Piracy: A primer

[Hal]

Hello Folks,
As the title says, I'm hoping for contributions on how a pirate starts off his career, and what he needs in order to successfully engage in his chosen trade. This thread should include not only the specs on ships and the like, but techniques that can be used to keep the Imperial Intelligence organizations from figuring things out. Topics should include things like Deep Space bases, how to get intel on which ships are worth hitting, how to co-ordinate an external attack with an internal attack, etc.

What I'm looking for here are ways for piracy to WORK in various campaign universes such that a GM might read the thread and say "Oh, I HAVE to use that idea for my next/current campaign!"

So, let's see how pirates can get their ships at 1/5th the normal cost for said ships. In another thread, we have a guy going through the routine of designing a ship that is an Argeii class ship, 300 dTons displacement.

How would YOU go about stealing such a ship? Me, I'd list how in my next post, let's see other ideas!

 

[mike wightman]

This has been my rationale behind piracy in the OTU for a long long time now... this is to explain how a pirate career can exist at all. An ethically challenged merchant who decides to stray across the line is a whole other issue.

In the original Library Data the first/lowest tier of Imperial government is the sub-sector Duke.
They are tasked with seeing to the economic well being of the worlds within their sub-sectors, overseeing the deployment of Imperial resources, and ensuring that worlds pay their taxes

Rivalry exists between sub-sector Dukes, they are competing for limited Naval assets, they are trying to encourage megacorp involvement within their sector, and they are constantly striving to exploit the resources the sub-sector offers.
A sub-sector Duke who can encourage the development of a couple of high pop worlds, or a nice mix of industrial, rich and agricultural worlds, will have considerably more influence at the sector level - and may even aspire one day to that lofty position.

How to stop your neighbours doing the same? What if a world just over the sub-sector border offers great trade potential?

Megacorportions are the power behind the throne of the Imperium. They exploit the resources, operate the refineries and factories, and transport the goods to market.
They conduct exploration - to find new markets and resources - they conduct research and development - to stay ahead of the competition, they found colonies, buy and sell whole worlds, and pay their taxes...

So what if a rival company is making inroads into your market share? What if a world that used to provide the raw materials for your factories decides to trade with someone else? What if an upstart transport company starts to undercut your transport monopoly? What if another megacorporation perceives your foothold in a particular region to be weak and ripe for takeover... hostile takeover.

Individual planets are free to govern themselves as they see fit. They are free to build their own naval ships, to subsidise trade, develop their own economies, and exploit their own resources...

So what if a rival world has ambitions to claim an uninhabited part of your system, or you want to develop the potential in another worlds system because they lack the resources?

So basically I can see how each of the above groups would sponsor raiders within the territory of their rivals.

By claiming "Trade War" you have partial immunity from the IN blowing you out of space because of your activities. The letter of marque is a natural extension of this IMHO.
This helps me to explain three things:

how the pirate career can have such a well-defined structure, including a pension plan

where Corsair class "speculative traders" come from (and why it is a standard design

how pirates can find a ready market for their booty.

 

[Hal]

Step one: assemble a crew together that you can trust. Sequester them in low berths until it is time to go active with them (make sure you have the best doctors at hand when you get them out!). This helps with operational security so that they don't get drunk, etc - and it even cuts down on their appearing on any law enforcement's radar until it is too late.

Step two: find someone who is willing to ply the trade, and place an application for a ship's loan. Said individual has to have a crime free record, and clean financial status that would allow them to be eligible for a ship loan.

Step three: have a computer with pre-loaded software that will match what is aboard the ship you intend to use for piracy, along with a new transponder code for the ship once it is stolen. This will be stored at a Deep Space jump location.

Step four: file a flight plan after taking receipt of the ship after the ship was constructed, tested, and released. Upon getting passengers and/or low passengers, you now have your first source of income - the ransom payment that will be made for their safe return along with al of the freight you're absconding with.

