Standardization

[Condottiere]

Terran standard gravity and escape velocity.

 

[Enoki]

I think for most "stuff" there would be adapters and such that could be used to bridge local differences. For example, the US and Canada use 120/208 VAC 60 Hz electrical power for most common purposes. Most of the rest of the planet uses 220 / 440 VAC 50 Hz electrical power in the same way.
Receptacles vary widely. But, you can buy adapters.



This is just one example of many. So, your laser rifle uses a different battery connector than the local one. Buy an adapter...

 

[Nathan Brazil]

Agent of the Imperium implies that the Imperial Navy has standardized software or Jonathan Bland's backdoor entry tricks could not work.

 

[McPerth]

Agent of the Imperium implies that the Imperial Navy has standardized software or Jonathan Bland's backdoor entry tricks could not work.

That's, IMHO, one major point on this issue: Imperial Services, having to be able to work in the whole Imperium, will use standarized hardware and software.

If you're serving in an Imperial unit (be it ground or space one) in Core and must move to Spinward Marches or Solomai Rim to reinforce the Imperial Forces there, you must find the same working tools to be efective there.

Likewise, if you're serving on a ship and are moved to another one, you're probably expected to know the basics of most tools, as they are standarized (even if its holographic linked controls, as MT calls them, must be reconfigurated at your taste, it won't take more than a few minutes).

This is what I posted about it several years ago. While I've learned many things about Traveller and OTU in this board along those years, and quite a few of my points of view have changed, I have not moved an inch about it in this issue:

Have you ever seen the drawings for various minor components of a naval vessel let alone the larger parts? Standardization is anything but standard. Ships are largely semi-custom built and become moreso as they age.
What I'm getting at is that local yards will build something that is sort of standard in terms of its operational characteristics but will have alot of variation in various details. Its those details that matter when you go to fix stuff.
Been there done that....alot.

Most of what is saying about standarization here seems to ignore the concept of IDP (Imperial Design Product), quite talked about in MT supplements. They are plans to be used in the imperium as a whole, just to standarize hardware and making them usable. In many occasions you must support a sector with other sector fleets, and, if not using IDPs, the support needed by that 'foreign' fleet whould more than offset the reinforcement given by it.

As an example, a few years ago Portugal and Greece had true problems with forest fires. They recived support from many countries from the UE in form of fire fighting airplanes, but most of them had to return to their bases in their countries for maintenance, as they were not the same airplane type than those used by the affected contries, and so, no spares nor mechanics for them were in place. Even travel time being just hours, not weeks or months as in Traveller, this disrupted the true worth those planes could have had.

I don't belive the imperium will let similar problems to arise, and that is just (to my understanding) the pourpose of IDPs.

Why move entire ships several sectors? Specs go out from from design bureau to Sector Navies to use in ship building. Done.

I foresee several reasons for that:

- To reinforce threatened areas when the whole power of the navy must be put in use (major wars). Like the Roman Imperium or the reforger strategy for NATO through at diferent scales in time and space), I see the frontier forces of the Imperium (both Imperial and Provincial) just as holding and delaying forces, while the true might of the Imperium will only be in force after reinforcements (most of them from other sectors) arrive. As an example, in FFW, the corridor fleet (two sectors away) took an important role. Even a division from the Imperial Guard was sent to the front from Capital (4 sectors away). Similarly, in the solomani war there were ships taken from all the empire. And don't forget Lucan's orders to send fleets from many sectors, the final nail on the Imperium's coffin to shatter it.

- To keep unity on designs. If ships from a sector use to remain there, there will be a loss of cohesion in technology and standarization, that can be at least partially avoided if ships serve on sectors other than the one they were built (see my previous entry about standarization, just abrove).

- To keep a sense of unity. This is an important political matter, as troops and crews too used to serve always their native sectors may tend to be sector loyal, rather than Imperial loyal. That happened too in the Roman Empire, as legions that were for generations serving on the same province used to see themselves more as part of that province forces than forces of the empire as a whole, and so they in instances served ther provincial interests more than Imperial's.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

"American Components. Russian Components. All made in Taiwan. Please move....Now Move! THIS IS HOW WE FIX THINGS ON RUSSIAN SPACESTATION!" - Lev Andropov

There are other instances of standardization, overt or implied in the Imperium.

The xBoat network comes to mind.

