It also has very different costs versus operation expenses. When looking at ships, the game defines the reality...
No, the setting details describe the reality. The rules don't mandate the existence of a
Stellar class liner; that's for the setting material to do. And
Stellar Class liners exists in the OTU, as we've seen evidence for in various different versions of Traveller. Different
rules versions, mind you. In every version it has been rendered differently because the rules weren't up to providing a precise description. 20% jump fuel instead of 30%, HePLaR maneuver drive instead of thrusters, and, yes, different costs. But all that doesn't alter the fact that there is a
Stellar class liner in the OTU. And one with pretty much the same deck plans in most of the versions, I believe.
- and since the GURPS Trav ships operations cost a different percentage of their initial cost, and their expenses are a different percentage of their income than in other editions.
Yes, that certainly is one of the major discrepancies of the GT version. But there's no reason to throw away the baby with the bath water and disallow the ship types introduced in GT setting material.
It's not just the design sequences being different. It's not just that the CrImp is normed very differently from the G$ and that the two operate differently. The universe of GT has legal commercial double occupancy inside the 3I - the universe of the rest do not. (T20 has standard prices for it as an option for non-imperial campaigns.)
IIRC that was a deliberate attempt to fix what Jim saw as a flaw in the setting. I think he went about it the wrong way, but it really is a minor mistake[*]. Nothing that would prevent any of the ship types described in GT material from existing. Well... except for the highly implausible maneuverdriveless X-boat, perhaps.
[*] After all, the only incontrovertinble evidence for that regulation is from a TNE source, and TNE is hardly the definitive Traveller version, is it?.
The universe of GT has all Imperial Marines being trained and fielded in Battle Dress; the others lack that, and in CT, most marines don't even have vacc suit skills.
I know from earlier discussions that you are aware that those BD-trained Imperial Marines is from a CT-era JTAS article. And as there are a couple of ways to explain those non-BD skilled marines away, there's not even any discrepancy to cast doubt on the accuracy of the description.
It doesn't describe the same universe. It describes one particularly close, but definitely NOT the same.
Well, it is a parallel universe, so technically you're right. However it is a different (and occasionally erroneous) description of what is effectively an identical universe up to the change point.
Hans