LBB 2 Economics Questions

[Chuck Anumia]

The LBB 2 says ships use 1 week in jump and 1 week to travel to and from jump dia and port, unload and reload cargo with 5-6 days in port for recreation.
This gives 2 jumps per month.
1) Can this be increased to 3 jumps per month perhaps every other month for better profitability?

2) What is the general standard profitability of a far trader on this type of schedule?

A subsidized merchant captain gives 50% of the profits to the Government that they are dealing with (who own the ship). The Captain is responsible for crew fees and maintenance costs.
An owner of the same type ship gives the bank 1/240 of the ships cost for 40 years and pays crew fees and maintenance costs.

3) Who makes a better profit?

4) has anyone refinaced a ship after say 20 years to reduce the payments?

 

[aramis]

Crunching the time down is doable, but not reliably so.

Bk2 implies longer travel times than jump-in at 100d will provide; hence later articles on jump masking by stars.

you can reliably push things to about 2.3 jumps per month (remembering the 28 day month of traveller).

Better Profits: Skilled speculators (But that requires Bk7)...

Refinance: Not likely; ships wear out over time. A ships reliable lifespan is about 60 years, and financiers won't be eager to push the contract to the edge. Remember that the loans are already very low interest. and have 20% down; If the loans are, as with modern ones, pay mostly interest at first, you've a long time before equity matters much.

 

[Anthony]

Realistically, with good cargo handling, 100D entrance and exit, and prearranged cargo, you can jump about every 9 days. Unless you're talking about a liner on a major route, you're not going to actually manage that. However, the 2 week standard was pretty much set up for having time in port for interesting stuff like adventures, not for realism.

 

[far-trader]

I always figured the "week" not in jump was needed to unload the cargo and passengers, then hunt up new cargo and passengers, then buy and sell any speculative cargo. If you manage to find a few spare hours, you fit in any needed routine maintenance, restocking, and repairs. Then if you have somehow managed to do all that without running afoul of some bureaucrat you might have a couple hours for some R&R

Now if you want to make a run to the local GG to skim fuel that'll take about a week itself.

And I won't even get into how long you might be waiting for a free berth in a busy system

You ask me a week in system is barely enough for a free-trader.

But yes, the "real" reason was so the PC's would get off the ship and explore, get into trouble, find patrons that lead to adventure, and hear rumours that tell them what you want them to know.

I agree with Anthony, a scheduled service would probably be able to operate on an average of 9 days. In practice it would more likely follow the same 2 week schedule just because that's the way the Imperium works, note the cost for berthing is 1 week plus a premium for each day after. So there is no incentive for leaving early. Instead I'd say that scheduled traffic is allowed extra rolls to fill up the higher cargo and passenger capacity, or for special cargo and passenger rolls. And they probably do routine maintenance to a higher degree of reliability.

A passenger travelling on a scheduled route ship is also probably going to be more of a tourist type, so during the week in port they are off on local sightseeing tours and shopping trips, then they return to the "cruise" ship to set off for the next port. In this case the ship is also the tourist's lodging during the week.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Hey, Aramis, didn't we sufficiently beat you up over that "starships wear out" meme on another thread?

 

[Chuck Anumia]

In TNE there are ships that are over 100 years old (Free traders and Far traders) still in service right?

 

[mike wightman]

How old was the Arrival Vengeance when Norris sent it on it's tour of the shattered Imperium?

 

[BetterThanLife]

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
How old was the Arrival Vengeance when Norris sent it on it's tour of the shattered Imperium?

Lets see, Arrival Vengence was laid down in 096-1003 (One of the last AHL's built.) First flight was 037-1006. Transferred to Fleet Auxilliary in 1048. COnverted in begun in 003-1092 but completed by 360-1082. (Obvious typo probably begun 003-1082) One of 5 AHL ships in service in the Spinward Marches in 1107.

Depending on when it left on its tour, around 120 years old when it left. About half the AHL Cruisers still in service in 1107 (7 of 15) actually served continously from first flight until 1107. The other half were placed in Ordinary for 30 odd years.

 

[BetterThanLife]

The rules say it takes a week to find cargo, passengers, and Spec Cargo. I assume that if you have a man on the ground that he can spend a week lining it all up before the ship arrives. However without FTL Comms, the first indication that a ship is arriving is that it breaks out of jump space.

 

[Anthony]

Or the fact that the captain said, before he left on his last trip, that he'd be back around time X.