On The Road

[kilemall]

I believe that there was a 10% discount for TLs over that, so a TL 9 air/raft would cost 60000 Cr and a TL 10 one cost 6000.

Unless you wanted to alter that and have a TL 9 one cost 300000 CR, a TL 10 one cost 100000 Cr and so forth. Makes getting higher TL ones a better idea, and gives in-game justification for a lot of worlds trying to up their TLs.

First I have heard of this, near as I could tell from the various Merchant/Missile materials it was 10% per TL- so TL8 100 Cr, TL9 90 Cr, TL10 80Cr, TL11 70 Cr etc.

That would be the price of the TL8 version being sold to higher tech worlds, if you had a TL11 version of whatever the doodad is, presumably it would be 100 Cr at TL11 valuation or maybe higher depending on what new high tech features came with it, and would sell at 140 Cr on a TL8 world.

Some of the missile rules had double or triple pricing for 'early introduction' systems.

Enforcing 'can't use this TL8 thing with that TL14 system' would be a way to enforce demand for higher tech items and benefits.

 

[kilemall]

Yeah, iI can see that easily. Middle of the night, 'floor prices' are the norm, but at rush hour? Bidding prices! See the minimum 'cents per mile' number creep up, with the sure knowledge that if you don't bid up, you are at the bottom of the list.

Dallas has variable rate toll roads based precisely on this principle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfR6Okq7biU

 

[aramis]

[m;]Leave the political diatribes out. Two posts deleted.[/m;]

 

[rancke]

oh. very simple. the public transportation goes where the city planners want it to go when they want it to go there. and not one inch further or one second sooner or later.

Public car pools. Cab-type system.


Hans

 

[nobby-w]

Of course, but for worlds/nations of a certain density and distance, personal ground vehicles will be desirable.

Absolutely

If you have a dense population like (say) the Southeast of England then the sheer traffic density makes getting around by car quite slow. Public transport - especially a well developed train system - is by far the easiest way to get around in London and parts of the surrounding country. This is also the case in various American cities, New York being perhaps the best example.

However, there are plenty of places in the areas around London that aren't in walking distance to a train station, and for these locations a car is still very useful. While there are still a lot of bus services, these often only run every couple of hours and then only into the early evening.

At the other end of the scale the rural areas of (say) Australia, New Zealand or parts of the U.S. or Canada are very sparsely populated. Even the cities can be very spread out. Public transport is much less cost-effective in areas like this, so cars will be prevalent.

Teaching someone to fly safely is much harder than teaching them to drive. There was a flying car that was brought to market sometime in the 1950s (there's plenty of video about it). Even then, it apparently needed about 8 separate sets of licensing and paperwork to operate. The bureaucracy surrounding flying will be much more complex than driving.

While Cr600,000 is quite a lot of money for an air/raft, it's not out of line with the $1-2m that a light helicopter (well, anything but a Robbie) might cost today.

I can see ground cars being a fixture of pretty much any technologically advanced environment. They might be powered by internal combustion engines, or some sort of air-breathing fuel cell arrangement at higher tech levels.

Auto-driving is unlikely to ever be mandatory, although cars might well have an auto-drive capability. Automated taxis might, however, be quite a cheap service in cities and probably fairly popular because of this.

 

[aramis]

Auto-driving is unlikely to ever be mandatory, although cars might well have an auto-drive capability.

[m;]You're getting close to political here.[/m;]
I'll PM you an explanation.

 

[kilemall]

Public car pools. Cab-type system.


Hans

Legend of the Galactic Heroes' Free Planets Alliance has such a car system.

http://gogoanime.tv/legend-of-the-galactic-heroes-episode-12

A very practical system, but can break down.

 

[Sifu Blackirish]

Sifu drops by...

After sending my novel to the proofreaders, I had some spare time to engage in idle creative thought. In typical 'mulligan stew' style, I brought several disparate data points together to come up with something. Not much yet, but it has excellent potential as a location for two stories IMTU. I hope it generates some interest.



TERRAN ASTROGRAPHY GUIDEBOOK

3121 Eisenhower C643755-8 A G

The initial colonization effort was sponsored by Estaban Traders LIC and ChevronMobil to obtain petrochemical base stocks away from Terra's increasingly draconian environmental restrictions.

Remote controlled drilling rigs confirmed the presence of a vast amount of petrochemicals, locked in oil shale formations. Certainly they have a diminished value since the advent of mass conversion systems, yet they still have other uses.

"There are two seasons on Eisenhower. Hot and dust, or cold and dust."

Originally only one city was constructed, an extraction plant next to the starport. Facilities are relatively primitive, that launched storage pods of kerogen into orbit and serviced the occasional corporate trader. Increased demand led to several more extraction plants being built. Instead of piling up the waste material, it is used to build roads.

