Imperiallines' Calibration Points

[robject]

Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler

If you're not a referee, stop reading now.

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We know Imperiallines' big secret. What I want to know is if you've thought about where their calibration points are.

They're only incidentally using the XBoat route, and I bet they're not using it much at all. Their couriers blaze straight line courses; therefore, they probably have established calibration points.

Ah, I've just realized that most of those calibration points are Naval bases. I should read up on it and see what else I've missed.

Anyone have additional thoughts to share about it?

 

[robject]

Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler

If you're not a referee, stop reading now.

.
.
.

We know Imperiallines' big secret. What I want to know is if you've thought about where their calibration points are.

They're only incidentally using the XBoat route, and I bet they're not using it much at all. Their couriers blaze straight line courses; therefore, they probably have established calibration points.

Ah, I've just realized that most of those calibration points are Naval bases. I should read up on it and see what else I've missed.

Anyone have additional thoughts to share about it?

 

[Plankowner]

I always thought that stars without planets would make wonderful Calibration Points.

Nice big Gravity Well to aim at, no pesky planets to get in the way. Of course there is not much of ANYTHING to get in the way, so you need to carry everything you will need.

The question simply becomes, IYTU, how many stars don't have planetary systems?

 

[Plankowner]

I always thought that stars without planets would make wonderful Calibration Points.

Nice big Gravity Well to aim at, no pesky planets to get in the way. Of course there is not much of ANYTHING to get in the way, so you need to carry everything you will need.

The question simply becomes, IYTU, how many stars don't have planetary systems?

 

[Whipsnade]

Originally posted by robject:
What I want to know is if you've thought about where their calibration points are.

Robject,

Imperiallines calibration points are where everyone else's calibration points are; in deep space. A calibration point is a pre-positioned fuel cache and nothing more.

Calibration points won't be at naval bases because naval bases can refuel a Type-TJ and maintain a low profile while doing so. A Type-TJ will simply arrive in a system that holds a base, transmit a signal, get refuelled, and jump away. Anyone watching will assume the ship was just another part of the routine naval traffic the base is there to support.

What a Type-TJ doesn't do is arrive in-system with its transponder screaming "HELLO! WE JUST JUMPED SIX PARSECS AND NEED FUEL!" In fact, MT makes it clear that the TJs routinely co-opt the identities of their boring, ubitquitous, jump2, TI siblings.


Have fun,
Bill

 

[Whipsnade]

Originally posted by robject:
What I want to know is if you've thought about where their calibration points are.

Robject,

Imperiallines calibration points are where everyone else's calibration points are; in deep space. A calibration point is a pre-positioned fuel cache and nothing more.

Calibration points won't be at naval bases because naval bases can refuel a Type-TJ and maintain a low profile while doing so. A Type-TJ will simply arrive in a system that holds a base, transmit a signal, get refuelled, and jump away. Anyone watching will assume the ship was just another part of the routine naval traffic the base is there to support.

What a Type-TJ doesn't do is arrive in-system with its transponder screaming "HELLO! WE JUST JUMPED SIX PARSECS AND NEED FUEL!" In fact, MT makes it clear that the TJs routinely co-opt the identities of their boring, ubitquitous, jump2, TI siblings.


Have fun,
Bill

 

[robject]

Time for another can of worms, eh?

 

[robject]

Time for another can of worms, eh?

 

[Whipsnade]

Originally posted by Plankowner:
Nice big Gravity Well to aim at, no pesky planets to get in the way.

Oh, bugger... I knew this nonsense was going to start again after GT:IW was released...

I told them in the playtest and I told them after the release. All they did was blow me off saying it was no big deal.

Canon is clear on this point. You DO NOT need a gravity well to 'aim' at and you NEVER needed a gravity well to 'aim' at. Mass is NOT a requirement for jump precipitation. PERIOD.


Bill

 

[Whipsnade]

Originally posted by Plankowner:
Nice big Gravity Well to aim at, no pesky planets to get in the way.

Oh, bugger... I knew this nonsense was going to start again after GT:IW was released...

I told them in the playtest and I told them after the release. All they did was blow me off saying it was no big deal.

Canon is clear on this point. You DO NOT need a gravity well to 'aim' at and you NEVER needed a gravity well to 'aim' at. Mass is NOT a requirement for jump precipitation. PERIOD.


Bill

 

[Plankowner]

Calm Bill Calm.... do your breathing exercises!

I NEVER said you needed a gravity well to jump, just that it might make a convenient stopping point. I was thinking more about stealth than mass. No one goes to the barren stars, who would want to. Well, if I was making a couple of Jump 6's, I might want to put my fuel in orbit around that star, so I could find it and not have anyone come looking. That is all I meant.