Step five: upon reaching your jump entry point, fire up your jump drive, and at the last few seconds prior to entering the jump space - fire off a radio distress call that gets cut off by the entry into Jump Space. Then plot your jump not to the port you originally filed for, but for a deep space point.

To the authorities, the question will be "did the ship experience a mis-jump?". Next comes the fun part.

Find a way to compromise someone who enters in data for transponder codes at the star port. Bribery might work, or kidnapping their family or loved ones, etc. Get the fake transponder codes into the main system so it appears legit, and then use the fake transponder code on the newly stolen vessel. At this point in time, you need only move your ship to deep space, keep it out of view for a while, or even simply do nothing but deep space jumps directly to gas giants only - wilderness refueling basically. At star systems that do not monitor traffic to gas giants, the stolen ship will not have to deal with the authorties nor show up on their radar. They MIGHT show up on random patrols by the Imperial Navies, but their transponder codes aren't flagged as yet. Unless they are randomly boarded in deep space away from star ports (ie gas Giant refueling), they should be fine.

 

[Hal]

Next on my "how to" list...

How does a pirate profit from his ill gotten gains?

He needs to be able to off load his product (stolen loot) in such a manner as that it can be picked up by a buyer right? Who might buy his products?

A) Legitimate buyers who don't know they're buying hot goods
B) Criminal buyers who know what they're buying, but have their own network to sell stuff

If you have your own forger aboard the ship, you can sell your goods at a higher mark up than if you didn't. The Criminals, if they like your forger better than any they have, might pay a higher price for the goods because the forgeries are that good. Otherwise, if they have to forge the documents themselves, they will say they're taking a higher risk, and the goods aren't worth buying.

As a result of this approach, pirates do NOT need a "Port Royal" to function, they need only a functioning "criminal contact" who is willing to buy what they have to sell (so to speak). If the freight they stole is worth 5,000 credits per dTon, and they have 60 dtons of it, assuming they can only get 10% of its worth on the black market, they just made 30,000 credits. If they sell it to legitimate buyers at full price - but with forged papers, they just made 300,000 credits. If they sell it as speculative cargo with forged papers, well, that's another story entirely.

Now the question becomes one of "how does one set up a ransom payment system and not get nailed by it...

 

[Hal]

This has been my rationale behind piracy in the OTU for a long long time now... this is to explain how a pirate career can exist at all. An ethically challenged merchant who decides to stray across the line is a whole other issue.

In the original Library Data the first/lowest tier of Imperial government is the sub-sector Duke.
They are tasked with seeing to the economic well being of the worlds within their sub-sectors, overseeing the deployment of Imperial resources, and ensuring that worlds pay their taxes

Rivalry exists between sub-sector Dukes, they are competing for limited Naval assets, they are trying to encourage megacorp involvement within their sector, and they are constantly striving to exploit the resources the sub-sector offers.
A sub-sector Duke who can encourage the development of a couple of high pop worlds, or a nice mix of industrial, rich and agricultural worlds, will have considerably more influence at the sector level - and may even aspire one day to that lofty position.

How to stop your neighbours doing the same? What if a world just over the sub-sector border offers great trade potential?

Megacorportions are the power behind the throne of the Imperium. They exploit the resources, operate the refineries and factories, and transport the goods to market.
They conduct exploration - to find new markets and resources - they conduct research and development - to stay ahead of the competition, they found colonies, buy and sell whole worlds, and pay their taxes...

So what if a rival company is making inroads into your market share? What if a world that used to provide the raw materials for your factories decides to trade with someone else? What if an upstart transport company starts to undercut your transport monopoly? What if another megacorporation perceives your foothold in a particular region to be weak and ripe for takeover... hostile takeover.

Individual planets are free to govern themselves as they see fit. They are free to build their own naval ships, to subsidise trade, develop their own economies, and exploit their own resources...

So what if a rival world has ambitions to claim an uninhabited part of your system, or you want to develop the potential in another worlds system because they lack the resources?

So basically I can see how each of the above groups would sponsor raiders within the territory of their rivals.

