Psionics to Get CER's over 10

[PsiTraveller]

In playing around with ships and trading routes I have been looking at the CER thread at the Freelance Traveller threads.
http://www.freelancetraveller.com/features/shipyard/analysis.html

When I started converting ships over to Psion powered ships the numers changed drastically.

Take the Type R Fat Trader, with an abysmal CER of 2.35. This ship needs a subsidy to operate under normal conditions.

But add Psionics into the mix and suddenly the entire picture changes.
Savings: Remove the Jump C Drive 20 tons and 30 million credits
Remove 40 tons of fuel, leaving 12 tons for 1 month operation.

Improvements. Upgrade Computer to TL 12 Type 4 computer for half a million. Add in Jump 4 software.
Add in 1 Psion Stateroom for a million credits and 4 tons of space.
Add in 11 tons of Integration Chamber, allowing a Psion of Strength 12 to integrate with the Ship This costs 11 Million Credits

So you save 18 million credits and 45 tons of space. This puts the CER over 3 at a jump 1 calculation. Changing it to a Jump 4 gives a CER of over 13.

I am playing around with designs that get over 14. The Folding Space power is the driver in all of this of course, it changes the CER immensely, but even getting rid of all the fuel and the Drive makes ships more profitable.

So if your characters need to get somewhere in a hurry, head for a psionically enhanced ship. X-boat speed, Tramp Trader Prices.

 

[WistfulD]

And have a ship that requires a very specific, rare, psionically trained individual to operate.

I'm not knocking the idea, I'm just saying that rare and powerful advantages do provide rare and powerful benefits. Hard to build an economy around them, though.

Although, that would provide an in-universe explanation for the tight controls on psionics. They're economically destabilizing.

 

[Spinward Scout]

If you've read any of Julian May's Saga of Pliocene Exile, she had living Ships and ShipSpouses who ran them. Might be something to try.

 

[salochin999]

In playing around with ships and trading routes I have been looking at the CER thread at the Freelance Traveller threads.
http://www.freelancetraveller.com/features/shipyard/analysis.html

When I started converting ships over to Psion powered ships the numers changed drastically.

Take the Type R Fat Trader, with an abysmal CER of 2.35. This ship needs a subsidy to operate under normal conditions.

But add Psionics into the mix and suddenly the entire picture changes.
Savings: Remove the Jump C Drive 20 tons and 30 million credits
Remove 40 tons of fuel, leaving 12 tons for 1 month operation.

Improvements. Upgrade Computer to TL 12 Type 4 computer for half a million. Add in Jump 4 software.
Add in 1 Psion Stateroom for a million credits and 4 tons of space.
Add in 11 tons of Integration Chamber, allowing a Psion of Strength 12 to integrate with the Ship This costs 11 Million Credits

So you save 18 million credits and 45 tons of space. This puts the CER over 3 at a jump 1 calculation. Changing it to a Jump 4 gives a CER of over 13.

I am playing around with designs that get over 14. The Folding Space power is the driver in all of this of course, it changes the CER immensely, but even getting rid of all the fuel and the Drive makes ships more profitable.

So if your characters need to get somewhere in a hurry, head for a psionically enhanced ship. X-boat speed, Tramp Trader Prices.

Sounds cool - might imply some other related side effects e.g. a psionic breeding / cloning program or an agency that scours the planets looking for suitable subjects to be taken away and trained.

 

[KDLadage]

And have a ship that requires a very specific, rare, psionically trained individual to operate.

...who can then demand huge fees for which you are not going to be able to say "no" lest you are left with a hull which does nothing but sit in space costing you money to the bank each month...

 

[mike wightman]

You could always get your psion ship movers to form a guild to sell their services...

hmm, need a snappy title for it

 

[PsiTraveller]

I think if there was going to be a Guild they would need some sort of drug or somthing to make them more powerful.
And being a Guild they would want to be long lived, so if the Drug was an anagathic of some sort that would be good.

Then we would need some cool 80's special effects to explain how it works.

And a good explanation of how this drug is created.... hmmmm. Any ideas? I'm just spitballing here.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPY3d0BxTbI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYKtGILghZs

 

[PsiTraveller]

In all seriousness though, yes the Psionics would change economics for small scale shipping. The 100 ton per Psi Strength puts a limit on how large a ship can be converted.

If you use Integrals then the 11 ton or so unit is needed. If you go with a simple neural jack then the cost is even lower and the Psion is not really an Integral, just a person who jacks into the station as needed.

A family/clan structure could pass down the training and ships leading to a family run shipping corporation. Their capabilities may or may not be known by the general population.