I have NEVER used the need for mass to come out of jump or to "aim" at. I just suggested a possible hiding spot that is right out in the open so to speak. Fuel orbiting a star is a little easier to find than a tank floating 2.2342372834278363332234234 lightyears from here.

CALM....

 

[Plankowner]

Calm Bill Calm.... do your breathing exercises!

I NEVER said you needed a gravity well to jump, just that it might make a convenient stopping point. I was thinking more about stealth than mass. No one goes to the barren stars, who would want to. Well, if I was making a couple of Jump 6's, I might want to put my fuel in orbit around that star, so I could find it and not have anyone come looking. That is all I meant.

I have NEVER used the need for mass to come out of jump or to "aim" at. I just suggested a possible hiding spot that is right out in the open so to speak. Fuel orbiting a star is a little easier to find than a tank floating 2.2342372834278363332234234 lightyears from here.

CALM....

 

[Plankowner]

Rob, you let me walk right into that one didn't you?????

 

[Plankowner]

Rob, you let me walk right into that one didn't you?????

 

[Whipsnade]

Originally posted by Plankowner:
I NEVER said you needed a gravity well to jump...

Plankowner,

Calm? I'm calm. I'll be calmer still when you explain the sentence I quoted above with this earlier one: Nice big Gravity Well to aim at...

Mistype perhaps?

This was all settled before there was an internet and [iGT:IW[/i] doesn't change it one bit. You do not need to 'aim' at anything and you never did. Even GT:IW admits this. Part of the 'explanation' there has the Vilani using calibration points early in their history and then convienently forgetting how to later on.

As for a star helping you hide better, wouldn't a parsec of empty space work very well too?

TNE's 'Regency Sourcebook' and the DGP Traveller Digest issue with 'Project Blackheart' for MT are quite clear. Deep space fuel chaches are known as 'calibration' points because their location has been plotted very precisely. Because you can jump with an accuracy of 3000km/parsec, you don't need to spend time searching for a fuel cache because you can arrive very close to it.


Bill

 

[Whipsnade]

Originally posted by Plankowner:
I NEVER said you needed a gravity well to jump...

Plankowner,

Calm? I'm calm. I'll be calmer still when you explain the sentence I quoted above with this earlier one: Nice big Gravity Well to aim at...

Mistype perhaps?

This was all settled before there was an internet and [iGT:IW[/i] doesn't change it one bit. You do not need to 'aim' at anything and you never did. Even GT:IW admits this. Part of the 'explanation' there has the Vilani using calibration points early in their history and then convienently forgetting how to later on.

As for a star helping you hide better, wouldn't a parsec of empty space work very well too?

TNE's 'Regency Sourcebook' and the DGP Traveller Digest issue with 'Project Blackheart' for MT are quite clear. Deep space fuel chaches are known as 'calibration' points because their location has been plotted very precisely. Because you can jump with an accuracy of 3000km/parsec, you don't need to spend time searching for a fuel cache because you can arrive very close to it.


Bill

 

[robject]

Yeah, well, this misstep was partially my fault for misusing the word calibration point... I sort of just meant common refueling points, but didn't have a word for it.

 

[robject]

Yeah, well, this misstep was partially my fault for misusing the word calibration point... I sort of just meant common refueling points, but didn't have a word for it.

 

[rancke]

Originally posted by Bill Cameron:
This was all settled before there was an internet and [iGT:IW[/i] doesn't change it one bit. You do not need to 'aim' at anything and you never did. Even GT:IW admits this. Part of the 'explanation' there has the Vilani using calibration points early in their history and then convienently forgetting how to later on.

Do I detect a little bit of bias in your choice of words there, Bill? IW 'even' admits it? Jon 'admitted' it from the start, he just decided to try to reconcile that fact with the other fact from Imperium and Dark Nebula. And the Vilani didn't 'cenveniently' forget it, they deliberately suppressed it once they didn't need it any more.


Hans

 

[rancke]

Originally posted by Bill Cameron:
This was all settled before there was an internet and [iGT:IW[/i] doesn't change it one bit. You do not need to 'aim' at anything and you never did. Even GT:IW admits this. Part of the 'explanation' there has the Vilani using calibration points early in their history and then convienently forgetting how to later on.

Do I detect a little bit of bias in your choice of words there, Bill? IW 'even' admits it? Jon 'admitted' it from the start, he just decided to try to reconcile that fact with the other fact from Imperium and Dark Nebula. And the Vilani didn't 'cenveniently' forget it, they deliberately suppressed it once they didn't need it any more.


Hans