as in a 3-D simulation as opposed to a 2-D simulation. A ship leaving a star system whose axis of rotation is relatively perpendicular to the destination star's axis of rotation (ie the plane in which most planets rotate round the star) - will never have to worry about that destination star being between its current location, and a location near the planet it wishes to exit at.

In all? I'm not going to ever need to worry about those rules simply because for me, there are only two masses that impact on Jump Travel. They are those masses that exist in normal space - at the Jump Universe entry point (ie the place where a jump ship exits normal space and enters Jump space) and the Jump Universe exit point. For my game universe, exiting Jump Space into Normal space at the 100 diameter limit of a mass, causes problems and induces stress on ships and personnel (Jump Space sickness anyone?). That's something for my universe that needn't apply to anyone else's, and likewise, the newer rules for how Jumps work, need not impact on my game universe

But, truth be told, I'm almost of a mind to say "There is a reason SJGames production of GURPS TRAVELLER FAR TRADER was never really popular." The rules are too complex, and are not something that can be implemented at the game table without the use of a computer. Can you imagine having to roll 4d6, subtract four from the total, and then subtract that total from... the Total daily available freight lots? Can you imagine having to do that for say, three thousand dton's worth of freight to be shipped out of the star system that day? Sorry folks, but that just broke the "playability" commandment that determines whether a game is playable or not

In the end? While these numbers MAY be useful at a strategic level, they're not all too useful at the gaming table on the scale of player characters.

 

[GypsyComet]

Growing seasons only apply if you are considering a small portion of a planet. Earth has a continuous growing season when you consider the north and south alternating their optimum growing season. The only time a growing season has any bearing is when the entire landmass is only within one hemisphere and axial tilt is significant.

Or if the world only has 20,000 inhabitants. Earth benefits in this matter from having billions of people.