Multiple Starports
- Thread starter Jame
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Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Starports are extraterritorial, like an embassy, so most planetary governments will probably restrict it to one, but it can have multiple terminals.
Everything else can be labelled a spaceport, which can be under anyone's control.
Everything else can be labelled a spaceport, which can be under anyone's control.
in game terms limiting the action to one starport makes the referee's job easier.
in "realworld" terms, reasons why there might be only one include controlling governments, mafia/fascist/crony business interests in transportation, immigration/emigration issues, and espionage issues. in the case of some place like glisten there might be traffic control issues that require one legal entry port to resolve. in front-line worlds like glisten or efate there would be only one port and anything approaching or leaving from any other location gets fired-upon, but on secure industrial worlds like mora or palique there's no reason why there can't be multiple ports to reduce traffic congestion issues.
in "realworld" terms, reasons why there might be only one include controlling governments, mafia/fascist/crony business interests in transportation, immigration/emigration issues, and espionage issues. in the case of some place like glisten there might be traffic control issues that require one legal entry port to resolve. in front-line worlds like glisten or efate there would be only one port and anything approaching or leaving from any other location gets fired-upon, but on secure industrial worlds like mora or palique there's no reason why there can't be multiple ports to reduce traffic congestion issues.
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There are a handful of CT references to worlds with multiple starports:
"The local planetary navy is rigidly enforcing a new order funneling traffic through Junidy's two major starports, and is executing numerous spot checks." (The Traveller Adventure 68)
"Tureded/Lanth (0207-W65540-9) There are four starports at Tureded, situated equidistant along the equator. Each has full facilities for a class C starport" (Twilight’s Peak 14).
The DGP World Builder's Handbook has rules for generating alternate starports on the mainworld. Basically subsequent starports can never be better than the main starport and have a good chance of just being spaceports.
I can understand why the Imperial Starport Authority would want to severely limit the number of starports, and I think that the vast majority of systems should have one and only one. But I also think there should be reasonable exceptions, particularly for higher population world -- one set of customs for an 80 billion pop world seems a bit of a stretch.
For that matter, I think you should be able to generate alternate starports for secondary worlds. They should be rare, yes, and you could adapt the rules from WBH so that the alternate starport is never better than the main starport. Think about a secondary world orbiting a star in far orbit from the primary: a separate starport would be an enormous convenience.
"The local planetary navy is rigidly enforcing a new order funneling traffic through Junidy's two major starports, and is executing numerous spot checks." (The Traveller Adventure 68)
"Tureded/Lanth (0207-W65540-9) There are four starports at Tureded, situated equidistant along the equator. Each has full facilities for a class C starport" (Twilight’s Peak 14).
The DGP World Builder's Handbook has rules for generating alternate starports on the mainworld. Basically subsequent starports can never be better than the main starport and have a good chance of just being spaceports.
I can understand why the Imperial Starport Authority would want to severely limit the number of starports, and I think that the vast majority of systems should have one and only one. But I also think there should be reasonable exceptions, particularly for higher population world -- one set of customs for an 80 billion pop world seems a bit of a stretch.
For that matter, I think you should be able to generate alternate starports for secondary worlds. They should be rare, yes, and you could adapt the rules from WBH so that the alternate starport is never better than the main starport. Think about a secondary world orbiting a star in far orbit from the primary: a separate starport would be an enormous convenience.
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One starport warden could be responsible for multiple local ports, all under the same umbrella. This is particularly likely in cases like Glisten, because a belt is obviously not served well by one central facility. So your "starport" can actually be several ports, all operated by the starport authority.
As far as people working around the starport and landing at local spaceports ... within the Imperium, I don't see this happening much. The starport authority is taking its cut and it wants its pound of flesh. The Imperium has a vested interest in being able to measure the volume of trade through that port. Otherwise, why not just have local corporations run your starports?
As far as people working around the starport and landing at local spaceports ... within the Imperium, I don't see this happening much. The starport authority is taking its cut and it wants its pound of flesh. The Imperium has a vested interest in being able to measure the volume of trade through that port. Otherwise, why not just have local corporations run your starports?