The high tech level is a challenge to get the conversion work done, but this is not insurmountable. (or it could be as much as a challenge as the GM wants it to be)

 

[salochin999]

I think if there was going to be a Guild they would need some sort of drug or somthing to make them more powerful.
And being a Guild they would want to be long lived, so if the Drug was an anagathic of some sort that would be good.

Then we would need some cool 80's special effects to explain how it works.

And a good explanation of how this drug is created.... hmmmm. Any ideas? I'm just spitballing here.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPY3d0BxTbI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYKtGILghZs

The drug could have a cool name like Spuce or Spoce.

 

[salochin999]

In all seriousness though, yes the Psionics would change economics for small scale shipping. The 100 ton per Psi Strength puts a limit on how large a ship can be converted.

If you use Integrals then the 11 ton or so unit is needed. If you go with a simple neural jack then the cost is even lower and the Psion is not really an Integral, just a person who jacks into the station as needed.

A family/clan structure could pass down the training and ships leading to a family run shipping corporation. Their capabilities may or may not be known by the general population.

The high tech level is a challenge to get the conversion work done, but this is not insurmountable. (or it could be as much as a challenge as the GM wants it to be)

I prefer that kind of option for Traveller - like it's the early days of psionics so it kind of foreshadows scifi tropes like the Dune Navigator guild but in a more prototype stage.

 

[PsiTraveller]

The drug could have a cool name like Spuce or Spoce.

Wrong vowel, especially given the Guild name. The name is Space. They use Space. That could be their motto!

 

[PsiTraveller]

For Salochin999

It all depends on what Psionics are allowed into the game. If the GM wants the Advanced powers from the Psion book then there are some big shifts in what properly prepared ships can do.

The Zhodani may love the new Talents and use their Mastery of Psionics to train a merchant and military fleet to spread the power of the Zhodanate far and wide. They may hate the new Talents becaue it turns the Psion into a cog in a machine, a workhorse and not a ruling Noble Psion.

Small clans could pass the Talent on as Mentored training. They would need a TL 14 manufacturing base to build the units, unless they can order parts from a world that will not exploit the technology themselves. The issue of how legal psionics are has to be considered as well.

Even without removing the Jump Drive the Drive Augmentation power can save a ship a lot of fuel. I am a little fuzzy on how the power is supposed to work if you are on a Jump 1 Ship. How does a Jump 1 computer handle the Jump 4 math?

Assume a Jump 1 trader replaces the computer with a higher level computer. Boosting the Talent skill of the Psion to overcome the -1DM per 200 ton of ship difficulty and you can move larger ships. A K Interface can give up to +6 bonus. That is a 1200 tonne ship without a minus to the Integration roll.

So boosting the Jump Drive efficiency to Jump 4 uses a Jump 1 amount of fuel (120 tons if I did the math right, .1 X 1200 X 1 right?). Instead of 480 tons a normal Jump 4 would cost. So you save 360 tonnes of fuel. that is 144,000 credits of saving of regular refined at 500 Cr/ton or 36000 Cr if you are buying unrefined and processing it yourself.

It all helps to pay the mortgage.

And you could get Jump 5 or Jump 6 depending on the Psi Strength of the Psion. This changes the CER even more.

So players and the GM have choices to make, and of course it is the choices and the discussion and pondering of those choices that frequently lead to the best times around a table. Because that what this is all for, to create a fun scenario for the players, be it by allowing them to develop an edge and explore places faster, and then deal with the competition. Or by having them run into someone who is completely alien to everything they know about how to Travel and see what the players do.

 

[salochin999]

It all depends on what Psionics are allowed into the game. If the GM wants the Advanced powers from the Psion book then there are some big shifts in what properly prepared ships can do.

The Zhodani may love the new Talents and use their Mastery of Psionics to train a merchant and military fleet to spread the power of the Zhodanate far and wide. They may hate the new Talents becaue it turns the Psion into a cog in a machine, a workhorse and not a ruling Noble Psion.

Small clans could pass the Talent on as Mentored training. They would need a TL 14 manufacturing base to build the units, unless they can order parts from a world that will not exploit the technology themselves. The issue of how legal psionics are has to be considered as well.

Yes, that's what I mean really - you could have it so everyone is fully using all methods from the off but it would be more fun (imo) to have different attitudes to different aspects among different factions.

something like (similar to your list)
- Zhodani fully utilise some aspects but don't like those aspects which they don't consider noble
- Imperium suspicious of of psionics in general and more focused on how to control it than use it
- Darrians using it but keeping quiet about it
- small merchant clans inside the Imperium using it privately and getting richer and richer over time
etc