By claiming "Trade War" you have partial immunity from the IN blowing you out of space because of your activities. The letter of marque is a natural extension of this IMHO.
This helps me to explain three things:

how the pirate career can have such a well-defined structure, including a pension plan

where Corsair class "speculative traders" come from (and why it is a standard design

how pirates can find a ready market for their booty.

Bet it would be fun to run a pirates campaign with you as the GM.

 

[flykiller]

Bet it would be fun to run a pirates campaign with you as the GM.

perhaps a pbp game here with two sides - pirates, and imperial law enforcement.

 

[Hal]

perhaps a pbp game here with two sides - pirates, and imperial law enforcement.

Right now, the ONLY thing that has kept me from running such a campaign of Pirates vs Navy campaign, is that I've stopped working on a project I started some years back.

In a nutshell? A ship's position can always be described as being a given bearing and given distance from a zero,zero reference point (Polar Coordinates). Converting a polar coordinate into rectangular coordinate, do vector additions involved, and converting it back to a polar coordinate for record keeping purposes only - would be a way to track the location of any given ship/missile/planet at any given point in time. This provides the background for determining if/when a ship is ever within sensor range of another ship (or sensor platform for that matter!).

Then, all that would have to happen is for the Navy player to use the TO&E for the subsector navy to decide what ships are patrolling where and for how long, before they either move to their next patrol location, or investigate suspicious activity, or even head to a star port for the annual maintenance. In other words, the Naval Officer/commander is going to have to decide how things are to be achieved in the big scheme of things.

The whole reason to set this up with moving planets and the like, is because of the whole Piracy/Navy issue that arose. If people had to plot their ship's movement against planets that moved, the whole thing becomes an order of magnitude more complex, and that is STILL using a 2D surface rather than 3D space!

My next post will posit an unexpected pirate coordinated scenario. It postulates a star system with a low grade star port and a low grade population - making it one of those "lanes" that ships have to pass through on their way to their real destination.

 

[whartung]

I have real problems with "conventional" piracy (intercept ship, threaten/attack ship, board ship, plunder ship).

First, the basic presumption is that the target of pirates is conventional, commercial traders -- folks who do this for a living, vs "adventurers". It's business, it's their livelihood.

The typical Traveller OTU model is a system with a single, dominant primary, and this primary planet represents the market for these traders.

There are always exceptions and edge cases.

First, intercept. Intercept has to happen within 100D. There's no reason for a trade ship to fly much outside the 100D limit. Wilderness refueling is not worth the time and money to a professional trader. Space is a means to an end, the faster in to jump, the faster out of jump, the faster in and out of market. The ships goal is to hit the JUMP button as soon as can do it safely.

Ships will fly "jump lanes". As discussed elsewhere regarding jumps and vectors and what not, it seems straightforward that any ships traveling from System A to System B would likely take the same vector from the originating planet before jumping. This vector represents the "ideal" course taking in to account the time of jump, the source planet location, the destination planet location, and any relative overall system vector adjustments needed to compensate upon arrival. There is not two courses plotted, a course to jump, and a course to port once arriving. Rather, it's a single course, with a jump in the middle, that's adjusted based on arrival times. This phenomenon means that ships will not simply leave the source planet going off in random directions. They can, but they won't. Why waste the time and fuel.

Also, due to the typically small drives of merchants, there are only so many destinations that they can travel, so there will be rather few out bound lanes. Perhaps, 2-5 actual destinations from any generic system.

Finally, attacking inbound ships vectoring in to the planet doesn't make much sense, as ideally pirates would be motivated to stay away from the planet and its facilities.

The net effect of this is the efficacy of any in system patrols. They don't have to cover a 360 deg sphere of 100D space. They only have to really cover the few inbound and outbound jump lanes. This just suggest that, barring the system simply being overrun by Corsairs, a few patrol ships can act as a real deterrent to a pirate ship.

At 1G, a ship can hit 100D on an Earth size planet in a bit under 4.5 hours. In most of the combat games, a turn is 20-30 minutes. So, that means a pirate has 8-12 "turns" to intercept the ship. A 2G ship is little more than 3 hours -- 6-9 turns.