One of my jobs was doing ETL at Chase Bank, which is like the xBoat Service. My department did not make the data, we just transmitted data from the Chase Bank intranet out past the firewalls to appropriate groups outside the Chase Bank intranet through the scary Internet. To get this done, standards are made to ensure that data was sent properly without corruption. It did not matter if the files were ASCII or EBCDIC or the machine was Windows Server, Unix, or mainframe. At the level I worked at we only cared about bytes, end of file markers and checksums which are agreed upon standards.

Despite the expected improvements to data storage in the future, there is likely an associated increase in data. I'm going somewhere with this. In order for it to work as quickly and efficiently as possible, given no FTL communication, you need to transmit that data from one xBoat to the next and get that puppy off into Jump Space to the next part of the link.

Dammit trillions of megacorp credits are at stake! Tell all offices in the subsector to sell, sell, sell!
Who is Princess Ciencia dating? Will Princes Varian and Lucan be sparring again at this year's Sylean Fencing Tournament? Also Archduke Dulinor is scheduled to be making an appearance at Capital something mid-1116. Next on TNS...
I hear The Black Fleet is returning in Season 7 of Galaxiad!
Duke Norris has issued an arrest warrant for Captain Jamison. Something about illegal salvage in the Shionthy system...Makes sense, he is also wanted for several skipped ship payments...double bounty Groot!
You get the idea.

So standards have to be made. How long an xBoat stays in system before going out. What constitutes successful transmission of data to the network. What proves data reached the destination. The xBoats themselves using the same protocols. Your data may be all sorts of gobblety gook, but you will have to make it adapt to whatever minimums are set by IISS or they will likely not accept and transmit.

 

[Enoki]

Most of what is saying about standarization here seems to ignore the concept of IDP (Imperial Design Product), quite talked about in MT supplements. They are plans to be used in the imperium as a whole, just to standarize hardware and making them usable. In many occasions you must support a sector with other sector fleets, and, if not using IDPs, the support needed by that 'foreign' fleet whould more than offset the reinforcement given by it.

As an example, a few years ago Portugal and Greece had true problems with forest fires. They recived support from many countries from the UE in form of fire fighting airplanes, but most of them had to return to their bases in their countries for maintenance, as they were not the same airplane type than those used by the affected contries, and so, no spares nor mechanics for them were in place. Even travel time being just hours, not weeks or months as in Traveller, this disrupted the true worth those planes could have had.

I don't belive the imperium will let similar problems to arise, and that is just (to my understanding) the pourpose of IDPs.

The rules not withstanding, the Imperium quite obviously, wasn't all "Imperial" when it joined or was forced to join. I would expect wide swaths of the 3I to be non-standard simply on the basis that much of their infrastructure existed prior to becoming incorporated into the 3I. These systems or regions wouldn't have the funds any more than the Imperial government to wholesale replace infrastructure just for the sake of standardization.
So, the more likely case is that there are dozens, or even hundreds, of "standard" designs for products and equipment in use within the 3I. The degree of interchangeability might be reasonably high but these designs are by no means completely interchangeable.
I'd expect something more akin to the Wehrmacht's Schell program for motor vehicles. It "standardized" 99 truck designs in different classes by different manufacturers in 1939. So, even "standard" designs could vary considerably based on local conditions. And, that's just the government marketplace. The commercial / civilian one might vary far more on a local basis.
At higher tech levels with flexible manufacturing and such it would probably be relatively easy to get whatever part you needed manufactured most of the time so long as you have a set of prints to manufacture it off of. I could see things like starships having those as standard when built and turned over to the owner so they can get parts made. Of course, I could also see the Captain of some decades old Far Trader having carelessly let that data get erased, or corrupted, or something and now is faced with trying to get some parts for a long out of production power plant...

 

[mike wightman]

The 3I provided fusion+ and makers to new members - standardisation.

The 3I has been pretty much its present size for over 800 years - plenty of time for the standards to be commonplace.

 

[Condottiere]

There used to be the alphabet soup of spaceship engines and hull forms.

 

[GypsyComet]

How I see it:

I assume that the Imperial services use and enforce standards for a great many things as part of their construction and supply contracts. The market takes care of spreading that as far as it will go. Inertia and the the Vilani cultural stamp that still sits across a lot of the Imperium make certain those standards don't change on a whim.

