It's showing as #30 on my screen, not #25:
And I didn't know about clicking on that blue thingie. Learned something new.
If it's any help, MegaTrav elaborates on the densitometer; in fact, I think the first mention of the thing comes in with MegaTrav.
"A densitometer with any penetration beyond surface can give a density map of an object's interior to the penetration depth shown." At TL 15, a high pen ship-mounted model can penetrate 1 km deep to find bunkers and ore deposits. It's a 1.5 metric ton piece of machinery coming in at about a half dTon, so I presume it'd be mounted on a boom or crane arrangement if you had one at a port. However, there's nothing I know of that talks about how fine that scan is.
The ship-mounted model can penetrate 1 km to provide a "detailed density map of an object’s outline and interior," after a successful pinpoint roll, a routine roll requiring a 7+, plus your skill, plus the rating of your computer, minus range in 25,000 km increments but that's irrelevant on this scale. That puppy costs a million and a half credits. In my TU, it's used at Class A/B starports to check for obvious signs of large-scale smuggling: density variations that might indicate concealed voids, or inconsistencies between the density map and the manifest declaration that might suggest the cargo of titanium-steel ingots is actually laser rifles, for example. It is not fine enough to catch ALL smuggling - in fact, the laser rifles would only draw attention by showing up as fuzzy irregularites rather than the expected solid consistency; if it'd been declared as 9mm hunting rifles it wouldn't have been noticed. It would not be usable for that density code idea, but that's my TU.
The equivalent Imperial Encyclopedia TL 15 hand-held model, at 3 liters, is maybe the size of a smallish boom-box, reasonably portable. "The densitometer records scan data in a three-dimensional matrix. The matrix is processed by the densitometer’s computer to provide a 3-dimensional density map of the scanned object or region. Large massive objects (like starships) can be located out to planetary range, while smaller objects (vehicles, heavy metal deposits) can be located at very distant range or less." The hand-held model is limited to locating small masses at 50 km range and ship-size masses at up to 50,000 km, and at closer range it can give you a 3-dimensional density map of the scanned object. I interpret that as meaning it can identify voids and denser regions within an object.
That does not mean either one can identify variations of density on a fine scale: there's a bit of difference between finding gold in a layer of rock and finding the kind of fine differences that can be artificially inserted as a code without compromising the strength of the hull. Neither does it mean it cannot; I would judge that to be the gamemaster's prerogative to decide whether it does or does not. It would seem to me that a hand-held densitometer held six inches from a hull would take note of small aluminum bars placed in the inch-thick bonded superdense hull and might be able to treat it much the way we treat bar codes. Might even take note of seams where that section of hull was cut out and another section with different bar codes welded in its place.
However, Aramis correctly points out that if your system is too effective, then it eliminates opportunities that canon says should exist, and you end with a technology that creates a canon conflict. You'd each have to judge for yourselves whether that was appropriate for your own TU and players. For me, if such a thing existed, then organized crime would have some sort of answer to it, 'cause that tends to be the way things work: for every nifty new offense, someone eventually comes up with a defense to stop it, and for every clever new defense, someone eventually comes up with an offense to defeat it.
And I didn't know about clicking on that blue thingie. Learned something new.
If it's any help, MegaTrav elaborates on the densitometer; in fact, I think the first mention of the thing comes in with MegaTrav.
"A densitometer with any penetration beyond surface can give a density map of an object's interior to the penetration depth shown." At TL 15, a high pen ship-mounted model can penetrate 1 km deep to find bunkers and ore deposits. It's a 1.5 metric ton piece of machinery coming in at about a half dTon, so I presume it'd be mounted on a boom or crane arrangement if you had one at a port. However, there's nothing I know of that talks about how fine that scan is.
The ship-mounted model can penetrate 1 km to provide a "detailed density map of an object’s outline and interior," after a successful pinpoint roll, a routine roll requiring a 7+, plus your skill, plus the rating of your computer, minus range in 25,000 km increments but that's irrelevant on this scale. That puppy costs a million and a half credits. In my TU, it's used at Class A/B starports to check for obvious signs of large-scale smuggling: density variations that might indicate concealed voids, or inconsistencies between the density map and the manifest declaration that might suggest the cargo of titanium-steel ingots is actually laser rifles, for example. It is not fine enough to catch ALL smuggling - in fact, the laser rifles would only draw attention by showing up as fuzzy irregularites rather than the expected solid consistency; if it'd been declared as 9mm hunting rifles it wouldn't have been noticed. It would not be usable for that density code idea, but that's my TU.
The equivalent Imperial Encyclopedia TL 15 hand-held model, at 3 liters, is maybe the size of a smallish boom-box, reasonably portable. "The densitometer records scan data in a three-dimensional matrix. The matrix is processed by the densitometer’s computer to provide a 3-dimensional density map of the scanned object or region. Large massive objects (like starships) can be located out to planetary range, while smaller objects (vehicles, heavy metal deposits) can be located at very distant range or less." The hand-held model is limited to locating small masses at 50 km range and ship-size masses at up to 50,000 km, and at closer range it can give you a 3-dimensional density map of the scanned object. I interpret that as meaning it can identify voids and denser regions within an object.
That does not mean either one can identify variations of density on a fine scale: there's a bit of difference between finding gold in a layer of rock and finding the kind of fine differences that can be artificially inserted as a code without compromising the strength of the hull. Neither does it mean it cannot; I would judge that to be the gamemaster's prerogative to decide whether it does or does not. It would seem to me that a hand-held densitometer held six inches from a hull would take note of small aluminum bars placed in the inch-thick bonded superdense hull and might be able to treat it much the way we treat bar codes. Might even take note of seams where that section of hull was cut out and another section with different bar codes welded in its place.
However, Aramis correctly points out that if your system is too effective, then it eliminates opportunities that canon says should exist, and you end with a technology that creates a canon conflict. You'd each have to judge for yourselves whether that was appropriate for your own TU and players. For me, if such a thing existed, then organized crime would have some sort of answer to it, 'cause that tends to be the way things work: for every nifty new offense, someone eventually comes up with a defense to stop it, and for every clever new defense, someone eventually comes up with an offense to defeat it.
(Or the spaceship version of a Yugo or a Pinto, or what happened with Coke taking cocaine out of their product, or ........)