Lone pirate activity in a patrolled system seams pretty futile. Covering the traffic doesn't seem to be a intractable problem, identifying "suspicious" ships (i.e. those out of lanes) is straightforward, plus tracking other suspicious movements. Finally, the pirate has to be able to approach his prey outside of the envelope of the patrol, much less plunder it.

Assuming the lack of a patrol, now it comes down to the reputation of pirates. First you have to question why the trader is there at all if there's a reputation for piracy in the system. If pirates stop ships, plunder them, and leave the crew alive, or even leave the ship alone, then when confronted, handing your cargo over is simply a cost of doing business. "Pirate tax." Most off the shelf "Book 2" cargos aren't worth saving compared to the cost of taking damage in space combat. Starship damage is in the millions of credits, not to mention down time in the yard to repair. Taking damage makes little economic sense compared to just handing the cargo over. The RISK of damage makes little economic sense.

That said, if the pirate reputation is not so admirable, then there's nothing motivating the trader captain to not burn, baby, burn to 100D and jump. This makes the pirates job that much more difficult, as it must disable the jump capability of the ship in order for their attack to be at all meaningful. If the ship jumps, they can get aid and repairs when they arrive, as staying put offers nothing to the trader captain.

Similarly, if the pirate is in pursuit, and firing away, then the trader captain is equally motivated to fire back. Recall that starship damage is very expensive. A running battle with an armed trader, taking potshots back at the pirate while it runs to jump. If the pirate ship can score hits on the trader, it's likely the trader can score some back on the pirate. What are the odds of a pirate ship being able to disable a running ship in the first place, much less taking damage in all of the failed attempts to do so. That can make piracy a pricey trade indeed.

Now, if they're plundering ships, then perhaps they get spare parts "cheap". But it really comes down to the success rate of the event.

All of this boils down to not that piracy isn't possible, but that it's confined to the most fringe of systems. Not only that, those that fly those routes KNOW that they're "pirate infested" which implies that ships participating are going to be well prepared to deal with the threat. Combat ships carrying freight rather than an armed trade ship. Any random Free Trader likely won't make that trip, simply being far too risky. Trade itself will be very expensive to compensate for the threat, to wit only the most desperate or the very best prepared will make those journeys. If the planets were not on the fringe, then they'd have adequate patrols.

Of course, again unless most desperate, a ship wouldn't leave the planet in the first place if there's pirates in the system. If they do leave, then they would be motivated to convoy simply to combine firepower to deter a pirate attack in the first place.

The Imperial Navy, not to mention the individual systems, seem well equipped to mount reasonable patrols any place they want. Nothing suggests that the Imperial Navy is "low" on resources. At least not pre-Rebellion.

Again, all of this just pushes piracy to the fringiest of the fringe systems. It has to be very high stakes, but very high reward, and a lot of patient waiting for that juicy trade ship to just line up in the sights of the pirate vessel, and waiting costs money.

None of this, naturally, addresses the issues of liquidating the plunder, much less the ongoing ship maintenance on the pirate vessels.

 

[aramis]

"Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space."

100 diameter limits are not.

If momentum is maintained (as it is in the OTU), and intervening bodies pose a problem (as they do in canon), specific points of safest/cheapest jump are readily predicted. Which means you can target those points at specific times.

So, corsair comes in and loiters outside the 100D sphere of minor world's main link position with major world.you wait until a target is at commit, the accelerate to meet. Jump out (riskily) to deep space point from which you jump to actual base (possibly deep space as well.

You're grabbing fuel, LS, and anything that is valuable, not nailed down, and not essential for life... and the best of their cargo... you've got about 20 min...
and risky jump out.

 

[Hal]

Hi Guys,
As I wrestle with ONE simple scenario, I'm running into some questions regarding CLASSIC TRAVELLER rules.