The upshot is that the lower tech worlds would have differentiated to solve local problems during the Long Night. TLs below what the Syleans showed up with would likely retain some of that differentiation, while the TL11+ hardware spread by the Syleans and early Third Imperium would increase standardization in that TL range. Once past TL13, the cutting edge tech spread two thousand years before by the ROM on which some of the modern TL13 would have been based, the solutions for TL14 and above would have started to diverge again as each world that pushed into those areas would develop local solutions. TL14 standards would have been mostly resolved by 1100, while TL15 would still be settling in. The TL16 surge during the later half of Strephon's reign would grow out of those still settling standards, then shatter as each faction of the Rebellion began crash programs to advance to victory.

 

[kilemall]

On the computer front, I figure the CT program prices are more about being a space exploration/avionic absolute no-fail system rather then commodity computing, and that million credit price range is an up-front payment for lifetime support.

That means 40+ years of support for anything the program is normally asked to do.

This feeds into the standardization question as the ship has drives, weapons etc. added/replaced, several may be decades out of sync with each other, and inevitably quirky incompatibilities get built in, on purpose for lock-in or intended 'improvements' on standards. Perhaps it will work most of the time, but not 100% reliably, which can be very fatal in space.

Most any component manufacturer would be working with the ship software people to make sure the realtime engineering interface is thoroughly understood, implemented and tested.

The multimillion credit investment pays off as the software megacorps is obligated to show up and support all shipyard modifications with patches and thorough avionics-level stress testing to make sure the modification functions zero fault seamlessly.

You go off full price, you are at the mercy of your or hired programmer skill, and may have to wait on operations while programs are modified for the new equipment or go out with dicey programs.

If you go with the more modern price structure version such as the Mongeese, probably should consider having to pay for a new version for ship upgrades.

As to OS, I don't know that you are going to get one universal OS. A lot depends on culture, as different RL cultures seem to have different consistent patterns as to standards that seem to be as psychological as economics or logic.

 

[nobby-w]

Since all the worlds in the Imperium have their own rules and regs is there any standardization across the Imperium?

Example planet 1 uses OS 1 planet 2 (9 jumps away) uses OS qr92. I need to update my software. The two OS are not compatible. What do I do?

My ship is a regional variant of a Beowulf will its airlock match up with other ships? With the infinite variations for almost any piece of equipment how do you repair, fix anything? Need a battery for your las rifle? Sorry we don’t make batteries to those specs. I can do a custom job for you but it’s gonna cost extra.

Assuming that interstellar trade is functioning, a lot of smaller, high-value items like computers will be imported anyway. Software is high-value with practically zero mass, so it will propogate easily.

Any instruction set architecture that has a significant body of software available is likely to be popular for the simple reason that software is available for it. Chances are that you're using a PC running Windows to read this article. Folks don't use Windows because of any technical merits; they use it because their software runs on it. Diversity of computer platforms peaked in the 1980s or so, and has been dying off to a small handful of widely used platforms since then. Even the embedded systems market is becoming dominated by a relatively small number of architectures. ARM chips power most smart phones and make an appearance in a large proportion of embedded systems. The natural trend in computer systems is towards a small number of standardised platforms.

Even with radical differences in tech level, backward compatibility of software will be so valuable that many computers will be built with the capability to run older software. For example, a modern Z-series IBM mainframe will run software written for a 1964 vintage System/360. Even Microsoft used to be big on compatibility until relatively recently. Even though they've dropped the ball on backward compatibility you can still use other approaches such as VMs or emulators to (for example) run up Heaven and Earth on Windows 10 via something like VMWare and a copy of Windows 98 purchased off ebay.

Once shipping containers came onto the market, the standard fittings for cranes got propagated across the world within a decade or two. IMHO It's fairly safe to assume that this sort of standardisation will take place in fairly short order once interstellar shipping becomes a significant industry.

For weapons and suchlike, after the Second World War, most nations standardised on a fairly small number of different calibres for small arms (and many other types of weapon). If there's any value in such standardisation (for example being able to second or third source parts) then most manufactures will offer support for major standards and these standards are also likely to emerge and consolidate within a generation or two.

 

[Blue Ghost]

My take on this topic is this; ever have a mechanic who isn't really unscrupulous, but knows you need to get your car running again, so he retrofits a part from another make or model into your car?

Do you really want to get that level of detail in an adventure game? Do Zho parts work on Imperial ships? Probably mostly not, but sometimes. Soli parts and Imp parts? Probably, but not always. K'Kree and Imp? Hardly ever. Hiver and Imp ... hivers will manipulate you into making what they need.

Small fry like Swordys grab everything they can nab, where Darriens simply fabricate and duplicate everything. Droyne? Eh, ymmv. Vargr? Who knows.

