IN & IM ranks and ratings insigns...

[aramis]

The navy probably ALSO has such a net.

Perhaps on the same lines, perhaps not.

The dogleg adds a nummber of jumps; not going straight-route adds considerably more. I know becuase I've had players do it.

aside: In one TNE game, they built a 3J4 on a Type T hull...12 PC per 4 weeks. by reducing end-point tie-down per jump, they raised their average jump from about 3.2 to about 3.7 Pc... a considerable savings in the long run. A similar 2J6 design could push the envelope from about J5.1 to about J5.8, or so. Additionally, the jump paths were not only longer average jumps, but better conformance to straight-line paths as well. It saved many months going from Regina to Terra, as well as allowing use of the Islands.

In fact, under MT, the islands are not truly isolated, just not commercially valuable.

 

[rancke]

Originally posted by Aramis:
I suspect the archdukes maintain a J6 straight-route... using calibration points. THe extra two-to-six weeks notice for even Vland or Dingir can be powerful. The extra two to three months for the rift-crossing with in-domain straight route is quite a lead!

By not having to wind around, but using the straightest possible routes, one saves at least one, usually 2-3 jumps per sector, and guarantees refined fuel.

I certainly wouldn't rule out the possibility of a jump-6-and-nothing-but-jump-6 courier setup between a few selected places (though I'd tap the IN to be the organisation that ran it), but I will point out that the moment you have to use deep space refuelling stations[*], you up the cost of that link considerably.

[*] Unless they involve naturally occuring bodies.

Hans

 

[rancke]

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
And speaking of IL, they are owned by the Imperial family and provide a secret courier service for the Imperial Government (not the Navy).
Why do the politicians want info faster than even the IN jump 6 courier network? Remember the 600's

The Imperiallines setup[*] isn't faster, indeed it is only almost as fast (Imperiallines couriers has to spend time refuelling at each stop; IN couriers can beam the info to a waiting courier and refuel after the info has already gone ahead along the next link). My take is that it's value to the Imperial family (not the politicians) is that it is discreet.


[*] Which originally wasn't called that; Imperiallines was the name of the corporation that ran the Spinward Marches side of the network. Other (unnamed) companies ran the network in other sectors. Over the years 'Imperiallines' morphed into being the name of the entire setup.


Hans

 

[rancke]

Originally posted by Aramis:
The dogleg adds a nummber of jumps; not going straight-route adds considerably more. I know becuase I've had players do it.

I've always assumed that the sector and subsector capitals are connected by as straight a line of jumps as possible (with a few exceptions due to the astrographical location of certain important worlds, i.e. if two high-population worlds lie 4 parsecs apart then the route may include that one jump-4 link).

Incidentally, doglegs may be canon, but they don't make sense. An X-boat link is two stations lying (up to) four parsecs apart. It is not a groove cut into jumpspace. So the route from Mora to Strouden, say, could as easily go from Mora to Strouden over Casey in two jump instead of over Fornice, Casey, Capon, Resdan, Lunion, and Shirene in seven.


Hans

 

[mike wightman]

Originally posted by rancke:
The Imperiallines setup[*] isn't faster, indeed it is only almost as fast (Imperiallines couriers has to spend time refuelling at each stop; IN couriers can beam the info to a waiting courier and refuel after the info has already gone ahead along the next link). My take is that it's value to the Imperial family (not the politicians) is that it is discreet.

Not according to MT RS

The news of the assassination is carried to Regina (no mention of Mora again ) by IL in 196 days, averaging jump 4.64
The same news arrives by Naval Courier after 210 days at an average of jump 4.33.
Naval couriers appear to jump only between Naval bases.

The Imperiallines TJ system reacted with the same speed that the Navy did.

My understanding is thet The TJ couriers also stand ready to jump at a moments notice, beaming the message just as you suggest the Naval couriers do.

[*] Which originally wasn't called that; Imperiallines was the name of the corporation that ran the Spinward Marches side of the network. Other (unnamed) companies ran the network in other sectors. Over the years 'Imperiallines' morphed into being the name of the entire setup.


Hans

Mentioned in The Traveller Adventure IIRC
Yes it is odd how Imperiallines "grew", it was probably easier than to think of new dummy company names

 

[aramis]

BY straight-line, I mean using a system of Calibration points, as opposed to just skipping intermediate systems.

IE, ignore the astrography, except as a requirement for fuel dumps; don't restrict one's route to extant systems; make use of the empty hexes.

The "Dogleg" I refer to is going through the corridor, rather than the Islands, when trying to reach regina from capital.

 

[rancke]

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by rancke:
The Imperiallines setup[*] isn't faster, indeed it is only almost as fast (Imperiallines couriers has to spend time refuelling at each stop; IN couriers can beam the info to a waiting courier and refuel after the info has already gone ahead along the next link). My take is that it's value to the Imperial family (not the politicians) is that it is discreet.