At what range, can radio communication be handled? I'm going to hit the Classic Traveller discussion group and see what they can tell me regards to what I want to know in order to set up a scenario here.

I will tell you this.

Navy player gets THREE Type-T patrol cruisers to command, of which one must be posted at a Gas Giant for "anti-smuggling" patrol and routine Drive emission profiling (recording drive emissions and recording what the transponder identification says the ship is) along with one being posted at the main world. The third one is at the discretion of the Navy player - either in hidden reserve (and must state which post is the hidden reserve set for) or at the main world or gas giant openly.

Pirate Player gets a hidden force not known to the Navy Player. It consists of a given number of "Turrets" (100 dton hulls, 200 dton hulls, or even 400 dton hulls) plus an odd collection of auxiliary craft. In addition, should the pirate player feel he can pull it off, up to 100 points of "extra" boarding crew. Each regular crew costs 1 point, Each "soldier trained" crew costs 5 points, and each marine trained crew costs 10 points. In order to take a prize, the pirates must have a minimum of 6 crew, or to be totally safe, must have 10 crew to man a captured Type-T patrol cruiser.

Victory Conditions:
Pirates: capture a Type-T patrol cruiser. Decisive victory regardless of losses. That's only if the pirates took the boarding party option.

Pirates fail to capture a Type-T patrol cruiser, automatic marginal failure regardless of how much damage is inflicted on the navy cruiser(s) - this only applies if the Pirates took boarding crews.

Major Success - Pirates Destroy a Type T Cruiser without the loss of any of their starships. Alternatively, pirates capture two or more civilian ships and get them into jump space.

Minor Success - if the Pirates destroy the type T cruiser without losing more than half the tonnage of their original Starship tonnage. Pirates capture after boarding a civilian ship, and leave with it into jump space.

Minor Failure - The Type T Cruiser manages to fend off the attackers, and none of the pirate ships are destroyed.

Major failure - The Type T cruiser manages to fend off the attackers and up to half the Pirate tonnage is destroyed.

Decisive Failure - if the Pirates lose half to all of their pirate star ships.

The only details left to determine are those involving radio communications, whether or not the cruiser in "reserve" is detected at the start of the scenario or is in reserve and hidden at the start of the scenario - and how long it takes to bring a ship in reserve into the fight.

Key rules:
Until a civilian ship fires upon the Navy, its rules of engagement do not permit firing at the civilian ship.

Until a ship with its transponder off, fails to respond to radio requests for identification, and the navy fires a legitimate shot across the bow (ie, a shot that has a chance of hitting at that range), it may not open fire to hit the suspected possible pirate ship.

Any civilian ship that has a shot fired across its bow, will heave to (kill drives so as to maintain current position) and permit itself to be boarded. If a civilian ship is boarded, roll 2d6 to see if it resists the boarding. on a 2, the civilians will attempt to repel all boarders.

Boarding combat rules from HIGH GUARD are used to determine boarding combat conflicts.

Random elements: Pirate player controls the placement of 1d6-2 civilian assets as he sees fit (and chooses the hull types - whether boats or starships etc). If at the main world, they are either inbound to the planet in order to land, or they are outbound from the planet (or on the world's surface preparing to leave the world). If at the gas giant, they are approaching the gas giant, in low orbit engaging in wilderness refueling, or exiting low orbit and heading outbound.

 

[kilemall]

Pirates are a big part of MTU.

I have pirate clans, a vast field of hidden bases energy and oxygen called the Oort Cloud, and hidden populations beyond the veil of civilized space.

The Confederation nation-state derived navies really have no other opponent then not losing too many ships to lose a seat at the big boy table, and pirate hunting.
+-

 

[flykiller]

A ship's position can always be described as being a given bearing and given distance from a zero,zero reference point (Polar Coordinates).

or you could just plonk it on a map ....

Right now, the ONLY thing that has kept me from running such a campaign of Pirates vs Navy campaign, is that I've stopped working on a project I started some years back.

well I'm game.