 

[Enoki]

My take on this topic is this; ever have a mechanic who isn't really unscrupulous, but knows you need to get your car running again, so he retrofits a part from another make or model into your car?

Do you really want to get that level of detail in an adventure game? Do Zho parts work on Imperial ships? Probably mostly not, but sometimes. Soli parts and Imp parts? Probably, but not always. K'Kree and Imp? Hardly ever. Hiver and Imp ... hivers will manipulate you into making what they need.

Small fry like Swordys grab everything they can nab, where Darriens simply fabricate and duplicate everything. Droyne? Eh, ymmv. Vargr? Who knows.

That's my take. This isn't critical to a game and when the occasion arises within a scenario where you do need a part or something compatible, the referee can use this as a means to slow the pace, deny you something that you really shouldn't have in the scenario, or simply put the players in a position to creatively problem solve.

"Your party's ship is broken and you go to the local spaceship parts store. They don't have one of whatever it is you need. Now what?"

Your skill level 3 engineer says, "Well, only this little bit right here is really bad. Maybe we can get one of those at the (wherever)..."

 

[Timerover51]

I operate under the assumption that you have building standards similar to what exists as the Lloyd's Standards for Shipbuilding/Bureau Veritas/American Building Standards covering how ships will be built and standard ship fittings. Power Plants, Maneuver Drives (Abbot-Dean Drives in my universe), and Jump Drives or Hyperspace Drives (Dillinghams in my universe) operate by the same physics, but will vary in exact configuration based on the ship they are used in. Some parts may be common to all, some more unique to the drive, so you might be able to get a repair done immediately or you might have to wait for a part to be fabricated or shipped in.

 

[Hemdian]

I've always felt that, if you remember that TL is not science level but just what can be built based on local infrastructure, the Imperium could did-incentivise people from reinventing the wheel by (a) keeping relatively short patent and copyright terms (if such things exist at all), (b) freely distributing design plans and blueprints, and (c) regulating certain standards (at least in the realm of starship construction).

IMTU, the Ministry of Transport distributes IDPs (Imperial Design Packages) and mandates that they are freely accessible on any class C starport or better. IDPs come in four levels:

Level 0 is material specifications. This covers such things as heat, pressure, strength, and safety tolerances of the metals, plastics, and ceramics, that go into starship construction. Any ship not meeting level 0 in its superstructure and primary components is deemed unspaceworthy.

Level 1 is component manufacture. Any ship that doesn't meet this level needs special permits to fly beyond its homeworld jurisdiction.

Level 2 is subassembly design. (Basically, anything listed in the rule book.) Level 2 compliance is why a ship from Deneb can be fitted with a turret on Rhylanor. Not being level 2 compliant significantly increases repair and maintenance costs (and thus is undesirable to most merchants). All IN and IISS ships are required to be level 2 compliant.

Level 3 are craft blueprints for a selection of basic craft: the Type-A, Type-A2, Type-R, Type-M, Type-C, etc. With free blueprints, these can often be built at a discount.

All of this relates to starships, but I would guess there is a similar approach applied to things like consumer goods (if a world wants interstellar trade). The degree of compliance to trade standards probably correlates to starport class. Beyond the Imperial border is a different matter.

 

[Nathan Brazil]

Milieu 0 always has the answers

Office of Calendar Compliance
As the Third Imperium expands its territory and brings more and more systems into the community of worlds, the Imperial Ministry of Trade is charged with the responsibility of regulating trade and commerce: to promote economic expansion as well as to reduce fraud or deception.
Within that ministry, the Bureau of Standards administers a wide variety of standards and specifications, and disseminates this information as an educational effort to all the members of the Imperium. Typical standards which are promulgated include the metric system of measurement, statistical standards used in quality control, and specifications for packaging, safety, and convenience.
As a portion of that bureau, the Office of Calendar Compliance is normally viewed as a sinecure: a cushy job inspecting the compliance of member worlds with the standard Imperial Calendar. Its agents hold instructional seminars, meet with educators and legislators, inspect textbooks and computer systems, and generally gauge compliance with the Imperial standards. The office also publishes an interesting pamphlet about the Imperial Calendar, and an annual report to the Moot, documenting the state of Calendar compliance with the Imperium.
Employees of the OCC must have a variety of talents: They are called upon to speak in public, to negotiate compliance agreements, and generally to get along with a wide range of peoples and cultures. Significantly, because the Empire presents itself as ruling space, leaving world governance to the locals, OCC employees are the only official Imperial agents empowered to enforce Imperial law on member worlds. - pg 51 Milieu 0

 

[Nathan Brazil]

So...
The metric system is the official system of measurement for the 3I.
The Imperial Calendar is the standard for time measurement.
Statistical standards
Packaging standards
Textbooks and computer systems are inspected to determine compliance and report.
OCC agents enforce Imperial law.