 

[kilemall]

After sending my novel to the proofreaders, I had some spare time to engage in idle creative thought. In typical 'mulligan stew' style, I brought several disparate data points together to come up with something. Not much yet, but it has excellent potential as a location for two stories IMTU. I hope it generates some interest.



TERRAN ASTROGRAPHY GUIDEBOOK

3121 Eisenhower C643755-8 A G

The initial colonization effort was sponsored by Estaban Traders LIC and ChevronMobil to obtain petrochemical base stocks away from Terra's increasingly draconian environmental restrictions.

Remote controlled drilling rigs confirmed the presence of a vast amount of petrochemicals, locked in oil shale formations. Certainly they have a diminished value since the advent of mass conversion systems, yet they still have other uses.

"There are two seasons on Eisenhower. Hot and dust, or cold and dust."

Originally only one city was constructed, an extraction plant next to the starport. Facilities are relatively primitive, that launched storage pods of kerogen into orbit and serviced the occasional corporate trader. Increased demand led to several more extraction plants being built. Instead of piling up the waste material, it is used to build roads.

I asked a relative about future exoplanetary chemical processing since he's a chemical engineer, my inquiries about planets without oxygenation events didn't get very far (much less alternative base chemistry mass changes), but he did say pretty much any chemical processing needs a lot of water. So that should be a factor for any 'chemical' planet.

 

[kilemall]

First I have heard of this, near as I could tell from the various Merchant/Missile materials it was 10% per TL- so TL8 100 Cr, TL9 90 Cr, TL10 80Cr, TL11 70 Cr etc.

That would be the price of the TL8 version being sold to higher tech worlds, if you had a TL11 version of whatever the doodad is, presumably it would be 100 Cr at TL11 valuation or maybe higher depending on what new high tech features came with it, and would sell at 140 Cr on a TL8 world.

Some of the missile rules had double or triple pricing for 'early introduction' systems.

Enforcing 'can't use this TL8 thing with that TL14 system' would be a way to enforce demand for higher tech items and benefits.

I surely would like clarification on this, is it 10% as in 100%/90%/80% or 10x per tech level?

If the latter, I would withdraw any qualifications I have expressed about interstellar trade, there would likely be HUGE flows of raw materials and products being flown about.

 

[Drakon]

Absolutely

If you have a dense population like (say) the Southeast of England then the sheer traffic density makes getting around by car quite slow. Public transport - especially a well developed train system - is by far the easiest way to get around in London and parts of the surrounding country. This is also the case in various American cities, New York being perhaps the best example.

At the other end of the scale the rural areas of (say) Australia, New Zealand or parts of the U.S. or Canada are very sparsely populated. Even the cities can be very spread out. Public transport is much less cost-effective in areas like this, so cars will be prevalent.

Possibly what will evolve is some smaller form of personal transport. At higher tech levels, we get grav belts (TL=10). You won't need a whole car, just a suit, perhaps like a set of biker leathers, some folks might go all spandexy. But the problem with traffic is 1) 2D at present, and 2) the size of car. Shrinking the vehicle, and adding the 3rd dimension should do a lot to alievating the problem.

Teaching someone to fly safely is much harder than teaching them to drive. There was a flying car that was brought to market sometime in the 1950s (there's plenty of video about it). Even then, it apparently needed about 8 separate sets of licensing and paperwork to operate. The bureaucracy surrounding flying will be much more complex than driving.

a big chunk of this bureaucracy is necessary, due to the fact gravity always works. If you crash a car, you are still close to the road. A crashed aircraft ends up on somebody's land, or house or stuff

Auto-driving is unlikely to ever be mandatory, although cars might well have an auto-drive capability. Automated taxis might, however, be quite a cheap service in cities and probably fairly popular because of this.

That would depend on law level. But couple an Uber type app with self driving cars and that might be a good business for an upper tech level city.

Until the grav belt franchise opens up.

 

[Condottiere]

Someone may think you're trying to spy on his wife while she's sunbathing, without bothering to use a drone, so trespass could be an issue, especially combined with someone standing their ground.

 

[Sifu Blackirish]

I asked a relative about future exoplanetary chemical processing since he's a chemical engineer, my inquiries about planets without oxygenation events didn't get very far (much less alternative base chemistry mass changes), but he did say pretty much any chemical processing needs a lot of water. So that should be a factor for any 'chemical' planet.

Thanks so much for the feedback! Just fiddled with the description a little more and came up with this...


Wells were drilled to extract subsurface water for plant operations. Insufficient amounts caused the creation of a water pipeline to the large sea and reverse osmosis processing used to extract unwanted minerals.

Use of industrial water and a gradual cooling of the ecosphere causing water lost to permafrost has gradually reduced the hydrographic percentage, now 37 percent but not officially recognized.

Desert encroachment has made the environment increasingly arid and unsuitable for growth of Terran plants without sealed greenhouses.

Winds aloft produce severe traveling dust storms.