 

[Hal]

In answer to whartung,
The scenario I'm setting up, involves a world with a class E starport, and is a pop 4 world engaged in mining and the like. At TL 8 or so, the world isn't deemed to be a major important world.

Any pirates who hit a surface area, will be looking to steal portable wealth in the form of mining equipment, money at the local banks, as well as commodities and even freight awaiting shipment. But for the planet pirates to be successful, they have to be sure that they won't get hit by any counter-attack from either of space, or the planet side. Having a ship hanging over a ground position and being the unlucky recipients of shipboard lasers used in ground support mode, is likely going to be more than the ground based defenders can handle.

Now you can see why the scenario I'm setting up requires more than ONE Patrol Cruiser, and is using multiple hulls of less capabilities. The trick is to see whether or not turret equivalencies are a good way to gauge combat or not. A single Type-T patrol cruiser has 4 turrets. It is however, a well armed ship with high maneuver capabilities.

Are four turrets aboard TWO 200 dTon hulls sufficient to equal one Type-T patrol cruiser? What about 2 Beowulf class ships and two Pinnace craft? How about 6 100 dton armed scout ships?

If the fight is going badly for the Type-T patrol cruiser, is its 4G acceleration advantage sufficient to keep it alive?

That's what this scenario hopefully determines.

And finally?

Because Traveller simplifies a lot of things, certain "tactics" work well in a non-static environment, that won't be true if planets are in motion.

Take for example - the situation for how long it takes to get from one main world to another world within the system - IF you have to account for the fact the target world is moving. You have to point your ship to arrive at the same point that a world will occupy in its orbit around its sun - after the same time passes for both your ship getting to its destination point, and the time it takes for the planet to reach that same point as it moves.

Could I write an App that does that? Easily enough. Could I write it such that a intervening body will require a course change? Sure. I've never been able to find out just how close to any stellar object a ship can approach before it is damaged or destroyed, but give me that parameter, and I can write a simple app that does just that.

But that's the problem. You can't have a pirate sit in a position to wait, if his ship has to trail after a moving planet. You can't have a navy ship sit halfway between the main world and the nearest gas giant. Why? Because the half way point shifts with time, not only for ships moving at 1G, but for ships moving FASTER than 1G because the turn over point to start deceleration will be different for every single ship regardless of what time it left the main world.

So, there shouldn't be ANY reason for a ship to travel normal space right? It should never really be that much further from the 100 diameter limit right? What about worlds whose hydrographic value is 4 or less? In GURPS TRAVELLER, such worlds can outlaw the use of water being used as wilderness fuel or even for fuel at the starport (refined or unrefined). That requires then, that the fuel be shipped in from the nearest gas giant, or it requires that all commercial traffic go to the gas giant to refuel before it can leave the system.

Then there's the newer incarnation of Jump Shadow and Jump masking - which in turn increases the travel time through jump space (although it was recognized early on, that a star's 100 diameter limit also inhibited the jump of a ship as well - and even SCOUTS could at that time, be used to determine information if someone were to research what the believed diameter of the sun was back in the early to late 1980's).

In any event - speculating that there are limited points of access to pirates is one interpretation of the fictional world. A moving Worlds version of Traveller, makes it that much harder for the defending team to actively defend. Sensor ranges further make things more difficult.

In the scenario I'm working at building for this thread? I need to find out what the max range radio communications can be understood in CT rules. If there are none, then I have to turn to High Guard. If there are none, then I have to turn to Megatraveller, etc.

GURPS TRAVELLER definitely has max ranges for sensors and radio communications. If I were to run this as a campaign over FG2 with a program that tracked actual ship locations in any given star system, then I'd let you all know.

if anyone wants to get some of the work done FOR me, and I'd finish by coding it in VB.NET - we could all give the theory a whirl.

What I'd want is this:

Vector Math can not be done in Polar Vectors. Polar Vectors are PERFECT for describing the following:

Built up Velocity of a SHIP.