GypsyComet
SOC-14 1K
Traveller world generation systems produce a lot of what I call Small Town Worlds. The average Pop roll is 5, or hundreds of thousands of people, for an entire planet. Half of all worlds that aren't 5s are smaller, and quite a few of the rest are only reaching into the low millions or tens of millions. To put that in modern terms, 5 out of every 6 worlds generated have the population of Italy (currently around 60 million) or less for the whole planet.
These planets are cherry-picking their settlement locations, one would hope, and probably only need one downport. In the event they have in-system outposts, those may have reasonable spaceports, but the one off-center facility on the other coast 60 degrees around the planet from the rest is probably not going to warrant much unless the ownership or volume call for it. Then it comes down to government type, law level, and tech level. "Do we want that port revenue and can we enforce laws that claim it?"
Exactly. There are multiple examples of worlds with multiple starports in Traveller from CT up though MgT. And that doesn't even bring in the canonical highport-downport model.
The belief that there is only one starport per world is most likely the result of two very different factors: 1) An overly literal interpretation of the UWP and B) world population.
First, as the latest What the #$@@#&&* is TL? "discussion" neatly illustrates, people want to crank out far too many inferences from those single digits in the UWP because looking something up on a table is easier than thinking. Look at Law Level for example.
What began as a simple daily "Contact with the authorities" roll and deliberately vague weapon restrictions guideline, has been folded, spindled, bloated, and mutilated out of all recognition into an all encompassing legal code which determines whether you can sue for dental malpractice or not.
Second, how populated must a world be to need multiple starports? We can trot out exceptions like balkanization, unobtanium mines, crazy atmo/hydro spheres, and so forth from now until the Heat Death of the Universe, but all things being equal how many people must be on the world for multiple starports to make sense? Millions? I don't think so. Tens of millions? Nope. Hundreds of millions? Maybe. Billions and up? Sure.
There are only 79 worlds out of the Marches 439 have a population code of 8+ so ~18% of world "should" have a need for multiple starports. That means over 80% of the worlds in the Marchs only have one starport because they don't need additional ones.
kilemall
SOC-14 5K
One reason I can think of is safe flight paths.
It's one thing to have a Type C relatively bare bones installation with a few dozen ships at most per day.
It's another to have 1000+ per day space shuttle sized launch and landing zones, and that's' just the small craft servicing the highport.
A populous planet might not want to give up that much airspace over multiple ports, especially if there is domestic grav transport to consider.
It's one thing to have a Type C relatively bare bones installation with a few dozen ships at most per day.
It's another to have 1000+ per day space shuttle sized launch and landing zones, and that's' just the small craft servicing the highport.
A populous planet might not want to give up that much airspace over multiple ports, especially if there is domestic grav transport to consider.
GypsyComet
SOC-14 1K
The Imperium makes arrangements based on its real estate possessions on a world. As has been pointed out elsewhere, starships don't necessarily need a huge transcontinental and supersonic flight corridor like the US Space Shuttle did, though I suspect most worlds with active commerce will have such a thing pre-arranged with local flight controllers just in case. Most starport flight paths will be largely vertical, I suspect, until well above local traffic patterns.
That said, most such arrangements are at least a thousand years old, and local traffic will have long since evolved to avoid port airspace.
My IMTU take on this is:
There is one Starport on a world and many Spaceports.
The starport is the designated Entry/Exit point for interstellar travellers and trade.
The spaceports are all those other sites from which a spacecraft or interface craft can launch or land.
If you are arriving from outside the system its handy to have a place thats designated for customs, migration and quarantine. Anything that is observed to originate from outside the system yet lands at a spaceport is considered suspect and requires inspection or arrest.
Likewise IMTU, just as in the real world air travel, you can arrange customs and immigration clearance at spaceports or in orbit if you call ahead (i.e. on the way in from the 100D line).
Also its important to remember when we talk about Starports we mean the Downport (all the "surface" installations and airspace), the Highport (a "spacestation" and all the interface traffic to and from the surface Downport), and finally all the designated orbits for parking and approach plus all the navigation aids.
This is just like the real world controlled airspace around commercial airports, or the marked navigation channel in and out of major seaports.
There are also a whole lot of valid political and real estate reasons for having a single Starport as per the OTU model, because it says "here is where the Imperium touches your world". It is the embassy, the colonial stockade and the East India Company trading post equivalent of its day.
There is one Starport on a world and many Spaceports.
The starport is the designated Entry/Exit point for interstellar travellers and trade.