Hmm...Enforcing these standards in textbooks?

 

[Enoki]

Of course, none of this necessarily applies outside the Imperium... Since most of the stuff I do is either on the fringe or outside the 3I, I'd expect there's less standardization.

But, even if you were inside the 3I, I'd expect standards to vary locally, much as building code does. Some TL 5 backwater with a few thousand inhabitants on it is far less likely to do compliance with Imperial standards than a TL 15 world with billions of inhabitants.
I'd think the same could be said even for local spaceships. If the backwater's got one or more, if it runs and you can fly it without killing anybody, it's in compliance. For the high tech world, there's licensing, fees, inspections, and all that sort of thing.
So, even if universal standards exist, it doesn't mean they're being applied.

I'd say the same for the calendar. The Imperial standard one is more like "Zulu time" or GMT, or something like that. It's the one used by ships and high end worlds. But, it makes more sense for a world to also have a local standard based on planetary rotation, length of its annual orbit, and the like. Otherwise, you end up with everything changing each year making it harder for locals to have consistent lives.

 

[McPerth]

I operate under the assumption that you have building standards similar to what exists as the Lloyd's Standards for Shipbuilding/Bureau Veritas/American Building Standards covering how ships will be built and standard ship fittings. Power Plants, Maneuver Drives (Abbot-Dean Drives in my universe), and Jump Drives or Hyperspace Drives (Dillinghams in my universe) operate by the same physics, but will vary in exact configuration based on the ship they are used in. Some parts may be common to all, some more unique to the drive, so you might be able to get a repair done immediately or you might have to wait for a part to be fabricated or shipped in.

But see that this waiting for the part to be fabricated in Eaarth is the time to fabricate it plus one day (if it can be airlifted) or a few ones (if it must travel by ship), but in the 3I the time will be weeks just to send the order...

My take is that IN (and Imperial services in general= are as much standarized as they can, to allow their assets to be usable anywhere inside the Imperium. Then some of those ships are passed to the subsector/reserve fleets, leading hem towards the same standarization, and even to the planetary Navies, again leading them to standarization.

Same happens with the marines, that standarize their equipment and tactics so that they can serve anywhere in the imperium, and hteir lease troops carry this same standarization to local forces.

Of course, some things are built diferently in local planets, mostly for local use, but standarization leads to better export capacity (or even to have imported gear more usable), so, for most planets, it's for their own interest to be as standarized as possible, unless they want to be left out of interstellar trade.

And this, off course, leads to those planets not coplying with standarization to be seen as isolationist, as no misstrusted by the Imperial services and megacorps and traders...

 

[sfchbryan]

Re: Hardware.

You guys are making it a lot more difficult than you have to. Have any of you heard of 3D printing?

Input the information on the part into the printer and your part comes out on the other side. Doesn't matter whether it is an Imperial part or not.

In my campaign, the PCs are in the Verge Sector, but have a TL 9 Zhodani free trader (It was free):

As common in the Zhodani client states or trade partners as more familiar small traders are in Imperial space, the Fanzhienz class Far Trader is a bit of an oddity in the Verge Sector. Current Verge Imperial Registry (1100) show that there are less than 5 of these have been registered in this sector; none within the last 75 years.

Due to its rarity, this ship has unique maintenance requirements. The ship contains a complete set of 10/30/50 (user/general repair/depot rebuild) level manuals (Machine translated from Zdetl to Ganglic.). Parts can be manufactured at any Class B starport (Class A for the Ozhdetsi jump drive) at 110% of standard cost.

To successfully create a part for the ship:
Difficult, Engineering, Edu 12hr (Uncertain)
Referee: Cautious attempt lowers difficulty level to Routine. No Truth - the part doesn't fit. (Wrong unit of measurement) Some Truth: The part fits, but is defective in some way. Roll on the Mishap Table each time the subsystem is used. Total Truth: Part works normally. Uncertain is used because the part may not fail immediately. Extraordinary Success and Failure is possible.