Acceleration of a ship given Direction of acceleration, G's of acceleration, and duration. Since a turn is 20 minutes long, we have all we need when a player says "2.6 G's bearing 192 degrees". By the way? Direction ZERO is always towards the galactic center much like North is always a given direction in Maps.

So, here's the way I see it now...

Stage one: Built up velocity has a bearing and magnitude (Velocity). Add a ship's built up velocity to its current location, that will be its future location if no other accelerations are applied to the ship at that point in time (including deceleration by the by).

Stage two: If the ship is to accelerate in any direction, a new vector is generated where distance travelled is 1/2A*T*T. This is added to the FINAL location without acceleration. The new final location in turn, needs to generate a new "built up vector" for the ship. Simply select its old location at the start of turn and determine what the new vector is with the new final location.

Now for the tricky part.

Each "vector" has to have its start point at a "zero,zero" position relative to its reference (ie the ship is zero,zero) for the ship, the final built up vector has to treat its original position as 0,0 before it adds the acceleration vector. And when you get the final location, you have to translate it back to Polar Co-ordinates in order to know where it is relative to the center of gravity (stellar center of mass).

How does one add vectors in rectangular coordinates? THAT was the process I was working on back then, and will need to retrain myself to figure out again. Once I figure out HOW it is done, then I can write the code that does it. If someone figures it out and sets the steps for me (the algorithm) I can code it.

Once we test it and find it works like it should - then we can run the actual campaign. Clearly, not something we can do within 6 months

 

[flykiller]

The Imperial Navy, not to mention the individual systems, seem well equipped to mount reasonable patrols any place they want.

absent major opponents, sure. but there's the little problem of the consulate, not to mention the vargr, to occupy most of the imperial navy's attention.

 

[flykiller]

The only details left to determine are those involving radio communications

could run multiple scenarios using different rulesets, see how it goes.

 

[Hal]

or you could just plonk it on a map ....



well I'm game.

Plonking it on a map would be NICE. But when your virtual table top has to be able to handle orbits out to Jupiter (for example) on the far side of the Sun while earth is on the other side, makes for some fun virtual sized tables! Let's see, 1 meter equals 1 light second...

there are 498.66 light seconds per AU. Jupiter is 5.2 AU's distant from the sun. So worst case scenario, Earth on the other side of the sun from Jupiter, is a total of 6.2 AU's, or 2991.96 meters on a table. That's a table that has to be nearly 3 Km's at a side for me to simply plonk it on the map.

THAT is why I worked at building a Virtual map on the computer. If I can get that up and running? If I can find someone who is willing to work on this WITH me to expedit getting the algorithm figured out, then I can write the code.

I've already written the code that translates the location of a ship in Polar Coordinates to rectangular coordinates, and back. Oddly enough, that part was REALLY tricky due to the fact that if a track/path went at 90 degrees or 270 degrees the answer was the same. In other words, due to the math, some ship on a 270 degree heading, when converted to rectangular coordinates, had math done to it, and then translated back to polar, was seen to be heading 90 degrees even if initially, it was 270!

The key line of code I had to write to make it work?

If R = 90 Or R = 270 Then RCosTheta = 0

This is one of the modules I wrote:

Public Function GetTheta(ByVal x As Decimal, ByVal Y As Decimal) As Decimal
REM used to calculate Theta (angle) of a line drawn from Point of Origin to point in X,Y co-ords for Polar
If x <> 0 Then
GetTheta = CDec(Math.Atan(Y / x) / (Math.PI / 180))
If x < 0 Then GetTheta = GetTheta + 180
Else
'X = 0, which can only happening when the Direction is either 90 degrees or 270 degrees.
If Y >= 0 Then
'Heading is away from point of origin in a 90 degree direction (above y axis)
GetTheta = 90
Else
'heading si away from the point of origin in a 270 degree direction (below y axis)
GetTheta = 270
End If
End If

If GetTheta < 0 Then GetTheta = GetTheta + 360


GetTheta = CDec(Math.Round(GetTheta, 24))

End Function


Well, I could say more, but it wouldn't really help. If anyone wants to - they can get a hold of the Free 2008 Visual Basic Express edition, and I can send the file I'm working on to you for your own enjoyment/amusement etc.