The spaceports are all those other sites from which a spacecraft or interface craft can launch or land.
If you are arriving from outside the system its handy to have a place thats designated for customs, migration and quarantine. Anything that is observed to originate from outside the system yet lands at a spaceport is considered suspect and requires inspection or arrest.
Likewise IMTU, just as in the real world air travel, you can arrange customs and immigration clearance at spaceports or in orbit if you call ahead (i.e. on the way in from the 100D line).
Also its important to remember when we talk about Starports we mean the Downport (all the "surface" installations and airspace), the Highport (a "spacestation" and all the interface traffic to and from the surface Downport), and finally all the designated orbits for parking and approach plus all the navigation aids.
This is just like the real world controlled airspace around commercial airports, or the marked navigation channel in and out of major seaports.
There are also a whole lot of valid political and real estate reasons for having a single Starport as per the OTU model, because it says "here is where the Imperium touches your world". It is the embassy, the colonial stockade and the East India Company trading post equivalent of its day.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
My take on the Solomani is that it's a holdover from the Imperium period, but continued because it allows a legitimate Confederation presence in the system that for SolSec gives them a base to keep an eye on the subpolities and their electorate, for the Confederation to encourage trade, and for the Solomani Navy to keep track of all starships in Confederation space and act as the system's communications link to the Navy run Express Boat network.
Every world can be unique, and that includes "the" starport.
Tureded is said to have four Class C starports, equidistantly spaced along the equator.
The ref is free to infer anything he likes about it.
When I think Tureded is a united world, I say that the starports are all equivalent and seamlessly networked, as if there were one starport with four locations of equal capabilities and capacities.
When I decide that Tureded has become balkanized, I make each starport interesting in unique ways and say they're in competition for Imperial support via four different nations. The friendlier one has better service. The cutthroat one has brisker business. The neglected one has poor service but desperate markets. And the despotic one is painted grey and has a bureaucracy that dulls the senses.
Tureded is an example of how the referee can play with starports to help make worlds interesting.
Tureded is said to have four Class C starports, equidistantly spaced along the equator.
The ref is free to infer anything he likes about it.
When I think Tureded is a united world, I say that the starports are all equivalent and seamlessly networked, as if there were one starport with four locations of equal capabilities and capacities.
When I decide that Tureded has become balkanized, I make each starport interesting in unique ways and say they're in competition for Imperial support via four different nations. The friendlier one has better service. The cutthroat one has brisker business. The neglected one has poor service but desperate markets. And the despotic one is painted grey and has a bureaucracy that dulls the senses.
Tureded is an example of how the referee can play with starports to help make worlds interesting.
Ok had a few things I was going to say about the number of Starports on any given world but many people have already touched on what I was going to say. So lets just make some quick points on what you can or what I think you should expect when it comes to a worlds starport.
-Earth has more than one, but they are rather spread out and could probably have another some place in Asia just from distance and population
-The more populated the world the more likely you will have another.
-Spread out worlds can also have more than one but they also need the population to justify one.
-Spaceports also exist so not everyplace needs a Starport when a Spaceport will do. A good example of this could be on earth places like JFK, Heathrow, Hartsfield, and LAX would make great Spaceports.
-Balkanization also might make a difference if there are multiple Starports. If the populations centers are on different hemispheres you might need more than one.
-Earth has more than one, but they are rather spread out and could probably have another some place in Asia just from distance and population
-The more populated the world the more likely you will have another.
-Spread out worlds can also have more than one but they also need the population to justify one.
-Spaceports also exist so not everyplace needs a Starport when a Spaceport will do. A good example of this could be on earth places like JFK, Heathrow, Hartsfield, and LAX would make great Spaceports.
-Balkanization also might make a difference if there are multiple Starports. If the populations centers are on different hemispheres you might need more than one.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
The rules:
Does a world have a starport: yes/no
What is the quality of the facilities: A B C D E X
The referee:
What those facilities are, how many actual landing sites, how spread out those sites are, where the shipyards are located, where the repair/maintenance facilities are located etc.
Does a world have a starport: yes/no
What is the quality of the facilities: A B C D E X
The referee:
What those facilities are, how many actual landing sites, how spread out those sites are, where the shipyards are located, where the repair/maintenance facilities are located etc.