Not according to MT RS

</font>[/QUOTE]No, not according to MT. As I said in my first post on the subject, "that's the story". I just think the story is bogus. Demonstrably so. If MT RS had featured a pony express route that averaged 20 miles per day or a courier with only one horse averaging 60 miles per day, would you quote it as an authority on the speed of couriers and pony express riders? Well, that's just what MT RS does. It gives an unreasonable high speed to the Imperiallines setup as it is described and an unreasonably low speed to the IN setup.

The news of the assassination is carried to Regina (no mention of Mora again )

No, because the author either didn't conside all the ramifications or he decided not to let common sense interfere with an idea that he no doubt thought was brilliant. Anyway, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. I think that if one subsector duke got advanced notice then every subsector duke got it too. MT RS just doesn't mention it. Yeah, that's the ticket!

...by IL in 196 days, averaging jump 4.64
The same news arrives by Naval Courier after 210 days at an average of jump 4.33.

Does it really say naval courier? I though it was the X-boat network that was supposed to be the slow news vector and that the naval couriers weren't even considered.

Naval couriers appear to jump only between Naval bases.

Does Not Make Sense. Beeeeeeeeeb...

"The Imperiallines TJ system reacted with the same speed that the Navy did."

I don't doubt it. Reaction time and speed is two different things, though.

My understanding is that The TJ couriers also stand ready to jump at a moments notice, beaming the message just as you suggest the Naval couriers do.

Sure, there was one (probably more) standing by at Capital. They left in a hurry[*]. But what then? Check out the description of the way the TJ couriers make their way across the Imperium. They refuel by entering a system pretending to be a TI (or whatever the jump-2 version is designated), land in the port, refuel, pretend to do regular business (that would mean loading and unloading, right?), then leave. That means they loose 1-2 days every jump. Hmm... the 4.64 parsec/week average actually sounds pretty plausible. It's the navy courier performance I don't believe in.

[*] I wonder just what contingency orders the one that went to Norris had? It could hardly be "In case I get assassinated, make sure Norris gets told." And where did the rest of them go? Or was Norris really the only one gifted with such a message?


Hans

 

[mike wightman]

The x-boat system took 357 days to reach Regina, averaging jump 2.55. Quoted again from MT RS.

And I agree that the story is a touch contrived to give Norris the opportunity to appoint himself Archduke - but there is no indication of any other explanation.

Unless you think that Norris was in on Dulinor's plot

 

[aramis]

I suspect that Norris set up his own net... he is the type.

Regina could easily support the dozen or so CP's needed; a link across the islands would also have the advantage of Dulinor's own Advance Prep press. (Boy, how bad it would look if he failed... clear treason!)

Norris could afford it IF he had access to a couple of squadrons of couriers. I suspect he's have used just such a group to keep tabs with Strephon, both ways.

It is highly possible to exceeed the TJ net; it limits itself to known astrographic features with fuel. A relay CP mode, assuming deep space CP's, just big enough to hold a couple of J6 courier fuel loads, provides a far faster mechnism, both by reducing/eliminating the 100diam limit, and by preventing routine flight controls on all the jumps, and by raising the jump distance to J6 all the way, and in the right directions at that.

Setting up such a system in the marches is cheap, less than GCr1, plus op expenses on the order of MCr5 per year, assuming 200 Td CT/HG J6 couriers, and all crew, connecting Regina and Mora; for about treble that, one can connect all the Imperial SS capitals, due to overlap.

Then again, in sector, the directness is less important, as for J5-6, the gains are not more than one jump.

 

[rancke]

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
The x-boat system took 357 days to reach Regina, averaging jump 2.55. Quoted again from MT RS.

Yes, and a jump-6 courier network could do it in 32 weeks or 224 days. A single jump-6 courier would have to add refuelling time, but could still do it in about 256 days.

And I agree that the story is a touch contrived to give Norris the opportunity to appoint himself Archduke - but there is no indication of any other explanation.

There are at least two, though. One is that Strephon really did appoint Norris archduke back in 1114 and that the 'he did it himself' story is a vicious rumor set in motion by political rivals. This option would have the advantage that it fits what happened in the GTU. The disadvantage is that various explicit canonical texts would have to be ignored.

Another possibility is that Norris promoted himself and that his political rivals swallowed it because they believe that challenging him would throw the Domain into a civil war that they would loose.
Note that you need to make that assumption anyway, even if you take the whole Imperiallines story as gospel, because once those political rivals did hear of Strephon's death over the X-boat network, they'd be perfectly capable of doing their sums an realize that Norris could have had advanced notice. After all, the existence of jump-6 is hardly a secret!


Hans

 

[rancke]

Originally posted by Aramis:
I suspect that Norris set up his own net... he is the type.

That's a possibility (though I will note that it is as non-canonical as anything I've ever proposed), but assuming a realistic IN courier network he doesn't gain very much. By the time he gets his message, in 27 jumps directly from Capital to Regina, the Duke of Deneb got his in 22-24 jumps, Duchess Delphine got hers in 26-28 jumps and Norris gets his through the official network in 30-32 (The exact number of jumps depend on various assumptions). This assumes that the normal route is Capital - Vland - [capital of Corridor] - Deneb - Mora - Rhylanor - Regina.


Hans