I've written code that permits you to enter in the origination hex, and the destination hex for the Traveller Map, and determine the distance in hexes between the two. If anyone wants the code in VB.NET, let me know and I'll make it available. I also have the Excel version (from which I wrote my VB.NET code against). I can make THAT available as well.

 

[flykiller]

But when your virtual table top has to be able to handle orbits out to Jupiter

why would it be any larger than engagement range?

just for comparison
in-system hex map
http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Gallery/index.php?n=2102

 

[aramis]

Hal - Coms probably use the same range as sensors for unknown targets.
For known targets, well, we can hit 130 AU just fine with major dishes.

Sensor range in CT-77 is 500,000 miles (2.7 LS) for civilians, 2,000,000 miles for military and scouts. (10.7 LS) (Bk2 p 33)
Sensor range in CT-81 is 1,500 mm on table, which is "about one-half light-second" or 150,000 km... again, military and scout twice that. (Bk2 p.32)
Key term in both editions is "Detection"...

I'd allow comms to the same range if the target is maneuvering; double if not (sensors require there and back; comms just need there; if maneuvering, you need to allow for possible acceleration, but with radio, that's no issue.)

The radios are probably NOT capable of 360°x180° to that full range; if they were, they'd be rather notable on the power required. On the other hand, a 5° dish is quite likely capable. I'd put 360°x180° at 1/10 range.)

As for N-Space Travel -

It's only Jump worthy if it takes more than 7 days to fly in-system. In system flight is very much likely in many systems.

 

[Carlobrand]

The problem with piracy in the Traveller big-ship universe is it's easy to stop. The Imperium has resources out the wazoo: 7 fleets starting the Fifth Frontier War, 11 fleets all told in the Spinward Marches sector, squadrons of ships of 200,000 tons and more, and only 271 systems to protect. The price of a single dreadnought puts two Type T patrol cruisers in every Imperial system with change left over.

For piracy to work, you have to start by answering one question: why would they let it happen when it would cost so little for them to put a stop to it? The answer ultimately comes down to Mike's rationale: they don't want to put a stop to it, because it is in the interest of some powerful person somewhere to not stop it. If they put a stop to it, then powerful nobles and even more powerful corporation lose a weapon that they would rather keep. The important trade is not hindered - only little ships going to relatively unimportant worlds are being attacked, a little proxy war by which the powerful play their cloak-and-dagger game, jockeying for advantage while keeping it below the thresh-hold that would force officials to pursue an effective response. So, like the little bush-wars and the mercs who fight them, often on behalf of some wealthy benefactor, the piracy goes on.

Which means that if you really want to survive as a pirate, you really need a patron - some agent with links to the powerful people who can put you on the right track, so you don't accidentally hit the wrong target and draw the wrath of dangerous people, and so you can get the connections you'll need to find the best prey and to fence your booty.

There is no doubt some piracy also going on around the edges: ships that slip out of the Sword Worlds or Vargr space to cause a bit of mayhem for fun and profit and then just as quickly run back over the border to sell their booty and wait for the heat to die down a bit. You might find to your dismay that the agent who claimed to represent some powerful count is actually an agent of the Sword Worlds governments.

 

[Hal]

Pirates are a big part of MTU.

I have pirate clans, a vast field of hidden bases energy and oxygen called the Oort Cloud, and hidden populations beyond the veil of civilized space.

The Confederation nation-state derived navies really have no other opponent then not losing too many ships to lose a seat at the big boy table, and pirate hunting.
+-

Sp, this is a thread on Piracy: A primer. How does Piracy work in your Universe? How do they attack ships and get away before they're nailed to the barn door by the Imperial Navy?

It is one thing to calculate how much money/revenue that the pirates can take if they successfully abscond with a hull they've captured. It is another thing to actively take a ship, get past the override codes, the fail-safes, etc - and get away.

So, give us the details